Signing up for some kind volunteer program and getting the chance to live in a more affordable house seems nice. Sketchy, but nice. It wasn’t the best of decisions my parents have ever made. Moving us to the isolated island in the middle of nowhere was their excuse for a fresh start, a chance to spend less and save more. We were always having money problems, but this was, in my opinion, taking it to the extremes. What were they thinking when they packed us up and bought a house here? There wasn’t a single way that I could survive out here without Rebecca and Samantha.

The worst part of moving was losing those two, my best friends. My mother played around and teased me about the island not having any cell phone service, or internet for that matter. Who lives anywhere where they don’t have those two very dire things?

This was a total disaster. I begged father to march up the row in the middle of the plane, walk past the flight attendants, right up to the cockpit. “Knock on the door,” I told him, “and tell him you made a terrible mistake. That you need him to turn the plane around.”

“There are tons of things wrong with that,” my father replied. His frown was the biggest I’ve seen him have in a long time. There was disappointment and the sadness in the look he was giving me. “For one, we aren’t going back. You’re going to have to accept that. Two, there are tons of people on here that would be very angry if the pilot actually turned the plane around.”

“I don’t care about the other people, we don’t belong on this plane.”

It was no use. Father disagreed with me for the rest of the way. This morning, he assured me it’d be fine, that by the time we got to the airport, I’d have changed my mind and been happy for this giant move. Starting over in school, making new friends. That was what he hoped would attract me to this adventure, but it did the exact opposite. A part of me hated both him and my mother for even agreeing to this. I barely fit in to the schools at home, back in the small town we lived in. Now, I’d have to try all over again just to make one friend. It took a year of having classes with Rebecca and Samantha for them to notice me, to start talking to me.

“The school on the island is going to be totally different, and I bet everyone will be interested in talking to you,” my mother tried to reason with me, during one of my fits in the uncomfortable seats of the airplane. Her and my father were giving me angry glares, becoming embarrassed at my teenage temper tantrum.

Mom had a point. The pamphlet she gave me when they first told me about the move had all kinds of details about the school. They hoped that this type of private school was what I wanted. Again, I told them they were wrong. Hex Academy, read the cover of the pamphlet. It was a giant school for “gifted” students. To enter, they were going to mail a large textbook to the new house, and a week from the day we arrived, I’d have to take a test. Pass, and I’d be accepted. Failing the test resulted in no education, making me drop out on the account there were any other schools on the island.

The whole failing part made me feel worse. Nothing either of my parents would say could fix the void they just ripped open inside of me. With the news of the moving, and the pamphlet of the make-it-or-fail-forever school.

And the highest I ever maintained in high school was a C+, just below the B category. Not only were they ripping my life away from me, but putting me on a path to fail. Dropping out, as fun as it sometimes sounded with not having to go to school and all, wasn’t what I wanted.

 

After nine more hours on the plane, we landed. The island’s airport was huge, unnecessarily huge. All of the people slowly got up, grabbed whatever belongings they brought with them, and went inside. Dad handled this part, while Mom and I sat off to the side. I couldn’t help but to look around and notice more adults than kids, and the ones I did see looked as unhappy as I did. That made me feel a little better.

“Katherine,” my mother called after me. She was walking away slowly, towards Dad. “We’re ready to go.”

“I think I’ll stay here. Catch the next plane home, you know, the place we live.”

By now, my father was growing over the top angry with me, and let me have it. “We sold that place, there isn’t a place to go back too. This is our new home, so let’s go. Move it, Kate.”

It felt like my blood was boiling. My giant nightmare was getting bigger by the minute, and in no time at all, I’d have to accept it when we pulled up to the new house. It sat up on a small hill, had a nice yard. The house itself was like our old one. It was painted a dark blue, and red shutters, and despite my hatred for it, I had to admit it was a nice looking house.

We pulled up. A scientist stepped out of a car that had been idling in the driveway. There was no doubting he was a scientist by the long white coat they always wore, and he had one on with a few pens stuffed in the chest pocket, a name tag that said Jefferson.

“You’re all checked in, Garcias. My name is Dr. Jefferson, and if you need anything just call.” The man handed my father a business card, that my dad struggled to grab with all of the suitcases in his hand. “Have a good day, and fun settling in.” Dr. Jefferson jumped back into the passenger side of the car and it drove off, looping around the yard and passing us one last time, my parents waving.

“Nope, absolutely not.”

“What now, Katherine?”

“We can’t stay here,” I said. My mind raced for something to say, a lie, anything. “You know what they say about blue houses…”

“No, what do they say?” My father asked, raising a brow. He was trying to call my bluff.

There it was, I was caught. A few long minutes passed with them looking at me, waiting for their answer. But my mind drew a blank. “Uh,” I stumbled, “blue houses are more likely to be haunted by violent ghosts.” In my head, I cursed at myself.

In sync, my parents began laughing and started for the house. Putting a few bags down, my father put the key in the door and turned, unlocking it and swinging it open all the way. I raced up the front porch to see the damage, the disgusting furniture and old walls rotting away. Again, a part of me was disappointed. The inside of the house was as nice as the outside looked. The furniture was fancy brown leather, a couch and a chair as a set. The coffee table had a beautiful dark polish on it. The walls were painted white and I couldn’t find the slightest thing wrong with them. My parent’s faces lit up.

“This is amazing,” my mother said.

“This is perfect,” my father said.

They moved in further and took it all in. It was a dream home to them, but still a summer home to me. I left the door open, ready to make a statement and turn us around. But my parents gawked over the details of everything, from the living room, to the kitchen, to the staircase leading up to our rooms.

“Well, the summer home looks. . . decent. I admit.”

My mother stopped walking from room to room, ending in the living room again. When she heard me, she turned to me with her eyes narrowed. My father poked his head in, saying something to my mother about the basement. “Katherine, you have to stop now.” She didn’t hear Dad at all. “This isn’t our summer home, this is our new home. We live here. Like your father said, there is no house to go back too in New York.”

Blood boiling again, I lashed out. “This may be your home, but it isn’t my home. When you’re done playing around, I’ll be ready and in the car.” For my dramatic exit, I quickly turned on my heels and ran out of the door I had left open. Down the hill was some woods, and I’d go through them until my father came searching for me.

As I hit the edge of the woods, I looked back. My mother hadn’t chased after me, and my father wasn’t in tow. It was something I wanted, a reaction I looked for in them. When I told myself over and over that neither was coming out after me, I went into the woods. And who knew long I actually walked. Even I lost track. It felt like forever, but was probably only ten minutes. All the trees looked the same, aside from a few pine trees and oak trees. I barely could identify them, the only reason I could was some girl scout training I had in the woods many years ago.

In front of me was a clearing, a gap in the woods that opened like an arch with branched mixing together over head. I stopped underneath them, and thankfully so. The land went down, not like a cliff was a very steep hill. At the bottom was a round looping around a very large building, the biggest I’ve ever seen. This thing wasn’t as tall as something like the Empire State building, and it looked the size of a tiny city. On top of the tallest tower was a sign.

Hex Academy. The large hexagon symbol taking up a big portion of the front couldn’t be missed. The entire place was oddly beautiful, and I had remembered the papers saying I had a week before taking the tests. With the way it looked, strangely close to gothic--if I remembered my art studies--had pulled me in. I wanted to go there and attend school, I wanted to meet new friends and watch the guys play sports if they had any.

The doubts flooded me. Would I be good enough to pass those difficult tests? The book was at the house, and if I wanted to pass, there wasn’t a way of studying in the woods.

2: Chapter 2 - The Big Test

A week flew by. After my running out on my parents, I returned once I caught a glimpse of the new school I had a chance of going too. It’s large buildings and towers were really nice, and it brought me in just like my parent’s had hoped. Tensions were still there between me and them, but it was dying out. They were my mother and father, doing what they had to and what they thought were best.

