Chapter 5: Raven

Burning.

            That's all I can see. Burning trees, Burning bushes, burning houses. The screams of people sufferings make me want to help, but my feet are glued to the floor.

            Houses.

            The scene shifts.  The fire is gone and now I see the result of the fire.  Isn't it why I came here? To find my parents? The dirt I stand on is not dirt anymore, its ash. Foundations of once houses barely stand and are cluttered around what used to be a street; now a rocky, asfault surface mixed with more ash and dirt. Fragments of people's belongings, no, lives are scattered in the foundations, half burnt.  Nothing stirs here.  Nothing lives here anymore.

            A whisper of a breeze blew against my chapped cheeks.  There is no heat from the fire I witnessed before.  It is all cold and dead now. 

            Something moves in the quietness that stirs my attention.

            "Mother? Father?" I immedietly assume.  Could they have survived the tradegy and are they even here? Was the source correct?  More movement and a sound erupts in the quietness.  It’s a woman's weak voice.

            "Hello? Mother? Whoever you are speak louder so I can help you!" I called out. The voice grew louder into a wail.  Since my time at the academy, I could easily pinpoint the sound and where it was.

            I sprinted fast until I reached a pile of half burned planks of wood.  Using my strength, I pulled the planks off the struggling woman.  She was in her mid 40's with graying black hair and dark hazel eyes.  She clutched her leg with was stained in her dry blood.

            "Thank you." the woman croaked out. I stared at the woman.

            "Your welcome. My name is Raven and I'm looking for my parents." The women's eyes lit up when I said my name.

            "Raven?" Before the woman could add onto what she wanted to say, a man cleared his throat behind me.

            "Well, well, well.  Someone did survive. The boss said no survivors." I whipped around to face a man a little older tham myself with deep black hair and hazelnut eyes with a tint of red.

            "Drake, don't do this. Please! Its Raven!" The woman behind me whimpered in fear.

            "You know him?" I asked.

            "Yes! He's your-" a gunshot when off and the woman in front of me toppled to the ground, dead. Shocked, I spun around to face the man.  He held no gun now and I didn't know where the gunshot came from. The red in his eyes now was visible as ever.

            "Demon." I hissed.

            "Guilty as charged." he raised his hands mockingly in the air.

            I squinted my eyes in disgust. "Who are you?"

            The man chuckled, "She was getting to that, but I wanted to tell you. I'm-" The scene cut as I felt someone's hands on my shoulders and someone's voice shouting my name.

            "Raven! Raven wake up!" I eyes flew open and I stared with a crazed look at Jane. Whitney stood next to Jane, a scared look in her eyes.

            "Whitney! Your Ok!" I half jumped, half hobbled out of my bed and into her arms.

            "Are you ok?" She whispered into my ear. "We heard you scream as we walked down the hall and I was worried you were possessed or something." Her angel blue eyes shown with concern.

            "I'm ok. Just a bad dream." I told Whitney, but somehow I think she knew it was more than that.  I sat back down on my bed and ran my fingers through my hair. "What time is it?"

            "The first dinner bell just rang." Jane informed.  She didn't like me as much because I was way smarter than.  The classes here were so easy for me.

            "Then I'll see you at dinner." I had noticed now that Whitney was in an uniform.  She actually made them look pretty cute on her.

            "No, I'll stay here with you." Whitney turned to Jane. "You go on ahead. I'll stay with Raven and make sure she gets to dinner without injury." Jane opened her mouth to argue, but decided against it.  She nodded solomly and left.

            "What do you think of The Academy?" I asked my friend as she sat on my bed next to me and began combing my hair with her fingers. She pulled lightly, but not hard like me when I'm in a rush.

            "Its nice. Everyone is friendly." She commented

            I smiled, "If anyone is giving you crap, I'll beat the s**t out of them for you."

            She giggled and stifiled an ok. When my hair was smoothed out, she got up and outstretched her hand, "Let's go eat dinner." I took it with gratitude. I guided Whitney to the great hall where meals were served and announcements were made.  As we walked, I wondered about the dream I had.  Who was this Drake and what was he about to say?" Who was the woman? Was she dead already? No. I haven't gone to that place! I would have remembered that place.

