Page 57 of Thrust into the Light
“Open it up and hang it up in your closet with the rest of your clothes, but don’t let any of the boys see it until you wear it to the ball. You are so strong, Farlen. When you’re at the ball, remember who they are to you, how they make you feel, and how safe you feel with them. Open your heart up to their love, don’t turn towards the darkness, stay in the light with them.”
I don’t know what it means, but it makes me shiver. I open the box and pull out the clothes. It’s like one of my sleep clothes, but it’s different. Starting at the top of it, it’s all white and reminds me of feathers. The feathers continue down to the bottom, but the white turns into gray, and then the gray gets darker until it turns into black at the bottom. It is very pretty. I turn it around and there’s a big part of it missing in the back. I look in the box and some shoes look like my normal shoes but nicer. Some shoes have spikes on them. I put it in my closet. While I am in there, I hear the door to my room open.
I come out of my closet, and Connor is standing there. He smiles at me and puts his hand out to me. I walk over and put my hand in his. He smiles at me again.
“Alright sweet girl, time for combat class. Everyone else left after they put up their clothes before they were late for their own classes.”
We walk hand in hand to the training field again. I don’t want to be back in the darkness. I like being in the light with all of them. I will remember what Sharron told me. I just don’t know how to open my heart to their love like she said.
When we get to the training field, Connor walks me over to the door to get changed. He squeezes my hand and then lets it go. When I go in, girls are talking in here. I go to my metal door and get my clothes out. All the talking has stopped. I look around and the pretty girl from my class with Rhi is there. She has her armson her hips like Faith did. Her foot is tapping on the ground.
“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in a different class? You’re not going to protect yourself from a fly? I mean, look at you. Maybe you’re here so they can show you how to protect you from yourself?” She flips her hair over her shoulder.
“Well, what are you waiting for? Get dressed! Come on, we don’t have all day. Let’s see what you are hiding under your clothes that have all those guys glued to your side all the damn time.” I look around for the showers. More girls surround me and block my view from the shower. Connor told me not to change clothes out here. So I just stand there and hold my clothes. One girl behind me pushes me and I fall forward. It hurts when I land on my knees. I haven’t felt pain in a long time, why does it hurt now? Is it because I can feel the guys? One girl laughs at me. I feel hands on me. They don’t feel like any of the guys and my shirt is taken off me. I try to hide my body, but another person starts pulling off my pants. I go to my happy place, and I can find it fast today. No one can hurt me here. I try to keep my ears open to hear what is going on around me, but I don’t want to feel anything they are doing to me.
“Pfft, just like I thought, nothing special about her. Yeah, she’s got big boobs but come on, mine are just as big as hers. Guess they just like freaks or sad excuses for women. Come on, girls, let’s get out there so we can stare at all the yummy muscles that are going to be on display today.”
I hear all the footsteps leave through the door. I listen for a little while more, but don’t hear anyone in the room with me. Upon coming out of my happy spot, and look around. My clothes are all over the floor. I still have my bra and panties on, though. I gather up my clothes and put them in my metal door, then go into the shower to change, like Connor said. These short pants fit me better and I don’t have to hold them up to keep them on. The shirt is still hard to breathe in, and it takes me a minute to get my boobs to stay in it. I try to make the loops in my shoe strings like Connor did, but I can’t figure it out. There’s a knock on the door. I hear Connors’ voice from the door and a knock again. I hear thedoor open and footsteps getting closer to me. Connor comes in and looks at me. He stares at my knees and he is breathing hard from his nose.
“I can’t do the loops in my shoes. Can you show me?”
His eyes lock onto mine, and he nods his head. Connor comes over and sits down in front of me and grabs one of my feet gently. He shows me how to do the loop with the one shoe, and when he’s done with it, he kisses my knee softly. He repeats the process with the other one.
“What happened to your knees, Farlen? Did you fall?”
“A girl pushed me down. They started taking off my clothes and I went to my happy place, so I didn’t have to feel what they were going to do to me. I kept my ears out of it, though, so I could hear when they left. Once they were gone, I went into the shower to put on the clothes like you said to do.”
He reaches out to grab me but stops and turns around and swears. He takes a lot of deep breaths and turns back to me.
