Metanoia

Metanoia

A novel

by Angela Schiavone

For my friends and family, especially my
parents. I love you all.

For an old friend, Brian Demps, whom I hope
has found his paradise.

For anyone who has ever believed in something
more.

Keep believing.

Metanoia

Angela Schiavone

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2010 Angela Schiavone

Discover other ebook titles by Angela
Schiavone at Smashwords.com

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal
enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to
other people. If you would like to share this book with another
person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If
you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not
purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com
and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work
of this author.

No reproduction of this
work can be made in any form without written permission of the
author. She can be contacted at
[email protected].

Metanoia
is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual
persons, living or dead, events, or locations is entirely
coincidental.

Other works by Angela
Schiavone are available at
writtenbyangela.t35.com
.

Chapters

Need for
Escape

Nythagié

Becoming the
Memory

Trials of the
Heart

The First
Test

Familiar
Faces

A Nightmare
Realized

Torch-her
Torture

Burning

Nythagie’s Black
Rose

One Chance

Killer’s
Playground

The Phoenix

Secrets
Revealed

Athena

One Last
Breath

-About The
Author-

Chapter 1

“Need For Escape”

It is one of the worst
feelings to be lost in your own mind. To not be able to understand
what you are thinking or feeling, to be as confused as Gina now
felt. She was not meant to be here. This was everything she had
always wanted; ironically now it ended up being what she dreaded…
or did she want this? Would she have wanted to go through life
daydreaming about this but never knowing what she imagined could be
true?
Was
true?
She didn’t know it would be this complicated – that so much would
be at stake.

Gina Cassidy had a normal eighteen-year-old
teenager’s life when everything changed. A life of homework, tests,
projects, annoying teachers, and caring friends turned into chaos,
responsibility, confusion, evil, and fear. Of course, Gina had
positive experiences, but now, in the isolation of her bedroom,
only pessimistic emotions surfaced. It had just barely been two
months ago when her adventure began, but to Gina centuries had
passed. It was at that critical time that Gina started down a
life-altering road that she could never turn back from. Ironically,
it had begun in the place Gina hated most.

Gina slouched in her chair
while adding to the continuing display of wizards, fairies, and
magical creatures now completely overtaking her notes. She was in
Chemistry class, which, to her, was the most dreadful of all
subjects. One can surely not experience absolute and complete
boredom until that individual has experienced the pain and agony of
listening to a Chemistry lecture. This was the unfortunate torture
Gina now had to submit herself to. Second period – that was all. If
this torment was any sample of the day to come, then Gina thought
she would surely not live through it. She sighed and continued to
draw as she stared blankly at her notes. She fingered the piece of
pink lace around her neck with an intricate jewel at the front. The
necklace had been given by a kind stranger when Gina was only 5
years old. She still remembered the man’s wise, but loving, gaze.
Gina would never forget that look of love. It was something she was
not used to, and she wore it to remind herself of the parental love
that she must have once had. She just couldn’t be Gina without
it.

Gina Cassidy had brown
curls, which hung to just below her shoulders. On a good hair day,
she sometimes had a shimmer of gold in each strand as well. Her
brown eyes matched her hair perfectly though she often longed for
blue or hazel like her friends.

These dark eyes now spun around, taking in
the room which had imprisoned her all quarter. From her desk
against the far right wall, she could see the front of the room
pretty well. The door was on the same wall as she and about five
feet away. The teacher’s desk stood on a tile platform in the
center of the room in plain sight of the door and the hallway it
led into. The actual desks the students sat in rows on platforms in
front of the main desk and were set up like stairs to the back of
the room. They stretched all the way from the left window-filled
wall to Gina’s side which displayed the Periodic Table poster.

Gina glanced down at her solid, second-hand,
navy skirt and started to tug it down, attempting to make it longer
to match uniform code. She knew she tried in vain, though, luckily,
she had yet to ever been written up for a uniform violation. Giving
in, she moved on to her matching sweater-vest and picked off bits
of lint before moving on to straightening her tie which never hung
correctly. Some of her fellow students always looked so put
together, but Gina had never been so lucky.

“
Regina!” Gina quickly
looked up to see her teacher, Mrs. Spencer, glaring down at her.
She quickly wondered how long her teacher had been trying to get
her attention. Mrs. Spencer was definitely a unique character. Her
voice was so nasally and droll that it was no wonder that Gina
could not keep her attention on gases and solids. She never put
stress on any syllable but instead spoke every word, exciting or
terrifying, in a monotone voice. This became an issue when she
would warn her students not to mix two certain chemicals together
due to dire consequences, for it sounded the same way as her
greeting when she passed you in the hallway. Her face never moved a
muscle (even when croaky words escaped her lips) though it was
always apparent as to her mood. Though, her “good” mood was never
very happy. Actually, her body itself didn’t move but rather
dragged itself around like a slug.

“
Well? Do you know what the
process is called when a solid turns straight into a vapor?” she
asked impatiently.

“
Uh? Oh, umm, it’s…” Gina
searched her brain but nowhere was there a trace of this answer.
This was evident to Mrs. Spencer who let out a big, frustrated sigh
and turned to another student in the front row, a girl with dyed
blond hair outlining her tan and flawless face complete with baby
blue eyes.

“
Carolina? Do you know the
answer?” Mrs. Spencer asked.

“
Of course,” Carolina began
pompously, very much aware that she now had the attention of the
class (including the hot boys in the back row). With an intentional
flip of her hair, she replied, “It is sublimation.”

