Half and half

chapter 6

Chapter 6

I smiled uneasily. I wasn’t exactly ‘looking forward’ to getting beat up in front of a crowd. Because all the boys had stopped fighting and had gathered at the edges of the marked space we were supposed to fight in. Dimitri tossed all the knives he held and stayed with a wicked looking dagger. “okay.” He said, matter-of-factly, and then he attacked. The moment he leapt forward, my mind shut down and every movement I made was being controlled by something that definitely wasn’t me. I got the impression I was watching from the side-lines, at the front of the crowd. I saw Dimitri lunge forward with the dagger outstretched and my body swayed, to a side. I danced sideways and passed the dagger from hand to hand. This was fun. Dimitri looked murderous. His black eyes flickered angrily and six of the discarded daggers flew straight at me. The crowd gasped, sure I was about to become Dylan-chow mix. Instead, I ignored them and continued to fight Dimitri. The daggers stopped three inches from my face and with a flick of my wrist; I dug them in the ground. Dimitri seemed unsettled and I took that to my advantage. I started to see things slow down around me but I realized that wasn’t the deal. Dimitri and I were sparring so fast, I was sure we were both blurs. I laughed happy to meet an equivalent dagger master. I flicked my wrist and Dimitri’s dagger flew out of the circle. But he still wasn’t far from finished. He leapt forward and aimed a kick at my shin. I leapt into the air, dropping the dagger- it didn’t seem as if I were going to use it anymore- and did a full front somersault. I landed behind him and pivoted around, lashing out with my left leg. I caught him in the knees and he sprawled on the ground. In a matter of seconds, his face was pressed against the dirt and I was holding my discarded dagger to the back of his head. When the crowd figured out where we were and who had won, everyone stopped talking. They stared at us in disbelief and I blushed, letting Dimitri get to his feet. “OMG. A newbie just beat my brother!” Thaila exclaimed. She was so happy; she went right out and hugged me. I was surprised and she seemed to be astonished by her own boldness. She stepped back, flushing a deep crimson. Dimitri’s eyes were shining. “I’ve never met anyone who rivals me. Let alone beat me.” He fist-bumped me and said, “Welcome to the family bro.” he seemed delighted I had won. I couldn’t puzzle him out. I glanced at my new watch and gasped. I had been fighting Dimitri for a full hour. “Hey, I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve got school at seven and it’s five-thirty. Need to go.” I told them, shifting my weight from one foot to another. “Sure thing. But first, I’d like to chat.” I tuned and saw a girl about thirteen. She had familiar features and I realized she looked like Dhaile. I was about to ask her if they were sisters, when I realized everyone had their head bowed. “Dhaile.” I frowned. She sighed, “I think it’s time to explain a few things.” She turned and began to lead the three of us to the office. I was still puzzling it out. When we met not one hour earlier, she had looked six, had spoken like a six year old, and had acted like a six year old. Now, she looked thirteen, acted thirteen and spoke like a thirteen year old. When we slipped into her office, she took pity on me and turned to Dimitri. “Will you take him to a bathroom and give him clothes?” Dimitri nodded, still amused. “thanks.” I muttered. “And take care of his injuries.” She added. I frowned. She pointed at my torso where I had a mixture of knife slashes and bruises. “Not necessary.” I said. “look.” As if they weren’t already. I closed my eyes, trying to recapture the feeling in my bedroom when I had healed my cuts. I was rewarded with a series of gasps. My eyes flew open and I glanced down. My torso was smooth and hard-muscled; thanks to many hours at the gym, but here was no sign of the injuries. When I realized they were still gaping openly, I turned to Dimitri, who was studying his black dagger, “you mentioned clothes?” I prompted. He laughed and shaking his head, he led me out of the room and down the corridor. We turned left and slipped into a kind of changing room. There were two rows of lockers and a series of spare cubbyholes with size tags. Dimitri looked me up and down, “you’re about my size.” He turned to a cubby hole and pulled a pair of dark jeans and a black long-sleeved T-shirt. He pointed to a door and I pulled out of his expression they were the changing rooms. “I know my way.” I said stiffly, noticing