Shadows Over Camp Darkness

Every Time A Bell Rings

After two and a half hours of listening to the kids call out vague to useless directions, bells jingling, course shouts of surprise and the splat of paint bombs, the novelty had worn off. Virgil had booked out after forty-five, already entirely sick of hearing them whinge and whimper about their poor, sorry lives. That or he was getting clear before he gave in to the urge to jerk around with their emotions like he had his own Intake last year, Gideon wasn’t sure which.

It was like the kids were deliberately not even trying to work together. It’s one thing to have inter Intake House rivalry, but Gideon was appalled to find that the kids were sabotaging their own partners. This was turning into an endurance race of whose patience for  the ridiculous was longer; Intakes or Councillors. Poor babies have no clue they’re completely outmatched, we’re PROFESSIONAL pains in the back end. Gideon mused to herself with a smirk.

“Time to up the stakes. Add a little motivational zest to your efforts. If we think that you’re not actually doing your best to succeed, we’ll add tally next to your name. Collect enough tallies and you’ll be a Councillors pet for a day. You can be tasked with cleaning the Intake House, helping prep work for the others, even doing laundry. Think Igor from Frankenstein.” Gideon called out, her casual words halting all movement. Even the blindfolded kiddies looked in the Fury’s general direction. It seems that they were all still more willing to work together than be a Councillor pet, because the petty attitude started to fade.

“Did you just put the fear of God into them?” Xavier asked, mildly impressed.

“She put the fear of Gid into them, much more potent.” Lisa snarked and Gideon just gave a non committal shrug.

“Rule three, don’t bluff. I haven’t said a single thing I can’t follow through on.” Gideon finally stated. “Does anyone want to hazard a guess at why you’re doing this? Intake 1, bonus points if you can explain how it applied to rule one.” Gideon turned her attention back to the kids, needing to get this lesson wrapped up sometime before sunset. With a creature on the loose, her predatory instincts wouldn’t allow her to let the kids wander the dark.

Gideon knew at this point of time that all of the kids were at that critical stage where they were too irritated to actually be afraid of her right then, which was the perfect moment to hammer home the point of this lesson. They were all getting so worked up, so angry and irritable simply because of wounded pride and herd behaviour. It was the first time that they’re going to be all wound up and then forced to confront the reason why they are that way instead of just letting the emotions control them. A valuable tool for living, one of several Gids had to offer. And only Gideon here was aware that this lesson, in fact all of her rules and lessons were simply less violent and sadistic versions of the way Furies were trained to deal with their own natures. Though the Dragon suspected, Gideon was keenly aware of the fact that no one would completely understand why she was teaching them this way. They’d all just freak out over her teaching Fury methods to unstable teenage Portentums. Jasper would have a field day with it.

“You said rule one was do not lie to yourself.” Omen started to retort, blindfolded but standing tall and looking towards where Gideon had spoken from last.

“Yep, and this is probably the rule you need the most to save yourself.” Gideon barbed, watching with interest as his head swiveled to face where she was now, instincts triangulating her position without need for sight. He’s a natural predator.

“We fail to see how this lesson in futility is supposed to help us. We can hear the bells and avoid the string without the guide at all. In fact, it would be a lot easier to do this course without them yelling instructions at us over each other. How is this useful?” Omen demanded and Gideon grinned as the other seventeen kids started to really listen to the Nephilim. He was absolutely right too. There were maybe half the kids who could do this obstacle course without the directions at all, and a few others who could probably use various skills to work it out as well. There was no reason for them not to use their own assets as well as the directions from their guides, they had just never once considered doing so. They had allowed themselves to be led like sheep, and then got angry at the fact that they were failing.