“
Excellent, Carolina. You
are absolutely correct.” She turned her attention to Gina who in
return tried to sink as low as possible in her desk to avoid Mrs.
Spencer’s evil glare. She fingered the scar on her arm to have an
excuse not to look at her. She couldn’t remember how she’d gotten
it, and it had always provided a mystery to ponder upon. She would
tell people she’d gotten it from a risky adventure in which she
saved someone’s life, or fought the bad guy. They usually just
smiled and nodded. She was used to that reaction.

Mrs. Spencer again spoke, seeing that Gina
was attempting to avoid her. “You’d do well to actually pay
attention in my class, Regina, or you’ll pay for it with your grade
which is low already if I am not mistaken.”

It was the perfect start to another boring
and excruciating day.

“
Gina! Hey, wait up!” Gina
turned to see her friend, Jessica Breneman, running up to her. Gina
couldn’t help but smile as she waited for her friend to clumsily
catch up. Her backpack bounced gracelessly against her back giving
her that awkward look that is always associated with running while
wearing a hindering backpack. This did not faze Jessica as she ran
full speed at Gina.

“
How was Chem today?”
Jessica asked as she arrived, panting.

“
Painful. I was totally
zoning and completely blanked when Mrs. Spencer asked me a
question. She then proceeded to tell the whole class that my grade
was low. I swear she hates me,” Gina sighed.

“
Yeah, she hates me too,
but it’s okay. I’ve learned to live with it. Not having my
teacher’s affection, oh God, I think I’ll survive.” She giggled and
pushed back her blond hair. As always, Gina noticed that her hair
seemed to shimmer as she did so, making Gina finger her own golden
brown locks longingly. Jessica had beautiful hazel eyes, which
always showed kindness and warmth. She was there for Gina through
thick and thin. Gina didn’t know what she’d do without
her.

“
By the way, how’s Cassie?”
Jessica asked as they walked down the halls of Phoenix High. “I
haven’t had a chance to call her recently.” Cassie McCormack was a
close friend of theirs who only the year before had transferred
schools. Gina found it especially hard this year with Cassie gone.
She had to face the dark and gloomy halls under the evil eyes of
her bloodcurdling teachers without the warming comfort of her
friend. Gina sometimes thought she saw Cassie walking through the
halls, her dark curly hair tied up, her brown eyes glowing, and her
hazelnut skin shining. They missed her smiling face
everyday.

“
She’s
fine. You know, it’s so unfair. We get the
privilege
to do projects on science
and math and she gets to do one on mythology!”

“
Right up your alley, huh?
Please tell me you didn’t bring it,” she pleaded glancing nervously
at Gina’s backpack. Gina smiled and pulled out her cherished
mythology book.

“
Sure did!” Gina exclaimed
as Jessica moaned. Gina had brought this same book to school
everyday for the past week and the week before that she had had
another on medieval jousting. She just couldn’t get enough of the
worlds outside of her own time and place.

“
You’ll read that all
during lunch and won’t even talk to us! These days I’d have to
dress up like a princess or a wizard so that you’ll notice me
during what is supposed to be our time to socialize.”

“
Actually you’d need to get
a hot boy to dress up like a knight,” Gina responded, smiling. She
couldn’t help it. Those stories were the only things she had to
maintain her sanity.

“
Oh, great. Civics test
now, huh?” Jessica muttered. Gina stopped dead in her
tracks.

“
Civics test? What Civics
test?”

“
The one Mr. Morgan told us
about last week.”

“
That’s today?! Aww, man, I
totally forgot.” Gina dropped her bag and almost ripped it open to
get to her notes for a quick study period before stepping into the
classroom. As a result, the bag’s contents splashed onto the floor
with Gina scrambling to gather them. Jessica laughed at her friend
making quite a spectacle of herself. Even a man visiting the school
with the principle slowed his pace to stare at her.

“
Gina, don’t worry about
it. You’ll do fine. I mean when have you ever got lower than a B+
in Civics? Now me, that’s another story.” She glanced sideways at
Gina who was still fumbling through her notes.

“
Yeah, right. Is the
Preamble stuff in the test?”

“
Dude, that was two units
ago…”

“
Great.” Gina grabbed her
bag irritably and ran into the classroom.

Gina stared anxiously at the clock. Five
minutes to go until freedom. Five minutes until she would be able
to read in the relaxing company of her friends. Five minutes until
the lunch bell would ring. Five minutes was way too long. Gina
swore that the clock stopped every other second just to keep her in
her desk a little while longer; to keep her in the torture chamber
for an extended visit. Each mark of the pencil, each shift in the
chair, each crinkle of the paper, each sigh, each cough was slowly
driving Gina insane. She looked at the clock again. Only one minute
had passed since she had turned in her test. She glanced over at
Jessica who had fallen asleep on her desk. She had finished early
too. Gina sighed and took the time to study the rest of the room.
She quickly noticed that many had followed Jessica’s example and
had tried to use the extra time to catch up on some much needed
sleep. Another student next to her was even beginning to drool a
little. Suddenly the bell rang; her moment of freedom had come.
Grabbing both her bag and Jessica, who had awoken with a start,
Gina ran out of the classroom, out of the hall, and into the
brilliant sunshine of the courtyard. Lunch was finally here.
Hurriedly, Gina sat down with her group of friends and yanked out
her book, her treasure.