Twisted Blood

Everyone had a story. Some stories were mundane and others were exhilarating. Some were comedic and others were tragic. For the most part, Dane's story was tragic. Born in Østerbro, as Viggo Elliott Wolfensøn III, to a non-ampyra mother, Alexa Sorensen. Dane was the illegitimate son of Viggo Elliott Wolfensøn II. A wealthy goldblood businessman. Østerbro was a laidback area in Copenhagen and a great place to raise a family. One night, Viggo II's wife showed up to their quaint house. In a fit of rage for her husband's infidelity, she attacked Alexa. Alexa turned to a Class E.

Unlike her brother, Jakob, Alexa was not a hunter so her only weapon was her maternal instinct to protect her ten year old son. Embla, Viggo's goldblood wife, took one look at her husband's bastard - whimpering by his unconscious mother's side - and left him to die at his own mother's hands.

Thankfully, Jakob's promotion to head of intelligence - at the request of Clarke - came at an opportune time. The hunter hurried to his sister's home to tell her of his good news. Instead, Jakob found his nephew losing blood at the hands of his sister. A brawl broke out - and that's how Jakob lost his eye - but the hunter took down his sister. In secret, Jakob broke the Hunter's Credo and used his position as a hunter selfishly. He assassinated Embla Wolfensøn before fleeing Denmark, with his nephew.

In school, as the only Danish kid, Viggo Elliott Wolfensøn III was nicknamed 'The Dane' which was later shortened to Dane. He inherited his mother's last name to protect his identity from his father's wrath. Viggo was a volatile goldblood and vowed vengeance on either Dane or Jakob for his wife's death. Ironically, he is one of Copenhagen's most eligible bachelors.

The moon dorm was dead silent from its occupants sound asleep. The sun had set but Dane was still wide awake from his daylight activities. He laid motionless on his bed with music blaring into his ears. After hearing what Ridley and Clarke had to say about Marcus, he was uneasy about a lot. He had a lot of resentment for his biological father and his wife, as dead as she was, but he had a tolerance for goldbloods.

Marcus was one of the few he knew personally and they had known each other for four years, almost. Despite the occasional racist, sexist tendencies of his time (whenever that was) Marcus Sinclair was a true English gentleman. He even had the long hair to prove it!

The goldblood in question was sitting under his covers doing his homework. Strange that for his centuries old self, Marcus was a devout student. Dane turned to see his dark blond hair was let down and trailed down to his collar bone and there was a light wave to it. The goldblood shook his head then crossed out his answer with a pensive furrow in his caterpillar eyebrows.

The blackblood hunter sighed defeatedly then ripped his earphones out of his ears. He sat up and turned his back to his roommate. Secrecy and lying were two horns on the same goat when it came to being a hunter. Keeping secrets from civilians for their own protection. Lying to society to prevent mass hysteria.

A clear example: Oliver Morgan. His death was real but the cover story, to the rest of the school, was that he was transferred to Lanasia. The truth was that Oliver was laying among his fellow fallen hunters in the Hero's Acre section of the Dunon Town Cemetery. He wasn't an achieved hunter so he was merely tossed into a wooden box that was flung into the ground carelessly. Dying young was tragic for ordinary citizens but for a hunter, to die young was to die from your naivety.

Marcus closed his books then glanced over to his roommate. "The sound of your thoughts is deafening," the goldblood stated. "What's amiss?" Dane shook his head then groaned with his hands over his face. "We may only have been roommates for some two weeks but I've deduced that only two things ever have you worked up: huntership and Ms Axel. Your huntership confidentiality nonsense you can excuse however, if Ms Axel is... how you say... 'difficult', perhaps I can offer some guidance. I have been married before."

"Really?"

"Twice. Imogen Belforth and Margaret Standford," Marcus replied with a nod. Dane let out another frustrated groan before shifting to face his roommate. "Which is it?"

The blackblood buried his face in his hands. "Huntership. No, Ridley," Dane began then roughly wiped the corners of his mouth. "Both," he admitted.

Marcus shifted to face Dane fully. He reached for the scrunchy on his bedside table to tie his hair into a low ponytail. "I see," Marcus replied. "Is there anything in particular you can tell me about? Assuming, of course, you would want to."

"Marcus, what do you know about...?"

Dane pursed his lips but Marcus egged him on with his eyebrow flick. "What do I know about what, sir?"

The blackblood let out a heavy breath then rested his head into his palm. "Amazing how you're older than us but you call us 'sir'."

