by Elle Grace
“Director Dubois with all due respect this is unnecessary, she has the mark.” I spoke through the intercom and she perked up at my voice. If she was not aware about the mirror she certainly was now. I knew I had to say it. Not for her but just so he knew what he was doing was wrong. The Director just ignored me. He was good at that. Aurora looked to the mirror for the first time and straight at me as if she could see me. The kiss we had shared hours before flooded my head and I forced myself to forget it. It was nothing special, I told myself, except that it was. I had felt the connection that I knew I was not allowed to feel.
William walked forward holding a small purple crystal.
“This is the Partenth stone, Miss Hart.” He explained. “We use this to test you. It is a very ancient and special tradition for us here at in the Inperium.” He held the stone above his head whispered a few words in what sounded like a different language, I knew it to be an ancient dialect from the same kingdom the stone was from.
“You are kidding right? A stone?” She was astounded and she had a point it must have seemed a little silly. It was not exactly menacing to look at. Lance grinned; he knew what was coming. “Surely a simple blood test or a genetic test from my saliva or something would be more accurate.” She was right, we tested the human recruits by their blood, it was just the Dubois excuse to hurt hybrids.
“Sadly, not Miss Hart, what we are testing really cannot be perceived that way, not easily.” He informed her, lying. It was easy. He walked forward until he loomed over her.
The stone was then placed on the bare skin at the top of her chest. She looked at him her eyes wide as I knew she was going through a gradual build-up of burning and stinging pain throughout her entire body. It quickly got to an unbearable level of pain and she screamed in agony. She was writhing on the floor. William’s face was one of determination as he kept pressing the stone against her. She was cursing and shouting out all sorts of profanities as the pain surged even worse. She struggled to try and get away from the stone as the longer it pressed against the skin the more the pain escalated. Time had stopped. I was holding my breath for her. She was at the tipping point of consciousness as I knew the pain had grew to a point where she would not even be able to breathe. Her eyes lit up and begun to glow a brilliant green, she was certainly a mult.
“Stop this! Can’t you see you are killing her? The stone has changed colour!” Tristan exclaimed. William and the stone were blasted backwards by an invisible force and hit the concrete walls with a dull thud. The once purple crystal now glowed deep red and rolled out of his hand. Aurora slumped over on the ground.
I watched as her glowing eyes closed and she passed out. She was powerful.
6
Colt
6pm 5th September 2020
It was my job to inform Aurora of what was going to happen next. William had shut himself in his office sulking about how the tests had not gone his way. The board had called an emergency meeting after they had heard about Aurora’s arrival, I imagined he was practising his grand speech to them about why he felt the need to test her. He had a lot of explaining to do. The Partenth stone was still red in colour, they had asked another hybrid to try it, but he said that he felt nothing. She had broken the stone.
I opened the door to the test room and she just sat staring at me. I felt a little bad for her; it must have been a shock for her to suddenly find herself in some weird place being tortured. Nobody deserved that. A soldier ran in and placed a chair down for me. She was still chained to the floor. I did not care about removing the chains. Hybrids could be dangerous. The chains made it a little safer for me. Especially after what had happened the last time, I trusted a hybrid.
“What the hell do you want?” She snapped. She was mad.
“Don’t you dare speak to me like that!” I demanded. I sat down in the chair looking down at her.
“Why not?” She rolled her eyes.
“I’m your commanding officer.” I stated
“Do you kiss all your recruits?” I hated the fact she had mentioned it, because it was something I was struggling to stop thinking about. I had to keep telling myself it was nothing more than a job.
“Only the ones I have to mark. Otherwise I would never come near you.” I retorted and instantly regretted it.
Silence fell between us. I had not meant to be so callous. I mean she was a beautiful looking girl and I had just basically told her otherwise. That must have hurt a little bit. I was overzealous, and overcompensating.
“Are… are they going to hurt me again?” She asked, her eyes glassy. She was frightened. Her strength was an act.
“Not today.” I confirmed coldly. She tucked her hair behind her ear, a small act that I watched intensely.
She wiped the tears from her cheeks. She was beginning to realise she was never going home. She was lost in thought for a few moments, staring at the ground. She raised her face to look at me.
“I can’t do this.” She said softly. Something made me want to sooth her. I could not. I pushed the feeling down.
“Well you have to.” I shook my head.
“Just let me go!” She pleaded.
“You begin training tomorrow. Tristan and I will be doing some special catch up training with you, so you are ready to join the others.” I ignored her.
“Others?” She asked.
“Yeah, it has been decided that you will join our up and coming pass out recruits who are going to trial on Wednesday.” I informed her. “I cannot really explain more than that right now. That is Tristan’s job.”
“What? Why will no-one give me any straight answers? You all just keep moving on like I should know all this stuff and I don’t know anything. I can’t deal with this…” She replied frustrated.
