Chapter 1 ~ A New School

Twins Diago and Katie experience their first day at a new school. Why are they at High School when they are 18? What is with the weird teacher and what exactly does he teach?

Chapter 1: A New School

She glared, one eyed, at the alarm clock. It buzzed loudly, the red glowing letters telling her it was 7:30am. She 

groaned and pulled her pillow over her head and closed it about her ears. Something soft hit her in the back. 

She grumbled something incoherent. She was hit again.

“WHAT!?” She tore the pillow off her head and leant on her elbows to glare at the boy sitting on her bed.

“You know that buzzing sound?” she glared at him, “Well that means you have to get up now,” He grinned 

and waggled his pillow at her. She knew she should have requested a door with a lock, especially sharing a 

apartment with him. With another groan, she rolled her eyes heavenward and collapsed back onto the bed. 

The boy sighed and hit her over the head with his pillow. In one swift action, the girl was out of bed and 

ramming the pillow and the boys head into her bed.

“Ow! OwowowowowowowowOW!!” She grimaced and removed the pillow and threw it through her open door, into his room. He smiled sheepishly at her.

“Oh you’re such a morning person Katie,” The glare she gave sent him scampering back into his room and closing the adjoining door very quietly. Shaking her head, Katie moved to the bathroom, showered, cleaned her teeth, brushed her hair, and strolled back into the bedroom. After pulling on the black short skirt over the white tights and doing up the sleeveless white shirt she looked at herself in the mirror critically. Her long blonde hair swept around her shoulders and she sighed as she pulled it up into a pony tail, braided it and then secured it in place with grips and a black ribbon.

“Diago! Are you ready yet? It’s nearly half eight!” The adjoining door opened and Katie smiled as Diago stood in the doorway in his uniform. He wasn’t used to wearing one and looked decidedly uncomfortable. He had added a few things to make the uniform more him. Katie had wondered why he only wanted short sleeved white shirts. It was to go over the top of his selection of long sleeved tops he had bought with him. This particular one was black. The black and red tie wasn’t part of the uniform either. But their mother had said the rules about uniform was lax and students usually managed to stay within the basics (Black skirt/trousers, white shirt) yet still make it their own style. He chucked something at her as he leaned in the doorway. She caught it deftly.

“It’s a little something I bought for you before we left,” Katie looked at the black tie and black long sleeves in her hands.

“Oh Diago! I love them!!” she jumped onto him and hugged him tightly. He may be her brother, but he was the best friend she could ever have.

“Oh but I haven’t bought you anything,” she said guiltily. He waved a hand airily.

“Doesn’t matter. You don’t have to buy me anything,” he flashed her a quick grin as she did up the tie and pulled on the sleeves.

“Shall we go?” she nodded and pushed a few strands of hair from her eyes. She could tell Diago was nervous. He kept running his hand through his long blonde hair, and there was concern in his pale blue eyes. Her own silver grey orbs hid all emotion, at least she hoped so. She couldn’t let Diago see she was terrified. She didn’t even know what she was meant to be studying. At 18, she thought she didn’t need to go back to college, let alone school. Her mother had simply packed them up and drove them to the school, deep in a forest in the middle of nowhere (give or take a few miles), 

dropped them off, wished them good luck and left in a hurry. They met an older student, of about 21, whose face was a pallid shade of white, who lead them to their apartment. It consisted of two bedrooms, ensuite bathrooms, a kitchen slash dinerette and a tattered sofa with suspicious stains opposite a TV which only broadcasted static. The older student had thrust a map and a timetable, only saying the classroom numbers and buildings, into their hands and rushed off quickly, obviously in some hurry to get somewhere, or get away from somewhere. Katie was already suspicious of this place.

“What's our first lesson Dig?” Diago pulled out the timetable from a pocket in his black trousers and scanned it quickly.

“’Blank Space’ in the Necro Building, classroom 666…,” they both gave an involuntary shiver. After locating the Necro Building on the map, they made their way across the seemingly deserted school. A cold breeze blew among the buildings and the rustle of leaves was the only sound. Katie subconsciously clung onto Diago’s shirt sleeve, something she had done since she was two when frightened. He gave her a reassuring smile and pushed open the door to the outwardly normal building. The corridor was normal, lined with bright electric lights. Classroom numbers started at 600. Sounds of people chattering cheerfully came from closed doors and the occasional person strolled down the corridor. The twins surmounted 

that the reason the school was deserted outside was because everyone else had already started lessons. Obviously other classes started at 8:30, not 9:00 like theirs did. Those they did see, smiled nervously at them then hurried off, throwing the twins scared glances over their shoulder. Taking the elevator up to the fourth floor, they located the classroom and slid open the door, breaths bated. They silently let the air go as they saw the only thing strange in the room was the giant pentagram on the floor. Apart from that it was perfectly normal, filled with normal people, some whose faces Katie recognise…

