Youth of the Betrayed

I woke up on a double bed still fully dressed, sun burning my eyes, streaming through an open curtain. I sat up with a groan, pressing my palm to my head.
“My head” I groaned again, it was worse than a friggen hang over. I gave my head a shake and let the world set back into place and looked around the room, the duvet was white, the walls were white, the carpet was black as were the curtains and the furniture was all wooden, where the fuck was I?
“Oh good, you’re up” a girls voice broke through my daze; I looked over to the door, which I was assuming was the door in and out of this room. She sat cross-legged leaning against the door, arms folded across her chest, her brown hair was hanging down over her shoulders, shorter than my own, and her skin rather pale, but nothing in comparison to a vampire, “So, what’d they get you for?” she asked, lifting her head up to make eye contact with me, a smirk plastered on her features.
“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean” I said, letting my legs fall over the side of the bed.
She looked a little surprised, “You mean they didn’t tell you?” she asked, my eyes narrowed in confusion, “Anything?”

“What the hell are you on about?” my voice only sounding slightly angry.
“This place, it’s an academy” she said, “It’s been around for about a decade now, but usually it’s only certain families that have been in the business for years that are allowed to train here, but now with what they call the ‘out-break’ they disperse several people every night to search the state and see what they can find, if they come across a human even making the slightest bit of contact with an ‘other’ race, they bring ‘em in, so, what’d they get you for?”
I pressed a hand to my forehead again, “Uh, vampire” I said.
“Really? Did he hold a rank or was he just a drifter?” she asked, she looked excited enough.
“Um, he said he was the head of the state” I shook my head again, my memories blurry from the night before, I could barely remember his face, let alone his name.
“Wow, no wonder they wanted someone to keep an eye on you” she said getting up, “Come on, they’ll want to talk to you now that you’re awake” she said.
“Yeah well they shouldn’t have fucking hit me round the head” I muttered, getting up off the bed slowly, making sure I wasn’t going to collapse.
She laughed, “Lay off on the cursing aye” she said, lowering her voice, “They’re very religious around here”

I gave her an ‘are you serious’ crossed with ‘you’re completely insane’ look, she laughed again, opening the door and stepped out into the hall. I considered making a run for it, but from the looks of her, she wasn’t someone to be messed with, so I decided I’d just follow her and plan for an escape later.
Stepping out into the day, I figured that that had been the dorms, the sun was bright, so I didn’t bother to look around.
“That was the girls dorms” she said, “There’s only a handful of us here” I said nothing in reply, just let the silence go on. We crossed the campus, entering a building I gathered to be the admin block, she stopped outside a wooden door, hand on the knob and turned to face me, her face looking almost mangled, “Listen to me very carefully, this is important” she said, giving me a hard glare, I swallowed and nodded, “Whatever you do, do not I repeat, do not say anything to support the ‘other’ races, lie your arse off if that’s what it takes, it’s the only way you’ll make it through tonight” I nodded again, too afraid that my voice may betray me for once, she held my eyes for a moment longer, then turned the handle and pushed the door open, I stepped into the office, the door creaking closed behind me, a women, looking about in her mid 50’s sat behind a desk, piled with paper work, she looked up as the door clicked closed.

“Ah, Miss Morgenstern, you’re up” she said, looking at me over the tips of her glasses, I nodded, maybe acting afraid would do me some good, “Please, sit” she gestured to the chairs placed in front of her desk, I sat. She put the pen down and pushed the paper aside, resting her elbows on the desk, lacing her fingers together, “Now, down to business, do you know why you’re here?” she asked.
I shook my head, “No ma’am” I said in a small voice. She got up from the desk, clasping her hands behind her back, she wasn’t a big women, but not exactly small either, she looked at the photos that hung on the wall.
“This is an academy, run by families that have hunted the supernatural and paranormal things of this world since long before” she said, still looking at the photos, “You have been brought here to be trained to fight those things and kill them now that they have shown themselves for all the world to see” she said and turned to me, “They are dangerous, unpredictable and not to be trusted at any cost” she actually looked really creepy when she stared at you from over her glasses, it was almost piercing, I tried not to cringe, “Do you follow?”

