Chapter 10: Weird Dream

Izzy POV

Ever since Rose and I had spilled our stories, I had felt a little insecure, which was unusual for me. I felt that at any moment my friends would decide I was too dangerous and leave me. It didn't seem like that was gonna happen, but I just had this fear, however irrational it might be. However, my attention today wasn't as much on anything but the weirdest dream I had last night. This one was scarily vivid, almost like a memory, but to my knowledge, I had never experienced it before.

I hate it here. Everybody is watching my every move, even when I'm resting. My former life was fading fast, but I could remember that I was happy. One memory is still fixed in my mind, when I'm in the backyard with my best friend, as children, and we're playing with toy swords, just pretending. But now I'm in a cruel, cruel place. They make us fight each other until one of us gets a limb torn off, and they keep score of who does well. Surprisingly, I have done well so far, but that's because I am the only one who can think straight.

Everybody else is crazed with ferocity, and while it makes them determined, it doesn't let them fight smartly. But I think that since it seems like I am the odd one out, They're all waiting for me to break or something. I am doing well, but I am different. I am trying to stay two steps ahead of them, and keep on guard, in case They decide that I am too different to keep around. The ones who do poorly too many times in a row get sent away, and they don't come back. I hear them screaming, and that terrible, terrible screeching sound, not to mention the sickly sweet smell of the fires that they are tossed into. The others are not bothered; they are too lost in their wildness.

There is a female instructor, and every day They take us outside in the wood and she "teaches" us basic lessons. Every new lesson means a new scar for me. At least I only get scars, unlike the others. They have little patience around here. My difference has helped me so far. I overheard some of Them whispering, almost too low to hear, too low for one of the others to hear, that they never expected me to come this far. I have noticed that there are not a lot of females around here. The ones that are seem especially tough. Sure, They keep a few of the "especially pretty" ones around as "playtoys", which disgusts me, and fills me with sympathy, but the ones that fight have a hard kind of look in their eyes. I probably do not seem like I can hold my own. I am very slight, and petite. But I have always known how to take care of myself. I have always been a kind of tough. I wonder what They want us to do today, because it is past the normal time for them to take us out. Oh, look, They are coming.

This is different. Instead of our usual female instructor, it seems that there is a male, instead. Hm, he looks familiar…oh, what am I thinking, how would I recognize any of Them? He identifies himself as Major Jasper Whitlock. Oh, so he is the famed Major we have all heard about. He is tall, and blond, and handsome, although all of Us are a certain degree. Still, he is good-looking. He says that our usual instructor is…indisposed…ahh, so she was killed. I am thankful that we have not had to be in a real battle yet. He says that he is going to "evaluate" us by making us fight each other, but as a group, and not one-on-one. Oh no, this can't be good. At least we won't actually die, he says that when we lose a limb, we are out. No exceptions. I can tell that it will be hard to get some of the others to stop, though. Oh, one of them is trying to attack him! Wow, she didn't even get far at all. He is very on top of things. Well, if he skyrocketed up the ranks like I have heard, and if he really is that good, he would be. They tell us stories of him to scare us, sometimes. The others seem to have learned to listen to him. Okay, I guess we will now begin.

As usual, I used my ability to think rationally and my instincts, that seem to be heightened more than theirs, against them, although I was lucky so far and have not been ambushed. I finished tearing off a skinnier male's arm, and turned around. Oh crap. It's an ambush. Of course. If I wasn't in this actual situation I would appreciate the irony. It's a good thing that you have an enlarged brain, Isabella, or all this thinking and commentary would have caused your death by now. The remaining five are all focusing their attention on me.

Good, use your speed, Isabella. They can't dismember what they can't catch.

It's not like anybody's gonna save me now. I have to save myself.

Remember, you've got something they don't, Isabella. You've just gotta keep your eyes open. Can't let Them see you fall off your game now. You see Them watching, waiting for you to finally be broken. The five are circling you, but keep your feet ready, and you're breathing nice and steady, never know when they might attack.

I could subconsciously sense their movements, and kept shifting my stance accordingly. Use all your senses, and your instinct, too. . I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I could feel the one on my right, the one with a scar around his ear from having it bitten off, tensing to spring, and the world seemed to go into slow motion as he sprung, allowing me to duck under him so that he landed on empty air. The one that was behind me, the brawny one turned towards me with a ferocious look on his face, but I dodged aside as he was mid-charge. Those two both fought like bears, charging, and letting sheer force do their work for them, like the majority of the others, but my fighting was more ducking and dodging, until the opportunity to strike presents itself. And when it did, I took it, but was sure to be spot-on precise, like a viper. I made sure of it.

The third one, the one with the little mustache waited for the other two to get out of his way before trying to pounce on me like a panther, but I feinted to the left and dodged out of the way again, turning around briefly to yank his arm out of its socket. He was out. He tried to lunge at me again, but one of Them dragged him out before he could.

One down, four to go.

Brawny, looking more irritated than ever lunged. He and the other one would be easy, since I didn't have to watch out for Little Mustache, the one that had seemed like the most dangerous out of them. As he lunged, I pivoted slightly on my right foot so that he went right past me, but caught hold of his left arm and gave it a yank, letting his momentum aid me in the tearing off of his limb. He was out. Now Ear Scar was next. He started towards me, but I didn't let him get that far. I met him in the middle and yanked his head clean off his shoulders, his venom spraying all over me, and the terrible screeching sound ringing out, sounding instead like music to my ears.

