NOTHING SPECIAL

“Do you have a family?” 

“No,”

“What is your race, do you identify with any race?”

“None, I'm not of any race,” 

“then that is what they mean when they say you are special. You have no family, so when you die or are slain and left to rot on the streets like a rat, no one will mourn you. You don't have a home, which means you have nowhere to go if things go bad and you have to go. The adversaries won't know where to seek you. Because you don't have a race, your DNA and fingerprints can't be traced back to any Kingdom when they're found in a murder scene, making you the ideal assassin, a ghost who can't be tracked. The Watchers utilize you and then dump you out when they no longer need you, just like they did with me. So, kid, the only thing they noticed about you is that you are nothing, nothing!”   he eventually returned to the trail and walked away.

Nelanian had been trapped in his boots for quite some time, and the only thing that prompted him to move was a drop of rain that splattered across his face, jolting him awake. He observed the old man had placed the sack near Nelanian's feet before storming back into his home. When he began sprinting back inside his shanty,  Nelanian grabbed it before it became saturated in rain and hurried uphill to his shack with it.

The journey was lonely and miserable; rain poured down on his face, and he could hardly see the muddy road ahead. The elderly man's words eventually began to click as he maneuvered through the pools of water and muck, and Nelanian realized he was making a lot of sense. Regardless, he was not going to let that stop him from performing his primary function. He was the Necessary Evil, and he had to fulfill his duties.

SUNSET CITY

All three candidates were wearing spandex. Norval wore black spandex with blue accents on his shoulders, chest, and knees. The colorful padding had both an aesthetic appeal and a utilitarian purpose in that it offered cushioning to the areas it was placed over. Jalon wore a black spandex suit with red accents, while Luciana wore a black spandex suit with pink accents.

Luciana was stretching on the other side of the room. Norval followed suit, limbering up near the yoga room's door. Jalon, on the other hand, was texting a random girl on his phone while sitting on a bench that was supposed to be used for bench pressing weights. Two bags of chips and a slew of candy wrappers lay beside him. He'd opened a bag and was picking chips at random and tossing them into his mouth, then chewing it loudly enough for the entire room to hear. He occasionally laughed softly and it seemed to get under Luciana’s skin.

“Should I tell him or should you tell him?” ” Luciana inquired, her gaze drawn to Norval's direction.

“Tell him about what? ” Norval inquired, perplexed.

“Do you realize this isn't going to be as simple as the practice runs we did in school?” ” she said, her abdomen folded and her arms stretched out, attempting to wrap her hands around her ankles.

“Well, they say that the best teacher is experience.  I don't want to be the one he cries for when he understands that in the end,” Norval murmured, seeking to imitate Luciana's stretch. He managed to bend half of his body, but he quickly quit up after realizing how much tougher it was than Luciana had made it appear. His arms could barely make it past his shins. When Luciana saw him attempt it at the end, she smiled.

“Holy Crap! ” Jalon yelled from the opposite end of the room. He sprung from his seat, knocking the bag of chips on his laps on the ground.

“What is it? Did another old lady send you photos of herself half-naked, expressing her desire to spend the rest of her life with you? ” Luciana said, mockingly. Norval couldn't stop himself from laughing. Luciana, as serious as she was, had a subtle sense of humor that caught people off guard and was always appreciated when she decided to exhibit her lighter side. She was one of those persons who had a natural sense of humor and could make people laugh without even trying.

“You guys won't believe this! ” Jalon said once again as he hopped towards his friends, leaping over the dropped food.

“What do your inside sources tell you now? ” Norval inquired.

“Not my inside sources dude, the news. It's all over the place! ” Jalon said, he opened one of the tabs in his browser and a video was streaming live.

“Following the discovery of Mr. Starkridge's assassination the night before, the IAA has been shut down indefinitely. The well-known and adored school director was slain in his own office by an assassin who used a synthesized poison that the forensic team has yet to identify. The forensic team also obtained DNA from the smashed window shards and attempted to run it through their database, but nothing showed up, suggesting that the perpetrator was not a registered member of any of the kingdoms. What was even more surprising was that all of the races' blood tests came back negative. The blood work was compared to Ithean, Lorth, Yulcite, Seolaran, and even Trerth blood, but no results were found. Curiosity arose when they discovered traces of Blue Fire in the blood, leading them to suspect that the assailant was an elderly alchemist on a blue fire dosage. The hunt continues, with police contacting local pharmaceutical businesses and stores for records of all patients taking blue fire to help narrow down the search...” the voice on the other end of the phone remarked.

The candidates exchanged dubious glances. They were all thinking the same thing, but none of them wanted to confess it.

“Should I say what all of us are thinking right now,” Jalon remarked, breaking the silence?

“No, that is ridiculous. We all know he would never dare to do something like that! It might have been anyone,” Luciana responded, trying to keep her doubts from clouding her judgment. " In the entire kingdom, many people are taking blue fire prescription,” she continued.

“Yes, but they aren't all unregistered in the four kingdoms. Plus we haven't heard from him ever since he left the school. Jalon continued, "And he had motive, a very clear and strong intention..."

“OK, enough with the crap. We have more important things to worry about. The difficulties will begin tomorrow, and we must prepare for them. Once the trials are complete, we can worry about other things,” Luciana stated as she walked back to her station and resumed her stretches.

Norval poked his finger into Jalon's phone and said, "What about this other one down here?" He continued to browse down and select another story.

“The Ethel Resident, attacked. A man named Thomas attacked the Ethel mansion last night, where Cecily Ethel, the former Champion of Ithea candidate, currently dwells. The assailant had been disguised as a groundskeeper in the facility for about a month, according to witnesses. He attacked the same day that Judy Ben Mor, a well-known journalist from Inter-Kingdom News, paid Cecily a visit to conduct an in-depth interview. Thomas was eventually proven to be working for Mr. Starkridge, and the police discovered multiple text messages on his smartphone that reflected his conversations with Mr. Starkridge. The police have now confirmed that he was actually working for the late Mr. Starkridge, and according to a call log, the school director himself had instructed him to assassinate Judy Ben Mor...” the voice added. Norval hit the stop button on his phone, and his finger lingered over it for a few moments before Jalon slid it back into his pocket.

Norval thought to himself, “Two incidents in one night, all tied to Mr. Starkridge.”

“Well, it's clear that Mr. Starkridge got himself into some trouble. And it appears as if it has finally caught up with him. So that couldn't have been Nelanian,” Luciana replied as she took a break from stretching.

“Well, we can't rule out the possibility,” Jalon remarked as he sat back on the bench, picking up the bag of chips he had kicked earlier.

“Luciana is correct; the trials start tomorrow, and we should do everything we can to prevent distractions,” Norval remarked.

The candidates resumed their previous activities, but the mood in the room had entirely shifted.