In one swift movement, he stood up and the table went flying. He grabbed his textbook and bashed the blunt weapon against the skull of his enemy. This had stunned Jake, but not taken him out. Jake stood up and threw a powerful punch aimed at Dante’s neck. The impact threw him off of his balance, causing him to fall backwards onto a table. Jake was at his feet and Dante quickly decided to kick him in the stomach. As his shoe dug into the ribs of Jake, the much taller Jake picked up a pen and went to stab Dante in the chest. Dante quickly managed to block the initial attempt and before the second try, he was able to knock the pen out of Jake’s hand. By this time, Mrs McCollum had been able to call in two other teachers to break up the fight. As the two other maths teachers pulled them both apart and held them back, the two children were still kicking at each other. Dante was taken to the head teacher’s office, and was sent home. After that day, fights were common for him and the head teacher’s office was almost like a second home to him; a home that he hated.
Week after week he was sent home. This happened for years on end. By the time he got to high school, he was already given the tags “vicious” and “violent”. The same story happened at his new school too; fights, after fights, after fights. He got sent home every week, but the worst was what a 15 year old Dante had faced. Being sent home every week was too much for his father to bear. Dante had seen his dad get angry, and it made him angry too. But this time, his dad was fuming, much worse than Dante had expected. He screamed at his son at the top of his lungs, saying how much trouble he’d caused the family and how he was the only one like this, his sisters were both angels compared to him. Dante hated being shouted at. It drove him mad. And so, he did what he always did when he was mad. He picked up a chair and threw it through the window. He’d then picked up a metal bar and started wrecking the house. His dad walked to him to try and calm him down, but he’d walked too close. In one swing, Dante had known what he had done. Paramedics arrived 10 minutes after he called them, and his worst fears had been confirmed. His sisters would be back in an hour, and all three were orphans. He had to take charge.
The first thing he did was drop out of school and get a job, to provide for what was left of the family. Amber and Natasha were the only people on his mind as he’d worked double shifts just to keep his sisters in school. He then took them to the doctors to get a check-up. After losing his mum and dad, the last thing he wanted was to lose another member of the family through illness. Amber checked out fine, and so did Natasha. But Dante had a problem. It wasn’t clear what it was, so they decided to run more tests. The result came up with shocking news. Dante had a conduit gene. This was why he was able to throw tantrums for hours on end as a child. This was why he had such strength and even more stamina to back it up. It all made sense to him now. The doctor told him that there were millions around the world just like him, each with a different type of conduit gene. This meant he wasn’t human, but more of a monster. The doctors had also told Dante that Natasha was a conduit as well, meaning they were similar. He decided not to tell Natasha, as that might cause her undue stress.
