Out of Darkness

by Cheree Alsop

  Mr. Bennett looked from me to the board. “Did you write that down?” he asked.

  I shook my head. “Lucky guess.”

  A hint of a smile showed on his lips before he turned back to the board. “Reece is right.” He proceeded to write out the formula to solve the equation.

  I was about to look back out the window when the door opened. As with my entrance, all eyes turned to see who it was. My heart skipped a complete beat, the kind that steals the breath from your lungs for a minute until you remember that you have to take in air again.

  She was beautiful. Her long black hair was pulled back on one side by a clip with an emerald in the middle. The jewel matched the exact color of her eyes, which creased at the corners as though she smiled often as she handed Mr. Bennett her enrollment slip. She wore a blue cardigan over a lacy cream-colored shirt that accentuated the dark gray feathers of the wings that rose from her back.

  “Pleased to meet you, Ms. Ava,” Mr. Bennett said, glancing at her paper. “I’ll have to get you a chair. We’re out of desks at the moment, but I’ll make sure one is brought before tomorrow.”

  “I’m sorry for the inconvenience,” she apologized.

  There was a sweetness to her voice that made me smile. I smothered the feeling and glared at my desk.

  “No inconvenience,” Mr. Bennett hurried to point out. “I’ll be happy to make sure it is done. For now, here is an extra textbook.” He grabbed one from the bookshelf beside his desk. He glanced at it, and his face turned red. A few students laughed. He had made a big deal about showing the same book to the class the day before, careful to block out what he could of the foul language sprawled across the front in big black letters. “I-I apologize, Ms. Ava. This book is inappropriate. I’ll have to find you another of those as well.”

  “Thank you,” she replied.

  Her smile seemed to have a calming effect on the teacher. He smoothed his tie and showed her to her seat before he hurried back to the front. No one heard anything else from his lecture.

  If I attracted trouble and repelled kindness like a duck in water, Ava was the complete opposite. Where my wings had given the students plenty of reasons to shun me, Ava garnered attention from every corner.

  “Your feathers are so beautiful; can I touch them?” Alice, the head cheerleader, asked.

  “What products do you use in your hair?” Amelia, Alice’s second in command and constant shadow, pressed.

  “Did you fly or take a bus?” a boy with a ring through his eyebrow asked.

  Melody, the girl who on occasion went so far as to smile at me, leaned toward Ava. “I didn’t know we would get a female Galdoni here!” she exclaimed.

  Mr. Bennett continued with the lesson the best he could despite the loud conversation on the right side of the room. He shot glances that way, but apparently he was glad to see everyone getting along and felt it would be better to lecture no one than to interrupt.

  Ava fielded questions politely as if she was used to being besieged by curious students. She glanced my way once. I felt her eyes on my wings before she met my gaze, her expression curious. I turned back to the window and focused my attention on the birds once more despite the fact that I very much wanted only to watch her. She had a way of speaking and smiling as if every person she talked to was the very person she had been wanting to converse with. By the time the bell rang, students on the left side of the room had moved to the right, crowding the desks. Mr. Bennett eventually gave up, but nobody noticed.

  Ava rose. “I guess I should find my next class.”

  “Where is it?”

  “What are you taking?”

  Other offers to help her find her way sounded from the students around her. Ava smiled and handed her paper to Alice. The head cheerleader nodded as though the action was expected; she read through the schedule swiftly.

  “You have economics next, and then choir.” She flicked a ringlet of her long red hair back behind her shoulder with one annoyed finger. “We’ll be back together in English. I’ll make sure Mrs. Simmons assigns you a seat next to me.”

  “Thank you,” Ava said.

  “I have economics next,” the boy with the ring through his eyebrow said.

  Alice’s gaze flicked past him. “Jeffrey, you’ll take her to Mr. Durmont’s, won’t you?”

  “Of course,” the football player replied. He held out his elbow to Ava. She glanced at it uncertainly as if unsure what to do with it. I smothered a smile as I picked up my book. Jeffrey shrugged and accepted the schedule from Alice. After some jostling for space and positions, all the students crowded out the door together.