“Kyo! Dae! What are you doing here?” Katie, closely followed by Diago, made her way past the other kids, to her best friend, Kyo Freundich. She hugged him tightly and gave Dae, Diago’s best friend a hug too. The others in the class room watched the friends re-united, but Katie took no notice of them. Diago, however, scowled round the room at the boys eyeing his sister. They soon stopped and Diago adopted a smug look.

“Our mums just dropped us off without warning and drove off,” explained Kyo. Both he and Dae had no idea why they were here either. The room began to fill with murmurs as other students began wondering why they were here. Katie and Diago sat next to their friends. Katie guessed there was about twenty people all together. Glancing at her watch, she noted the teacher was late. Just as she thought this, a voice behind her ear whispered.

“Miss Jones, are you bored already? Class hasn’t even started,” Katie squeaked and jumped out of her seat, staring at the tall man in a long black robe. He chuckled to himself and gestured with his hand.

“Please sit Miss Jones, class is about to start,” His hand swept up and through his deep purple hair, which contrasted boldly with his chalk white face. He made his way towards the front of the class room as Katie sat and stood behind his desk. A drawer rattled on it and he hastily jerked it open, hissed something incoherent, and slammed it shut. Looking up, he saw twenty pairs of very confused eyes staring at him. He smiled a honeyed smile and swept his deep blue gaze across the classroom.

“Hands, they always want to return to where they were taken from,” he shrugged, mostly to himself, “They make good help though, if you’re firm enough. Handy you could say,” he chuckled, but nobody else shared the joke, so he coughed and tried to look serious. He only looked about 25, Katie reckoned.

“Twenty three actually, Miss Jones,” Katie jerked and blinked. He smiled and brushed a stray hair from his face.

“Anyways, I am your teacher, Mr Mitzuki. You can call me Ghost though, everyone else does,” he sounded slightly bitter. The moment passed and he rubbed his hands together, almost cackling in glee, “Let’s get started with our lessons then shall we?” A hand immediately shot into the air. Ghost focused on the white haired boy beneath the hand.

“Yes Master Yundai?” The youth blinked his amber eyes and gulped.

“Excuse me Mr Mitzuki..”

“Ghost,” Ghost interrupted

“Oh, er, Ghost, sir. I was wondering what exactly is this class? I mean I am eighteen and I thought I had left education behind me,” Ghost looked slightly of put for a moment.

“You don’t know what you’re here for?” Yundai shook his head and blushed slightly, almost matching the colour of the red bits in his hair. Ghost looked at the others in the room, his eyes meeting Katie’s gaze. It lingered slightly, before moving on. Katie felt herself blushing slightly.

“Do any of you know?” The room shook its collective head and Ghost suppressed a cry of despair. He slammed his hands flat down on the table and looked at the floor, taking deep breaths. After about a minute, the one called Yundai spoke up.

“You okay there sir?” Ghost looked up sharply and the fire in his eyes almost made the youth wither.

“You mean to tell me, none of you, and I mean none, have had any training?” Another collective shake of the head, though somewhat confused. Ghost collapsed into his chair and sighed heavily.

“Well that is interesting. I might as well come out with it then. You are all the next generation of Necromancers. You will learn other professions, but Necro’s are what you are. And I am to teach you everything, and it seems to be everything, about the art of Necromancy. Woo,” He looked at them and a new realisation suddenly dawned on him. Katie watched it rise into his head like the rising of bile.

“I bet you don’t even know what races you really are?” The class did not move its head, but rather radiated confusion like it was heat.

“Well at least that part is easy,” He stood up, cracked his fingers, then wriggled them decisively, “Hmmmm, lets see,” he closed his eyes. Then pointed to the four people at the back. Katie’s heckles rose. He was pointing at her lot.

“You positively reek of Angel,” Katie felt funny all of a sudden. Then Ghost snapped his fingers. Extreme pain exploded in her back. It felt like something was trying to claw its way out of her. She heard Ghost’s voice, sounded so far away, telling her to relax, let it out. Gritting her teeth, Katie stopped trying hard to push away the pain and just let it wash over her. It felt like a soothing rush as something tore through her shirt and shadowed her desk. Looking up, she saw Ghost grinning at her, and the rest of the class looking amazed, terrified, or both. She glanced sideways at Diago, who was sat next to her, and nearly fell of her seat. Diago, who was breathing hard and focusing on his desk, had huge white birds wings sprouting from his back. He looked at her and she saw the shock in his face. He pointed to behind her.

