Breaking Barriers

by Bob Dattolo

  When it comes down to it, I want them dead for me. As much as everyone thinks that they believe me to be dead and gone, I don’t really believe that myself. Why? No idea. Maybe it’s because they always seemed to know things about us…. Huh, okay, that’s making more sense now. We used to wonder how they knew things that we kept hidden from them, but if they’re really mages, they probably had spells running sometimes. That explains a lot, actually. Not why they didn’t know I was outside their window or when I ran away, but other things seem to make more sense.

  I know I’ve said the word strange a lot, but I can’t help it. My life has been a lie. I never really felt loved, so finding out they want to kill me is strange, but not that strange. I loved them as much as I was able, but they didn’t make it easy.

  It’s the rest of the things that make it bizarre. Or push it into the extremes, I guess. My phone shows me my freakish eyes again and I can’t help staring at them. I’m a supernatural. So were my brothers and sisters. So were my parents. The people that visited us? Probably supernaturals. Actually, I’m not entirely sure that I’ve met any norms in my life. I went from living at home to meeting a vampire to everything else. Even my current driver is a mage of some sort.

  If they lied about all of that, then I guess they lied about so many other things. It’s just that surely some of the things had to be the truth? After all, I know that knives can cut me and they warned me about that. Fire can burn. So those things weren’t lies. What else was, though? If I’m hell-bound, then there isn’t much I can do since I’m one of the things they warned us about. I hope that’s not the case. Then again, maybe they lied about that? Maybe their god, which isn’t really the Christian god, is bad? And hell is good?

  That doesn’t seem likely. It’s possible, but likely? I’m not buying that one. Too many other things have backed up the “hell equals bad” angle. Granted, I’ve seen a lot of arguments about what makes someone bad and deserve a trip to hell, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen much in the way of agreement on what that is.

  Except for demons. Apparently demons are outright evil. Or something close to it.

  As I said, my life is strange.

  Staring at my eyes in the camera killed the rest of the drive and I didn’t come up for air until we were slowing and I saw a huge wall and gate on the right side of the road.

  “You back with me?”

  “I am. Sorry about that. I’m rather lost about everything right now.”

  “I understand. We all do. We’re here.”

  My first glimpse of the school was anticlimactic, since the huge stone wall blocked pretty much everything other than trees from being seen.

  The gate, which was open, was colossal, and the driveway was actually more of a road. From there, the grounds got more and more beautiful as we rolled along until he pulled in front of a building labelled Administration.

  “All right. This is where you get out. This is the administration building where they’ll work you through checking in and get you information on where you’ll be staying and classes. They’ll also give you information on where you go for lunch.”

  My nerves kicked into gear. “Th…thank you, Agent.”

  He turned and looked over the seat at me “You’ll be fine, Ms. Driscoll. Rasphael wanted me to let you know that being nervous is normal. Very normal. You’re in a world of the unknown right now, up to and including not even knowing yourself. She wanted me to tell you to trust your instincts if you can. It’ll be hard, but you can do it.”

  “She really said that?”

  “She did.” He slid out and came around to my door and opened it. “And I have some advice from me. I went to a school like this one and I’m still in contact with my classmates. You can make amazing friends in this type of setting. Just watch what you do and say. You don’t want to find out 100 years from now that someone you annoyed in high school has it out for you because you did something that you forgot about an hour after it happened. I’ve seen that before. More than a few times. Supernaturals are egos in human form. Or mostly human form. Crossing those egos can be bad. Then again, that doesn’t mean you take it on the chin. If there’s something you need to learn, it’s that you deserve what you put up with. That’s a hard thing for a young person to understand, but it’s true. Keep that in mind and be ready to hold firm under pressure, and you’ll be fine.”

  I deserve what I put up with. Like I deserve being kept like a recluse by my parents. That’s a sad thought, but true. Too true.

  “Thank you. I appreciate it. I’ll try to keep all of that in mind, it’s hard when you’re scared.”

  His hand was warm as he patted my shoulder. “It’s times like this when you’re afraid and push on that shows you the kind of person you really are. Are you the type to fold at the slightest pressure? If so, then that’s okay. It limits what you can do and achieve in your life, but it’s neither good nor bad. On the other hand, if you push on and keep moving? You can achieve wonderful things. Wonderful things for yourself and for others. Do you think agents aren’t afraid when we assault a building? I knew or met most of the agents lost when they assaulted your compound. Every one of them gave up their lives in the hopes that they’d be able to save your siblings. They didn’t, but they tried. They put it all on the line…and sometimes it’s not enough. That doesn’t mean you don’t do it, though. Sometimes that’s the price you pay for standing up for what you believe in and what you know is right.”

  Wow…just wow. He knew the agents that died at my parents’ hands? How could he even ride in the car with me without cursing me? Or casting a spell on me?

  He took my chin and forced me to look up at him. “I didn’t say that to make you sad. We know you’re not your parents. We don’t blame you. You were a victim, just like your other brothers and sisters. We don’t like that agents died, but we hold the blame firmly on your parents and no one else. So get that out of your mind. You are not your parents.”

  “Thank you.”

