~Chapter 1~

~Chapter 1~

Present Day

The next day I dragged myself down the staircase, nearly falling asleep on the elm banister as I went down. Walking into the small kitchen I plopped into my regular seat at the wooden table.

The three sitting at the table glanced up at me and then back down.

"You look like shit," Jack, my fighting trainer, said as he scratched at his dark stubble.

"Thanks coach." I replied sleepily, running a hand through my dark brown curls, "Glad you're being the adult in the situation."

He rolled his eyes at me before turning back to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Night after night of nightmares was starting to wear me down.

The bags under my eyes were enormous, I was snapping at everyone, and I could barely read a textbook without falling asleep on it.

"I'm serious Austin, you look like you’re sleep walking. It’s affecting your training, it’s affecting your studies, and it’s affecting your attitude which is beginning to piss me off," He said to me sternly.

"What do you want me to do about it?" I asked him, exasperated. The nightmares were becoming more and more frequent. Not only were they occurring every night, but several times each night after I woke up in cold sweats. Each nightmare was more and more detailed, with the same girl with the blond waves in the dress the color of moonlight..

"You should get laid!" An enthusiastic voice chimed in.

"Shut up Jacob," said the blond guy sitting across from me, leaning back in his chair. Liam looked like he didn’t have a care in the world, just waiting for the toaster oven to go off. He was lucky like that.

"He's dreaming about a girl, clearly it's a cry for help." Jacob said, twirling his cereal spoon through the air. His light brown eyes twinkled in delight as he waggled his eye brows at me.

“Really? What makes you think I’m dreaming about a girl?” I said, narrowing my eyes at him. He smirked at me, continuing to waggle his orange eyebrows.

"It's not like it’s a secret man, everyone at the academy knows," Jacob told me. I sighed and pinched my nose.

“Everyone? Does everyone include all the families living here? Including mine?” I questioned him, fists clenched on the tabletop. The academy was full of families, as the building was fully staffed with every sort of member possible. Trainers, doctors, teachers, historians, chefs, janitors, you name it, someone was here doing it. Not to mention all of the families of the staff, who often had a large number of children.

“Everybody as in all the staff, all of our families, your family,” Jacob said trailing off under my glare. He scratched his curls, “Uh, I’m not sure if all the other families know, maybe they don’t?” he said, as if that was some sort of bright side to the situation.

"Well you better wake up, we're training today." Jack said, using his authoritative voice and effectively cutting off Jacob from continuing. The toaster oven dinged and Liam stood to go get the Poptarts and bacon. He quickly plated them and distributed the plates among us.

"We train everyday..." Liam pointed out, taking a seat. It was true, training to become protectors was a full time job. It required everyday training and large amounts of studying, some mandatory and others research of our choice. We had to marry young, have children early, and then begin training them, while possibly getting chosen to protect angels. I ate half a pop tart in an entire bite, enjoying it burning the roof of my mouth.

"So last night I was with both Chloe and Christine!" Jacob bragged, talking about his newest conquers in the bedroom. God forbid the situation stay semi-serious for long. Everyone glanced at him briefly before looking away.

"That's gross man," I said, shuddering at the images that I couldn’t keep from popping up in my brain.

"Well not at the same time, although that would've been epic," he said, his beige eyes glazing over. I chose not to think about that particular topic. Sure I’d had my fun, when I was fifteen. At eighteen we were considered adults, and as protectors needed to be responsible and respectful.

"Right," Liam said, his mind clearly elsewhere. Hopefully elsewhere was not on the topic of Christine and Chloe at the same time. I couldn’t have both my best friends going corrupt on me. One Jacob was enough.

"Hey, I can give you Christine's number," Jacob offered, pulling his cellphone from his gym shorts. My eyes grew wide in alarm but I decided a glare would work better. Unlike most, my glare was ineffective on Jacob, but it was my automatic response anyway.

"I'm with Kirie, she's my fiance remember?" I replied.

"Well clearly Kirie isn't doing it for you," he said, an all-knowing smirk spreading across his freckled face.

"I don't want to hear about this," Jack muttered as he angrily tore through the pages of the newspaper, clearly not reading things he was happy with. “You guys shouldn’t be sleeping around, you should be training,” He said. For a guy in his mid-thirties he could lecture like an angry senior citizen.

"I don't want Christine's number." I repeated to Jacob. He just rolled his eyes at me and finally shut up to start chomping on his breakfast. There was a pause that lasted about a minute before he began talking while chewing.

"Well I have Cassie's, Casey's, Caroline's, Caitlyn's, Callie's, Clara's, and Cammy's," Jacob told me, bits of bacon dropping out of his mouth.

"Do all the girl's you sleep with have C names?" Liam asked him, giving him a questioning look. Jacob just shrugged sheepishly, but didn’t answer.

"I just want to eat my pancakes," Jack muttered angrily, hopefully ending this conversation.

                                                                             
"I'm not interested," I told him, picturing Kirie in my mind. Her strawberry blond hair and freckled round nose came to my mind. Kirie was the one supporting me and putting up with my nightmares, I wouldn’t give up my only source of comfort for a “good time”.

There was a fragrant pause as we all chewed. Jack finished and stood up, grabbing his plate.

"You're gonna get an STD kid," he said, before dropping his plate into the sink with a clatter and leaving the kitchen.

"Then your nuts will fall off." Liam added, his olive eyes holding a spark of amusement.

