Glowing Embers

T

Willow and Whitney dashed to the two figures. As they got closer, Willow was able to piece them together. They were two people - a man and a woman. They were standing side-by-side, as if they were awaiting the girls. Dubiously, Willow and Whitney slowly approached the people.

"Sky! Bell! You've made it!" the man cheerfully exclaimed, patting the girls on the back.

"Excuse me?" Willow asked, furrowing her eyebrows in puzzlement.

"Sorry. I'm getting ahead of myself," the man apologized, amiably glancing at the girls. "My name is Professor Davidson. This is Professor Ruby," he explained, gesturing towards the woman. "We are professors at an academy for special people like you. It's called Maple Point Academy." Willow perked her head up and glimpsed nervously at Whitney.

"What do you mean by 'special?'" Whitney queried, tilting her head confusedly.

"I think you should know the answer to that," Ruby stated with a smirk. Willow watched closely as Whitney briefly smiled.

"In bits and pieces," Whitney replied modestly. She turned to Willow and nodded slightly. "It's okay. We can trust them."

"Can someone please explain what's going on?" Willow impatiently fumed. She was growing more and more confused by the minute, and the secret conversations that Whitney was having was only making it worse.

"Yes. First, you just have to walk with us. The Academy's only a couple minutes away," Davidson explained as he turned and walked away with Ruby. Whitney merely shrugged at Willow, who followed the two adults. They led them through the forest, taking sharp turns every now and then. And then they reached it. It was a massive building, probably the size of a castle. It was high and wide, with a fence in front of it to block intruders. Davidson placed his hand in front of a scanner and held it there until a beep sounded. The fence opened automatically, and the group walked in. There were four colossal doors in front of them. Ruby opened one of the doors, and everyone piled in.

"Welcome to the Entrance Room!" she welcomingly exclaimed. Willow's eyes couldn't adjust to it all quick enough. There were countless people her age scattered all over. The room was immense, and the ceiling seemed sky-high. There were tables, chairs, couches, and even recliners in it. From this room, there were four doorways with stairs in them leading upstairs. Willow felt eyes burn on her, but she ignored them. Davidson led the group to a nearby table and sat down.

"This is Maple Point Academy. You two girls are very special. You were genetically enhanced when you were children. Whitney was enhanced to become very intelligent. That's why she has visions, and that's why we called her Sky, which is short for scitus, which means 'smart' in Latin. Willow was enhanced to become a warrior. That's why she managed to win every fight, and that's why we called her Bell, which is short for bellator, which means 'warrior' in Latin. Everyone here was also scientifically enhanced and put through a disaster we created to see if they could overcome the obstacles and to see if they had the potential. You have the potential. Our goal here is to make everyone on Earth be genetically enhanced. You'll be taking classes to learn to control your new power, but otherwise, you get to hang out and socialize with others," Davidson explained, only stopping to take a quick breath. "There is a Maple Point Academy in every state and every country. Regular people are being knocked out, and most of the people in world are scientifically enhanced. But as this goes on, we learn new technology. We are very advanced here. So, any questions?" Willow was speechless. Her mouth in an 'O,' she continued to gaze around the room and ponder the information she was just enlightened to. Finally, a question popped into her head.

"Who's Archer? Who's Chase and Grace? Was Andromeda a regular person?" Willow questioned rapidly.

"I'll answer the last question first. Andromeda was regular. That's why Chase and Grace killed her. As for them, they are Archer's family. Their family was constantly in fights because Archer worked for us, but he didn't want to be genetically enhanced. Chase and Grace wanted to, though. So, Archer ran away. Then, the explosions happened and he couldn't focus on anything else, just surviving. But Chase and Grace pretended to team up with Andromeda to kill her off," Ruby answered descriptively. Whitney's eyes widened.

"Dyno, the cannibals, etc. Who were they?" she asked, looking at Ruby and tilting her head.

"Dyno worked for us. He was in charge of the mutated animals, which is what Archer also did. He was to be an obstacle in the experiment. The cannibals were regular humans and survivors of the attacks. They were not planned by us," Ruby explained, clearing her throat and coughing at the end.

"Experiment," Willow murmured quietly. "That's what this all is."

"Yes. But it's for the greater good of humankind. The Earth was dying. This was the only solution to fix it and keep humans alive. But as for now," Davidson started, "go socialize. Welcome to Maple Point Academy."

THE END

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Hey, it's Maddie. I will be creating a sequel to this story called "Maple Point." Because things at Maple Point Academy aren't as they seem. There are secrets, mysteries, and horrors inside the building and out. People are going missing, people are showing up dead, and the doors are always shut in a secret room at the school. Willow is suspicious of it all, but it looks as if Whitney is enjoying the ride. Get ready for a new adventure, but one that occurs inside Maple Point Academy.