Seconds to Midnight: A Maiden of Midnight Prequel
Destiny- Day One

Destiny- Day One

Every muscle in my body ached as I pulled myself up toward the bar once more, hearing the ‘CLICK!’ of a mentor tracking how many pull-up’s I could do.

“One-hundred-and-six.”

Setting my jaw against the pain, eyeing the needles stuck into the rubber mat beneath my feet, I tightened my grip on the metal that kept me from danger, and dragged myself up again, earning another ‘CLICK!’, and the mentor repeating in a monotone voice, “One-hundred-and-seven.” The Dome was ruthless in its training. Failure was met with punishment. Sometimes success was, too, just to really rub it in that life was never pain-free, and rewards few and far between. They wanted us to leave this place used to it, or even savouring it.

Sweat coated my palms, had done so for the better part of the forty minutes I spent exercising, and with no way to wipe it off, I was forced to endure it.

‘CLICK!’ I would be better.

“One-hundred-and-eight.”

‘CLICK!’ I promised Zeella.

“One-hundred-and-nine.”

‘CLICK!’ He said I could be the best, if I practiced.

“One-hundred-and-”

“SON OF A BITCH!” I shrieked as the needles sunk into both my feet, leaving hundreds of pinpricks of blood.

Dropping off the mat, I plucked them out all at once with my power, biting my lip and cursing the entire way. My power dumped them into the nearby metal bucket with a ‘CLINK!’. I dabbed at the blood, nursing both my feet, before pouting. Ouch.

“A new record, Princess,” the mentor said in an unimpressed voice, entering the data to be sent away to Zeella and whoever else felt like reading over the boring reports, like it was a crime for them to show any kind of encouragement, or write an interesting article. Knowing the Manor, it probably was.

I, myself, couldn’t read them, since they drove me eyes-out-of-skull bored, but Cain lapped these things up. He loved them. Every single one of mine were printed and filed in his damned cabinet, lovingly labelled with my name.

He was likely watching through the security cameras stationed around the Dome right now, monitoring my every move. There was even a camera in my room, at the ‘special request of the Prince of Demons’. The scientists branded him creepy because of it- I heard them whispering about it, but I knew the truth. Cain didn’t want to let me out of sight.

Besides, he’d hacked the camera in my room with Alishan’s help, allowing us to talk to each other through it. Nobody else could access the private feed it was on.

He was the only thing keeping me sane in this place.

The mentor made themselves busy replacing the needles in the mat with shards of broken champagne glass, before resetting the clicker. I dipped my hands into the bucket of sand to clear the sweat away quickly. It dripped down my neck and back, soaking the t-shirt I wore. The temperature in the room was rising, and would continue to do so until they near-killed me. I desperately wanted to peel off the shirt and train in the sports bra they’d given me, but they wouldn’t allow it. I’m surprised they didn’t give me a winter jacket just to really amp up the torture.

“And again,” the mentor ordered.

Sucking down a breath, the wounds on my feet healing, I took three steps back and ran at the bar, catching it mid-leap and swinging, using the momentum to pull myself up a couple times, fighting the burn in my arms and back.

‘CLICK,’ ‘CLICK!’, ‘CLICK!’

“One. Two. Three.”

My arms were wobbling now. I thought about Cain, and the story he’d read me last night to keep me occupied. I recited it in my head, word-for-word, to distract myself, the world narrowing down to just my mind. The clicking provided a beat, forcing myself to keep in time to it.

“Sixty-Two. Sixty-Three. Sixty-Four.”

Deep breaths. One of my hands slipped, making me hiss, but I forced myself back up.

“Sixty-Five. Sixty-Six. Sixty-Seven.” I swung, feeling myself falling, trying to save myself by flinging myself away from the mat only to succeed in landing on it with my back rather than my feet.

“That was worse than last time.”

The pain made me scream, the rest of the hall looking over to me, and one of the cameras whirred, zooming in. Checking me for life-threatening wounds. Cain must be watching.

