Author:
M.J. Swenson has been writing stories since elementary school and earned a B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of St. Thomas, Minnesota. Besides writing and reading, M.J. also enjoys playing music and video games.

I woke up feeling that something had changed.

I blinked twice, waiting for my eyes to adjust, and glanced at the clock beside my bed. It read 6:38, as it did every morning. I slid out of bed and moved to my dresser, where I opened the third drawer and pulled out a dark blue V-necked shirt with short sleeves and a dark blue pair of pants. I changed in front of the mirror and examined myself. I looked just as I had the last time I’d looked in the mirror: long, straight, dark brown hair; blue eyes; an absurdly straight and narrow nose; the slight scar at the edge of my eyebrow. The scar whose origin I still couldn’t remember.

Familiar Assassins

"Someone's a little serious today," Thane said, an attempt at teasing. "What's the deal?"


"The deal," I snapped, stabbing the ground with my sword again, "is that I kind of want to step on the System and grind it under my shoe until I can't even tell what it is anymore."


"Whoa." The smirk disappeared from his face. "That's something."


"It's everything," I said through my teeth, staring up at the Incipio sky, where no cloud cover remained. The entire sky was filled with brush strokes of yellow and orange and purple, cascading into a deep shade of indigo on one side. There, the stars had started to break through the veil of sky.


Tears threatened at my eyes, but I fought them away. "I understand what you mean now. About being able to choose who you love. About the System taking that away."


"Ah." He nodded, but uncertainty flashed in his eyes. "Did you . . . ?"


I shook my head. "Two of my friends. The System took them away."


Chapter 24