I could be sadistic, if I had to be. I could feel the deadly side of me coming through, as I turned my attention to the other two, but I pushed it down. I didn't know what would happen if I let it through, or let it take over, but I knew it would not be good. I glanced over the two others left. They had hung back, letting the others do the work, clearly not expecting for me to defeat them. They looked slightly more wary, but the Normal Newbie nature came out in them, and they started towards me simultaneously. I sped forward, before they could close the gap and create a front of sorts.The one on my left was a red-headed female, and I caught her by her hair and detached her head with a cold sort of precision before turning and leaping onto the last one's shoulders and relieving him, too of his head. I dropped it next to his body, and turned away. I wasn't exactly sure what to do so I walked to the center of the clearing we were in and stood there arms at my sides and stance tense in case They decided to provide me with a new threat. Instead, there was silence.

I heard a murmur in the back of the ring they had formed around our fight that sounded like "I haven't seen a newbie do that good since…since the Major." That shocked me a just a little bit, but I regained my composure so quickly, there was only a fraction of a second of chink in my armor. I shouldn't be able to hear that. It was clear that Normals couldn't, I guess that's just part of my difference. But…the Major seemed to have heard it too. There was a brief flash of something in his eyes, humor was the wrong word for it, a kind of amused pondering or contemptuous analyzing of a challenge, maybe, barely there, but I had seen it. The great Major, the heartless bastard who struck fear into all of Their dead hearts, the one that had once decimated an entire army of trained Newbies by himself. The man who's rampages in his Newbie year had caused him to escape and decimated an entire town or two. Was he…smirking? Yes, that was definitely a smirk I saw on his lips.

I don't think he had truly smile in a while, so I guess this was a huge response to get out of him, at least not on the anger side of the spectrum. My deadly side smirked inside of me at the sight of him, and…was that a purr?

That's not weird at all….note the heavy sarcasm.

Now that I was relatively safer, looks like the commentary is back in full force. Anyway, the Major started pacing slowly towards me, almost like he was stalking his prey, and I instinctively tensed, warning him with my eyes to not come any closer. He ignored my glare and continued towards me. His smirk grew even wider, and while a soft but steady growl came out of my lips, my dark side, the part of me I kept inside urged me to go to him. That's really freaky. She had been a part of me ever since I woke to this new life, this new body, and I had no idea what exactly to she was, but she was there, and she was definitely dangerous in a lethal way, and yet she was more primal that I was. He was within arm's reach now, and my growl had gone up in volume a couple notches. He changed his course so he was circling me, like the five others had done earlier, and he started to speak.

"You know,…"

His voice was smooth and rich, but with a coarse, manly rumble to it, like warm honey poured over gravel and sawdust. He was close enough so that I could see every scar on his skin, and I could tell that his scent was the same, like sawdust and honey, and newly turned soil, and the straw in the summer sun, but with a deeper manliness to him. There was no mistaking the masculinity about him. He had an accent, like many here, but it was more familiar. We were in the remotest part of Texas, so lots of the other Newbies had accents to match, but his was different…Texan, definitely, but more like he had grown up on a farm, fairly isolated, rather than in the big cities where They liked to "recruit". I had a faint recollection of having been born and growing up somewhere in a small Texan town where the people had an accent like that…Focus, Isabella. Focus. It's okay when only a portion of your brain is dedicated to this commentary, but you are starting to lose focus, like when you first came into this new brain. You have to control yourself, and focus. He was on his third round, and I was relieved to find that the portion of brain dedicated to monitoring and survival was still at play, as my stance automatically shifted once more. He had gotten closer, and I had gotten tenser. The growl had stopped, but I was prepared to dodge any strike he threw my way.

He leaned in close, and murmured, so that nobody else could hear, "I like you, Newbie."

And then he simply strode away, as casually as one can be in a place like this. I held my body still and tense enough to spring for a moment, before I slowly relaxed. Not completely, of course, but back to my normal state. The ring that They had formed slowly dispersed, disappointed that nothing big had happened, at least to their knowledge. I knew, for a fact, that that was not normal

I woke up at this point, a little freaked out. Why was Jasper, of all people, in my dream? And what had I been? I had a lot of questions buzzing around in my head, but I shook them away. No sense wasting time speculating about a dream, after all.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Destiny~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I got to school early, as I had been every day for a while, to hang around with my friends. When I got there, they had all already gathered together near Alice's car. I paused for a moment and reran what I had just thought in my head. Wow, I had mellowed out a little, if not a lot since I got here. That seemed…normal. Huh. Anyway, I could tell that they were whispering about some dream that Rose had, one that seemed to have taken place in the past, but wasn't an actual memory of hers, even though it seemed like it. It seemed insanely real. Huh. That's weird. Must be a coincidence. Too bad I don't believe in coincidences.

AN/: Seems like strange things are starting to happen. Yay! I love those! Anyway, I will hopefully post by next weekend, since I missed my goal of this weekend with this chapter. I have refound my motivation, at least for right now, since I seem to lose it a lot, sadly. :( Either way, I hope you all continue to read on!