Amity

Chapter 13: The Entrance Exams

Chris stopped the students in front of a large iron door. A deep wave of fear seemed to enumerate from the door, as if the Grim Reaper himself was waiting to collect their souls on the other side. There were no windows, no way to see what was behind it. The only thing that decorated the door was a giant bolt lock.

Dré tried to find comfort in the words that Toney told them before the feast. I can assure you that if you follow our directions, you will not be in any life-threatening situations. The more he looked at the door, however, the more he thought about what the Edge Walker's Forest must look like, as well as its inhabitants, the less he felt confident in his chances of survival.

First, I get assaulted by Peewee, then I get strangled by Dixon, and now I'm a few feet away from my death. Man, this just isn't my day.

"Hold up! One second!" a voice yelled from the other end of the hallway. The crowd of students looked back to find Toney, Michael, and Keiko running towards them. "Sorry for the holdup, Mr. Blade. Excuse me, guys," Toney said as he gently nudged the students aside. Once he made his way to the front, he turned back to the students. He cleared his throat before he began to speak.

"If I may have your attention, please." Dré figured it was pointless to ask for the students' attention, considering they all had fallen deathly silent, as if they were witnessing a funeral, possibly their own. "This is the entrance to the Edge Walker's Forest. As I'm sure Mr. Blade has explained to you, though quite rudely I might add-" Chris simply shrugged, "-every Amian must go through this ordeal at least once in their life. I've done it, your parents have done it, and now you will do it. In this exam, you will not only learn about the Amian power that you harness within yourself, but you will also learn about the importance of teamwork, patience, and the importance of distinguishing between friend and foe. Those of you who awakens your elemancy will have an orientation going over what is expected in this school.

"And now-" Toney gave the latch a great heave; fast, rhythmic clanking of the door matched with Dré's heart thumping at Mach speed, "it is time to venture inside the forest." The door had finally stopped clanging, and it felt as if Dré's heart had stopped beating with it. Toney pulled the massive door open as he said, "I wish you all the best of luck."

The students spilled inside. The sun shone through the area where there should have been a ceiling, and an enormous sword stood on a stone pedestal in front of the dense, dark forest about fifty yards from the entrance. There were two women in front of the sword. One of them, Dré recognized, was Tiffany Gladestone, who held a clipboard under her arm and looked stone-faced at the incoming students. Beside her was a beautiful young woman with shoulder-length black hair. Her dark brown, almond-shaped eyes were focused on studying the clipboard in front of her eyes.

"I want everyone to line up in three single-file lines!" Tiffany commanded as the rest of the students made their way in. They scurried around each other, rushing to get lined up. Dré found himself standing in the back row, with Isaiah to his left and Kim to his right, who face reddened as she averted her gaze from Dré. "Allow me to welcome you to your entrance exam room, the Edge Walker's Forest. I do hope that you take this exam seriously, because your life and your future as an Amian depends on what you do once the Edge Walkers are released. If you do not awaken your Amian power within an hour, you will not be able to enroll in this year's class and must wait one year to retry.

"You do, of course, have a choice in whether you want to become an elemancer, which is an Amian soldier, or not. If you don't choose to fight, you will be free to live as a human on Earth or stay on our planet of Amity, however, if you live on Earth, you will not be able to use your power unless it's under a life or death situation. Now that that's out of the way, Kiku, if you will."

Kiku walked to the enormous sword and laid a hand on it. Closing her eyes, a yellow glow enveloped her body. The cold wave of unrelenting fear swept over them once again. Fear and paranoia. Dré's chest was heaving, his heart quickening. He had to do something, anything, to take his mind off what awaited them.

"I-I didn't know you were an Amian, Kim," Dré whispered out of the corner of his mouth, hoping that she would go along with the conversation.

"Oh. My father told me that I was half-Amian about a month ago," she said, keeping her eyes focused on the forest. She intertwined her fingers together as she took a quick glance at Dré from the corner of her eye.

"You're lucky. My dad didn't tell me that I was an Amian. I had to overhear it from him whenever he was talking to Mr. Gladestone. Were you at the feast?"

Kim's face turned a deeper shade of scarlet as she said, "No, I was a bit late. My parents had forgotten that I was supposed to come here until today."

"That sounds like my parents." Dré threw his hands behind his head, looking sullen at the sky. Memories of her telling him that she wanted nothing to do with him swam in his mind. He remembered how pathetic he felt when she ran away, crying. But now she was finally talking to him again. Maybe she had a change of heart. "So, do you still not want anything to do with me?" Her head snapped towards him as he continued. "I mean, if you still don't, then that's cool." That was a lie. "You were the only one who stopped to ask if I was okay when Megumi and I were outside of the office, so I thought that maybe..." His voice trailed off as he tried to think of what to say to her.

Kimmy's hazel eyes dropped to her sneakers. "I-I was worried about you." She turned to him, desperation in her green eyes. "Look, I didn't want to stop being your friend, but... something came up, something complicated."

"Oh. Bummer." He was silent for a moment, watching a single dark cloud block out the sun. "I don't want to stop being your friend if I can help it. I mean, we've been friends since elementary school. And this summer sucked without being able to talk to you. If there's anything I can do about it, just let me know."

"I..." She hesitated before she shook her head. "We can talk about it after this, whatever this is."

"Rockin'," Dré said with a forced grin. "We should stick together while we're in there. We might be safer if we have someone to watch our backs."

"I think that may be our best option," she whispered back.

Dré let out a sigh of relief. If anything, he had Kim there to back him up.

Finally, Kiku slid her hand off the sword and back to her side. "It's ready, Tiffany."

Tiffany nodded. "The door will now be locked to ensure that no Edge Walkers are able to leave. We wish you luck, future Apprentices." And with that, the two women went back inside of the building. The large iron door closed with a resounding click.

Silence surrounded the students. They began murmuring to themselves. With a jump, the students suddenly stopped as they heard a loud, gurgling screeching. Within seconds, a black clawed hand shot out of the sword, swiping at the air. The screeching grew louder as more hands emerged from the sword. The students all screamed as they sprinted down the path deep into the forest.