“You have wings!”

“So do you!” The shared a look only twins could know and smiled. A groan interrupted them and they looked next to Diago, where Dae and Kyo were sat. Kyo groaned again, the closest of the two, and leant forwards. His great fiery red wings actually dripped fire, which hissed on the floor. He smiled weakly at them and jabbed a thumb at Dae. Dae sat quite calmly in his chair, yawned, and winked at them. His wings were mechanical like and there were four of them. Ghost clapped his hands together in one sharp sound, looking delighted.

“Amazing! Not only are all four of you Angels, you’re different types! Marvellous!” Katie weakly raised her hand. Ghost looked at her.

“What do you mean different types?” Ghost blinked, then his confusion cleared.

“Ah yes, all of you in here are completely ignorant to the magical world aren’t you? Well Angel’s are a winged race. And there are several

 different types, like there are many types of winged creatures. The rarest are the Pure Angels which is you my dear Katie and your brother,

 Element Angels and Mecha Angels, your friends. Elemental Angels and Mecha Angels aren’t as rare, but still pretty damn rare. We have 

none so far in this school. A lot of Eagle Angels. And Dragonfly Angels. But not you three. I am so happy!!” Ghost positively squeaked in delight. Then he shut his eyes again and turned to the rest of the class, who shuffled away from the teacher slightly.

“Now lets see what else we have here?” He stopped and squealed at four girls sitting together. They jumped and cowered. Ghost opened his eyes.

“Nekos!!” He snapped his fingers and Katie watched as the faces of the four girls screwed up in pain and their body began to re-arrange themselves. Their ears moved from the side of their faces to the tops of their heads, growing and changing shape, into what looked like cat ears. Tails ripped through their skirts and they collapsed on their desks. Ghost did a little jig on the spot.

“Wonderful!! I feel extremely special to have such a distinguished class!!” Over the next ten or so minutes, Ghost danced round the room, snapping his fingers. Three boys were turned into half bull half man beasts, muscles bulging beneath their uniforms, horns bursting forth from their heads. Two girls and two boys were turned into shadows, pure black shapes of what they once were and three girls and two boys were turned into tall elegant people with long rabbit ears on tops of their heads and their finger nails sharpened into claws.  Ghost moved back behind his desk and beamed happily, rolling on his feet.

“Well, this is wonderful! Now you may change back to your human forms now,” Ghost turned to a sea of confused faces. He sighed deeply and looked to the heavens.

“Now you are going to tell me you don’t know how aren't you?” he grimaced and ran his fingers through his hair. Katie half smiled to herself as she thought about this little mannerism. By the time the lesson had finished he wouldn’t have any hair left. Ghost looked up briefly and their eyes met. 

Katie blinked and looked away, wondering once again about the physic abilities of their teacher. The moment passed and Ghost looked out the window.

“Well, it looks like today is going to be a practical lesson!! Follow me!” He slide open the door and swept from the room. The students looked at each other and, slowly, got up and followed. The three bull men had to duck to get through the door. Katie, her brother and her friends tailed along at the back.

“What do you think this is about?”

“He said there were more like us!”

“There’s something not right about him,”

“I like him!” Talking in low whispers, the other three looked at Kyo. Katie sighed and slid her arm through Kyo’s.

“Kyo, is there anyone you don’t like?” Kyo grinned and shrugged, then looked serious.

“Look, I know this is all very strange, I never would have believed it, but, somehow, it seems right. I don’t know why, I can’t explain it,” Katie looked at him and then to the floor as they walked, arm in arm.

“Yeah I know what you mean. It fits, somehow. Like its our, dare I say it, destiny,” she looked to the front of the group, and to Ghost.

“I just wonder what destiny has in line for us next,” Diago came along side and gave his sister a reassuring smile, touching her arm briefly. The followed the rest of the way in silence, each thinking about different things. Dae walked a little behind and Diago looked over his shoulder to see what was wrong. Dae shook his head and smiled, somewhat sadly. Diago shrugged, but fell back to walk alongside his best friend. Ghost led the strange class outside to a playground area, surrounded by a high chain link fence. He stopped and turned to face them all.

