I was genuinely curious. I hadn't lived in the slums before I came to the Academy. I had been tied to the Sect since birth, and held in orphanages in the upper dwells. I was one of the lucky ones. Those without parents generally became panhandlers, beggars prey for any hungry demons that hid behind the Wall. Plus, I loved the creative atmosphere of the place.
"A goblin kid hid in a shack close to the Sect church, a simple catch and release." He shrugged, shifted on the spot. "Same old thing. Dirty and cold, but it be my home, y'know?" He paused and made a clicking noise with his tongue, a sound one made unconsciously before bringing up a touchy or dangerous subject. It was a slum dwell habit I knew he'd been trying to get rid of for a while. "Something happened to you this morning?"
I pressed my lips together. Ro was perceptive, more than was usual for a boy his age. That or I looked worse than I thought. I worked hard to keep most of the kooky crap I did away from Alex. It would only worry her. The stuff from this morning would probably give her grey hairs. Ro looked like he was ready to buckle down and figure what was wrong with me. Maybe his well timed words and snorts earlier were trying to accomplish more than just derision. Maybe he was trying to cover up the fact I was giggling like a banshee during what was supposed to be a serious discussion. Whatever issues I had about how cooped up we were behind the Wall or how purist the teachings of Sect had become, the Temple was my home. Suggestions bound to get me into serious trouble stayed locked firmly inside my mind, most of the time. Disciples who'd voiced radical ideas like my own ended up failing the final exam or kicked out of the Sect. Then there were the ones who disappeared entirely. That was not going to happen to me. Ro and I had had a few very brief discussions about this. Touched on the subject more than once, how some things the Sect did and said didn't quite add up. How Disciples going missing, after they had spoken up about the treatment of demons we captured, was just plain wrong. Ro had always been keen to talk more, but I'd always pulled back.
"I went Outside," I said and lifted my chin. "I ran in the forest."
Alex groaned and plucked at the skin of her throat as if it irritated her. She'd already known this and her reaction was purely knee jerk.
Ro didn't look surprised, if anything mildly impressed. "Did something happen?"
I tilted my head, hearing something unspoken in the words. "Why'd you think that?"
"You on edge, and earlier you went pale like you seen you a ghost. You got so shook up you forgot yourself and walked right into Devlin. Rae, you always so careful and cautious about touching, and you got so distracted you forgot?" He shook his head. "I don't think so, something big happened."
I swallowed before I answered, "I saw-" Was I really going to tell him?
"I'll tell you something else," Ro began, speaking slowly and looking down at his hands looped in his jean pockets. "Maybe on my way to class, I hear a Lord and Lady Cleric talking about a problem with a demon Outside this morning. Maybe I hear them talking about a Disciple who broke Doctrine and went beyond the Wall. They say a Disciple disobeyed and even struck out, gave the Lady Cleric a black eye." He looked up at me and lowered his voice an octave. "You need to be careful now, you feel me? Think about the questions you ask in class and the way you react to some words. Likefairy, eh?"
"What are you getting at?" I tried to pretend the shrillness of my voice was natural.
I couldn't tell them what had happened, if the Clerics were looking for me there was only a matter of time before they found me. I was bound to slip up again. I had a bloody vampire snoozing in my wardrobe for gods sake. I had decided the best was to play this was to not confirm or deny anything else. Ro would try to help me and his heart would be in the right place, but I couldn't risk it.
As for Alex "You do remember the Rupture? What happened to people like you who wouldn't get in line and act right," she said angrily.
She was not happy and I could sense a long, rambling speech coming on. With all the information I'd told her and Ro's speculations, she would have been able to piece together quite a bit by now.
Opening my mouth to tell her to shut the hell up, I saw Tu enter the room talking to a thin woman. She was dressed in a crimson blazer with a swollen eye and bandaged arm. A Lady Cleric, the Lady Cleric from that morning.
Chapter Four
I straightened and ordered my feet to freeze mid step back. My heart pounded double time as every instinct I had screeched at me to run and hide. They really were looking for me, and knew the one they sought was a Disciple. The Lady Cleric's gaze slowly passed over every female face in the group as she replied to Cleric Tu. My stomach clenched and sweat beaded my brow. Did her gaze linger on me? Did she hesitate to move on, or was it my imagination?
I wanted to scream at her that it was an accident. That I had no idea what all the crazy stuff happening around me meant, nor did I want to. I wanted to rewind a day, back to when things were simple. Where my life made sense and where boys spoke and acted normally. Where Clerics were the good guys who protected us from demons and my teachers were not heartless murderers.
The Lady Cleric scanned our faces once more than shook her head once. She left with Tu close behind her, whispering something to him.
What did I do? Surely if they had identified the Disciple in the forest was me, they would have hauled me out the class.
Alex glanced over her shoulder at the retreating Cleric, but was otherwise uninterested. Ro was more on ball, and his eyes narrowed as he watched me. Too messed in the head to try and be subtle, I glared at him, daring him to comment. Well, there was nothing I could do. I'd had enough of being stressed out. Slouching back into my chair, I kicked up a leg on the empty seat opposite and mud fell off my soles.
"Are you even listening to me?" Alex asked.
"I'm sorry, what? Oh, yes," I said. "Yes, I do remember."
The Rupture was a global slaughter that had nearly wiped the entire human race of the face of the planet. It had changed everything. Vampires had emerged from the shadows one winter dragging all manner of wicked with them, and in one clean sweep had consumed the earth. Shapeshifters had prowled the streets in daylight. Hunting were-bears, were-lions and were-whatever-the-hell-you-can-think-of had feasted on human flesh. Goblins tore people limb from limb and roasted them in dumpster-sized stew pots. Raped the screaming women, and produced more deformed offspring. Powerful witches cast spells that stopped the hearts of entire cities, made all things in a thousand-mile radius just stop.
Within weeks governments had fallen. Monarchy's had been eliminated, a warped genocide, madness. No one but the crazies who had believed in such things was prepared. They knew how to protect themselves with stakes and silver, hiding places underground. Otherwise only the strong, quick and the smart had survived. The barbaric culling of the human race left us scattered across the world in tiny pockets of civilization. Communities of people who put aside old hates based on colour and religion, and blended together until the human race was a convergence unlike anything ever predicted. We lived in an overcrowded region of land surrounded by electricity, a patch of city untouched by the horror Outside.
At least, that's what the Priests told us in their sermons. Most people alive now-a-days were too young to remember what had happened, and the old ones who had experienced it had died of old age years before. Against all odds endangered humankind had survived and had the Sect to thank. A group of human men and women had erected the Wall, and set the strongest of us as guardians. Determined to keep fighting and to survive at all costs, they selected new protectors from the masses seeking sanctuary and trained them to hunt the monsters that had stolen the planet. Those protectors were the Clerics. They hunted down any demon that dared step on our territory. Of course I remembered the Rupture; it was something I, nor any other being, would ever forget.