I walk to the next class, the Science of Fear, with everyone. All of us are silent, either from the shock of the Arena, or the next class. I know Keavin doesn't like it, and no one else really does either.

We walk into the class and sit in our Neuro Seats. A teacher comes up and clips the sensor on my finger. I wince. It shocks you every time.

Then the neurological reading sends shock waves through my spine. It's collecting my Fear Data. Tate and Diana walk in, the teachers annoyed that they are late. But their hooked up anyway.

Once all of the Fears of the class are plugged into the computer, one by one we step in the Simulator.

Lindsey goes first. A few minutes later, she screams so loud and begs to come out. We can't see her, but looks like it was a fear.

A few people later, Diana goes. She doesn't scream, but she cries. When she comes out, she has a tear-streaked face, but not so much a look of fear.

Tate walks in after her, and there is complete silence in the simulator. When she comes out, she has an unchanged face. There's something about her that I don't trust. She isn't just a new student. If she has no reaction to the simulator, she must have had some traning. We'll see if it shows in the Arena.

Keavin's last, but I'm right before him. I take a deep breath and walk into the simulator.

The door shuts tightly behind me, and I look around and walk forward. I hear a small rip and look down to see a slice on my arm, bleeding.

I whip my head around, but see no sign of anyone.

"Hello Eliza," a terrible voice says.

My sister Olympia stands there silently with a knife and a bow and arrow slung over her soldier.

"Miss me?"

"You're merely an illusion," I say with a straight face. "You can't do anything."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Olympia snarls. "You may think that, but you couldn't do anything as mom and dad died."

Pain throbs in my head. "Shut it."

Olympia cackles. "Do watch your language, dear."

"I'm not dear to you," I spit. "And neither is anyone else. Obviously."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Olympia shrugs.

"It means," I reply. "That no one likes you. No one loves, never has and never will. And you've never liked anyone. You're a heartless, cold, evil, cruel, murderous SNAKE!"

Olympia smirks. "And you're no better. You sat there, doing nothing."

"Stop," I snap.

"You were playing in the garden. Mom and dad were working on The Project. Then those people came along. The new and just created Resistance. They took dad."

"Stop!" I yell.

"Mom fought for you."

I leap at Olympia, but she dodges, and her figure wavers as she cackles. Finally, the scene disperses, and the door to the simulator opens.

I slowly walk out, gasping, looking down.

Olympia. The traitor. 

Keavin comes up to me. "Bad?"

I nod.

He sighs. "Alright, let's see."

He steps in and the door shuts close.

I walk to the seats and slump down, staring at the floor.

Olympia's never mentioned the assasination of my parents. Well, once. That's what gave her that scar. 

So. This is their fear.

I killed them. All of them. They cried, they screamed. I shot them anyway. Leva. Nira. Shadow. Oh, Shadow. I broke her wings, just like Alexandria. And then I killed her. Everyone. They're all littered on the ground, and blood is on my hands.

But I don't let it get to me. That's what they want. For stuff to get to us.

I step out of the simulator, and notice the girl, Eliza, staring at me. She has a striking resemblance to.... No. It couldn't be. 

I walk up to Shadow who looks like she's been crying and pat her back, but of course that's not going to comfort her. I'm not good at that stuff. Comes with years of not caring and killing people.

But Shadow looks up anyway and smiles weakily.

After the day is over, Shadow and I walk back to her room to talk.

When we arrive, we close the door, and I sit in the chair while Shadow lays down on the bed.

"Ugh," she groans. "The simulator."

I nod. "Care to speak about it?"

She sighs. "Honestly, no. Maybe some other time when I finally convince myself it's fake. How about you?"

"I will, but there is something else I need to talk to you about," I reply.

"What?" she asks.

I pause. "That girl. Eliza. You know, with the red hair in the french braid all of the time?"

"Yeah," Shadow says, sitting up on the bed. "What about her?"

"Doesn't she.... Look like Olympia?"

Shadow clenches her fist. "That murderer? Yeah, now that you mention it, she does."

Our conversation is interrupted by a loudspeaker.

"All students, please report to the main room for some announcements."