“Here we go this’ll do. Spread out around the edges of the fence, in a rough circle around me, but don’t get to close. If you don’t know how to even transform, I doubt you will even have any magical protection or immunity yet. Now, watch me. I shall transform into my true form, then back again,” The students scurried to the fence, getting as far away from Ghost as possible. The teachers sudden serious tone had scared them slightly. Katie watched with mixed emotions of curiosity and fear as she gripped Diago’s sleeve. Ghost 

rubbed his palms together and gave them a quick grin.

“Ready? Watch carefully now!” He relaxed completely and closed his eyes. A non existent wind suddenly blew up around him and sent his robe flapping about him. His hair rose into the air and suddenly the robe split into ribbons. Some of the girls squealed and covered their eyes, but you could see nothing of Ghost’s body. It was made of completely light. He opened his eyes for a brief fraction of a second and Katie held his gaze this time, boldly staring back. The eyes closed and the ribboned robe merging with his skin. There was a bright flash and seconds later half a dozen gasps from the more curious kids made the others lower their

 hands. Standing in the middle of the playground was a figure only slightly recognizable as Ghost by the pale skin and purple hair. His eyes were bright, a under lying light shining through the red. His robes we gone and instead he wore a pair of very dark, almost black, trousers and matching belly top. A black long coat, its high collar up, buttoned at the chest, flowed down around his ankles. One hand, a black glove upon it reached into the air and pulled from no where a long silver staff topped with a skull and wings. In the

 middle of the skulls forehead was a red ruby and another ruby adorned the bottom of the staff. This small miracle almost distracted the class from Ghost’s huge silver wings, folded neatly behind him.

“I ladies and gentlemen, am a Angelic form. As you can tell,” he spread his wings in one exuberant movement, drawing gasps from some people. The silver feathers glinted in the dull sunlight, each wing long as Ghost was tall.

“Angels, your gonna love this bit,” Ghost swept his wings up then bought them down in one powerful stroke, taking him clean off the grit of the play ground. Beating his wings, Ghost moved majestically upwards. There was sounds of amazement as he hovered above them grinning.

“Show off,” Katie grinned at Dae then watched as Ghost descended. He threw his staff at a group of girl students, who squealed and clambered over each other to get out of the way, but the staff just mysteriously disappeared into thin air.

“Students!” Ghost barked, “Watch,” he clapped his hands, making a noise so loud many students covered their ears. In that one moment of monumental noise, Ghost snapped back into his normal form.

“Now wasn’t that easy! All you have to do is concentrate!” mutters echoed around him, obviously not agreeing with him. Ghost sighed and collapsed at the waist, like he was trying to touch his toes. He then stood up straight and shook his fists at the sky.

“Whhhhyy, whhyy did I get the inexperienced lot. I couldn’t just have a nice normal class could I!” He slouched with a sigh and looked up.

“Alright alright. Think about yourself, who you are, what you like, your friends, your lovers. Your family. Think about why you want to be that person, all the good things in your life. Close your eyes on that feeling and feel it inside of you. Hopefully you should become who you are,” Kyo raised an eyebrow

“Hopefully?” Ghost gave him a scathing stare and Kyo restrained any other questions he had. Diago and Katie smirked at each other and held hands as they closed their eyes. Other students sat down, some prayed, some just closed their eyes. Katie could hear Kyo muttering “I am Kyo Freundich,, I am Kyo Freundich,” over and over. Then she heard Dae kick him and tell him to shut up. She smiled to herself and squeezed Diago’s hand, wishing to be normal again. A sudden tingling came over her as she squeezed her eyes tighter and concentrated on being her. Diago was squeezing her hand, obviously he too was feeling something as well. The sudden knowing ness of having wings vanished and she dared to open one eye. Blurry at first, she could make out the figure of the brother Diago looking at her grinning, totally wing free. Opening both her eyes, she tried to look behind her, only succeeding in turning a full circle, back to facing a grinning Diago.

“Yes, they are gone sis, no need to make a fool of yourself,” Katie stuck out her tongue at him and winked.

“Just cause you didn’t do it!” She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned round to see Dae indicating, a bemused look upon his face, to Kyo, who was doing exactly what Katie was doing, but repeatedly.

“Are they gone yet?! Are they gone yet, I can’t seeeeee!!” The three of them watched Kyo in bemusement for moments longer before Ghost came over and put a hand on Kyo’s shoulder.

“Yes, they’ve gone!! Jesuuus, you’re making me dizzy watching you do that,” Ghost shook his head and smiled at Katie, Diago and Dae.

