I Am Darkness

VII

Time is one of the only things we cannot control. We live in a world of four dimensions, but one of them we cannot control. There's up and down, left and right, forward and backward, and time. My dad's a superhero nerd. I had to know that. But the next month I was caught in moments where I realized, "Right now I'm in the now. But right now's now is different than tomorrow's now, or the next day. So in the future, one day, my now will be me looking back to this strange period in my life."

It's funny how much time can be against you. Whenever you're caught up in a moment that you never want to end, time turns it back and speeds up. But when you want desperately for something to be over, times seems to pass slower, just for you. I got caught in both moments that month. There'd be times when I wished I could stay right where I was forever. But those moments were met with nights left to think about anything I possibly could. Those nights my mind wandered to where my family was and how much I wanted to be back there right then, in my own bed. Those nights were lonely, and even though Sebastian was in the bed across from mine, I was still alone. I looked out the window as I laid, out into the emptiness.

But the next day I found myself asleep and wanting to stay in bed, but being yanked out and into the training gym for early morning training. It was the most horrible thing of that month, I'd say. The one at night was always amazing. My mind was awake, eyes bright and wide open. Sebastian's time was the morning, but mine was night.

But I found out about something once my days had almost run out. Summer was coming, and with it other dragons. The same fifty people bored me after one month, and I needed new faces, even if I'd be going home soon. Kara, who had been breaking the rules and sitting with me at lunch everyday, told me that we welcomed them with a huge competition where the camp split into four teams and fought to the death. 'Cause that's apparently how dragons welcome each other: hold an annual death match of bloodthirsty proportions.

I decided I would stay long enough for that, but after that I was gone. I used to be super competitive before I just stopped caring altogether. I was hoping that competing in that would help bring out a side of me I hadn't seen in awhile.

So, on that Friday, the day that the summer campers would be arriving, because we were Astaroth's glorified version of slaves, we got luggage and greeting duty. Most of the other dragons didn't care much. At least they got to be the first to reunite with their friends. But they were neglecting the fact that we had to stand for hours on the porches of our cabins with fake smiles and hands sore from unnecessary shaking.

I was buzzing with the excitement during training, probably the first time I was a positive emotion in the morning training. I had fallen into a rhythm in the time I spent training, but I couldn't seem to follow my regular routine: mindlessly complete the tasks asked of me and let my mind wander in the process. I hit harder, kicked higher, ran faster. It was one of the first times when the light of the sunrise had brought me joy, besides that uncanny feeling Christmas morning used to bring.

After my ten laps I kept running up until Sebastian ordered me to stop. He asked what was wrong with me, but I could only smile.

"Finally it's not going to be just you and me in the cabin. Finally I'm going to have actual friends! I'm going to have someone to bear witness to your treachery!"

And treachery it was. I mean, who wakes up before sunrise every morning without needing an alarm? He was constantly shirtless, which had the same effect as a celebrity does. So overwhelmingly beautiful, yet so overwhelmingly undateable, for whatever reason. Sebastian's reason was that he was an intolerant ass, not to mention the entire dragon aspect.

"Alright, go get the handheld bag."

I swung at that bag for hours everyday without a single word from Sebastian other than something like "Always be prepared for the worse." I was beginning to really question his training methods. How was I going to learn if I continued to do the same thing over and over again?