  I crossed the empty room to the door.

  “Have a good day, Reece,” Mr. Bennett said.

  I paused. It was the first time he had ever gone out of his way to say something to me besides pointing out my lateness. “I, uh, thank you, Mr. Bennett,” I replied.

  He rubbed his eyes beneath his glasses; he already looked tired and the day had just started. “You know you should probably be in an advanced placement class, right?”

  I nodded. “It’s nice to have one easy class here.”

  He chuckled, smiling for the first time I had ever seen. “I don’t think your fellow students would agree.”

  I dropped my gaze. “If you haven’t noticed, they’re not exactly my fellow students.”

  I left through the door before he could reply.

  “Good thing your guardian showed up to protect you out there,” Brayce’s grating voice met me when I entered the hallway.

  “Yeah, good thing your guardian showed up,” Tavin echoed.

  “I thought you were going to cry,” Brayce pressed, crossing the hall to confront me. The boy had serious boundary issues. He stopped so close I was forced to duck to the side to get around him. He followed me and said, “I thought Galdoni were big and tough. You’re nothing but a coward, cur.”

  My control snapped. I grabbed Brayce by the throat and slammed him against a locker. His feet kicked in the air as he struggled to get free. Manny and Tavin stared. I wondered where Chad was. My instincts warned me to be on lookout for a surprise attack. Perhaps the taunting had been a trap. My grip tightened.

  “Reece.”

  Mr. Bennett’s voice broke me from the haze. I blinked at Brayce, willing my gaze to clear. His eyes were bulging as he clawed at my hand. I loosened my grip and let him fall to the floor. Tavin and Manny helped him up. I watched them struggle down the hallway with Brayce leaning heavily on their shoulders before I glanced at Mr. Bennett.

  “I don’t want to see you expelled,” he said.

  I rubbed the back of my neck, willing the adrenaline to fade from my thundering heart. “I’m getting closer to it,” I admitted.

  Mr. Bennett’s eyebrows pulled together. “Bullies have been around since time began,” he said. “We all have to learn to deal with them one way or another.”

  I touched the locker where Brayce’s head had given it a slight dent. “The problem comes when the victim can kill the bully if he loses control.”

  Mr. Bennett tipped his head slightly to one side. “I’ve never thought of a Galdoni as a victim.”

  I smiled despite my frustration. “We’re not. I’m worried Brayce is going to learn that sooner rather than later.”

  Mr. Bennett leaned against the lockers across the hall. “Maybe what you’re here to learn is how to keep your cool in stressful situations.”

  I nodded. “It’s definitely not gym.” At his look, I explained, “Climbing the rope seems a bit pointless when you have wings.”

  He smiled. “I suppose it would be. Maybe down the road they’ll take that into consideration.”

  “If I don’t get the whole Galdoni integration revoked.”

  Mr. Bennett shrugged. “They had to start somewhere.”

  I studied the locker next to him. Someone had scratched the initials X.J. into the red paint. “I just hope the Galdoni at other schools are doing better than I am.”


  Mr. Bennett nodded. He pushed off the locker and headed back toward his classroom. Students began to file in. I headed down the hall.

  “Reece?”

  I turned.

  Mr. Bennett had paused by his door. “You know, sometime everyone is going to have to accept the fact that you’re just another student here, even you.”

  The thought made me smile. “Let’s hope it comes to that.”

  He nodded and waved me away.

  Chapter Three

  “See you tomorrow,” Seth said. He grinned. “It’ll be another awesome day!”

  I smiled. “I don’t know how you keep it up.”

  “What?” he asked.

  I waved a hand vaguely at the crowded hallway. “Staying so cheerful amid all of this.”

  He shrugged, leaning against the locker next to my open one. “Since you got here, Brayce’s bouncers pick on me only half as much. That’s a good thing.”

  I shoved him amiably.

  He laughed, then tripped and stumbled into a gaggle of girls. One of them, a girl with brown hair in two braids, dropped her books.

