Arc 3: Learn Quickly

The deeper we walked into the Old Town, the more the colour was leached from our surroundings as the light from the lively nighttime city was left behind. In the dark, lit only by the moon, the buildings turned grey and ominous, seemingly becoming uniformly hostile, like our presence was being acknowledged. We passed a […]

The last few rays of sunlight were dying over the rooftops of the suburbs as I arrived around the corner from Kay’s place. I stretched my arms over my head, feeling the heft of the backpack around my shoulders. This time it was filled with tools that could potentially get us into Dad’s old workplace:

I reached the cafe and spotted Mac sitting near the window. He waved cheerily at me and I smiled and waved back even though I felt a tremor of trepidation at seeing him in his work clothes. Well, his more normal work clothes. I could still imagine him in full tactical gear, with guns and

The frontrunner of the group approached. He was tall with spiky red hair and wore a purple sports jersey emblazoned with a picture of a snake sinking its fangs into a basketball. I was frozen in horror, watching some kind of realization creep up his face, his mouth forming an “O”, his eyes darting between

Thin flowering trees created a canopy of white and pink petals, shading the dirt path that ran behind the biology building. The travel of hundreds of students had beaten this trail into the earth, an alternative and more scenic route between the various faculties of Sillwood University, going around the back of many of the

I sat on the bus to Sillwood University, my brain repeating the same stupid worries over and over in a circle. What if you out yourself at school? What if Alek threatens to out you? What if you do something else stupid? To distract myself, I scrolled through a paranormal message board. One user, Crawler012

I’d questioned Alek before on why we were running homemade obstacle courses in the trainyard. If the point was simply to become more in sync with Nell and get better at Shaping, surely it would be less of a hassle to do it in a gym. The answer became clear as I hurtled a chest-high

It was the day before school started. One last day where I could put my all into learning about Shaping, yet I found myself already perseverating over the coming school year. I eyed the large biology textbook that was missing its front cover. I’d bought it like that, second hand. Sighing, I grabbed it from

The next day, we returned to the trainyard. Sunlight reflected brightly off the train cars in front of me. I squinted, examining the side, finding a good starting point. “The ladder is on the other side,” Nell said archly with her arms crossed. “You know that’s not the point.” “What is the point? Why would

“What are you doing, Alek?” I asked with an edge to my tone. My heart had jumped to going a hundred miles a minute. “Just some physical learning suka. Come on,” he said as he gestured at me to ‘bring it’. “Show me your Shape.” Whenever I was feeling the danger of a situation, the