《The Ryzen Clan: Escape》


 Prologue

    My day always started with a small offering to the Dark God my family worshiped, getting picked on for being too soft-hearted and going to school trying to forget what I had to do in the morning.


    With the stress of having to kill a small animal every week, bearing with the guilt and adding some more on top of it, my academic life should be suffering, but that wasn''t quite so true. I was one of the best students in our school and I took a lot of pride in that. It was also something that made me less useless as far as my family was concerned, so studying became my salvation in more ways than one.


    I shuddered remembering the person I had almost become and went on with my day.


    Given my mood at the start of the school, it was easy to imagine I didn''t have many friends. My siblings joked that I was more of the stereotypical cultist than they were, but I would digress... if I could; I had a few people I talked to, but no real friends. It was a bit lonely with that, but I was fine with my current status quo, fewer things to worry about.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Besides, my class even had a mascot who made things interesting! Her name was Mira and her goal was probably to piss off as many people as she could to add to her newspaper.


    She wasn''t my friend, but we did greet each other if we happened to meet in the street or in school. We didn''t talk much since we lived in almost completely different worlds, but her presence was a pleasant addition to the torturous and monotonous life of mine.


    Once she got a wif of an interesting secret she would do her best to uncover it and see if it was worthy of being added to her newspaper. Of course, she had limits on what she would do and she would rarely hurt other people with her stories, more often than not just making their lives more interesting.


    Every week I waited for her usual outlandish and funny stories, something which was common with a lot of the students of this school. At the end of the paper, she usually mentioned the victim of her next story... and at the end of it indeed there was a name... my name.


    Always a loner, never interacting with people but being the best student in our school, it is impossible not to have any secrets! Await eagerly for the secrets of Kyle Ryzen on next week''s issue!

 Prologue

    No sooner I opened my eyes than I heard a loud voice, completely destroying the last shreds of sleepiness in my body.


    "Mira, come eat your breakfast!" My mom yelled. Then in a softer tone, she added, "You also don''t want to be late again, you have so many complaints from the teachers I''m beginning to worry if they will outright expel you."


    Ugh, "What time is it...?" I said, moving my eyes towards the clock beside my bed. "I''m not answering that for you, you lazy ass daughter! Get moving already!"


    Yeah, it was after eight in the morning... I was screwed. The door to the school closed at around a quarter past eight and I needed half an hour to walk there. Perhaps if I managed to remember where I last left my bike, I could reach the gates in time...


    I turned to look at my phone which should have woken me up more than an hour earlier and noticed the notifications for the missed alarms. I checked my phone''s volume and it was almost muted... well shit. I was going to get revenge for that! I''m certain that my brother is the only suspect I would need to interrogate.


    I had no time to get ready, so the world would have to be graced with my natural beauty in one of these rare cases.


    I scarfed down a slice of bread with honey and grabbed some muffins as I run for the door, only barely remembering to wear my shoes before going out.


    In the end, I found my bike right outside home, unlocked it, and got to pedaling.


    I must have set a new personal record considering I started ten minutes past eight and still made it with the gates open. I checked my phone for confirmation and saw that in the end they just hadn''t closed the gates in time. I was more than three minutes late after the gate was supposed to be closed.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    I joined the class after it had started and couldn''t avoid the glare of the teacher. This probably didn''t help for a better reputation, just continued the bad trend. At least when someone expects a certain behavior from another, they don''t find it nearly as insulting when you act like they thought you would.


    Still, sitting in the most boring class in our curriculum my mind couldn''t help but wonder to my statement in the newspaper. I sneaked a glance at Kyle who was paying attention only to the teacher... the only one still paying attention that is. What is he hiding from us?


    I knew Kyle a little bit and personality-wise, he was a pretty nice person, fun to talk to and joke around but always left you feeling like he was holding back so much more. Of course, you didn''t get that from a normal conversation, but I had developed some skills during the whole time I have been working for my newspaper.


    Well, in the end even if he wasn''t hiding anything I could make up a weird enough story that wouldn''t normally be plausible, but my reputation would help straighten out. However, I really didn''t want to do such a thing...


    Kyle, although far from the most sociable of students, was still well known as the best student in our school and I had even propped up the event in my newspaper. My reputation might even take a hit if I don''t do a good job on him, something which I hadn''t considered previously.


    I don''t usually prepare for my next vict- I mean target, but in this case I probably should have done so.


    Lost in my thoughts, I barely even noticed how time passed, the boring class over before I had realized it. I have a week before the next issue, so that gives me plenty of time to prepare... still, I had better talk to Kyle sooner rather than later. Not only I might find out something I can use for my story but also how he thinks about being the next week''s victim.


    Thinking about it more, considering my infamy, he should have been expecting to be targeted. He shouldn''t be too angry, but if he is it would mean he has something to hide. Yes, I got to talk to him today.