“You should know all of this stuff, the fact you don’t is not my problem. I am here to do my job and nothing more.” I cut her off and shut her up. It was the truth, no one could fathom how she did not know. All hybrids were born with what we called the ‘instinct’ it was like an ancient ability that meant they knew what they were and about how to open the gates. They often always also knew that in order to unlock that power they had to take a trial. The fact we trained the Mults before they took their trials was more out of common courtesy and because we wanted them to have our backs when we had missions to do. It was strange she did not know the most basic of things. It meant one of two things. Either she did and she was a liar as well as a half breed, or she had repressed that part of herself after what happened when she was an infant. Either way it was bizarre.
“Why do you all keep calling me a half breed?” She asked calmly.
“Because that is what you are, you are only half human.” I replied matter of fact. “Well maybe even less as all the creatures are technically humanoid and you could be any combination.”
“You people are insane. Of course, I’m human. What kind of weird cult is this?” She snapped.
“We aren’t a cult and I suggest you start thinking about remembering who you really are. I am beginning to suspect your ignorance is all an act.” I eyed her and there was a moment of silence, she did not confirm or deny anything.
“I just want to go home.” She was almost whining.
“I don’t care.” I sighed.
“Of course, you don’t. You are an asshole.” She snarled. Her eyes wild and a captivating emerald green.
“I suggest you learn some respect before tomorrow.” I knew I was going to have to break her.
“I suggest you get over yourself.” She retorted as I slammed the door, leaving her in the dark to cool down.
7
Aurora
6am 6th September 2020
Tristan had come to fetch me from the room I was chained in. It had been hours. I was cold, hungry and my head was pounding. He never really said anything about it, but I could tell from his expression he was apologetic. I felt exhausted. I had spent most of the time in that room laying on the cold concrete floor wide awake, wondering
how I was going to get out of there and away from the crazy organisation that had kidnapped me.
He walked me over to the main building, which I recognised it from earlier when I was pulled out of the van and met the leader of the cult who kidnapped me. We walked up the stone steps into the building. I stopped inside the main entrance and pondered the décor. Although ornate and meticulously decorated, it had a dark and musty feel. Mahogany had clearly been in fashion when the building was erected. Tristan led up me a grand staircase.
“This building is like the pride and joy of this place.” He explained, he clearly did not feel the same. “They hold all the important functions in here. This is where all the offices are for the directors and the board.” He continued as he saw me looking around at all the oil paintings of men and woman on the wall, they all wore the same symbol emblazoned on their chest. I looked at Tristan and realised he had it embroidered on his shirt too.
“The symbol?” I questioned. “What is that?”
“It’s the mark of the Inperium.” He said. I looked at it and realised I recognised it. Not like distantly from the past but that I had seen it around recently before arriving at the Inperium. I just could not place where.
I followed Tristan down a couple of corridors. Until we came to a stop at about the thirtieth old fashioned oak door I had seen. I was beginning to realise that the old mansion building was a bit of a maze and I was not sure I would ever be able to find my own way around it. I hoped I was not going to be staying long enough to have to.
“Everyone should be in here.” He stated as he opened the door. “It is a little unusual to hold a meeting here.” He added. A low buzzing emitted from the room as we stepped inside, everyone seated around the large wooden table were whispering and gossiping. Around them wood panelling lined the walls up to the ornate crown mouldings all over the ceiling. The vast sized room was a colour combination of rich dark oak on top of rich dark oak. It felt like a struggling attempt at perceived grandeur. It looked like a conference room, it smelt like my Grandma’s house when it was left empty for months after she passed away. As we stepped inside everybody fell silent as soon as they saw us. I hoped it was the presence of the director who walked in behind us that had hushed them and not my presence.
The Director was busying himself inviting in some assistants. They all wore the same grey uniform that sort of looked like hospital scrubs. They had the word ‘assistant’ written across their backs. I guessed that they were not strong enough to be soldiers, but they were not hybrids either. It was clear people that they called Mults were at the bottom of the food chain at the Inperium and they had labelled me as one. The Director bossed the assistants around like they were his own personal servants. Maybe they were, I thought.
Looking around the table there were people I recognised from earlier that day. Colt sat at the head of the table and Tristan moved to join him. Lance and Caitlyn also sat there. Colt had found himself a plaid shirt since the last time I saw him, and he looked good in it. Tristan shot me a grin, trying to be reassuring as I looked for somewhere to sit. A chair that looked a little fancier than the rest sat between them and I guessed that was the Director’s chair. To the left of the four of them at the head of the table, was a girl about my age. She was simply beautiful with her caramel skin and I felt equally intimidated and attracted to her. It was an unusual feeling for me. A man next to her was staring at me, excitedly. He was a little bit chubby, but he had an enthusiastic look in his eye. On his chest was a handwritten name badge that said ‘Cameron’. There were stickers and pens on the table but nobody else had seemed to use them. I was clearly right about the enthusiasm, I thought. The other side of the table were some other men and women. They all seemed to be buddies as they were joking around and laughing as we had walked in. I made a mental note to avoid all of them, knowing instinctively that they were no friendly. A red headed boy who looked a lot younger than most of the room stood up breaking the silence. He looked at me with a big smile.