Shadow nods, and we head out.

~~~~

Once we arrive in the main room, we take our seats as a bunch of other people file in.

"Hello, students," a teacher begins. "We have a couple of announcements for you today. One is that we are going to be doing the Valedictorian and Salutorian Program with SOCS Training Academy again. The two best students from this school will be sent to SOCS Training Academy Class 1 to complete their training."

"That's where Alexandria came from," Shadow whispers.

I nod. "But she was the highest class. If Class 1 is graduating for these students, what kind of training do the highest class students like Alexandria have to go through?"

Shadow nods. "Worse than here."

"Last announcement," the teacher continues. "One of the SOCS School buildings in a different part of Kyngdom is under repair from an incident. They will be coming here, so each of you will have a dorm mate in order to make more room for the students. The dorm mates will be spereated by gender and then randomly picked."

Shadow and I look at each other. I hope we get chosen together.

~~~~

Our class was taken to our main class room, where the names were being drawn.

"Okay, let's start. I have the girls, boys go to Professor Warding," one of the teachers begins. "Lindsey, you're with Karol."

The room was filled with different reactions when the teacher finally came down to the final names.

"Alissa, you're with Tate."

I silently groan.

"Diana, you're with Eliza."

Shadow looks wide-eyed at me before finally walking over to Eliza.

We're both afraid of making friends. They're opposing forces.

But I guess sometimes in order to get good information, you have to "betray" someone. 

Fear. I hated it. The simulater was awful. I slowly saw my old life, then it all crumbling before me. My life in SailHaven. The gang. Torture. Then seeing my parents taken away, and finally the killing of my sister. Why did this have to happen to me?

"Keavin Spract'm!" the teachers voice snaps through my memories. "You will be assigned with Rune. Report to dorm 476."

Rune. He was a medium size boy who I knew worked in the poison department before he came to assasin central. I never really noticed him. I would have to be careful, though I didn't want him to slip anything into my drink.

I walk to my dorm and drop my bag off in the bunk. I start to tape all of my pictures up, focused on my task. Trees. Buildings. Anything to remind me of the outside world. I needed to escape. 

"Hey Keavin, who did you get?" I ask as we walk to dinner.

"A kid named Rune," he replies quietly. "Used to be in the Poison Department. Who did you get?"

"Diana, the new girl who killed Robert," I reply.

"Oh," he replies.

Odd. He seems very quiet.

"Was it the simulator?" I ask.

He nods. "How about you?"

I clear my throat. "Uh, yeah."

Alright, tell the vampire srudents that there is some possible danger. Anyone suspicios will be treated like a criminal in the school.

Diana's voice chokes as she confirms her name, and it seems as though she's already taken the bottom bunk. No big deal, I like the top. It reminds me of when I hunt people through trees in the Arena.

I swing my bag up to the top and leap up, looking down at Diana, who's sittting on her bed.

"What's up?" I ask casually.

"What? Oh, uh, nothing much," she replies, obviously distracted. 

I nod and put up my pictures on the walls.

"So, has anyone else you've known ever gone here?" she asks.

"I don't know, why?" I reply.

"Like, a family member?" she asks again, a little too casually.

Olympia.

"Maybe a sibling?" she asks again.

What is she getting on to?

Suddenely, to my relief, the loudspeaker calls us once again to the auditorium. I groan and Shadow and I walk out of the room. 

I walk briskly through the hallways to where Headmistress is meeting with the head of this SOCS School.

Elliot had called us back after the man hunt was unsuccessful, and Headmistress had called me here.

I slam open the office door, and Headmistress comes up to me.

"Glad you could make it, dear," she says.

"Okay, what do you want?" I ask bluntly.

I'm tired.

"We are going to be calling the students down to the main room to talk about the Valedictorian Program with my school. You are the top student, or you used to be, so maybe you could be informational? Also, you can help train in the Arena."

"What?" I ask.

"'I said-"

"I know what you said," I snap. I instantly regret it.

Headmistress inhales sharply.

"Er, what's the Arena?" I ask, trying to redeem myself.

It worked. "The Arena is where the children train and fight," Headmistress replies cooly.

"Will you do it?" the Head of this school asks.

I think.

"Of course." 

I join the rush of people heading towards the auditorium. I feel suffocated, squashed by the masses of people.

