The long drive to my jail for the next few months was finally coming to an end. The valleys were a dull green and the animals were slow and awkward in their movements. I sighed; I had to move more than one ocean away from my family and closest friends all because of one stupid mistake. One that I’d never forgive myself for. Even though I want to so desperately believe that it wasn’t my fault, I know, I know that deep down, my heart knows that I was the one at fault here, and I’d need to learn self-control sooner rather than later over my weird tendencies, or I would be the one stuck 15 feet underneath the ground in a velvet lined coffin just like Brett.
Brett Lucas was this totally hot guy from what I like to think of as my past, he was everything I, or any girl for that matter, could ever dream of in a guy. Tallish, tanned, perfectly sculpted body and undeniably gentlemanly. When he rocked up at my small school, Silencer Height High, in the widely known bizarre town of Silencer Height, I automatically assumed he’d leave after a while, as everyone does, but he didn’t. I also failed to see why he singled me out of the few but outrageously gorgeous girls who went there. I mean, sure I lived further away from civilisation than most, but the school hierarchy still applies, and there was definitely a group of gorgeous, bitchy and hot -guy -hogging girls at my school. I fought hard against his advances but boy was it hard and finally I gave in, just a teeny tiny bit, which turned into a lot.
I guess, if I was still his girlfriend at my current reminiscing phase, my heart would probably be beating its way into the next millennia but, seeing as he and I are, well, over, the only reasonable explanation I can come up with to explain my sweating palms, jittery stomach and crazily beating heart was the fact that he vowed to return, more powerful, dead and murderous than he already was when I gave him a fatal blow to the chest. This only happened because bit me in a selfish act to keep me away from the people I loved most.
You see, courtesy of my hopefully dead ex-boyfriend, I’m sort of a weird, mixed up supernatural being. I’m not entirely human, nor am I entirely the undead. I’m stuck in between, which really sucks because there isn’t really a name for that kinda thing. All because I got bitten by Brett and we didn’t really get a power test done one me. It all got explained after I killed Brett; the town of Silencer Height had a sinister reason for its bizarre reputation. It seemed, that one: our town was actually called Tenecrils Eighth and Silencer Height was just a name from the letters re arranged and two: every single resident was destined to be something other than an ordinary human being. You know, some people were simple things, like mediums, psychics and magicians. Others had the power of mind control, manipulation and teleportation. Some lucky people had a combination of powers and even rarer people had the ability to control specific things like earth or wind. But, once in an eternity, there would be an immortal, a god-like person who had powers that many couldn’t even begin to fathom.
All over the world, there were towns exactly like Tenecril, except, you know, it was either translated to their language or had a different number, and all over the world, each town was waiting for their one godlike figure to arrive so that a prophecy could be fulfilled. A prophecy dating back to before time, and since my parents, whom I later found out to be a magician (dad) and a combination of teleportation, control over anything solid and mind control (mum) failed to ever explain to me that there were specific rules to killing someone, I was evicted. Sent away in disgust and a chorus of unforgiving cries and warned not to return at the cost of my life.
Before my departure I was given a book about the history and rules about all the Tenecril Towns and, only to entertain myself, I was reading the ridiculously big and tattered book.
Tenecril is older than time. You would not be in possession of this book if you were not of the correct descent. To a mortal, this book would turn into the book that they would desire to read.
Desire to read? My eyebrows shot up, was nothing in my home town incapable of being magical or mysterious in some way? This thought took my focus away from the book for a while as I thought about all my possessions, was my mobile phone some sort of teleportation device? Was my laptop some portal into the future, past or present? Was my pedometer some sort of invention that makes everyone slim even though I quite frankly eat like a pig. Shaking the somewhat ridiculous thoughts from my head I read on.
In the beginning, there was no heaven and hell. All the beings were one and were living in ultimate peace. As time went on, people started to tire with their lifestyles and started training hard in the areas they desired or specialised. This is how people got their powers. Some people were all powerful in their fields and they took the name of Gods and Goddesses, others had something that separated them from everyone else and they were mainly psychics, mediums and true magicians, but most could not further develop their interest into something spectacular or out of the ordinary, these people were named mortals, man and woman.
Soon the community started to divide, powerful mated with powerful, powerless with powerless. It remained so for countless years, and it was discovered that the Gods and Goddesses could far outlive the mortals. Many mortals tried to find ways to eternity and all failed. The Gods and Goddesses were flourishing, living the perfect life whilst the mortals struggled to make ends meet. Soon, all Godlike connections to humans were cut off and the mortals were neglected until one powerless and defenceless woman, sick with the eventless and war like life she had with her dying family, decided to provoke one of the most powerful Gods, Gorslici, a brown haired powerful God, who didn’t like the separation that had been caused by his own blood and further encouraged by his parents, he tried in vain to convince his kind to reconnect with their essential beings, but, filled with arrogance, they all rejected. When the woman provoked him, he, instead of fighting her, devised a plan to go to war with the Gods.