  He stepped back and nodded. “I’ll grab your bags for you and get you to the desk. Then I need to get back. It’s probably better that you not be tied to the FBI quite so firmly. The other kids may think you’re a snitch or something.”

  His smile let me know that he was kidding, but I also knew that he planned to leave just as soon as he could. That was already mentioned before we left. How do you go from being almost a prisoner to on your own in two days? I lived through it, and I’m still not sure.

  The inside of the admin building reeked of money, from the polished marble floors to the polished wood panels to the polished paintings. Okay, the paintings weren’t polished, but the brass fixtures and frames were. The paintings looked like originals, although I can’t tell if they’re expensive. What I know of expensive art is necessarily limited. My parents weren’t big fans of artistic expression.

  He walked at my side as I trailed my roller bags and he carried my duffel bag until we reached a huge curved desk that had a commanding presence. I didn’t see anyone behind it until we were almost across the large open area in front of the desk. When she appeared, she rose from behind the desk as if she were on a lift of some sort. The small box in her hands let me know that she was simply crouched down. Or, I hoped that was the case. It’d be funny if there was an actual lift, but it’d be strange, too.

  “Good morning. May I help you?” Her voice was short and clipped, although not entirely lacking in humor. Her looks made it seem like she should be, since she had to have been perfectly pressed and starched not even an hour ago to look the way she does, yet there’s a smidge of humor in her voice.

  “Good morning. This is Ceri Driscoll? Your new student?” He handed her a small packet of paperwork that she took and glanced through in less than five seconds.

  I swear a smile would have cracked her face, but it looked perfectly at home once it arrived. “Wonderful! So nice to meet you, Ceri!”

  “Uh, hi?”

  She nodded at the agent. “I’ll take
it from here. Thank you for bringing her to us.”

  “You’re welcome.” He turned back to me. “Remember, Ceri, be strong. You can do this.” He didn’t wait for an answer before heading back the way we came, leaving me with my three bags and a strange woman.

  As I watched him leave, she came around the desk to tower above me. “It’s wonderful to meet you.” I shook her offered hand, finding it larger than I would have expected, but not crushing. Not weak, either. “I have some paperwork that we need to go over and then I can tell you a little about the school and then get you into your room so that you can catch a breath before lunch time. How does that sound?”

  “That sounds good. Thank you.”

  She nodded at the bags. “We can sit in this conference room. Feel free to leave your bags or bring them with you, it’s up to you.”

  I shouldered the duffel bag and dragged the wheeled ones into the room as she closed the door behind me. There were only two seats at the table, so I took one as she settled into the other and laid her paperwork out. When they were settled in front of her exactly as she wanted them to be, she looked back up at me.

  “I’ve heard a lot from the FBI about you, but I’m sure we’re missing quite a bit. To start, my name is Constance Shelford. I’m the admin and secretary for the academy. Our headmaster is Lawrence Burnes. It’s my job to get new students into their lives with us. I know this is a trying experience for many of our students, especially when this is your first time away from home, but we’ve rarely lost a student.”

  I didn’t smile at her joke and it threw her. I didn’t bother trying to explain my lack of humor at the moment.

  “With you being added, we have 47 students. At some point or another you’ll run into everyone, but we try to group folks together in twelves. Don’t ask why, I don’t even recall what drove that decision. With 46 students originally, we had two groups of 12 and two groups of 11, so now one of the 11 is moved up to the full compliment.”

  “You will be sharing a dorm room with a student, a girl, if that matters. We have rules in place for interacting with your roommate, so read through them when you get a moment. It will help resolve some of the issues that crop up from time to time. Or it should.”

  “There are floor wardens in our dorms that watch out for the students. If you have any issues, please see them. Your squad of 12 will be sharing a floor, which means you’re all sharing a coed bathroom.”

  “Coed? I…uhh….”

  “You’ll be fine, Ceri.” She shuffled through paper, ignoring the flop sweat breaking out all over me. Coed? “We’re two weeks into the semester, so you’ll be joining late. They will be testing you to make sure you’re at the level you need to be at and then you’ll slide into your group. They need to make sure they’re focusing in the correct direction for you and expecting the level of work that you’re capable of.”

  She handed me some pages from her little pile. “We follow a mostly normal high school curriculum, although we do teach up, if you will. We expect a lot from our people here, as do the parents who are paying a pretty penny for their children to attend, so we aim to please. Do your best, and I’m sure you’ll do fine that way.”

  More pages were passed over. “As I mentioned, we’re a school for supernaturals. We’ve been an institution for learning for almost 150 years. We’ve catered to the supernatural community for the entire time. As you can imagine, when everything came out, so did we. We have had a few norms come through as students, but not very many. It’s simply too dangerous for most humans. That being said, we try to protect our students.” She tapped the table with her long nails for a moment. “I understand from the FBI that you’re new to our community?”

  I nodded. “Yeah? I never knew my parents were mages. It wasn’t until the FBI told me that I had any clue.”

  “All right, then you’re coming to us rather naïve of the world that you’re part of. Unfortunately, there isn’t any way for me to get you up to speed much before you start interacting with the other students. That means you’ll more than likely cross someone at some point.” She sighed. “That’s a part of life here that I’ve never been fond of.”

