Autumn Rose. Abigail Gibbs

I began to feel uneasy. Pent up nerves I had stifled all summer began to surface, reminding me of just what I was returning to. I was also drawing more unwanted attention. Girls, almost always girls, were watching me with disdain as I passed by, their lips curled until they turned and muttered furiously to their friends, glancing at me when they thought I was not looking.

      Feeling self-conscious and a little sick I wrapped my arms around my middle, knowing that the sword balanced on my hip and the barriers around my mind and the magic in my blood couldn’t protect me from the words that would come.

      Spotting the toilets I dived into them, noticing that for once they did not smell like an ash-tray. Neither did they smell of blood, although only a Sage would ever be able to detect that scent. Instead, they reeked of bleach, an aroma that was not much more pleasant.

      I gripped the sink tightly, staring into the mirror, endlessly analyzing my hair and make-up. If it wasn’t perfect, they would notice. They always noticed. They would not notice the spots on Christy’s forehead, or the sunburn across Gwen’s collar, but they would notice my fallen eyelash, or the chipped nail polish on my right thumb, or the scent of the cheap perfume I was now using because I had spent the money I had saved up from work in London.

      I sighed. I had to get a grip, and fast. The new school year was beginning and it was my duty to protect all the humans in this school, even if the dislike was mutual.

      I needed to be vigilant: I had heard the whispered rumours while I was in London. We all had. The Extermino were getting larger and bolder, and their attack on my town had proved it … why else would they bother with a tiny rural outpost?

      And then what of the rumour about the dark-beings of the second dimension: people were saying the Vamperic Kingdom had kidnapped a human girl. The second dimension was the only one where the existence of dark-beings was kept secret from the humans … keeping a human hostage threatened to reveal us all, and then what? Even in the other eight dimensions, the dark-beings lived uneasily. The Damned had lived through years of genocide by the humans just because they used blood magic and there were hardly any of them left; the elven fae suffered because of the climate change the humans were creating; and we, the Sage, were constantly having to negotiate other dark-beings out of difficult situations because a diplomat had said something stupid.

      Yet at the moment unrest gripped the dark-beings in a way I had never known in my short life.

      I sighed once again, pressing my forehead to the mirror that on this rare occasion was not covered in lipstick graffiti. Things were changing; any dark-being could feel that. We were losing ourselves, drowning in velveteen tradition and microchip technology, caught between one world and another – figuratively, of course, because each kind of being firmly belonged in their own dimension, whether the humans liked sharing or not.

      Change was brewing, and I feared this was just the calm before the storm. If things did get bad, no amount of treaties could protect us from our enemies … ourselves, the Extermino … the humans.

      Shaking my head I realized what I was doing and pushed aside all depressing thoughts as my grandmother had taught me to do. Dwelling on what has and will come to pass is as good as kicking the stool from beneath the future, she always said.

      Assuming that the buses would not be far away, I made my way back out after sweeping one last coat of mascara over my lashes. I cursed myself as I left, wishing I had kept my phone with me rather than casting it to school within my bag – now locked in my tutor room. At least then I could have texted one of the others.

      Wandering around, parting the crowd and doing my best to ignore the stares of the younger students, I did not notice when my feet came to rest at the foot of a dull bronze plaque. It stood beneath a large cherry blossom tree, planted in the centre of the concrete and plastic clad courtyard we called the quad. The words on it were clear for all to see and each and every letter reminded me of why there were no Sage in the area.

       This tree is planted in loving memory of Kurt Holden,

       Who died on the 23^rd April 1999.

       Student, friend and brother.

       Taken too early by magic.

      I knew the story. Everybody knew the story. He was killed by accident when the guardian at the time had failed to use the proper shields when using magic. The school ceased to host a guardian for years, until the rumours about the Extermino had started and they decided they needed one again. Six months later, fresh out of the Sagean St. Sapphire’s School and still grieving the loss of my grandmother, I arrived.

      But everybody remembered my predecessor’s failure … and they assumed I was the same.

      ‘You can’t change what happened, you know.’

      I sighed, a small smile just upturning the corners of my mouth. ‘It doesn’t hurt to wish I could.’

      I turned and came face to face with one of the few people who had never uttered a bad word against me: Tammy. Nevertheless, she contradicted everything I said, thought my taste in everything from music to boys was strange and hated my ability to read her thoughts. We were chalk and cheese, but she didn’t judge and I appreciated that.

      I gave her a quick hug. She withdrew before my hands had even met behind her back, a very visible shiver passing up her spine.

      ‘So how was your summer?’ I asked, rueful, knowing I would not have to ask that question if I had spared the time to meet up with her.

      ‘I have so much to tell you.’ She didn’t wait for me to answer, but continued, her words merging into one excited gush. ‘I kissed someone.’ She snatched the sleeve of my blouse, tugging me beneath the privacy of the tree, lowering her voice. ‘I didn’t just get my first kiss though.’ She pointed to the top button of her blouse, resting on her totally flat chest and petite frame.

      I inhaled a sharp breath, sensing images from her conscious of what she and this guy had been up to.

      ‘And look.’ She swept aside her tight, dark brown curls from the back of her neck, revealing several blotchy red marks, coated in what looked like powder. ‘I tried covering them with foundation, but it hasn’t really worked, has it? It just felt so, you know, nice, when he kissed my neck, I didn’t want to stop him.’

      ‘Sure he wasn’t a vamp?’ I asked, intending it to be a joke.

      She shot me one of her glares and a sarcastic smile, her shoulders hunching like they always did when she was getting defensive. ‘I think I’d know a vampire if I met one.’

      ‘Not necessarily,’ I replied, but let the subject drop as I heard the high-pitched cackle of Gwen and the quieter chuckles of the other two, Tee and Christy, as they weaved their way between the benches towards us. Gwen’s dark hair shone against the late summer sun, a grin spread across her face from ear to ear as she made squeezing – and not very subtle – motions with her hands in the air, opening her mouth to speak as she got close.

      ‘So how is our deflowered girl today then?’

      Tammy blushed bright red. ‘I didn’t actually do it with him! Honest!’

      ‘Sure.’ Gwen nodded, proceeding to make crude gestures with her fingers that I hoped the younger students could not see.

      ‘I didn’t! Gwendolen, stop it!’

      Gwen stopped immediately and scowled as she always did when someone used her full name.

      The two of them descended into bickering, their circle closing. I gladly stepped back, focusing on filtering the chaotic thoughts of hundreds of teenage humans and allowing the barriers I had relaxed over the summer to rebuild, brick by brick, back around my mind. I did not even notice my eyes close as my thoughts cleared and I was able to break past the excited chatter of students and the coffee-fuelled grim resolve of the teachers. I felt my conscious skim the green pasture of the fields that surrounded the school and rush like a torrent down the rolling hills towards the river that separated me from