And that's the beginning of my doom.
Charlotte
What was that?
What on earth had I gotten myself into? Who walked up to someone on their first day, branded
them as theirs, and then threatened their life in the same breath like it was the most natural thing on earth?
I stood there after he turned away and tried to remember how to breathe properly because my lungs had apparently forgotten how to do their job. The air constricted against my ribcage, refusing to move the way it should as my knees felt so weak that I nearly stumbled, and the only reason I didn't end up on the floor was because my hand shot out and grabbed the dented locker beside me.
His dark promises still lingered in the air as the hallway had not gone back to normal around me. Students were craning their necks, watching, and the looks on their faces were fearful in a submissive way yet satisfied in a way that made my stomach turn.
When I glanced around and accidentally met a few of their gazes, they quickly looked away, but that didn't stop the curl of their lips or the murmuring that started up again the moment my eyes moved elsewhere.
For the first time since stepping through the portal, the thought crossed my mind that maybe this had been a terrible mistake. I genuinely hoped it wasn't too late to opt out, pack my bag, and go back to the place that had kept me hidden for nineteen years.
I shook my head slightly and forced the thought away, trying to convince myself that things couldn't possibly be as bad as they seemed. This was only the first day. Everything had been dramatic and unsettling, but surely it couldn't continue like this.
Right?
I opened my locker and took out the things I needed, stopped my hands from trembling while keeping my face neutral, and reminded myself that they were watching for a reaction and I was not going to give them one.
I had been given a free day as a newcomer since I wasn't scheduled for classes today. I could tour the building and get settled. That was the plan. I looked down at the map the admin woman had handed me and sighed. The school was enormous. A sprawling, labyrinthine nightmare of corridors and wings, and the map looked like someone had drawn it while thinking of something else entirely.
I could barely make sense of which direction was which as I turned it sideways, upside down then back again.
The urge to find my dormitory room and lie face-down on a bed was strong. I slung my bag properly over my shoulder and started walking down the hallway; the muttering of students behind me faded as I moved further down the hallway.
Someone said something about me being doomed, and another voice laughed, but I had decided to treat all of that like background noise.
I was tired, overwhelmed, and trying very hard not to think about the fact that a terrifying stranger had just declared ownership over me in the middle of a hallway full of witnesses. The last thing I needed right now was to dwell on their gossip.
I just wanted to eat, rest, and not overthink.
I rounded a corner and walked straight into what felt like a cold wall. The impact nearly knocked the air out of my lungs as it sent me stumbling forward, already bracing for the floor when a pair of hands caught me before I could fall. Strong cold fingers wrapped around my arms and steadied me easily, pulling me upright as if I weighed nothing at all.
I blinked and looked up.
If the guy who had just threatened me in the hallway was ruggedly handsome in a way that made you nervous, the one holding me now was something else entirely. Dangerously good-looking was the phrase my brain offered, which was unhelpful but accurate.
Heat crept up my cheeks before I could stop it, and I had the very embarrassing thought that everyone in this school seemed unfairly attractive.
He had short-styled black hair and dark grey eyes that looked almost silver in the corridor light, and he was taller than I had realized from the stumble, close enough that I had to tilt my head back to properly see his face. I blinked as I felt my blood or my body surge from the way he was staring at me.
So intense.
Something strange happened, calling to me while I was lost in his eyes. I didn't know when I lifted my hand, reaching toward his face to touch it.
His eyes narrowed the moment he clocked what I was doing, going from a shocked expression that had been there before to something closed off and guarded, and he let go of my arms.
Without his grip keeping me upright, gravity did what gravity usually does, and I dropped straight down. I landed hard on my backside with a thud that echoed slightly in the hallway, which was undignified and probably deserved for trying to touch a stranger's face.
I sat there for a second, dazed, trying to work out what had just come over me. His gaze dropped down to where I was sitting on the floor, and whatever expression he had been wearing shifted into something colder. The chill coming from him figuratively made me shiver.
He stared at me with disgust like I'd done something offensive, and he darted his tongue out briefly, and I caught a glimpse of it—a tongue piercing, a small silver bar that caught the light.
The fascination that moved through me was instant and completely inappropriate given the circumstances.
"Look where you're going, human." he said, drawing the word, 'human' flatly and walked away before I could even open my mouth to comment on his piercing.
I watched him go from my spot on the floor and didn't get up right away. My hand was still tingling from where he had been. The sparks didn't stop, not even after his figure disappeared around the next corridor, and I sat there with my palm turned up and tried to understand what that was supposed to mean.