Severing Sanguine: A Companion Book to The Fallocaust Series Book 2 (51 page)

“I would think Silas would be thrilled to see you attending college and becoming a use to this family, instead of being a poltergeist under the bed,” Elish said casually. Well, I suppose he still had to get his bitten words in. “Do you not think so? Perhaps you can use this opportunity the same way you used fleeing after you blinded him and seared his face. Use your freedom to find confidence and become a chimera, don’t you agree?”

Did I agree? I didn’t like Elish, and I was sure he was somehow behind Silas’s plane being shot down, but I had no proof and he had direct control over how the next five months of my life would go. Honestly the prospect of going to college was starting to excite me, and the prospect that everyone would think I was a normal person sealed that excitement.

I had never been a normal arian before. I had always looked like a monster.

Maybe… this would be something great. How could it not be great?

I picked up another white tooth and slipped it over my front pointed teeth. They must have had my dental records on file because they knew I didn’t have two front biting teeth like normal arians. I just had three small pointed ones. This particular tooth was wide enough to slip over two instead of one.

“I agree,” I said finally and I felt Nero sigh before rubbing my back supportively. “I’ll do it… if I can just be normal and look normal. I’ve never looked like everyone else before.”

Elish smiled thinly and put his laptop into his briefcase then, with a click, he closed it.

He rose and so did I to be polite, and when he held his hand out to shake mine… I took it too.

“Then welcome to the College of Skytech, Samuel Fallon. I think you will find it a quite rewarding place to be.”

My appearance had been an albatross around my neck since I could remember. Even when I was a baby the other children were either scared of me or they hated and made fun of me. Then as I grew up it became not only a source of teasing and being left out of things… but it became a danger to my life. I was enemy number one to Gill and when I was out on my own, surviving in the greywastes, I was chased out of town with the threats of being shot or chopped up for food.

I had never asked to look like this. I had never wanted to have pointed teeth and blood-red eyes. And even though I was accepted and loved in this family – I still wish I looked different. It would be nice to meet a person and shake their hand without seeing that flicker of apprehension, or nervousness. The knowledge that before you even had a chance to open your mouth they’ve already judged you; they were already afraid of you.

Normal people didn’t know how lucky they had it. I would never just be Sanguine; I would always be a monster.

Until today.

I smiled, but even though the initial smile was just to see my new teeth, as soon as I saw the white, normal human teeth I smiled even wider. Then to my own surprise a laugh broke through and I just stood in front of the door to the college laughing at my own reflection.

My brown eyes were light and full of happiness and I didn’t even care that there were five people surrounding me, going in and out of the building, I wasn’t scared of them. I had no reason to be scared of anyone! I was completely normal and no one knew I was a chimera and no one knew underneath those contacts and veneers… I was hiding red eyes and teeth that resembled a shark’s.

Though on the same note Nero had given me a big pill bottle full of blue Xanax pills and I was currently taking several of them a day. I might be happy to be going to my first day of school today but Crow was still an anxious dark cloud inside of my head. He wasn’t loud when I was on Xanax and most often I didn’t even see him in the physical world. Crow didn’t like that and he was angry once I got off of them but I knew he understood. I needed him quiet for school because I didn’t want everyone to think I was crazy, especially since they didn’t know I was a chimera. So every day before school I would make sure I had a good amount of Xanax in my system just so school would keep being fun.

I glanced behind me at a lady with glasses who was giving me a bizarre look, and said a cheerful hello before walking through the automatic doors into the College of Skytech.

A week had gone by since Elish had given me the news that I was CoS’s newest student. In that time Elish’s sengil Loren, and Kinny (who apparently were dating which I thought was cute) were let loose on my apartment and now on top of the furniture that was included in the price, I had it stocked full of food, clothing, a brand-new big television and gaming systems and even a bushmaster assault rifle that Nero included just in case I felt like ‘showing someone what’s what’. The apartment looked wonderful; they even painted it though that meant I no longer had a pink bathroom. The bathroom had been painted a rich brown and the counters shiny black, and it was full of soap and other things to make me look nice.

Last night Nero had dropped off my school supplies too and had given me a remote phone that I could use to reach him. I wasn’t supposed to use it at the college though since only chimeras, sengils, and cicaros got remote phones and it would look suspicious. Nero had said that six of my brothers were going to CoS and I didn’t know what they looked like. Nero said only a few of them had different colour eyes and hair, the others appeared normal.

