I walked down the unfamiliar passageways, it was a little creepy it reminded me of an old castle or even a dungeon. The further down I walked I noticed the temperature dropped by at least 5 degrees, by the time I reached the bottom it was the temperature of a morgue. Now how in the world am I supposed to find his chambers in all these doors? Shrugging and then pulling on a door I was led to a giant bathroom. I tried again and saw a teacher tutoring a couple of her students, she nodded a hello and I shut the door quietly. The next door I opened led to an open meadow with all kind of flowers and shrubbery. As much as I wanted to stay and explore it I really needed to find the guard’s chambers. Finally deciding to open one more door I was a living room lit by a fireplace, in a velvet chair in front of it sat the guard from earlier.

“Trouble finding my room Sarah?” It was creepy how did he know it was me at the door; it could have been anyone else. “To answer your unasked question I figured it would take you this long to finally get here.” So, that didn’t mean it still freak me out and made me second guess to meeting him here. “Sit down Sarah; I need to get some things straightened out.” I sat in the chair across from him and waited for him to talk.

“You’re exceptionally smart, that’s what all your teachers have said.” My teachers talked to the guard, so was this so kind of elite school or something? “I want you put in some of the higher level classes, if that’s okay with you.” I was shocked, sure my school offered AP back when I was a student but I never thought to take them. I always sought the easy way out of everything, only taking what was required. “This school, well there’s other schools actually like this one. These schools took in the people we thought could help us most in reshaping America.”

Reshaping America? What was that supposed to mean, that Ling-Lo was running for president and we were to help with his campaign? I guess the look of confusion that was in my brain was also evident on my face because the guard explained. “Something big is happening, and we need the brightest minds on our side. Do you understand?” I shook my head not trusting my mouth to say anything. He smiled and led me to the door. “From now on you are to call me Kyle, seeing as how I’m going to take you under my wing.”

“I assume I need to get back to my chamber now, its past 10.” He looked at the clock hanging above the mantle and cursed to himself. He didn’t look to happy about keeping me out that late but still managed to smile when he turned back around to face me. Something was wrong here but I just couldn’t put my finger on it, more like a bad vibe about this whole place.

“Go on; if anyone stops you tell them where you were.” I knew no one would dare punish me if I said I had been with Kyle that was evident in his voice. Clearly what he said goes with anyone underneath him…including me. “You have me for homeroom and First Period; you’ll need the sociology book that’s in the trunk underneath your bed.” I nodded again and gathered my cloak around me tighter before stepping into the drafty dungeon hallway.

Sophia was already asleep when I got back but I saw both Raven and Lynzi were wide awake and waiting on me. Lynzi just had a look on her face that said I’m-curious-but-you-don’t-have-to-tell-me. Raven on the other hand had a look that scared the crap outta me it was the, the-hot-guy’s-mine-back-off-and-tell-me-everything. I decided just to shrug and walk to the bathroom so I could take a shower.

“So Alexander, what happened between you and Kyle?” I really hated how Raven called me by my last name. I had no idea where my real family was so these people were supposed to be like my new family. It was obvious though she hated me. I rolled my eyes and grabbed my toothbrush. I didn’t owe her an explanation, she wasn’t my mother. She grabbed my arm and I could feel her nails digging into my skin, I whimpered and she let go. It was bleeding and I could already see a black and purple bruise forming.

“Nothing happened Davis, so you can have the guard all to yourself.” She sneered at me and walked back to her room. Lynzi came in and put a cold washcloth over it and held me close while I cried. It hadn’t even been a day and my roommate had already started to make my life Hell. After a good 20 minutes of crying I realized it wasn’t solving anything and started my shower water. Lynzi helped carefully slip the shirt over my injured arm and off my body. She left and I stripped the rest of the way down.

I stepped in the shower and screamed when the hot water drops hit the open wounds from Raven’s talon like claws. She didn’t care she was a sadist and would do anything to get what she wanted. I wasn’t going to be the person to give her satisfaction by letting her know the pain she caused me. If she
didn’t know then she couldn’t feed off of it. Eventually causing her to leave me alone.