Even if I hated the island, I struggled to understand it fully. My mother had always hated living in cities, but there was a neighborhood evolving into a small city all around us. Now, she is doing it for my father, and claims that it is also for me. It hurts her to know that I hate the island, that I hate everything about it.

The only thing that was on my mind was school, though. In an hour, I’ll be taking the tests to try and get into Hex Academy as a student. The morning was filled with eggs and toast for breakfast, and my father reassuring me that I’d do great on these tests. My mother had a worried look to her, however. She was more realistic and knew my past test scores whenever a big test came back. This time, I really wanted it. And a whole week studying my ass off made me feel like I could pass any test and write four essays in a row.

Okay, so maybe not that many essays. I hate essays.

My mother drove me down to the testing building. It wasn’t in the school, and their excuse was not to scare me or pressure me with the scenery around me. The place I was taking the tests was small, and looked as big as a shed from the outside.

“You’ll do fine, Kate. Good luck,” she told me. My mother gave me a peck of a kiss on the cheek and shooed me out of the car.

I walked to the door and opened it. The inside was bright, really, really bright. My eyes instantly closed, squeezing tightly. As they opened just a bit, I could see the white walls.

“Bright enough? The janitor just installed new light bulbs in every light fixture,” said a woman’s voice off to the side. I opened what I could of my eyes, still not bringing them fully opened. She was wearing a black suit, with a matching skirt. Her blonde hair was pulled and twisted into a messy bun. Her glasses made her eyes look big from my side of them. “Take a seat when you’re ready.”

“I think I am at the wrong place. I’m supposed to be doing the test for Hex Academy,” I told her. There was one seat in the tiny room--shed. The woman waved me to the seat while she was sorting through papers. A giant packet of thick papers slammed on top of the desk as I slowly scooted into the desk.

“No, you’re in the correct location.”

It sure didn’t look like it. Was I the only one taking the test? The woman was staring at me, eyeing me from her desk. “Can I begin?”

“Go for it.”

The test packet looked like it was easily one hundred pages. Every twenty five pages was a new subject. Back in New York, there were SATs to take, and they were a big deal. I never signed up for the practice ones, but I wished I had after seeing this test. First up was the English part, writing, and essays right away. It was to test your logic in the questions and tire you out with writing down long answers. But not me. I took this at my own pace, and I filled it out very carefully.

An hour into the test, the woman stopped me. She let me get up and stretch, take a break, and walk around the building twice. It wasn’t that big of a walk, maybe a minute to circle the entire room.

I closed the test packet and pushed the answer sheet forward. “All done.” The clock over the chalkboard told me it had been three hours since I started. Very easily the biggest test of anyone’s life.

The woman picked her head up off the desk. “I hate these tests,” she said, coming from around the desk and taking my answer sheet. Quickly, she looked it over and let a small smile tug at her cheeks. “Very nice, Miss Garcia. Go home and we will call you a little later with the results.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