"Age has nothing to do with it," Marcus countered wisely. "In my period, 'sir' and 'ma'am' are terms of endearment. To me, it's the equivalent of saying 'bro' or 'dude'." Dane laid down downtrodden. "Sir, something has de-yeasted your bread. What is it? You worry me with this harbouring."

"How old are you? Like really, how old are you?"

Marcus went pale but maintained his cool effortlessly. He combed a stray lock behind his ear while he cleared his throat. "I'm not sure how that is an applicable question."

"Did you live through the Gold Scourge?"

"I did. Where is this coming from," Marcus persisted. "If I didn't know any better, I'd wager you're accusing me of being a... um... of being-"

"An eldritch?"

Marcus gasped in surprise and his eyes went wide but as quickly as his show of shock appeared, it vanished. Replaced by his cool smirk and calm disposition. "You're a hunter; of course you would know what an eldritch is."

"What do you know about them?"

"There's nothing to know," Marcus countered. "They're extinct," he admitted ruefully. "The last of them died out before the turn of the last century."

"Okay," Dane replied with a faint relief. "But hypothetically if there were still eldritches around, how would they still be around?"

Marcus furrowed his eyebrows at Dane. "Is that what all the hype is about? The extra security and the canine units," he countered and Dane shook his head. "I hope you realise that I can smell that you're lying."

"How would it be possible," Dane deflected.

The goldblood sighed then smirked evilly. "It shouldn't be," he replied. "Off the top of my head, all I can think of is that your eldritch is mortal bending."

"Mortal bending?"

"It's a myth," Marcus stated coldly. "Supposedly it entails that we can sleep through large periods of time. And apparently if you're aging, mortal bending stops you from aging while you sleep; a sort of super hibernation." Dane nodded thoughtfully in reply. "This wouldn't happen to be related to Ms Axel, would it?" The Danish hunter furrowed his eyebrows at his roommate. "Well, she did make fire out of nothing back at the tavern."

"Really wish I could tell someone about this stuff," Dane sighed heavily. "This is just... it's not what I thought being a hunter would be. The night I made hunt, I realised something," he went on sadly. "I wasn't trained to protect the peace, the way we've always been told. I was trained to kill and I was taught to repress anything I felt for whatever I hunt. That man I killed, Lawrence Whitaker, he... he was someone I idolised even when he went rogue. And I looked him in the eye as I killed him. I still feel nothing for him."

"Disgusting," Marcus replied while Dane ran his fingers over his hunter gradus. "I mean being taught not to feel. It's disgusting. Suppressing a key characteristic that makes you human for the benefit of others? It's understandable but it's not something I would wish on my worst enemy and I have a few."

The breakfast bell rang as Dane sighed. The two ampyras collected their school bags before leaving their room. On the staircase, Marcus was uncomfortably fidgeting with his school tie while Dane was silenced by his own thoughts. The moon dining hall was also a light grey - like the sun dining hall - but it was different in a lot of ways.

A visible difference was the size of the moon kitchen. It was a lot smaller than the sun kitchen. Ampyra may not solely survive of blood - goldbloods are usually an exception - however they didn't have a very versatile dietary. Also the moon dining hall as a whole was significantly larger than the sun hall to accommodate the stem cells.

Stems were blood donors and there were two sort of stems; live and anonymous. Live stems consented to ampyra feeding straight from them. Anonymous stemming was like donating blood: blood was stored in a pint pouch and donors didn't meet their recipients. Live stemming was more of a sexual taboo but there was a special circumstance that warranted live stemming.

It's called obligatory hematophages which is just a politically correct way of referring to goldbloods who cannot live on alternative food sources. The older generations of goldbloods were closer to the Source's bloodline which meant they were 'purer', for lack of a better word. In theory, thoroughbred goldbloods are direct descendants of the Source.

The sun students were exiting their dining space and concluding dinner while the moon students were making way for breakfast. Marcus, being an obligatory hematophage, detoured for the cubicles of ampyra and non-ampyra volunteers who were donating blood. Dane mutely joined the breakfast queue.

His breakfast was light - concerningly light, at that. All the Danish hunter ate was a simple cheese omelette. No coffee, no toast, no bacon, no grilled tomato slices. Kenneth cleared his throat at Simon-Paul to get his attention on their unnaturally sombre brother. "Who spat in your face," Simon-Paul jeered with a light chuckle.

Dane merely shook his head. "Whoa," Kenneth replied worried. "Is it a girl? Best way to get over her is to get on top of another one. Or under, depending on your preference."