he hadn’t removed himself from the door. He shrugged good-naturedly and walked out of the door. I slipped into the changing rooms, to my surprise, the clothes all had their tags on. “weird.” I said out loud. When I finished changing into clothes that looked like they had been made for me, I stepped onto the hall. I knew where Dhaile’s office was. I was looking at the door. I was considering going exploring when I heard a loud curse and a blood-chilling scream. In half a second, Dimitri streaked out the office and darted past me in a blur of black. Thaila stumbled out of the office, a dagger clutched uncertainly in her hands. “What’s going on?” I shouted. The hallway was chaos. Streaks of black kept passing me and I knew all the warriors were attending to whatever caused this. The schools alarms went off. They made me panic, but I turned to where Dimitri had disappeared. The entire school headed toward the training ground. I wondered where Dimitri was going. I decided to follow him. In the chaos, nobody noticed the new kid slipping out a back door. I found myself staring at acres of woods, wondering how on earth I’d find him, when I heard someone yell defiantly, “oh yeah?! You think your bloody stench could make me retreat did you? Well take THAT!” there was a sonic BOOM and the ground trembled. A column of fire shot into the sky to my right. I darted into the woods. Tracking Dimitri was not especially difficult since he kept laughing hysterically. The spontaneous bursts of fire made it even easier. Within seconds, I could see into a small clearing fringed by pine-trees. The sight that met me was horrible. Half the trees had been incinerated, pulverized or at least singed by the heat that continually exploded from Dimitri’s hand. He had his back turned to me and he was facing something completely horrible. A massive slug with metal spikes protruding from his body gave a terrible screech. I winced and rubbed my ears, wondering why Dimitri hadn’t been deprived of his hearing abilities. I didn’t have the chance to ponder this further because, just then, the beetle, slug, whatever, saw me. It gave a triumphant screech, seemingly not affected by the inferno of fire that left Dimitri’s hands. It lumbered toward me surprisingly fast and Dimitri skittered to a side to avoid being plowed over. The bug didn’t seem to mind. In fact, it had lost all interest in Dimitri. Unfortunate, since it was concentrated on me completely. I shot forward, surprising the beetle, who had expected me to retreat. It hesitated as I ran past him, putting myself in the middle of the clearing. Dimitri slipped and fell on his butt. He laughed but he looked exhausted. “Go on newbie. Incinerate him. Get angry at him and blow him up. Just try to avoid-” he made a face and brought his hand to his stomach. I realized just then that Dimitri’s shirt was covered with blood. The black seemed darker than usual. My eyes widened at the sight of so much blood, but a loud cracking noise interrupted my thoughts by sending me into the snow head first. Pain exploded in my leg. I rolled subconsciously just as the beetle’s pincers clamped on thin air, where I’d been four seconds ago. I tried to leap to my feet and was rewarded by a severe flare of pain that nearly made me pass out. I groaned and closed my eyes. I thought about Dimitri’s advice. Get angry. He’d said. Well that wasn’t very difficult while sitting on my backside with a drooling monster about to eat me. Concentrate. That was more difficult. I searched inside me. My uneasiness spread inside me, threatening to combust. Instead of reining it in, I let it out on a massive burst of power that created a massive lightening strike with accompanying thunder. The strike hit the monster on the head. The ground shook and slowly, the slug turned into dust. I took a deep breath, exhausted, when the sound of complete silence registered in my head. I looked up to see almost all the boys of the Principia who were gathered in the fringe of the clearing staring either at Dimitri, the pulverized slug, or me. “Stupid slug-zillla.” I declared. About 150 pairs of eyes fell on me. “What?” I asked. Suddenly, 14 year old Dhaile stormed past, the crowds opening for her, her golden eyes were tight. “What, is exactly the kind of question I was going to ask you.” She glared at me. Just then Dimitri moaned. She looked over to him, and seeing the terrible gash, she paled. “Jeez, coming.” I muttered. She stared at me. I dragged myself over to Dimitri, groaning from the pain of a probably-broken leg. My injury was not life-threatening, however. I closed my