Rebel Red Hope

3

     The lights in the room flicker on as my legs swing over the side of the bed, and out the corner of my eye, a grinning shadow disintegrates while I stand and walk to my dresser to pull out a change of clothing and change out of the green jacket, letting it fall to the floor. 

     'The schedule changes today.' My mind starts to race through everything Reisdro said the past week, 'Right?' I ask as the self-doubt sets in. Did Reisdro tell us lessons started just before sunrise today instead of sun high, or am I making things up? Shaking my head while slipping the shirt over my head, I walk back over to my bed, stepping over the jacket on the floor, and sit, waiting for someone to get me if my brain scrambled the times.

     A small sigh escapes my nose as someone knocks on my door after an undetermined amount of time of staring at the oddly brightly patterned wallpaper of the room, and stand up to walk over to the door, but my foot catches on the jacket causing me to trip slightly before reaching the door and opening it to find Ashton on the other side, 

     "Reisdro said you might need a reminder for today's lesson," he says, his voice exhausted and cold with a hint of annoyance, "It's at sunrise today," He confirms. Giving him a nod of confirmation, he steps out of the doorway and walks down the hall and I follow.

     We walk in silence to Reisdro's building in the center of the block through the dimly light section of the city before Ashton breaks the silence,

     "Why did you skip Reisdro's teachings for several months?" he asks, 

     "I'm not sure. Maybe I was unwell?" I hesitate,

     "Unwell?" Ashton probes, raising an eyebrow at me,

     "Yes," I simply state before we fall to silence again.

~~~

     Walking into the building, my hand running over the red brick of the building, Ashton and I take our usual seats just as Reisdro starts,

     "Speak after me," he bellows, "My image, my immaturity, my ceiling, uncertainty, and fear will-" something catches my attention as he starts. The grinning shadow once again in the corner of the room catches me off guard as it doesn't disintegrate like it did earlier this morning. 

     Looking closer at it, it had a humanoid shape except the grin was slightly too wide, or was it? The grin seemed to glow almost a pure white that matched its glowing eyes. The grin could almost be mistaken for a snarl if it only looked slightly more aggressive. Was it snarling? What was it doing and why was it here? 

     "Arlyn, would you care to enlighten us on what our lesson was a few days ago?" Reisdro's voice cuts through my thoughts and snaps my attention over to him,

     "Sorry, Bishop?" My mind starts to race about what happened a few days ago before slamming the palm of my hand into my temple,

     "Arlyn, child, what is it?" he asks upon seeing my reaction causing me to hesitate for a second before removing my hand from the side of my head,

     "hopefully," I mummer,

     "Speak up, Arlyn," 

     "Hopefully," I say a bit louder, and the room lets out a soft gather of snickers and mutters,

     "Hopefully." Reisdro echos in a sour tone, "And why is that?" he asks, his eyes burning the center of my head from behind his mask, but my lips refuse to speak so he speaks instead, "Hope does us no good. It gives us falsities. You must learn to doubt it as all from this city do. We must not trust hope." he finishes and the room nods in agreement as I bow my head. 'somethings not right. Why?' I wonder as my head feels like it's splitting in two while my chest starts to tighten. Keeping my composure, my eyes wander vacantly up to the front of the room with a blank nod causing a small smile to form under the Bishops' veil, which flickers back to his normal mask before he continues his lecture. Did he always have a veil, or are my eyes playing tricks on me?