Cursed by the Gods

Chapter 4

The next morning, all dweller recruits were up with the sound of bells, indicating first light—which of course we couldn't see from our concrete tomb.

"When do we pull night duty?" I asked Emmy as we quickly dressed. We didn't exactly have uniforms, but the requirement was plain colors, and a modest amount of coverage, so as not to offend the sols with our dirt-dweller-ness.

"You're on call for your dorm rooms at all times," she said, pulling on her black top, which had long sleeves, and hung almost to mid-thigh.

She took off before I could demand to know how they planned on finding me at 'all times,' and I tried not to take it personally. Emmy didn't deal with stress very well, and whenever I got into too much trouble, she always went silent, drawn into a private little crisis on my behalf.

Wait ... at all times? Were there restrictions? What if they needed me when I was in the bathroom? What if more than one of the rooms needed me at the same time? What if I was breathing in a corner and needed a minute to myself before I accidentally set the school on fire?

"Deal with it later," I murmured to myself, slipping on my flat boots.

I felt horrible for Willa. Last night after my little mishap with the Abcurse brothers I had taken it out on her. Which activated her clumsy curse. Emmy was still mad at me for getting her kicked out , instead of serving sols she was stuck in hard labor in the kitchens.

What she didn't realize is that if I did that, they would only become more unstable.

Still, I wondered how she was doing without Emmy and me. I wondered if she'd ever talk to me again. For the fifth time in my time with them, I had gotten her kicked out of a place where she could've thrived.

"Riles! Hurry up! The next bell is about to ring and you haven't eaten yet!"

Emmy's voice cut through my moment of sadness, indicating that she was actually waiting for me at the end of the hallway. I sighed and let out a puff of air, yeah, she was mad at me but she was always there for me. Always.

The bells tolled again and we started running. I managed to snatch up two pieces of hard bread from the almost empty tray of food which sat on the table in the main recruits' room, shoveling the tasteless cardboard into my mouth as I hurried after my friend.

"You need to attend to your dorms first," Emmy breathlessly informed me, as we ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

Which reminded me ... "I forgot the cap to hide my hair," I mumbled around my breakfast.

Swallowing it, I took a moment to run my hands over my head. Shit. My hair wasn't even pulled back, instead hanging in a mass of scruffy, dirty-blond curls. "My hair is out, and the boobs, Emmy. I didn't wear a top to hide the boobs!" My top was white for freak's sake. Dammit now I was thinking like Willa. It was actually my usual sleep-shirt—I'd been too busy agonizing to change properly. I might as well have stepped out naked.

Emmy grabbed my hands, pulling them from my hair before she started dragging me in her now-familiar way. "Don't worry about it. The sols have early training in the arena, so none of them will be in their rooms. If you pass any, just keep your head down and hopefully, they won't notice you."

Before I could protest again, she was gone. Dashing across the domed room, heading east toward the female dorms. We knew the layout from our basic tour the previous sun-cycle, but it was easy to lose direction—everything looked so similar. I did at least remember where the male dorms were. The path lay to the west, on the opposite side to where I was supposed to be cleaning. Supply carts were located at the beginning of the sleeping quarters, which meant that I had nothing to hide behind until I got there.