After being yanked from my nightmare and forced awake, I joined the rest of the Beta dorm, gathered into a sea of identical uniforms, our white shirts, dark vests, pressed skirts and dress pants blending into one tidy mass. Often there was the pop of disuniformity of the occasional jacket or cardigan.
"Morning. Did yall sleep well~?" Saph smiled, standing atop the banister.
No, I laughed inwardly to myself.
The answer was quick, but the reason…
I couldn't remember the entirety of my dream, but something about it clung to me. There were bits and pieces of the dream that I could remember. The main thing I remembered was rain.
Endless, cold, suffocating rain and—
I frowned faintly.
There had been someone there.
Right, there was a girl—and there was something off about her—I didn't really remember.
I swallowed, adjusting the cuff of my sleeve a little too tightly. At some point, someone had entered my room and laid out a fresh uniform. I didn't remember hearing the door.
Had I really slept through that?
…Or—
No.
"I didn't—" I muttered under my breath, the words catching awkwardly as they formed. "It was just a dream."
My fingers twitched faintly.
It was just a dream.
It had to be.
A slow breath slid into my lungs, catching halfway.
There… had been a voice. Or something like one? And something else. There was a pull—no, not just water, there was pressure. Something like ropes wrapping around my arms, my legs, then the feeling of not being able to breathe—
My stomach twisted.
Okay. No. Stop.
Stop.
The memory of the dream slipped again, leaving a hollow unease behind.
Either way, I'd managed to hide mother's revolver in the waistband of my skirt. The vest they'd given me was loose enough that you couldn't tell the gun was there with it layered over top.
"Let's see." Saph took a quick glance around before nodding. "Looks like everyone's here. Let's get going, shall we?"
A couple of students started toward the door.
"Oh, not that way," Saph grinned. "This way. Voyager."
*Ttak!"
She snapped her fingers.
There was suspended silence for a split second before the world tore into paper.
White pages erupted around us, a storm of fluttering sheets swallowing the hall whole. They spun and folded and collided, obscuring everything in a blinding, weightless swirl.
I blinked, rubbing my eyes.
For some reason, my mind drifted again.
A voice.
T r us t Th e m —
Trust… who?
The thought came incomplete, like the rest of it had been cut away.
My pulse spiked. Should I tell someone?
'Excuse me, I think I dreamed about—something—and it might have meant something?'
Yeah. That would go well. I exhaled slowly, forcing my shoulders to relax.
Eventually, the white scene of glowing, fluttering pages thinned. The paper storm collapsed inwards, revealing that we were now somewhere else.
A massive theater.
"What the fuck?" someone breathed next to me. "She transported all of us?"
There had to be hundreds of us. Maybe more. We weren't the only ones there, either—there were flashes of pages as the student council president, Yuri, and the secretary, Liam, teleported in their own respective groups.
The curved seating rose in tiers so high the uppermost rows of red velvet seats vanished into shadows. The theater was formed of polished dark wood while ornate brass railings caught the stage lights. The ceiling arched overhead in a sweeping dome painted with an elaborate mural of constellations and flowering vines.
Chandeliers hung suspended from iron chains, while crystal droplets refracting gold light spilled across the room in a warm comfort.
The room smelled faintly of paint.
I glanced around me. I exhaled slowly. Everything's normal. I kneaded the bridge of my nose. Just a dream and stress.
Just—
*Crackle, crackle, jijijijijijikkkkkk*
Lights suddenly flooded the theater stage along with the crackle and shriek of a microphone. "Welcome all, both first years and returning students. Please, find a seat."
We all turned to see a tall spectacled man with neatly jelled hair standing by a lectern on the stage. He wore an immaculate suit with posture so straight it bordered on lamp post levels.
"Sit," he repeated.
There was the sound of a couple hundred theater seats being pulled down. I lowered myself into one, slowly crossing my legs. The man then cleared his throat and snapped his fingers.
*Cheol-keok*
Behind the man, a massive projector screen lit up along with the sound of a weighty presentation side being slid into place with a clunk. "Welcome, all. I'm Proctor Doe." His dull voice echoed, amplified through the microphone.
Murmurs broke out immediately.
"Doe? Like John Doe?"
"Who even is this guy?"
I rolled my eyes. Some people really had a death wish. Wasn't this an elite academy?
Proctor Doe smiled, a sly curve that didn't quite meet his eyes. "I'll wait," he said softly. "Unless you would prefer I summon Madame Rachel and security. I'm sure you would love to be acquainted with them."
The murmurs died instantly.
Pfft. How interesting~
Doe adjusted his glasses with two fingers. The lenses caught the stage light, flashing white and briefly hiding his eyes entirely.
"That's better," he said as his gaze swept across the audience slowly.
Doe's glasses gleamed as he pushed them higher on the bridge of his nose, and an unsettling smile came over his face. "Welcome, all of you, to Chrysanthemum academy."
The proctor waited before raising his voice again, his words sharp and jarring in the microphone. "Before we begin, there are certain things I am required to address."
Doe's glasses gleamed. "I'll leave it to our guest speaker. Please, come in."
Doe waved to someone backstage, and a woman stepped forward, her dress shoes clacking softly against the polished wood of the theater stage.
*Clack, clack, clack."
She wore a black trenchcoat and a matching top hat with a single silver stripe, while a long white ponytail cascaded in an aurora over her shoulders. A smooth blue silk cravat was cinched around her throat. On one hand she held a polished walking cane. On her breast shone a golden badge.
…Mn. She was young but unmistakably authoritative.
The air shifted the moment she appeared.
The woman exuded a type of presence that I'd never felt before, her mere being there almost crushing us all—save for the student council members and proctor Doe.
She stepped up to the podium and gently took the microphone before speaking in a confident voice. She kind of was the picture-perfect of what I thought Alphas were.
"Hello, everyone." Her deep grey eyes flickered as she cased the theater hall. "I am Inspector Aerel, and I will be the commanding officer of your constabulary detachment and cadet program this year."