Devil's Boarding school

Chapter 3. Lifting the Twilight veil.

"Not.. human?" she said sarcastically,

"Yes, you think that sounds strange?" he said, confused,

Em looked at him like he was crazy, laughing nervously, then waited for him to tell her it was all an elaborate joke, though, he never did.  

"You're crazy!" She said, throwing her hands in the air, turning away and crossing her arms,

"No, I don't think so. I still don't know why your guardians never told you, I mean, haven't you ever felt different or done something odd that would give it away?" 

She turned to stare at him, eyes wide, so sure this man was insane, thinking about all those silly stories she had been told of as a kid. As if all the stories about werewolves and vampires, witches and wizards, could ever be true. But the man's stare was hard, and holding. Perhaps she was almost convinced, if only almost.

"Odd? Odd how? What could I possibly be if not human? What could I DO if I wasn't?" The questions kept pouring out, half trying to test him, half to quell the shred of her that was buying this bull.

"Calm down, please. I'm sure it would sound strange if you never knew about it, but some of those supernatural beings I assume you've heard about are real. As real as me standing here in this room."   He put his hands on her shoulders, looked her straight in the eyes willing for her to understand. Em stared back wide-eyed, his eyes were so intense she had to look away, hiding a slight blush of embarassment.

"How do you expect me to believe this," she muttered, "if you have no proof?" she looked up,

He chuckled and backed away, back to his desk where he sat down slowly and scrapped the schedule he had been working on, and quietly redid it. Em stood in a silent and yet expecting way, which was quickly becoming awkwardly un-noticed.

She cleared her throat and mumbled, "Could you.. tell me what.. I am?" By now she was sure that she sounded ridiculous and must be under some sort of prank, this 'Guy' didn't even look old enough to be her uncle, perhaps he was a student and this was some prank still.

He looked up and smiled angelically, she swallowed nervously, "Does that mean you believe me?" he said looking hopeful. 

She said nothing.

"Well, I'll start with an overall picture then." he said before flicking a switch on the wall by the wall-door, which lit up the ceiling that she had thought was black and featureless.

It was the same scene that she had seen on the dome of the foyer, but now she saw it with fresh eyes as it lit up and unfolded before her.

"These; are the immortals," the Dean started, "Consisting of the Putesco and the Ater. The day and the dark." he said slipping into a well told legend, "Putesco, the day immortals, consist of the three main kingdoms; flamma, or sun people (wizards), the diluculo, or dawn people (angels), and the crepusculum, or dusk people (shifters)." he pointed to each in turn, then continued in a darker tone, "The Ater, or dark immortals consist of both the astrum, or star people (vampires) and the niveus silicis, or moon people (demons)." he stared for a second longer before looking down to Em, "However there is a final group," he said with a kind of disinterest, "We call them the twilight people: Humans."  

Em looked to him for further explanation. Seeing this, he continued by pressing another switch which caused the stained glass to retract higher into the ceiling, allowing another layer to slip over top. It lit up the image of a man and a woman, standing by an apple tree with a snake in it. They stood on either side while in the surrounding forest was dark and lit with glowing eyes looking out between animals and shrubs.

"This," He started again, "Is the scene of Adam and Eve, essentially; when the start of man and the start of woman ate the forbidden fruit, both gaining consciousness.. and losing it, I'm afraid." He sighed again with the weight of some long-known secret. She raised her eyebrow and looked at him, at every step this story was more surreal and unbelievable than the last. 

He saw her skeptical look and smiled "Not religious then?"

"Not at all." She said, "Mother never let me anywhere near these things. Some even thought we were.. well some sort of church hating, ugly demon I suppose." she sighed, "though that was a bit much of them, we just didn't come on Sunday's."

Em noticed at her mention of demons, his expression had grown into a snarl for just a moment, almost too quick to notice.

"Mother...?" he whispered confused, squinted, then shook his head with some kind of brief understanding of his own question "Then I should explain the story somewhat more." he said, turning his back to her.

"In the bible.." he paused slightly, regarding the word with distaste it seemed, "It is said that Adam and Eve were the first humans, and defied the one rule that God gave them whilst living in the garden of Eden. They ate an apple from the tree of knowledge. In doing so they became concious of themselves, but also ignorant of what was around them. They're caught in between day and night, being so aware of only themselves." He turned back to me, "Or so the story goes." His eyes held some sort of seriousness to them that served to make his toothy smile seem false. But again this was just for a moment, soon he was back to being his honest and cheerier self Em had just met.

"You!" he startled her by suddenly coming closer to hold her shoulders, "You are lucky not to be one of them!"

"No?" She squeaked, startled by sudden proximity,

"You are Putesco diliculo! not Homo sapien!" he let her go, clearly awaiting imminent  celebration of her great fortune as he threw his arms wide.

She thought back to the latin words he'd used, but the english equivelent didn't jump to mind immediatly. Though when it did, Em too, jumped.

"An Angel?" She jumped back too far and straight into a shelf on the wall, which gave way under the duress of the toys and her speeding head, the collision knocking her out cold.