Insurrection (Nevermore #1)(3)
On the wall, the shadows fall. As you ran the entire hallway’s span.
Yet with every step, you continually wept. For you knew the end would be coming soon.
No matter how hard you tried, or deep you cried, still you felt your impending doom.
You felt it there, beneath the stair, or lurking in the shadowed pane.
And still you tried. Still you vied. Ever seeking to grow your infernal fame.
All the while, you lived in denial. Knowing for you there’d be no reprieve.
Not for ye who always deceived.
Coward, liar, thief and whore.
May you get all you deserve and more.
To hell I hope you will soon be bound.
And never again will ye be found.
May your name forever be stricken from each and every tongue.
And may never again let any praise for you be sung.
For you have spread poison and lies upon this land.
And you deserve nothing save utter misery and deepest reprimand.
In time I hope you come to wear,
All the shame you once dispensed with giddy flare.
For this to the heavens I do so decree.
And know in my heart that so will it be.
“From me to you, bitch. From me to you.”
Chapter 2
They are among us.
Daria Stazen shivered at the electronic signs being broadcast all around their school. Images flickered on the walls and lockers, showing all the shapes and sizes and disguises those creatures could take and how they could easily blend in without anyone ever knowing.
It was such a chilling thought that one of her classmates could be one to them in hiding.
A human being.
She shuddered in revulsion and fear. Then glanced about suspiciously at everyone in her hallway. How would she ever know? Could it be the strange girl on her right whose gray skin was a shade darker than the others? Or the boy to her left whose skin was a tiny bit bluer? Or the teacher whose lips held more black to them?
What about the custodian whose black eyes had pupils that didn’t seem to dilate properly? He said it came from an accident in his youth.
What if it wasn’t?
Could he be a human using some kind of magic or drug to disguise his real features? The documentaries all warned that humans were extremely cunning.
Highly dangerous. Capable of any imaginable treachery. They were unpredictable animals. A shiver ran down her spine.
“Are you all right?”
She almost screamed as Tamira came up behind her to speak in her ear. “Don’t do that!”
“Do what?” she asked innocently.
“Sneak up on me when I’m scaring myself with really creepy thoughts about humans being here in our school!” Daria waved her hand in front of her unit to open it automatically and pull out her sweater and gear for gym.
Like her, Tamira Czaren was slightly taller than average and rather muscular, with pale gray skin and dark ebony eyes and hair. They were both from warrior caste families, but Daria’s father had been granted a special dispensation to attend university after he’d scored exceptionally high on his entrance tests in upper primary.
Now he was one of their top-rated scientists—like her mother. Daria was hoping to follow in their footsteps. If she could stop being late to her classes all the time ...
She closed her unit and paused as she caught Tamira staring at the images, too.
They were mesmerizing. As all good nightmares tended to be.
It was impossible to turn away, even when you tried.
Tamira jerked her chin at the human they showed transforming himself into the unerring image of a Materian, right down to the dual noble birthmarks Daria had been fortunate enough to inherit in perfect symmetry at the edges of her mouth. It was something all of her friends envied her for as it made her one of the most desirable to date and ultimately breed with.
“You think we’ll ever see a real human?”
Daria clutched at her designer bag that her father had brought to her all the way from their home world on his last trip there. “Hope not.”
Tamira arched her brow at that. “Why? Aren’t you curious about them?”
Not even a little.
“They’re disease-ridden, for one thing.”
Tamira laughed. “Oh please! How can you say that? We’re the ones who brought our illnesses to them. Besides, it was a simple cold that killed them off.”
“Exactly! Humans were so weak a species, the sniffles killed them all. How can you admire a race that can’t even survive a mere head cold?”
Tamira scoffed. “You are so cynical. No wonder they chose you for the Invarium committee.”
Lifting her chin proudly, Daria patted her badge that proclaimed her chairwoman of HELL—Human Extermination Licensing Leaders. It was now officially her job to help investigate and find any humans who might infiltrate their school or youth community and report them promptly to the authorities. She couldn’t wait to fulfill her obligations. “Yes, well, the humans are a threat we need to eradicate.”
“Why bother? You just said they were so weak as to be ridiculous.”
Daria growled in frustration of her friend’s continued churlishness. Sometimes she swore Tamira would argue with a sign post!
And not one possessed of artificial intelligence—one that was inanimate.
“That doesn’t mean they couldn’t mutate it into something worse. Like bird flu and wipe us out with it!” That was, after all, what her people had fought a civil war over when they’d first landed on this planet a hundred years ago.