And so the Great War began. Human against God, God against human, and anyone in between had a knife to their chest unless they swore allegiance. In this time many were raped, and many gave birth to monstrous like children, who, under suspicious circumstances bowed down only to Gorslici and the woman who provoked him, later recognised only as Gorsilci’s Queen. Together, they led her army of humans and his army of intriguingly modified offspring to war, which continued for three centuries. The horrid creatures devastated the opposition. Only humans and gods seemed to die, it was the sons and daughters of Gorslici who seemed to live on, feeding off something invincible to the eye.
On the brink of defeat, the surviving Gods and Goddesses gathered in their blood stained fields, their once heavenly abode, torn to shreds and splattered with blood, to create an eternity long generation of all powerful immortals with incredible powers to fight all the genetically modified beings that Mordor had created and anything else evil that resulted from them. This powerful group was called Tenecrils Eighth. As it was Tenecril, the wise sorcerer, who brought the survivors together and proposed the idea. In an ultimate sacrifice, he gave his life for the first generation to come to life. His eighth and last memorable feat. It is rumoured, that the last of the warriors that were born was the most powerful and the leader of the group but due to all of their exceptional skills, no one knows if this is entirely true.
At this point I was blinking back tears and struggling to close my gaping mouth. I had NO IDEA that my history was so ancient, complex and delicate. There was a chapter of the origins of different ‘kinds’ of our race. But since I could feel the car slowing down I’d have to save it for later. The deep voice I had accustomed to obeying boomed to the back of the car.
“Alright Priya, as the towns supervisor of troubled teens I had to come along for this pathetic ride and be named your guardian, unlike you, I am a highly respected resident of Tenecrils Eighth and would prefer getting back home as soon as possible.” He sighed “How about, this time, you don’t stab the first guy that insults you because, let me tell you, this is just the beginning of your long life and a helluva a lotta insults are coming your way”. Marcus’ eyes were serious and intent that I had to bite my lip, let my hair drop further into my face and look away. For a 30 year old, he sure did seem wise and talkative when there were less than 3 people around.
I risked a peek at my ‘home’ for the next six months and almost burst into tears. It was a town filled with gothic buildings. I mean, could my situation be any more depressing? I was accused for a rightful death, and now, with Brett threatening to come back, I was isolated from the one place I could truly feel safe and protected. Fighting the stinging in my eyes I plastered a smile on my face and shone it to Marcus who was curiously glancing my way and inspecting my reaction, that smile almost became real when his face fell at my happy face.
“Let’s go check out my room” I spoke, suddenly eager to get out of the stuffy car.
On the brisk walk to the gate I realised that Marcus’ posture had gone awkward and while I pondered about what could make him feel like that I ran smack into a pole, which was connected to a massive board which read “Tenecrils Fifth High School for the gifted” as I read the words I groaned and whirled around to Marcus who was shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot and beginning to smile lopsidedly.
“So, I’m guessing this is where I’m gonna be learning for the next six months?!”
I thought, being evicted for murder and all, that my punishment required no education and mingling with other teens like me, but hey, I guess that the judges knew my deepest fears and thoughts. I gave Marcus my best dagger look and he seemed to crumble away into a terrified kid.
“Well” he started “yeah, you’re going to learning here” he trailed off and I got the distinct feeling that there was more to it.
“And?...” I gave him a helping hand, though I admit my tone of voice could have been less irritated and aggressive.
“And,” his tone sharp once again, unpleased with being the subject of my anger and irritation, “You’re going to be living here too, so I suggest you get rid of that attitude young lady because this is the only Tenecril town in the world that has accepted you and if you get evicted from here you will be dumped in the middle of nowhere and become a threat to all towns what with your undistinguished powers and all”.
I stared, trying to make sense of what he’d just said.
“Wait, threat to all towns, like, if I screw up outside of Tenecrils they’ll come after me?”
His eyes penetrated mine as he replied in a foreboding voice “No Priya, they won’t just come after you, they’ll kill you”.
I took a sharp breath in and, commanding my body to keep standing strong, continued to walk towards the school gate. As I walked in I checked the time, it was only 12:30pm and the school was quiet whilst the kids learnt, so I reassured myself with the thought that I wouldn’t be bumping into any kid anytime soon on my little visit to the office. As I heard Marcus start to follow me I stopped,
“Don’t, I can get to the office without screwing up” and continued to stroll in the directions the dirty signs pointed me to.
