Flicker

V

If Diamond thought he'd get the best of me, he had another thing coming. I would whoop his butt so fast that he wouldn't know how to act.

My head held high and mentally preparing myself for handling someone who didn't want me around, I stormed into Diamond's office. He raised his eyebrows at me, unimpressed.

"You thought you could kill me?" I snarled. "What, am I too much to handle? Too reckless? Too much of a freak?"

Diamond scoffed. "If I wanted to kill you, I would've done it by now. Trust me, it's not difficult."

That last line threw me off guard. Yeah I had attempted to mentally prepare myself for someone who had tried to kill me, but not someone who admitted to having killed someone else. Who the heck was this guy? "Wha-what?" I stuttered. "You've killed someone?"

"That's not important right now. What's important is that you need to learn to follow orders." Diamond said.

"Um, excuse me? Why would I take orders from someone who wants me dead?" I criticized.

"Because I didn't want you dead, but you wouldn't listen to me so you had to learn the hard way." Diamond said smartly.

I rolled my eyes and dramatically sighed. "You're telling me it was all a learning lesson?"

"Yep," Diamond said as he focused back on a stack of papers in front of him. "And you're going to have a lot more if you don't learn to take orders."

I scowled. Taking orders was not something I intended to do, especially since I didn't really trust Diamond. But right now I really didn't have any other options since I literally watched my apartment go up in smoke. So I decided to comply. "Fine. What do I have to do?"

"Try getting some sleep. Breakfast is served at 7:00 in the morning. Training starts at 9:00."

"Training? What kind of training?" I asked.

Diamond stared at me. "Well you don't exactly know how to control your ability, do you?"

I reluctantly agreed. "Fair enough. See you at 9:00 then."

Diamond nodded once, and I walked out of the room. Something still didn't seem right about the situation, but I still couldn't put my thumb on it.

***
I swear I don't remember setting an alarm, but the alarm clock in my room started blaring right at 6:30 and it scared the living daylights out of me. I jumped out of bed, and took one glance in the mirror. I looked like a nightmare. The edges of my clothes had been singed, there were a few pieces of grass stuck to my shirt, my makeup was streaky and my hair was sticking up in weird places. But hey, for only getting about 5 hours of sleep, I was killing it.

Groaning, I stumbled out of my room and to the room next to mine. I knocked on the door, then slowly opened it. "Soph, I hope you don't mind if I borrow some clothes? I didn't grab anything-"

It was at this moment I realized that the girl sitting in front of the vanity was not Sophie. She had chocolate colored skin and her curly black hair was slicked back into an adorable bun. Her eyes sparkled a deep green, and she kindly smiled at me.

Taking a few steps back, I muttered, "I'm sorry, I thought this was Sophie's room." But before I could get very far, the girl grabbed my wrist and pulled me back into the room. "Girl, you look like you had a rough night out." She called.

"I did," I admitted as she gently took a brush and started untangling my rat's nest. It felt kind of weird to have someone else brushing my hair since I was used to doing it myself, but also kinda nice. She handed me a makeup wipe and I started wiping off my face. Shuffling clothes in her closet, she started pulling out a clean pair of jeans and a purple crop top.