One Word Prompts

Misfit - Corridor of Eyes

Keres walked down the hall of the Tower Acadamy, her eyes fixed unwaveringly on the door at the other end. Rihan had told her she'd be picked on less if she kept her head level.

"Pick a spot on the horizon," he'd told her. "Don't watch your feet or the floor. Walk with your shoulders back and with power. Just try and see who stops you."

So far, it had worked, although she could feel their eyes on her. A thousand eyes watched her from either side. They stared through her hood, picking at her hair, pulling at her ears, poking at her eyes.

"She's dangerous," they whispered as she passed.

"Demon's daughter."

"Shhh, she'll curse you if you get in her way."

The corridor was endless. It stretched on and on. Each time she got halfway to her goal, that distant door, it seemed that it stretched out before her again.

"Don't mind what others say," Aaryn had told her. "They don't know you, and they are too dumb to try to."

So she'd kept her mouth shut as the whispers continued.

"I heard she was a mercenary."

"But she's a noble's daughter, isn't she?"

"A bastard, didn't you hear?"

The snickers echoed around her, each more pointed than the last.

"Oh, don't worry about titles with us," Kat had told her. "We don't care who your parents are or where you are from. We certainly don't want you standing on ceremony with us."

She missed them. She missed Kat. But they were all pursuing their dreams. She couldn't hide behind them forever. Couldn't hold them back like that forever.

"I heard she glommed onto the prince and princess."

The eyes laughed, petty spite in their voices.

"And they're too polite to tell her to get lost."

How much farther? Twenty paces? Ten?

"Does she think she's better than us because she knows royalty?"

Her hands clenched the robes at her side. Why had she thought she wanted to learn magic here?

"What does she even have to learn here?"

"Isn't she already an inhuman, magic killing machine?"

"Isn't she like a demon?"

"She uses magic on instinct?"

"What could she possibly learn from the masters here?"

She didn't understand any of the theory. She didn't understand any of the classes.

"We just got to do our best," Daud had told her before leaving with Rose.

"What else is there?" Rose had asked.

But what if her best wasn't good enough?

"You're our ace," Rihan had said. How many times? She didn't know. Every plan of his revolved on her as the backup, fail-safe. Why had they looked at her like she couldn't fail?

What could possibly have given them that idea?

The eyes cackled with her thoughts. They could see them. They could pick apart her brain. Could tear her limb from limb.

"Invincible? Her?" they whispered.

"Dependable?"

"Looks like nothing but trouble to me."

"Cursed is more like it."

The floor before her feet continued to stretch. Even without looking at the door, she knew she'd never make it. It was miles away now. Was on the other side of the moon.

She closed her eyes. They couldn't make fun of them if they couldn't see them. They wouldn't know who she was if she could just hide them.

"Look at her running!"

"Think she'll cry?"

"How did such a weak girl manage to make it in?"

"Royal favor?"

"Her mother's money?"

"Her demon blood?"

"Not for her own merits, that's for sure."

Laughter filled the hall, cold and cruel. It echoed in every direction, threatened to drown Keres where she stood.

What value did she have? Just her demon magic? Was that it? She wasn't kind or giving like Kat. She wasn't smart like Rose or cunning like Rihan. She wasn't honest like Daud. She wasn't funny like Aaryn.

She didn't work hard like them. She didn't want to shine the way they all wanted to.

She just wanted to stand beside them. Wanted them to want her at their side.

"Who would want a demon near them?" the eyes sneered.

"She's a curse."

"A monster."

"...my friend," Rihan had said. He'd introduced her to his older siblings. Eland and Faris, the older prince and princess, had looked down on her, disappointment in their eyes.

"This is my friend," he had said to them. They stood in the palace's drawing-room. Had she even been six?

"You shouldn't--" Faris had started to say, about to repeat the words every adult had said to the young Rihan. About to tell him that he should mind his position, as low among the royals as it was. That he shouldn't associate with bastard children or demon girls.

"I'm Kat!" Kat had interrupted, running up to Keres, grabbing her hands eagerly, the widest grin on her face. It was such a simple gesture. No calculation, no concern for the future. Just genuine desire to warm a terrified little heart.

"Don't you dare forget," Rihan had told her, before she'd left for the Tower, "You are our friend, Kerrie."

"And don't you go asking us why again!" Kat had said, her smile settling into the tired but determined one she most often wore.

"Cuz we'll seriously beat you up if you ask a dumb question like that again," Aaryn had added.

Rose had hit him in the back of the head. "Don't go saying things you don't mean." To Keres, she added, "But, seriously, don't forget. We'll be there in a heartbeat if you need something."

Daud nodded. "Even if we have to sneak out of the palace again to do so."

She took another step forward, the door appearing before her eyes. She pulled the handle, letting light into the long hallway.

She didn't look back as she stepped out. Didn't look back as the eyes behind her melted in the light, silent for now.