City of the Fallen

| five

A knock comes from my door. My eyes pop open and I'm filled with confusion. I'm always awake before Stacy knocks at my door; I'm never really able to sleep here. I never sleep in places that aren't my bed at home. I miss it.

"I'm awake." I say groggily.

"How are you feeling today, Julia?" She asks, her clipboard in hand as usual.

Usually I give her my standard response, which is "good" but I'm sick of giving her the same response. "Better."

She raises her eyebrows. "Really? I'm glad to hear it." She writes some things down on her clipboard. "Are your arms still sensitive to touch?"

I shake my head. "Not nearly as much as it used to be. It's almost faded now, thank goodness."

She chuckles softly while her eyes are still focused on her clipboard. "Yes, it took a while for you, didn't it?"

For you. I ignore that part.

I suddenly remember my conversation with Tanner yesterday and what he said about stage two's eyes.

Stacy looks back up at me. I notice her eyes are brown with a hint of blue, a glacier kind of blue. It's like ice looking at me; there are a few brown flakes inside. I have always thought her eyes were brown, but looking closer made me realize that they're decorated with specs of blue. There's also a golden stripe that goes across her eye, going through her pupil, but it doesn't overlap it.

Wow, he was right. I thought it was just the sparkle that was special. How is that even possible? It doesn't even look natural up close, how does she get her eyes to look like that?

"Only a couple more days of training. You're almost there, just bear with it. See you tomorrow morning." She smiles, then leaves. Her teeth are perfectly straight too, like her hair. She must've been really pretty when she was alive.

It confuses me when she tells me to just "bear with it" as if she knows I'm struggling. I'm getting tired of the same old thing every day. It's like she can tell exactly what I am thinking.

My friends are the only ones getting me through this. The only reason why I'm better than normal is because I'm meeting new people to distract me and I'm actually doing something other than staying in my room all day.

Brooke bursts through the door as I'm zipping up my dress. Her expression brightens suddenly.

"I love your dress." She smiles and touches the silky fabric with her finger. I knew she would comment on it, but I think I can finally be confident enough to wear a dress with hardly any sleeves to cover me. My scars have started to fade, the outlines of the red patches are less noticeable and my flame marking is more obvious.

"Thank you." I laugh, "Why are you later than usual?"

She shrugs. "I thought I would get ready in my room this time instead of yours. I also had a long talk with Chris. He's great, I'm going to miss him when I leave."

"I'm probably going to miss Stacy too. Did you look at his eyes like Tanner said?" I inquire.

"Ugh!" She groans, "I forgot, I wanted to do that. Did you?"

I nod. "It was so weird. I had to look really close but her eyes were a really vivid blue and there were brown specks in them. And a really thin gold stripe."

She raises her eyebrows. "Really? Now I have to look at Chris's. That sounds really cool. Why are they like that?"

"No idea." I spray a bit of perfume on my neck, just for fun. "I was wondering the same thing."