“There’s a seat free next to me.” He offered. His strong accent told me he was a Londoner. I moved to sit between him and a young woman who also looked younger than the average demographic in the room. She smiled as I passed by her and sat down.
“Hi, I’m Sam. That’s Mike.” She said as she shook my hand and pointing at the red head. “We were super excited when we heard there was someone new coming into our group!”
“I’m Aurora, but everyone I like calls me Rory.” I offered. Everyone around the table looked at me as I spoke. Next to Sam was one more person that completed the circle around the table. His gold coloured eyes intrigued me, possibly the most out of anyone else in the room. He stared at me intently, actually he frowned at me. His face was incredibly handsome, and he sat with near perfect posture. He was hard to read. Intense almost.
“Hi, I’m Cameron.” The enthusiastic one said. “You seem nice, surprisingly so. I knew you would be! When they said there was someone new, I just knew you were going to be nice, didn’t I?” He rattled off. He made a grab for the stickers and pens on the table and messily wrote my name, handing me the sticker. “I brought these so it would be easier for you to learn everyone’s name.”
“Thanks that is really thoughtful.” I said, sticking it to my dress. I suddenly began to realise what a mess I looked with my torn dress and smeared make up. No wonder people were staring, I thought. They all looked smart in their matching uniforms.
Down the table the group that had been talking about me when I walked in sniggered, Cameron went red in the face. “Ignore them Cameron.” I said. I called them out, making enemies already. “Some people just don’t know how to be nice to others and it intimidates them when they see others that can.” I reassured him and he beamed at me. I liked Cameron.
“I’m surprised you are still here.” Lance sneered and all the people at the table that were clearly his friends thought it was great. I rolled my eyes at him.
“I’m surprised you have friends.” I responded indicating his buddies that were hanging on to every word and his face turned into a scowl. “Or are they just licking your arse to get up the ladder?”
“You aren’t one of us. You are a dirty imposter and we will prove it this week!” Lance retorted back. I had touched a nerve.
“I think that’s enough.” Colt gruffly chirped in. He was clearly an authority at the table. His deep voice silencing us.
“Oh Colt, you need to learn that you cannot defend every orphan that walks in here. God knows you feel like a kindred spirit to them, but just stop. It’s getting a little bit pathetic. The mutts don’t deserve your sympathy.” Caitlyn spoke up and I felt like I learned something personal about Colt. He looked a little bit abashed. She looked proud of herself. “Half people like Aurora and Cameron are here to be put in their place. It is the natural order. That must learn that humans, pure humans are… well… superior.” Caitlyn continued. Cameron looked down at his hands visibly upset. I could see training had been an absolute barrel of laughs for him.
“Caitlyn, is it?” I asked and she nodded. “You have it wrong. See I don’t think someone’s blood makes them superior, pure or not. It’s how you treat people and you are clearly a bottom feeding worm.” I could not stand bullies. It was harsh.
“How dare you?” She screeched back at me.
“You are all a bunch of insane assholes.” I said looking at the top four who thought of themselves as leaders.
Lance stood up and drew a pistol.
“You need to learn your place mongrel!” He said calmly pointing the gun at me. My breath hitched a little at the sight of it. I remained calm on the outside. He was not going to shoot me. We both knew it.
“That is enough.” The director was now paying attention to us. The whole room was silent, and the tension was high. “Let’s calm down, shall we?” The director made Lance lower his weapon and I took a breath for the first time in a minute or so. “Well, I’m glad you are all present and accounted for.” He continued. He
found his place and stood next to his more ornate mahogany chair at the head of the table. “Hello all.” William outstretched his arms theatrically for effect. “For those who have been here at the Inperium for some time and to those who are new here, this is a meeting to get some formalities out of the way before the week ahead of us.” He began and a few people smiled excitedly. Most of the others looked thoroughly fed up, I was beginning to think I could recognise a hybrid just by their reaction to the director. There really was no need for a special stone. “You are all very special to us here in the Inperium. We need you to work with us to achieve a better world. It will not be an easy job, but it will be worthwhile one.” Somehow, I did not believe we were ‘all’ very special. It certainly felt like he wanted to add a but in their somewhere. “Wednesday is a big day for all of you. The humans around this table will be given their final tests before being announced as guardians” A few of Lance’s friends gave each other looks and small high fives. Lance beamed. He was clearly in charge of training the humans. “The Mults in this room will go through their trial, a very important part of becoming an assistant guardian.” The other hybrids rolled their eyes, something told me that becoming an assistant guardian was a little bit of an insult. “The highest rank a Mult can obtain here at the Inperium. Your role is to make missions easier for our guardians using your natural born powers to open and close gates.” It sounded boring, I thought. “One of the formalities that we must get out of the way is a contract of service. This protects you and us going forward.” He smiled but it seemed forced. The assistants around the room handed out the contracts. The font must have been a size 1 or 2 because there was no chance any of us could read it. “In front of you is your contract. We need you to agree to these before we can move forward this week. They are just to confirm the terms of your being here once you have passed the trials and tests.”
