Deadly Obsession (The Darking x Oc)

Prologue: Testing

I sighed as I stared up at the peeling white paint on the ceiling above me, which was barely visible in the darkness, the only light in the room coming from the small gap in the curtains, where a small silver stream of moonlight poured into the room, allowing me to see the four walls around me, as well as the other bed which sat opposite me in the tiny room. Small snores emerged from the small body that occupied the other bed, causing a smile to creep onto my face, glad that at least one of us was getting a good night's sleep.

Today hadn't been the easiest of days, with a few of the older boys ganging up on me and my friends, causing Mal, the eldest of the three of us, to try and fight back against them. My curly haired best friend had returned to us with an injured wrist, and a black eye. Alina and I did our best to make him feel better about everything, but Mal was upset about not being strong enough to defend the two of us. I was glad that Mal wanted to defend us, but both Alina and I knew that he wasn't strong enough to beat the older boys, and they knew it.

It was difficult to watch my friend be beaten up and be unable to do anything about it without fear of being turned on by those boys. Mal, Alina and I had drifted together when we were younger. Despite being the youngest of the three of us, I had been at the orphanage for the longest. My parents, whoever they were, had left me on the doorstep of the orphanage steps when I was barely a year old, with an envelope including a stash of money and a small note which read Karina Iliana, which they figured was my name.

I don't remember my first few years here, being so young, but I do remember the loneliness and isolation. Ana Kuya, the orphanage's headmistress had never taken care of a child so young, therefore simply treating me the same as the older children, meaning I quickly learnt how to read and write Ravkan, as well as navigate the countries on the map Ana provided us all with. When I turned six, they'd dubbed the first day I arrived as my first birthday, Alina arrived, his parents having gone through the Fold, not returning. A few months later Mal had appeared too, her parents meeting the same fate as Alina's.

The three of us immediately connected, all being lonely within the orphanage, the two of them appeared as outsiders, therefore leaving the other children to tease and bully them. I had simply never able to make friends, and this was the first time that I'd met new people who were around my age, so we quickly became best friends, ensuring that we all took care of each other.

That was two years ago, and I had just turned eight a few weeks ago. Alina was around a year older than me, and Mal was a few months older than Alina. The three of us were coming up to age where we would all be tested. In previous years, we had been too young for the test, but I wasn't worried that any of us would be chosen. Only one person from this orphanage had ever been Grisha, a young boy a few years ago who'd turned out to be an Inferni.

Now that Mal was injured, they wouldn't do the test on him, seeing as they were due to arrive in around a week, and the boy's arm wouldn't have healed by that point. Both Alina and I knew that we would still be tested upon though. When I was really young, a few of the older children had scared me by telling me that the test was being shut in a room with a wild animal, but as I got older I realised that it was simply a scratch on your forearm to see if your Grisha powers would react to it. Many of the older children still had scars from where they had been scratched, but they quickly faded, and were barely visible.

The thought of what had happened to Mal only a few hours ago was what was keeping me up. I wished that we could learn how to fight properly, even if we were only children, so we could actually stand up to the others, and all their bullying.

I lay awake on my bed for the remainder of the night, before the sun started peeking through my curtains, and I got out of the small cot that I called my bed, quietly moving around the room as I got ready, trying not to wake Alina up. I dressed for the day, knowing that we would simply be doing some writing practice today. Once the sun had risen fully I shook Alina awake, knowing that Ana Kuya would scream at us if we were late to breakfast, and I waited for her as she dressed for the day, staring out the small window in our room. From our room you could see the entire meadow that lay behind the orphanage, and I had spent many days wondering what lay beyond the fields, never having dared go further from the orphanage than that.