Chapter 6

One day, Dimitri and I decided to go to the dorm while our team went to the cafeteria. I had wanted to get to know him better, since we would, ideally, be leading the team together for the rest of our lives. We were laughing at something ridiculous Mia had said today as we walked up, but sobered as soon as we saw that our dorm door was ajar.

I motioned for him to open the door on my signal, so that I could get the jump on whoever had opened our door. I counted one, two, three, and then jumped forward. Dimitri swung the door open just in time for me to leap through the doorway. No one was in the living room, probably because their job was clearly done. The place was trashed. Lamps were shattered on the floor, the couch pillows were cut open and tossed around, and the couch itself was overturned across the room. Picture frames were shattered on the floor, but the pictures were nowhere to be seen. In the first week we had been here, we had made sure to take a couple of fun photos to hang around the place. Now some stranger was getting off on the sight of young girls. The thought sent a chill down my spine.

Dimitri came through the doorway after me, and whistled at the sight of our wrecked apartment. "You get the girls bed and bath, I'll get the guys." I nodded and walked off, clearing the closets and dressers as I went.

"All clear!" I shouted to Dimitri.

"Same here!" I was just wondering what kind of sick bastard would do this when I walked into the bathroom and froze.

Oh God, I needed to get Dimitri, but I couldn't move. I couldn't talk. I couldn't breathe. I needed to snap myself out of this, but I just couldn't do it. My lungs were about to burst when Dimitri finally came up behind me. "Rose? Rose? Rose, look at me!" But I couldn't do anything except point. Point, and silently scream.

His eyes moved up to the mirror, and for the first time he noticed the bloody message. I had found it 2 minutes ago, and the scary part was that it was still fresh. We had come home for lunch, and found the dorm in shambles. The place was trashed; the door was off its hinges, and now this in the bathroom.

I saw his eyes widen in shock and horror, and thought that was probably how my face looked. I needed to get out of here. I had to run. This note, this whole damned apartment was suddenly reminding me of someone that should've been forgotten long ago. The note read:

THORN,

YOU SHOULD HAVE COME; IT MIGHT HAVE SAVED YOU SOME OF THE PAIN. BUT I'M NICE, SO I'LL GIVE YOU A SECOND CHANCE. FIND ME, OR THE PEOPLE YOU CALL YOU'RE FRIENDS ARE GOING TO SUFFER.

-BONES

You see, Bones was Alex's old codename. We had shared info that no one else was meant to read by a system that I now thought was extremely immature. My codename had been Thorn, and his had been Bones. Everyone we knew had had different names as well, so that when teachers caught us passing notes, they and the rest of the class couldn't tell what we were talking about. But I knew exactly what this note meant, and it frightened me.

Alex had always been skeptical of everything, kind of like how I was skeptical of the whole religion thing. But as graduation grew closer and closer, his skepticism had moved onto more dangerous subjects…like how bad the Dami really were. No one questioned that, yet he had. He had even gone so far as to talk about leaving, of us going to them together. I had always thought he'd been joking, but after the incident, I blamed myself for not trying to talk him out of it.

So what the note really said was 'You should've come with me…come find me or I'll make your Pack pay'. Ya, kind of a depressing message. What was even more depressing was the thought that Alex had access to my dorm, and by relation, the school itself. This meant that he had somehow breached the Wall. He couldn't have gotten through underground, or just through the gate, and since there were no giant holes in the Wall, I knew that he hadn't broken through the Wall. Which only left…the air?

I looked back at the door, and saw the answer. There was a dead dove, nailed to the door at eye level. He left it as a clue, I was sure. He must have flown over the wall. Strijders had never had to worry about this before, because very few Dami ever killed a bird. Most of the time, the Dami had to kill it, and then drink the animal's blood. But birds never died easily, and when they did, there wasn't that much blood to drink. Unfortunately, this created a major crisis in the whole structure of the Institute. Going around, we tried as best we could to clean up, and were extremely thankful that none of our Pack members had been there at the same time as the attackers. Neither of us said anything, and we scoured the whole place. Dimitri and I found the same note in the guys' bathroom.

Once we had gotten everything back in order and recorded all of the items beyond help, we went down to the Judge's office. The secretary stopped us for a while, but after a bit of my, well, more persuasive attitude, she caved and let us in. We explained him to what we had found, and then he was sitting in front of us, with that same calculating expression I had seen at my Judgment.

"Oh, dear. Do either of you know anyone who would do this?" I told him my theory about the Dami birds, and his face got paler and paler as I spoke. "Well, we will order the replacements for any damage. The Administration will take care of this. You have nothing to worry about. In the mean time, I believe its 6th period is it not?" We nodded, and he sent us on our way.