I dug out my school schedule from my pocket and looked at it, my backpack on my back full of brand-new textbooks and a binder that zipped up. Last night I had organized everything and had made special sections for every subject I was taking. I had two subjects today and most days but my Friday’s were free.

“Psychology… with Professor Mantis Dekker,” I mumbled. “Well, I hope he has forgiven me for injuring him during that therapy session.”

I looked at a split in the hallway. I had three possible directions I could go in. A white sign was posted in front of a vending machine full of food but I didn’t recognize what the abbreviations meant. Though I decided to take a guess that Psy was Psychology and 101 was posted beside my schedule so I’m assuming that was the right place to be. If not… maybe today I would just pretend that was the right classroom.

After Psychology I had introduction to English with Elish. Elish had told me that would be something I would be good at. He said I also would be sharing most classes with the chimera brother that had pointed teeth like me, a man named Jack. The prospect of seeing him filled my stomach full of insects but my identity was hidden safely behind colour contacts and veneers so I knew I could handle it. I hoped once my generation and the others realized that Sami Fallon was really Sanguine Dekker they wouldn’t be angry with me, but then again it wasn’t like this was my idea or my doing. Silas had wanted me to stay hidden until I was more prepared to be integrated into the family and if there was one thing I had learned since coming into this family… it was that no one questioned King Silas’s decisions, least of all the second generation.

My other classes were something called 4-point Science, World History, Sociology and something called FSS which was Fallocaust Survival Studies. I don’t know why Elish chose that class for me, I had survived just fine in the greywastes and I didn’t need a class to teach me anything. Maybe eventually I would be a professor for that class, that would be –
In a flash my entire body smacked against something hard. I looked up from my schedule just as my feet got swept out from underneath me and fell right on my ass, the schedule flying out of my hand and my backpack, which had been slung over my left shoulder, slamming onto the ground.

There was a crash in front of me and a rustling of books, one of which slid over to me. “Fucking watch it, dumb shit!” an angry male voice snapped.

I grabbed the book and quickly jumped to my feet, and at the same speed the angry person who I had slammed into did the same.

I knew immediately it was a chimera. Just my luck.

The young man was my age, and had large, bubblegum pink eyes that were framed by wavy matching pink hair, though I could tell from his shaped blond eyebrows that his hair was dyed. He had a thin, triangle-shaped face and small ears adorned with over half a dozen rainbow earrings. He was handsome, clean-shaven, and had the face of a model but currently he was giving me a pissed off sneer.

The man snatched the book I had picked up for him out of my hand and gave me sweep of his gaze.

“Watch where you’re going,” he said angrily and tucked the book under his arm. Then he narrowed his eyes at me and for a second time, swept his pink eyes over my body. “You’re new here?”

I stared at him; he was such a… brilliant shade of pink, every part of him. Even his clothing was bright colours that were dazzling to stare at. Besides his pink hair and eyes and his rainbow earrings, he was dressed in a pink plaid button down, open with a tight-fitting purple shirt, and pink jeans that hugged his body with a purple belt speckled with rhinestones. He even had bracelets on his wrists, and a rainbow beaded necklace. And his shoes were pink high-tops with spiral laces.

My brother was weird.

“Yeah, I am…” I said, nervously clawing my thighs, though it was hard to get any pain into my system since I was wearing black jeans, not as tight-fitting as this new brother but they… as Nero said ‘made me look hot as shit’. “I’m…”

I stopped when the pink brother held up a hand. “I don’t care who you are, you should only be concerned with who
I am
. I’m Valentine Dekker, or Valen. I’m a chimera. You would do well to know that. I’m a part of the royal family of Skyfall, so remember that next time you decide not to watch where you’re going.”

Before I could even form a response, or get angry at the rude attitude I had gotten, Valen stormed past me in a huff.

I turned and watched him go, and though I was ticked at this rude and rather arrogant introduction I didn’t know what to say or what to do about it. It wasn’t like I could tell him I was also a chimera… I would pay him back for his attitude one day. I might be new and maybe it had taken me months to become comfortable around people… but I was a chimera and a strong chimera. I wasn’t going to let anyone walk over me ever again.

