I jolted awake and jerked my eyes open, I winced as the bright white light blinded me from above. The sweat scent of anesthesia hit my nose, sending throbs to my head.

  I tried to sit up, only to be met with immediate pain. My entire body screamed, my arms were heavy and my legs felt like lead. Every breath hurted my chest.

  Then the panic hit.

  Phoebe… where’s Phoebe?!

  Memories of the warehouse started flooding back. The screams, the blood. My stomach turned at the thought of it. The people I have killed.

  My slow breaths suddenly turned rapid, fog started to flood my vision.

  “Kat?” a soft voice said.

  I blinked again, to see Phoebe sitting nearby. Her eyes were full of worry. She had dark circles, she clearly hasn’t been sleeping well. Maybe even crying.

  “Hey,” I said in my raspy voice.

  “Kat. Nurse! Nurse! She’s awake!” Phoebe shouted, tears flowing down her face.

  Before I could respond, a girl wearing white rushed over and performed a number of checks on me.

  “She looks good,” the nurse said.

  “Thank god,” Phoebe said.

  The nurse nodded and walked away. I gathered enough energy to raise my arms towards my forehead, it had a compressing feeling. There was a layer of fabric with a soft sensation. As I looked at my body, my stomach was wrapped in gauze.

  Just what in the world happened?!

  “Phoebe?” I managed. “What happened in the warehouse?”

  She started sniffling, then it turned to bawling.

  “I’m sorry Kat. You got hurt all because of me. I’m sorry, please forgive me,” she sobbed.

  “It’s alright.”

  “No it's not! You got a concussion and fractured ribs. You almost bleeded to death!”

  “Hey, that was my decision. After all, I did promise to protect you.”

  “You could’ve died, how could I live normally after that?!”

  “I’m ok now, and that’s what matters.”

  “Thank you Kat, really,”

  I smiled, then continued to ask “what happened to the two men who attacked you at the end? I can’t quite remember.”

  “You-you killed them,” Phoebe stuttered.

  I could feel the color draining from my face.

  This doesn’t make sense.

  “If I was on the ground, then how did I kill them?” I asked.

  “It’s best for him to explain,” Phoebe said as she moved away.

  The door leading to the room suddenly bursted open. Dante, Riven, and Kane walked in pushing a giant whiteboard.

  “Hey, you feeling better?” Dante asked.

  “Yeah,” I said. “How did things go after I passed out?”

  “Everything was fine. Nothing happened in our warehouses and we successfully completed the mission,” Riven explained.

  “Good,” I let out a sigh. “But that doesn’t explain to me what happened to those two men.”

  “Well, according to Phoebe. It was when she was at gun point. You were trying to rescue her but got hit on the back of your head. She saw you raise your hand and the two men’s neck suddenly snapped. Killing them,” Dante explained. “In theory, you should have awakened your skill. But we don’t know what it is yet.”

  I was too stunned to speak.

  After eighteen years, I finally got my skill. And the first thing I did was kill two people. And I don’t even know what it is.

  I settled my breathing down and asked, “And-and will I get charged for murder?”

  “Of course you won’t. You were protecting yourselves and helping make this city a better place. Why would you be charged for murder?” Dante asked.

  “I-I-th-thought,” I began to say.

  “Shush, you need to rest. You can ask later, right now I need to explain some things to you four,” Dante interrupted.

  How can the organization let off an officer killing citizens?! Do they really care or are they plotting my sentence?

  I clenched my fists. Pain shot through my arm making me have to relax my hand.

  “I’ve neglected this since the very start. This will be your first and last mini-lecture,” Dante said.

  Dante grabbed the white board marker and began to draw three symbols. The left symbol was a triangle inside a triangle, the middle one was a sun inside a circle and the parts outside the sun and inside the circle shaded black. The final one on the right was an hour glass shape with the edges more sharper.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “In this city, there are three major gangs that cause most of the trouble. The Corps main goal is to eliminate all three of them to bring peace to the city,” Dante explained.

  He pointed to the left symbol and said, “this symbol here is to represent the Crimson Vanguard.”

  Crimson Vanguard? Didn’t I see the name Crimson on one of the crates in the warehouse?

  Dante continued,“their leader’s nickname is The Iron Fist. His real name along with the other two leaders are not yet discovered. They mostly smuggle goods and sell them on the black market.”

  We were going after gang members this whole time?! What were they thinking when sending three trainee groups to such a dangerous place?

  “Any questions so far?” Dante asked.

  “Was the warehouse one of their storage areas?” I blurted out.

  “Yes it was, but only one among many others,” Dante said. “Any more?”

  We shook our heads.

  He started again, pointing at the middle symbol, “this symbol represents the Saffron Wardens. Their leader is The Golden Serpent, they specialize in toxins and running the black market. We think many of the experiments run on Spectrals are made by them.”

