Page 5 of Satanic Shadow
She rolls her lizard-like eyes. “You are all insufferable mutants.”
Never in my twenty years have I ever witnessed a teacher speaking to their students like this. They’d be kicked out andnever allowed to teach again. But all the professors are like her. They throw around their powers for punishment and talk down to each and every student.
The professor walks to her desk and pulls out a second phone. “You will have one mobile, and the individual you are trying to contact will have the other. Each one has a unique number. You dial it into the keypad and…” She does this as she talks, and the other mobile begins to play a polyphonic ringtone.
“Can mortals be any more pathetic?” I hear Dane mutter to one of his friends. “Unnecessary technology, and for what? If you need to speak with someone, go see them.”
I contemplate slapping him. All these little comments are aimed at me. He knows he’s doing it, and he knows I know. It only pushes him to piss me off even more.
Yet, other than being a human with no powers, he has no reason to actually dislike me. But no matter what, every day, he’ll throw me a nasty comment, call me disgusting, and act like I have a disease. He’s lucky I haven’t kicked him in the balls by now.
Poppy asks an insane number of questions, which I end up having to answer because the teacher doesn’t know. I even inform the class that mobile phones are more advanced than the brick she’s holding, that they have color touchscreens now.
We haven’t even started on social media yet. Imagine trying to explain that to eighteen confused immortals? Let’s just say I’m glad next week will cover how human education works compared to what they were taught in their own realm as children. Because if they were catapulted into my world tomorrow, they’d stick out like sore thumbs and probably get arrested within the first hour.
If they graduate.
Failure means restarting from the beginning and resitting all exams. It’s the only way to escape their crumbling realms.
I haven’t learned much about the other students and their history yet, but I have some details. There are a vast number of realms, and apparently, mine is the safest and not currently being overtaken by a curse. I’ve learned about three so far. Water, air, and fire.
And then there’s my realm. The Mortal Realm.
We’ve yet to learn of the other fallen realms. I think it might be a hard subject and unnecessary information. I still have no idea why they need to know their own history when they came from these places. Why sit exams on their own realms’ history to be granted entry into my realm?
I’ve been walking the earth for twenty years, and not once have I come across an immortal trying to blend in, though I guess being a bunch of creatures who can make themselves look human, it’d be easy to pretend to be like me.
“Are you going to partner us up now?” Poppy asks, tapping her pen on the table. “Or do we find our own partners?”
“No, I’ll put on the board outside who you’ll be partnered up with for the rest of the year. This means all of your assignments will be a joint effort.” And she vanishes with a puff of green smoke just as the grandfather clock sounds, indicating the class is over and the next is due to begin.
Some students disappear from the room, vanishing on the spot like magic.
Even though I’ve only been here a few weeks, I’ve already adjusted to how things work here. The first time I saw a professor disappear into thin air, I nearly had a panic attack. Then when I walked into the human relations class—a way for the immortals to learn about the human body and the emotional connections we form—I nearly sprinted back out when I saw the board and the multiple positions the stick people were in.
Poppy and Mel tap my shoulder and tell me they’ll catch up with me later since most of the students have left the classroom.
Dane’s voice shatters my peace and quiet. He hovers over my desk, and I spot a ring on his middle finger with a carving that represents a realm, but I don’t know which one. His black suit is fitted, and his eyes shift to a light silver as he talks.
“I thought mortals were pieces of shit, but now, being in this class, I realize I was wrong.”
I raise a brow, crossing my arms. “Great. And you’re telling me why?” I try not to gulp as the last student exits, leaving the two of us alone.
The door slams, and Dane, without moving an inch, locks it. “You are all worsethan shit. I hope I never pass these classes, so I don’t need to be stuck with your kind.”
“You wouldn’t last a second in my world.” I stand, but he still towers over me. “Get fucked, Dalton.”
I swipe up my new mobile phone, turn my back to him, and make my way to the door. But although he’s a few steps behind me, something wraps around my arm and drags me to sit once more.
Then two shadow hands grab at my thighs, pressing me to the chair.
“Pathetic,” Dane spits. He takes slow, careful steps towards me as the shadow fingers tighten. “You can’t even push against me, can you? I’m using the most basic of my powers, yet here you are, trapped.”
I swallow as he gets closer. “You use your powers because you aren’t brave enough to do it yourself.”
He hums, stuffing a hand into his pocket, the other twirling a pen between his fingers. “Humans carry enough diseases that I know never to touch you directly. And I imagineyouare riddled with more than enough.” He grimaces. “Disgusting, really.”
Funny. He’s touched my hair on multiple occasions mid-mockery, but instead of mentioning that, I hold in a smile.
