Bleed Black: An Academy Novel

Chapter Eleven

Katie walked down the never ending hallway tearing blurring her vision. The hall was almost abandoned other than a couple of people, who payed her no notice. Katie kept her head down as she rushed into the dinning hall. Walking into the lunch line Katie saw they were serving bowtie pasta with garlic bread, butter, and different types of cheeses. Katie ordered a bowl of pasta, with parmesan cheese sprinkled on top, with a piece of garlic bread. Walking over to the table, trying her best not to drop her food or books, Katie walked. Setting her books down at her table place, Katie set her tray on top of them and took her seat. Everyone was already there, eating their pasta. "So Katie, how was your first day?" Hero asked smiling in Katie's direction. Katie noticed how Hero's hair curled at the ends, and how it was parted to the left. "It was good I guess, different than my last school." Katie said thinking of her old high school. "Then," Hero noticed, "Have you been crying?" She asked after swallowing a bite of pasta. "Oh um... My teacher, he knew my grandparents, he told me about them, and they died recently. I miss them>" Katie admitted shyly, knowing they would judge her for being emotional. "That's understandable, you must miss them terribly. I bet they were nice people." Lilith said, sending a warm smile to Katie. Katie licked her dry lips and looked around the dinning hall. Most of the people looked the same, some had dyed hair, most had tattoos and piercing, but they were all attractive. "Is it a requirement for anyone who comes here to be attractive?" Katie asked with a slight eye roll. "No we're all stunningly attractive because we train so hard so we grow to look good. Plus our bloodline was touched by a god and goddess. Besides it wouldn't be fair to the ugly people who has our blessed blood." Sam said causing her friends to laugh at her joke that was filled to the brim with sarcasm.

"Blake, you're a seer right?" Katie asked Blake, ignoring Sam's comment. "Yeah, why?" Blake asked picking at his food. "How do we use our power," Katie started, "My teacher didn't explain it very well." Katie said stabbing the small bowties with her fork. "Well, we dream of f-faces or ha-have vis-visions and when we co-come to, we- d-dr-draw the per-person we saw." Blake explained his tone soft but serious. "That makes sense, but Mister. Coma said we only draw faces we know, do we see the future?" Katie asked scared she sounded like a fool. "Kind of." Was all Blake said in response as he continued eating his pasta. Katie decided not to ask anymore questions, not wanting to annoy him. Katie slowly ate her pasta, in fear she would throw up. Her eyes kept falling onto her palms, both now mutilated with scars, one more decretive than the other. "You know those scars are a blessing to have." Nick said, noticing Katie watching her palms. "How?" Katie asked snapping out of her daze and looking at Nick. "They're the scars of our god and goddess, the scar on your left palm for the goddess Hemera, and the scar, our mark, on your right palm for the god Nxy." Nick explained looking at his own scared hands. Everyone at the table looked at their palms, Katie was the newest scar, so her were still scabbed over and raw. While Sam, Blake, and Lilith had their marks almost completely made into full healed scars. Julian and Nick, had scars that were fully healed. The left scars on all of their hands were recently opened from the choosing ritual, where they had to cut open their palms. "Do you ever cut open the other mark?" Katie asked gesturing to the face circle. "No, never, that one only gets open once, when we get marked." Sam said twirling her fork around the bowl. "You're a retriever, right?" Katie asked Sam. Sam nodded, and Katie new that was the only answer she would be getting. "So classes are over for today, but you need to train." Hero said finishing her pasta.

Pushing the tray away Katie nodded, it was only three thirty. Katie stood up and grabbed her tray. "Okay, can I study for a little? Till four." Katie asked looking at Hero. "Yeah, we'll come get you after Home Sweet Hell is done practicing." Hero said nodding. Once Katie started walking away she could hear the friends starting to talk about when they think their next quest might be. Katie walked away after throwing her food away and putting the tray in the slot. Walking down the hall to the three way split, Katie paused and walked down the unexplored hallway, to the library. Katie walked until she saw two large stain glass doors, with a black wood frame. Through the colorful glass, Katie could see many shelves filled with books. Pushing on one of the doors Katie stepped into the library and looked around. Shelves framed the walls with a step latter to get books that were higher up. There were black chairs with white pillows around the center of the room, with a round table cover ten chairs off to the far right corner, a couple of glass coffin-like tables held books, and other objects were placed around the room. A large dark wooden desk was near one of the walls, behind it sat the librarian. She has long fully gray hair, and pale skin. "Hi deary, need a book?" She asked when she saw Katie, her voice high pitched. "Do you have anything on Seers?" Katie asked walking up to the desk. "Yes I do. You must be new, it's so hard to keep track of all of you kids." The librarian said with a small laugh as she rounded the desk and started to the shelf on the opposite wall. Katie followed as the librarian stepped onto the latter and rummaged through the books. Making a small sound, the librarian pulled a large leather bounded book out and stepped off the latter. She turned to Katie and handed the book out to her. "Thank you, how do I check it out?" Katie asked following the librarian back to her desk. "Oh, checkouts aren't a thing here, just return it and tell me." She said sitting back in her chair. Katie thanked her and walked out and back to her room.