            "What if it was a vision?" I whispered.

            "What is a vision?" Whitney asked me. Oops.

            "Nothing. Just thinking out loud." Whitney wasn't too sure but she shrugged her shoulders and kept walking. I don't know if I could tell anyone about it.

            We reached the large doors that were already open because they were so heavy to move.  As I limped in with Whitney by my side, I noticed stars from classmates. They knew I was back. The news had spread like wildfire.  I was the badass of the school and you didn't mess with me. Period. The farther I walked into the great hall, the louder the whispers got.

            "Oh my god! Its her!"

            "What do you think she did this time round?"

            "Why can't she just stay put."

            "Didn't her parents teach her Anything?" Anger flowed through my veins. How dare they bring up my parents.  Everyone knew about me since Christe Zimmerman spread the word around that I was a s**t and the reason I was that was because my parents were missing and I didn't have much of an option for money until the Academy found me. First off, I was not a s**t. Second, I was abandoned by my parents (That part is true) but I was sent to the academy right after abandonment. Thirdly, I was the one who made her puke on the dance floor at the winter formal and my reasons were not because I was jealous that Derek had picked her. I just wanted revenge.

            After thinking about Derek, my eyes wandered deeper into the hall and found my prince charming sitting with a couple of his buds.  He looked up gracefully and spotted me. I still was walking, but my mind had locked up. He winked and smiled softly before he returned to his conversation with his friends.  It was as if time had stopped for one brief second.

            "Raven? Where should we sit?" Whitney asked, holding onto my arm. I shook myself out of the trance, scanned the room and cleared my throat. It was loud in here.

            "We can go sit by Betty and her new friend." We wandered over to them. The sat alone in the front. Betty still had her butterfly winged ear rings in and her friend had nothing that would identify her particular power.

            "Hey," I mumbled as I sat next to my new roommate.  Whitney followed suit and sat across from me, next to Betty.

            "Oh, hi." New girl blushed as she ducked her head down.

            "Sorry about how I acted." I muttered. She was making this way harder than what it had to be.  She looked up at me, shocked.

            "You-you mean it?" she stumbled over her words. Betty looked at me, surprised that I was even sitting with them.

            "Yeah. I was being an a*s. I mean, I had just gotten in and I felt like crap." I stared down at the silver plate in front of me. Wonder what was for dinner.

            "I understand that you had just gotten in and everything," Betty began. Oh crap.  Here comes the guilt trip. "But honestly? Did you have to act like that?"

            I sighed a deep sigh, "No. I was disrespectful and I'm sorry."

            "Good for you Raven. I'm glad you're making friends." a voice commented nicely behind me. "I was starting to wonder if I should enroll you in an anger management class." Mrs. Berlowski. For a minute I thought it was Jan.

            I laughed lightly, "I'd have too much fun though."

            "That's the reason I didn't enroll you." she then turned to Betty's friend who I still didn't know the name of.

            "Ms. Robins, Please see me after dinner so we can get your classes scheduled."

            "Yes Ma'am." With that, Mrs. Berlowski smiled and left for the teacher's table that looked over all the students.

            "I still don't know your mane." I said to my new roommate.

            "I knew I was forgetting something! Raven, meet Flora Robins." Flora blushed slightly, picked up her glass of water and sipped it so she didn't have to speak.

            I pointed to Whitney, "May I present Whitney Pinter, Wolf through and through." Whitney grinned and waved.

            "It's very nice to meet you Whitney! I'm Betty."

            "Are you a butterfly?" Whitney asked and Betty nodded. "Oh it must be so nice to be a butterfly. You get to fly around and you guys are so pretty!"

            Betty smiled at the praise, "I'd rather be something like you. You get to take more defense classes. I take more stealth than defense.  Being a wolf is probably really cool." Whitney and Betty chatted back and forth, debating which animal is better.  I noticed that Flora wasn't in the conversation.

