Well, here it is. 2 days later than I hoped, but hey, stuff happens. More will be explained below. Anyways, welcome to the (short) opening chapter of Dancing with Demons.
"Blake, wake up."
Groaning, Blake rolled over, opening his eyes to see Jace standing over his bed. "Whazz...huh?" He managed to mumble out, his mind still too fuzzy from sleep to be able to function properly yet.
"Breakfast is in thirty minutes. Figured you'd want to have time to shower and get dressed." Jace said with a grin, before turning and starting out of the room. "And don't even think about trying to fall back asleep!" He called as he walked out. "Otherwise I'll be back to force you up!"
Blake lay on his bed for a few moments, willing his brain to engage and let him start the day. Begrudgingly, he pushed himself up to his feet and walked across the room to the bathroom, shutting the door with a somewhat satisfying thud.
Least the sleeping meds are helping.
Blinking the sleep from his eyes, Blake moved across the bathroom and turned on the shower. Stripping down and stepping into the shower, he let water rush over his body, the heat of the water flooding his body, slowly making him more coherent.
Standing under the stream of hot water, Blake let his thoughts wander as he went though his usual morning ritual. Getting cleaned up for the day, he thought over the past few months.
It had been a rough start in the program, trying to adapt to his new surroundings while at the same time struggling with his own mind messing with him, along with the guilt he still felt for all his failures. While he was getting better a coping with the situation, part of him simply nodded along with what they said to get them off his back. He knew the drill; the sooner he agreed with what they said, the sooner he could get back to trying to live his life his way.
Nick and Judy still visited him as often as they could, in between their work at the police department. There were times where they would be to busy to visit for awhile, but Blake didn't blame them. The ZPD had been far busier over the past few months, dealing with a mix of petty crimes and more extreme measures.
"Blake! Hurry up!"
Startled out of his thoughts, Blake jumped slightly before rolling his eyes.
"I'll take as long as I please!" He called back, laughing to himself as he turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, drying himself off.
"Yeah, yeah. Just get out here sooner rather than later." He heard Jace call, before the door leading into the hallway shut again. Blake rolled his eyes again and finishing drying off, and got dressed. He knew that he was on a timetable, but at the same time it was his first day in the new program he was going to be attending. He wanted to make sure he was 100% ready for it, and not rush anything this morning.
"You don't wanna be late man. You've finally managed to get cleared for this, and you wanna risk being late?" He heard Jace call back, before the door shut with a loud thunk.
Sighing, Blake finished getting dressed and headed out the door, grabbing his backpack prior to leaving. Slinging it up and onto his shoulder with a strong swing, Blake shut and locked his door before heading down the hall towards Jace.
Pushing himself off the wall, Jace fell into step with Blake, slapping him on the shoulder as they walked. "You ready for this?" He asked, a grin on his face.
Blake nodded, smiling back slightly. "Yeah. Might as well give it a try." He replied, pushing the door to the cafeteria open and stepping into the room full of noise and people.
Moving down the line quickly, Blake grabbed his food and sat at a table in the back with Jace. Eating quickly, he kept his eyes scanning the room, his tail curling around the legs of his chair and the amount of people set him slightly on edge. Jace's fingers drummed on the table, but outside that, not much else happened while they ate, watching each other's backs as they finished.
Once the duo finished breakfast, they stood and dropped their trays off at the dishwasher and headed off down the hall.
"Fifteen minutes." Jace said quietly as they walked down the hall, moving with the flow of everyone else past other rooms in the hallway.
Blake's ear twitched as he walked, his tension building as he walked. Crowds still made him nervous, and being tightly packed in with a large group of people was making him more and more anxious. He stepped closer to the wall, trying to walk in a way that kept at least one side covered at all times, so that he could trust that his blind spot was covered.
"Relax." He heard Jace say quietly, a calming hand on his shoulder. "You're not in any danger right now. You're just on your way to a class is all. Breath."
Taking deep breaths as he walked, Blake tried to force his heart rate to slow, moving a tad bit slower in order to encourage that. Getting his breathing under control, Blake felt himself calming down slightly as he walked into the room.
Several other mammals were sitting at desks, bags on the floor, waiting for the class to start. Blake and Jace both took seats in the back, near a corner, and Blake began to further de-stress, glancing around the classroom for any threats.
Seeing none, he leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling, lost in thought. Finnaly had always expressed an interest in doing this with him, before he had been killed. Blake felt his hands curl into fists thinking about his old friend, teammate, and brother. He hadn't gotten this chance like Blake was right now.
This isn't fair. He should be here, not me. He thought, thinking about everything that he had wanted to do.
The door slamming shut snapped Blake's attention back to the desk at the front of the classroom. A goat walked in, setting his bag on the desk and sitting down in his chair, looked over the entire class.
The class and him sat like that for a few minutes, all staring at one another, until finally the goat smiled and stood back up.
"Welcome to all of you here. You've picked a field that has long hours, longer days, and has a high risk." He began, before focusing his stare on Blake. "Some of you may not even survive this job, if something bad is to happen."
Blake's ear twitched, but he held the stare. He had done far more than this teacher knew.
"For those of you who do stay with this, this can be the most rewarding job of your life. It has been for me, for the entirety of my time in it." Turning to the computer, he turned on the projector and bought up a powerpoint.
Smiling as the projector warmed up, the teacher turned back to face the class, and Blake watched him smile more to the class.
"My name is Mr. Oats, and welcome to Zootopia University's Fire and Emergency Services course."
So, yeah. Sorry about the delay after promising to post earlier, but to make a long story short, I had to pick up several work shifts this weekend, culminated with working an 18 hour shift on Monday. Hence why I'm posting this today, because in exchange for all the shift coverage, I got today off work. So, apologies for the late chapter, but it was far out of my hands.
Yes, I skipped over a large amount of time. If there is a large interest from everyone to see what happened during that time, maybe I'll turn back the clock a bit and fill in the gaps. It depends on what everyone whats to see, and what I have time to write. Right now, I'm more focused on building further into Blake's future.
Now, for the story. Short chapter, yes, but it's more of an introduction to ease the start of the story. I do plan on this time making my chapters far longer with the time that I do have to write, but in exchange for that, I'll be posting far less. It also doesn't help that I'm working full time, but I'll make it work. Hopefully everyone will enjoy this new story, and as always, happy reading!