Chosen (Updates Once Upon A Time)

Chapter 4: Aftermath

Chapter 5

Cameron

Avalon and Aiden led the rest of us along a series of twisting, turning corridors until we reached a set of oaken double doors.  Flinging the door open, the pair let the four of us file inside before closing the doors.

“So is this where I’m staying?” I asked, running a hand over the plaster on the wall.  

Avalon nodded. “Its right next door to mine, so I can come in and yell at you whenever I feel like it.”

The floors were made of a gold colored marble with red veins running through it. The ceiling was painted a champagne tinged white and rimmed with red. A canopied mahogany bed sat in the middle of the room and a similarly colored desk was pushed up against the wall. A set of drawers sat in the corner of the room. I walked over and yanked them open. Clothes were neatly folded inside them. I picked one up and unfolded it. “How is this my size?”

Ever shrugged. “Lucky guess?”

I slammed the drawer shut and winced as the action jarred the claw marks. Avalon glanced worriedly at it. “We need to get that looked at. You guys stay here.”

She disappeared out of the door and returned a few minutes later with a guy beside her. “Cameron, meet Kade. He’s the royal healer. Available 24/7 if you accidentally stab yourself with a fork.”

I rolled my eyes. Kade was the kind of person who demanded to be looked at, with a shock of silver hair against a background of black. He had topaz colored eyes, which shimmered with every movement.

“Let’s see what we got here,” he murmured, sitting down on the bed and gesturing for me to do the same. He had come empty handed, and that seemed unusual.

“If you’re a doctor, aren’t you supposed to have medical supplies or something?”

He looked startled. “I don’t need anything else but this.” He drew out a semi-transparent moonstone from his pocket. He unwrapped the makeshift bandages and I winced again as more blood seeped out of the claw marks. Ever and Alex looked kind of disgusted but the remaining three remained stoic. Kade passed the stone over the wounds and they eased closed painlessly.

I stared at the bloodstained—now wound-free skin—for a minute. Avalon noticed that I was about to burst out with questions, and sent Kade away before I opened my mouth. “We do things a little differently here.”

“Ya think?” I said sarcastically. “Well I guess that’s why you guys are so healthy and scar-free all the time, since you guys are demon-slayers and all. The stone can cure sicknesses too, right?”

Alex nodded. “They can basically fix anything related to the human body.”

“Wicked.”

Avalon and Aiden stood up. “I think that Cameron needs some sleep. I mean, dimensional travel has to be exhausting, right?”

I was feeling kind of tired… When I didn’t protest, the two herded the others out of the room. If my people-reading skills were correct, Alex and Ever were siblings. Avalon was the closest to Aiden and Raven was kind of a loner. Suddenly feeling an urge to take a shower, I collected a few things and headed towards the bathroom.

I stood underneath the warm spray of the shower. In a day, I managed to walk in on my cheating girlfriend and my ex-best friend, somehow get transported to another dimension, and meet mirror-images of people I once knew. I would say my life was seriously screwed.

I shut off the water and sighed, throwing on the clothes, which were surprisingly well worn and soft, like my clothes at home, and jumped into bed, going out like a light.

**********

"Cadre!"

I was being shaken awake by someone. I groaned and turned over, mumbling something along the lines of, "Get the hell away from me,"

The shaking stopped for a while and I sank back into the warm arms of sleep. Then I jolted awake. Why, might you ask? Because a bucket of ice and cold water was splashed onto my head. My eyes snapped open and I leaped up out of bed and stood up looking around frantically while Avalon laughed her head off against the wall.

I crossed my arms defiantly. "Its not funny," I whined, water trickling down my face and splashing onto the floor. I remembered that Arielle was ticklish. If I'm guessing right...

I leapt toward Avalon and tackled her to the floor, pressing my fingers against her waist and inciting an all-out tickle war. "Lets see how you fare against my attack," I growled playfully.

She shrieked and screamed, writhing underneath me while laughing till tears streamed out of her eyes. "Okay, okay, fine, I surrender, Cadre." I got up off of her and headed towards the bathroom, a smile painted on my face.

"Truce?" She asked and held her hand out, still on the floor. I walked back over there and took her hand, pulling her up from the floor. "Truce."

After I had washed up and changed, Avalon was sitting on my bed staring out at the bustling lives of the citizens.

"We have school today in half an hour.”

I nodded. “How’d you get me in that fast?”

She shrugged nonchalantly. “Connections. And, my father is the king.”

“Great.” I drawled, rolling my eyes.

“Well, since we got nothing else to do, lets go. Don’t want to be late for the first day of school, do we?” Avalon winked.

*****

First days at school are basically the same: you walk in; people stare at you. So it wasn’t a surprise when the hallway quieted down and people turned their curious gazes to me. Being the star quarterback of the Lightfire High, I was used to it—once you’re on the team, you automatically become popular if you have the looks. Avalon led me to the office, where the lady working there took one look at me and frowned.

“Well, who do we have here?” She cooed, her voice oozing sarcasm.

“This is Cameron, Ms. Revlon.” Avalon introduced. “He’s here to start school.”

“Why of course, dearie. Let me just get your schedule and then we’re all good to go!” She chirped cheerily. Ms. Revlon scurried around the shelves and pulled down some books. Placing them on the desk, she then took a sheet of paper with classes written down on them.

“I was told that Avalon would be showing Cameron around and showing him the ropes,” Ms. Revlon said, checking through the pile and shoving it at me. I stumbled as a few loose sheets of paper fluttered to the floor.

“Of course, my father has instructed me to do so.” Avalon reassured.

“Very well.” Ms. Revlon gave Avalon a card. “That’s an exemption pass. Feel free to use any one of the free classrooms.”

After that, she dismissed us and we walked up to the rows of lockers pushed up against the wall. “Alright, so here’s your locker, but we won’t need that today. Basically, we’ll be covering the basic fighting techniques and the theories about demons. Also, theres a bunch of stuff you need to know about our world, so we are going to go to a classroom or something, and figure everything out.”

I nodded; half squashed underneath the pile of books and followed Avalon to a nearby empty classroom.  There, I set down the books with a clatter and slid onto one of the desks.

“So, what are we learning today, Avalon?” I asked in a cheeky tone.

“Do you want to learn anything or not?” She barked. Well, someone was on her period.

I sighed, giving her free rein.