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

As Thane disappeared into the next room, Cedric trailing behind him, I found myself wanting to scream. Had he just been playing on my emotions, to see how I'd react? And who was he really - the academy student with a strange sense of humor and hatred of the rules, or the steel-eyed rebel leader who carried true compassion for no one?


I turned and pushed the door open, stepping out into the brisk darkness. The sun had already mostly disappeared and a spell of cloud cover had already begun to descend on us, leaving the area in an eerie gloom. I put my hands in my pockets, imagined what I would say to my parents and sister, and ran the entire way home.


Chapter 32