"Under. Always under," Simon-Paul countered. "It's more-"

"Shut up," Mekhi hissed angrily at the two boys. The heavy southern American accent cut through Simon-Paul's humour. She shifted closer to Dane and rested an arm around his shoulders. "There ain't a single empathic organelle between botha ya'll," she jeered.

Coldly the hunter looked down at his wrist watch then sighed. "I have to go," he stated with too much hostility in his tone before he coldly shrugged Mekhi off him.

The moonlight was snuffed out by the cloud cover, outside. The canopy of trees led the way - long the brick path - to the main building. Canine units were scattered everywhere for their patrol and hunters shied in the shadows of the darkness. The hallways were still silent but Ms Burns was lurking into her classroom as still as death.

The office was filled with a hum of formal conversations over the phone. Esmeralda was in deep concentration at her desk, typing away tirelessly on her computer. Mrs Eastman was sipping the dregs of her tea while in a sparkling conversation with Mr Goodrich.

Dane let himself into their work space and trailed to Clarke's office. In the hallway leading to the principal's office, Jason and Ryan were tiredly trudging ahead of Dane. Ryan had on dark colours - a sign that she was on patrol - while Jason was in jeans and a bright blue golf shirt. Inside, Ridley - fresh as a daisy in her uniform - stood before the desk.

Clarke was pacing endlessly behind her while Richard leaned against the window frame, staring ominously into the night. The principal abruptly halted his pacing to take a deep breath as the rest of the Guardian Program came in. Richard merely raised an eyebrow at the four students before looking down at his wrist watch.

"Hmm. He should be here about now," the old man said then left the office.

Clarke leaned against his desk with a heavy sigh. The whole wall behind his desk chair was a bookshelf. On his desk was his landline and photographs of his family. The one directly in front of his chair was of five year old Ridley and Ryan in their bedroom with their Barbie dolls.

The principal combed his shoulder length black hair out of his face with his fingers. Sullenly he took in the next generation of hunters who stood before him. Ridley was demure while Dane was on edge and annoyed. Jason wouldn't stop fidgeting with his fingers while Ryan rested her weight on one leg and stood with her arms folded.

The silence was brief after Richard closed the door behind him. "I know the passed two weeks haven't been your conventional welcome-back-to-high-school type of work," Clarke began. "Six of our own are dead, one being in the Guardian Program; there's unease among the students about the extra security; and a million other new things to worry about. I have to commend all of you for how well you're handling it."

"Thank you, sir," Jason replied.

Ryan pursed her lips then let her hands fall to her side. There was a scepticism, she noticed, in her father's eyes. "Look," Clarke went on. "You all know the statistics; there's less than a 1% chance that you'll all be part of the same unit permanently. You have to adapt to a new unit and sometimes, a new environment. We've got an eldritch on hands. We need all the hands we can get. As I said, we've lost six of our own so six more are coming to replace them," he stated. "One being in the Guardian Program."

"What," Ryan and Jason roared in unison. "Daddy, no," Ryan went on. "Our program is Dunon proud. Every hunter in the program has been in Dunon since day one and-"

"This is not a discussion," Clarke cut in coolly. "The decision has been made."

"Yeah but, Mr Axel, you made it without us," Jason pointed out. "You said we have the hunter privileges and one of those privileges is the transparency in our unit."

"Screw transparency," Ryan hissed angrily while her father's eyes sank to the ground. "What happened to common curtsey? We had a right to know! You didn't even have to include all of us in this decision! You could've at least picked one of us and been like 'look we need to replace. Here's your options'. Or even just mentioned the thought!"

Clarke said nothing while looking at the floor. His office was briefly still before he turned to his youngest daughter. "Are you done," he asked squarely. Neither Ryan nor Jason dared utter a word. "Let me explain something to you. Dunon Academy is my ward. Not yours, not ours. Mine. Every person on campus is my responsibility. I have to protect them all so excuse me if I don't feel the opnions on transparency and curtsey from three seniors and a first year would matter."

"But we're your..."

"It was my decision, Ryan! My decision," Clarke hissed, silencing his daughter.

Ryan looked away from him angrily while Richard opened the door without knocking. "Sounds like quite the protest," he commented, revelling in the brief unrest. "Fall in," he ordered and the young man behind him fell in line with the other young hunters. By his side was a grey wolf who obediently sat from a mere hand gesture.

Richard smugly returned to his perch by the window while Clarke regained his cool. "This is Sayeed Badr," the principal began. "Sayeed is one of Charter House Secondary's best."

