It was bright, the sky was blue and the ground was white. It looked like I was standing on a cliff in a picture, only the ground had all been cut away. By the edge of the cliff was a person I don’t think I’d ever seen before. He was big, and strong, facing away from me. He was wearing some sort of armor, with long fabrics draped behind him. I wanted to see his face, or speak, but I had no voice, and I couldn’t move. I could only watch as the wind picked up and his hair began to sway in the breeze.

I woke up suddenly, my alarm was blaring. The first thing I noticed aside from this was that I was cold, I didn’t even remember to get under the covers before sleeping. I kicked out my legs, I was uncomfortable as it was, so no point in laying in bed any longer. I shut off my alarm and sat up. Yikes. My face stung, my fist stung, my legs were sore and my shin was also stinging. I probably looked like a wreck, too.

I stared at my room with distaste, it felt like a mess now. I went to my closet and quickly dressed for the day, before I left to continue my daily wake up routine. The bathroom mirror confirmed my suspicions, the bridge of my nose was discolored, but it wasn’t too bad. I was lucky it didn’t break. After washing up and sneaking a banana for breakfast, I went back to my room and finished up getting my things on.

As I was finishing lacing up my boots I could hear talking coming from the kitchen area. My brother, probably on the phone. Mom’s never awake this early. I finished pulling my outerwear on, wearing a different scarf and hat today, and went to say hi to Jeromy on my way out. It was a simple interaction at first, we exchanged nods so I didn’t interrupt his phone call. It seemed work related. Then he tossed up his hand, and we made our usual passing handshake- only he held onto my hand in the end, and shot me a questioning look toward my bruised and scabbed up knuckles. I just shrugged, and freed my hand from his in answer.

The way to school was completely normal so far, perfect. I made it to my first lesson, the one I had with my favorite teacher, Professor Bruno. He nodded to me as I entered, and sat in my usual seat, just as usual. I set my bag down to start fishing for my notebooks, I was one of the ones who didn’t just bring their laptop to school. Which I was thankful for, after yesterday. My hand hit something sharp as it was thrust into the bag, surprising and actually kind of hurting me.

“Shh-...” I cut myself off from cursing, preferring not to appear like that type of person in front of Professor Bruno… Whatever that means. I pulled my backpack closer and opened it wider to look at what it was that nicked me and what I saw made me pale.

“Hey. Surprise.”

I snapped the backpack shut again, and looked around me, as if other people could hear it. Cautiously, I pulled the backpack up onto my lap, and opened it again. I glared at the talking hilt sitting atop my books.

“What are you doing in there?” I hissed, as quietly as possible, paranoid now that people are watching.

“That girl yesterday dropped me in your bag when you were running away.”

“I wasn’t-” I lowered my voice to a whisper, “I wasn’t running away.”

“You were. With your tail between your legs. It was pathetic.” I inhaled harshly, ready to throw a fit, until a few students passed by in front of me, reminding me of where I was. I looked back into the bag, and grabbed the handle of the hilt.

“We’ll talk later.” I said, shoving it further into the bag.

“Hey! No! Take me out, it’s boring in here!” I could hear the sword complaining, and I ignored it as best I could as I pulled the notebook out to be ready for class.

I went on through class listening as best I could, trying desperately to act like I was still normal. Which was made harder, because Prof. Bruno’s attention seemed to be more directed towards me than usual. I bowed my head, he probably saw me talking into my backpack like a total creep. Even then, I could occasionally hear it saying something in response to something during the lecture, or snark toward a student nearby who made a stupid comment.

It was a sweet relief when I was freed to go to my break hour. After that I had two more lectures, and I would be done with my friday classes. I met up with Emma at our usual spot in the entryway of the main hall, where there were chairs and couches set up for students waiting on rides or just hanging out between classes.

“Hey Em.” I sighed as I slouched into one of the cushions.

“Hey Finlay. You okay? You seem really tired.”

“Yeah, you wouldn’t believe the night I had last night.” I let my head fall back, and my eyes fall shut while I thought.

“Really? I didn’t take you for that kind of guy.” She laughed. My head went right back up.