  “My poetry!” she exclaimed, kneeling on the floor to pick up the sheets of paper that flew everywhere.

  “I-I’m so sorry,” Seth stuttered. He dropped to his knees to help her.

  I took pity on him and joined the frantic gathering of papers and books before the indifferent crowd destroyed all of her work completely.

  “I’m so sorry,” Seth kept repeating. “I didn’t mean to, really. I would never bump you like that on purpose.”

  “I know, Seth. It’s okay,” she replied, rising to her feet as she tried to get the papers into some semblance of order.

  Seth froze, his eyes on her and the papers motionless in his hands. “You-you know my name?” he asked in surprise.

  “Of course,” she replied. “You’re friends with the—”

  I held out several papers and her eyes flew to me. Her cheeks turned red. She dropped her gaze and took the papers. “Thank you,” she said quietly.

  I shut my locker and left Seth gathering up the rest of the papers with the girl. I passed Ava in the front office. She was chatting with Mrs. Jeffrey while she filled out a form I assumed was for enrollment. I pushed open the front door and made my way down the sidewalk.

  It looked like I might actually make it past the school property line unprovoked. I almost started jogging at the sight of the end of the block. The way the buildings loomed, it looked almost as if daylight started there because the sun basked the sidewalk just past the buildings in warm light. A smile spread across my face at the thought of flying.

  Something hit me in the back of the head. I turned. My heart slowed at the sight of a dozen students following Brayce. I recognized them as the most Galdoni unfriendly at the school. Brayce had been busy.

  “You think it’s funny to pick on unarmed students?” Brayce asked, his tone taunting. His throat was still red from our little scuffle earlier. He apparently wasn’t ready to let it go.

  I raised my hands. “I don’t want to fight you, Brayce,” I said in as calm a tone as I could muster.

  Freedom was feet away. I could run for the boundary and fly off. I could leave Brayce and his bullies behind to deal with another day. The thought was very appealing; too bad I wasn’t a coward.

  “You confused me with the way you attacked me at school today,” Brayce replied. He glanced back at the students behind him. By the looks on their faces, they had been told a very skewed story of what had happened.

  “There’s laws against you fighting students,” someone called out.

  “You could have killed him,” another shouted.

  “You shouldn’t even be here,” a girl echoed.

  “See,” Brayce said with a shrug. “Apparently I’m not the only one who doesn’t like you.”

  “I don’t need anyone to like me,” I replied.

  He held something up in his right hand. I realized it was the feather someone had pulled from my wing during algebra. He flicked a lighter in his left hand and put it to the feather. The brilliant blue feather shriveled as it burned. It lent an acrid scent to the air.

  “Look at that,” Brayce said. “Curs can burn.”

  “Curs can burn!” Trevin piped in.

  Several students laughed. I clenched my fists.

  “I wonder if birds are more flammable than humans.” Brayce mused. “I suppose we could catch one and try it.” He flashed a cruel grin. “What would a bird do if I burned all its feathers off? Would it pretend to be a human like the cur here?”

  I took a step toward him. He was too busy laughing at himself to notice. He continued, “It would probably smell better than he does.”

  The laughter of the students pounded into my ears like a nail being driven by a hammer. I tried to block it out, to control my breathing and keep my heart from racing, but the rage was too strong. It flared at the taunting, and roared to be heard. I blinked, but all I saw was red.

  “Maybe it could be his date for the prom,” Manny said. Laughter exploded around him.

  “And it could pay,” Chad said, his deep voice echoing between the buildings.

  Everyone paused, trying to make sense of what he said. A few uneasy chuckles sounded when he glanced their way. Brayce grinned at me. “Because a featherless bird would have a better chance at making money than your pathetic excuse of an existence,” he explained.

  The laughter rolled around me in waves. I couldn’t control myself any longer. I was in front of Brayce and had him pinned to the wall faster than Chad could react. The oversized student tried to punch me, but I blocked it with my forearm and slammed the heel of my palm against his chin. He staggered back, his eyes unfocused. The rest of the students stared, too stunned to react.

