Dark Shadows Darker Secrets

Chapter 16

Next to the board with our names neatly written onto it stands Claira with her group of friends. She stares at me with a smirk playing on her lips as her friends talk amongst themselves about our current predicament.

"I have to say, Scarlet, I'm shocked you've made it this far." She uncrosses her arms and takes a step towards me. "But I promise you when I say, that I'm not going to let you make it past this test."

Claira is my height, maybe a little taller. Her legs are much longer than mine but her arms look like they have the same amount of muscle on them as I have on mine. The chances of me actually beating her in a fight are very slim, but I have to at least try not to make a fool of myself. I can't let her embarrass me, but even as I think those words I feel the pain in my back and I know there is no way I can beat her with his injury.

I try to side step around Claira but she steps in front of me. "Did you hear me?" She glares at me and stares down like I'm an idiot. Her friends behind her slowly stop their talking and turn their heads in our direction. "I don't think it's particularly fair that you're in these tests in the first place. Do you think anyone actually wants you in our government? You don't belong here, you're a joke...an unidentified creature."

My fists ball up at my sides and my jaw clenches together. Claira smiles from my reaction and receives approving looks from her peers.

My grey eyes meet her brown ones with a hard glare. "Claira, you don't understand anything." I yell in a low whisper so her friends have trouble listening. She doesn't understand that I don't want to be here just as much as they don't want me here. I don't want to pare take in these tests and more than anything, I want to go home. Her knowing smirk drops from her lips when I turn on my heel and leave her without saying another word and a glare takes over her pointy features. I slowly march back over to the ring to put as much separation between us as possible. Her words still float around in my head and anger envelopes me. I'm a joke. That's all they see me as.

Draken is talking to one of the guys abut correct form to kick someone and looks up when he sees me walk past them. I don't stop to talk to him and instead push open the doors to the gym and walk out into the street.

"Scarlet." I hear the metal door reopen and shut with a loud bang as Draken follows me out. "Where do you think you are going?" He asks.

I stare down both ends of the street trying to decipher my next move. "I'm going home." I state.

"Scarlet-"

I turn around to face him, "No! I'm not staying in this world a second longer. I don't want to be a part of these tests and nobody wants me to be a part of this world. Nobody will miss me if I'm gone so just let me leave." My eyes sting with the threat of tears and I will myself not to let any fall.

He stares at me with his bright green eyes. His pale lips are pressed together as if he's deep in thought. "Scarlet, Malvolio wants you here, Cecelia wants you here, Alecron and Declan want you here, I want you here. We just want to keep you safe." A silence washes over us and we stand just like that for a few minutes.

"Draken by now the angels probably think I'm dead and there is nothing else keeping me here. I can leave right now. I can go back to my old home and go to my old school. I'll be fine." I desperately plead, already forming a plan in my head of how I can survive back home. Maybe one of my friends will take me in or maybe I'll have to live in an orphanage. As far as I know, I don't have any other living relatives.

Draken stares down the empty street and shoves his hands into the pockets of his black pants. "The angels are not our only concern anymore Scarlet." I stop forming plans in my head and stare at him in confusion.