eyes, holding my hand a few centimeters away from his cut. After a second, I opened them and saw a faint scar. Dimitri stared at his abdomen and suddenly burst out laughing, “I’m seriously starting to like you newbie.” I frowned, “my name is Dylan.” I reminded him. He grimaced and said, “Whatever newbie.” I glanced at my foot and turned green. “Are you okay? You just- oh.” Dhaile trailed off. My ankle was bent in a direction that wasn’t supposed to go in, and I didn’t know if I could heal broken bones. I closed my eyes and concentrated. It took several minutes for the healing to start and even longer for it to work. I surveyed my work, pointing and shaking my foot. Everything back to normal. I stood up shakily. “Well, that went well. Heh. Well well.” I grinned. Everyone stared at me as if I had grown a pair of horns and had begun to tap-dance. “What?” I asked again, irritated. Dhaile took a shaky breath.  “Come to the Principia.” She told me. I shrugged and followed her out of the clearing where all the boys remained. Dimitri got up lithely and followed us. So did Thaila. Meanwhile, Dhaile began to talk. “Angels exist. They rule over heaven only under the maximum gods that act under the power of absolute God. This God sees, all, hears, all, and knows all. He knows who we are and how we came to be. When angels misbehave, they are thrown from heaven. They roam the streets, occasionally vengeful. Sometimes they rip their wings away. Those are the worst angels. Sometimes they starck them which means they get the tattoos you have.” She pointed at the skin of my wrists. I frowned, not sure if I believed anything but Slug-zilla. That had seriously freaked me out. “We hunt the angels with starcks. They appear every once in a while. We capture them, but we do not kill them. We take six vials of blood from each angel. Then, we go to hospitals.” She shot an amused glance at Thaila and Dimitri. They both blushed. “…then, we dress up as nurses and doctors and insert each vial of blood into six newborn children. Those who survive become hunters. Those who don’t, well…” she shrugged, “then they weren’t meant to be part angels, so they die. Those who survive, though” she said, anxious to change the topic. I just stared at her, “they acquire powers. And you, well, you are part of the Four!” she exclaimed. Her eyes sparkled. “Uh-huh. And me, part of ‘The Four’ is supposed to do what, exactly?” I asked, still not past the ‘they’re crazy’ phase. “There are Four major rulers in heaven. They are the closest to God, his most trusted advisors. They are also the most powerful. Those who we inject with blood from children of The Four don’t survive. Only a few have. You are the first in a millennia.” She concluded. I still didn’t buy it. “And, what, exactly, makes us different?” I asked hesitantly. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer. “You are more powerful than most. You are starcked, which grants you with blending ability. You may turn your eyes golden, deceiving angles and avoiding bloodshed. And,” her eyes sparkled, “you may be able to grow wings. But, those are only myths, I’m telling you from a textbook. I don’t think you really grow them.” She looked sympathetic. I shifted uncomfortably. I hadn’t noticed since the changing room, but my shoulders still hurt. At the mention of wings, I felt a kind of pressure build inside my shoulders. Before I could help it, I doubled over and groaned. Dhaile immediately shifted into ‘concerned mode.’ She stopped and asked anxiously, “are you okay?” I groaned again, a strained, anxious noise that stopped even Dimitri. I tried to tell her ‘I’m fine’ even if I was most definitely not, but for the moment, I was incapable of normal speech. The pressure was unbearable. Then suddenly, my feet left the ground. I slammed my head on the ceiling, but still didn’t come down. Dhaile, Thaila, and even Dimitri, stared at me with gaping mouths. Meanwhile, I was terrified. An irrational terror gripped me and I struggled to break the ceiling so I could go to the sky. I needed to get to the sky, I needed- Dhaile stopped me by yelling, “Dylan stop! You’re not one of them, snap out of it!” Not one of them. I was not, not an angel, I was Dylan Hunt. A hunter. I took slow calming breaths and gently touched down on the floor. I landed in a crouch and for the first time, saw my shadow in the wall. There was a crouched person, normal, but out of my back…. my eyes widened and I reached with my hand behind me. I felt something silky and soft. I grabbed it and pulled, wincing. I put it in front of my head. I held a midnight black feather.