The Devil's Smile

Chapter 12

“Red they are supposed to love the demigods fighting against each other. That's why they come down to the arena every month to watch them battle right? So what if they are making my life hell just to laugh about it?”

She sighed again but this time it was a pathetic sigh. She grabbed my hands pulling me down onto the bed beside her. “Charm just stop thinking about it okay? It is what it is. we can’t change it so we need to live with it. I know this whole she shook her hand around indicating the stone walls around us full situation has shaken you up a bit but the gods definitely aren't making you clumsy just to amuse themselves. If they really wanted that kind of entertainment they would be doing it to them gods full show we are just dwellers. It would be booking and just to see them scatter. It's really not that entertaining. Certainly not for 18 years on end.”

I opened my mouth to answer probably to say that she could call herself and aunt if she wanted to but I was totally an eagle or basically anything cooler than an ant but I wasn't afforded the chance because the bells were ringing again.

“Free time is up,” Red unnecessarily announced.

Henchman number 2 had told us that we would be expected to attend the dining hall for the commencement celebration at that night in the presence of every demigod at their Academy. Apparently they had a feast at the beginning of every Academy life cycle and the new jewellery cruets were one of the main attractions. Red was staring into the tiny oval mirror stuck to the wall between 2 single beds fasting with her her she would have changed too if she hadn't been wearing already her best clothes. I waited until she was done before moving over to the reflection glasses myself and peering at the image of my own face. It was an okay face. Kind of like the woman whom Red had said was my mother. I had naturally pink lips and naturally flushed cheeks probably from the adrenaline of almost dying all the time. The only thing different about me was my blue hair which was more than enough to bring attention.

I pulled all my hair back from my face now slapping a hand over my forehead to see what I would look like in a cap.

“Not bad,” I muttered. “But there's still the matter of boobs…”

“We are leaving before you start talking about that again.” Red let the weight taking us through the many corridors and back into the dining halls stop

The Demi gods were already seated at their tables indicating that we were probably late but I was good at being late so I took Red’s arm dragging her for ones full star v plastered ourselves along the wall moving along the line of other dwellers towards the middle of the room where it would be easier to see all the tables will start it wasn't until he went police station that I noticed the group of dwellers overing out in the front of the kitchens a few demigod standing infront of them. I recognised most of their faces because they were the other dweller recruits.

Crap. We were standing with the resident dwellers.

“Welcome dirt dwellers!” One of the demigods shouted even though he was only standing a few feet away from the first line of recruits. “Welcome to our city welcome to our Academy and welcome to the commencement ceremony! Now strip!”

Wait what?

The demon demigod laughed his head thrown back his dark golden Onyx hair perfectly tousled around his face. Was that! He looked exactly like Silas except that I could see Silas standing right beside him wearing the same clothes as their morning. So the trickery gifted demigod had a twin I could tell them apart but the thing was clear that wasn't good food stop that definitely wasn't good at all. But what was worse was the fact that those recruits actually appear to be stripping.

The seated Demi got started laughing and a few of them jeering rudely and one of the resident dwellers next to me said, “Why do the Demi gods find this funny anyway? Why can't Yeti Think of anything better than to use his persuasion gift for?”

I had no idea who the guy was talking to but I decided the student her to let a matching silence back against the wall and fold the arms casually. “I know right? It's getting old. And don't even get me started on the twin thing. one of them is enough am I right?”

“The guys not at all.. and the 5 is overdoing it just a little bit.”

5? 5! Holy f**k…

‘I feel sorry for whoever has been assigned to their dorm rooms,” I whispered back applauding my even tone.

“It will be one of the new recruits my new friend informed me loading his voice even further and learning my way. You know it has been absolute chaos since they have turned up here a few months ago. They have had 20 resident dwellers assigned to them already but they dismiss them like its in their schedule to get the dweller fired every week. After the last one Lyn announced that she use start assigning them recruits. You wouldn't know that because you are not one of the slaves attending the dual relations committee I know because I am. Anyway I guess she thought if they gave them someone fresh they would be able to mold them however they wanted.”

“Sounds creepy. So is Lyn giving them the special privileges?”

“they are the most powerful demigods here. You didn't know that? They are our future gods….”

And on that note, Red broke into our conversation leaning over me to glare at the guy ,”you too should really stop gossiping about them.”

“Sorry,” I muttered to the guy after pushing Red back. “She hasn't eaten yet.”