 

~~~~~

 

Two days later, the woman from the test called. She went over with me, very slowly, each part. On the English part of it, the first twenty five pages, I had been scored a seventy-five. Which to her wasn’t bad, but it made me worry knowing that I had to have an amazing ending result. The next section, Math, I unfortunately scored a fifty on. It was never my best subject, but I didn’t think I did so bad. Third, Science, my strongest subject landed me a big ninety-five. She didn’t let me forget that the science part might have saved me. The last quarter of the test was dedicated to the study of the occult, and what I knew about supernatural things.

It was really weird going over it the other day. Before the move, I liked reading. Now, I couldn’t manage to stay seated in a house that didn’t feel like home. There was nothing to do but I found the littlest things to do to occupy myself.

I scored a surprising eighty-five, which let me pass the test by the skin of my teeth, as my father put it. Whatever that meant, I didn’t care. I passed the difficult test to get into Hex Academy, and I started tomorrow.

Hex Academy, here I come! Katherine Garcia is in the house--or school, as it would be.

3: Chapter 3 - Not the Best Start

The first day was always the worse. Everyone worried about what they were going to wear, if they’d get to class on time, and if they would be with friends or people they could make friends with. Outfits should be nice, impressive, and the many wore the most expensive stuff.

All of this seemed to be different for Hex Academy. It was already three weeks into the year, and I was late. It took time to settle in to the new home, study for the test, and the giant paper process to go through. Finally, my mother dropped me off for my first day--a day that I had been anxiously waiting for. Since laying eyes on it, I had a change of heart and couldn’t wait. Walking into the lobby was beyond scary, and my legs were shaking wildly.

At the end of the lobby, in one of Hex’s uniforms, was a young man. His uniform was one of the school’s, and I’d be getting mine shortly. This guy’s was blue, and looked almost military. He stood straight up and very proper. “Are you Katherine Garcia?” he said, robotically. When I nodded, the guy gave a small smile and beckoned me forward.

“My first class is,” I started to say. The guy stopped in the middle of the hall, looked over his shoulder and gave me a look that shut me up immediately. “Sorry,” I couldn’t help whispering.

The guy moved on. He moved in steady strides, evenly spaced apart, and all the way down the hall before taking a right turn. I stopped next to him, taking a look down the hallway he was facing. A girl was at the end of the hall. For the first time, I got to see the female uniforms. They were blue, with a knee-length skirt.

“Yellow are for freshman, green for sophomore, red for junior, and blue for senior,” the kid who hasn’t told me his name yet said. That meant that he and the girl at the end of the hall were seniors.

“Well, well,” said the girl. Her long, black, curly hair bounced as she moved her head. Some of it covered her right eye. “We have a newbie.”

“Not now, Claire.”

“And why not? This is how we should weed out the freshman who don’t belong.” The girl--Claire--was staring me down.

Fear created goosebumps on my arms, the small bumps rising. She had an eerie aura to her, and looked like an evil person. I didn’t know what she meant by “weeding out the freshman”, but it didn’t sound good. Maybe hazing.

“She doesn’t have a Hex Driver yet-” the guy was cut short by only what I could describe as a glowing arrow. It whizzed by our heads, nearly clipping my ear and taking off the guy’s head. “Claire! What are you doing? You aren’t supposed to do that inside.”

“What is a Hex Driver?” I asked, my eyes jumping between the two seniors. Neither answered me.

“Simon, you have to be kidding me? Let me just take her out now. The Principal will thank me.”

“You’re insane,” I mumbled. My feet were trembling, but I backed up against the wall. Claire twisted her arm, and something shiny was attached to her arm. It was fancy, looked almost medieval, and what I took as a Hex Driver. Simon flashed his from under his sleeve, his glowing with a green light. “That arrow.” The image of it glowing, made what looked like electricity, zipping through the air next to my head. The buzzing, the powerful vibe it gave off.

Claire turned around, glancing back for a few seconds. She didn’t say anything, and didn’t have too. Simon stood straight up again. Claire started to walk and waved her hand once. I couldn’t tell you how happy I was that she was leaving, but everything that just happened made a million questions race through my mind.

Simon turned to me, and waved me to follow him. He wasn’t talking to me much, but he sort of stood up for me. That was something. A senior kind of stuck up for me to a bully that I already had gotten on the first day. “That wasn’t supposed to happen. Claire is what you’d call a rotten apple,” said Simon as we got to the cafeteria.

He turned and opened the double doors, opening up to a large room with hexagon shaped tables. A few kids were spread out all over the place, and half of them looked up. My face turned red, tomato red. “For the first day, you’re starting off with a Study Hall. Another senior will come by and talk you through your schedule and some policies we have around here. Also, they will explain the question you had before, about the Hex Driver.”

My head perked up, my eyes grew. Hex Driver. “Yeah, you and Claire have them, right?”

“Yes, it is a normal tool around here. It’s what we use for summoning our magic energy. That arrow was Claire’s Energy Arrow, a basic spell.” Simon said it so… matter-of-factly. I stared at him and he looked back at me with a blank expression.

“Magic? Energy?”

“Yes.”

There wasn’t much more that I wanted from today, with Claire and hearing about magic. Like, who believed in that? Simon was standing there, holding the door open. I took him up his gentlemen gesture and walked through the doors. One of the tables on the far side was open, and I sat there. Within a few minutes, I saw another senior, in a blue uniform, walking towards me to take a seat.

“We need to have a talk. You’ll learn what we do and how we handle things around here soon enough.”

4: Chapter 4

Before the guy sat down and told me what was going on, I took a big look at the cafeteria. It was huge, bigger than any cafeteria I’ve known a school to have. Hex Academy itself was like a giant castle, filling in every chair with a student who was classed between the ranks of a normal high school. The walls looked like stone, from a castle. The ceiling was so high up, probably enough to make another two rooms out of it. The walls in the hallway were something you’d see out of a castle, too. Or maybe Hogwarts from Harry Potter, all dungeon-y like and old. It was, according to my newest guide, the largest structure on the entire island.

And now my guide tried to go over different policies and cliques and rules that Hex Academy had in place, ones the students tried to make up themselves, and in the end it was a pretty big struggle to stay awake. When it was over, I asked myself, “Do I really want to be here?” To which I then thought, who knows. The answer was probably not.

The guide was another senior, wearing a blue uniform. He was more muscular looking than the last guide, Simon, and talked in a really deep voice. It reminded me of a voice you’d see on a commercial that had a narrator. He said his name was Ryan Dunwith, even spelled it out for me. Ryan was the one who tried to tell me that the arm bands all the kids were getting nowadays, the next new trend, were enforced with some kind of magic. In the beginning, I thought he was nuts. There was no way any of this was real and must have been part of the hazing portion of my orientation. But as he kept talking about it, my mind went back to the psycho girl in the hallway. Claire. She had one of these arm bands, and it lit up, and an arrow made of some sort of light shot by my head, nearly taking a chunk out of my ear. If that didn’t happen, Ryan would sound like a psychopath. But now I was open to his rant.

“We don’t know what they are, how they do it,” he said, “but the Hex Driver allows us to use magic that is individual for each of us. The scientists say that the potential has been within mankind for centuries, but it was never released. They found a way to release it through it.”

I had to admit, it sounded like some Harry Potter stuff. Maybe Ryan read all seven books in a week, which seemed nuts. It fit, though. “Yeah, that sounds cool and all, but really crazy. Are you sure we’re not in a secret asylum?”

At my joke, Ryan’s face contorted. He gave me a disappointed look, then said, “I’m sure that we are not. Our school is different, better than the mainland junk.”

My mind was floating around. Let’s play into it. “When am I getting my uniform and magic bracelet?” Still, Ryan’s expression was angry. He shook his head and didn’t answer. “Or when can I go to my first class?”

Again, he shook his head. “Never. Especially with that mouth, Claire will find you and hurt you.”

My mind snapped. I stood up, drawing attention to the loud scraping sound of the chair against the floor. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked over at the new girl, at me. My face burned with embarrassment. “She is the psycho, the one who needs to watch herself. I bet she has no friends if that is how she greets new people.”

“Claire is actually a well-liked senior by a lot of people.” Ryan looked away. “Listen, I’ll keep the rest simple. Don’t stick your nose in Senior business, stay with your class when tests start, and don’t use the more powerful spells inside the school. If you get any good at controlling it, you can challenge Claire. She’ll wipe the floor with you, but you can get your frustrations out.”

I walked away. I didn’t know where I was going, but knew enough not to just stand there and talk Ryan’s crap talk. Simon should have just continued the orientation. It was ruined, and the only thing I felt like doing was running away and staying home. My parents couldn’t home-school me, but it would maybe make them move back.

