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

We left class later, just the four of us: still tired, still not talking. I waited for Elen to branch off at her street, and then for Cas, before deciding to confront Kalle.


I took a breath and exhaled the words. "Kalle. Could you cover for me?"


She turned, giving me a strange look. "What do you mean?" she asked. "Cover for you? Like you're going to break the rules?"


I put my finger to my lips. "Not so loud. Please."


"Miranda," she said, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk and glaring at me. "Since when do you like breaking rules in your free time? We're in Fourth Level, for the sake of the Triad. If you do something you shouldn't, you're dead."


"Since when do you like giving out free lectures?" I hissed back. "Nobody said I was breaking the goddamn rules. It's just that my parents - "


"What did you just say?" Kalle looked at me, confused.


Chapter 28