Socius

"Iris! Iris! Iris stop! You are choking her" I felt someone pull my killer away from me.

"What? No, I was hugging her, welcoming her here." The girl said who was choking me.

I was coughing like crazy. What the hell kind of welcoming was this? I still couldn't get my breathing under control. I felt my brother patting my back.

"Are you okay?" He asked looking at me with concern.

"Look at her, She is gasping for air. We talked about this Iris, you cant do this to the Plebs"

"The what?" My brother asked confused.

"Plebians, Plebs for short" The girl with long curly blonde hair and bright blue eyes called Iris answered too cheerfully. What the hell is she on? Why is she so cheerful after having almost killed me?

"Plebians is what we call humans, and I am, Chase, " The other boy with brown hair and brown eyes said holding his hand out to my brother.

My brother looked at the guy's hand then at his face then looked at the girl again. He pushed me behind him as if shielding me. I pushed him out of the way to kill the girl. Seb held me back holding me tight so that I don't jump on the girl. No matter how much my dad forced my brother and me to learn martial arts I still doubt I could take on the Lupines in front of me. Since I physically can't take them I could always put them in place verbally. Luckily now I can breathe properly and talk.

"Listen here Mase, you better take your girlfriend out of here before I kill her" I sounded like a mice.

"It's Chase" "I'm not his girlfriend," Both said at the same time blushing.

"I don't care! She was trying to kill me" I snapped.

Yep! An angry mice.

"I don't think she wanted to kill you, Vi, She was hugging you, trying to be friendly I guess," Seb said from beside me.

"You are taking their side?" I asked looking at him shocked.

"There are no sides Vi. Besides if she wanted to kill you you would be dead already"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," I said pushing him away from me.

"Don't mention it" He said smiling.

Asshole!

"Why were you 'hugging' me?" I asked the girl who suddenly looked sad. At least I am starting to sound like me again

"I was welcoming you. It's just that I sometimes forget how delicate plebs are." She said slowly.

What the hell is the talking?

"What she means is, as we are stronger and she hasn't been with any Pleb since you know. So she didn't realize that by hugging you so hard she was choking you, She isn't that used to her strengths yet." He said smiling at her lovingly. Great so he has a crush on her. How cute! Not!

"Is she responsible to welcome all humans this way. Is this some sort of a trick you guys are doing to choke us, innocent humans?"

Suddenly the girl perked up. She reminds me of a puppy. She is jumping and all with the excitement

"No silly. We came here for you guys. We are your Socius"

"Our what?" Seb asked before I could.

"We will study together and study each other. Kinda like partners"

"Will we be staying together too?" I asked scared.

I don't want to live with anyone. I am used to living in my own room. I hate sharing.

"Yep" Iris said determined.

"You guys are our roommates," My brother said finally understanding.

"Not exactly. But if you want we could be. Anyway since Plebs are new to our kind and most of us are still learning to get used to our strengths so one of us always has to be with a pleb. It will get easier for you to adjust to us and for us to control if anyone got out of control. So we will be your socius for the first year"

"Yes we are roomates. We are Socius, so we should be roommates. It makes sense for the Socius to live together." The girl said with such intensity as if it was a very serious thing.

"What is this Plebs and Socius nonsense? Would it kill you to talk normally? Humans and partners. It's simple really."

"It's actually how we are taught. It's what things have been called."

"Have been? Its just 5 damn years and you guys have invented a different language already?"

"Its actually been for cen-"

Iris started but was stopped by Case or whatever his name is. I looked at my brother. Something was fishy. We both decided to let it got for now. I have been here only for an hour and already some had tried to murder me. This is a new record even for me.

"C'mon I will take you to our room," Iris said jumping again.

"Room? Are you sure you don't have a secret code for that too?"

"No silly" She started pulling me with her.

"Easy girl! What are you on?" I said smiling at her. She was really kind of sweet and fun in a puppy kind of way. May be she wouldn't be a bad roomie. Who am I kidding, I will be the worst roomie ever.

"That is just her normal mode," Mase said chuckling and following us.

"If you say so Mase"

"It's Chase. I feel like you are doing this on purpose"

"Whatever gave it away," I said mock-serious now.

"You are mean," He said flat

"Well, that's Vi's normal mode." My brother said from beside him.

I just stuck my tongue out to him.

"Very matured Vi"

"I know. Thank you"

"It wasn't a compliment"

"I know. Thank you" I said.

I think Case found me amusing because he suddenly started laughing loudly.

All of us were smiling. I started looking around. If I was supposed to live here I may as well know the place. We were walking through a corridor. It was arched and wide with big windows through which we could see the forest outside. I really was beautiful. I never imagined that big trees near a river could look so beautiful. How something so simple could look so serene. We lived in the city all my life and I never thought I would like this.

Then we entered another corridor which was narrow and windowless. I suddenly felt weird. I have always been claustrophobic. I suddenly started to hyperventilate. I felt someone hold my shoulders.

"Its alright breath and look at me" I looked at her beautiful blue eyes. And just like that, we were inside a large room. Where there were many Lupines and Humans. I think this is the cafeteria. Before I could take in the room Iris pulled me towards another corridor.

"Wait I am hungry," I said pulling my hand. But she was having none of it.

"No, you need to see your room and claim your bed before anyone else can. I want you to be my roommate."

"I thought I already am your roommate," I asked confused.

"No, actually we have dorms, and inside dorms there are rooms. Technically we are Socius that means I am your partner but until we claim a room together we will not be roommates"

"You are talking nonsense again Iris" I turned to see that Seb and Mase weren't with us anymore.

"You will understand ones we get there just walk faster"

We reached a big hall that had 5 doors. 3 on one side and 2 on either side.

"Go fast and check if one these 3 rooms is empty. Go fast" She ran towards one of the rooms. I just stood there confused with all this. Suddenly I heard some noises coming from the corridor we had just come. I went to take a look to see no one there. But the sound grew louder. It sounded like someone was choking.

Oh my god! was another Lupine choking another human again. I strated looking around but it was empty. But the sound grew louder. Then as my eye adjusted to the darkness I saw a door behind one of the pillars. As I got closer the sound grew louder. The sound came from whatever was behind the door. Somehow the choking sounded familiar.

As if on impulse I open the door to take up the scene before me. I gasped horrified at what I was seeing. The sound was not of someone choking but of someone moaning.