But I didn’t go to the front door. The halls were empty because tons of students were in the classrooms. Ryan hadn’t tried to follow me, and Simon must have returned to class. None of the school aids were out and about. At the end of one of the castle hallways, I took a turn and followed that until the end. There must have been six branching hallways from just this one. It was a big school, and I was bound to get lost. Again, another turn. I stopped and looked all the way down, seeing even more branching halls reaching to more unknown locations. The doors didn’t have windows on them, so I couldn’t peek in as I walked through.

A figure suddenly popped out from around the corner of one of the branching hallways. I yelled out, jumping backwards. It was an old man in a janitor uniform, a grayish colored. In his hand was a yellow school uniform, for freshman. He handed it to me, extending his short arms as far as he could without looking threatening.

“Thank you,” I said, taking it.

“A bathroom is just down this hall. Then report to the Principal’s office,” the man’s voice sounded as robotic as Simon’s did. He nodded to me and walked back to the cart of cleaning supplies. As he walked, his sneakers squeaked. Taking a look at the floor, they were shiny blue and white tiles that he must have just cleaned.

The bathroom looked like one for royalty. It’s sinks and toilets were spotless, and it was just too fancy looking for me. I took to one of the last stalls, and began to undress. The uniform looked small at first glance, and no one did measurements. In no way was I super busty, but I wasn’t flat either. If it didn’t fit, I’d just be a laughing tool for other students. Surprisingly, it fit perfectly. Even over my chest.

Now just to find my way to the offices. I didn’t see any in front of the school like some have them, and I was pretty sure I was only in the middle of the school’s maze-like halls. But the offices wouldn’t be in the back, for visitors, would they? Luckily, a map of the school was just down the hall, where it stopped going straight and only offered a left or right. The star, representing where I was, had been in the middle. As I scanned it for the offices, I saw the layout. The school was the biggest thing I’ve ever seen in my life, and probably would be for the rest of it. Finally, I found a thin, white line going from a group of squares to the outer margin of the map and connected to the word “Offices”.

When I got there, I knocked lightly. A receptionist opened the door and took my name. She waved me past her, keeping the door open. “Welcome, Katherine Garcia.” Her voice was perky, like she was happy to be here and couldn’t think of being anywhere else.

The Principal’s office was set in the back, furthest office room there was. The door said, in big letters, Principal’s. A metal bar attached to the door said a name. Mrs. Hexalton. I paused mid-step. Even her name had “Hex” in it. What was it with this school and that shape?

“Come in,” a voice said from inside. The door opened and I couldn’t see anyone behind it. Mrs. Hexalton was sitting behind a large, dark wood desk. Her hand had a faint glow around it, which when she waved it, the door closed behind me. “Katherine, I assume?”

“Yes,” I said, but got a look from her when I paused. “Ma’am.”

“I hear from some students that a student named Claire had started a bit of a difficult introduction into the school. Now, I apologize for any problems. Ryan, the senior guide, told me you didn’t believe him as to what we do here.” She waved to another door in the office and out came a scientist with big, dorky glasses. He was some older guy, thin--almost frail and zombie looking. “This is your Hex Driver.”

“My own Hex Driver? I don’t know if I am ready for this, uh, belief system you’ve built here.” I didn’t know what else to call it in the moment. It got a short laugh from the Principal, but the scientist moved closer. “Please don’t.”

“We have too. Take it.”

“I don’t want it.”

Hexalton’s hand started to glow, and I felt my body go numb. My hands were glued to the arms of the chair I was sitting in, my feet felt way too heavy to move. “There is no question here. You need this to be a part of our school. Go ahead, put it on her,” she said the last part to the zombie scientist. He cracked a smile and started to place the armband around me.

I begged for them not too, but the guy went through with it. The inside looked shiny gold, but had a few weird spots. As it connected to my skin, my entire arm began to burn. The stinging set in and I screamed. Hexalton closed her hand into a fist and my mouth closed against my will. Hot tears welled in my eyes. Within a couple minutes, most of the pain subsided. The Hex Driver was flashing, beeping, and then stopped.

“All done,” the scientist said, returning to the extra door and retreating from the scene back into his lab.

Mrs. Hexalton had a wicked smile on her face, like she was used to getting her way and it made her better than everyone. At least, that’s what I got from it. “You should take a trip to the gym, in the back of the school. Test out the new magical properties the “bracelet” gives you.”

“I just want to go home,” I mumbled.

There was an aid called to assist me to the gym. And once more, I was forced to do something against my will. My arm underneath the Hex Driver still had a slight burn to it, and it felt like something had cut into my arm but I saw no blood trailing down to my hand.

The gym was a normal looking inside, wooden floor gym. In thick painted lines, was the outline to a basketball court. The aid pressed a black button on the wall, and on the other side of the gym opened up three floor plates. Up from them came straw dummies of what looked like a person, some kind of animal, and some kind of monster. All of them were different sizes; the animal was small, the person was the middle, and the monster was the largest.

“Try out your spells. Try and hit all three targets to see your range, aim, and power.” The middle-aged woman stepped off to the side, waving for me to get started.

“I don’t know what I am doing,” I told her. She shook her head, disapprovingly. She told me to focus and let it happen, so I did. My Hex Driver had a faint glow to it, but I didn’t feel anything different, and I certainly didn’t see any magic arrows.

Then I did. But it wasn’t mine. I quickly turned to see Claire standing over by the aid. “Ryan told me what you said. I’m going to teach you how to use your Driver so we can face off.”

Great. She moved closer and let her magic flow to her arm. As she swung it in an upward motion, a visible blade of energy formed and shot forward, knocking into the monster dummy.

“The first ability you should learn is a Bullet type, or projectile. Start focusing on the magic inside of you, shape it into a ball in your mind,” Claire said. I did, and soon the Driver on my arm was glowing. “Imagine it in your hand, like you’re holding it. Then toss it.” Again, I did, and something shot from me! Something was thrown by me, a ball of dark light. It hit the human and burned a light hole in it’s chest.

“That was cool,” I said.

“That was odd,” Claire said. “These dummies are made with special straw, and your burn mark wasn’t supposed to last. It should have disappeared by now.”

5: Chapter 5

Before the guy sat down and told me what was going on, I took a big look at the cafeteria. It was huge, bigger than any cafeteria I’ve known a school to have. Hex Academy itself was like a giant castle, filling in every chair with a student who was classed between the ranks of a normal high school. The walls looked like stone, from a castle. The ceiling was so high up, probably enough to make another two rooms out of it. The walls in the hallway were something you’d see out of a castle, too. Or maybe Hogwarts from Harry Potter, all dungeon-y like and old. It was, according to my newest guide, the largest structure on the entire island.

And now my guide tried to go over different policies and cliques and rules that Hex Academy had in place, ones the students tried to make up themselves, and in the end it was a pretty big struggle to stay awake. When it was over, I asked myself, “Do I really want to be here?” To which I then thought, who knows. The answer was probably not.

The guide was another senior, wearing a blue uniform. He was more muscular looking than the last guide, Simon, and talked in a really deep voice. It reminded me of a voice you’d see on a commercial that had a narrator. He said his name was Ryan Dunwith, even spelled it out for me. Ryan was the one who tried to tell me that the arm bands all the kids were getting nowadays, the next new trend, were enforced with some kind of magic. In the beginning, I thought he was nuts. There was no way any of this was real and must have been part of the hazing portion of my orientation. But as he kept talking about it, my mind went back to the psycho girl in the hallway. Claire. She had one of these arm bands, and it lit up, and an arrow made of some sort of light shot by my head, nearly taking a chunk out of my ear. If that didn’t happen, Ryan would sound like a psychopath. But now I was open to his rant.

“We don’t know what they are, how they do it,” he said, “but the Hex Driver allows us to use magic that is individual for each of us. The scientists say that the potential has been within mankind for centuries, but it was never released. They found a way to release it through it.”

I had to admit, it sounded like some Harry Potter stuff. Maybe Ryan read all seven books in a week, which seemed nuts. It fit, though. “Yeah, that sounds cool and all, but really crazy. Are you sure we’re not in a secret asylum?”

At my joke, Ryan’s face contorted. He gave me a disappointed look, then said, “I’m sure that we are not. Our school is different, better than the mainland junk.”

My mind was floating around. Let’s play into it. “When am I getting my uniform and magic bracelet?” Still, Ryan’s expression was angry. He shook his head and didn’t answer. “Or when can I go to my first class?”

