Aria

Chapter 1

I slid under her and punched her in the stomach, she countered with a sharp jab to my ribs. “Not again,” I mumbled and ground my teeth together. I managed to get to my feet and look around at the royal blue colored room. The ceiling was at least 50 feet above us. I had never realized how pretty the stars looked through the massive skylight. Black opaque scarves fell from the full daunting height of the room dividing the crimson velvet combat mats. I saw a sword in my peripheral vision and grabbed it. I guess my mentor had the same idea because when I spun around she was in mid-air, her weapon held above her head, aimed for me. I tripped over my own feet, fell backward, spun on my toes, and luckily landed on my back. In the blink of an eye, I held my sword in front of my chest to block her blow. “CLINK” my sharp metal met hers in perfect timing. 

She landed over me and gave me that sneaky smirk and slight head tilt that I knew all too well, “Nice save”. She got up and wiped nonexistent dust off of her dark purple training uniform. It was made of stretchy and slick material with metallic gold lining at the neck hole, wrist holes, ankle holes, and belt. My uniform was the same at the gold parts but rather than purple it was dark turquoise. 

We both dried the sweat from our daily match. Her dirty blonde hair falling into her face, covering her mesmerizing hazel eyes. She pushed her hair back behind her ears and almost laughed, “you’re getting better Aria. Sometimes I wonder, how…. how am I such a good teacher?” Her smile widening with humor and what I think was pride. 

“Maybe it’s your condescending lessons, midnight training sessions, or ridiculous obsession with winning everything.” I hung up my towel and imputed my session in the student’s panel next to the door. I turned around smiling to see her standing with her mouth open, pretending to be offended. 

“Who taught you this sarcasm?” 

I picked up my blue-green duffel bag and started to head out of the automatic doors. When I spun around she was pulling her hair up, “I had a good teacher. Bye Taya”. She shot me a playfully irritated look and shook her head. I shrugged my shoulders and turned to leave. I heard the doors seal behind me and quickened my pace. I had to shower, study, and exercise before hopefully getting to bed around 0400. 

I kept my pace as I went through 4 modern, grey hallways and 6 blue glowing fingerprint recognition stations before I got to the elevator. Just as I reached for the keypad the doors opened. The circular elevator held my roommate. Her light blonde hair was matted to her forehead and she was in her solid black two-piece pajamas. Once she caught sight of me her eyes lit up with rage, “What are you doing out of bed? I went to go to the bathroom and when I realized you were gone I just knew you were dead!” she yell-whispered at me. Before I could say a word she grabbed my arm and pulled me inside of the elevator.

“I was only on an evening walk, calm down, Lyona.” I lied because if she ever knew that her sister was training me rather than her, I would be dead. She turned to look at me and I gave her a half-smile. 

The doors slid open and we walked out towards our room. 

“Aria? Aria?” I stopped. It took Lyona a second to realize that I wasn’t walking next to her. 

She stopped and turned around, “c’mon Aria. You’ve already forced me to get out of bed, we don’t have time for your-”

“Do you hear that?”

“No?”

“seriously? How do you not hear that?”

“What is it?!?”

“Listen, it sounds like it’ ss,” I started walking again, “coming from around this corner.”Lyona sped up and matched my pace once again. We rounded the corner and to my surprise (not Lyona’s) nothing was there. “But… I swear I heard something,” I turned to her sympathetic looking face, ”you have to believe me!”

“Are you sure you’re getting enough sleep, Aria?” she put a hand on my shaky arm, “let’s go to bed! We can figure this out tomorrow but I have an astronomy test first thing in the morning” She started pulling me to our room by my training uniform. 

Once I got to my room I was no doubt shaken. Lyona fell asleep instantly and I finished my Biology homework. Once I settled down and tried to figure out what was going on, I only became more confused. I concluded that I was only tired. 

I took a quick shower. The second my feet touched the cold tile I was no longer in my bathroom. 

I looked around and appeared to be in a foreign hospital. It smelled of cleaning supplies and pain killers that I had used to once, after one of my sessions with Daya. I could see and feel my surroundings but I wasn't in control of my actions. I felt myself lie down… voluntarily. The bed was hard and the sheets were thin. I felt myself exhale and force a smile. The doctor smiled back sympathetically. She reached above her and a bright light blinded me. 

My wet foot slipped on the floor, waking Lyona up. It was a small fall but it caused me to cut myself pretty deep on the glass door. 

“KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK” I couldn't tell if Lyona was curious of the sound or angry that I had woken her up again. “ARIA, what happened???” 

“Um, the soap fell. You can go back to bed.” I lied. I heard her get covered up again and flip the reading light off. 

Sure, my hand hurt but I had felt much worse. My recent mission injuries included broken ribs, fractured knees, bones sticking out of my arm, and several concussions. Although I took a (required) class I had to strain to remember the course of action when a cut happens. It sliced my palm about half an inch deep. I staunched the blood using a towel. I stood up. Maybe too fast because the world started spinning and I had to grab the metal counter for support. I pushed a glowing button and the cabinet opened. I had to move a few things but I found the medical kit, opened it, and pulled out the gauze. I wrapped it slowly but precisely around my blood-stained hand. Taking deep breaths, I stood up and put on my pajamas. My bed felt comforting and safe but I was only going to get 3 hours of sleep until classes tomorrow.