Chapter Two

Life at the Institution of Hell

3 Years Later… now

BAANNGGGGGG! I sat upright, breathing hard. I had just had another nightmare, and the morning bell had woken me up again. The dream was always the same. I was running, running as if for dear life, and then all of a sudden I was in the courthouse looking down at my family and friends as Dolores said again that I was going dark. Then long dark claws grew from my fingers, and I seemed to grow five feet. I could feel large teeth forming in my mouth. I was becoming a monster. Everyone was screaming and running trying to find the exit. I started to walk toward Holly but she screamed and ran, toward my mother who was trying to open the door. She looked back at me and said the haunting words that have followed me throughout the years in my dreams. "You're a monster Eve. Look at what you're doing. We don't love you anymore." We don't love you anymore. Although in real life she hadn't said it, she might as well have. You can tell when no one from your family doesn't even try to contact you, or call you or even send a freaking letter once in a while just like "Hey just wanted to know if you're still alive," but no.

I rolled out of bed and stood up. Hmm, what shall I wear today? Black prison suit, or navy prison suit? (There not actually prison suits, but when you live in institution, and they don't let you out at all, unless it's in a fenced in area with electrical wire, then it might as well be a prison.) Hard choice but I guess I'll have to go with…black, since it is my favorite colour. Don't EVEN get me started on the whole blacks a shade not a colour thing, I hate when people say that. Who cares? I pulled on the one-piece suit. They don't have pockets on them because they think we'll hide guns and knives in them, as if we could ever get a hold of them. If I could it's not like I can take out all the bodyguards and light users here, although I could try, if I had a really good plan, and someone else to help me. But enough of the thoughts of breaking out, I was hungry.

I made it to the door to my small little prison. My cell, I mean room, was about the size of a closet. When I first got here there was a small lumpy bed shoved into one corner, and a little desk shoved in another corner, and that's about it. The walls were light grey and bare, same thing for the floor. Oh, and they don't allow locks on the doors, which sucks. Seriously what are we going to do in here that's soooo bad? It hasn't changed that much in the three years that I've been here besides my suitcase under the bed filled with clothes that I will never be able to wear and pink bunny slipper beside my bed. I didn't really feel the need to make it seem 'homey'. Yes, I did say pink bunny slippers if you were wondering. In the morning my feet get really cold, and I used to wear those cause they make my feet toasty warm. And since those are the only slippers I have here, they're the only ones I can wear. But I wear them sleeping because I'm not allowed to wear them anywhere else besides my room. So in the morning I quickly slip my feet into the stupid black standard shoes. Even though they're not as warm as my slippers, my feet quickly warm up.

I strolled down the hallway, trying to act normal as other prisoners, ahem, I mean patients woke up and walked down the hallway with bleary eyes. It was 6:00 am, and people were yawning and scrubbing their eyes trying to wake themselves up. Yeah I know, you're probably wondering why we have to get up at this ungodly hour. Well I don't really know, but I think it has something to do with getting the day started faster or something, but personally I think it's a whole bunch of bullshit. I think this whole place is bullshit. But I'll get into this later, my stomach was growling like a feral dog.

I stepped through the door to the cafeteria and made my way to the breakfast line. I grabbed two bowls of cereal and a piece of toast, which were the only two options. There was a breakfast/lunch/dinner lady on the other side making sure we don't take too much, I called her Ms. Pissy. Her real name is Ms. Piscainitch, but Ms. Pissy has a ring to it, and her face looks like she's in her own personal hell. Which I gotta admit probably isn't too far off mark when you think about it. Ms. Pissy has graying light brown hair and deep lines around her forehead. It seems like there's a permanent grimace on her face all the time, and she never talks, only makes weird grunting sounds when she's asked something. Everyone who's been here long enough knows the difference between the yes grunt and the no grunt. A yes grunt is slightly longer and a bit higher than a no. You're out of luck if you ask a multiple choice question.

I strode to an empty table in a dark corner and sat down and started to wolf down my meal. When I was done I sat back and watched as people started to slowly wander in.

