The Perfect Specimen

After giving Mrs. Diamond a surprise that she will try her hardest to forget, Alistair notices the halo on Rogers c.h.e.s.t burst into light fragments and fade away.

She quickly tries to hide her astonishment and says, "You did not have to subject yourself to that since I have already committed to terminating the oath. I hope you know that you will still have to attend classes even if you are sick."

However, deep down she becomes impressed with his decision to follow through with his punishment even after being let off the hook.

Alistair gives her an enthusiastic smile and says, "Of course! This type of food is the best for me after all!" quickly turning his attention to Roger, who is packaging a box of beautifully cooked food from the table behind Mrs. Diamond, he says, "Now it's time to fulfill your oath with me!"

Without giving Mrs. Diamond anymore time to process the his actions or become upset even further, Alistair grabs Roger by the hand and pulls him out of the cafeteria, barely giving him enough time to stuff the food away into his clothing.

"W-Wait! Where are we going so suddenly?" Roger questions in a slight befuddled tone.

"We are going to the library to teach me how to read! You already agreed so you wouldn't back out now would you?" Alistair slows down in the hall outside of the cafeteria, beckoning for Roger to take the lead to the library.

"You mean right now? It's going to take a while to teach you man! I got to get the materials ready and a lesson plan from the teachers and everything." Roger tries to placate Alistair into letting him go so he can enjoy his food while it is still warm.

"No can do! I need to learn by today to understand what I need to do everyday and where to go! Unless you want to be with me all day, everyday!" Alistair smiles mischievously as he follows behind Roger.

"By today!? You are asking the impossible man! You are trying to learn how to read and write in a single day! You got to pace yourself! Besides, I haven't even eaten yet. Let's just hold off until tomorrow, okay?" Trying his best to reason with Alistair, Roger tries to explain the difficulty of the task while mindlessly walking towards library.

"Don't worry! I'm a fast learner and you can eat while you teach me! I'll even make you a deal, if you have to repeat anything even once for me, then we can stop, sound fair?" Alistair smiles brightly at Roger as the walk into a room filled with books and desks from wall to wall.

Roger turns his head from one side to the other, realizing that he just led Alistair right to the library due to them talking about it the entire time. He hangs his head in defeat as he looks at Alistair and weakly nods.

"Fine, then let's start with these." He walks over to a shelf filled with childrens books that explain lettering and pronunciation.

One hour later

Alistair has a plethora of books next to his side while a downcast Roger is sitting across from him eating his food at a very slow pace, seemingly unable to enjoy the taste of the amazing food.

Two hours later

Alistair begins going through the dictionary at a breakneck speed memorizing each words definition and pronunciation. Roger left due to being ignored by Alistair for long periods of time, feeling unneeded.

Three hours later

Alistair learns a better way to speed read through book with the spiral absorbing information as if a black hole, all he has to do is view the page for a brief second and the contents will be memorized.

Four hours later

Alistair begins to realize that the rate at which he is able to retain information is beginning to slow down. To the point where he will actually have to read each page individually. From this, he also feels the spiral in his mind slowing down to a crawl, seemingly satisfied.

Alistair lifts his head up from the books he had his nose buried in. Satisfied with the progress he made today, he decides to head back to his bedroom to sort through the information he was able to find out.

He leaves the library and heads towards his dorm. He enters his room and lays on the bed staring at the ceiling, thinking to himself.

"From what I can gather, I appear to have something very wrong with me. The only mentions in any of the books that I read, regarding my insane hunger are references to zombies, cannibals, and other beasts that roam the wilds."

He touches his abdomen, feeling the cold skin and a slight movement underneath in the flow of a spiral.

"I guess I need to keep my appetite a secret from the people around me. Luckily, I managed to get by on everyone assuming I have a special constitution. However, no constitutions affect anyone's diet. Even if one did though, it would not drive them to the point of insanity."

He moves his hand up to his neck, remembering the scene with the beast back in the wilds, and it's message, "You must grow stronger little one...You are going to be part of me eventually, after all."

What stuck more on his mind however is the beast mentioned that he had been thrust into a "game". One where it is assumed that he will be the one to die. A cold chill runs down Alistair's back when he thinks of his fate if left up to the beast.

He shakes his head to snap himself out of that state of mind comes to the decision of, "I do not know why my memory is so good for a while, or why my I lose focus when I'm hungry. I'll need to learn more about what I am and grow stronger if I want to live without worrying about being prey to another."

He turns to the schedule he received from Professor Washington previously.

"It seems that I am not the only new student for tomorrow, meaning I will be in the same starting point as the others." He reads the introductory passage of his classes and sees the start date of the semester as tomorrow.

"The first class I have tomorrow will be...?" He turns the page to look at his classes.