Heat in the Dark

Chapter 2

Erix’s heart still pounded from the sudden pain. The blonde-haired boy stood only a step away, smiling like he had expected the whole thing.

“You okay?” the boy asked. “You look like you saw a ghost.”

Erix forced himself to breathe. “Who are you?”

“Kael. Your roommate.” He stepped back so Erix could enter. “Shota told me you might show up late. I was starting to think you got lost.”

The room was simple. Two beds, two desks, one small window that looked out over the training fields. Kael’s side already looked lived-in—books stacked neat, a black bag under the bed, and a clean uniform hanging on the wall. The other side was empty.

Erix set his small bag down on the free bed. His chest still ached, but the sharp pain had faded to a dull throb. He rubbed the spot without thinking.

Kael noticed. “You hurt?”

“I’m fine,” Erix said. He sat on the edge of the mattress. The strange hunger from earlier had not left either. Even after the steaks, his stomach still felt empty in a way that food could not fix.

Kael dropped onto his own bed and leaned against the wall. “First day is always rough for low ranks. People stare. They talk. Some of them try to push you around just because they can.”

Erix looked up. “You don’t care about ranks?”

Kael shrugged. “Ranks change. People don’t always. I’ve seen strong kids break and weak ones keep going. The number on the screen doesn’t tell the whole story.”

Before Erix could answer, the door opened again. Shota walked in carrying another paper bag. The smell of warm steak filled the room at once.

“Still hungry?” Shota asked, tossing the bag onto Erix’s bed. “Figured you might be.”

Erix stared at it. “How did you know?”

“Lucky guess.” Shota sat on the floor between the beds and pulled off his shoes. “Kael being nice?”

“So far,” Erix said.

Kael grinned. “I haven’t started the real hazing yet.”

Shota shot him a look. “Don’t even try.”

Erix opened the bag. The meat was still hot. He tried to eat slowly this time, but the hunger pushed him. He finished every piece. When he looked up, both boys were watching him.

“What?” he asked.

Kael raised an eyebrow. “You ate like someone who hasn’t had food in days.”

“I had food,” Erix said. “It just… didn’t stay with me.”

Shota and Kael exchanged a quick glance, but neither said anything more about it.

Night settled outside the window. The academy lights clicked on one by one. Shota stretched and stood.

“Orientation drills start early tomorrow,” he said. “They like to test the new students hard on day two. Get some sleep.”

Kael turned off the main light. “Night. Try not to scream next time you open a door.”

Erix lay down and stared at the ceiling. The dull ache in his chest came and went. Something felt different inside him, like a door had cracked open and he did not know what waited on the other side.

He closed his eyes and forced himself to rest.

---

Morning came too fast.

A loud bell rang through the dorm halls. Erix sat up, heart racing. Kael was already dressed. Shota stood by the door tying his shoes.

“Move,” Shota said. “They deduct points if you’re late.”

Erix pulled on his uniform and followed them out. The hallway filled with students heading the same way. Most of them walked in groups. A few still pointed when they saw Erix’s rank badge.

The training field was huge. Hundreds of first-year students stood in neat rows. Instructors in dark coats walked between them with clipboards.

One instructor stopped in front of Erix’s group. He was tall and thin, with cold eyes.

“Name and rank,” he said.

“Erix Vale. Grade F. Level 1.”

A few students nearby snickered. The instructor wrote something down without looking impressed.

“Today is a simple test,” he announced to the whole field. “You will run the obstacle course. Time and completion decide your first weekly points. Fail, and you start the week with nothing.”

The course stretched across the field—climbing walls, rope swings, balance beams, and a final sprint through soft sand. High-rank students looked confident. Low-rank ones looked nervous.

Erix’s group went third.

When his turn came, he ran hard. His legs burned halfway through the climbing wall. The rope swing almost threw him into the mud. He landed wrong on the balance beam and nearly fell. Students watching laughed out loud.

He kept going.

At the final sand stretch his chest flared with that same sharp pain again. For a second the world tilted. Then something inside him pushed back. His legs moved faster than they should have. He crossed the finish line gasping, but he finished.

The instructor checked the timer and raised an eyebrow. “Not last. Surprising.”

Erix bent over, hands on his knees. Sweat dripped from his chin. The pain faded again, leaving only the strange empty hunger.

Shota finished the course a minute later and walked over. “You good?”

“Yeah.”

Kael joined them, barely out of breath. “You pushed harder at the end. What happened?”

Erix shook his head. “I don’t know.”

The instructor called out scores. High ranks received big point rewards. Most low ranks got almost nothing. Erix received twenty points—more than the other F-ranks, but still almost nothing compared to the rest.

A tall boy from earlier—the one who had bumped him after the awakening—walked past with two friends. His name was Ren. B-rank. His family owned a small training company in the city, and he liked making sure weaker students stayed weak.

Ren stopped in front of Erix and spoke loud enough for nearby students to hear.

“Lucky trash. Enjoy those twenty points. They won’t last long.”

He reached out and knocked the water bottle from Erix’s hand. Water spilled across the dirt. One of Ren’s friends laughed and kicked the bottle farther away.

Erix bent to pick it up. Before he could stand, Ren stepped on the bottle and crushed it under his boot.

“Next time finish last like you’re supposed to,” Ren said. “People like you make the rest of us look bad.”

Shota took a step forward, but Erix raised a hand slightly. He picked up the broken bottle without a word and walked away. His face stayed calm, but his hands shook once he was out of sight.

Under a tree at the edge of the field, a girl with short black hair and a C-rank badge sat alone, reading a thin notebook. She looked up when Erix passed and noticed the crushed bottle in his hand.

“Ren again?” she asked quietly.

Erix stopped. “You know him?”

“Everyone knows him. He picks on anyone who finishes higher than he expects them to.” She closed her notebook. “I’m Lira. You’re the F-rank who didn’t come last, right?”

“Erix.”

Lira studied him for a second. “You look like you want to hit something. Don’t. Not yet. He has friends in the student council. One report and low ranks lose points fast.”

Erix sat down a few steps away. “Then what am I supposed to do?”

“Survive the first week. Get stronger where they can’t see. And don’t give them an easy reason to take what little you have.” She stood and brushed dirt from her pants. “If you need quiet practice space after classes, the old storage building behind the east wall is empty most evenings. No cameras.”

She walked off toward the lunch line without waiting for a thank-you.

Shota and Kael found Erix a minute later.

“You should have let me say something,” Shota said.

“It would have made it worse,” Erix answered. He looked at the twenty points on his card. After the broken bottle and the public scene, he already felt them slipping away. Ren would not stop with one crushed bottle.

The ache in Erix’s chest pulsed once, soft but clear.

He did not know what was waking up inside him.  

But he knew one thing for sure.

He was done letting people walk over him without a plan.