Not that many people come to the Institution of Darklings. That was because there aren't that many people who turn dark. It's not as if we got to choose or anything, because if I got to pick there would have been no thinking at all, and I wouldn't be here, stuck in this prison where your not allowed visitors, or going out to the mall, or even taking a walk down the street. I would be back home with my family, and they wouldn't hate me. I would go to the movies with my friends and tease my little sister. I would have fights with my parents and we would make up. That's the way it should have gone, but Dolores thought different. She saw into my soul and apparently I had gone dark. I sighed. It wasn't Dolores's fault, it was mine. I should have seen it coming. It's not like I was normal in my family. Both my parents and my sister have blond hair. I have coal black hair, so did my great aunt Pippa, who turned dark. My dad and my sister have forest-green eyes and my mom has blue eyes. I have grey eyes, just like my great aunt Pippa, who, I don't think I have to remind you, turned dark. Yup, I should have seen it coming, but I was naïve back then. My thoughts came to a halt as I saw someone I've never seen before walk into the cafeteria.

Usually new people who come to the Institution are around thirteen because that's the age when you turn. But this guy, whoever he was, definitely wasn't thirteen. He had to be at least sixteen, my age, or older. He was tall, at least six feet, and lanky, but muscular. I couldn't see his eyes from here but I was guessing brown. Tall, dark and handsome had high cheekbones and a strong jaw. He had a cold expression on his face, like he didn't take shit from anyone. He was wearing a standard black suit, and the standard black shoes. I watched as he strode toward the breakfast line, and stopped behind Iggy.

Iggy's real name is Isabelle, but everyone calls her Iggy. (Don't ask me where the nickname came from). She's a little bit to energetic, but that's because she's got ADHD. Otherwise she's fine, as long as you keep her away from sharp objects. One of Iggy's powers is that she can almost break into any room, although that isn't really a power, but it comes in handy. She can do something else, but I don't know what it is, but I'm guessing it's something pretty neat.

Tall Man waited while Iggy bounced up and down, getting her food, then he grabbed two bowls of cereal and three pieces of toast. He seemed to be looking around for something. He turned to Ms. Pissy and said something to her. When he didn't get an answer besides a grunt he pointed to his toast. I smiled, realizing he was asking for butter. Too bad sunshine, I thought. They don't let us have butter here. Yeah I know right? How can you have toast without butter? After awhile of getting no response from , Sunshine over there decided to go sit down before every seat was taken up. He sat three tables away from me, and watched the other kids, like I was, once I was done staring at him. Finally I shifted my gaze away from him, got up and dumped my stuff in the garbage. I turned around and started to make my way back to my table when someone blocked my way.

It was Doris and Nick. Oh greeeeeat, I thought, just what I need to start my day. Nick and Doris where twins. They both had dark blond hair cropped short, and round chubby faces with hook noses, and light green eyes. They looked almost identical, besides the fact that Nick was a guy and Doris was a girl. But if you just looked at them, you wouldn't be able to tell. They thought they were all high and mighty because they were the oldest in the institution. They weren't that old at all, they were only 17 turning 18. Their birthday was next month. When you turn 18 people from the institution send you to a different institution where you stay until you die. Well I don't really know, but whenever someone turns 18 the only thing we ever hear is that they got shipped to a different institution. So, I'm guessing you stay there for the rest or you're life because they're definitely aren't going to let a Darkling loose. Nick snapped his fingers in front of my face. "Daydreaming Eve?" he asked. I didn't say anything. I was there play toy for the week, so if you just try to ignore them you won't get hurt. Much. Doris stepped into my path when I tried to walk around them. "Aw, come on Eve, don't be so down." I glared at her. I hated when people commented on height. So what I was a little short for my age, but seriously it's not even that big a deal. I'm 5'3, but really it's not that short, I just have a small body. I tried to step around her and Nick, but she got in my way again. "I'm just teasing Eve, don't be mad, please," Doris said in a mock sorry voice.

"Yeah, we would just die if you were mad at us." Nick snickered. I really wanted to punch his ugly face, but I held it back, just setting my face in a cool unemotional mask.

"Yeah, I wouldn't want you too be mad at us," Doris said. Now they were really starting to annoy me, but I let it go.