Walking out of the offices, Dimitri and I conversed about what might happen because of the attack. "I mean, it's not like they'll just take this lying down. They'll have to put a roof in. I know it'll suck that we have to stop seeing the sky, but really what are they supposed to do? There's nothing else we can do." We arrived at the classroom we were assigned to, and the conversation was cut off suddenly. There was a silent agreement that no one besides our Pack would know.

"Oh, look. The lovebirds decided to join us. That's so nice of you, the big bad Guardians to grace us, the lowly class with your presence." Ugh. Mr. Fargh had a reputation for loving to torment students. Seriously, it was like his favorite pastime. I wondered what his kids (hypothetical obviously, the guy probably won't ever get married) would be like. Probably sullen and dead looking. "I saw that you were excused from your 5th period class, and I was just wondering what kind of activity would get you excused from class. You must have gotten in trouble, and the class is just dying to know what you've done to get in that much trouble." Ugh. Again. Nice guy isn't he?

Swallowing my fear, I said in my cheeky way, "We put snakes in your apartment. So, what did we miss?" I added the question as an afterthought while Dimitri and I took our seats. His eyebrows rose in anger, and it took him a minute to recover his snide air.

"Tell the truth. Or I'll be forced to give you a detention." He said it like he wasn't looking for an excuse to give me a detention, like it would be a tragedy for him to give me one. If I hadn't been so worried by the whole attack, I would've rolled my eyes.

But I was worried, so when I rose from my seat, looked Fargh right in the eyes, and said "We were gone because we found our dorm ravaged at lunch, and had to clean up the whole damn place," I said it with a mix of anger and unresolved fear. I noticed my Pack members looking up from their desks with shock, and Fargh looking up with his nails in disgust.

"You two think that lie is going to cut it? Both of you have detention with me Saturday. If either of you is late, both of you will repeat the detention." The more mature, calmer side of me knew that there was no point in arguing. I mean, that would just prove his point. So I resigned myself to sit down. However, Dimitri didn't have the same intentions, which was evident when I saw his face light up in rage. To avoid any unnecessary conflict, I quickly said "Yes sir," And took the air right out of his balloon. He looked at me questioningly, as if to ask why can't I hurt him? I shook my head, and he sat down, that fuming look still on his face.

We were clearly going to have an animated little chat after class, but right then, Dimitri and I had to sit through a lecture on the correct way to format a business letter. Ugh. Why was it that all of the mean teachers taught the driest subjects? I asked myself this question as we listened, and then my mind shifted to other topics. For the next hour, I played with the question of how to make Mr. Fargh pay. I could spurn him in the eyes of his peers, or I could go for the physical approach. Hmmm, but then I would have to take a secretive action, and stealth was so not my thing.

The bell rang, cutting my train of thought off. "It's not like I don't want to punch him in the neck as well, but it isn't wise to force a conflict that he clearly wants. Plus, I'm sure we can get Harks to clear up any questions Fargh might have." I said as we walked out into the halls. I knew that he knew that I had a point, but I could see in his eyes this fire, and knew what was burning his soul.

"You have the same anger. The same fire chasing you." The abashment in his eyes was the only conformation that I needed to go on. "You snap just as fast as me. Wow. I didn't think anyone could snap as fast as me." I was talking more to myself, but the shame on his face was too much, and I saw that he was looking away in order to prevent me from seeing his face. I knew he wanted me to stop, but I couldn't help it. I couldn't stop myself from rolling on. "But somehow, it's different from me. It's like you can't let go. When I snap, I go off like that." I snapped to show what 'that' was. "But you, you hold on to it. It's almost as if you like the feeling of that fuel in your stomach. You do don't you? You enjoy that invincible feeling. That feeling where you've forgotten what's stopping you."

Every time I spit out a sentence, a random stab in the dark, he confirmed it by little telltale signs. A twitch in his face, a slight tremor in his hands gave me the affirmation. "It's not good for you. I snap fast, but I at least put some effort in controlling it. I hate the feeling of losing control. That's what leads to darkness. To evil even. You need to let it go. Or you'll end up, like, like him." At that admission, Dimitri looked up at me in astonishment.

That shut him up, and we walked the rest of the way to History in silence. It was a lecture, and I took notes distracted by my comparison. I didn't think I would be able to handle it if he really did turn out like Alex. After class, Dimitri came up and apologized, and said he had come up with a proposal. If I would help him calm down when he got riled up, then he would calm me down too. I smiled, and agreed.

We walked the rest of the way back to the dorms, and where we found new furniture and an administrative slip:

"Two days from now, the Vote will begin. So train hard, and start to think of what you'll think. Immediately after you're Pack votes, the new leader will report to Judge Harks. Strive for excellence in everything you do."

Great. Because I really needed more pressure.