Sitting up, some of the glass shards sliding out of my skin and clothing, the mentor’s words stinging more than the glass, I snarled, “Enough of the pull-ups! I want to hit something!” Better yet, I wanted to leave, but we both knew that wasn’t happening. The only way I was leaving this place against their will was dead. That was established from the second I walked through the doors and wrote my name down in their sign-up books.

“Go train, then. You can try again later.”

I limped over to the sparring ring, eyeing the various fighting techniques on offered. Looking to the nearest camera, I raised an eyebrow. What would Cain have chosen for me?

It took a minute, but eventually, one of the lights flickered inconspiciously over the sword fighting ring, where a row of Demonic-beings were listening eagerly to their mentor teach, and show, them how to cut the head off a victim who was kneeling before them.

Today, they were using a mannequin as the unlucky victim, but I had no doubts that the next person to cross the Manor would be dragged in here and used for show-and-tell.

‘See one, do one, teach one’ worked even here, in the Dome.

Taking up a position beside one of them, a younger Demonic-being whose name I knew only as Dee-Dee, I summoned a sword to my side from the rack where they were being stored, Dee-Dee sneering.

They hated that I had powers. It gave me an advantage they would never have.

“Desterium, nice to have you join us,” the mentor lied. I rolled my eyes, and they waved toward the mannequin, “Since you are the eldest in the group, I feel as though you should demonstrate your skills.”

I unsheathed my blade, the sound music to my ears, one of the youngest Dome members, a six-year-old called Vikra, gaped in awe at the shining metal. I took a step forward, and in a neat slice, cut straight through the mannequin’s head. The mentor clapped slowly and sarcastically, “Very good.” The lights flickered twice overhead, my cousin showing his pride for me with his own version of clapping. I grinned, sheathing my blade once more.

The mentor glanced up, mumbling annoyedly, “Damned power. It’s always failing around here.” Cain liked to cut the lights in the mentor’s rooms or dining area, just to annoy them a little.

This was the brother of the mentor Cain killed the last time I was in the Dome, their scents nearly identical. They’d jumped me in the hallway, cutting my leg, and stunned me so badly they nearly killed me. Cain didn’t let them get within an inch of me.

I would never let that happen again; that show of weakness.

We were called on, each of us given a turn to demonstrate our skill. For the others, it took multiple hacks and slices to remove the mannequin’s head. Little Vikra couldn’t even reach his neck, not without one of us holding him up, so instead, he aimed for the knees, bringing the mannequin down, quickly finishing the poor thing off by plunging his sword through its back.

Each time, the mannequin was put back together, and we were shown another way to kill them.

Which is when we were grappled from behind, someone’s arm sliding around our throats.

I was the first to react, slamming my head back before dropping down, gripping the back of my attacker’s knee and yanking it forward. They crumpled. I whirled on my heels, already aiming another blow at their head.

My attacker was a Demonic-being around my age, clearly having been instructed by the mentor in the nearby sparring ring to grab us.

His eyes widened at how quickly I brought him down, and then snapped shut when I knocked him out a second later.

Vikra was struggling, screaming like a stuck pig. I stormed toward the fourteen year old who was near-strangling the boy, gripping his fingers and bending them backward until he screeched, dropping Vikra, who scrambled behind my back.

A knee between their legs had the male dropping like a stone. I knocked him out, too.

My mentor clapped again, slamming a metal pole into Vikra, snarling, “You should not have needed to be saved!”

A second later, I copped the same pole into the back of my head, the mentor adding with a hiss, “You should not be saving people! You are a Demonic-being! Unless your half-blooded self truly does make you weak?!”

I rolled my eyes, snarling curses, and Dee-Dee, who was a full-blooded Demonic-being, arrogantly spat, “Things like you bring shame on the Manor!”

My fist slammed into her face, which rocked back, and the lights in the hall cut out, Cain buying me the time I needed to get the jump on a girl who, while younger than me, was undoubtedly stronger. Bless him.