  “You think my existence is pathetic?” I growled, glaring at Brayce as he struggled for air against my tightening grip. “The only reason you pick on the students you do is because they can’t fight back. Either they’re weaker, afraid, or they’ll be expelled. What kind of a coward does that make you?”

  Something changed in the air around me. I looked over my shoulder. My heart dropped at the sight of Ava standing on the corner. There was a look of disappointment on her face. I wondered how much she had seen. I dropped Brayce. He fell to the ground gasping for air.

  “Ava, I—”

  She lifted her beautiful dark gray wings and flew away without waiting for my explanation. I didn’t know what she thought of me. If she had appeared only a few seconds before, which is when I felt her watching, all she saw was a Galdoni picking on students.

  A roar of frustration tore from my chest. I slammed a fist into the brick wall. Pain ricocheted up my arm. The students backed away, fear in their eyes. Chad pulled Brayce up and practically dragged him down the alley away from me. I hated the fright I saw in everyone’s eyes as if they feared I would go after them. Maybe I was as dangerous as they thought.

  Filled with disgust at my actions, I walked to the mouth of the alley. Even the sun bathing my wings in golden light wasn’t enough to chase away the darkness that filled my thoughts. I flew slowly over the rooftops without the joy that usually filled my flight. If anything, Ava’s appearance had made me feel more alone. The look of distress on her face when I had Brayce pinned against the wall was enough to make me believe I truly was an animal. Perhaps I deserved to be expelled.

  ***

  Security had been greatly increased since the new Galdoni Center was built. I landed on the ninth floor and placed my hand on the print reading device near the door. The light turned green and a click sounded to indicate that the door was open.

  I crossed the hall to room nine twenty one. It was the closest thing to a home I had ever had; still, I avoided the room whenever possible. The walls were bare and it was free of furnishings besides the bed and a small table for homework. I could have decorated it, but that wasn’t my thing. Featureless, it looked a lot like my cell had at the Academy. Needless to say,
even my home wasn’t my favorite place in the world.

  I found Saro assisting on the medical level with his girlfriend Skylar. I waited impatiently for them to finish carrying trays of food to the few residences in the rooms. Saro saw me at the end of the hall and nodded. He said something to Skylar. She smiled and waved at me, then took the tray Saro was carrying and entered one of the rooms. Saro slowed at my look.

  “You didn’t think it was a good idea to inform me that a girl Galdoni would be showing up at school today?” I demanded when he reached me.

  A slight smile lifted his lips. “I thought it would be a nice surprise.”

  “It wasn’t,” I informed him flatly.

  His smile disappeared. “Reece, what happened?”

  I blew out a breath of disgust. “I lost control, that’s what happened. And she saw it, which makes it that much worse.”

  Saro’s gaze grew troubled. “Do I need to call Principal Kelley?”

  I shook my head. “Not yet. Let’s see if Brayce has the guts to tell anyone he and Chad were threatened by the Galdoni.”

  “The Galdoni?” he repeated.

  I nodded. The remembered frustration burned in my chest; it felt more like humiliation than anything. “That’s what they call me there, when they aren’t calling me cur,” I said quietly.

  Saro leaned against the wall. His golden wings hung to either side looking much more regal than my blue wings ever could. Being the only blue-winged Galdoni at the Academy hadn’t bothered me. I was tough enough to make questions stop when they started; yet at school, they felt so conspicuous. The fact that the Galdoni integration laws prevented me from hiding them made it worse. No one could fail to notice that I was a Galdoni. I used to think that was good; now I wasn’t so sure.

  “I can’t pretend to know how you feel when it comes to high school,” Saro admitted. “I’m still in the social mindset of if it bothers you, hit it. I don’t think that works there.”

  I appreciated his honesty. It didn’t help the sting of being ostracized, but the fact that he didn’t go immediately to Kale helped. Saro was two years older than me, but sometimes the things I saw in his eyes when he thought no one was looking made him seem so much older.