Coral
Pain flared in my stomach as an unseen force hit it, hard. I felt myself fly through the air before my spine hit the wall, pain searing down each vertebra in my back from the impact. Falling to the ground, a groan escaped my mouth. I was vaguely aware of the blood I could taste on my tongue - the acrid smell of it blocking my nose as the red liquid trickled down the side of my face.
Xenus stood over me, her eyes challenging and filled with rage. "What did you say?" Her voice was icy, sending cold shivers down my spine.
I couldn't back down, that would only make me seem weak, and that's something I would never let her see in me. Even when I was like this.
"I said, why do we always have to be the villains? Not everyone is as crazy as you and wants world domination!" I answered through gritted teeth, knowing what was going to happen now that the words had escaped my mouth.
The wind was knocked out of me as I was kicked against the wall again, a large crack appearing in the plaster. This time though, the pain lasted longer than before, making me suck in my stomach and hope I hadn't broken a few ribs. It was looking pretty likely right now, though.
Xenus, the worst mother you could ever imagine, glared daggers at me. "What was that?"
"Nothing," I whispered weakly.
My voice was low and croaky and it cracked as I managed to speak through the pain. Using the wall as support, I stood up slowly. I was faintly aware of plaster dust falling off me as it showered onto the floor, creating a layer of white powder on the ground around my shoes.
"Good," Xenus smiled wickedly, before turning and exiting the room swiftly. Probably going back to her study.
I hesitantly pressed my hand to my back as the pain slowly disintegrated, as if it had never been there. I sighed with relief and straightened up, walking through the dark corridors of my house to the front door. The apartment we lived in was small, and Xenus never left the lights on in fear that we'd be found. It was small with a kitchen joined to the tiniest living room you've ever seen. The only furniture we managed to put in that room was a small couch where I was forced to sleep. I would call it a big closet if anything though. My mother had one small room where I was forbidden to go (probably because it had all of those hideous plans in it) who cared though, not like I wanted to go through her mouldy papers all day long. I had done that once when I was young and had gotten one of the biggest beatings of my life that day, so as you can imagine I haven't done it since. Reaching the front door with less than ten steps, I slung my school bag over my shoulder and walked out the door, off to another day of school. Back to my fake life where my mother wasn't a witch, where no one knew who I truly was. Just another normal day. But nothing at all is normal about my life.
I'm a 13-year-old boy who, 10 years ago, developed powers and learnt the hidden truth of the world. How everything everyone thinks is wrong. My mum and I have to run around stopping us from being caught by flying away as quickly as we can from somewhere. At least, that's what we used to do. Now, all of the countries are joined by the bridges and hyper-speed trains that the future's technology provides. But only a few even know about the trains. It's some top secret information that the governments have tried to cover up, just like they try to do for witches - a species of human who develops three powers known as curses and are tracked down and hunted by witch-hunters. Witch-hunters are a species similar to witches that develop two powers known as gifts and protect the world from the witches. But to everyone in humanity, witches and witch-hunters don't exist, and they never have. The only country not joined by the train network is Tasmania, a small island off Australia that had become the home of the witch-hunters. It has its own personal train that they guard to ensure that it's a place where they could see if any witches were coming to attack them, an easy place to defend. I don't blame their precautions. Witches are known to be bloodthirsty and dangerous and if they hate anyone the most - it's witch-hunters. Most of the species are set on world domination so they can have power over everything, and they are free to ruin the perfect world. But I don't see the point in it all. What would I get out of it? Have hundreds of people hating and trying to fight me when I had to run the entire world? I could pass. For me, it just sounded like too much paperwork.
My mum was trying to hide us out while she waited to take her big strike on Tasmania so I'd been growing up in Australia since I was about 4 years old. Xenus said it was good to hide right in front of the witch-hunters, where they wouldn't expect any terrorist who knew about them to be. Even with that in mind though, Xenus would go to a different country each time she attacked, so she wouldn't give away her spot. At the moment she kept going to a country called Serbia in Europe to do her dirty work, making detectives sure she lived there. Seriously, they could be fooled way too easily these days.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out two white sets of air pods, putting one in each ear. Reaching into my blazer I withdrew my phone and began to play music, going through my usual routine of walking to school. The music blared in my ears, drowning out all the sounds of life hurrying around me or any thoughts. I liked this part of the day. It was like an escape from the world where I could just listen to a good beat.
A strand of my curly brown hair fell on my face as I blew it away, looking ahead to my school. It was quite a nice school, Oceanview college. It was one of those pretty big private schools for catholic children that Xenus could only pay for because of the money she stole. I collected my thoughts and tried to clear my mind. Now I was just a simple Coral Woodlock. I was not a witch, had no power and as far as everyone knew, I was just a regular boy in middle school.