Ignoring the several students that had been watching our interaction, I picked up my fallen backpack and headed towards where the arrow was pointing me. Sure enough, I found my Psychology class.

The room was half full of students murmuring to themselves and immediately I felt a jolt of anxiety go through me. There were about fifteen men and several women sitting at desks facing a whiteboard that said
Psychology
101
. Not just students either, there were people of all ages exchanging notes, looking at textbooks and even a couple of them staring at laptops. Elish said I would be assigned a laptop but I would have to wait if I wanted a newer one and not a ‘brick’ as he called it. Newer though just meant that it had been created closer to the Fallocaust. I don’t think the technology was there to actually create laptops yet.

I scanned the room but I didn’t see anyone with different colour eyes or hair, and I didn’t see anyone who matched what Jack looked like in my head. So I quickly walked through the rows of desks and found one in the back.

The nerves quickly turned into giddiness as I faced the whiteboard. I couldn’t believe I was actually in a real life classroom about to learn real things. What would Nan think of me now? Would Silas be proud of me too? I was far away from the safety of being under a bed, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t extremely proud of myself.

As I waited for Professor Mantis to come into the room I busied myself organizing my binder and my pens, taking some time to read the posters of old men’s faces with inspirational quotes underneath. The classroom reminded me a lot of the ones I saw in movies. White walls and posters, and a television that was attached to the ceiling, the only thing that was interesting to look at was Mantis’s desk which was metal and had a nice leather chair on it I would’ve loved to sit in.

I organized my pens by colour at first, but then I decided to organize them by alphabetical name. I had a blue pen for writing and a mechanical pencil and a sharpener, and then I had a red marker which was similar to the one Silas marked my math work with, a yellow highlighter, and then a brown eraser for mistakes. I wasn’t great at writing yet but I was improving, my skills were mostly focused on reading. I was excellent at reading.

I was too busy organizing things to realize the class had filled up with people. Though to my embarrassment I realized that not only was no one sitting beside me, the only person in the back row was four seats away and he was overweight and kind of looked like Chris Farley.

My shoulders slumped. I guess even though I looked normal I was still going to be a pariah. The classroom was full, every single seat except for the four empty ones between me and the bigger gentlemen. At least, if there was any silver lining, this would calm my anxieties with being close to people. Even being in the back of the classroom was good because it meant I wouldn’t have to worry about people sneaking up behind me.

There was a click of a door closing. I looked to the front of the room and saw Mantis Dekker enter, dressed in a suit and dark blue tie and shoes that shined under the florescent lights above us. He was looking nice, though I saw a red scar on his cheek from where Crow had bit him. I wonder if I should apologize for that…

To my fascination the entire buzzing room got dead quiet as soon as Mantis put his briefcase down on his desk. Every buzzing noise, every murmur of voices, was stifled so quickly it was like I had suddenly gone deaf.

The clicking of the latches filled my ears, and I could hear every paper he picked up out of that leather case. My chimera hearing did the sudden shift in atmosphere no favours either, because as Mantis took out a leather-bound notebook and a long black object that looked like a pointer, I was assaulted by the sounds of almost two dozen hearts around me pick up to a rapid thrumming pace.

“Welcome –”

To my humiliation I jumped and let out a surprised gasp as Mantis spoke. My hearing had been so tuned into what he was doing the sudden loud voice felt like a firecracker going off inside of my head.

Everyone turned to look at me and an intense rush of heat completely took over my body. I murmured an apology and pulled my hoody up over my head. I almost didn’t wear my new black and red hoody to school today due to the nice weather but now it was as valuable as air to me. I did up the pull strings on it and stared at my binder until, to my relief, Mantis started talking again.

“Welcome back, I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. We have a lot to cover today and as a reminder: exams are in September and those who pass will be welcomed to Advanced Psychology which will be starting in December. Those who have missed most of this semester –” Mantis looked right at me and I shrunk down even more. “Can take the exam and if they can prove they’re capable of handling the work, will also be welcome to attend my class.”

I wasn’t sure if I was going to pass that. I didn’t even know what degree I was supposed to be getting or if I was even supposed to be getting one. Elish had only wanted me to start being social and learning more things. Expanding my knowledge or stuff like that. Maybe next time I saw him I would ask what the end goal was supposed to be… I wonder what Valen, my new brother, was taking? He wasn’t in this class which was a relief.