Her Refuge

Chapter 1: The New Students

My eyes shot open as I look around to see where I am at. Looking around I see my alarm clock, which has not even gone off yet. It is 6:07 am. I sit up realizing I am drenched in sweat. A sign that I had a bad dream, which is usual. I always wake up and I can never remember the dream. What is so scary about this dream anyway?

I lay there for a few minutes listening to the sounds outside of my apartment. The sounds of car horns and alarms going off. The distant sound of people shouting from the side walks around my apartment building. A true sign that I lived in the heart of Chicago, Illinois.

After a few minutes of trying to remember it, I sigh and get out of bed heading into the bathroom. I turn on the bath tub and pull the lever on the spout as the shower head comes on and then I close the curtains. As the water runs to get warm, I strip off all of my clothes and pull a towel from under the sink. When I stand back up I come face to face with my reflection. My long blonde, wavy hair goes down to my lower back, it is dull looking, and my blue eyes look drained and....black? wait? why are they?...Oh my god, it is just my makeup, smeared, because I fell asleep in it again. I roll my eyes at myself. I should have known it wasn't a black eye. I walk towards the tub and jump into the shower as the warm water hits my pale skin. It feels amazing.

Thirty minutes later, I hear my alarm clock go off telling me it is 6:45am. I need to hurry up if I am gonna catch the city bus on time and make it to the subway. I quickly get out of the shower and put on my school uniform consisting of a blue and red plaid knee length skirt and a white collar button up shirt. I tie on the blue ribbon bow around my neck and tuck it under my collar on my shirt so it's hanging in the front.

Once dressed, I make my way through my small two bedroom, one bath apartment and slip on my black plumps and grab my back pack. I look up and notice my pure white husky is blocking my only way out and glaring at me.

"Mika, baby I need to go to school." I speak, knowing very well she can't talk back, but shes a smart dog.

Mika walks over to her food and water bowl and barks.

"I promise I will feed you when I get back." I promised her as I open the door and walk out closing it behind me and locking it.

I turn around and walk over to the elevator that is in our building and I push the button as the doors open and I get in.

"Good morning, Mallina," I hear a chipper male voice say.

I just about jump out of my skin as I look at him. It is just Marcus Braham. He is 24 years old and his father owns this apartment building. He has sun tanned skin, toned built body, brunette hair, and light brown eyes. He was dressed in a black suit. Defiantly an eye catcher, or what most people would call 'eye candy'.

"Marcus, jezz you scared me," I announce as I slightly blush.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to. It's not everyday I ride in an elevator with the youngest person in our building." he chuckles.

"oh haha," I say sarcastically, "I am only sixteen going to be seventeen in two days. Besides you do ride the elevator everyday with me."

"True. Maybe soon you will be adult enough to pay your own bills instead of the orphanage." Marcus smirks.

"Jokes on you buddy. I have been saving up from my side jobs so when I get cut off at 18. I will be fine." I proudly state with my head held high.

Marcus holds his hands up in defense. "whoa, no harm ma'lady. I respect a worker when I see one." He smiles as the door opens to the second floor and he gets off. "Have a good day at school, Mallina."

"Thank you!" I tried to shout before the doors closed.

Marcus is a great person. He checks in on me alot to make sure I am comfortable. He is the closest thing to a friend I have besides the other kids at the orphanage who send me letters in the mail from time to time. I make it to the first floor as the elevator opens and I get off and run out making it onto the bus at the bus stop just in time. I take a seat and stare out the window.

My life right now is as nice as it can be. I have been in an orphanage just about my entire life. When I showed up, the orphanage had no idea where I had come from only a name on a piece of paper attached to me. Which I personally do not understand how someone can name something and then throw it out. They raised me the best they could despite the fact the last name did not exist in their database. I told them I wanted to go to high school when I finished middle school at their Catholic facility. They offered to cover my apartment bills until I was old enough to do it myself because no one wanted to adopt me. Bad things always happened when people fostered me such as the house catching fire and not knowing how it started. The home being trashed like a break in. Just random stuff that was never because of me but people began to believe I was a bad luck charm or causing it out of retaliation. I have even been called a demon. So eventually the orphanage made an agreement with me that as long as I wrote letters and stayed in touch and passed my classes, they will pay for my apartment until I am old enough to do it. Normally they wouldn't do it but they were out of options and knew that an education would be beneficial for me. So, here I am, living on my own with my dog, Mika. Weird right?