“Well done, and with minimum pain as well,” he moved on to congratulate other students on doing well on their transformations. Some were still half stuck, frowning as they tried to make the remaining non human features go away. One of the Shade twins was still slightly black and her sister was giggling at her as she stamped her foot in anger. Another boy still had a minotaurs nose and was wiggling it, his eyes crossed.

“Come on some of you, try harder. All the angels have managed their human forms again, even the red headed one,” Katie giggled at Ghost’s comment as Kyo looked confused.

“Is he talking about me? What was that about me? What did he mean ‘Even the red headed one’?” Dae patted him on the shoulder, looking sympathetically at his friend.

“Never mind mate, I’ll tell you later, over ice cream or something,”

“OOooo! Ice cream!,” he looked suspiciously at Dae, “You’re buying,” Dae rolled his eyes and nodded. 

Katie giggled at the two boys and looked around as a bell rang somewhere. Ghost frowned, looking at the school then shrugged and sighed.

"I guess its the end of class already," he looked worriedly at those still struggling to be completely human, "Erm well, those who still arn't 'normal' you guys stay behind. The rest of you can go," The class broke out into chattering as they began to file out of the playground and back to the school. Katie, Kyo, Dae and Diago all grouped together and began talking about the lesson.

"Well that was weird," Kyo stated the obvious and Katie rolled her eyes

"Weird didn't really cover it Kyo," put in Dae, "Really really really freaky might JUST cover it. Man if I knew this was gonna happen, I think I'd tried to get myself into jail or something," Katie grinned and Diago laughed.

"Dae, its not that bad. Bit of pain with the changing but apart from that, wasn't to bad. We all managed to do as we was told," Diago patted his shoulder and winked, "But you just don't like the teacher really, do ya?"

"I though Ghost was alright. A bit freaky, but he seemed nice," the three boys looked at Katie and raised their eyebrows. She blushed under the gaze but looked fiercely back, "What? Am I not allowed to have my opinion?" Kyo sniggered

"Sounds like you fancy him," Dae looked away and Diago frowned at him then looked to Katie as they kept walking to the main building for break.

"Ya don't fancy the teacher do ya?" Katie snorted and scowled at him

"Of course not, what do you take me for. If it was a woman you wouldn't think I fancied them. Am I not allowed to say someone is nice?" Diago backed off a bit and grinned at her

"Sorry sorry, I know. I'm just over protective of ya, you know?" Katie relaxed and smiled at him patting his arm. Kyo and Dae looked back and Kyo pointed to a large open set of double doors.

"I think the cafeterias in there? We should check it out Dae owes me ice cre-," Kyo was cut off by a large explosion and a sudden blinding light.

"What the hell?" Katie blinked as she heard Diago curse. She was momentarily blind before the light faded and she looked about. Dae, Diago and Kyo were all looking back in the direction they came. The playground was a blaze with a large swirling portal. Someone who they recognised in their class came running up, their face white. It was one of the rabbit like girls, with blue hair and large round glasses. She clutched at Katie's arm and fell to her knees.

"They-they got attacked. Sucked into the portal. Must help!" with that, she got back up and ran back to the portal and jumped straight into it. The rest of the class that had been dismissed was close to Katie's group and had heard. They all looked at each other, scared and weary. Other students had poured out of the buildings and were standing staring at a distance from both the portal and the class. A boy stepped 

forwards and yelled at them.

"This is your job! You gotta fix it! We can't do owt!" Katie looked at Diago and nodded, then stepped forwards, addressing the rest of the class, who had now shuffled more together in a tight knit group.

"You heard the boy. We gotta do it. You can all feel that its right, I certainly can! I can't convince you I know but Ghost has been sucked in as well as some of our friends! I, for one, am going to try to fix this!" with that she walked towards the portal. Dae, Kyo and Diago caught up with her and looked worried.

"Katie are you sure-?" Katie nodded firmly, keeping her eyes on the portal. Just before it, she stopped, and grabbed Diago and Dae's hand.

"Lets all go at the same time," Dae grabbed Kyo's hand and nodded, Diago squeezing her hand reassuringly.

"On three then chaps,” she gave a nervous grin, "One, two, THREE!" and with that they jumped into the unknown.

Author's Note

Any constructive criticism is welcome! Please do tell me what you think!

Reviews

[Kat Mandu]

Rather awesome- but I think there's not enough description of the surroundings in ratio to the description of characters and emotions. all I'd do is add some description of the school, or the classroom, so readers can imagine the surroundings better. I'm probably just talking rubbish though. I love the emotions and the composition of the dialogue alot and the subtlety of naming the building 'necro' and the 666 room thing :)