"Mummy bye" Emma shouted as she and her brother waved at their mother as they walked out of the house.
"Bye, my beautiful children, and Jack don't get too excited about it, okay?" his mother smiled as she waved.
"Mum, stop, how can I be excited about something so normal? You are underestimating me", Jack grumbled as they walked away, and his mother giggled.
"Hey, everyone, today is the day my brother gets numbered for the awakening ceremony", Emma shouted as they walked.
"Hey, you shut up and mind your own business." Jack shoved her forward, making her stumble a few steps. She laughed as she continued chanting the same thing about her brother while she skipped ahead.
Today was the day they were being numbered for the awakening ceremony, although it would be a lie to say he wasn't at least happy about it. However, the excitement he felt was very minimal, something he could easily contain.
Jack looks at the figure of his sister ahead of him as she continues chanting the same thing about him, and a wicked smile curls on his lips.
After walking for some time, an alley surfaced on the side, and Jack silently slipped into it without alerting his sister.
Emma walked forward for quite some time, then she noticed the weird silence, she wasn't even hearing her brother's footsteps.
"Brother Jack", Emma called out as she turned around but her brother was nowhere to be found.
"That wicked boy, if he went to feed willow without me, I would be so mad", muttered as she hurriedly walked back as she could already guess where Jack went.
"Brother Jack" Emma called out angrily as she saw Jack crouching on a knee while feeding a black cat.
She angrily stumbled towards Jack, who pretended not to hear, and she smacked him on the head.
"Ouch, what's that for?", Jack said with an unstable face as laughter was threatening to burst out of his mouth.
"You..., why would you feed Willow without me?" Emma shouted at the top of her lungs, the black cat just raised it, and it quickly returned to eating the dried fish before it.
Jack once had a black cat which he named Willow. he loves the cat so much that he wouldn't mind playing with it all day.
One day, the cat died, and Jack was really heartbroken, so he cried for days, and he was moody for weeks. His mother even offered to buy him a new cat, but he refused.
He made up his mind that he wasn't getting attached to an animal again, but when he and his sister found this cat, he couldn't help but see a resemblance between it and his dead cat.
His sister didn't even waste time, and she named it Willow, the name of his former cat.
He likes this cat, but he reminded himself that he didn't want to get too attached, so he only brought food to it every morning and he didn't bother taking it home.
"I hate you", Emma stomped her feet, and she walked away.
"Alright, I'm sorry", Jack patted the cat on its head and he immediately followed after his sister.
"Don't talk to me".
"Come on, baby sister".
"Leave me alone".
"I said I'm sorry".
...
Jack and several others were standing before the school's candidate list board, and they were all looking for their name on the list, which was kind of disorganized as the names were not put in alphabetical order.
"Wow, my number is 320".
"Mine is 375, isn't that too far?"
People discussing their number was all that could be hard here.
Jack walked away from the board as he had already found what he was looking for.
Name: Jack Smith: Num 350.
All the names on the board were within the range of 300 to 400.
I already got a number which is just the beginning of everything.
Jack's thought was interrupted by someone's head popping from his side.
"Hey, what's up?" Tom said with excitement, clear in his tone.
"What do you want, Tom?"Jack asked plainly.
Tom jabbed Jack's shoulder, "Come on, stop being cold and try smiling sometimes".
Jack smiles as he looks at Tom's happy face, "I see you are very happy today, just take it easy".
"Well, I'm happy because I just got numbered for the awakening", Tom started the statement, and Jack completed it with him.
"What, how do you know?", Tom asked in surprise.
"That's a very stupid question, but I'm going to answer, what makes everyone happy today if not being numbered for the awakening?"
"Hmmm makes sense", Tom mumbled as they walked across the corridor heading for their classroom.
"What's your number?", Tom asked Jack right before their classroom's doors.
Jack replied as they walked into the classroom, "I'm number 350", "so what's your number?".
"Me, my number is...", immediately Jack asked the question, his gaze caught sight of a lizard-like creature as it materialized on the wall.
No it didn't materialize. This is the Camo lizard, a creature that can blend with its surroundings. This creature can easily be detected by the awakened in its camo form, but for a normal human, the same can't be said.
Jack was just lucky to be able to see it as it left its camo form.
No one had sighted the lizard as they were all distracted by whatever they were doing.
The lizard had already picked its target, a girl seated close to the wall.
