Changing My Fate

Secrets

Suddenly, the speaker blared, a monotone voice started speaking, snapping us out of our daze. "Dinner time is here, young students-" The announcement was cut off by someone "- Blah, Blah, Blah, enough with that. Ok, now guys... We all know that it's a 'free-day'. Which means that today we have the GOURMET SPECIAL! And, to top it off, after eating we are having the first çelé this year!"

"Ok, you can go off to dinner now" he told me (well, actually, it seemed like he was talking to the wall). As I was walking out the door, I turned around to ask where dinner was going to be held.

Back inside the gym, I noticed a small opening in the wall, almost hidden by wooden planks. A tiny glowing symbol was painted on the wall, not anything that would be normally be on a school's wall. However, when I walked closer to the wall, the symbol was blocked by the wooden planks, so I couldn't ever find the glow again.

"Do you still need anything?"

I remembered that I what I actually was going to do.

"Uh, where can I go to eat dinner? I'm still not familiar with the campus" I responded.

"Go outside through the east wing hallway 1, turn left, walk past the main office, turn right, walk past the fountain, then you will see a domed building with a sign that says 'Cafétrea'. That is the building where we eat meals. Got it now?" he tried to explain to me.

Scrunching my eyebrows, still not understanding where to go, I said "Uh, well, not really..."

"Oh, I see", his shoulders dropped, obviously disappointed. "Ok, I will take you there", he motioned me to follow him. Walking beside him, I noticed that he actually didn't even seem like a grown adult yet. His age appeared to be 17-18 years old, not 30 as I originally thought.

My curiosity of him grew even more- what is his real name? Where did he even get all those rare knives from? Is he an older student? I wanted to ask, although I knew it wasn't the best idea. Well, at the moment I was just like Pandora. I didn't think much about it at first, but I had no idea how much trouble I would bring just by asking some seemingly simple questions. Yet again, although curiosity killed the cat, I still did so.

Turning my head to face him,"so, I was wanting to ask - what is your name?"

He froze, not saying anything. The atmosphere seemed to tense, waiting for one of us to speak. He kept staring at the marble path, still mute.

Slowly sighing, he turned towards me "why did you ask?" He spoke in a serious voice, as if more questioning why I even dared to ask, than as of why I was curious about it. The air seemed to be getting warmer, and I was sweating from my uncertainty, something that felt unfamiliar to me.

"Well... Uh... Sorry if I said something-" I managed to mumble, the tension growing as each second passed.

"Wrong? No, not wrong to ask. Just unusual" he finished my sentence.

"Are the people here not accustomed with the asking if names?" I didn't know why, but it seemed as if I has just shifted into another person. My personality was different, my actions, my thoughts, even my appearance were all slowly changing to something else.

He raised his eyebrow, as if he sensed my shift. "No, our people do not usually ask one another's names. Unless if they are friended, of course" his voice was deeper, and had a hint of an accent, making his reply seem to be coming from another person. A person from an older time.

"I see. Where I came from, we usually introduce our names as a way of greeting each other. You may call me Vanessa, what may I call you?" My voice seemed to have altered and my way of speaking resembled that of a high class lady from the olden times, back when people still rode around in carriages. I was starting to get annoyed at my own annoying high-class-young-lady voice.