"We wouldn't want your mommy or daddy to come after us," Nick and Doris snickered. Okay, I thought, clam down, clam down. I took slow deep breaths to get my rage under control. "Oh wait," Doris went on, "your mommy and daddy don't care." Okay, they definitely went over the line. There was red tinge in the edges of my vision. I HATE it when people bring up my parents like that, like I don't already know that they don't care about me anymore. The cafeteria had quieted and I could feel everyone's eyes on us. Maybe, maybe, if they were quiet for a minute I could get under control. "You know, I think they made a good choice, not bothering to talk to you, cause you would be an embarrassment, you're to dangerous to keep around them, you might be tempted to hurt them, and they would hate you even mo-," a punch to the face cut Nick off. It was my punch to the face and it was a pretty good one too. Nick stumbled backwards and held his nose, which was probably broken. The whole cafeteria went quiet. No one younger had ever stood up to the Terrible Twos. I went at him again, and kicked him in the stomach. He hit the ground with a thunk and turned over on his side. I started to advance on him again, but Doris came at me from behind and swung me around into a table. Big crackles of thunder boomed outside, and rain pelted the windows. I wiped around and stared at Doris. I was facing away from everyone else, so she was the only one to see the burning rage on my face. Doris hesitated, her eyes went from my face to the window, then back to my face, and I swore I saw fear in her eyes for a second. I almost laughed, it was actually funny, to see her squirm for once. But that second was over and she ran at me, but I was ready. Even though Doris was twice my size, I could move quicker, and dodge her more easily. She backed me up into a corner and swung at me. I ducked to avoid a blow to the stomach, but it hit me in the face instead. Okay, owww! That really hurt. I was probably going to have a black eye the size of a baseball.

I tried to ignore the pain, but Doris had gotten me pretty good. I managed to slip between her and the wall and hit her in the back of the knees. Hard. She went down like a sack of potatoes. While she was recovering, I tried to recover myself. The pain went away a little, but not a lot. Doris started to get up slowly. I took the chance to hit her again, this time in the face. I felt I needed to make the score even. You punch me in the face, I'm going to punch you in the face; it's just how it goes. Doris made some kind of noise, which sounded oddly like Ms. Pissy, but didn't go down. Man, this girls like a freaking rock.

I was paying so much attention to Doris that I completely about Nick. Suddenly I was shoved from behind in to a lunch table. I hit at full speed and went tumbling. There was a huge clatter, and then finally I was lying still. I groaned inwardly. It felt like there was pain every where, but mostly it was going from my ankle and arm. I looked down at my arm, afraid to move. It was twisted into a weird angle, and didn't really look like an arm. I tried moving it and almost passed out. Jeez, who knew pain could be so painful. I tried moving my ankle, and sighed in relief. I could still move it, although it really hurt to do so. Abruptly I was yanked up from the ground. I was staring into Nick's ugly face. He threw me too the ground and I gasped as pain shot through my head as it bounced off the aluminum. He punched me in the stomach, and I curled into a defensive ball. He kept on hitting me. My right hand shot out (my good one) and I hit him in the stomach as hard as I could. He stumbled backwards and landed right on his fat ass. Ha, I thought, take that.

"STOP THIS!" and loud voice suddenly boomed from the doorway. I looked over. One of our supervisors had walked into the room. Of course she walked in when I hit Nick, and didn't see Nick pounding on me. It was Ms. Hannagin. She was, like, ancient. She had white hair and wrinkles all over. Her voice was rough and raspy, as if she'd been smoking her whole life. She was pretty tough, and one of the teachers I hated the most. She hated me too. When I first got to the institution I accidently tripped in front of her and spilled boiling coffee all over her. She still hasn't forgiven me. Plus she caught me trying to sneak out of my room a few times. Even if she did see Nick punching me repeatedly, she would just blame it on me.

"Eve, Nick, come with me." She said angrily. Nick and I clambered to our feet, and followed Ms. Hannagin. I limped though because I had at least sprained my ankle when Nick had pushed me. I silently cursed him. Ms. Hannagin noticed me limping, but pretended not to notice. Bitch, I thought. As Ms. Hannagin led us farther into the hallways, I slowly realized where we were going. Shit, she was bringing us to the headmaster's office. He was a mean, kind of young light user, and he was tough as hell. Normal life at the Institution of Hell.