I get off the bus at the subway and then ride the subway to the school. The subway system is always crowded in Chicago, Illinois. I never liked to sit on the subways so I always stood. Riding subways in the city always made me nervous. I stood there looking around the subway which was crowded as I held onto one of the many straps they had hanging from the ceiling. Anywhere from a screaming child to theft on a subway was extremely common here, which did not help with my anxiety. Being on a subway is super scary by yourself cause you never know what can happen. For example, last week when I was sick there was a gun shooting on this exact subway. that I ride to school everyday. That was the first time in my life I was extremely grateful to be sick and at home watching the news even though I felt bad for the people who had lost their lives that day. So everytime I get on a subway I become very paranoid of every movement or sound, which makes for a terrifying 30 minute ride to school. I would rather ride rollercoasters then be on the subway everyday, which is saying a lot cause I am even scared of rollercoasters. Mainly the fear of heights gets to me the most.

Once I get the chance to get off the subway I book it. I do not like being on that 'train of a death trap'. I head out of the station as I put distance away from it and myself, I start to calm down. The walk from the station to the school is a good 10 minute walk. As I arrive to the gates of the school and stare at it. Its size still baffles me till today. Even though this is my junior year here I still can not get over how much this school reminds me of huge college buildings at universities. I head straight to my locker inside this huge building and put my stuff away. I only like to carry what I need so when I get bullied I do not have too much to gather up from the floor. Like I said I am a bad luck charm, it's not the bully's fault. Right?

I grab my food and take it to the first class of the day. Math. My teacher Mrs. Belladonna does not mind since she would rather know I am not being bullied while eating she allows me this bit of peace before class starts and I make sure all evidence of my food is tossed before the first student comes in.

Once class has settled down and started it is 8:05am. About twenty minutes into our lecture there is a knock at our classroom door. Thank the lord, this reverse foil system she was describing was starting to drive me crazy. The door to the classroom opens as two kids come into view. One was a boy who introduced himself as Zackariah Nightfire. He had midnight black hair and the prettiest green eyes I have ever seen. Wearing our school uniform red and blue plaid pants and a white button up collar shirt with a blue suit tie. The girls in the class were already plotting to kidnap him with their stares. The girl that came in with him wore the same thing I had on and announced herself as Gabriel Nightfire. She had red straight hair that was in a ponytail and blue eyes. The boys whistled at her as she rolled her eyes at them. They looked like models from a magazine. It's no wonder the class was riled up. Their eyes scanned the room as they came in contact with mine which gave me chills and I quickly looked out the classroom window. Were they looking at me? Why?

"Welcome to Nelson High, I am Mrs. Belladonna the Algebra teacher at this school. The only available seats are over by Mallina. Mallina will you stand please?"

I slowly stand up and blush. I do not like being put on the spot like this. The reason those seats are empty is cause the students think I cursed them. Zackariah and Gabriel walk over and take the two abandoned seats by mine as I sit back down.

"Mallina, right? It is nice to meet you. You can call me Zack." Zack smiles at me.

"Ye...yes, it's a pleasure, Z..Zack." I stutter nervously.

"Do not be scared of us, we can be friends. You can show us around tell us more about the school." Gabriel smiles. "oh and I am Gab."

"I am not scared of you two, its the other way around honestly. Those seats were abandoned cause of me?" I stare at them with legitimate concern.

"Just cause your cursed doesn't mean anything. I am tough, I can handle any curse." Gab proudly states.

"We already heard about your supposed curse from the other students." Zack smiles at me.

"Please, I do not want you all getting hurt because of me." My eyes water.

"It will be okay just trust me." Zack assures me.

I get caught up looking into his green eyes. They calm my soul in a way. How? I suddenly feel like I can trust him. I do not want them getting hurt though. The teacher claps her hands to regain the classrooms attention.

We finish class when the bell rings and I quickly stand up with my things and try to leave when Gab blocks my path and wraps her arm around my shoulders as I tense.

"Where do you think you are going?" Gab asks like a mother would with her child.

"please, I am only trying to..."

"save us?" Zack finishes my sentence. "yeah sorry your stuck to us like glue dear."

"Don't say I didn't warn you when something happens." I scold back with a sigh.