The office had a pathway which seemed to be guarded by hideous statues. Don’t get me wrong, I love statues but if it were an angel or a lion or something even remotely majestic or pretty I would’ve waltzed right through, but, there I was, staring at the unidentifiable piece of stone, trying to figure out just what it was.
“It’s a Shersaan” a voice said.
I jumped, I was freaked out so bad I found myself crouching in a defensive position I didn’t even know I was capable of.
I quickly snapped out of it and tried to look like I didn’t just bend down in a weird and most probably unflattering look, looking up only to see a boy leaning against a tree and staring bemusedly at me.
“Relax” he chuckled, then his eyes got serious as he remembered my stance and fierce expression “you couldn’t hurt me if you tried”.
Suddenly I felt scared, I couldn’t tell if he was teasing or threatening me, I quickly looked down at my watch and found that I had been standing outside the office for half an hour so the kids in the school were probably eating lunch. I looked again at the guy, finding myself believing that he couldn’t possibly go to the school, he looked too…
I studied him, he was tall, and dark but not tanned, it was like he was a native of someplace. His eyes were dark and deep, alluring, I looked away and finished the sentence I’d started to think. He looked too… intimidating to be going to this place, too warrior-like to want to have an education here.
Trying to work up the courage ,I spoke out in a weak and squeaky voice
“Well, I don’t really feel like testing your skills, or mine for that matter” I desperately thought of ways to stall him as I slowly backed into the office, not caring about the statues that seemed to watch me go in.
“What’s a sher-whatever?”I continued, trying not to notice that the boy was matching my every step slowly. I watched his hand creep up to his jeans where a bulky belt was wrapped. Fear started to pulse through me, and with that fear, adrenaline, I let sudden instincts take over my body and found myself crouching in a defensive position again. If he noticed he didn’t show it until the last second.
“I guess it’s a mix of a tiger and snake, they’re one of the many forms Gorslici’s freaky kids took.” He was getting into a defensive position too, subtly, but I could see it, and, instead of running like I begged my brain to, my body launched forward and attacked.
“OOF” he groans inwardly as I land a punch square in his gut, he staggers back for a bit but doesn’t quite fall over, he seems to look bad and I suddenly panic, what if I really hurt him? As soon as I get out of my offensive position, his body stiffens, his head whips up and he attacks, in the process of running towards me in an unpredictable pattern, he unsheathes a massive machete from his belt and tries to stab it to my chest, instantaneously my body reacts and dodges the strike, grabbing his hand and twisting it behind his back. He retaliates by tripping my leg with his.
Not expecting that, I found myself pinned to the ground with a mouthful of dirt, a knee in my back and a knife to my neck.
“You’re good” he pants “But I’m better. I mean, you had the lost girl thing going for a second until you gave yourself away by crouching, and then of course by attacking me” he digs his knee deeper into my back and I gasp in pain, struggling to find a way out of his grip.
“I-I was only attacking you- because you threatened me” I manage to hiss back, truly pissed.
“I don’t ever threaten-let alone attack, anyone who’s not dangerous, ever!” his voice sounds wounded, he was truly offended. But he quickly recovers. “Now, it’s time to shut you up for good, unless of course, you wanna tell me what you came sneaking around here for and maybe stall your death for a bit, if not, I’ll just get rid of you”.
He was going to KILL me? Was this boy crazy, I mean, I thought he was intimidating but not a bloody killer! Why do I constantly find myself in life threatening situations??
“Xander!” a voice bellows ”Let her go, she’s good, she’s with me” Marcus’ stumbles from some bushes, trips forward over some vines and almost falls flat on his face.
Despite my current situation, I couldn’t help but giggle. “Marcus, even when you try and save a girl’s life, you wreck up the serious with your funny”.
My giggle was turning into a bout of hysteria and I struggled to get a hold on myself.
The boy took the knife away from my neck but his knee didn’t waver, instead, it dug deeper, ensuring I couldn’t move.
“Hey Uncle Marc!” an effortless smile spreads across his face. Like he was not just about to behead girl and end her life.
My eyes bug and I stop squirming. UNCLE?!
“Hey Xander” his eyes flitted to my accusing glare then quickly shifted back to his nephew, “good to see you’re still strong in your fighting but I really don’t think you should be using it on a girl, and especially not on an evicted Tenecrils Eighth girl.”
“She’s the evicted girl?” his disbelieving voice replied. Instantly I was freed and I coughed as I sat up, dusting myself off, trying to look presentable again.
