Uprising

By: TheCuriousCircusOfKateAndMeg

A Meg Chapter

Seizure of Power

God, I hate my name. I hate the annoying way the teachers yell my name. Everything about my name is stupid. I was standing in the front of the room of my class and I was supposed to be giving a presentation about the seven deadly sins. About halfway through, stupid ass teacher interrupted me, asking me a question about Dante. Okay, really. My report is on Dante's Inferno but, as I told Teacher earlier before I did my project, I focused more on the Seven Deadly Sins and the myths that surround them. Okay, I told her in front of the entire class. Ask any one of the students in the room. I told her outright 'Hey lady, I focused on the sins.' Actually, I said it with a lot of negative language but whatever. Point being, she was now saying my name wrong and with complete disappointment lacing her tone.

"Alyssa," she said softly. She said it 'Uh-Lih-Sah' when it was supposed to be 'Eye-Lee-Sah'. I hissed at her but she didn't seem to notice. "You were supposed to focus on Dante, not the sins. From what I've seen this far, you've only brought up Dante once."

I sighed and pressed my index fingers to either of my temples, trying to stay calm. Father Number One: Damien told me that if he got another call from the school and had to come back from Venice again, I was going to be grounded and I would have to cross stitch a pillow with my face on it for him. No offense to him, but I really hate cross stitching. I closed my eyes and began massaging my temples while Teacher kept saying my name and how disappointed she was in my slide show which, by the way, wasn't finished with yet. I ignored the murmuring that started in the classroom. Most of us have been in school together since kindergarten (Father Number Two: Jack wanted me in a good private school) and so it was safe to assume the other students knew the signs of AlyssaAnger™.

"-and really, what is there so interesting about the Sins anyway-"

I tried to tune the stupid woman out. She was a new teacher this year. I suppose that explained her being oblivious to my building anger. I tried not to scream at the new teachers their first year around. I sighed.

"Are you listening, Alyssa?" I closed my eyes for a moment before looking at the crazy bitch, biting my lip in contemplation. "Well?" I scowled at her when I reopened my eyes and she answered her own question. "You weren't listening to me!" I gave a half shrug. "Really, Ms. Maslin, I cannot believe you! Disrespecting a teacher."

I cut her off bitterly. "What the fuck?" I shouted. She looked surprised. "You want me to disrespect your ass?" I pressed on without letting her speak although she opened her mouth to respond. "Okay, ya stupid bitch. You know what this class says about you when you ain't here or you go in the hall? You're a whore, god; you sucked the principal's cock in the teacher's lounge!" She looked appalled. "We're seniors, lady, you think we're oblivious! Hell, none of us are stupid; we know who fucks who up the ass and who fucks who in the p-"

"Young lady!" Teacher cut me off, her tone offended even though it was cracked. "I'm going to have to send you to the principal for that!"

"Why, so I can suck his dick too?" I exclaimed. "So we can be Dick Sucking Buddies?" I scoffed and Teacher gave a whimper.

"Go to the principal!" Teacher yelled, her eyes cold. I stepped forward.

"Make me!" I snapped at her. She reached out to grab my arm but at that moment, the door burst open. On auto, I turned to the door. I mean, I'm a high school student and I'm fucking nosy. Good thing too. I'm an older sister. A very protective older sister. My brother, Gerard, is a year younger than me but it really seems like he's ten. Not that he's immature. He's just small. And codependent. Normally I think codependency is wrong but G is my baby brother so I really don't care. And G was the one who burst into the room. Tears streaked his face and his cheeks were flushed. I understood why in a heartbeat.

In the center of his forehead was a dark silver (almost grey) half moon. It stood out against his pale skin.

Immediately, all the kids around the class started whispering. Not all of them did, I bet, but some did, certainly. I didn't care. G looked at me and let out a heart wrenching sob, throwing himself at me. I caught him and dropped to my knees beside him and smoothed down his hair, whispering how being Marked would make Damien and Jack proud. Our fathers are gay and they are both Vampyres. G and I are adopted. The class silenced while I still murmured sweet things to G.

"Hey, uh, A," someone called, sounding like they were stifling giggles. "Look up." I looked up and stared blankly at the person before me. I realized, after a moment of staring, that he must be a Tracker. FUCK! Fuck, fuck, fuck! What could he want? He already hurt G. What more could he do? I sucked in a breath, ready to scream my lungs off (which wasn't smart because my inhaler was in the back of the room) when the Tracker lifted his index finger. I didn't catch what he said but I didn't need to because G had stopped crying and people were laughing and I caught 'what a freak' and 'as if she wasn't creepy before' and other cruel things muttered like that.

