I don’t know how long I spent in the training room with Nick and his friends but it was well past dark outside when I left. I completely forgot about the exam and the results. Until I opened the doors to the dormitories and found everyone buzzing anxiously by a screen on the wall. 

I scan the room, finding Lucy chatting happily with some dark haired man in round glasses. Her special ability must be to pick me out in any crowd because she spots me immediately and abandons whatever conversation she was just entertaining to march over to me with a deep scowl.

“Where were you? I was worried that you went off and did something stupid. And, by the looks of it, my suspicions were correct.” She grips my jaw and turns my face over to observe the deepening bruise. I swat her away.

“Whatever. I’m here now, aren’t I?”

“You’re insufferable.” She says with a look. “How was your exam anyways?”

“I don’t want to talk about it. How was yours?”

“It was fine,” she says, like it was no big deal. To her it probably wasn't. “Our results should be in any minute.” As soon as the words leave her mouth, I see a list pop up on the screen. Everyone surges to the front, eager to read their results. Everyone except me.

I know, I just know, out of 1200 points I barely got a quarter of them. I watch from a distance as people approach the screen, walking away with either excitement or disappointment. Should I even find out my score? Maybe I’ll be better off not knowing.

From here I can see the participants’ results are separated into columns. One with the name and number of the participant, one with their score, another for their determined class, and the last for a title of their given gift.

I try to play it cool and wipe the sweat from my palms on my sweatshirt. Just take it like you always have, I tell myself. Disappointment is second nature by now.

Eventually the crowd disperses and I am left with a decision. I either turn around and walk away; try my best to forget any of this happened and keep living the life I have been. Or I walk up to that screen and relearn everything I thought to know true about my life, my world, myself. My feet begin the walk forward before I even completely decide. I guess, even if I left now, I would always know nothing could be the same again.

I stand before the screen and my eyes move slowly, skimming the names and numbers until I reach number 49. With a shaky breath I read my name: Aiden Brooks. And then look at my score. My hands go numb.

"Aiden did you see?!” Lucy squeals in excitement. I can’t speak. I can’t move. I am motionless as she shakes my shoulders. “You got a higher score than me!” And she’s right. I did. I got 1150 out of 1200. Impossible. I keep reading. Division: Class D. Gift: TBD.

How… how am I in Class D with no gift? Isn’t that the protector division? I’m not even athletic so why me? But does this mean I finally get some answers?

I find Lucy’s name in the listing. Her score is 1009, one of the highest on the chart. Second only to me. She’s in Class C. Her gift says The Vision and, while I have no idea what that means, I can’t help but think: As expected of the golden child. Meanwhile I’m the only person on the list with an unidentified ability.

I feel eyes on me. I don’t even have to look around to know everyone is staring. Lucy might as well have announced it to the whole world. Why is my score the highest anyway? What did I do to get such a high mark? I was so certain that I failed that exam.

“Aiden Brooks,” A voice announces. I finally take my eyes off the screen, meeting Mizuki’s from across the room. “If you’ll follow me please.”

I look at Lucy with wariness. She gives me a reassuring smile. It’s a lie. I can see it in her eyes that she’s just as afraid as I am. Whatever it is can’t be good, but I find myself following the woman anyways.

She quickly leads me to the dormitory elevators, not quite as elegant or elaborate as the Hub’s. A silence falls between us until she presses the button to the eighth floor.

“Isn’t this where the singular dorm rooms are?” I ask and it suddenly hits me. “I thought everyone had a choice to stay or leave.” 

“Well not everyone gets an exam score of 1150, Brooks.” Her voice is curt, but I’m stubborn. 

“My sister got a high exam score too.”

“Pardon my brashness but your sister has no aptitude for fighting. And, thus, we have no use for her.”

“What? But she has a gift. I don’t.”

The elevators slide open and Mizuki falls into a march. I struggle to catch up to her strides. Everyone in this place walks so goddamn fast.

“Gifts will be of no use if you freeze on the battlefield.”