I carefully patted myself dry and put on the flannel gown that was issued to every student. Raven and Lynzi both had fallen asleep so I crept quietly back into my bed and hid underneath the covers. Praying tomorrow wouldn’t come so I didn’t have to face Raven, or worse tell Sophia what she did.

It seemed like the alarm went off only minutes after I fell asleep, Raven was already up and about to walk out the door when she spotted me. She quickly got ride of her smile and replaced it with her ugly sneer, it made her look uglier than she already was, but not by much. “Aw look Sarah’s up and she looks like crap. What’s wrong honey, long night?” I rolled my eyes and shoved past her to the bathroom. She scowled and grabbed my already injured arm and flung me back causing me to hit my head on the corner of the bookshelf. Sophia screamed but I signaled for her to stay there, I didn’t want her hurt. “I said what’s wrong with little Sarah.” Each word that came out of her mouth backed up with a blow to my body from her foot. I couldn’t move. She laughed and I swear it was the laugh of Satan, gave me one last kick and walked out towards the dining hall.

Sophia and Lynzi just stared at me in shock, I was about to ask what was wrong when I looked in the mirror and saw. My face had blue bruises around my eyes; my left temple was bleeding-from where I hit the bookshelf-. I lifted my shirt and saw a sickingly purple and red bruise on my ribs; I would defiantly have to get that checked out after First Period with Kyle.

Kyle. No way could I tell him about this, I had a weird feeling he would take it to Ling-Lo and that guy creeped me out without even seeing him. I sighed and grabbed my stuff not wanting to see their faces. Once I was dressed I didn’t wait for them but just walked on to Sociology class. Thank the dear Lord that Raven wasn’t in this class with me.

I tried to focus on Kyle’s lesson I really did. Then I would feel the familiar sharp pain ignite everywhere on my body and have to find a more comfortable position. It was so bad I didn’t even know class had ended until a girl behind me, Becca, touched my ribs to ask me to move over. It hurt so bad a firey pain rippled though my body and I fell to the floor, blackness consuming me.

I woke up and the first thing I noticed was all the tubes hooked up into my arms and nose. I tried to get up and away but the pain in my torso stopped me. I lifted up my shirt and saw a giant gash where my ribs were; it had exactly 17 stitches in it and looked kind of like a star. I sighed I remembered what happened now. Becca had touched my ribs and it hurt so bad that I passed out from the pain. Oh no what would Kyle say, and Sophia, and Lynzi? I didn’t really care about what Raven had to say right now.

“Sarah, can you tell me what happened?” The voice was distant yet somehow near and oh so familiar. Who’s was it, not my roommates, or Kyle’s for that matter. I looked up and saw that one guy Ling-Lo; gosh he was more intimidating up close than he was yesterday. “Sarah, what happened to you?” That’s when I saw everyone else closed in a circle around me and Ling-Lo was sitting on my bed.

“I, uh, fell and hit my err- head……really bad. Looks like I hit my ribs too.” H didn’t look pleased with my answer but no way was I going to snitch on Raven and give her more reasons to beat my butt. “Sorry if I inconvenienced you or something.”

“Are you sure you fell, because your friends here told us a different story.” I saw Lynzi and Sophia urging me to tell him what really happened; they didn’t like Raven anymore than I did. “Because if I find out you’re lying not only will the person who did this be punished but you will too.” I looked around at their faces and they were white with horror, even Kyle’s and I knew I had to tell or something really bad was going to happen to me.

“Raven kind of got mad at me and may have hit me around a little bit but I’m fine, see?” He stiffened and got of my bed looking out the door and motioning for someone to come in. My breath caught when I saw the evil smile on her face, Raven was going to straight up lie to Ling-Lo and say I was probably suicidal or something. How did I know this, because that’s exactly what she had been repeating in her head for the last 15 minutes. “Before Raven says anything I want you all to know I’m not suicidal like she’s going to suggest.” She blinked and then the sneer was right back on her face, either way this was a win-win situation for her.

