Cursed by the Gods

Chapter 2

"Female dorms are to the left, males to the right." Jerath was actually waving his hands now. Whatever chill he'd been channeling on the way here was long gone. "I'll be waiting for you back in the main foyer. You have until the bells ring for next class." He was gone then, back up the never-ending stairs.

Emmy was in the mood to get shit done. She had her arm around my entire middle this time, as we went barrelling through all the poor dwellers who thought they were getting the first pick of beds. From what I saw in our dash through, it looked like the dwellers' underground bunker was a small, dull room. Rocks under our feet, and above our heads. Real homey feel to it, what with all the dust and the lack of natural light.

And the extreme risk of being buried alive but apart from that, it felt like home.

"Are all the dwellers here?" I asked, trying not to breathe in the second-hand air and trying to control my heart rate.

"Nope, this is for the newbies. Although there are always a lot of newbies. Sols aren't very gentle with their playthings."

Emmy hadn't answered that time. I swiveled to see a petite girl with a huge mane of bushy, dirty-blonde curls. She was doing well to keep pace with my manic best friend. Her huge, azure eyes gave her face a cute-but-slightly-weird look. She seemed friendly enough though.

"So where do the dwellers who last longer than a life-cycle go?" Willa asked. Wait did I hear Willa ask an intelligent question? Oh, gods save us, it's the end of the world.

Emmy had told us on the way over that we would be considered 'recruits' for the first life-cycle, and that after that, we would become 'resident' dwellers. Awesome I thought sarcastically we can be stuck in the dungeons for the rest of our lives serving tea and biscuits.

Hahaha, more likely that I'll terrorize the newbies. I mentally sighed dreamily, I can't wait for that day to come.

"Another building," the girl answered. "To the east of the academy estate. I heard that it's also underground, but slightly nicer. My cousin was here for many life-cycles; she now serves in Soldel."

We were in the female wing now, and it was about the same level of awesome as the previous room, add in twenty or so small boxes masquerading as bedrooms. Emmy was dragging me toward the boxed room closest to the door when I dug my feet in and Willa pointed toward the name tags on the small edges above the doorway. It said Janelle Brown and Samsa Neel.

"Think we have to find our names," Willa said tentatively even I took a wary step away from her. We recognized her mood, so we had to tread lightly.

She actually growled then, like a weird forest-cat growl. "We need to be near the entrance so that we don't miss any calls."

Right. That was my first thought also. Not.

With a huff, I was dragged along each of the cordoned-off rooms, until finally, Emmanuelle Knight came into sight. There was only one name above her door, which was odd. It looked like the three chosen from each of the villages were rooming together. Except for those who had a male and a female. Weird that Willa and I didn't have our names up there.

With a shrug, I followed her in, glad to see that there were three beds in the tiny box. "Guess they forgot about us. It happens."

"Normally for the better" Willa added with a chuckle.

A metallic tinkling sound broke the silence around us. It was a dull noise like it came from far away. Back up the million-or-so stairs, I was sure.

Emmy's face went deathly white. She shot-putted her bag across the room, and I watched as it slammed against the wall before falling to the tiny bed on the left side.