Dee-Dee could see in the dark, but she hadn’t been expecting to shift her vision, and because of it, I had her in a headlock, my fingers pinching the right nerve to knock her out. She slumped, and for a brief second, I debated snapping her neck. It would be so easy…

Dropping her instead, I kicked her, spitting on her unconscious body before storming back toward the hallway, swiping the keycard of my mentor as I passed by them. They could punish me later. I was going to the showers, and then getting some damned rest!

The lights remained off, flicking on only when I was out of the training room, using the keycard to exit the room.

I showered quickly, making it back to my room, dumping the sword on the floor, and falling onto the bed, begging to the camera in the corner of the room, “Tell me life is better for you right now.” It was more of a cell than a room, with its metal interior, single, thin mattress on a metal bedframe, and metal bedside table that didn’t have so much as a lamp on it.

Cain’s crackling response came back a second later, “Not when you aren’t with me.” I couldn’t see him, but I softened a little, and my cousin added, “Did you kill Deidre?”

“Dee-Dee? No? I thought about it, but dropped her.”

“She’s dead. The hall is in a panic thinking you did it, since you vanished afterwards.”

Great, another damned problem on my plate. How the Hell had she died?!

“Did I pinch the wrong nerve?” It was possible, if I did the wrong thing. Had I just hit her wrong? I shouldn’t have been able to kill a full-blooded Demonic-being so easily.

“Not from what I could see… It was dark, though. I’ll run through the footage again and get back to you later. In the meantime, I would prepare for a Hell of a lashing. Mentor coming your way in three… Two… One…” There was a banging on my door, which slid open, two mentors storming in. I sat up, reaching for my sword, which they kicked out of reach of my hands, the other one punching me. Stars flickered across my vision. I spat blood onto the floor, snarling, “What’s the meaning of this?!” Play dumb. Don’t reveal anything, or it’ll just make you look more suspicious.

“You killed a full-blooded Demonic-being!”

“I did no such thing, although I certainly considered it!”

The sass had me sporting a black eye to match the bruise on my jawline. My eyes slid to the security camera in the corner of my room, trying to silently motion to Cain to say ‘Can you believe this shit?’. The mentors exchanged an annoyed glance, one of them peeling off their t-shirt and covering the camera with it so Cain could no longer see what they did to me.

He was going to lose his mind in the meantime.

The lights flickered in my cell, indicating that panic, and the door hissed shut.

Outside, I heard an alarm blaring, signalling a lockdown of the building. I heard people rushing back into their cells and respective rooms. Scientists who were authorised by the Manor to study us, and other mentors ran through, ushering people into their rooms. I wiped my face, grimacing in pain. Cain must have been screwing with their security to try and save me, and brushed up against the wrong firewall.

“Did you do this?!” The mentor swung at me again, the other one pinning me to the bed while the first one pummelled me. I twisted against his hands, fighting uselessly. He was a full-blooded Demonic-being; impossible for me to break away from without some serious training I didn’t have.

Hit after hit landed against me, leaving me black and blue in bruises, and a couple of broken bones I would be nursing for the next week until they healed over, since there was no blood in this place unless I took it from someone against their will.

“Do you see a computer in here?!” I screamed angrily, “How could I have done this?!”

The lockdown ended as quickly as it started, the door sliding open with a ‘SHHHH!’, the mentors releasing me when they realised who stood on the other side.

It was Zeella, holding out a keycard, a bemused look on his face.

I sat up, blood running down me in a wave, and bowed my head, “Sin of Lust.”

“I see you’re being a pain in the ass, as usual, Desterium.”

“It wouldn’t be a good day without it,” I smirked, wincing and grimacing my way off the bed and into a standing position, “How can I help you, my Lord?”

“The recent death in the Dome-” He’d heard about that already? “I want you to investigate it. Security footage shows someone’s power around her neck after you left the building. It wasn’t yours,” he said when the mentors swung to face me.