“Alright, we’ll get to this class earlier so you can get dressed without being harassed. Come on, sweet girl.” He grabs my hand and pulls me from the room. He walks me over to where everyone is standing, kisses my head, and lets go of my hand. I wait for him to walk back to where the people who watch stand, but he walks over to Instructor Payne.
Instructor Payne nods at him and looks around at everyone standing here.
“Alright, for this first class, you are all going to start with the basics. I don’t care if you know them. I’ve seen people who swear they’ve had training not even know the proper fucking footwork, so shut your damn mouths. Connor, show them how they are supposed to stand.” Connor stands a little funny, and Instructor Payne smiles at him and nods his head. “For those of you who don’t have me for any of your other classes, I am Instructor Payne, and yes, you will end up feeling a lot of pain in my classes, the Gods had a sick laugh when they gave me my powers. This is Assistant Connor. As this is my largest class, he is here to help. You will show him the same respect you wouldshow any instructor at this school, and if he tells you to do something, YOU FUCKING DO IT. Questions? Good, now all of you get into your fighting positions. If you don’t know what that is, just do what Connor is doing. I will come around and make corrections. Don’t fucking move until I tell you to.”
I try to stand like Connor is, but it doesn’t feel right. Instructor Payne walks down to the end of the line and starts talking to someone. Some girls near the middle of the line start to talk. Connors' eyes do something strange as he is looking at me. The green parts of his eyes go up in his head and I see the white parts of his eyes. He looks towards the sound of girls talking. “TALKING IS MOVING YOUR MOUTH, SHUT YOUR MOUTH OR YOU’LL BE DOING PUSHUPS UNTIL INSTRUCTOR PAYNE GETS TO YOU.”
I have never heard Connor yell like that before. It wasn’t like an angry yell, but like he wanted to be heard. His voice is usually very soft and nice, that was nice too, and it made my stomach down low, clench again. It takes a while for Instructor Payne to get to me. When he does, he nods at me. He tries to get me to move my feet in different ways, but it feels strange to do it, and one of my feet doesn’t want to move how he is saying to do it.
He walks back up to the middle of the field. “Alright, now I want everyone to watch what Connor does. He will do it slow two times and then he will do it faster after that. I want all of you to try to copy what he is doing. I am not going to walk down the line this time, but I am watching all of you. Remember your footing, and when you are done with the punch, come back into your fighting position.”
Connor reaches out and punches the air. He does it with his other hand and then stands like he was. He does it again and I try to do it. Everyone else is trying to do it as well. Connor does it again, and it reminds me of what he does down in the gym with the bag that is hanging in the air. He does it again four more times, faster and faster each time, and it is what he does to the hanging bag! Instructor Payne walks towards the other end of the line again. Connor smiles at me, and I try to do what hedid again. My foot that didn’t want to turn moves funny when I punch forward and I start to fall. I hear Connor shout and see him start to move towards me, but I hit the ground before he can get there.
I feel a sharp pain through my arm. It reminds me of what HE used to do to me with knives before I stopped feeling the pain. Why is the pain back now? Connor gets over to me and I try to hide my arm.
“Let me see it, sweet girl.” I show him my arm and he yells for Instructor Payne. Some girls in the line are laughing. When he gets to us, he looks at my arm and starts feeling around in the grass. “Take her to Daniel. I’ll finish up the rest of the class. I can’t find what cut her up.”
Connor picks me up and starts to run. I can’t stop my tears, it hurts so much.
“Why does it hurt now? Before I couldn’t feel any pain, or you guys, but now I can feel all of you and things hurt now.”
“I don’t know, sweet girl, we can ask Healer Daniel when we get there. Be strong. It won’t be long until we are there.”
He starts running faster. He is breathing hard. When we get to the small hospital Healer Daniel is standing outside holding the door open. Connor slows down and walks us through the door. There is another healer holding the door open to the rooms with the beds. We walk through that one, and Connor nods at that healer. He sits me down on the bed and grabs his phone.
“I need to let the others know what happened.” He starts sending messages on his phone.
“I hear you fell in combat class and cut up your arm. Can I see it Farlen? How much pain are you in?”