“Yes ma’am” I nodded. She straightened up and paced back to her desk.
“Good. You will attend combat, history and science classes” she said, sitting back down at the desk, “All of which will prepare you for the world outside of this academy, once you have graduated, you will be officially enlisted in the system and most probably join the ‘justifiers’ they put themselves in harm’s way for the sake of humans and cleanse the earth of those unholy beings, do you understand what we do here Miss Morgenstern?” she asked, I simply stared, repressing the urge to start yelling at her about how immoral this entire thing was and that it was just utterly ridiculous, “We do God’s work Miss Morgenstern, we are God’s hand. Now be gone with you, you will be given everything you need to complete you’re education at Montana State Academy” I nodded and hurried out of the room.

Pulling the door closed behind me, I looked up to see the same girl lounging on a wooden chair across the hall, spinning what looked like a silver stake in the air, “She’s done with you?” she asked, raising both brows and yawning, I nodded. She pushed herself up and jumped to her feet, “Right then, on with your introduction” she stepped out of the admin building and we crossed the campus back to the dorms. We passed the room which I’d woken up in and she lead me further down the hall, stopping at a door, looking around then pushing it open and beckoning me in.
She flopped down on the double bed, pressed against one wall, the room was filled with personality, she placed the stake on her bedside table, repositioned herself and rested both arms behind her head, “Don’t worry, you’ll get to do this to your room too” she said, happily, good I thought, with all that white, it would drive me insane. “I’m Cassiel by the way, Cassiel Saint James” she said.
I looked around the room and headed for the couch opposite the bed and dropped to it, “Taeya Morgenstern” I told her, making myself comfortable.
“So what’d you think so far?” she seemed to just be making conversation now.
“I think its utter bullshit” I said, not hiding any resentment, “This is the most immoral thing I have ever seen in my entire life!” Cassiel shot up right, a look of horror plastered on her face.
“Be careful what you say around here new-comer, most wouldn’t take likely to that statement, in fact, there isn’t any one around here that wouldn’t hesitate to riot against you if they knew your true opinions, so trust me, keep them to yourself” her voice was a warning, “Now get out” she spat, my eyebrows came together in confusion, but I didn’t wait to be told twice, I headed for the door and went back to my room.

Later, when I was asleep, too lazy to close the curtains, I woke up to banging on my door, only it was rather subtle, “Morgenstern!” came a loud whisper, “Morgenstern, get up!” it sounded like Cassiel.
With a groan I reluctantly got out of bed and headed for the door, unlocking it only to find that it actually was Cassiel, she looked me up and down, “Put some clothes on and come with me” I closed the door in her face, groaned again, considered dropping on the bed and going back to sleep, but figured she wouldn’t give up that easily, so I slipped into some sweat pants and pulled on an Ed Hardy hoodie and stepped out into the hall.
Cassiel was leaning against the sill opposite my door, spinning the stake around her fingers, every now and then the point catching in the moonlight, she was lost in her own little world, I cleared my throat and she looked up, “Let’s go” she said after giving me a once over and we headed down the stairs.
Once outside, she led me between the two dorm buildings and we came across another large building, “What is that?” I asked.
“The gym” she replied, walking straight past it, “We’re in there first period tomorrow” she told me and walked around the back of the building there was a path way dividing the building and the forest, she eased up a bit, “They’re less likely to catch us here” she looked around, just to be sure I guessed.
“What the hell” I almost shouted.
“Claim down Taeya, I told you, you have to be careful around here, if they find out what you think, you won’t last long here okay? Just trust me” she plead.
“I don’t even know you” I retorted, this was all frustratingly confusing.
“If you survive here long enough, you will” she said, still looking around us, paranoid much?
“Care to explain all this to me then?” I asked, sliding down the wall and hugging my arms around me.

