I Become Shadow by Joe Shine Read Free Book Online

and the others quickly lined up along with us to our left. I was at the end. My stomach was full of butterflies again. Big ones.
    The man walked to the far end (
So I’ll be last
, I couldn’t help but think) and began to move down the line. He took a good look at each face as he passed. “My name is Cole. I will be your instructor. I will do my best to train you but many of you will fail to make it through the program. You will succumb to the pain of fire and break mentally, or the injuries you sustain will render you unfit to continue.” He sounded like he didn’t want to be here, that this was some sort of demotion and he was being punished.
    When he finally reached me he smiled. His breath smelled like cat food. “And some of you will die.”
    I blinked.
Did he just threaten me? Seriously? What happened to all that you’re-safe-here crap that Shane promised?
    He stared at me. I wanted to apologize for what I’d done. But the more I thought about it, the more it didn’t make sense. Wasn’t it better that I had fought? That I wasn’t completely useless? That even if it wasn’t much, I had some fight in me?
    “But we will do our best to avoid that.”
    He turned and marched away. A block rose from the floor behind him, and he took a seat. With a glance at the biggest girl in the room, he said, “Katie Jones, please step forward.”
    Katie took three shaky steps forward and stopped. Unsure what to do, she stared at the ground, a solid technique I’d used many times myself, but one that leads to zoning out, so use it with caution.
    “Ren Sharpe, please step forward,” he commanded.
    I had been expecting it. But that didn’t mean I responded. I was glued to the floor. My mind was telling me to step forward, but my legs wanted no part of the action.
    “Now,” he said in a tone that gave me goosebumps.
    I swallowed hard, took a deep breath, and managed a wobbly lurch so that I was in line with Katie.
    “Turn and face each other,” he said.
    I turned to face Katie, and she me. She had a light scar on her jaw and a small piece of her ear was missing. A dog bit her as a kid maybe? Who knows? But otherwise she was a cute girl. I wondered how she was judging me at that moment. Probably checking out the freckles. Everyone stared at those.
    “Bow to each other,” Cole said.
    Katie and I shared a confused look.
    “Formalities should always be followed,” he added, but he sounded bored.
    We bowed. Why not?
    Cole smiled. “Good. Now fight until one of you is unconscious.”
    Huh?
I froze, still half-bowed, not quite sure I had heard right. I blinked at Katie, whose lip was quivering. Her eyes widened. We turned to Cole. His smile hardened. “Is there a problem here, ladies? I’m not joking. Fight. Now.”
    I looked back at Junie for support, but he only shook his head, as frightened as we were.
    “Now!” Cole spat.
    I had never been in any kind of fight, ever, and judging by Katie’s non-reaction she wasn’t too eager to obey Cole either. So unless Cole’s idea of fighting was a brutal stare-off he was going to be sorely disappointed by this contest. Given my new occupation, I got that physical confrontation was something we should be ready for, so the idea of having to train for it was understood. But I figured a fight-off like this would only be appropriate after some extensive training, right? Not day one type stuff. Did Mr. S. know about this?
    Cole stood up and glared at the two of us. Then he did something I don’t think anyone expected. He reached behind his back, pulled out a gun, and pointed it first at Katie then at me.
    “Fight or I’ll kill one of you,” he said.
    I froze, terrified. If you’ve never had a loaded gun pointed at you, be happy. It’s not a pleasant experience.Combine that with a death threat from someone whose nose you’ve broken. But this was only a scare tactic, right? How would killing either of us make any sense? It would be stupid and defeat the whole purpose. He