Not So Super

4 The Devil's Right Hand Man

 His square jaw holds its tight position as he waits for me to reply. "E-Edra..." my voice starts soft and weak then I clear my throat and stand a little taller "Edra...Welson." I say, having to stop myself from saying Prower. His eyes blue are slightly narrow, dark brow furrowed as he looks at me with a sort of disbelief and hatred. "Check the roster, I was added not too long ago." I smooth over, taking a more relaxed composure, using my shoulders and hands to talk. The class looks back to him and his muscular arms drop to his pocket as he gets out his, slight larger, piece of glass from the back pocket of his black jeans, his eyes never leaving me, except to flick over the light from glass. His eyes set back on me as he puts it back into his pocket.

"Seems you are." He says, his glare never leaving his eyes, "Sit." His voice orders me sternly, but not harshly like I was expecting. Quickly I find a seat in the back of the group, his eyes still on me before they survey the crowd again. "Why don't I start from the beginning, thanks to your new classmate." The crowd grumbles slightly, but no side way glances go my way, I get comfortable, using my arms to support my weight behind me. Again his voice cuts through the silence as he begins to walk up and down his "stage", his eyes going over each face of the crowd as he begins to speak again. "I am Terrence; I'll be your instructor while at the Academy. I will teach you the ways of our society, and how to utilize your powers to better yourself in this world." He says and when his eyes set back on my I find myself tensing under his glare. "I am your senior and you will respect me as your teacher, those of you who break rules or disrespect me will be punished and will learn." His voice pulling at my seams, his eyes flick back to the rest of the crowd. "I believe that I was going to demonstrate what I meant on Red Head for being smart, but maybe Edra deserves it more." He says, his eyes flicking from a girl with blood red hair that seems to flame at the ends to me. "What do you think Edra, will you take the punishment for your fellow classmate?" his voice echoes through the room and my eyes look to the girl who looks deathly pale and scared to death, she gives me a pleading look as our eyes meet. The old me, the one who was Hero, the one that would always take the blame for my brother when he would break mom's pottery tugged at my heart and I nodded, looking back to Terrence with a determined look in my eyes.

"Yeah, I will." I say and when my eyes flick back to the girl her pale terrified look contorts to a smug smirk and I can see her mouth the word 'sucker'. My jaw tightens and I mentally slap myself, she was right I am a sucker.

"Okay then, stand up and come here." Terrence's voice muses, with an undertone of amusement lacing his stern monotone voice only barely. Standing I finally took the time to take in the scenery of the room, the walls were wooden like they were on the outside circular room. The floor, concrete where the class was sitting, the same wood where Terrence was presenting, a completely barren room, except for a small hallway leading to another room which looks as if, it had a window...but we're at least 31 floors under the surface. As I weave around the class to him a pressure builds up in my chest, what's he going to make me do? This was a mistake. My mind racks and when I get to him I can feel my composure pulling apart at the seams. "I find that a repercussion for tardiness is to take that time back doing a painful task." He says, with the same glaring eyes and stern tone in his deep voice, with calloused fingers he motions me to follow him to the small room that does have a window, the rest of the class shuffling forward as well. He stands in front of the window and crosses his arms as I stand in front of him he knocks on the window and a couple fish swim by. Water? A lake? The ocean? I try to deduce as I walk forward. "Shoes off" he says and I look at him confused until I look back to the window and my eyes widen with realization, his voice explaining what I put together. "You will be staying out of the window, don't try to swim to the surface, we're about an hour down from the surface." He says it like it's a fact, like stating the date, as if I couldn't almost die doing this. "How many minutes were you late, two? That's how long you'll stay out." My face pales even further as I hear a few gasps behind me. I could not hold my breath, the longest I've ever held it was maybe 1 minute, but two. I'm going to die. My eyes look to him and he raises an eyebrow, waiting.

Slowly I bend over and untie my shoes, pulling them off and look back to Terrence, no signs that he was bluffing, his disposition unwavering. He stands to the window and gets ready to open it, I expect water to come spilling out but it stays in a hard line there, in front of the window. I walk over hesitantly and look to him one last time but he is serious, it's laced in his expression. I take a deep breath and plunge myself into the water.

The slamming of the window is barely a vibration as the piercing cold runs up and down my body, freezing me to my bones. My hair floats around me, fanning out beautifully as I might have thought if my life wasn't in peril. I turn back around to look at the window and see it shut, tightly, the class watching me from the hallway, a few people spilling into the room, Terrence's eyes are cold as he looks from me to his piece of glass, slowly, leisurely. He's enjoying this. I almost gag in repulsion but I remember that I need my air for as long as I can keep it. Slowly I move toward the window and sit there looking over the people in the room, I see the girl who put me in this position and she looks deathly pale again. Her flame, it would have been put out immediately, she definitely would have died I deduce from her crippling composure. I need to do this, to show her that I'm stronger than her, that she would have been dead if not for me, that her body would be floating its way to the surface if not for me. The burning that begins in my lungs scares me slightly and I begin to freak out a little, but I need to stay under control, to keep from letting out my precious oxygen. I close my eyes for some time, focusing on other things, like my family, the image of them looking over my coffin pops into my head again and I stare back at my brother's gaze, giving me the strength to go on. When my eyes open again I furrow my brow at the people with wide eyes and exclaiming while pointing at me, Terrence putting his hand up, calming them. Confused I find a shadow floating over me and I turn, a huge, ten foot, blubbery, dead eyed, sharp toothed, great white approaches me. Backing up frantically I begin to bang on the glass of the window, watching the shark speed towards me from the dark, inky blue. I turn around and bang harder and try to yell at them to open up, half of my air escaping me in bubbles, floating upward. Some people surge forward to me but Terrence puts a hand up, ten more seconds, I turn, the great white now only five yards away. I plea for them to open in as the timer counts down. 5, 4, 3, one yard away 2, one two feet, 1, inches away, mouth opening. Terrence makes a hand motion and a few people pull open the window and grab my arms, tugging me back through the window and snapping it shut, but not before the shark could cut my hair at jagged edges. I cough from my position on the floor, water ejects itself from my throat and onto the floor as someone wraps a towel around my wet, shivering, body.

"Now that that's over with will you ever be late again?" a voice that now chills me to the bone, like the icy water, asks in a monotone, unamused voice. My eyes rise to him, glaring, and I have to bite my lip, drawing a small amount of blood, to keep myself from letting the cusses and curses flow like a river out of me. He nods, his expression unchanging "I'll take that as a no." He's like a smaller, less ugly, version of the Devil, like his child, like his right hand man. And I hate him. I decide, my body still shivering and shaking.