  “What do you mean? Am I in danger?”

  She shook her head. “Yes and no. We don’t allow challenges to the death here, but fighting is…not common, but it does happen. Killing another student will be punished severely, but fights do happen, and we allow them most of the time. Not for bullying, but we can typically expect a certain level of fighting to garner position within the student body. There is normally fighting within each group of 12 and then within the school itself.”

  “So…what, I have to fight people now? I don’t know anything about fighting! I don’t even know how to do magic!” What the hell has the FBI gotten me into?

  “No, you’re not expected to fight. If you don’t care about position, then that’s your call. You’re not a shifter, so you’re not driven that way. Just don’t get in the way of fighting shifters vying for position. Don’t mess with people too far above you. The hard part there is that you won’t be able to tell who’s above you, so if you talk back to someone at the wrong time, you may find yourself being attacked.”

  I leaned back into my chair. “I don’t believe this. What does the FBI think I’m going to do in this situation? I don’t know how to fight! I don’t know what will piss people off! I’ve been kept on my family compound my entire life, I’ve never even spoken to another kid my age that wasn’t a brother or sister!”

  “You’ll be fine, Ceri.”

  My blood flash boiled, and it felt like bottled lightning was let loose in my arms and legs. A sudden spike of wood polish and some other crazy scents assaulted my nose, but I couldn’t handle them. The fact that I was seeing red and wanted to tear something apart took precedence. No, not something, someone.

  “Don’t tell me I’ll be fine!” She rocked back in her chair away from me as I leaned over the table, knuckles pressing into the wood. I didn’t relent until a deep crack from the thick wood made me ease up.

  The rage poured out of me, disappearing back into the ether or wherever it was held, and I collapsed back into my chair. “You know what? I don’t even care. It took everything in me to run away and try to slit my wrists only to have some psycho vampire kill me and then a bunch of other people. Now I’m here. Whatever. Give me the rest of the paperwork and let me get the hell out of here.”

  Her mouth worked a few times with nothing coming out. Finally, she managed to say, “But…I’m not done introducing…”

  “I don’t care. I really just don’t care. Until everything happened, I was taught that supernaturals are evil. Now I’m one of them. I just…I don’t care. I was holding out some sort of hope that this would be a different start for me. Instead, I’m being told that other students are going to come after me for stupid crap that I don’t understand or even care about.”

  She tried her best to get me to respond after that, but I ignored everything, letting it slide off of me. What are they trying to do to me? Do they really think I’m going to fit in here? Now I have to worry about someone trying to have a dominance fight with me? Are they insane? I don’t know the first thing about fighting. Or shifters. Or…anything else.

  Yet I swear that I can taste their blood.

  She finally moved the entire pile of paperwork towards me as she sighed mightily. “I’m sorry, Ceri. Maybe I shouldn’t have said what I said, but I can’t go back and undo it. Please read through everything here. If you have any questions, please come back and let me know. You’re going to be with us for a while, so treat this as your home.”

  I took the paperwork and stood up. “My home? I’ve been held captive at my home since I was born and my parents planned on murdering me on my 17th birthday like they apparently did my other older brothers and sisters. Now I’m here, where I’m basically captive and the other students may be coming for me. It seems like home already. Now I just need to figure out if it’s better to leave, kill mys
elf…” images flashed through my head that made my heart race. Not in fear, though, in excited expectation. “Or if things can possibly go a different direction.”

  Ignoring her questions as I walked out of the room was pretty easy. After all, I don’t have a freaking clue what I mean. I have no basis for thinking I can fight someone and win. My subconscious does, though. Not only win, but crush anyone coming after me.

  What the heck is wrong with me?

  The map of the grounds was pretty easy to read. The grounds are extensive, but there aren’t many buildings on it. The admin building, the main school building, which includes a gym and a theater with a stage, the dorm building, and then a few outbuildings that aren’t very clear, purpose-wise. No magical animal zoo. No enchanted forests. Nothing cool like that. Overall, it seems more like a rich school to send even richer kids away to.

  Maybe that’s good? I can hope.

  I dragged my bags to the dorm building and to the third floor of the eight-floor building. My notes say that only four of the floors are in use, which probably means that they’re ready to handle more students if need-be. I guess not a ton more, though, if 12 students really take up the entire floor.

  Thankfully, they have an elevator, so I didn’t have to try and carry my stuff up to the third floor. Instead, I rode in relative silence, ignoring the various scratched initials in the gleaming metal of the elevator door. You’d think they’d clean that up somehow, but I guess replacing an elevator door isn’t all that easy. Or cheap.

  The key in my little packet of paperwork fit the lock without any issues, and I opened the thick wood door to find my new room.

  Big doesn’t quite cover it. Not that the space is huge, but I wasn’t expecting something quite this large. The room is probably 25 x 20, with two huge desks, two large dressers, two chairs that looked like recliners, and two full beds. The room sides are set up as a mirror image, with the beds being opposite each other. All in all, it’s a decent sized room. There are even what should be two closet doors at the end of the space. The only reason I know that is that one of them is open and shows me a ton of clothes.