“S- So she didn’t kill the Demonic-being?” The mentor who first struck me stammered, and with a dark smile on his face, Zeella clasped his hands behind his back, purring, “No, it was not my daughter. Do refrain from striking her unless absolutely necessary. I know she can be frustrating, endlessly so, but I do need her in mostly one piece in case a mission arises.”

They dropped into deep bows, offering their assurances that they would bring blood to heal the broken bones at once, Zeella waving them out of the room.

“This is not an official mission,” he cautioned me, “You will not be backed up, offered support in any way, or rewarded. I want you to replace the killer. Consider it a training routine. Hunt down Deidre’s killer. Her family wants revenge.”

“And do what?” This sounded boring- like homework. I hated homework.

“Simply capture them. Deliver them alive to the mentors so Deidre’s family can do what they see fit with their daughter’s killer. As for you, I saw you hesitated. You wanted to kill her.”

“She insulted me. An insult to me is an insult to my bloodline, which is you,” I repeated firmly, Zeella nodding slowly, “Next time, do not wait for someone else to lay the killing blow for you. Be a bloodthirsty example of what the Heirs of the Manor can do.”

I nodded hastily, eager to have him out of the room so I could nurse the fresh wounds, and he turned to face the camera in the room, his power whipping the t-shirt off it. He bared his teeth in a sharkish grin, purring darkly, “Hello, Cain. I would caution you against hacking the Dome’s security systems again, or I might just have to organise an accident for you.” How could he possibly have known it was Cain?! Then again, who else would watch me? Abel was the only person I might pin it down to, and he was dead.

The camera was silent, but the red light blinked twice in acknowledgement to Zeella’s words before going dark.

“You have until tomorrow to replace Deidre’s killer.”

“Why the rush?” I purred, trying to hide my surprise. That was hardly long enough!

“Deidre’s family wants revenge, and they will take it out on you if we do not replace her real killer.”

“It could have been anyone!”

“Then I would start by replaceing a way into the Dome’s security cameras, and reviewing the footage. Of course, getting caught would have you whipped, but I’m sure you’re smart enough to figure out a way in.”

I still had the mentor’s keycard on the bed. In their haste to beat me, they hadn’t noticed it.

“Very well. I will have Deidre’s killer by tomorrow night, if not sooner,” I promised.

Zeella nodded, exiting the room, the door sliding shut again.

Two days to replace Deidre’s killer… It was hardly enough time. Still, it was all I had.

I would prove myself to Zeella once again, and rise in the ranks of the Dome quicker than they’d ever seen before…

*

Cain helped me break into the security room, unlocking the door for me from within and guiding me toward the correct footage. His voice crackled over the camera in the room while I watched, reviewing it.

“The power came from the right of where you and Deidre were standing. Keep an eye there for anyone using powers.”

“There shouldn’t have been anyone strong enough,” I mumbled, tapping my hip and wheeling my chair closer to the monitor, squinting at the screen to try and see. The camera footage was decent quality, at least. I drummed my fingers on the table, looking up to where Cain was watching me, requesting in a too-sweet voice, “Can you pull up records for me of anyone in the Dome who has powers?”

“Including you, there’s only three.”

That narrowed it down quite a bit. I just had to see which of the two were eyeing Deidre, or had a feud with her.

“Vikra, and Brellmuth are the other two beside yourself.”

Vikra?! Oh no… I brought up Brellmuth’s file, quickly matching the name to a face, replaceing him on the security footage. He’d been nearby when she’d died, but wrapped up in sparring with his mentor, and losing. I doubted he had the mental energy to kill Deidre while keeping himself on his feet.

Vikra, however, was right next to the girl when she’d died. I watched Brellmuth first, hoping against Hell that he was the one to do it, that I wouldn’t have to surrender a six-year-old boy to be killed in revenge.

What had the kid been thinking?!

