~Will Bente, Class of 2028

DAY 1

I awake to the piercing sound of gunshots. I run downstairs and see blood dripping down into a puddle on the floor. My mom is duct taped to a chair, and my dad is on the floor, covered in blood. A strange man shoots me, but the bullet bounces away right before it hits me. The man runs, and drops his gun. I pick up the gun gingerly, and it fires into the ground, before sort of accepting me as its owner. I look for the man, but he is nowhere to be found. I rush over to my mom, who I was seeing the back of, and notice she is barely breathing and looks very pale. She points to my dad. I walk over to him, and turn him over. He is not breathing. The grief overtakes me. Shortly after, I realize my mom has a bullet in her leg, and it is bleeding fast. I rip up my shirt, and try to stop the wound. But that’s when I realize there’s no saving her. She had also been stabbed, but not in the leg. She had been stabbed in the heart. 

The police arrive shortly after I realize both my parents are dead. According to them, I killed my own parents. What kind of sick, twisted person would think I killed my own parents? They tell me it’s because “I’m aggressive and have ADHD”. They send me to court and how am I supposed to appeal when they have like a thousand people and I have nobody? They put me in a bus and drive me to prison.

NIGHT 1

They handcuff me and tell me I will be killed in four weeks. Guess that’s death row for you. I get shoved in my cell and decide to lay down in my bed. I fall asleep and fall into an endless void. I wake up unusually cold. Then I realize why. My cellmate is frozen holding a knife to my throat. Why is everything trying to kill me? And why isn’t it working? I try to relive what happened to my parents and what happened when that man shot me. Then it clicks. The strange barrier that protected me was made of ice. I thaw my cellmate in the toilet, and ask him what happened. He said “one of your eyes turned light blue, and the other one turned crimson. Then I was frozen.” I couldn’t believe it. I used magic¹ in my sleep. My parents’ murderer probably had illusion magic.² I now knew how I would escape. I would use ice magic³. But what was that crimson eye he was talking about? I try to remember what the crimson eye is, but I can’t remember. It was strange to be magic at all, But to have two different kinds of magic was unheard of.

¹Magic is the art of using supernatural powers when you feel threatened or attacked. It is possible to learn to control this magic and use it to your advantage, but many people don’t know how and therefore cannot teach others.

²Illusion magic is one of the many types of magic. This magic allows you to create illusions and hide your traces of magic from others. This magic when used turns one of your eyes gray.

³Ice magic is another type of magic. (I used this magic in my sleep to freeze my cellmate.) This magic allows you to control ice and melt it at will. This magic turns one of your eyes light blue when used.

DAY 2

I will escape today. My plan begins in the early morning, when most guards are still sleeping. I freeze the bars of my cell, which makes them brittle. I have my cellmate bend the bars so we can walk out of our cell. I still need to get the gun back, so we go our separate ways. I sneak into the guard corridor, and the alarm goes off. Instantly, the door locks behind me, and four guards come out of doors in a hallway to my left. Both my eyes feel tingly, and a stream of blood gushes from one of the guards’ mouths. A wave of guilt washes over me. I had just done irreparable damage to someone who did nothing wrong. So the crimson eye was blood magic.⁴ The blood suddenly forms a blade and slices another guard. The blade grows and creates a clot at the edge using the blood of the second guard, making it stronger and sharper. One pulls out a gun and trains it at my head. I respond instinctively and freeze him. The blood blade finishes him off with a clean decapitation, and his head hits the floor. The fourth guard runs, but I coat the floor in ice, making him slip while also allowing myself quicker movement. I reach him just as he hits the ground, and bind his limbs with ice, only allowing his head to slightly move. I call forth the blade of blood and it flies right into my hand. The guard screams at the blade made of his colleagues, and I silence him with a short jab. I cannot let anyone hear what is happening in this corridor. I extract information from him in exchange for me not killing him on the spot. He tells me where they keep the prisoner’s weapons. “The weapons are kept in the warden’s office. But beware, he has magic just like you, he has illusion magic” says the guard. I look at the symbol on my hand, etched into my soul, and realize it’s a magic circle⁵. I grant the guard the sub-magic class of lightning and I instantly realize I made a grave error. The guard’s instincts kick in, and the ice around his body is melted by the sharp heat of lightning magic⁷. I decide to finish him quickly, And slice him with the blade of blood, decapitating him. I realize I have no use for my gun, and walk outside with a new magic, lightning magic. (Note. by this point, our main character has three types of magic. I bet you’re wondering what happens to his eyes? He can only use two types of magic at a time, because your eyes need to be the color correspondant to the type of magic. But because the lighting magic he gained is still in its sub-magic form, his eyes do not need to be yellow to use the magic.

NOTE: This story will continue in the next book, The Relinquished

⁴Blood magic is the art of manipulating and vanishing blood. This magic in particular is commonly referred to as evil or dangerous, but it can be used to help others too. This magic leaves a permanent symbol on your hand after the first use, and also turns one of your eyes crimson when active. 

⁵Magic circles are commonly thought of as a circle with shapes and lines in the center. They are commonly used by rich people who do not have magic but want to have magic. (Note. Magic circles are no substitute for real magic. Because of their high cost and low AOE, only healers or blood doctors have real use for these.) when somebody has a magic circle as their blood magic symbol, it gives them the special ability to grant others magic. (See sub-magic⁶ for more details) 

⁶sub-magic: Although weaker than normal magic, this sub-magic is still usable in many situations, and is sometimes used to experiment with the different types of magic because the granter of the sub-magic decides what magic is being given. (note. When killing a sub-magic user, you gain their sub magic but until you kill somebody with it stays sub magic, instead of normal magic.⁷lightning magic allows the user to control lightning at will, and also turns one of the user’s eyes yellow.