Again, he shook his head. “Never. Especially with that mouth, Claire will find you and hurt you.”

My mind snapped. I stood up, drawing attention to the loud scraping sound of the chair against the floor. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked over at the new girl, at me. My face burned with embarrassment. “She is the psycho, the one who needs to watch herself. I bet she has no friends if that is how she greets new people.”

“Claire is actually a well-liked senior by a lot of people.” Ryan looked away. “Listen, I’ll keep the rest simple. Don’t stick your nose in Senior business, stay with your class when tests start, and don’t use the more powerful spells inside the school. If you get any good at controlling it, you can challenge Claire. She’ll wipe the floor with you, but you can get your frustrations out.”

I walked away. I didn’t know where I was going, but knew enough not to just stand there and talk Ryan’s crap talk. Simon should have just continued the orientation. It was ruined, and the only thing I felt like doing was running away and staying home. My parents couldn’t home-school me, but it would maybe make them move back.

But I didn’t go to the front door. The halls were empty because tons of students were in the classrooms. Ryan hadn’t tried to follow me, and Simon must have returned to class. None of the school aids were out and about. At the end of one of the castle hallways, I took a turn and followed that until the end. There must have been six branching hallways from just this one. It was a big school, and I was bound to get lost. Again, another turn. I stopped and looked all the way down, seeing even more branching halls reaching to more unknown locations. The doors didn’t have windows on them, so I couldn’t peek in as I walked through.

A figure suddenly popped out from around the corner of one of the branching hallways. I yelled out, jumping backwards. It was an old man in a janitor uniform, a grayish colored. In his hand was a yellow school uniform, for freshman. He handed it to me, extending his short arms as far as he could without looking threatening.

“Thank you,” I said, taking it.

“A bathroom is just down this hall. Then report to the Principal’s office,” the man’s voice sounded as robotic as Simon’s did. He nodded to me and walked back to the cart of cleaning supplies. As he walked, his sneakers squeaked. Taking a look at the floor, they were shiny blue and white tiles that he must have just cleaned.

The bathroom looked like one for royalty. It’s sinks and toilets were spotless, and it was just too fancy looking for me. I took to one of the last stalls, and began to undress. The uniform looked small at first glance, and no one did measurements. In no way was I super busty, but I wasn’t flat either. If it didn’t fit, I’d just be a laughing tool for other students. Surprisingly, it fit perfectly. Even over my chest.

Now just to find my way to the offices. I didn’t see any in front of the school like some have them, and I was pretty sure I was only in the middle of the school’s maze-like halls. But the offices wouldn’t be in the back, for visitors, would they? Luckily, a map of the school was just down the hall, where it stopped going straight and only offered a left or right. The star, representing where I was, had been in the middle. As I scanned it for the offices, I saw the layout. The school was the biggest thing I’ve ever seen in my life, and probably would be for the rest of it. Finally, I found a thin, white line going from a group of squares to the outer margin of the map and connected to the word “Offices”.

When I got there, I knocked lightly. A receptionist opened the door and took my name. She waved me past her, keeping the door open. “Welcome, Katherine Garcia.” Her voice was perky, like she was happy to be here and couldn’t think of being anywhere else.

The Principal’s office was set in the back, furthest office room there was. The door said, in big letters, Principal’s. A metal bar attached to the door said a name. Mrs. Hexalton. I paused mid-step. Even her name had “Hex” in it. What was it with this school and that shape?

“Come in,” a voice said from inside. The door opened and I couldn’t see anyone behind it. Mrs. Hexalton was sitting behind a large, dark wood desk. Her hand had a faint glow around it, which when she waved it, the door closed behind me. “Katherine, I assume?”

“Yes,” I said, but got a look from her when I paused. “Ma’am.”

“I hear from some students that a student named Claire had started a bit of a difficult introduction into the school. Now, I apologize for any problems. Ryan, the senior guide, told me you didn’t believe him as to what we do here.” She waved to another door in the office and out came a scientist with big, dorky glasses. He was some older guy, thin--almost frail and zombie looking. “This is your Hex Driver.”

“My own Hex Driver? I don’t know if I am ready for this, uh, belief system you’ve built here.” I didn’t know what else to call it in the moment. It got a short laugh from the Principal, but the scientist moved closer. “Please don’t.”

“We have too. Take it.”

“I don’t want it.”

Hexalton’s hand started to glow, and I felt my body go numb. My hands were glued to the arms of the chair I was sitting in, my feet felt way too heavy to move. “There is no question here. You need this to be a part of our school. Go ahead, put it on her,” she said the last part to the zombie scientist. He cracked a smile and started to place the armband around me.

I begged for them not too, but the guy went through with it. The inside looked shiny gold, but had a few weird spots. As it connected to my skin, my entire arm began to burn. The stinging set in and I screamed. Hexalton closed her hand into a fist and my mouth closed against my will. Hot tears welled in my eyes. Within a couple minutes, most of the pain subsided. The Hex Driver was flashing, beeping, and then stopped.

“All done,” the scientist said, returning to the extra door and retreating from the scene back into his lab.

Mrs. Hexalton had a wicked smile on her face, like she was used to getting her way and it made her better than everyone. At least, that’s what I got from it. “You should take a trip to the gym, in the back of the school. Test out the new magical properties the “bracelet” gives you.”

“I just want to go home,” I mumbled.

There was an aid called to assist me to the gym. And once more, I was forced to do something against my will. My arm underneath the Hex Driver still had a slight burn to it, and it felt like something had cut into my arm but I saw no blood trailing down to my hand.

The gym was a normal looking inside, wooden floor gym. In thick painted lines, was the outline to a basketball court. The aid pressed a black button on the wall, and on the other side of the gym opened up three floor plates. Up from them came straw dummies of what looked like a person, some kind of animal, and some kind of monster. All of them were different sizes; the animal was small, the person was the middle, and the monster was the largest.

“Try out your spells. Try and hit all three targets to see your range, aim, and power.” The middle-aged woman stepped off to the side, waving for me to get started.

“I don’t know what I am doing,” I told her. She shook her head, disapprovingly. She told me to focus and let it happen, so I did. My Hex Driver had a faint glow to it, but I didn’t feel anything different, and I certainly didn’t see any magic arrows.

Then I did. But it wasn’t mine. I quickly turned to see Claire standing over by the aid. “Ryan told me what you said. I’m going to teach you how to use your Driver so we can face off.”

Great. She moved closer and let her magic flow to her arm. As she swung it in an upward motion, a visible blade of energy formed and shot forward, knocking into the monster dummy.

“The first ability you should learn is a Bullet type, or projectile. Start focusing on the magic inside of you, shape it into a ball in your mind,” Claire said. I did, and soon the Driver on my arm was glowing. “Imagine it in your hand, like you’re holding it. Then toss it.” Again, I did, and something shot from me! Something was thrown by me, a ball of dark light. It hit the human and burned a light hole in it’s chest.

“That was cool,” I said.

“That was odd,” Claire said. “These dummies are made with special straw, and your burn mark wasn’t supposed to last. It should have disappeared by now.”

6: Chapter 6 - Real Trouble

Two weeks of the new school, and I had learned so many spells. The principal pulled me inside her office. One of the strangest rules of the school is hiding what goes on. We weren’t allowed to tell our parents of magic, of the spells that we could perform. Sure, the armband was noticeable and students were told to lie and tell their parents it was simply an accessory that the school had handed out, a symbol of their passing the entry test. Almost like it was part of the uniform we had to wear every day. It went better with my yellow uniform more than it did with Claire’s blue. She was a senior, and I was a freshman.

“We teach the students about magic, how to use it to help in only very dire situations. You can only use it with the Hex Driver. If parents knew, they might grow jealous and want to steal the Drivers for themselves.” That is what the principal told me. My parents wouldn’t believe that magic existed, like I didn’t before Claire shot a magic arrow at me, before I got my own Driver and was able to materialize my inner magic to shoot a ball at a dummy. And now I could close small cuts, working on the medium sized soon.

I might need to put that training to the test, soon, said the principal. The alarm went off two hours after our talk. The school’s PA system went on loud and clear, telling all of us students to stay in class. Luckily, Claire and I were in study hall. She had been teaching me one of her latest tricks, a spell that almost anyone could learn with the right training. Even though I didn’t have much, we needed it. Invisibility.

We stayed in the back of the room, focused our energy, and said out loud the incantation of this particular spell. Within a minute, we couldn’t be seen. I could see her, because the spell has a loophole. If you use the same spell, you can see people who went invisible using the same one. We’d keep track of each other that way.

