A Different World

V: Integration

As the Dark Ages came to an end, five leaders rose from the ashes and took control of the world. They began with the politicians, taking every single one of them one by one until there were none left and took the positions of power for themselves. Then they took down the corporations and the people who ran them, leaving only the middle and lower class to live among them.

Five leaders, five kings: Jason Warren, Noah Young, Ethan Baldwin, Lucas Rowley and the King of all Kings, Sebastian Gates.

Sebastian was no different than the four other leaders except he amplified fear in everyone around him, no one dared to double cross him and no one dared to test his strength. When Sebastian Gates spoke, everyone listened and so a leader was born within the leaders.

Sebastian took control of North America and South America as well as Greenland and left Jason, Noah, Ethan and Lucas to split the remaining five continents between themselves thus five kingdoms were created.

As she walked passed the double door a tall man placed a stainless steel box in her hands, on it was an engraved symbol that represented the institute and her 'name'. She ran her finger along the letters and numbers that represented her and was grateful that she would no longer be known as that. She would have a name, an identity and not a stamp.

She closed her hands around the cold, rough edges of the box and held it tightly against her.

"Congratulations once again on your outstanding efforts and an exceptional capacity to do what many have failed to do today and years before that. I have nothing but the utmost respect for all of you young fighters that will help us in our quest to regain what is rightfully ours." Everyone around her began to cheer, throwing their fists into the air, chanting over and over again 'We are the future' until the woman delivering the speech brought them down from their frenzy. "Each kingdom will be receiving 100 hunters today, increasing our forces in those kingdoms. Behind me there are five doors, each represents a different kingdom. You have two keys in your box. One opens one of the doors behind me and one opens the doors to your new home out in the real world. When I call your name, you will open your box and take out the key that belongs to one of these doors. Do you understand?"

"Yes mam," everyone answered in unison.

"Alright, let's begin."

One by one they were called forward to open one of the five doors. She stood and watched as the room became less dense and until finally she was the only one that stood in the empty room several hours later.

"You may open your box now."

Her hands were so tightly wound around the box it almost felt as if they were glued to the metal. There were dark red indents on the palm of her hand where the box laid cocooned in her grasp. She wiped her hand on her jeans and proceeded to open the steel box.

In it laid to keys parallel to each other cushioned against blood red silk. She picked up the key marked with the crescent of one of the five kingdoms and made her way towards the doors. Her chances of her ending up in the one kingdom she so desperately prayed not to end up in where 1 in 5, 20 in 100, 100 in 500 so slim, yet that was exactly where her key led her to; the Kingdom of Gates, the Kingdom of Sebastian Gates.

She did not fear Sebastian Gates nor any other vampire in his kingdom, she simply hated the statistics of her survival in that kingdom. Death did not frighten her either, what frightened her was dying before finding out who she really was, who her parents were even though it was against the rules to seek any information about their birth parents.

She took the key and put in the nob.

Her heart was racing, her palms were sweaty, her vision was blurry, she was nervous, more nervous than she had been when she was fighting the vampire.

She twisted the key and the door gave way.

She had never really imagined what would be behind the door or what the next step would be so as she stood to stare into an empty room and the door behind her closed shut, she felt no panic.

A door in front of her opened and a tall dark man materialized in front of it. "This way," he spoke in a deep throaty voice.

She did not think twice about it and followed him out.

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She peeled her eyes opened, exposing them to an excess amount of light surrounding the room she was in. It was not the type of light she was used to, fluorescent or any other for that matter, it was different and it felt warm against her skin.

She stood from the bed and followed the light coming from the window, a window that posed a picture of an outside world she was only now seeing for the first time in twenty years. No amount of pictures or videos could capture the beauty that laid at her feet. She was practically floating in the sky, 80 floors above the ground.

Everything seemed so small, so tranquil if she did not know any better she would have thought the world was perfect but she knew better. 80 floors below her roamed the creatures that ripped the world from the humans, the creatures that made it impossible for humans to enjoy things like the view she was looking at.

New York was one of the more densely populated by vampires, a challenge for hunters that like to keep things quiet but she was willing to try. She was willing to fight for her view.

She made her way back to her bed where a thick manila envelope laid waiting for her on the bedside table. She picked it up and emptied all its contents onto the bed. She emptied herself onto the bed, she emptied who she would be onto the bed, her whole story, her life.

She picked up the identification card and read the name.

"Scarlett."

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Till next time.....