Ashes Remain (A Man Named Terran #2)

The Dark Age of Themis

She tossed and turned on her air mattress. There was the school, but it was dark. Black magic swirled around it, seeping in the windows. 
 
Students talked, unaware of the danger, and it took then captive one by one. It smothered them first, they fought back only to glitch away and their bodies dissolve. 
 
The destruction went faster now, rushing down the halls as the dissolving students formed screeching images. 
 
The darkness barreled towards three remaining bodies, lined up like victims of a firing squad waiting for their final roulette. 
 
An awl clattered against the ground, spilling blood as it did. A familiar face lay on the ground as blood spilled around, and the remaining three from the hallway finally showed their faces.
 
She clawed in her sleep, freezing up.
 
"J-Junie?"
 

~~~~

 
She was late. Late to her first non-court related event.
 
What an impression she was making. 
 
The boss may be incredibly understanding, and Apollo seemed very forgiving.
 
But Apollo didn't know her, the real her. Mr. Wright was likely just full of pity. 
 
Stupid Athena. She shouldn't have mentioned her condition. What even motivated her to do so? 
 
A last ditch effort to save face, most likely. She was so embarrassed. 
 
Even though she'd only been in the country for a day when everything happened... she could already tell a difference in Mr. Wright's behavior towards her.
 
Apollo had told her the boss had a tendency to conceal information and motives, but Athena had never witnessed it once.
 
Possibly because she was doing the exact same. 
 
She wanted to tell him. She wanted so badly for her to know her, to trust her fully.
 
But he'd been hurt by an insane attorney. He couldn't trust the real her.
 
Then there was the boss. 
 
Everyone was technically dying, right? What does it matter if our time left is limited to twenty years or sixty? Everyone's days are numbered. Why did it warrant such a long-standing reaction from him?
 
Experimental medicine that could have saved her was too risky. There was a chance of something going wrong. She couldn't take it. She had someone to save. 
 
Another's fate had sealed hers. 
 
The boss was her death age. It chilled her just thinking of it. In all her studying, she'd never discovered just what made her so afraid. She had a higher power, said the Catholic cross her "relative" had given her as a graduation gift. She had one waiting for her there, Mom. She had plenty of time to prepare, an estimate of over twenty years at the time of the diagnosis. Perhaps it was a worry for the people she'd leave behind, if any existed. 
 
If Mama didn't want her anymore, who would? Who could love a psychopath?

 
Themis Legal Academy  

 
The sign gave her flashbacks, flashbacks of the dream. It was so horrible, so surreal...
 
But Junie? What was she doing in it, staring over a dead woman? Was it the trauma of her past returning for good, combined with her hope for a fresh future?
 
The woman wasn't Mom, she checked that first. She definitely wasn't Mama either. She had brown hair like Mom and a similar figure. Eventually, her conscious and subconscious finally determined the deceased woman was not her late mother. She didn't know who it was, it probably didn't even matter. It wasn't Mom, and it wasn't Mama. That's all that mattered.
 
"Ma'am! Why aren't you in uniform? The festival is no excuse for costumes!"
 
Oh great. Speaking of looking similar, it seems yet another authority figure had mistakenly identified her as a high school student. "I am a lawyer at Wright Anything. I was brought here with my boss and partner." Athena flashed her badge with barely a look at whoever was calling her out. This was the last thing she needed. 
 
"A true professional always looks others in the eye! How can you possibly think you'd fool anyone with such a disrespectful act?!" 
 
She was about to commit a disrespectful act alright. Even though Apollo had strictly coached her not to reprise it. 
 
"Now come! We'll fit you with one for the day. The academy has guests!" 
 
Cooperation with strangers was not her strongest suit. She struggled away, but the person, a woman older than the boss, grabbed her wrist and drug her along. She was able to resist the burning fear that ran through her tendency to toss people in the air, but continued to dig her heels all the way to administration.