Nothing on the security footage indicated that Brellmuth had been the one to do it. I cursed, replaying the footage, watching Vikra this time.

Right as Deidre hit the ground and her neck was snapped, Vikra’s tiny hand sparked just the smallest bit. I cursed again, Cain cursing with me.

“He’s a kid,” I sighed, dropping my head into my hands, Cain murmuring, “Lie to Zeella. Say you can’t replace them.”

“I can’t. Deidre’s family will take their revenge out on me, he said, if I did not give them her real killer. But can I really hand over a six-year-old?”

To save myself, I already knew my answer. I wasn’t sure I wanted Cain to know my answer, though. My cousin hesitated, torn as well. He wanted to save me, but at the cost of a child barely out of toddlerhood?

Everything came at a price. I could prove myself to Zeella, and restore my reputation, but it would cost Vikra his life.

“I’ll talk to Vikra first, to try and get an idea of what he was thinking. At the very least, I can attempt to lessen his sentence from death to something else. Maybe a Severing?”

Cain agreed, saying that I should go now, before dinner. I rushed out, hurrying down the hall to Vikra’s room, following Cain’s blinking lights when I got lost, my cousin having pulled up a map of the Dome.

I found Vikra in his room, sitting on his bed, swinging his legs, his too-big eyes sliding to me and widening further. He tightened his grip on the stuffed animal he was holding, a little elephant toy. How had he gotten that in here?

“I didn’t do it!” He immediately cried out. I took a seat on the bed beside him, hearing the door close, “Vikra,” I began quietly, the little boy shaking, “Why did you kill Deidre?”

“It was an accident!” He promised me in a scared voice, “I lost control! Please don’t tell the mentors!”

“Deidre is dead, Vikra. We have to tell her parents. I’ll speak with them first, to try and get you a lesser sentence, okay? Why don’t you come with me?”

He quivered in the bed, but took the hand I outstretched to him, entering the hallway and looking up at the nearest camera, calling to Cain, “Let the Sin of Lust know I have found Deidre’s killer.” Vikra trembled even harder, crying, holding his arms up for me to carry him. I bent down, scooping him into my arms, holding him close, and he buried his face in my neck, wailing. It only took me thirty minutes to replace him- The boy was hardly a skilled Assassin.

Zeella came down the hallway, curling his lip when he saw the child I carried and the way I rubbed his back comfortingly. Placing Vikra down in his room, the door locking, I turned to my father, saying, “He assures that it was an accident. I am inclined to believe him.”

“You are certain it was him?” I nodded, explaining, “There’s only two others who can use powers, and Brellmuth was busy preventing his head from being sliced off when Deidre fell. Vikra all but admitted to it when I asked, too.”

“You were fast. That is the kind of results I expect from my daughter. Deidre’s parents want revenge. The boy will be killed.”

“Can we lessen the sentence? Vikra seems powerful, and could hold future potential…” My protests trailed off at the eyebrow he cynically raised, “Vikra has failed all of his Dome tests, and cannot keep control of himself. Deidre is the third to have been killed accidentally by him.”

“He’s only six, Zeella.”

“And has killed half as many as his age. He shall be punished as according to the Manor’s laws. Deidre’s parents have demanded revenge. An eye for an eye.”

“Let me speak with them!” I begged, stepping in front of Vikra’s door before Zeella could take the little boy away, splaying my arms, “They could be swayed into choosing a lesser sentence.” My father took another step toward me, his power crackling around the both of us. My own rose in response. I couldn’t let him do this! I couldn’t! The poor boy had sobbed, sobbed. He’d known he would be caught! This hadn’t been a merciless killing, but an accident!

“Step away from the door, Desterium.”

“Zeella-”

“I will not ask you again. If you do not move, I will have you removed by force. He is a loose cannon.”

The door slid open behind me, Vikra standing there with his elephant toy clutched to his chest. I remained where I was, and Zeella’s power slammed me to the side. The world went black as my head struck the metal wall.