            "What can you do?" I asked Flora which startled her. She was a jumpy one.

            "I don't really change into something, I more control something."

            For once in my time here, I was utterly confused. "What do you mean?"

            She took a small breath, "I control plants; flowers and Vines to be more specific. I can make them grown and everything. I don't want to talk about how I knew I could do it."

            "You're claiming? It's what we call it here."

            "Yeah." She blushed.

            "Yours is probably way worse than mine." She looked at me with big eyes.

            "I doubt it."

            "I grew black feathers on my arms in the middle of gym class. God that was embarrassing. I was wisked away and brought here." Total lie. I couldn't tell anyone the truth about my past.

            "Really? I puked flowers down the hall." That sort of reminded me of what I had done to  Christe Zimmerman. I was the one that made her puke on the dance floor during winter formal.  I wasn't jealous of her getting asked by Derek, it had nothing to do with that.  I wanted simple revenge for the crap she put me through.

            "I was also called a s**t. Everyone here truely thinks I am a s**t. The point is here you get a fresh start so whatever happened at your old school, it won't happen here. Nobody knows what you've been through." The hall strangely started to get quiet. I glanced over and saw that Williams was walking up to his poidium in his white robes with maroon tassles.

            "Good Evening everyone!" His voice boomed through the hall.  "We have four new students to announce. We have Ms. Flora Robins," He extended his hand to point at her. I pushed her up and out of her seat. Everyone applauded and the boys whooped loudly. When the applause died, Principal Williams continued, "Mr. Trent McDouglas." Trent was tall with a shock of beach blond hair. "Ms. Whitney Pinter." Whitney stood and the boys went nuts, whooping louder than the applause (Even though there wasn't much applause).  Once Williams quieted the boys down and Whitney sat down in humiliation, the Principal said the last name; "And finally Ms. Chelsey Reed." a petite girl with frilly black hair stood up.  Nobody made a sound. It was dead quiet. Chelsey stared straight at Flora and then sat back down in disgust. Flora's face went ghostly pale and Betty was in shock.

            "Wh-Why is she here?" Flora quivered.

            "I don't know! It's very uncommon for 2 people that come from the same school to be claimed."

            "Unless she traded her soul to a demon."

            "She's not a demon. No demons can get into the school." Betty shot back. I just rolled my eyes.

            "Upon request, there shall be a game of capture the flag this friday.  Attendance is option and not required" Principal Williams droned on. "Security will be stronger this year due to reports of Daeomen sightings near the school's borders."

            "He means demons!" Someone shouted and the whole school went into panic mode. Frantic chatter filled the hall.

            Williams twisted a knob on his poidium and shouted, "Quiet!" into his microphone.

            "What exactly are daeomens?" Flora whispered to me.

            "I'll explain it when we get back to the dorm room." She nodded and turned  her attention back to Williams.

            "There is no need to panic. Guards have been posted on our borders. No Daeomens are getting in." He seemed so sure of himself. I'd laugh if one actually got in. "Since there are more guards than usual, you may not leave the grounds without being escorted by an adult. So that means no escaping" S**t. I'm stuck here. Williams smiled and finished with, "That is all the announcements. Let dinner proceed." The kitchen doors slammed open and the cooks started wheeling around the meal.,  Looked like it was ribs for the carnivoirs and salads for the herbivoires.

            One of the cooks made it to us and asked, "Who gets what?"

            "Ribs." Whitney mumbled.

            "Salad." Betty grumbled

            "Salad," Flora said glumly.

            "Ribs!" I said eagerly. The cook looked at me but gave in and piled my plate with ribs. Yum! Betty and Flora looked at my plate hungrily like a pack of wolves. "Fine!" I sighed and we combined Whitney's and my plate so everyone could have ribs. We did the same with the salads. We chatted and got to know each other. When we finished our dinner, the Hall had lost half of its students.  Derek sat alone, reading from a book.  He looked up and spotted me. I waved and he smiled before returning to his book.  I blushed lightly as Flora grabbed my hand and pulled me back to dorm room.

Author's Note

ignore grammar