“How did you know I was going to suggest it, guilty conscience?” How did I explain this to my friends, mentor and Ling-Lo? That after you almost killed me I magically got the ability to read people’s minds. This means. I could probably tap into Ling-Lo’s mind.

She’s crazy Ling-Lo whatever she says don’t believe her. She hit her head and almost died of course she’s going to be hysteric. Plus she hates me so she’s going to try and blame all this on me. You know I would never do anything to hurt a sister, especially after what happened with my own.

Oh she is so full of crap. She would do anything to get what she wants that’s how Raven works. She manipulates and scares people with her strength to get them to do what she wants. Now let’s hear what Ling-Lo has to say about her mini self pity monologue crap she spit to him.

Calm down daughter I have no doubt in my mind that Sarah will tell me the truth about her accident. Why are you getting so worked up about what she might say if she’s sustained head truama? Have you any secrets you wish to confess at Church later?

Ha-ha yes! He wasn’t buying any of this crap that was going through her head or out of her mouth. “Raven was mad because Kyle wanted to talk to me about classes. When I told her nothing happened she dug her nails in my arm. Then this morning when I ignored her she flung me across the room earning me these beautiful scars and bruises.” Raven got up out of the chair so fast it actually started to fall back but Sophia caught it. Raven’s eyes were side with anger and disbelief that I would rat her out like that.

“She’s lying so you don’t think she’s crazy, do you really think I would do something like that to my sister?” He sister, bull now she was starting to act like she cared. Lynzi and Sophia were about ready to rip out her throat. I concentrated on them not being able to move from their spot and it was like there was an invisible force holding them there. So apparently I had an almost death and that gives me freak abnormal powers. That.Is.Awesome!

“Hey what’s going on, we can’t move!” Sophia yelled glaring at Raven when she should have been directing it my way. Ling-Lo laughed and clapped his hands before turning to me. His eyes filled with laughter and happiness. “What the heck old man, have you gone nuts?”

He turned back towards the room and took a breath preparing himself to give

. “My students I hopped each and every one of you would have some abnormal talent like your sister Sarah when I chose you.” Huh, what the heck was going on, so what I was super smart, he thought that meant I had some freaky voodoo thing going on in my body?

“Hey uh Ling-lo, what are you going on about?” I asked sitting up, I was already starting to feel better and wanted to get out of my laying position. He turned back to me and took my hand in his hands, okay creepy guy please let go of me now.

“I am a priest from China. You my students are descendants of an ancient tribe who were very powerful. Kyle here is too and was blessed with the gift of being able to tell who else was Gifted.” Okay so basically I’m important because I’m magical and Kyle saw that who told Ling-Lo who basically kidnapped me and brought me to Region 5. “Jewel, a very powerful sorceress wishes to control the Unites States, she was the one who launched the attack and killed most of your families.”

Whoa just because they weren’t gifted like me they decided it was okay to let them die. It was making sense now; Jewel was the very bad happening, and the ones of us who survived needed to defeat her. God why couldn’t we just go back to elementary school were everything was so dang simple? “So what we defeat her and then rebuild America?” I asked Ling-Lo but was looking at Kyle the entire time with Anger in my eyes. He turned his head down and didn’t look back up at me until Ling-Lo started talking again.

“Do not blame Kyle for this, blame Jewel or even me. I asked him to gather you, he should have been here sooner and hidden you, but it was too late.”
Ling-Lo didn’t look too happy that I was directing all my anger towards Kyle and I realized he was right, it wasn’t Kyle’s fault. It was the evil chick who decided to would be fun to go around blowing up the United States and killing everyone.

“Weather you like it or not all of use are a family now. We need to start acting like one if we want to defeat Jewel. That means if you are Gifted you only use it in training and in battle. Never on each other, is that understood?”
I met the cold icy gaze of Kyle and nodded. The cocky persona was gone and he was strictly all war and no play anymore. Ha-ha Raven sucks for you, but me as well. Aside from my sisters he was the only one I talked too.