Hekate (Hekátê, Hekátē)

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Warren heard rasping sounds from behind the science block just as he was sneaking off for a lunchtime smoke. He peeped around the corner and froze…

First day at a new school, Hekate stood in front of Sky High and started trembling. A school for freaks. God, she needed a fix. Sometimes she got these bouts of anxiety where she felt like running in 2 directions at once and smashing her head against the wall. Walking around to the back of the school, she rummaged through her bag a pulled out a slim steel case, about the length of her arm.

He blinked and wandered if he was seeing correctly. The sight of all that blood was making him queasy but all he could do was stare at the girl cutting her left forearm. It was no shallow cut, at least 2cm deep and 15cm long. The small, dark haired girl held the scalpel in a trembling fist, grimacing in pain and gasping for breath. Her blood stained a patch of grass bright red as she leaned against the wall. Out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of him and she turned to look at him. Shit, she thought.

To her surprise, he didn't go running off, instead he stepped forward slowly. He was perhaps the epitome of the corny phrase, tall dark and handsome. Now what is this wannabe bad-boy gonna do? She wondered.

"Er.. you..." he said but stopped as he starred at her gaping wound. The flesh had started slowly knitting itself back together, centimeter by centimeter, then followed my her tan skin which healed smoothly, though still covered in blood.

"Do you by any chance have a lighter? I rushed here today and forgot to bring mine." Hekate asked him as she fished out a cigarette. Well no one ever said she was a great conversationalist. When she looked up at him, his slack-jawed expression had changed smoothly to a cocky smirk. He snapped his fingers in front of her face and held a flaming thumb to the end of her cigarette. She raised an eyebrow.

"Nice." She blew out a plume of smoke. He watched her as he lit a smoke of his own.

"What?" She asked. But he just burst out laughing.

"What!?"

"You know I rarely find myself speechless but you caught me totally off guard. You are one scary chick. So pardon me if I stare a little." He grinned, and she had to admit he had a gorgeous smile.

"Hah, why thank you Flame-boy."

"Warren, it's Warren Peace."

"Ok Flame… Thanks for not running to the teachers."

"Yeah... are you ok? Seriously.."

"Well... today is a bad day… but I'm fine now, relatively… you don't worry about me." She took another drag and blew it out slowly. He eyed her lush lips and internally, he could feel himself heating up because she was just insanely sexy.

"Alright, if you say so. But I think you should get cleaned up. "

"Yeah, is there a bathroom nearby?"

"Are you new?"

"Yeah, first time setting foot on this floating piece of land."

"Oh."

After he showed her to the toilet, Warren rushed off to his next lesson. She was messed up, badass, real hardcore and he had to admit, the girl was really turning him on. But the best part was that he didn't even know her name.

The administration stuff was taking forever to process and Hekate was exhausted, hungry and slightly anemic. She had showed Principal Powers what she could do and was sitting in the general office waiting for her student id and new timetable. Interestingly, Principal Powers said that since she only just got her gifts a week ago, she had some potential of more development, so she was put into Hero class. Lame.

At the end of the day, she attended an hour of History of Great Battles before the bell rang. An administrative staff showed her to her room in the student hostel, which was at the other end of the floating campus. It was a small room with windows on one side and a bed on the other. Cupboards and a refrigerator completed the rest of the space. She closed and locked the door, lay on the bed and fell asleep in her underwear.