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The bathroom door opens, and Hope comes out with her hair perfectly straight and a frown on her face. “I hope they have coffee to make up for waking us up this early. Really, really good coffee.”
Arty grins at her. “See, I can’t even drink one cup of coffee without climbing the walls like Spiderman on crack.”
I listen to Arty explain how coffee sends her batshit crazy as I pick up my cloak and run my fingers through my knotted hair while I head to the bathroom. Coffee sounds wonderful and I hope they have some. Arty is still ranting about coffee as I walk past her. “I’ve never been good with caffeine of any sorts. My mum says it’s inherited, because she’s never been good with caffeine, and once—”
I shut the bathroom door behind me and quickly freshen up, taking off my black shorts and vest and dressing in the leggings and long-sleeved black top left out. The boots are snug, but I admire the soft leather for a moment. I pull the cloak over my shoulders and tie the knots around my neck. I run my fingers over the fire crest, which is a simple flame inside a circle of flames. Though, as I look closer, I see the outline of a small dragon in the middle of the flame.
When I come out of the bedroom, Livia links her arm through mine as Arty slips into the bathroom. “We should be friends. Artemis talks too much.”
I unlink my arm from hers. “I don’t talk or make friends until I’ve had breakfast and coffee. Two cups on bad days like this. Hell, I might even need a whole jug.”
She laughs, inclining her head. “My kind of person. Still, we should be friends.”
Livia walks out of the room, her cloak sweeping around her, and it looks much better on her than me. Arty comes out of the bathroom, her hair in two braids, and she has the same clothes that I have on. It’s got to be a uniform, as if they need to be sure these are the humans they stole and forced to compete to be their dragon queens. “Ah, so you’re not a morning person? I am one, I’ve been told. Go ahead, I just need to make my bed and I’ll catch up. My mum always said to start the day by making your bed to clear your head. I always remember it because it rhymes!”
I head to the door, shaking my head but smiling. Arty is quirky, a little annoying, but she has a good heart. I walk out into the corridor where several more girls are coming out of separate doors. I notice a girl with long blonde hair that is as straight as mine, but hers falls right down to her ass and is still silky smooth despite a long night. Mine is not that smooth this morning, but I couldn’t care less. I don’t have my straightener here, so it’s all downhill from here. The girl joins me as I walk down the corridor. She doesn’t have a cloak on, and she must be freezing. She’s just wearing the thin black top and has black leggings with boots like we all have. I realise that everybody is wearing the exact same clothing.
“Hi. What’s your name?” she says in a familiar accent.
“Ellelin,” I reply. “Are you from Cumbria? I recognise the accent.”
“Yes!” she says, smiling widely. She reminds me of my grandmother; they almost look similar.
“Whereabouts are you from then?” I ask her.
“Penrith,” she says. “I grew up there and was about to leave for Glasgow University. Guess I won’t be going there now.” She clears her throat. “What about you?”
We move aside as four girls come out of one of the rooms, arguing with each other. “Silloth. I’ve been there since I was six.”
She fondly smiles. “I used to love going there. The arcades are the best.”
I smile tightly at her as I used to love going there with Finley, and now all I can see when I think of Finley is him cheating on me and then being burnt to death. “Oh, what’s your name, anyway?”
“Katherine. It’s good to have someone from home here.”
We walk through the archway back into the domed room. Instead of there being sofas laid about, now there are four rows of tables littered with food and drink machines. I feel like I’m on autopilot as I use the coffee machine to make myself a cup of lukewarm coffee that tastes like shit. The one perk of working at the caravan site cleaning was the free Costa coffees I could sweet-talk out of the cafe.
I sit down, already drinking it, and Katherine sits next to me, sipping on her cup of tea. I help myself to some bacon, sausage, eggs, and beans to make a full English. It’s been a long time since I had food this good. I’m not starved, but we never had money for expensive food like this. I only wish there was tomato sauce. The moment I think it, a bottle smacks right in front of me. I raise my eyebrows, looking around before carefully picking it up like it’s not real. But I smack the bottle of tomato sauce on the end, and it comes out on my plate, so I dig in. Katherine chooses a giant load of fruit to put on her plate right before Arty comes and sits on my other side, grinning.
“The food looks amazing! Doesn’t it look amazing, Ellie?”
“It’s Ellelin,” I respond, but she ignores me or doesn’t hear me.
“I could make myself sick eating everything here. It’s so nice,” Arty continues and looks over my plate. “And who’s this?”
“Arty, meet Katherine, and vice versa,” I introduce them and look at Katherine, who is nibbling on an apple slice, her eyes a million miles away. Most of the girls in here look like that—or they’re crying. I want to cry again, so I get that. “So, did you know about all this crazy stuff before it happened?”
Katherine snaps out of it. “Yeah, in a way. I always assumed my parents were telling me some sort of fairy tale and it wasn’t real. I honestly thought it was a joke they made up to mess with me.”
“I would have thought it was a joke if I was told it too,” I agree. Maybe if my grandmother knew, that’s why she never told me. I guess it could be from my father’s side, and after he died, there would have been no one left to warn me of this.
We finish eating in silence, other than the sobs echoing around the room. I make myself a large glass of water before two more archways appear in the room on either side of the tables, replacing the brick walls. I can see dark red wallpapered hallways lit up with hanging lanterns that are shaped stars made of metal.
“I think that’s our cue to leave,” I grumble, pushing away from the table and standing up. Arty stays close to my side, and Katherine follows behind us as we go down the right corridor. There are several framed paintings on the walls of the long corridor, all of them of various coloured dragons flying around water or mountains. I pause when one of the paintings catches my eye. It’s a dark green dragon, curled around a large willow tree, its mouth full of leaves as it gazes at the ground.
Arty stops with me, looking at the painting too. “Earth dragon, I bet. Beautiful.”
“Or terrifying,” I say. Arty is right. There is an elegance to the smooth, thin, but massive dragon that makes me want to stare for longer. I shake my head and carry on walking with Arty, noticing how she smells like roses and the strawberry milkshake she drank for breakfast. The hallway leads to an entrance hall with several wooden staircases going in different directions, but the one in the middle is the biggest, and the steps go high up.