The door opened, by Claire’s waving of her hand, and the teacher looked but dismissed it. We snuck out, went down three hallways before running into a large group of teachers. There was a lot of commotion, some of which we couldn’t make out. The principal was in the middle, ordering everyone to guard the classrooms. Immediately. When the group broke apart, we saw a young girl. She had been strapped to the wall. Her arms and legs stretched and twisted in weird ways, pinned by magic strands.

“What kind of spell can do that?” I asked Claire, who looked like she was shaking. She shook her head, eyes wide with fear. “Claire, snap out of it.” I brought a hand up to her face and snapped my fingers three times.

Claire looked at me, more aware of me standing so close to her. She pushed me away, and I bumped against the wall. “That is no spell. Someone did that by themselves.”

Now it was my turn to have the big eyes. To know someone did this to a student was horrifying. The commotion from before was too much for us to process, but I am pretty sure that someone said “one of them came here,” like they knew who it was.

Claire’s body started becoming whole, like I could see the color in her clothes and face. The invisibility only lasted so long. It must be wearing off on us now. The two of us hurried back to the classroom and returned to normal. The teacher was standing in front of the door watching the class, saw us but didn’t say anything. The PA system came on again, and the teacher quieted us. We were to stay in the classrooms, listen to the teacher in and out of the room. No using magic.

Claire and I looked at each other. The school was on lockdown, but why?

“A student was murdered,” said a voice over the PA. The students in the class let out loud gasps. “We don’t know what happened, but the whole school was searched from top to bottom.” That was certainly done fast. How many teachers or aides did Hex Academy really have? “Who ever did this has left, but for your safety, we’re going to make sure that this is true. We will call names over the system. Anyone called should come down to the principal’s office for questioning. First name: Mrs. Vine.”

The Bio Magic teacher? Why was she the first being questioned when all she knew was healing magic and turning her body into a plant. It had nothing to do with the girl’s body, and Claire thought maybe she could help determine how the girl died. Thinking back to the girl in the hallway, she wore a green uniform. Sophomore. Mrs. Vine taught a lot of sophomore classes.

“What should we do next?” Claire asked me.

I shook my head, then said, “Stay here. We aren’t going to be able to sneak out again. Plus, it could be really dangerous if we do.”

“You’re not as adventurous as I had hoped,” she said, and I only replied with a low grunt. “Hey, Simon, wanna do against-the-rule stuff?”

Simon was a senior, like Claire, who had tried showing me around a little bit when I first came into Hex. He tried protecting me when Claire first started with me and shot the arrow at us. Simon didn’t really like Claire, but the idea of doing things that weren’t necessarily with the rules was a big thing for him. One that he wasn’t going to let slide while being locked in a classroom.

While some kids played hangman, or talked among their clique groups, the three of us were in the back talking and scheming. Two seniors and a freshman.

“The girl had her arms and legs twisted and stretched out, and then tied to the wall. It was really gruesome to see, and I think Claire almost put out her lunch on the floor,” I had told Simon. Claire reached over to punch me in the arm. “Why did they only kill her?”

“Maybe she saw this person sneaking around, and he or she felt they had to take her out,” said Simon.

“Why go through the trouble of doing that much damage to her body, instead of just a simple stabbing or breaking the neck?” Claire’s question made Simon and I turn our heads toward her. The way she spoke and said it made us feel like she has thought of something like this before. Scary.

“Because they clearly were after her,” said a voice. The three of us turned to see the teacher. He clearly left his post at the door after seeing us sneak back in and start conversing in the corner of the room. He knew we had gone out and saw what he couldn’t, but at the same time, he knew more than we did. “You only go through so much when dealing with someone you want to kill.”

So the person who killed this poor Sophomore girl had targeted her? I wonder if other students were going to be targeted.

7: Chapter 7

Three days after the first girl, a sophomore, was found dead and tied to a wall in the school, the principal got word of another. This victim was another girl, a senior, who had been put on a wall in the shape of--what one teacher said it looked like--a K. The first victim looked like an capital I.

“That is weird,” said Simon. Him, Claire, and I met in lunch at a table on the side of the room. No one sat around us, but some students gave the two seniors I was sitting with a look of disapproval. “Do you think the killer is going to hunt down these students until he spells something out?”

“That is disturbing, not to mention it could be a lot of students,” I told him, looking around at all of the kids in the cafeteria. Everyone went about their day normally, trying not to think of the murders. But how could they when they could be next?

Claire leaned in, not wanting to say it out so loud. “Let’s not wait to see who is next. Let’s just stake the school out and skip all of our classes until we see this guy.”

Simon and I shook our heads, “No, that could take forever. It’d be boring, and we’d get into a ton of trouble.”

Neither of us knew what to do next. All we wanted to do was help, maybe find out who was doing this, and make sure we’re safe. A teacher had talked to us after word went around about the first girl. He told us that the killer wouldn’t go through the trouble of killing targets, twisting their bodies, unless he had some purpose of actually targeting them. Like maybe their parents did something, or they were rejecting a student. Although, Simon came up with the idea that it couldn’t be a student. Not unless it was a senior who stood out with a ton of magical strength. All the seniors in the school didn’t seem to fit that.

“If this girl was a target, we need to see if there were any links between them,” Claire said, acting as if she was a detective. She took out a notepad and a pen and started to write. First was their names. From them, it didn’t look like they were sisters. Maybe cousins? Neither of us knew. “One was a sophomore and one was a senior. The perp isn’t aiming at just one class rank.”

That told us no one was safe.

“Both were girls. Maybe the guy or woman has something against females.” Simon chimed in, looking around at the other girls in the cafeteria. “Most of them are snobs.”

Claire gave Simon a look, and I just laughed.

“Anything to add, Kate?” Claire readied her pen, but I shook my head. “Great. All we have are two separate class ranks, both female, and now the teachers saying they look like letters on walls.”

“What about where they were put? They weren’t on the same hall,” I finally had something worthy to say. The sophomore girl had been strapped with magic on one of the english wings, while the senior girl was across the school on a math wing. One hall connected the two, and it made me even more nervous since I had to go down the same one once the bell rang. “Oh no, that hall connecting them.”

The bell rang.

Simon and Claire looked at me, worry glued in their eyes. Both of them had to go upstairs for their classes. I hadn’t made any friends other than them, if you can even call them friends. Claire still hated me and only was interested working this mystery alongside me.

“You’ll be okay,” Simon assured me. “Stick with any crowd and stay close.”

That is what I tried, but all of the “snobby” girls walked away from me. No one seemed to notice the danger. Then, something happened. There was a spark of light, an explosion, and everyone started running and screaming.

One girl started calling out that her friend was taken. The PA snapped on, the principals voice saying to find cover and hide, that she’d be on her way.

I couldn’t just hide, not when the thought of saving this poor girl flashed in my head. The hallway where I worried was exactly where he hit, taking the girl. I ran to the branching hallway where the smoke was and lifted my hand. “Clear,” I said, and the smoke seemed to move out of my way. Every was running in the opposite direction, so I wasn’t worried with using magic. Continuing down the hall, I saw more flashes. And as I turned, I saw the worst thing I had ever seen before.

On the far side of the hall I had just turned the corner to was a tall man wearing old rags as a cloak. He had the girl prompted on the wall, a light coming from what looked like a Hex Driver. Her limbs were bound to the wall, and then he looked over.

“Stop!” I shouted. It was too late. Fresh blood seeped from the body on to the floor. The girl was already dead. With me charging him, we put out his hand and mumbled something. I fell flat on my stomach and passed out.

When I woke up, Simon and Claire were sitting next to me in the infirmary. They told me that the principal found me unconscious and had a teacher bring me here right away. Who ever the guy was must have gotten away before anyone else could have spotted him.

Then Claire told me the girl was a freshman. Her body was looped into an N, her spine broken and is what killed her. The blood was from the guy’s magic cutting into her wrists.

“That is horrible,” I said.

“I, K, N.” Simon read off of his own notepad, the letters that the bodies were put in.

Whatever it was he was trying to spell made no sense to any of us. He had marked three walls in a square of branching hallways. All of them surrounded a classroom-less chunk of the school. Which Simon thought was weird that it even had that.

