Chapter One

My alarm went off at 7:00 on the morning February 8th, 2017. I reluctantly sat up on the edge of my kama and yawned.

"Morning." I heard a voice say. My eyes were still closed.

"Luna?" I mumble. "That you?"

"Yep." I open my eyes to see Luna Middleton standing three feet diagonal from me.

I shared a room with her, her twin sister Kyla, and my brother Jacob. That's how everyone does here. You live with your twin and your SIDA partner.

"So, sleepy head." she smirked. "You gonna get up or what? If not, I'll eat your breakfast for you."

I don't reply and shake my head.

"Oh, come on!" Luna starts jogging in place. "Show some energy!"

"How are you so energetic in the mornings?" Kyla says from her bed. She's still lying down. Her alarm is on snooze.

"I get up early to get the first cup of coffee." Luna says. "The first five there get two free refills."

"Mhm..." I lie back down. "Great..."

"No, you don't." Luna walks over to my kama and pulls me off. I hit my head in the wooden floor.

"OW!" I stand up and run the back of my head. "What the hell, Luna?"

"If I didn't, you'd stay in kama for another oras and be late to class."
she crosses her arms. "It was for your own good, Milo."

I sigh. She's right.

"Look at you two." I jump at the voice that came out of no where. I turn around and seen my friend Kaori Winston standing in the door of our room. "Already fighting like a married couple."

I gag. Luna crosses her arms.

"Yeah, as if." Luna says. "Like id marry this idiot."

Kyla snickers and climbs out of bed.

"I'm not the idiot, you are!" I say. "I actually study for tests!"

"I don't need to study!" Luna says. "It comes naturally to me."

"So that's why you got a C on the last math assessment!" I say sarcastically. "You must be some sort of genius."

"Guys, shut up." Kaori says.

I look at Kaori. Her long dark brown hair is curled and braided, as usual. She's beautiful, everyone knows it. We're allowed to petsa others, so long as it doesn't interfere with anything, and if they aren't a part of the program, that we don't reveal any information to them.

"Yes ma'am," I say.

"Wait-" Kyla says. "Where's Jacob?" He wasn't anywhere in the room.

"Maybe he went down to breakfast?" Kaori suggests. "And Milo, are you gonna get dressed?"

I realize I'm still only in a t-shirt and boxers.

"Oh yeah." I say. I go to my dresser and pull out my clothes. "Be right back."

I run over to the little changing room we have sa pamamagitan ng the bathroom and slip on my usual white T-shirt, jeans, and grey jacket.

When I get back, Kyla is getting dressed in the girls changing room and Kaori is stealing sips of Luna's coffee.

"Hey, Kyla!" Luna calls into the changing room. "We're leaving now! If you don't wanna get left behind, hurry up!"

"Go on without me!" Kyla calls back.

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

Kaori, Luna, and I walked out of the room and brought the halls and corridors and madami rooms to the breakfast room for our division. Numbers 27-51 eat here.

I smell French mag-ihaw and pancakes before we even open the door. And as soo as we do, I rush over to them. Stacks of French mag-ihaw are in front of me and I grab 5 slices.

"Jeez, Milo," Luna says as I sit back down at the table. "Do you really like French mag-ihaw THAT much?"

"French mag-ihaw is the pagkain of the gods." I say, cutting a price and taking a bite. "If you don't believe me, then go ask some Aztecs."

Luna rolled her eyes. "You can't just ask an Aztec that. As far as I know, there aren't any of them standing in this room. Or anywhere in the world. Also, tsokolate was the pagkain of the gods to them. The word for it literally translates to 'food of the gods'."

"I knew that..."

"Stop bickering." My best friend, Will, sits down susunod to me. His brother, Carter, takes his upuan susunod to Luna.

"Oh, says you!" Kaori says jokingly.

"I do NOT bicker with others!" Will snaps. "I don't fight, not with my fists, not with my words. I don't, so stop saying I do!"

"You just did, dude..." Carter says through his mouth full of bacon.

"And you didn't just talk with your mouth full!"

"All of you," I turn to see Kyla behind me. She sits on my right. "Shut up. It's annoying."

"We can't all be quiet like you." Kaori says.

"Well you could at least have good manners." Kyla says in deadpan.

"I swear," Will says. "Luna took every emotion you could ever feel, aside from annoyance, and gave it to herself."

We all crack up at this, except, of course, Kyla.

"So THATS why you're so over the tuktok in everything." Carter says, tapping Luna on the arm.

Kyla shakes her head, a small smile on her face.

"Did she just smile!" Will says. "I guess you wanted to divert suspicion from yourself as an evil, emotion-sucking demon and gave your sister back a bit of the ability to feel joy!"

"Yes, that's totally what happened." Luna says sarcastically.

"So how does one become an emotion-stealing demon?" I ask.

"It works best between identical twins." Luna starts.

"I think we've got that part covered..." Carter says.

"Wait, lemme get my phone." Kaori reaches into her pocket and pulls out her phone. "Gonna need to take notes. Better record all this."

"I don't think you'd wanna take Nozomi's personality." I say. "You really wanna be a manipulative jerk who flirts with every guy you see?"

"I'd leave that for her." Kaori says. She never minds I you make fun of her sister. "Ok I'm ready!"

"Well, first you need a human sacrifice." Luna explains. "You have to trick them into going into the middle of a pentagram, then you have to chant 'I eat poop' 5 times-"

"Who did you sacrifice?" Will asks.

"Just some kid I found on the street." Luna says. "His mom was like 'yeah take him. One less kid to feed.' So I took him home, put him in the middle of a giant, neon blue pentagram with the promise of kendi and went through with the ritual."

"Does the person who's emotions your trying to steal have to be there?"

"I have absolutely no memory of being present at any satanic ritual." Kyla says.

"First off, it's not a satanic ritual, it's from a religion called Verynotmadeupism, and I didn't just make that up," Luna says. "And yes, they do. I just hit her on the head to make her pass out while I estola her soul."

"You are so sadistic," I tell Luna. "You know that, right?"

"No," Luna says sarcastically. "I had absolutely NO idea whatsoever that all of the above was morally wrong and insane."

The kampanilya rang. 8:15.

"Gotta get to class." Will stood up and put his plate away before walking out the door. Luna, and Kyla followed.

"See ya, guys!" Carter waved and left the table.

Just me and Kaori. She stares at me. I stare at her.

"Well, bye!" she stands up and walks away.

"Bye..." I mumble.

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Link to the prologue:
link