Now I, like my brother, was Marked. Shit. I knew I should be proud. I knew I should grin and carry myself out of the room with my normal confident swagger… But I couldn't. All my life, I'd been haunted by crazy fuckers that wanted to kill me. When I was eleven, some goat thing tried to take me to somewhere called Half-blood Hill. I told him to fuck the fuck off (I was vulgar, even for an 11 year old and I only had my friend Jackie to blame) and never talk to me again. Stupid fucker trying to tell me I'm part God. As in the Bible? Shove the bible up your ass –no offense to people who read the bible. I just don't like that shit being shoved down my throat. But I digress.

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't even cry. I'd had asthma all my life and it acted up at the worst of times. And now I couldn't breathe. Students were jeering and I heard G screaming for my inhaler and people saying they wouldn't take part in saving a freak. Can't breathe… I felt someone lift me up and my mind went black.

Shit. Where the fuck was I? I stood up and peered around. Really. G took me to… A graveyard. How fucking pleasant. Did he like ditch me here going 'I don't need you'? I'm so confused. I looked around slowly, looking for any sign of life (graveyard, duh). No such luck. Why couldn't G have buried me if he was going to do off with me? Behind me, cold laughter that couldn't really qualify as laughter echoed.

I spun around only to get hit in the face with my blond hair, obscuring my view of the person momentarily. When I could see, I got a good glimpse of the man. He was tall. Not super tall like Jack and the Beanstalk Giant but he was tall enough for me to have to look up. I'm pretty tall myself so that was saying something. He had super pale skin, like he was a ghost or something and dark hair, dark eyes, and dark-ish clothes. There was a theme of angst going on here. I guess he would be dark since we're in a graveyard. Maybe I'm in front of his dead wife's grave.

He laughed again. Or maybe it was a… Well, it couldn't be described. "Greetings, Alyssa." He said my name right! Whoa. In awe, I stepped forward. "You have been…" He stepped forward, too, and traced the half moon on my forehead. "Marked." He said the word like he would say the N-Word. Bitterly. As if it was a bad word but he was dared to say it.

"Right?" I said. "It's bullshit. Fucking Tracker had to mark me because it wasn't enough that he made G cry." The man's hand traced swirls around my eyes before cupping my cheek, tilting my face upward.

"Who is 'G'?" he asked curiously, his dark, soulless eyes boring into my eyes.

"My brother, Gerard." I paused. "You're Erebus, right? Nyx's consort or whatever? That's cool, yo, being some lady's bitch. Right, that's what you are? Isn't that what a consort is? So the question is: why are we here?" He looked amused and as though he was about to grin. But he didn't. The man just scowled. Erebus. What a stupid name. I immediately disliked it. The man, though, he's pretty cool.

"Gerard," the man murmured. He lowered his face and pressed a kiss to my forehead where I assume my stupid mark is. "You are one of them. Use it well." He looped his arms around my waist and gave me a squeeze-hug thing and kissed my forehead once more. "Use it well," he whispered.

I shot up, sweat rolling down my face. I was sitting in the passenger seat to my truck. G was driving. He had stopped crying and his face was no longer flushed but he looked bad. He glanced at me and I bit my lip. Something happened to him. Something wild and insane. His mark was filled in completely and was a dark, dark grey. He gave me a sad look and I spun around, looking into the rear view mirror. My mark was like his.

Well fuck. Luckily, he just pulled into the driveway to our house. No one was home. Of course. Jack is the current Vampyre Poet Laureate at the House of Night and Damien is an actor. Our house is a simple two story house on the corner with a huge driveway. G pulled into the driveway and shut the car off. He turned to me and threw himself at me, sobbing against my shoulder. I petted his hair and told him what happened. He just nodded, whispering 'me too, me too.' I assumed that meant the very same thing happened to him. My poor G.

"Oh A, what are we supposed-" I didn't hear what he said because I started to cough. He leaned away from me and pulled a napkin from the cup holders. I usually stop at Burger King and buy some fries or something after school. I coughed into the napkin and crumpled it up before tossing it into the trash.