My green eyes lit up as I saw a figure ahead. One too familiar for me to pass. "Hey, Harvey!" I called, running up to my mate.
Running was one of the things I was really good at. When I was little, I used to sprint so much that my mother thought my power was superspeed and tried training me in that. But as I darted towards my friend now, I could tell something was wrong, the number of people crowding around him, all their faces creased with worry. The teachers approached with students talking worriedly beside them. And then I saw something else that filled me with rage. Two of the year eleven boys that always picked on year seven's were standing to the side, looking smug and pleased with themselves.
I'll be with you in a second Harvey, I thought to myself. Just let me deal with these jerks first, I won't let them raise a hand on you one more time.
I casually walked up to the year elevens, trying to hide the anger boiling up inside of me. "Hey-" I began to say but one of the two dudes grabbed my arm and swung me behind a dumpster where we wouldn't be seen.
Perfect, I thought. Let them think they can beat me up in private.
The two big guys slowly advanced up to me, trying to seem as threatening as possible.
"Wow," I said sarcastically. "I am quivering with fear. You guys look like two big frogs trying to seem scary, what are you - a Thanos wannabe?"
That seemed to get on their nerves. One of them ran up to me, his fist ready to smack me right in the face. But the next thing that happened is what I like to call the Uno reverse card.
Just as his fist was about to make contact with my face I ducked to the side and grabbed his arm. In one fluid movement, I had his arm twisted behind his back, kicking him in the spine so that he fell to the ground.
"Little devil," I heard the other guy murmur before he tackled me to the ground, pressing my face into the dirt.
Quickly, I rolled over so he was against the ground and elbowed him in the ribs. He let out a low groan as I stood up and surveyed the area. No one had seemed to notice what I'd done and anyway, I didn't beat the guys up too bad - they wouldn't even have to go to the hospital. But I sure as hell had taught them a lesson.
"And just for the record," I said, squatting down next to them. "No one picks on my friends, okay?"
The two seniors just nodded, fear evident in their eyes.
"Cool," I dusted off my hands. "I guess we're done here. See you around."
With that I got to my feet and ran to Harvey as fast as I could, barging through the crowd of school kids that surrounded him. A few people shot me dirty looks but I just ignored them, my only focus was trying to get to him.
As I caught up to him my heart beat faster, thumping hard. Harvey looked back at me, but not the Harvey I knew.
Blood flowed freely from his face, dripping to the ground. His eyes were glazed over with pain and he lay on the ground like a rag doll. He looked hopeless, far different from the friend I had. Now I wish I might just have punched those seniors just one more time, it would be nothing compared to this.
God, I told him not to tease those boys too much! What's he gotten himself into?
Before I could even think I was by his side, my hands lightly touched his chest. At that moment I couldn't think, my brain was clogged up with worry for him that I didn't even stop to think about what this would mean. What a big mistake I was making.
Harvey's blue eyes began to brighten again, his short blonde hair no longer stained red. He suddenly looked just as he always had. That tall, athletic boy. My heart stopped as I realised my mistake too late. People might mistake me as a witch-hunter, a person with two powers - gifts. But if they figured out I had a third I would be dead, a known witch to the world. My heart beat thumped in my ears, louder than it ever had as a sleek black car pulled around the curb, carrying a symbol I knew all too well. A symbol I was meant to stay away from. Of course, they had watchers everywhere looking for people with powers, especially in schools. What had I done?
I watched as the car door opened, revealing a girl in a camouflage outfit. She looked quite young - around twenty with long red hair and pale skin. Freckles scattered across her cheeks, only emphasising her bright green eyes. She wore a black leather belt, the sun reflected on the glistening metal of various weapons peeking underneath it, looking deadly and newly sharpened. She confidently strode toward me from across the road, her chin held high. I glanced around. There was no way out. The streets were full of kids going to school, some standing there gawking at me. I would get caught before I could escape.
When I looked back, the girl was already standing in front of me. She smiled thinly, looking more intimidating than ever up close as she towered over me, her shadow engulfing me. Her height seemed unfair compared to mine since I'd never been very tall compared to others my age.
"I'm Jade," she said matter of factly. "I'm here to take you to the cadets' training squad for the military. The train's on the way to take you to Tasmania already so don't bother trying to pack." Jade stuck her hand out for me to shake it. "Welcome to the group, soldier."
I took a deep breath before reluctantly shaking her hand, my heart thumping. The whole soldier thing was an obvious lie, deceiving the public of what was actually happening. Who were the citizens of Tasmania, actually? And if I went there, I might as well count myself to be dead within a day. Or nearly. It would be just a matter of time before they figured it all out.