Claire was worried, though, for me. The guy had seen me and I could be the newest target and next body to be shaped into a letter.

8: Chapter 8

My parents decided that I could use a week off from school. One day in to it and I was already begging to go back. Not that I really wanted to go to classes, but it felt wrong to leave Simon and Claire there with just themselves. Three was better than two. But Dad argued with me about calling the principal, putting in a formal complaint for my safety. My mother told me that the week off will do me good.

Cell phones didn’t work, and the only ones that did were handed out with a big signed form. One that my parents didn’t feel were necessary for me. The internet on my computer was really slow, and even though we weren’t supposed to cast any magic, I had tried speeding it up. In the new Hex Search website, a knock-off of Google, I looked up more information on the island. It told me the stuff I already knew. How it used to be an uncharted island, still kind of is, bought by a company called Hex. They were scientists who decided to hold some kind of living experiment with middle to low class citizens of the United States.

As I kept reading, someone had left a comment that was flagged, but I could still see it. In it, the user called GetOutNow wrote, “Hex uses convicts on the other side of the island as their other experiment. One had escaped and killed our son who had been playing in the woods. He was caught, but they just put him back in his cell. Get out while you can!”

I refreshed the page to make sure I wasn’t seeing things, maybe just spam. And as I suspected, it was gone.

If Hex really did have another experiment going on, than one of those convicts this person had talked about must have been in the school. What I couldn’t figure out is why he was in the school instead of going to one of the major labs. And not just that, but the guy had a Hex Driver. The letters I, K, N were the ones he managed out of bodies.

“Kate?” A voice said. It sounded like it came from my own Hex Driver. I turned towards it, staring at it. “Are you there… Katherine?”

“Yes. Who is this?”

“Claire.”

“How are you talking to me?”

“Hex Driver’s have a unique function. Like cell phones.” That explains why they only hand small government ones with a form. The kids get one at school. “The killer struck again. He formed an O, and next to it was a note for you. He said, to the girl who saw him, you’re my next letter.”

My body froze. Immediately, the shivers racing through my body created goosebumps along my arms and legs. “What?”

“Yeah, and it was written in the guy’s blood.”

“It was a guy this time?” The killer was changing his victims all of a sudden. I wrote down the next letter. O. Now there was I, K, N, O. I put them together and the only thing I could come up with was… I know. But what did this person know that was so important to terrorize a school filled with teenagers. And Claire told me if was on the other side of the hallway I saw him on, next to where I was standing. “Claire,” I whispered into the Hex Driver, “We need to find out what is in that large square of Hex Academy that he is writing over.”

“Simon already thought of that, but we can’t figure out a way.” There was some extra noise on her side of the conversation. It sounded like Simon was leaning down to talk to me through her Hex Driver, but then I heard other girls around Claire. “There aren’t any free blueprints in the library or offices. Simon checked the library and I snuck into the offices with the invisible spell.”

“I caught a comment on one of the Hex websites, something about another experiment on the other side of the island. After school, we should travel and see what it is.” It was very dangerous. The answers to everything could be over the hills.

“Deal. See you then.” A clicking sound, then Claire wasn’t there.

The clock said it was almost three in the afternoon, school got out in only twenty minutes. My parents got home at five. Quickly, I pulled out a piece of paper and wrote that I went to a friend’s house. After that, I grabbed a backpack and stuffed it with flashlights, granola bars, and a rope. I didn’t know what else to bring for this hike.

An hour later, I meant Claire and Simon near the edge of some woods that seemed to go on for a long stretch. It was leading away from the school and provided great coverage if someone wanted to sneak up to the school. Why hadn’t any of the members of the school board suggested taking them down? We moved about them quick but quietly. Simon was whispering ghost stories, trying to get a scare out of us girls. Claire gave him a swift smack to the back of the head and he stopped. Our hike must have taken a good two hours, six granola bars down, and our flashlights on for the past half hour.

“What is that?” said Simon, grabbing my arm and pulling me to the side.

Up ahead was a clearing in the woods, or maybe the end of them. Lights were coming through the trees, but it didn’t sound like a house. Big noises were pumping, steam shooting out of pipes. And when we got closer, we found out that it was a giant factory. And next to it was an even bigger building that stretched for a few miles.

Claire was on her Hex Driver, bringing up a holographic web search. This armband had it all. She was doing a geographic search for her location. The results made her close out of the browser and slowly creep back into the woods.

“Guys, get over here,” she said, clearly frightened.

“What is it, Claire?” Simon asked.

“Hex Factory and Hex Prison. This is where they make our Hex Drivers, right next to a giant prison that covers a chunk of the island. This must be the experiment the person was talking about. Why would you have a magic armband factory next to murderers?”

So the person whose comment was taking down was right after all. I wasn’t seeing things, was I? The proof was right in front of me. A part of me wanted to run back to my house, lock the doors and beg to my parents to go back to the states immediately. It didn’t work before, it probably wouldn’t now. The other part of me wanted to get into that factory and see how the Hex Driver was made. Something so mysterious, magical, and had everything clearly costed big money and couldn’t just be a normal factory if it brought this magic out of humans.

“What are you kids doing here?” A man’s voice sounded from behind us. I looked to my side and the figure leaped for Simon, knocking him out. He spun and whacked Claire to the ground and gave me a karate chop to the back of the neck.

My vision went dark, and I couldn’t see anything anymore.

9: Chapter 9

There had to be a bag over my head.

After being knocked unconscious, I remember dreaming about a lot of things. Like finding out what made the Hex Driver and hoping it was something stupid like a magical unicorn or rainbow god. Something--anything--that was nice and happy. Claire and Simon would be next to me in awe over how great the operation was, how beautiful the interior was as the unicorn waved it’s special horn and helped the humans.

When I woke up, opened my eyes, all I saw was pitch black. My breath returned in my face in warm waves. I could hear Claire’s soft crying next to me, and Simon’s grunts as if he was hurt. Heavy footsteps circled the room.

Someone grabbed the bag and yanked it off of me. The three of us looked wildly around the room to see where we were. A guard stood in front of us each, all armed with military grade rifles.

“Well, this was an unexpected visit,” said a woman in the back of the guards. We couldn’t see her. “I didn’t expect students would be so bold as to travel the woods. All we’ve ever gotten were curious, heart broken parents.” The person walked out from behind the guard and I could tell that Claire and Simon followed my lead, our jaws dropped.

It was the Principal.

“No way,” Simon mumbled.

“You have to be kidding me,” Claire cried.

The guards moved to the sides of the small room. The principal stood in the way of the door, the only way out of the room. For some reason, her eyes kept going to Claire more than any of us. I thought it was weird, but took myself away from staring to inspect myself for injuries. I hadn’t felt anything, didn’t see anything. Our Hex Drivers were still connected to us.

“Why didn’t you take our Hex Drivers off?” I asked.

“For what reason? Your magic spells are inferior to mine and extraction could kill you.” The principal leaned down to Claire and untied her. Claire just sat there, stunned, looking at the floor. “Now, get up Claire. Stop slumping on the floor.”

“Mom, what is going on? Why are you here?” We could barely hear Claire, her voice low and almost faded into the sounds of the factory machines.

“Mom?” Simon leaned back to get a better look at Claire, kind of shouting his question. Simon and I didn’t know Claire’s mother was the principal. She had never mentioned her home life to us. We weren’t on that kind of friendly level. “This changes everything.”

I shifted in my spot. My knees were getting sore, and the Hex Driver scrapped the rope binding my hands. I whispered for the ropes to snap and they did. With my hands free, I waved a finger behind Simon and asked for the same thing. We were all untied, but the guards moved forward to warn us. Simon didn’t want to move. I stood.

“I don’t know what you plan on doing, but I want to know what is going on. Can you just answer some of our questions?” I asked. My body was stiff with fear and anger.

“Sure. Ask away,” said Claire’s mother.

“What really is the Hex Driver?”

“Don’t think you want to know that one.”

“I really do,” I snapped. “It hurt when it went on, it lets us use spells, and acts as a mobile phone and computer.”

Claire pulled at my sleeve, helplessly. I leaned down and wrapped my arms around her, but kept my eyes on her mother. Claire seemed to be in a whole other world, too stunned by finding her mom at the Hex Factory.