Suddenly something large and feathery hits into my face. "I am so sorry!" a voice yells. I look over and see it was the girl with the wings. Diana I think her name was. "Watch where you're going." I grumble. She smiles sheepishly. "I try."

We reach the auditorium and sit down in our seats. Eliza sits next to me. "I wonder what the are going to do," she whispers.

"I don't know," I whisper back. 

I step onto the stage with Headmistress Rigga and the Head of this school. What seems to be thousands of students stare back at me, all of different faces. A few strike me oddly familiar. One is a girl wings. The wings I snapped. And a cat. She looks exactly like the talking cat that we imprisoned, but also a little different. Then one girl in the front sits next to a boy. The girl... why does she look so much like Olympia?

"Hello students," the head greets, interrupting my thoughts. "We are here to talk more about the Valedictorian Program that our school is doing with SOCS Training Academy. So without further ado, I'll hand it over to Headmistress Rigga."

Headmistress Rigga talks on and on about the program and how great it is, how tough it is, and all that.

"Alexandria here," she says as she points to me. "Was our top student."

"Who, that pipsqueak?" a voice shouts from the crowd. "If that's who you recruit, then I might as well join the Junior Kyngdom Girl Scouts!"

The crowd laughs.

Headmistress nods to me solemnly.

I walk down the stage calmly after pinpointing the voice. An older boy, sitting on the outside row, with a sheepish grin and idiotic attitude.

He looks me up and down. "What are you gonna do, huh, shrimp? You gonna tell me to buzz off like a little bee?"

Everyone laughs.

I give him my fakest, flashiest smile.

He smirks at me, but is interrupted when I kick him in the stomach, causing him to double over. I grab his shoulder and thrust him towards me, putting him in a head lock.

Everyone gasps and some shout, but I ignore it. Instead, I look directly at Headmistress. Her call.

She inhales sharply, either with pleasure or displeasure, but I can't tell what she is thinking.

She then swipes up her hand, signaling for the boy to live, but I hesitate.

She gives me a look.

I release him, and he drops to the ground, wide-eyed and gasping.

I walk back up the stage and take my place beside Headmistress Rigga, when a teacher comes up to me.

"I'm sorry to bother you," he whispers. "But someone by the name of 'Poe Allen,' wishes to see you."

I look at Headmistress, and she nods.

I walk off the stage and to the office, where Poe Allen sits impatiently in a chair.

"Alexandria," he says, getting up and walking over to me.

I look at him. "Yes?" 

He sounds like a robot, but his eyes don't show it.

"Elliot... dead?" I ask in disbelief.

"Yes," he replies.

I take another moment to contemplate the news. "Who killed him?"

"One by the name of Alexander."

"Why?" I ask.

"I can answer your questions later," he says. "But for now you need to come with me. The Resistance is trying to kill us. In fact, there are spies right here in this very school. I need you to pinpoint them out. I know you noticed them in the crowd. Then we can continue with the plan."

"The bird-girl and the cat," I reply bluntly, in the order I saw them.

Poe Allen nods and we walk onto the stage. He looks around in the crowd when his face grows dark, obviously spotting them.

"May I help you?" the Head asks. "We were just about to dismiss the students. They are getting restless."

"Look, another tiny killer ant!" a boy in the front row shouts from the crowd.

At that moment, Poe Allen seemed to have had less patience than me.

He quickly takes his gun out of it's socket, and he cocks it, pointing it to the boy. 

A dead silence falls over the crowd.

"What's their names?" Poe Allen whispers to the head, pointing to the bird-girl and cat.

"The one with the wings is Diana, and the cat is Tate," the Head replies. "Our students, why?"

The cat glares at Poe Allen. The same icy glare given to Elliot. And the bird-girl. She tries to show no emotion, but she obviously fails.

"Diana and Tate, please come up to the stage," the Head shouts, giving a questioning look to Poe Allen.

They slowly walk up the stage, and they step beside Poe.

He inhales sharply and points the gun at the bird-girl.

Suddenely, about three students stand up from the crowd and point the gun at Poe Allen.

"Drop it!" a girl exclaims. "In the name of the Resistance."

I point my gun at her, and a boy near her shifts his aim at me.

Then two of our spies stand up.

"No, you drop it. In the name of the New Republic," a boy scowls.

Now there's a circle of people pointing guns at each other in the auditorium.