When I came to, Vikra was being dragged down the hall by Zeella, the little boy twisting and screaming, and the elephant toy dropped from his fingers as he fought to escape.

“ZEELLA!” I screamed, scrambling to my feet and racing after them. His power rose in a wall, blocking the hallway, and my own pierced through it, crystal-like pieces dropping around me. I kept running, another wave slamming me aside, right in front of that elephant toy.

I grabbed it, chasing Zeella through the halls. By the time I reached the torture cells, I was exhausted, having burnt through a significant amount of my power to fight Zeella’s.

The door slid shut in front of me. I banged on it, but it remained in place. Even Cain could not open it.

Vikra kept crying as he was forced to kneel, Deidre’s parents entering from another door, a sword in their hand.

Choose a Severing! He was only six!

Let him die for his mistakes. There is nothing you can do.

The voice soothed some of the guilt inside me, alongside my own reassurances. The Manor wouldn’t be this horrible. Deidre’s parents would see him there, kneeling and crying, and relent on the death sentence. I clutched the elephant toy closer to me, Vikra’s scent all over it.

The window was one-way, allowing me a front-row seat without Vikra being able to see me standing there. I lowered the power I had been steadily building to try and blow the door down.

Zeella and the two parents spoke, and they looked to Vikra, who was clasping his hands together, begging them, trying to assure them of his innocence, promising again that it was an accident. Deidre’s father strode up to him.

They wouldn’t do it. They wouldn’t do it. They wouldn’t- I shrieked as the blade sliced through the boy’s neck, and he slumped forward, blood pooling.

One day you will be just as bloodthirsty.

You made Zeella proud today.

I wasn’t sure it was worth it.

I had done this to Vikra; convinced him to let me take him to Zeella and the others.

Bile rose in my throat, but I fought it back. If I vomited here, I would be punished.

I fell heavily into a seat, staring down at the elephant toy in my hands. Vikra was dead because I sold him out. This was the Manor I was a Princess of. The power on the camera footage clearly came from Vikra- anyone could have spotted it, so why have me out him- Zeella had been testing my loyalties.

And I’d failed that test. Where I should have immediately stepped aside and allowed the punishment, encouraged it, even, I had begged for mercy.

If you were not so weak, this would not have bothered you. Be better than this.

I had to replace a way to hide my mistake, but how? Zeella himself had seen the way I’d begged… An idea entered my mind, making me tap my hip.

Before re-entering the Dome, I’d promised Zeella I would be better. I needed to keep that promise if I ever wanted him to love me again. This was the cost of rebuilding my family.

My power tore the toy into pieces, throwing it into the bin beside me while I tried to ignore the way my heart felt broken open at the betrayal of another Demonic-being, especially one so young. Swallowing my horror, I planted a cool, cruel smile on my face as the door opened, Zeella stepping out.

“Did you like my performance?” I giggled darkly, Zeella pausing in surprise. He noted the torn-up toy, and composing himself, purred, “You faked it? The begging and crying?”

“Sure did,” I said with a wink, “You named me the Demi-Sin of Deceit. Was it good?” Hell, I was getting good at slipping those masks on and off. Another few months in the Dome, and it would be flawless. Even Zeella, who was now searching my face for cracks in my lie, could not replace any. I had to hide who I was if I wanted to survive.

No, not hide it. Destroy it. Break down every aspect of myself and rebuild until those pieces fit the puzzle the Manor wanted me to be. I could do that. For Zeella, for my family, I could do that.

“Incredibly convincing. I was considering having you Severed before you said that.”

It was the closest thing I would ever get to a compliment from Zeella. I savoured it, smiling broadly at him, and he said, “Keep up the excellent work, Assassin.”

Bowing my head to him, I promised, “I certainly will.”

He exited the room, Deidre’s parents now long gone, leaving Vikra’s body in the room. I didn’t allow my eyes to linger, forcing myself to turn away and stride back to the training room…