“The Hex Driver is a new device to allow humans to do that through biological science. A parasite is implanted inside of each Driver. When the parasite connects, it goes into the wearer’s skin, sucking out the rare genes that allow us to use the magic. You’re feeding the bug, as well as getting it’s benefits.” She said it so matter-of-factly. Like the truth behind it was nothing to her. Claire sunk more in my arms. Simon fall onto his back, to where I had to look over to make sure he didn’t faint. “The real plan behind it is to control the minds of all the students who wear it through the remote control feature, overriding the modified parasite, and unleash our young magic soldiers for world domination.”

It sounded elementary. World domination… was she serious? Her expression didn’t change in the least. Her eyes were fixed on Claire and I, and she spoke naturally. The guards didn’t even flinched. When I looked harder into their eyes, they were glowing red. These were mindless, Hex controlled zombie soldiers. Everything that she was saying must be true, the proof was standing here with her.

“Why?” I asked. She turned her head, acting as if she couldn’t hear me. “Why?” I repeated.

“It is the will of our leader.” It was that simple?

“You put the device on your own daughter!” Simon raised up. He looked over at Claire, sadness in his expression. It was sympathy for the dark realization. “How cruel.”

“The killer at school. His message is “I know”, but what does it mean?”

“He is a convict from next door. He knows all about the Hex Mind Program. In the prison, we conduct tournaments to weed out the weaker prisoners and keep the stronger ones. They are turned into the zombies you see before you,” she waved to the three guards, “and we keep going from there.”

I raised my hand to her, stretching it all the way out. My mind was focusing on bringing out all the magic I could, and my Hex Driver started to glow. Through the anger building, the magic leaked out and formed a spike in my hand. It shot forward. I thought a guard would stand in the way, and I really wanted it to pierce the principal’s chest, but I missed both of the possibilities with one I hadn’t ever expected.

Claire had escaped from my arms and moved in front of her mother, shielding her. The spike collided with her, knocking her into the wall behind her mother who sidestepped the flying body of her daughter--instead of catching her.

“You’re violent, aren’t you?” The principal opened the door and left quickly. The guards slumped, maybe in a resting mode.

Simon’s eyes were wide. My eyes closed, bile rising in my stomach. The granola bars and the sandwich I had for lunch came up in one single wave. Claire was the only other girl to talk to me, and through this whole thing, we did grow closer. Now I went and shot her. I crawled over her to after wiping my mouth.

“Claire? Claire, say something!” I scooped her in my arms. There was no bleeding from the front of her. But she wasn’t responding, and I couldn’t see her chest rising from inhaling. Simon came over and checked for a pulse. “Claire!”

“Katherine… she is only knocked out.”

I shot her. She could die because of me.

10: Chapter 10

We needed to find a way out, but the door was closed and the guards were still in the room. But they were all slumped over, hanging their shoulder like they fell asleep standing up. They were mind controlled people, being taken over by the Principal and the company’s secret device, the Hex Driver. And we had one on all of our arms, which meant it was only a matter of time before we ended up like them. There was no way we were going to let that happen with a fight.

But it was the fight in me that got Claire hurt. My rage reached out when I shot an energized bolt of magic at her mother, when Claire instinctively moved in the way and took the shot herself. Simon was holding her, checking on her pulse every minute. He told me that she was fine, just knocked out. He assured me that she would be pissed and start acting like her usual, angry self after we got out of here.

“Speaking of out of here… How do we get out?” I asked Simon, looking from guard to guard. Each had military suits with the notorious hexagram symbol. In each of their arms were rifles, specially made by the company too. The symbol was everywhere. They had all the money and power they needed over anyone living on this island for their experiment. “I don’t know if walking out is going to work.”

“We have to try,” Simon told me, throwing Claire’s arm over his shoulder. I took the other, and we lifted her up between us. He looked over at me, smiled, and took the first step. The door was right in front of us, but there were a lot of heavy clicks and other noises behind us. “Crap.”

I looked over my shoulder and saw that the guards came to life. They were holding their guns up to us, red lines on our backs. The fear of them shooting was what sunk us to the floor. Six guards I counted. There was no way we could take them, but maybe there was another trick. I told Simon the small incantation for going invisible, then said it myself. My body faded from view, but not Claire’s. I amped my power and the spell started to cover Claire. Simon focused, it took him a while but he got it. Claire was covered by the spell by the time Simon had gotten it to work on himself, too. The red lines were still on us, though. We moved to the side. The red lines followed.

“You have to be kidding me,” Simon slumped his shoulders, ready to give up. “You told me only people in the same spell can see you.”

“That’s right.”

“Then how are they following us with their red dots?”

I squinted my eyes. All six guards were almost completely invisible to the human eye. Not to us, of course, since it was the same spell. When using the same spell, you can see the people who are also invisible.

“How are they copying our spell?”

A voice came over the speaker in the room’s corner. “These guards have the ability to copy certain field type magics. You’re sneaky antics won’t work on them, kiddos.”

To save our energy, Simon and I removed the invisibility spell from ourselves and Claire. The guards returned to normal at the same time. My concerning glance to Simon made him shift his own expression, his coming out more worried and scared than I thought he was originally.

“I’ll make an opening,” I mouthed to him.

“No, that is crazy,” he mouthed back.

“I have too,” I told him, out loud. “Claire told me that something was wrong with my magic. When I hit one of the school dummies, it left the scorch mark. She said that all of the others just disappeared instantly. It means something is up with my Hex Driver and I will stay visible. You and Claire can go invisible and leave.”

It was a theory that was risky, but if I stayed in view, maybe Simon could get away with Claire. He was cursing wild things under his breath, which I couldn’t make them all out. In a few seconds, he and Claire disappeared from my view. A big smile crossed my face and I stepped to the guards, all of their red dot sights lined up on my stomach now.

The door opened, and I heard Simon say, “be careful,” but there was nothing safe or careful about the ideas coming to my head. My parents came to mind. They wanted to try their hardest to make this work for all of us. The main land was too expensive, and Hex had offered a way out, a better living space. I had made it difficult, throwing fit after fit for them. There was everything good in front of me, and I refused to realize it. After getting into Hex, I searched and went into finding out all of the stuff I could about the Hex Driver, the killings, and now was caught up in something.

The guards were locked on, and Simon had been gone for five minutes… at least. That would be good enough for me to move on to the next part. I knew that if I raised my hands, the guards would take that as an act of offense and most likely shoot me. In my head, I was trying to access all of the magic that the parasite was allowing me to use. I imagined a powerful tornado inside of the room. The amount of magic that would take to pull off would be extraordinary. There was that or trying to reach out to their Hex Drivers, which was even more farfetch’d.

So a tornado in a small room was the best chance I had. Even if it hurt me. Around me the air had changed. It became stronger, picking up in speed as it circled me. My hair was whipping around in the air, and my clothes were slowly lifting up, but I held myself.

The guards in the front backed up, dropping their weapons to their hips. They build up the courage to charge me, but by then the wind was too strong. They flew to the side of the room and hit the wall with a hard thud. The next pair were a little smarter not to come toward me, but shot a few rounds. The wind was just picking up, continuously. Not even the bullets could reach me, all of them flew into the wall where the first two guards had hit.

Again, the voice over the speaker came through. It was muffled from all of the other sounds whizzing by me, but I was able to piece together the sounds of a human female voice. “Katherine, stop whatever you are doing and give up. We’re going to find Simon and Claire, then take all of you to a cell. It is over.”

“NO!” I screamed. As I did, the wind hit it’s maximum strength, it’s reach extending to fill the entire room. Around me had been the bodies of the guards. Their arms and legs flailing as they circled me in the tornado.

After a few minutes, the wind stopped. I was drained. The bodies were hurled against walls, knocking them all out. Or maybe killing them, I didn’t know. The door was there for my taking, no one inside to stop me. I ran out of the small room, looking down the hallways. Simon had hopefully been able to find a way out by now and not have gotten caught.

“What did you do?” His voice came over the Hex Driver. I lifted my arm and hugged my arm.

“Just run. I took out the guards.”

“You did what? Katherine, are you okay?”

“Yeah, keep going!” I stopped responding after that. There had been two way to go, left or right. Speaking over the Hex Driver was risky. Simon would probably go right. That is the way I started going too.

The walk took forever, but I saw a light coming from what looked like a doorway, bright like the sun. Freedom had been mere steps away. The door closed on my face, my eyes growing big and filling with tears. Before I could try the knob, I heard the click of the lock.

“Not so fast,” said a male voice behind me. I turned to look but once again, I was knocked unconscious.