Sayeed turned to Ridley on his immediate right and smirked evilly to himself. She did nothing and kept her eyes forward. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see he wasn't in the school uniform. Instead he wore black polyester tracksuit pants and navy blue jacket with the Charter House crest on his left breast. On the back was 'S. Badr' in white.

"Charter House," Jason echoed. "That's a hunters-only school."

"The best hunting school in Europe," Richard clarified with a nod. "If Clarke wasn't so stubborn and pig headed, Ridley and Ryan would be over there right now. Sayeed has extensive military training and evidently a specialty in the canine faction."

"Sayeed this is Guardian Unit," Clarke went on. "Your unit."

"Is that it," Ryan hissed sourly.

Clarke turned to her coolly - with his face unchanging. "No, it's not." Ryan huffed then turned her eyes out the window. "Strategically, the Guardian Unit is unnecessarily imbalanced. Previously, four of you were day students. Now that Sayeed is here we have another ampyra hunter."

"Great! Let's roll out the diversity wagon. Oh wait," Ryan went on sarcastically. "Less than 20% of the hunting population is female. Never mind."

"Ryan Aimée Axel," Clarke reprimanded.

"That one has fire? Who knew," Richard voiced. "She's so..." he hummed as he sized her up "... misfortunate."

Ryan's full lips contorted downwards angrily. "The only misfortunate thing around here, old man, is my foot up your ass," she countered.

Clarke slammed his fist into his desk to silence his daughter and father. Everything on his desk rattled but the most stunning event was that his fist dented the reinforced wooden top. "Effective immediately, Ridley is being transferred to the night class," he stated angrily. "If this is the behaviour of the Guardian Program, then why would you ever be involved in any decisionmaking?"

Ryan was ultimately silenced by her father while Jason looked down at his shoes submissively. Dane and Sayeed stood quiet with their hands at their sides. Sayeed's grey wolf also stayed quiet at his side. Ridley clutched her English books to her chest mutely while keeping her eyes squarely on Clarke.

The angered Axel straightened up and marched over to his youngest. He towered over Ryan and she looked fearfully at his scowl. His meaty index finger pressed hard into her chest. "I expect for from you," he hissed before leaving his office. He slammed the door hard behind him, making the glass rattle nervously.

The younger Axel twin swallowed the lump that formed in her throat while the sting of tears forming filled her eyes. Her grandfather grinned evilly at her watching the shift in her emotional state. "I warned you," he sang as he cruised up to her, "daddy won't always be on your side."

Ryan forced herself not to cry but the tears started rolling and Richard clearly enjoyed in. She shoved him hard in the chest before turning to run out the office in tears. Jason turned to Ridley expectantly. "You're not going after her?" She said nothing. "She's your sister!"

"He's right," Dane persisted then turned to her. His foul mood was gone. "Go talk to her."

"Sororicide," Richard declared. Ridley turned away from her grandfather when he pressed some of her hereditary straight black hair in between his two fingers. "Know what it means? Any of you?"

"Killing one's sister, sir," Sayeed replied.

"Exactly. If you don't have the stomach to kill your own, how can anyone expect you to protect them," Richard went on wisely. Dane went pallid with disgust while Jason swallowed hard fearfully. "Believe it or not, boys, the woman in front of me would end her own sister without hesitation." His fingers trailed under her full cheek to turn her face back to meet his.

Ridley's eyes were ablaze, Richard could tell, when he looked deep into them. He smirked then then turned to male hunters on either side of his granddaughter before stepping away from her.

"That's twisted," Jason stated.

"That's how you know a real hunter from an impersonator." It was Jason's turn to go pallid. "Dismiss."

Ridley coolly spun on her heel and left while Jason watched her completely stunned. Sayeed trailed after her with Dane not far behind. The Danish hunter hurried up to the transfer and his grey wolf. "Hey, Sayeed," he called, feeling his previous mood falter. The grey wolf also paused to take in Dane. "The moon dorm's outside the west garden."

"Why would that be the first thing you tell me?"

"We've got class in a few minutes."

"Shit. There's that," Sayeed vexed. As he spoke, two black dobermans casually trotted to his side, along with two German Shepherds. "Sit," he ordered without looking away from Dane and the soundlessly obeyed, along with the grey wolf. "So what's with Scary Axel? Would she really kill her sister?"

Dane's eyes followed Ridley coldly walking into the crisp evening. "Only if she calls her 'Scary Axel' to her face," he stated. Sayeed scoffed then shook his head. "You better go change. We've got English and Derrick blows up for tardiness."