He chuckled. “No problem I am Gerrit by the way.”

“I am Charmaine and my grumpy friend here is Talulah.”

Gerrit shook his head, his short curls jumping around a little like they were trying to escape his head. “Why haven’t I seen you two around before? I know Lyn keeps us locked down in service to her, but I thought I’d crossed paths with most resident dwellers by now.”

Before I could fess up to my mistake and our recruit status, a commotion across the room stole all our attentions. The recruits--- who were now wearing no more than underclothes were dragging themselves out to stand in the centre of the room. They were being paraded around. The two almost identical demon demi gods Silas and Yeti---remained standing at their table. Just standing. Smug, arrogant, assholes. They had these half-smirks on their faces, like they were enjoying the discomfort of the dwellers—feeding on it, even. Their huge bodies seemed to grow even larger, the perfect planes on their faces deepening. The shimmers of gold which tinted the darkness of their hair was stronger, almost as if they had this inner light was shining brighter.

I was starting to see he gods-in-training thing, to really see it. There was nothing dweller in these demigods, no matter what the history said of the origins of gods and demi-gods.

“Why does no one stop them?” I murmuRed, my feet shifting. I had to force myself to remain against the wall, I couldn’t stand to see others humiliated like this.

It was different when I was humiliated. I was used to it; I could handle it. They couldn’t. They had once been the brightest, the smartest, the most honouRed amongst their own people …and now? All of a sudden, they were less than garbage.

Gerrit answeRed. “The teachers tend to leave demi-gods to deal with things themselves. They don’t monitor them outside lessons. They say that the gods are always watching. And that usually keeps most of them in line.”

Except for the Cursor Brothers it seemed. Clearly they weren’t worried about the Gods and their saying eyes. I tilted my head to the right, my gaze on Red. She started shaking her head frantically at me.

“Don’t you move, Charm. Don’t move a freaking muscle or I will kill you. Drawing the attention of any demi-god is a bad thing, and drawing the attention of those five sounds like it will be catastrophic.”

She had a point, but I was a pro at catastrophic. With that in mind, I took a deep breath and stepped of the wall.

No one noticed.

No one!

Where was my clumsy curse when I needed to make a scene? I had no idea what to do short of stripping off my own clothes and running naked through the gaps in the tables. But how could that help the shaking recruits out there? Just as my hands went to my shirt, fists clenching the sides, another short, tinkling bell rang out, and the scent of food drifted in through a set of now-open doors.

Silas waved a hand then, and then room shifted. I blinked twice to make sure I was seeing things clearly. How in the hell? All the recruits were back against the wall, fully dressed. It was like that none of the last clicks had even happened. My mouth was open, like right open. A damn flying mantis could have walked right in there with no problem.

“He tricked us,” I mutteRed, managing to speak around my shock. As if he had heard my words, Silas shifted his body in my direction, and those shimmery golden green eyes slammed against me. Hard.

Now someone noticed me?

I was grabbed from behind; either Red or Gerrit yanked me back against the wall, probably trying to save my life. If Silas or his brothers retaliated to my tiny attempt at making a stand against dweller-abuse…well it would probably be the second time this day those bullock balls would try to kill me. How many times would it take for them to succeed?

A line of resident dwellers brought forth the demigod’s dinner, looking completely oblivious unaffected. I braved a glance from under my glance from under my lashes, and managed to breathe deeply when there no jewellery like eyes staring in my direction. Like most men, the Cursor demons had one true love.

Food.

Red kept two eyes on me for the rest of the dining time. No other humiliation was dished out for the dwellers, if you discounted the normal shitty way they were treated. Trays thrown at them when the demigods were done eating, barked orders for more drinks and food, mutterings about dirt dwellers and their ineptitude at all things. All things.

The recruits were supposed to observe this first dinner, learning everything it was possible to learn before being expected to dive right in for the next dinner. Thankfully, there were plenty of other resident dwellers who stood with me and Red waiting for summons. Not all of them had active duties in here so we didn’t stand out.

Right up until I heard a shout.

“Hey Rocks, we are going to need some help over here!”

I froze, before slowly defrosting enough to face Red.

“What should I do? If I ignore them will them come over here and kill me?” I was whispering frantically under my breath trying to make myself as small as possible against the wall.

“Are they talking to you?” Gerrit asked, his voice going a bit high-pitched at the end. “What is rocks? Why are they singling you out?”

Great freaking question. What the hell did they want with me?