“Battlefield? Hey why do we need to fight anyways? What does this division need to protect this place–these people–against? Who are the ones initiating these attacks?”

“People, Brooks. Just like you and I. People who have long since become… misguided with power and greed. What do you know about Atlas?”

“What? Nothing! Why does everyone keep asking me that question?”

Mizuki turns sharply on her heel and I stop abruptly. She looks down at me, something cold and dangerous in those eyes.

“If you want to live long in this place, in this world, you better learn how to shut up and listen. Understand?”

I swallow the rock forming in my throat and nod.

“I will say this once so listen well. Atlas was the name of the program that was created to shelter and nourish the gifted. Three cities were built to house them, keep them safe while cohabiting with mortals. The Alloy is the youngest of all the cities, formed when the other two cities were absorbed after a revolution against the chairman and governing system. He was an intelligent man, one who really believed he was creating something good for our worlds, but he lacked empathy and understanding. And those who took his place were more vicious, more cruel. They saw a glimpse of what they could control and were hungry for it: this creation of a new world. And they would do anything, give anything, to maintain such authority.

“The board of the governing system that was created to represent the people was quickly dissolved. And now a dictator stands on the rubble of two cities who will stop at nothing to eliminate all those who pose a threat to his power. It’s been this way for decades. Centuries even.”

“Us? The gifted?”

Mizuki nods and turns around, continuing her path down the maze of winding hallways.

“We were divided,” she announces as I ride on her heels. “Those of us who wanted protection and those who wanted freedom. They really believed that he would still protect them, after everything. Humans are simple creatures, gifted or not. Dangle something everyone wants over their heads and they’ll do anything for it. They’ll fight for it. Kill for it. Die for it.

"They wanted so desperately to believe that he was doing this for their sakes. It didn’t take much to convince the majority of the population that Alloy citizens were the bad guys, for wanting to distance ourselves from the ungifted. It was a safety precaution, but everyone else saw the council as puritists. Now ruler after vicious ruler controls the cities we once thrived in. And now we are the enemy. And they'll do anything to cling to this belief that they are on moral high ground.”

There are holes in Mizuki’s story. I can already tell. It’s like history class in high school. And I wonder what kind of information she’s withholding from me. But I want to believe her, believe that those in the Alloy are the good guys. So, for now, I do.

The woman stops in front of a door at the end of a hallway. She hands me a keycard and steps aside. There is a symbol engraved on the door, one I trace with my fingers with a newfound tenderness.

“Our sigils give us strength and protection. You will soon learn how they help us protect and enhance our gifts.”

“What does this one mean?” I ask softly, more to myself than to Mizuki.

“It is a safety charm. It helps to ward off evil spirits.”

“Do those exist?” I ask in awe. “Evil spirits and creatures and monsters?”

“You’ll be surprised at what exactly shares this Earth with us,” Mizuki responds. Her eyes darken as she turns away, eyes flitting to the window at the end of the hall. “But the real monsters are human beings.”

I press the keycard to the panel on the door and it unlocks with a click. I take one last look on the sigil on my door and turn the knob.

The room is a lot bigger than I was expecting it to be. It looks more like a studio apartment than a dorm room. There is a bed attached to the wall on the left side of the room. A couch is positioned at the center of the room, overlooking the huge window overlooking an atrium. A kitchenette with a stove and minifridge is tucked away along a nook in the wall to my right. There is a door to the bathroom in the right hand corner and a wardrobe tucked into the wall beside the bed. The place is far more spacious than the shitty apartment I shared with Lucy. My jaw hangs slack with awe. I can’t help but feel giddy like a child as I turn in a circle in the center of the room.

“If that is all, I will leave you to get acquainted with your dorm room. You share this hall with those in your division. Get some rest because you will be up bright and early tomorrow for training.”

“Wait!” I shout before Mizuki can leave. She peeks her head through the doorway, obvious annoyance present in the twitch of her lip.

“What kind of training?”

She leaves without answering, and the door swings shut behind her. I guess that’s for me to find out.

<<<>>>