“Wait what? What kind of guy.” She just laughed more.

“Y’know, going to college parties and stuff. Staying up and having fun instead of studying.”

“Uh. No. Big no. Not my scene.” I laughed with her, now that I had thought about it, it kind of did sound like that’s what I was referring to. “No, it’s... more complicated than that.”

“You’ll tell me later then won’t you?” She had that puppy dog look that only ever worked on her.

“Psh. Sure. Later.” I shrugged. Out of everyone I could think of, she would be the best person to talk to about it anyway, and I wanted to get it off my chest sooner or later. She looked like she wanted to say something, but someone coughing nearby got both our attention.

“Mr.Moira, I’m glad I was able to catch you.” Professor Bruno was there, to my surprise. “There were a few things in your paper I had questions about, I wanted to discuss them more thoroughly. Your friend can come too, it won’t take long.”

I looked at Emma, shrugged, then back to the Professor. I stood from the couch and stretched. He seemed to take this as an okay, and turned to go down the hallway nearby.

“To my office, please, thank you.”

Once there, he invited us to sit across from his desk as he shut the door. Taking his seat, he glanced at the paper, before setting it down.

“To be completely honest, Mr.Moira. I have no issues with your paper, it was very well done and the points were very concise and well thought out.” He explained, taking his glasses off to look at me directly.

“Then what exactly is the problem?”

“It’s a bit more personal. A few people have reached out to me, they seem to be concerned for you.”

“I-me?” My eyes widened, my mind began running with all sorts of things that could be brought up now. I didn’t want Emma to find out about all this ridiculous destiny stuff like this.

“Yes, I’ve been made aware you got into a fight with another student here, yesterday afternoon.” His head tilted and his face expressed concern.

“Oh. Ah, yeah. It’s fine now, thank you for your concern, but there’s no need to worry about that anymore.” I wouldn’t dare look at Emma to see her reaction to my fighting.

“But of course, it’s hard not to be concerned for my top student in this year’s class.” He smiled cheerily, he was known for bending over backwards for his students, so the flattery didn’t come as too much of a surprise. He said that to just about everyone he called into his office.

“Ahaha, thank you, Professor.” I was ready to leave now, it seemed like the conversation was over.

“Ah, and one more thing?”

“Yessir?”

“An old friend of mine told me you had stopped by his place yesterday as well, and something of his went missing. He’s wondering if you might’ve taken it by accident?” He pulled his chair away from his desk slightly. Professor Bruno knows Briar?

“Oh, yeah, someone dropped it into the wrong bag.” I fibbed lightly, “I was going to bring it back after lessons were over.”

“Oh, no need. I can bring it back over during my lunch break if you like?” He didn’t miss a beat. Like he knew the whole time I had it. Oh well, if he knew about this crap it was his deal not mine. As long as I could get my own head out of it.

“Yeah, sure. One sec.” I stood, and pulled my backpack around to my front, and began to ruffle through. While I did this, the Professor also stood from his seat, and went around the desk. Presumably to accept the item easier, I wasn’t sure, nor did I think about it. Emma stood as well, now standing between the professor and I, getting ready to leave.

“You aren’t actually about to hand me over to this guy, right?” The hilt asked as soon as it was in view. I didn’t answer. “Hold on, Finlay, right? You can’t give me to this guy. Seriously. He’s tricking you.” I made a face at the hilt, but his words made me pause. I looked back up to Professor Bruno, who was still waiting patiently, his smile had not wavered.

“Mr.Moira? Is something wrong?”

The professor was standing too still, like he was faking patience with his breath held instead of casually just waiting on a student to bring him an item.

“No… Well, yes, actually. It looks like I forgot it at home. It must have fallen out when I was getting my papers.”

“Oh, thank god, Fin.” The hilt sighed as I begun to let it settle back into the bag. The professor lowered his head, and the expression took on a darker note when he next spoke.

“Now Finlay, I don’t want to have to write you up to the dean for lying to your professor for stealing.” He began, my eyes widened, and my grip on the hilt suddenly tightened. “So please, give me the Star-crossed Wrath.”

