The Reflex

~Cordelia's POV

I throw my hands out in front of me to catch myself as I tumble off my skateboard. I wince as the skin on my hands and knees tears as I crash into the ground. I don't realise I've landed in the road until I hear a car horn blaring out as the vehicle sppeds towards me. There isn't time to get up and get back onto the pavement, so I wrap myself into a ball and covering my head. I don't bother to blink back the tears that fall as I wait for the car to hit me. I just sob into the tarmac as I try to accept my fate.

But after what seems like an eternity, I still haven't felt anything. Maybe the impact was so powerful I died before I noticed the pain. Yes, that must be it. I push myself up and look around to see what afterlife I had previously dismissed as fiction was real. Everything is the same, except everyone is frozen in their places. The car that had been coming towards me is in pieces, scraps of metal littering the street. I see the driver: a girl who appears to be just a few years older than me. There is a large shard of red Honda Civic embedded in her forehead, and blood matts her cropped blonde hair. Her mouth hangs open, as if she was screaming, but no sound comes out. I reach into my pocket for my phone so that I can call for an ambulance. I pull it out and begin to dial 999, but a hand grabs my wrist, stopping my from doing so.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." A voice comes from behind me and I feel my body tense.The hand releases my wrist, but snatches my phone away. I whirl around to see who it is. A slim girl dressed from head to toe in black is smirking at me. Her dark brown hair is pulled up in a tight bun and her bright blue eyes twinkle in the sunlight. She looks about fifteen, the same age as me. I frown. I was expecting someone much older.

"Who are you? What's happening? Why can't I call for an ambulance?" I ask, and the girl shakes her head.

"Not here. Not now. I can't answer any questions. My orders were to get you safely back to HQ." she says, grabbing my wrist and beginning to walk away. "I froze time and you exploded a car. That's enough Reflexive power to be noticed by pretty much every Hunter in Europe."

"What about my skateboard?" I ask. It took me ages to make it look that awesome: hours of cutting out pages of Manga volumes to paste onto the bottom, as well as all the effort it took to think of the idea. I'm not letting it go. The girl sighs. She lifts one of her hands and my board flies across the street. The girl catches it and continues to drag me away. As we turn the corner, she visibly relaxes. The road we were just down comes back to life, and everyone starts buzzing around the blonde girl with the Civic.

We continue for about half an hour before the girl stops. She glances around, as though checking to see if people are watching, before taking me down an alleyway.

"We're far enough away that we should be safe for a few minutes. I still can't answer your questions, but I can at least tell you a little." she says, grimacing slightly. "My name is Saoirse. I'm sixteen. I'm saving your life. We're about ten minutes away from HQ, less if we run." My eyes widen.

"I don't do running." I say. I'm lying: I represent my school for cross country. I just don't like running. Saoirse rolls her eyes.

"Then you can go on your skateboard while I run." she says, giving me my board. We leave the alleyway and I put my board on the ground and step on, pushing off as Saoirse begins to jog ahead of me. I catch up easily, and expect to have to slow down as I reach a higher speed than her. She keeps up, though, yelling at me to turn whenever we need to.

It only takes about fives minutes to reach 'HQ'. As soon as we're outside the building, Saoirse stops abruptly and grabs my arm. For the second time today, I fall off my skateboard. Saoirse laughs as I get up and retrieve my skateboard, which has continued to roll forward. Sunlight bounces off Saoirse's face in a way that makes me notice, for the first time, the scar on her right cheek. I don't let my eyes linger in case Saoirse thinks I'm being rude.

"In we go." she says, and we walk over to the revolving doors. We enter the building and are instantly greeted by a girl slightly smaller than Saoirse. She races over to us, her black hair bouncing around her shoulders. She does a sort of hand shake thing with Saoirse, and the two laugh. I clear my throat, letting them know that I'm still here, and they turn to me.

"Hey," the smaller girl says. "I'm Anna."

"I'm Cordelia." I say, smiling. Anna seems friendlier than Saoirse.

"Saoirse isn't always so cold, she just wants to be noticed by the Elders." Anna says, as if she read my mind. With all the weird stuff that's happened today, that wouldn't be unbelievable. I'm just about to reply when a voice booms out over the tannoy:

"Could Saoirse and Anastasia please bring the girl to the Dark Room. Thank you."

"It's just Anna." Anna grumbles under her breath as she, Saoirse and I make our way upstairs.

We eventually reach a black door, so noticable because it stands out against the stark white of the walls, floor, ceiling and other doors. Saoirse knocks on the door, and a voice inside drifts out to us.

"Come in." We obey. When the door swings open, I find myself face to face with the darkest room I've ever seen. The walls, ceiling and floor are all black. The desk in the centre of the room is mahogany, as are the two chairs, each on opposite sides of the desk. On the further chair, a broad man with dark hair sits, hands clasped. He gestures for me to sit in the remaining chair.

"Welcome to the real world." he says, smiling grimly.

A/N: Hello! Thank you for reading! A few people will recognise themselves in characters. That is because some of them are based on my friends. If you want a character based on you, tell me in a comment the basics for the character (name, age, gender, appearance, personality, Reflexive or Hunter). This story was inspired by the song 'The Reflex' by Duran Duran. Until next time, bye!