Uncover(On Hold)

4. Dinner with the Devil

“And you don’t know his name?” Marissa’s voice came from where she was adjusting her tie in front of the mirror.

I finished combing my hair and braided it to tame the disaster to which I woke up to this morning. Today was my first day attending classes and I was slightly nervous, I didn’t even know what made me nervous the most, to be honest, I just wanted to crawl back into my bed for the next two years and go out occasionally in the search of food.

“I don’t,” I answered Marissa previous question. When we started to get ready I remembered the invitation - if you could call it that - I got for this Friday, to the reception supper, that apparently was some kind of fancy dinner. “I just told you, he’s got dark hair and lacks of humanity in every action he makes”

Marissa turned to frown at me. “That’s like, half of the male students. Did he even mention where would the infamous supper take place?”

I sat down on the bed trying to recall some piece of useful information, “I think he mentioned some red building,”

In a blink of an eye Marissa’s face was in front of mine and I had to throw myself in the bed to avoid unwanted contact. I rested my upper body in my elbows and glared at her but she did not even bat an eyelid, too focused eyeing me expectantly, “You sure?”  

I rolled my eyes because of course this would become in a bigger deal that I wanted it to be. “Yes, I am sure”

To my surprise she did not start clapping or showing any signs of excitement, she looked kind of confused and worried. That seemed to be a thing she did a lot about me, and it made me feel equal parts comforted and annoyed.

“The reception is like an initiation for the new head of the red building. I don’t know what they do there, but it is rather unusual that they invite someone from outside”

“Well, my life seems to be full of unusual occurrences” I said, and stood to pick up my stuff. I wouldn’t be late on my first day. “Maybe they just want to sacrifice my soul or something. They sound psychotic enough to be into that kind of things”

Marissa opened the door and waited for me outside. She didn’t look amused at my optimistic commentary. “Just be careful, ok?”

“What makes you think that I will go?”

“You look like you are into that kind of things,”

I couldn’t help the pleased smile that broke into my face, but I tried to keep myself collected. I had to play smart while taking this kind of decisions, think about the possible consequences and whether or not a little bit of mystery was worthy of involving myself in a possible human sacrifice. In the other hand it seemed to be like an awful lot of thinking for this early in the morning and I should probably save my thinking for the next seven hours of education that were waiting for me.

“Let’s not jump into anything yet, I still have three days to figure this out,” I said. Marissa hummed doubtfully and I let her guide me down the hallway.

Lessons were nothing like I imagined them to be. Neither Harry Potter classes alike nor Disney magic floating in the air. The first periods were as regulars as any other school in the country, maybe with nicer classrooms and a higher level of exigency from what I was used to, but nothing a few YouTube tutorials couldn’t solve.

It was in the hours after lunch, when you were full with a happy tummy and crawling for a nap that the real show began. The classes themselves were not really that intimidating, but when you were trying to catch up with years of knowledge that was common sense for the rest of the students, being a bit frustrated was understandable.