I dropped my fork, and pushed my chair out from table, I was done with this conversation.

_________________________________

Punch, punch, kick.
Punch, punch, kick.
Kick, punch, kick.
Repeat.

Jack smoothly blocked each hit with a deadly grace, per usual. His calloused hands seemed to anticipate my every move, and he would block me before I even got halfway through the movement.

Training was dragging today, and being cooped up in a dark warm space wasn't helping my tired mind. The training room was on the lowest level of the academy, tucked into a back corner. It was cozy yet filled with all sorts of equipment. The dark wood made the space seem even smaller. At the gym one could do strength training and conditioning, spar, practice fighting skills, target practice, and whatever else Jack could dream up to have us do.

Jacob was doing pull ups along the side of the wall, lazily pulling himself halfway up before dropping. Luckily Jack was focused on fighting me, and not looking over at him. If he saw Jacob slacking he would be doing extra pull ups, strength training, and numerous suicides. How Jacob got away with everything was one of my life’s many mysteries.

Connor, the new kid, was over breaking boards or whatever it is Karate geeks do. He had just transferred from…to be honest I don’t remember, I was half asleep during that conversation. He was only sixteen, making him two years younger than Liam and myself, and a year younger than Jacob. Despite his age, his discipline surpassed all of us.

Then there was Liam, who got to throw knives at a cushioned target on the back wall.
Throwing daggers was my favorite, but I was stuck doing hand to hand with Jack.
Although with my tired mind maybe it was better that I didn't get to throw sharp objects.

A loud smack rang out through our small gym. I would recognize that sound from anywhere after all these years of training, the sound of skin to skin contact, with a small crunch indicating a fist.

"Austin! What the hell?" Jack yelled at me, shoving me back.

"What? Oh," I trailed off, trying to think of what my last five moves were. My knuckles stung, giving me a strong indication of what I had just done

"You just clocked me in the face!" He shouted, shoving me back a second time. His hand reached up and felt around his left eye, where a red circle was already appearing.

"Shit, sorry, I was just going through the motions-" I said before he cut me off.

He cut me off. "We don't hit below the belt or above the neck when we spar, you know that!" His usual frusteration was magnified, his eyes blazing and the vein in his neck bulging a bit. Jack was a much better fighter than me, why hadn’t he blocked it? Maybe he hadn’t seen it coming. I wasn’t about to bring that topic up right now though. If looks could kill…

"I know, I didn't mean to-" I began again, guilt radiating off me. Not only was I fearful of Jack’s possible retaliation, but the immense guilt of hitting my trainer and friend was setting in.

"I've been training you since you were three years old for God sakes!"

"I wasn't paying attention-" I began again.

"You are training to guard and protect angels, start paying attention!" he shouted. He glanced around the gym at the other guys and crossed his arms over his chest. I could hear him taking deep calming breathes that sounded more shallow and erratic then they should have been

I looked down at the ground, unable to look him in the eye, knowing that everyone was staring.
He sighed, running a hand through his dark brown hair angrily.

"Get some water," he said quietly, refusing to look at me.

"Coach," I said, trying to start an actual apology. He ignored me and cut me off once again.

"Everyone! Water break, now!" he ordered.

________________________________

I had curled up on the worn couch in my room, its old checkered fabric scratching at my skin.
It was uncomfortable, but I to exhausted to care, I was asleep the moment I shut my eyes.

The girl in the white dress was there again, as I expected her to be. She was just lying there on the cold forest floor, her eyes closed. Her chest rose and fell slowly, as if she were in a deep sleep. Her wavy hair cascaded around her like a halo. I felt her presence, as if I was right next to her, lying beside her on the ground. She was so thin, did she get to eat? She looked around my age, maybe younger. I had never seen any sign of plants in my dreams of her. How did she survive?

I reminded myself again that it was only a dream. A dream about a beautiful and mysterious girl. Just a beautiful girl who needed help, and had said my name. But of course she would say my name, it was my dream. A dream that plagued me every night, a dream that felt so real. It was almost like I could reach out and run my fingers along her pale arm.

As my focus got closer I noticed something I hadn't before. Up and down her arms were pale pink cuts. They weren't the kind you got on accident, in fact, they were strange in many ways. The cuts weren't deep, I could tell by their coloring, their white outline, and the way they were slightly raised. As far as I knew, they were fresh, recently inflicted. Maybe from whoever was perusing her last night? In my many months of dreams of her, she had never had anything like these.

I noticed the pattern that they were in, up and down her arms, they were horizontal, but slanting inward. Each cut was thin and precise, as if they had been delicately executed. I wondered what could have caused such a strange pattern. I didn’t understand the cuts, the girl, or why I was having these dreams. How was my mind coming up with these dreams anyway?

Her eyelids fluttered, long blond lashes sweeping up and down. She let out a low groan, rolling her head to the side, away from the side of her I was facing. The fingers on her right hand twitched, and she began trying to move her hand. She turned toward me and moved her toes, wincing.

I wanted to speak to her, to say something, to ask her my questions, to just watch her longer. But, my mind seemed to have other plans. It was suddenly like a camera zooming out, and I was losing focus on her. Her figure was becoming blurred in my vision. A part of myself lurched forward, trying to hold on.

Wait! Don’t make me go! I can’t just leave her here!

I woke up screaming at the top of my lungs.

___________________________

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