Burning Fire

Chapter 8 - The Sanguinem

Just as dawn broke the horizon, it started to rain with the kind of rain that made you want to be in the soft, warm duvet you just vacated. 

Today was my first day of Charlton Academy and I could not afford to be late, especially since I apparently had to give a speech in front of the entire school. I was not a shy person but I was a far cry from a public speaker. Formal speeches made me nervous and I stuttered a lot. My father, in his part, had promised to help me attempt to excuse myself from such a speech.

While I was eighteen, I had never learned to drive. Living in London, it somehow seemed futile, so I had wanted to take the public transport. But my father had insisted on sending me with one of his henchmen; apparently it was more inconspicuous than taking public transport.

Munching on a doughnut, I hurried towards one of the cars. The driver, who had silently opened the door for me, kept driving in silence. Come to think of it, I had never heard him speak, but only stand there looking menacing.

"Excuse me sir, do you have a name? Only silence makes me feel uncomfortable." I said self-consciously.

He gave a small gruff that was meant to be a chuckle. "It's Jason."

"Oh," I was left speechless. I was expecting more . . . .

"Not what you expected?" He asked with a smile.

"I was expecting more . . . you know, just more."

"What would have been your guess?" He said with a grin.

"Hugo or Igor or something big, you know?"

"I get that a lot." 

As we talked I found Jason was a very friendly person, not at like the menacing guy I had first assumed. Lost in the conversation I didn't realize we were at Charlton until Jason pointed it out. It was huge. Easily double my father's house and that was saying something. 

Flocks of cars drove into Charlton. It seemed my father was right again; I was more inconspicuous with the car. Jason dropped me off with a promise to be back at five and a reminder to call if I was going to be late or early.

I followed the crowd to what looked like a cloak room. I quickly looked around to find that I had already been designated a locker: locker number twelve had my name carved into the wooden doors.

As my eyes fell on the door, I had a weird sense of déjà vu as if I had seen this all before. Shaking my head, I headed to the hall  where Amelia Lucius, the extremely formidable and very short mistress, announced my presence and to everyone’s surprise, she did not ask me to make a speech. Instead she swiftly moved on to the latest topic of interest. The more I remained in Charlton the more that feeling of déjà vu remained. 

Ignoring the feeling, I left the hall to enter the advanced biology class. I liked science and maths; they made sense to me. Logical and cold, there was only one answer. 

The biology teacher, whose name was Arnold Challenger, was a short plump man who found it amusing to creep up random jokes to entertain his extremely tiered students. Apparently Mondays were his days off, so he found easy and practical things to do for them. 

Today we are apparently going to be making a slide using human veins. where a school got a piece of the human heart is beyond my comprehension. 

My lab partner, Jeremy, was a tall, cute geek who barely gave me a nod before he continued doing his own thing- which was fine for me, I never liked working in teams anyway.

"Pass me the Eosin, would you?" he mumbled halfway through the lesson.

I don't know whether it’s the way he said it or the fact that my brain was awake enough to comprehend things, but I suddenly realized where I was.