"We need to call Jack," I said quietly, my voice raspy. G nodded and we climbed out of the truck. Jack only answers his cell phone if it's our house number calling so we had to call him from inside. I was the one to do the calling, of course, or else G would break down sobbing if he had to outright say he'd been marked. I understood that though I would never do it. Because of this Mark, we were forced to leave behind everything we grew up knowing. Our friends, our teachers, our fucking lifestyle. It was a bitch but… Jack and Damien would be proud. I grabbed a dish rag as I walked through the kitchen to get to the house phone, coughing lightly into it. From the main room, I heard hacking and prayed G was okay.

I hesitated before violently punching the numbers of Jack's cell into the phone and pressing call. I brought it to my ear and let it ring.

"-start writing class," was what the phone answered to. And Jack spoke into the phone. "Hello?"

"Jack," I whispered hoarsely before coughing into the dish rag.

"Alyssa?" he exclaimed. I found myself suddenly disgusted with how he said my name. When Erebus or whoever said my name, it sound right. It sounded magical. Okay, maybe not that far but it did feel very right. "Are you alright? What's wrong? Why are you not in school?" I smiled slightly; Jack was such a worrier.

Without giving myself a chance to hesitate, I spoke. "Gerard and I… Just got marked."

There was a long pause on Father Number Two's end. I mean a very long pause. G had long since walked in before Jack spoke.

"I just sent a student for Zoey. Drive over here. Someone will be by to pick up your things." He paused and spoke again. "I shall meet you." And he hung up. Really? Just really.

I relayed the information to G and we walked to my truck. The drive to the House of Night was silent and I was really thankful that my truck had tinted windows so that little light got through. When I went from the truck to the house, the light had been like a knife stabbing my eyes. It hurt that much. G was clutching my hand tightly the whole time we drove to the school.

Jack was there, like he promised. G and I climbed out and my brother immediately reattached himself to my side. Jack led us inside the school and when we entered, there was a woman there. She was tall and pretty with long black hair and beautiful blue swirls and runes around her eyes that, from my point of view, traveled to her shoulder and disappeared beneath her shirt. Zoey then? I didn't really care.

"Hello," she said. "I am Zoey, the High Priestess here." So I was correct –she is the High Priestess. I half expected her to stare at my mark. According to Damien, Zoey was the only Fledgling in recorded Vampyre history to ever have gotten a filled in mark (as well as decorations or whatever) before completing the Change. I didn't want to be the one to break that trend. I didn't want G to go through that either! However, Zoey didn't even so much as glance at either of our Marks. She tried to maintain eye contact with both my brother and me. "Welcome to the House of Night!" she laughed warmly. "What are your names?"

I opened my mouth to respond but bit my tongue, wincing. I pondered my answer before speaking. "I fucking hate my name," I responded finally. "It's shit. I hate G's name too. My parents were bat shit naming us our names." G gave something that sounded like a weak laugh.

Zoey blinked, unfazed by my language. She then smiled. "You have every right to change your names if you wish." I grinned at her. I liked that. Changing my name. "It is going to be legally when you change your name." I nodded and stepped back, pulling G –or if he agreed to what I had in mind, Z- with me.

I leaned down and whispered in his ear. "Zeus." He leaned back and blinked. In my gut, that name felt right. Like somehow, it was the name he should have been given at birth. I don't know why. Zeus Hades Maslin. That was his name. That should be his name, anyway. My brother looked at me and nodded slowly.

"It feels…" he paused. "It feels completely right to me," he murmured. "Zeus Hades Maslin." I grinned. "Do you have yours?"

I nodded. The name that felt right in my gut was simple. I obsess over anime; I tell you this right now. My room has posters of Fullmetal Alchemist left and right, I have a picture of me with Vic Mignogna (the voice actor for Ed in FMA), a picture of me with Travis Willingham (Roy Mustang), and plushies from Fullmetal Alchemist. My bed sheets, pillow cases, and comforter are also Fullmetal Alchemist. You'll be hard pressed to find non-anime merchandise around my room (besides my manga and other novels). The name was simple. My new name. It felt right. And it would feel right without the anime obsession.

"Zeus Hades Maslin." My brother saying his new name to the High Priestess got my attention from my thoughts. Zoey nodded and set her gaze on me. At first, when she first did that, I didn't think about it. But now…It was wrong. I didn't like her. At all. She felt… Icky to me.

"Envy Elric Maslin." Beside me, G… Er, no, Z. Beside me, Z laughed as did Jack.