I now shot daggers at the boy who attacked me, and didn’t care that he was hot, the point was he attacked me and that brought back painful memories of Brett.
“Yeah, I’m the evicted girl and Marcus,” I turned to face him “I don’t care if eight towns will become destined to kill me but if I get threatened or have to fight again, especially with your nephew and his wounded ego”, I nodded in his direction” I swear to God I will risk being re-evicted.”
“You wouldn’t want to do that, because if it does come down to eight towns trying to kill you, it’ll be me you’ll be fighting with most and me who’ll deliver the final blow” he stepped forward in a bid to warn me, to try and get me to not mess around with him, but I’d been tricked by a guy too many times before.
“I’ll take my chances, besides, the only reason you’re still alive right now is because I was worried I hurt you, how’s that gut holding up?’ I smirked, noticing how he turned red.
Marcus on the other hand, looked genuinely surprised” You managed to hit him, AND hurt him?”
I blinked, “well yeah, I punched him, and twisted his arms, isn’t hurting meant to be the effect I needed to give off?”
Marcus looked at me, deep in thought, than shrugged and seemed to dissipate the uneasy mood.
“Well,” he chuckled “lucky I came here before one of you lost your heads”
My mouth opened in horror “If that’s meant to re assure me you have done the exact opposite”
Xander snorted “well, I think he did a good job of reassurance. That just told me that you would’ve been the one to lose your head”
I glared at him ”is the big boy boss getting all sad because a little girl roughed him up??” I cooed.
“Shut up” his eyes flashed.
I chuckled “touchy touchy”
Marcus spoke with warning “Careful Priya, you don’t wanna get even more hurt”
My body suddenly seemed to remember that I’d been fighting a tall muscly guy with a machete and it ached and wobbled in response, feeling lightheaded I leaned on a nearby tree for support.
“You okay?” Xander asked, he sounded concerned but I did not want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that I was hurt. Instead I stood up and acted as if he never spoke.
Shrugging off his presence I focused on Marcus. “Why did you come here? How did you know I was here?”
“I called the office and asked if you’d checked in and when they said you didn’t,” He paused ”I have to admit,” he smiled sheepishly “I thought you ran for it and I was stomping my way here to alert the principal but then I heard kids saying that Xander was fighting someone so I checked out to see who it was and heard you hiss something about him threatening you” he flashed a look at Xander who immediately puffed up, ready to defend himself but Marcus just held out a hand.
“Save it. We’ve got more important things to look into at the moment” Grabbing my hand he led me into the office doors and asked for somebody called Suzanne. I flopped down on a nearby chair and inspected my wounds, I had a gouge on my knee and some seriously scratched up arms, my face was fine though, just a split lip, my hair was crazy and I patted it down as much as I could.
I sighed; overall, I would live and have some more rad marks to signify my second fight with a guy.
Marcus sat down on the chair nearby to me and Xander was just leaning against the wall, staring-no-glaring at me. I squirmed uncomfortably in my chair.
“So, those statues in front of the office?” I questioned.
“They’re Shersaans” Marcus replied, head bowed down in far thought. “They are one of the many forms that Gorslici’s kids took.”
“Like I said” Xander said.
I snorted, unattractively but I couldn’t care less if he hated me, the feeling was mutual. “Yeah, well, forgive me if I didn’t believe you whilst you were trying to KILL me”.
Predictably he puffed up again, but, his oncoming response was cut off by a sharp voice.
“That’s enough Xander, I would expect nothing less from the evicted teenage murderer from Eighth but from you, the immortal of our town, I would expect a lot more maturity” A beautiful lady stepped out from the office doors. Xander shrunk into his original posture and hung his head.
“Marcus” She nodded, acknowledging my guardian for the next six months.
“Suzie” he bowed his head in response. He then nodded my way “She’s all yours, sorry about her look, she got into a fight with my man here”
She showed no surprise on her face, instead she smiled, as if the possibility of me fighting Xander and looking as well as I was now was funny. She must’ve seen straight through my I’m- tough-I’m-fine façade. Her eyes twinkled with amusement as she spoke in a smooth voice
“Well, she should’ve known better than to fight our most powerful resident”
The woman seemed to float forward as she walked, her height made her look slender and fragile but her carved face with sharp features made her look formidable as well. Her black studded heels clicked and stopped outside a door. Turning she gave a look to Marcus and he left with Xander, leaving me enchanted as she waved me into her office.
“So,” she began as we sat opposite each other, “You must be the famous Priya Jones, slayer of fallen angels and vamps”.
| 
Email this Novel
| 
Add to reading list