After that, the Danish hunter was on his way. "Hold up," Sayeed called. "What's Scary Axel's name?" Dane raised an eyebrow at him. "Everyone in my stretch of Barcelona knows her as Scary Axel. Either that or the Omphalos One; accuracy like that is unmatched."

"This isn't Spain and she will beat the shit out of you if she hears that," Dane cautioned. Sayeed shrugged nonchalantly in reply. Dane shook his head in disdain before continuing to class. "Don't be late," he ordered.

Sayeed folded his arms while watching Dane desisting from him. "Interesting. Scarab, Anubis. Recon." The two dobermans barked lowly before obeying and racing out of the office. "Amenta, follow Axel. Nemyss, follow the ampyra hunter." The two German Shepherds obeyed before splitting up to follow Ridley and Dane. The grey wolf looked up at him eagerly and Sayeed roughed her fur. "Come on, Ankh. Let's go be normal."

Ridley nonchalantly glided through the school, in a ghostly fashion. The moon students - the ones who noticed her, at least - were confused. The were whispering as she passed them. Some pointed and whispered while other were in denial about her presence. Some made peace with her when she opened her locker and took out her English books.

Amenta was coolly trotting through the hallway, wholly visible to the moon students. Like all the canines in the canine faction, Amenta wore a vest with her name on the side. She too had a camera on her vest. A camera that was recording Ridley while Sayeed watched her on his tablet. On half of his screen showed Amenta surveying Ridley and the other half showed Nemyss following Dane.

Dane was joined by Simon-Paul, who could clearly see his friend was in a lighter mood. "Whatever you went to do, you should go do it again," the ampyra jeered humoured with his arm around Dane. "You look better but you feel like solid wall! You sure you good?"

"Hunter stuff," Dane admitted. "And this new transfer student shit."

"Moon or sun?"

Dane exhaled heavily. "Technically both," he replied.

"Does it have anything to do with all the extra security," Simon-Paul asked and for the first time Dane knew him, Simon-Paul had a glimmer of worry in his eyes. "Look I know you can't tell us shit about hunting but what the holy fuck, man! Are we in danger?"

The hunter turned to see a group of girls swooning among themselves, laughing about whatever they were talking about. Lyna - Marcus' ex girlfriend - was one of them and she was fanning herself with a puff in her cheeks from her exhale. Beyond them, Marcus was with Lloyd, Kenneth's goldblood roommate.

Lloyd too was worried and Marcus was not looking particularly optimistic either. "Is everything okay," Lloyd asked and Dane ran his hands through his hair in fluster. "We just saw an Axel walking into English," he stated as the bell rang.

"Guys," Dane began, trying to maintain his fleeting composure, "I can't tell you anything. Not even if I wanted to."

"There's something going on and nobody's telling us anything!"

"And we have a right to know," Simon-Paul agreed with Lloyd and the hallways were starting to empty.

Marcus tilted his head in pity from seeing his roommate so swamped. "Gentlemen, perhaps the answers we're looking for will come from principal Axel shortly. There's probably no need to-"

"Can it, Pride and Prejudice," Lloyd hissed as the last of the students vanished into their classes. "Dude," he directed to Dane. "Spill. We want to know. Derrick can suck it 'cause we're not leaving until we get some answers. What's going on!"

"I can't tell you!"

Simon-Paul shook his head then turned to Lloyd. "Extraction and Persuasion?"

"Extraction and Persuasion," Lloyd echoed with a nod.

He stepped away from Dane for Simon-Paul to start throwing punches. Marcus sighed then turned away from the brawl ruefully. Lloyd stayed close to Marcus to make sure he didn't try any heroics. Like a man, Dane took his beating and, like a true hunter, he refused to speak.

Nemyss laid across from the spectacle with her camera recording it all. Simon-Paul's grunting and Dane's yelps of pain filled the silence of the evening. It was blocked out from the closed classroom doors but there was someone who could hear it. Ridley.

Mr Derrick was Mrs Hues' counterpart to the moon students and his reading of Chapter 12 of the 'Picture of Dorian Gray' was better than how Mrs Hues read. On the eve of his thirty-eighth birthday, Dorian runs into Basil on a fog-covered street. He tries to pass him unrecognized, but Basil calls out to him and accompanies him home.

Similarly, could hear Simon-Paul's grunts but didn't recognise him. After popping her bubble of selfish, she noticed the empty spaces in her English class. She forced out Mr Derrick's reading and tuned her ears to the distance. The fight was out of her range and the talking teacher was not helping.