She sighed and bent down, drawing in the dirt with the stake, “This academy teaches people how to kill ‘other’ races, they call themselves the system claiming that they’re God’s messengers sent to cleanse the earth of anything even remotely paranormal or supernatural, but you’re right, by the way, it is bullshit, which is the only reason I’m still here” she told me, a hint of fury flickered in her voice.
“Okay...” I said, “How is that logical?”
“Well for one, no one has ever successfully broken away from the system it’s the reason I’m stuck here, I’m the last of my family, when I first started here they tried to break out once and for all because they’d lost faith in the system, it had become corrupt as the years went by, killing the ‘other’ races wasn’t always what they were about, they use to work alongside them to keep them hidden, it’s why we have the knowledge of them that we do, one day about ten years ago, some preacher came along claiming that it was the will of God to depose of them, not keep them safe, we betrayed them and they’d trusted us. My family tried to tell others that, but they had already been brainwashed, now they’re a bunch of religious nut cases thinking what they’re doing is the right thing”
“But it’s murder!” I cut in and I sounded like a naive little kid finally being told the truth about something I’d thought had been different my entire life.

“Yes, it is, but that’s why I have to stay here, I have to learn all that I can so I can break away and put a stop to them I don’t care if it kills me, I’d die for this cause” she was so passionate about this and now, it really was logical, it made sense, what she wanted to do and seeing as I was how stuck here, I suppose I could always lend a helping hand. But now that I thought about it, I looked back over all the history I’d learnt from being at high school and really, this was no different, only it didn’t involve taking over a country, it was done in secret, but the concept was still the same, someone thinking they know better and leading a bunch of other numb skulls to think the same.
I sighed, “This world ceases to change” I muttered, “Are we destined to be stuck like this forever?” I looked toward the sky, not sure who I was really talking too.
“What?” Cassiel asked, I’d almost forgotten she was there.
I smiled, “I believe in your cause Cassiel and I’m willing to put my life on the line to help you in any way that I can” I told her, a smile spread across her face, and something told me she’d never been that happy in her life before.
She leapt at me and wrapped her arms around me, tears escaping from her eyes, but she didn’t sob, which was good, I was bad with sobbing girls, of any age, but still, I hugged her back.

The following morning we walked into the gym, apparently the combat session’s were done in pairs, but up until now no one had ever wanted anything to do with Cassiel, her family was considered a disgrace and the only reason they seemed to be keeping her around is that they couldn’t afford to let her go because she knew too much, which made sense when you thought about it, you can’t run a corrupt organization and let the weasel go when they know far too much, it’s better to keep them under your watchful eye where you would be more likely to notice if something went wrong.
My timetable looked something like this:
• First period combat training
• Second period Nosferatu anatomy and kill theory
• Third period sparring
• Fourth period supernatural anatomy
• Lunch
• Fifth period Supernatural history
• Sixth period weapons handling and maintance

Much more interesting than your average high school if you asked me, but I had a lot of catching up to do, so according to Cassiel, we’d be spending a lot of nights in the library, which wasn’t a good thing seeing as I’d lose sleep, but it would make me a better fighter so I didn’t complain.
We dropped to the middle of the gym, there were apparently a few gyms filled with training rooms, but no one wanted to be anywhere near Cassiel, which worked out better for us. We had a pile of books to follow techniques and an instructor would come around and check that we were actually doing the work, answer any questions and correcting any techniques which needed it.
Cassiel threw me an extension text book, I was guessing that she’d surpassed everyone here, “So you’ve taken plenty of combat classes in the human world” she said, I was guessing she had access to my file, somehow, I didn’t really want to find out how.
“I have” I clarified.
“You know, if you do well this week, you’ll be able to sit for your black belt next week, you’ll be the first Skinlink in America to have a black belt” she said, flicking through a book, I gave a small smile, she wouldn’t have seen, she was took lost in the book. I also had training in kick-boxing and just flat out boxing, my dad told me a girl should know how to protect herself, my mother being against it, but never stopping me if I wanted to do it. Skinlink, that’s what they people in the system called themselves I wasn’t about to question it.