“Now it is time for your initiation into this school.” The woman said as a muscly man with a thick brown beard walked in with a large box in his hands. Despite the chill in the air his dress shirt was drenched in sweat.

“I’m Ms Lika, Your headmaster. This is Mr Fitz, Your physical education teacher.” She motioned to the man who had just entered. He waved, dropped the box next to Ms Lika and left.

“These,” Ms Lika pulled a packet out of the box, “are your uniforms. You are required to wear them every day apart from weekends. I expect you to wear every part of it, including the tie.” She eyed a few people.

“Don’t worry about sizes, they will adjust automatically.” She said as she began handing them out. From what I could tell, the girls had skirts and the boys had long pants. It was going to be hell in summer.

As she finished handing out the uniforms she started talking again. “All of you sitting here right now are a cohort. You will all take the same classes together. Not all of you are the same age, but the younger students do not have to worry about doing the same level work as the seniors.” She paused as she waited for people to stop talking. “Now, we are going to do a little bonding activity. Everybody get in a circle.”

People shuffled around, not bothering to get off the floor. Wilden sat on my right side, another boy sat at my left. He had cool hair that kept changing colour, right now it was red slowly changing to blue. His skin was tanned and he looked short, I couldn’t really tell because he was sitting down.

“You’re going to go around in a circle, telling everybody who you are and what you are.” She pointed at a blonde girl with golden skin and a flowy dress on. Her skin was covered in freckles.

“I…I’m Arihart Perritt. I’m a shapeshifter.” Her voice was light and her accent was British. I was beginning to realise most of us were from different countries. Wilden sounded Australian like me, I wondered if we were the only Australians here?

“I’m Circa Koben. I’m a witch.” I couldn’t place her accent but she was definitely Asian with curly black hair and red glasses that were too big for her face.

Eventually it got around to me. I was not keen to announce my race, well races since I was a hybrid.

“I’m Lazarus Riveheart. I’m…” I really didn’t want to say it. “I’m a demon.” I said quietly. I watched as peoples expressions turned to horror. I looked over to Wilden who was still looking at me with the same smile he had been all day. This time I smiled back at him.

I looked over to the other boy next to me who had shuffled over a bit and was giving me side glances as if I would attack him at any moment. Despite not remembering much, the looks of fear were still very familiar to me.

“I’m Daniel Omartian. I’m an alien.” The boy next to me stated. He wasn’t ashamed of his race but I saw his expression sadden as he looked at peoples disgusted looks. I gave him a slight smile of understanding, he relaxed a little. Maybe I was getting onto his good side.

The only other weird race here was the girl opposite me who was a leprechaun, an Irish one with an Irish accent, it was very stereotypical.

“Okay. We have quite the variety of people here.” Ms Lika said.

“Most of us are American and a werewolf.” A girl named Cody pointed out.

“Yes, but other cohorts are far less diverse. Most are made up of people from the same country.” Ms Lika said. She got us to stand up and led us out of the Hall.

I just really wanted to know what was going on. All I knew was my parents, whom I didn’t remember at all, signed me over to go to a strange school in an unknown location, most likely so I couldn’t harm anyone.

Was I that dangerous? One thing I remember is I had spent the majority of my life trying to protect people from me. I never really got close to anyone, I had no friends only acquaintances, and I kept my distance from people. It was a very lonely way of living but I was determined to be the person I wanted to be and not what everybody expects me to be. Sometimes I wished people would see that, yes, I was a demon, dark and cold with no remorse, but a part of me wasn’t. Part of me was pure and light, the true embodiment of good. But even when people discover that side of me they are blinded by the darkness.

What people don’t understand is that my races balance each other out. Occasionally, one will be more prominent then the other, but not to the extent people would expect from someone like me.

“Riveheart? Are you okay?” Wilden waved his hand in front of my face.

“Sorry, I zoned out for a second.” I had no idea where we were in the school now, we were in some type of building.

“Do you do that a lot?”

“I don’t know.” I had to figure everything out again. I had no idea what I liked doing or my habits. I was a stranger to myself now. “Where are we?”

“Ms Lika said this is the boys dorm. The girls all went off with another teacher, I don’t remember her name but she was wearing all white which I found weird.” Wilden liked to ramble, I could tell that already.

“We’re in the dorm. Okay.” I wondered how dorms work. Was it like living with roommates, or like having your own apartment in an apartment building.

I watched as Ms Lika walked over to what looked like a reception and started handing out a sheet of paper and a key to each of the seven boys here, including me.

“These are your room keys and numbers. Each of you are on the same floor and you are all the only ones on that floor, it is designated to your cohort. Don’t be surprised by your rooms, they are the same size as everybody else’s. This building may look extremely small on the outside but it is magic. There are more floors then you’d ever think. Now off you go. I challenge you to find your floor and rooms by yourself. If you get lost there are maps everywhere.” Ms Lika left the building.

“How are we supposed to find floor 211?” The curly blonde haired kid, Charles, asked.

“How about we start with the stairs?” Wilden pointed to the only way out of this little room other than the exit.

“Okay. Good decision.” Charles said as everybody followed Wilden up.

Charles would have fallen down the stairs if it weren’t for Daniel catching him. I got up the stairs and discovered what had made him lose his footing.

At the top of the stairs was the fanciest place I have ever seen, I guessed since my memory was gone. It looked like the lobby of the grandest five star hotel in existence. There were white leather chairs everywhere arranged throughout the large room in small clusters with groups of people lounging around in them. There was even a snack bar. Everybody walked through the room to the end where we found the elevator area, I swear there were over fifty elevators but I guess with over two hundred floors they would need a lot of them.