  I feel like I have heard of this name before, but I can’t quite recall it.

  Dante continued pointing at the last symbol on the right, “this symbol here represents the gang, Black Halo. They were the first gang to form here and are also the most dangerous. Their leader is The Phantom, specializing in selling information and assassinations. Any questions?”

  “No,” we said in unison.

  “Then you can be on your way, that's the end of the mini lecture,” Dante said.

  Everyone exited the room, leaving just me and the nurse.

  “Hey nurse?” I asked. “When do you think I can be released from here?”

  “In two days time, and you will be all set to go,” she responded.

  “Also, during my fight, I remember that I dropped two silver hairpins. Do you have them?” I asked.

  “Oh, um. They didn’t give me anything.”

  What do you mean? They couldn’t possibly have missed something when they were surveying the area. Did someone take it?

  “I’m sorry,” the nurse said.

  “It’s alright, thank you.”

  During those two days, it was nothing but eating and sleeping with a few visits from Phoebe. I also tried to activate my skill, but it didn’t work.

  I asked Phoebe about how she activated her skill, but she said a bunch of fwoops and booms. I didn’t understand anything.

  After two days passed, I was finally released in the evening. After all that time being cooped up in a room, I needed to let all that energy out. I went outside to the field to try and activate my skill once more.

  The air was crisp and the grass was a luscious calming green with a small breeze. The moon was already high up illuminating the field. I took a deep and long breath.

  I haven’t felt this much at peace since coming to the corps. Now, how to activate my skill.

  I tried everything from snapping my fingers to shouting “ACTIVATE”, but nothing worked. I was about to call it a day when I suddenly saw something glimmer.

  I looked up to see the threads, hanging above me. It was pearl white with a small tint of teal aura surrounding it. It slowly lowered until it was at my waist. I looked left and right searching for where the thread came from. But all I saw was a never ending string. I tried to touch it, but my hand fell straight through.

  How do I control it if I can’t touch it?

  I went into another loop of trying to find methods, and as expected, none of them worked. I laid on the ground, heaving.

  Suddenly, I saw something in my mind, it was an old memory. I was about four years old and next to me was a figure of a woman, but her face was blurred. She showed me how to hold the thread without damaging it and placing it into the needle. She lightly pinched the thread and threaded it through the needle.

  Why did I suddenly remember that?

  Though it was weird, I decided to try it.

  You never know if it might work.

  Like magic, I could suddenly grip the thread. It had a soft and light texture, I could barely feel it on my finger, it was as if it never existed. I pulled slightly and the thread tightened.

  It was like the thread was reacting to my thoughts. It would shorten and elongate as I want it to. I could manipulate it and make it do whatever I wanted. I tightened it around a tree nearby and made it shake.

  I held out the thread in front of me and threw it at the tree. The thread flashed white, zing, the tree got cut in half.

  That is some strong thread.

  I was practicing throwing the string a few more times. One of them accidentally slipped out of my hands and almost sliced one of the buildings in half. After a few more attempts, I suddenly realized something.

  Wasn’t there a doll in the warehouse next to the corps building?

  Since it wasn’t too late I decided to go pay the warehouse a visit. As I came back, I placed the life-sized wooden doll in front of me. I tugged on the threads and slowly guided it around the dolls arms and legs.

  As I tightened the strings, the doll stood up. I waved my hands to the left, the doll flew left. I pulled on the string connected to its right arm, and the doll’s right arm was lifted.

  That’s interesting, I wonder if it would work on an actual person.

  I trained for a few more hours, learning how to make the doll walk and move gestures that are more smooth and human like.

  In some sessions when I jerked my hand too hard, the string would pull the doll too hard and pull off a limb or twist it in a way that would kill a human.

  Before long, it was almost midnight. I scurried back towards the dorms without being caught.

  I hid the doll under my bed hoping that no one would discover it. Even though I walked away from the threads, there were multiple ones in my dorm room.

  Are the threads following me or do they exist everywhere?

  Before I could ponder more, exhaustion took over.

  The next morning I had an intense headache. It only throbbed more as I stood up and got ready.

  This must be the backlash of using too much mana yesterday. Guess I have to use it more sparingly.

  A voice boomed over the intercom, “Katelina Veris, please come to the briefing room.”

  Not this again.

  I slowly made my way to the room, passing many other officers. I entered the room to see someone that wasn’t Mr. Lee. He had red eyes and wore a blue tie and a neat suit. He was a Class-B officer with at least 100 points.

  “Please, sit down Katelina,” he said.

  I sat down on the open chair and faced him.

  “Do I have a mission?” I asked.

  “No, this is to just break some news to you. I don’t want you to panic, so calm down first.”

  What news could this be?

  I slowed my breathing and whispered, “I’m ready, you can tell me now.”

  He began to speak slowly, “yesterday at twilight, your brother Luka was found dead.”