Chapter 13 CHAPTER 13
What do you mean?”
“Don't play games with me, who sent you? Who are you?!”
“I'm Alira Ferguson and I have lived in America all my life. I don't know what mark you're talking about!” I cried out, tears quickly filling my eyes.
It was one of the things I hated about myself, how quickly I was drawn to tears, even when angry or frustrated.
And now, I was tired too, exhausted, frustrated and I needed to sleep, not have this hulk of a man dwarfing me in size accuse me of nonsense.
Not human? Come on now, did he see reptilian ears where mine were?
Oh sorry, that was a stupid thought, he didn't have those either.
His ears were perfectly human, it's just his eyes that would never fit into a human, no man would be able to bleed ice from their eyes the way he was as he tried, hopefully, to control his rage.
“You really don't know,” he muttered, stepping back from me.
“Know what?”
“You're a dragon kin. For some reason, you left this world when you were young and you're back to where you belong.”
“Sir?”
“Sleep here tonight,” he went on, stepping towards the hallway, ignoring me, “I'll send someone to get you tomorrow. It's already six months into the school year, but you'll have to adjust. Good morning Skye.”
And with that, he walked away, leaving me in a stupefied state.
He stopped by the stairs that led up to his office floor and he turned, noticing I was still standing there, gawking.
“Go to sleep,” he commanded, voice steady but the power in them pushed me in, and I pushed the door close, my arms straining.
It was a small room, but there was a bed and nothing else mattered in that moment.
Not whatever he'd just dumped on my head or that this had gone from being a short stay into… whatever he was insinuating was a college year.
I refused to stress myself about it, I would play their game and once I was sure I wouldn't run into my assailant the second I reappeared, I'm going to blink my eyes so hard that I'll exit this world.
Once my body hit the small pillow, I was out.
I was groggy and confused when I woke up the next morning.
It took me quite a bit to recollect everything that had happened, how I got here, and the crazy things that man was saying.
Dragon kin? Is that what they called themselves?
They were really proud of their dragon heritage, even his name had a dragon connotation, as though the entire realm was nothing without flying fire-breathing animals.
I forced myself to take deep breaths I was working myself up for nothing after all.
All of this is just for the week I planned to stay here.
I'll do whatever I can to stay away from their activities and knowing too much about their world so I won't give whoever was in charge of my nightmares more creative juice.
I stood off the bed as I noticed another door by the foot of the iron bedstand, and walked towards it.
Thankfully, it was indeed a bathroom, or at least a military version of it.
There was a tiny mirror above the wash basin, the exact thing I was looking for.
I know he's lying or having some odd vision, but I just wanted to confirm it.
So although I wanted to relieve myself, I rushed towards the mirror first and lifted my hair.
And gasped.
“No no no, what the fuck?”
He wasn't lying, nor did he have impaired vision, there were three lines on my neck and one of them was glowing the same colour as the Principal’s eyes.
That was an odd coincidence that I refused to think about, the elephant in the room couldn't be ignored this time around.
There are magical marks on my neck.
Magical marks that glowed.
“Oh God!” My heart lurched, panic chasing my nervous system with pitchforks.
I bent over the toilet seat and began retching.
My body was doing everything to calm me down but nothing was working, I was at my limit, everything that had happened that I'd refused to process was demanding attention right now.
I hated how my mental health was obsessed with affecting my reality, couldn't I just be a sadistic person like everyone else?
It always found an outlet and now, I was the chosen choice, my body hurt, and the jeans I wore were worsening the situation.
The bathroom floor was clean but even if it wasn't, I didn't give a damn, I just needed to get out of these stiff, dirty clothes, so I did.
And they curled down on the tile-like material that covered the ground and just waited for it to pass.
For my mind to stop replaying that near accident, the face of the scientist as he pulled a gun to my face, the book that pulled me through a weird portal, the fall, the plunge into the ocean, and that trek.
That was the worst part of the entire journey, hours of walking and feeling like I was going to die if I took another step forward but I knew I couldn't stop walking.
But I realised that as I paid attention to each memory, I was slowly calming down, my body was getting a better grip of itself and control began returning to my brain.
By the time I went over the fact that I may not be human, I didn't react.
I shouldn't have been surprised anyway, I was relieved actually.
It meant that all those years, I wasn't hallucinating and I could feel the guilt I had been running from all these years.
I killed people, innocent people who had no one to look after them. It justified all my sufferings and why I could never hold onto a happy moment for too long.
I got up and went to the iron machination I assumed was a tap and I began playing around with it until water began pouring out of three openings, all of different temperatures.
“Oh they have hot water,” I sighed, one thing was working well in this new reality at least.
I pulled the iron bucket by the toilet side and filled it.
And then I washed myself clean, and I washed my clothes as well.
And I wore it again, my options were limited after all.
I wasn't about to sit down naked in a room where I had no control over its security.
I went into the bathroom a human and I came out, well, whatever it is that burned things and had glowing marks on their necks.
I wasn't prepared however, to see a lady in the small room, arranging clothes on the bed.
She was more reptilian than human and as her eyes turned to me instantly, I expected hostility, just like everyone since I was led through those gates.
But no, she was different, gracing me with a bright, warm smile.
“Hi, I'm Erin. Nice to meet you and welcome back to Drakkonia.”