Humanity 01 - Child of The Dusk by Corrine Shroud Read Free Book Online

Interval One of HUMANITY
    Child of the
Dusk
     
    Mirage felt uneasy as she
walked the unfamiliar halls. She could feel their eyes on her,
their alien gazes studying her with distaste. It made her skin
tingle, the sensation like spiders crawling along her skin. Less
than ten minutes in Bleavens High, and she already hated it. She
held her head high, trying to ignore the blatant hostility. Her
mother, Tranquility, had told her not to cause problems, to try to
bend that Child of the Dusk pride she’d inherited from her father.
She gave a mental snort of laughter. That wasn’t likely.
    The defiant had a shorter
lifespan. She knew that better than anyone else did. The lesson had
been branded into Mirage’s mind with the death of her father. The
wound was still raw, and the two months since his murder had done
nothing to soothe the burning hatred she had for the so-called
Humanitarians. She could still hear the crackling fire; still see
the playful flames that caressed her father’s skin as they told him to beg.
She could still smell her father’s skin burn as he
refused…
    Mirage stumbled at the force of the memory,
pausing in the school hall and putting her hand on the wall to
steady herself. God, it still had the strength to cause her to
stumble. The resonance of the past called to her more often. She
should know better than to dwell on something so atrocious.
    The force that hit her from behind was
sudden, startling her. It caught her in the center of her shoulder
blades, snapping her head backward. She couldn’t catch herself and
she toppled, the fall knocking the breath from her. She lay there
for a moment before she looked up at the massive boy who had pushed
her.
    The humans had to have
been feeding him nuclear waste , Mirage
thought distantly as he leaned over her. His broad shoulders cast a
shadow over her body. He was blonde, with the sort of face that
humans seemed to find attractive, and he wore a football jersey.
The air of arrogance and superiority that permeated from him was
enough to make her sick.
    “ Watch where you’re going,
freak,” he spat vehemently, contempt seeping into his voice like
venom.
    It made Mirage flinch. How
could he hate her so much when he didn’t even know her?
    “ I was standing still,”
Mirage said, her voice like death as she picked up the purple lace
purse that she’d dropped when she had tried to catch herself from
falling. “If you had your eyes open then you would have seen
me.”
    The boy shoved her shoulder hard, pushing
her into the wall. Her arm went numb, pain shooting through her
collarbone. She tried to keep calm; if she defended herself…there
were laws that signed her death warrant. Her Shadowstart powers
seethed beneath her skin, begging to be used. It was a fight for
her not to give in to them. “What did you say, Dark Child? I didn’t
hear you.”
    “ Derrick, that’s
enough!”
    Mirage closed her mouth, looking at the old
man standing outside a door a few feet from them. “You will treat
your fellow classmates with respect, and you will not call her that
again. You’d better go on before the next bell rings or I’ll report
you for tardiness.”
    Derrick hesitated before saying, “Yes, Mr.
Kinely.” He bent down to pick up the backpack he’d dropped and
whispered, “If it wasn’t for that fucking abomination lover, I
would have killed you. They wouldn’t have even suspended me.”
    Looking into his disgusted expression, she
knew it was true. Derrick wouldn’t have lost sleep over her death,
and the humans would have praised him as a hero. A hero who had put
the Child of Power in her place. Why did she have a right to try to
attend a human school? It was a cold knowledge to know that her
life meant so little, and it caused a slow shiver to creep down her
spine as Derrick brushed roughly past her.
    “ What are you looking at?”
Mr. Kinely demanded at the gathering crowd. They’d watched the
confrontation with slack-jawed looks of appreciation