After taking a few deep breaths, Ridley closed her eyes to concentrate on the tendrils she heard. Her concentration was noticed and wrongly interpreted by Mr Derrick. "Axel," he roared. Through her strain, the educayor's voice was mere centimeters from her ears, in place of his perch at the front of his class - where he actually was. "Having trouble adapting to night life?"

The classroom went mute and the tendrils were more audible. She could hear Dane's agony but only briefly; the sniggers - no matter how soft - snuffed out the hunter. Unapologetically Ridley stood up and hurried down the steps of the elevated auditorium with her retractable staff extending in her grasp.

There was a unison gasp from the students who expected the guardian huntress to rough up their teacher. Instead she rushed out the classroom. "Axel," Mr Derrick called and followed her out the class.

Ridley's hearing was tuned solely on Dane and the threat he was facing. She followed her ears up the stretch of hallway and around the next bend to see the moon boys beating up their own friend. Marcus took a sharp inhale when he saw her speeding towards them.

The huntress slammed her staff into the back of Simon-Paul's head. She threw a throwing knife to pin him to the concrete pillar behind him. Lloyd gasped from the knife piercing into the concrete but joined the next round of the brawl. He easily grabbed the staff out of her hand while Dr Derrick took the corner to see the fight with some of his students following. Some started filming in traditional teenage style.

Lloyd smirked his victory over the hunter. Victory was short lived. Ridley grabbed her staff and flung Lloyd into Simon-Paul, letting go of her staff. "Bitch," he jeered then tried to attack her with her own staff.

Her agility allowed to effortlessly avoid the end of her staff. Marcus went to aid the bloody Dane to his feet. Black blood pooled onto his white school shirt and streamed from his nose, lips and his cheek. Marcus patted Dane reassuringly before dragging him aside.

Mr Derrick rushed into the fray! Simon-Paul ripped out the knife that pinned him to the pillar and threw it at Ridley's back. Her heightened senses picked up as much. She ducked and the knife stabbed Lloyd in the shoulder. He dropped her staff while Simon-Paul grew insenced. Ridley stepped aside to stop as Mr Derrick wrapped his arms around Simon-Paul.

The blackblood ampyra flung his non-ampyra teacher into the lockers and he plummeted onto Lloyd. Ridley merely watched Simon-Paul demurely. He came charging at her with his fist ablaze with his rage. She side stepped him and Simon-Paul's momentum sent him flying face first into the lockers.

He growled angrily. It was an anger Ridley recognised from their brawl the previous year, at the annual Christmas ball. After briefly massaging his face, Simon-Paul picked up her staff and went bucking mad! He didn't have the formal fighting experience that Ridley had. His weight distribution was his biggest tell of that.

He smote the staff endlessly at Ridley who just coolly evaded him. Mr Derrick stood up drowsily and stepped between the two students. Ridley stopped but Simon-Paul swatted his teacher in the head. The educator stammered into the lockers while the students were either laughing or stunned.

Simon-Paul lunged with the staff and Ridley merely caught the end of her staff in one hand. The staff was centimetres away from her face and she was in a deadlock with her opponent. They stood staring each other in the eye. While Simon-Paul panted and was red with rage, Ridley was as levelled as her breathing.

With a forceful yank from her side, Simon-Paul let go of the staff. Nonchalantly Ridley spun on her heel to return to class. Her opponent did not share her views. With a thunderous war cry, Simon-Paul charged again. The guardian exhaled heavily then knelt down. Her staff pressed into his core and she flipped him over her. Demurely Ridley walked away with the moon students cheering her on.

Marcus turned to see Dane wiping away the last of his blood with the handkerchief he handed him. Dane exhaled heavily through his mouth, to spare his nose the pain. He straightened up then nodded to Marcus. Marcus patted his shoulder again.

Mr Derrick straightened himself off of the lockers as Simon-Paul peeled himself off the floor. The audience of students - like cockroaches when a light turned on - scattered. The light, Richard Axel, stepped on scene. With him was a band of teachers. Richard glanced over his shoulder to see his granddaughter coolly walking off.

Nemyss and Amenta gathered together and trotted over to Sayeed, who had Ankh at his side. Dane watched the two German Shepherds join their human's side. His eyes narrowed on Sayeed because he was watching Ridley with a cunning tug in his smirk. Dane's eyes then directed to her as she returned to their class with the dregs of their audience.