The principle stops us three in the hall as we exit the classroom. He looks at me confused for a minute then gets extremely excited.

"Mallina Rae Blackheart! I see you have made new friends!" The principles chimes annoyingly.

"yeah...against my will." I chirp back with a sarcastic smile.

"Bahaha...Don't be so modest!" He laughs. "In fact, how about you take the rest of today off to show them around to their classes."

"Say what!" I just about screamed out. "What about my studies?!"

"Oh nonsense you are our top ranking student in everything but math, which you just did. So your other studies can wait. See to it that the new students are taken care of. I have to get back to work." Just like that the principle left me with no other way to say no.

"Awesome." I state to myself sarcastically. I turn to Gab and Zack and hold out my hand. "Let me see your schedules."

They both hand me their classes and I look them over as I notice something. Out of my five classes I have two classes with Gab, which is Gym and Science, and two classes with Zach ,which are History and Archery, and our one class we all have together is Math. So every day I am stuck with either both or one of them at a time. It is official...I really am cursed.

Suddenly a female student bumps into me as I stumble into Zack and blush as he catches me by the shoulders.

"That's what you get whore." the girl chimes and laughs.

I glare at her while my body is tense and she suddenly falls over what looks like nothing and then looks at me horrified from the floor.

"She cursed me," the girl points and yells from the floor. Her knee is bleeding.

At some point during my glare Zack had withdrew his hands from my shoulders and was rubbing them. I assumed he was nervous to be around me so I backed away from him and lowered my head.

"No Mallina, please don't run." Gab could already tell from my face and composure I just wanted to get as far away as I could from that place.

I couldn't help it. I took off running. Down the halls making a left and then a right until I found the janitors closet, which I knew where it was because it was always the one place no one could find me. I sat in there crying my eyes out until I fell asleep.

Gabs pov:

After watching Mallina take off and the the students went into their next class. Her and Zack stood in the hallway. She bent over and picked up the schedules Mallina had dropped.

"Are you okay?" Gab looks over at Zack.

"Yeah, its not my first time being burnt as a conduit." Zack stared down the hall in the way Mallina ran. He looked at his burnt hands which were already fully healed.

"She doesn't even know." Gab stares in the same direction.

"She's not even suppose to be this strong until she's 18. She hasn't fully awoken but her powers are leaking through unnoticibally to the humans. They just think it's a freak accident." Zack states.

"Or a curse....If she keeps going on like this, more humans will get hurt." Gab states back worried.

"Honestly I'm surprised she hasn't leveled this school." Zack claims. "She's strong for her age."

"Do you think she's the one we have been searching for?" Gab asks.

"I don't know, but the last name sounds familiar. I'll have to do some digging." Zack answers.

"If she can not control her powers she will continue to draw them to her which will cause more issues." Gab states.

"It will cause more dangers to this school and the humans here. Our work has just been cut out for us." Zack sighs.

"We do not get paid enough to do this." Gab states annoyed.

"Shut up, you don't get paid at all. This is our duty." Zack grins at Gab.

"If you say so. I'll go and dig for information on her while you go find her and help her stay out of trouble." Gab orders.

"Fine, I can babysit no problem." Zack says as he walks off to find Mallina.

Gab leaves in the opposite direction and goes to the school library.

Zack pov:

Zack walks down the hall and stops. His eyes glow a bright green as he stares at the floor until he can see her footprints appear and he follows them to where they end at the janitors closet and his eyes return to normal. He knocks lightly.

"Mallina?" He asks.

When he does not get a reply he opens the door and finds her in the very back corner behind some coats passed out asleep. Tear trails are on her cheeks from her crying and her face is flushed. He sighs and picks her up gently in a bridal style.

Mallina doesn't budge in his arms as her head naturally rests on his shoulder. She must have wore herself out using her powers without realizing it. Especially if I can pick her up without her budging. To be honest, she looks so much cuter when shes asleep and....wait? that smell. He takes in a whiff of her while holding her. Lavender and tea tree mint. She must have bathed this morning cause the scent is strong. Zack quickly realizes he isn't focusing as he clears his throat to also help clear his mind to get off of her.

"Right. Now let's get her home so she can rest." He tells himself out loud so to keep his brain on track as he starts walking down the hall.

***Author:

(Let me know what you think, I look forward to your all replies. again forgive my grammatic errors. I am only human and English hates me lol)