Jack didn't have time to process anything; he instinctively charged at the girl, and so did the lizard.
The girl wasn't even aware that her life was in danger as she was busy with her phone.
Jack was faster than the lizard by a breath of air. He grabbed the girl, and he spun to the side. Sharp pain coursed through his arm probably from suddenly stressing his body, and they both crashed on the ground.
The people in the class were immediately attracted by the sight of Jack on the floor with his arms wrapped around a girl in the middle of the classroom.
They didn't notice a creature crash on the ground not far away with a thud.
Tom noticed the creature, but he was too petrified from the fear of seeing the creature to do anything, but a girl in the class soon noticed the creature and...
"Ahh!", she screamed with her hand pointing at the huge lizard. The whole class immediately broke into chaos the moment they sighted the lizard.
The lizard, not bothered by the chaos around it, had its gaze fixed on only one person, the person who stole its prey.
Jack was already on his feet, his gaze locked on the lizard.
Damn, what type of trouble have I gotten myself into, can I really take on this lizard by myself?.
Jack frowned as he immediately scanned the room for anything that could possibly help him delay the creature until help arrived
This camo lizard was quite smaller than the pictures of other camo lizards he had seen, which made him a little relieved, it's probably still young
The classroom was currently empty, leaving Jack, the creature, the petrified Tom, and the girl still there.
"Hey, are you okay?" Jack tilted his head to the side as he said, but he paused mid-sentence as he wasn't expecting the girl he just saved to be...
"Watch out!", the girl screamed with her eyes closed.
Jack instinctively grabbed a table from the side and he placed it before him. He staggered several steps back as the lizard slammed into the table.
Adrenaline courses through his veins as he musters all his strength, and he pushes the lizard away and the creature hits the ground.
Before the lizard could adapt to the ground, Jack charged forward, slamming the table on the lizard, which broke into two pieces.
The lizard's tail slammed into his legs, sweeping him off his feet. Jack immediately rolled away as the lizard attempted to bite several times. Jack continued rolling and rolling until his back was against the wall.
"Shit!"Jack shouted as the lizard was already charging at him again with its mouth wide open.
He tried to move away, but his body wasn't responding; it felt as if his body was becoming sluggish and numb. He couldn't dodge this one.
"Am I going to die?".
Jack watches as the lizard charges at him with its mouth wide open, but suddenly, a chair crashes on the head of the lizard.
The lizard turned around, its gaze landed on Tom who was slowly backing away, it roared, and it jumped towards Tom with its mouth wide open.
"No", Tom was again petrified as he saw the creature charging at him, he slowly closed his eyes.
A table crashed into the lizard from the side, and the lizard was forcefully pushed by the table. The lizard tried to crawl on the table, but Jack kept pushing until he slammed the lizard against the wall with the table and pressed it there.
"Tom, help me with that steel", Jack groaned as he used all his strength to keep pressing the lizard against the wall, his breath uneven.
The lizard was not idle as it was also trying to break free.
Tom opened his eyes, and he saw Jack pointing towards a steel that had formerly been part of a table's leg.
He ran across the classroom as fast as his legs could carry him. He could see that Jack was getting tired, and the lizard might break free at any time.
"I don't think I can hold on".
Jack's hand slipped away from the table, and he crashed into a knee with beads of sweat streaming down his face.
The lizard lunges towards Jack with its mouth wide open, and a steel rod suddenly impales its mouth, coming out of the back of its head as it slams against the Wall.
The lizard fought desperately in pain. Tom had a frightened expression on his face but he held it in place.
Jack rammed a table into the lizard's stomach and it finally stopped moving.
Jack and Tom both crashed to the ground in relief, their ragged breathing filled the classroom. After some time, they slowly caught their breath.
Jack's gaze moved to the far corner of the classroom, where the girl he had just saved was curled up in a ball, he clicked his tongue as the girl he had saved was none other than the girl he hated, Melissa.
"I never thought the lizard would turn away from you when it almost had you", Tom's voice cracked, the fear was still in his body.
Jack groaned as he stood up from the ground, "The lizard was still an animal".
Jack's vision blurred as he took a step forward. He grabbed his left arm, and he brought his hand to his face.
Blood..., he muttered, the lizard had bitten him when he pulled the girl away and its bite was poisonous.
"Jack, what's..." That was the last thing he heard before everything went blank.
Thud.