Emma’s face showed her utter surprise as well, she looked back and forth between the professor and I. She had gone from being confused watching me quietly to being frightened and watching us both in the span of a second.

“Professor? I don’t… Know what you mean?” I could feel my pulse climbing to my throat again, that sense of danger just began to rise. All of a sudden it felt like yesterday being attacked all over again.

“I won’t ask you again, Finlay.” He moved in a flash, he grabbed Emma, and a pen he had concealed in his hand was soon pressed against her jugular in a move that I assumed was supposed to be threatening. It was, too, but only for a moment. Emma gripped his arm by the wrist and elbow as she leant back, and then bent forward again in a rapid movement. The teacher was quite literally slung over her shoulder onto the floor between them. She didn’t waste another second.

“Come on!” She was already running for the door, where I followed her closely, still shocked by the turn of events. We both tried the handle at the same time, resorting to slamming against the door. It was locked, or stuck. It wasn’t opening. I turned to find Professor Bruno rising to his feet again, his grin had only grown, distorted. It matched the look of the people in the alleyway last night.

“Use me, dumbass!” the hilt, still in my bag shouted loud and clear. I had no idea what to do, so I just followed the command. As I swung it out before me, I looked at it urgently.

“How? You’re just a hilt!”

“Point and swing.”

I closed my eyes as the Professor ran at me, and swung the hilt wildly, fully expecting to just hit him over the head or something. I heard a sigh from the sword, like it got a good stretch, and I met a slight resistance that gradually grew, before my arm stopped moving altogether.

The horror I met when I opened my eyes might’ve traumatized me. I expected a fountain of blood to spray at any moment, at the slightest movement. Emma had gasped and gone silent beside me, fitting to my own state of mind.

Professor Bruno was standing over me, his arms had gone limp at his sides. The hilt was now a full sword, the blade made of physical light… and it was sticking clean through to the other side of the professor. This wasn’t even the most terrifying part. It was that his face was just above mine, and that grin, that unsettling, evil, warped grin was still sat upon his face. His eyes began to flutter, slowly, they rolled backward into his head, and the smile finally fell. The now lifeless body sagged, but rather than hitting the floor in a clump, it’s as if it dissolved into the air. First as a powder, or ash like he was incinerated, then vaporized, and there was no trace of the man left. The door, slowly, creaked open. Emma had never taken her hand off the handle, and as we were reintroduced to the outside of the room, the Star-crossed Wrath faded back into the hilt, just as it was before.

I was still frozen, in the end, it was Emma who moved first. Instead of running and leaving me behind like I might’ve expected, she grabbed my arm tight and pulled me out the door. She didn’t stop until we were outside and around the back of the building, as private as we could get in this university. She had me pressed against the walls, a scared, angry confusion written across her face.

“What the hell was that?!” Her tone of voice matched her expression.

“I-I… I don’t know- I don’t-” I finally found my voice again, my mind assaulted by the sudden reality I was facing. I’m never gonna get to be normal again, am I? My whole, short life is going to be filled with insane people attacking me and- I looked at Emma. I felt sick. He had threatened to kill her. He invited her along specifically for leverage, hadn’t he? What if they knew where I lived? What if they were on my way to my mother?!

“I have to go! I need to check on my mom!” I pushed myself away from the wall, and realized at the same time I was still holding the hilt. I shoved it back into my pack, ignoring it’s protests. I didn’t get far, Emma latched onto my arm again.

“Hold on! You know something! You have to tell me!” She spoke urgently, and I turned just slightly, guilty.

“I don’t totally know. I got dragged into an antique store near my house and warned about some insane sounding destiny crap and I ignored it and ran away. Now the people in my life are all in danger or something so I need to go. Now. Please, I’ll text you later.” I didn’t want to be seen on the verge of tears, I hoped she couldn’t detect the waver in my voice. She gave me a sorrowful expression.

“Okay. You aren’t off the hook. I’m getting an explanation.” She finally let go, and I began to step away.

“Thank you Emma, I swear I’ll try.” My pace picked up for a few steps before I turned around, “And don’t tell anyone about this!” And I whirled back around, before making a mad sprint for a way home.