#Marcus Laurier#
"Kuzan, why are you always late?"
Vague and blurry. He opens the door, his glistening armour shining. It looked majestical, like a fairy tale that mother always read to me. My father, our family's knight in shining armour.
"Spend more time with our son," my mother, who seemed so caring seemed more imposing.
He looks at me and lifts me with his strong arms.
"Our baby will grow up strong and prideful," he sings as he rocks me around a bit too violently.
I look back at my father.
"Wake up bro."
My dream transitions back to reality. I touch my neck, to my relief the scar had dissipated.
"What's up?" Wallace says, "you've been constantly sleeping in."
I get up half conscious. "Sorry…"
"Don't apologise. Instead, you should be thanking me, your most reliable friend!" He helps me out of my cocoon of sheets, "we should get going. Don't wanna be late!"
⁜⁜⁜
Lately my mind's been drifting. The teacher would talk and we would all listen. I was listening, that's what I told myself but I've been in a sort of a trance. After what happened a few days prior, things felt slow as if time had come to a crawl. If the teacher knew of our outing, we'd be punished. But it's not like I could ignore their plan.
Wallace nudges me and asks me for help with a textbook question. He's been awkwardly silent. We've been thinking about the same thing. If this matter concerned the whole nation and people, our curfew punishment would be a very small price to pay. "Wallace," I slowly say, "we should… report what we saw in the library."
Wallace, unsurprised, nodded his head. "But who will believe us?"
I hadn't stopped to consider that possibility. "We still must try. It's better than not trying." Wallace hesitates but eventually agrees. After class, our plan was to head to the principal's office. Though we weren't expecting them to believe us, it was worth a try.
"So, what's our plan if they say no? It's not like we're gonna stop it ourselves." Wallace looks at me as I give my inanimate response, "No way. We're just four people!"
"Which is why we must hope they believe us. If worst comes to pass, we may have to stop it ourselves."
"Stop it ourselves are you crazy?" Wallace raises his voice. The teacher eyes Wallace as he slides back into his seat.
"Something up Mr Kennedy?"
"N-Nothing sir"
"Sit down"
After class, people buzzed around. It was lively. People were talking, they were gossiping, maybe about the good and bad thing about others. But that wasn't important. Had they known that our city could potentially become a time bomb would they act any differently?
"Where'd Isla and Clara go?" Wallace searched for them. Come to think of it, were they even in class today? "Strange. I was hoping they'd help us since we're a group and all."
"We'll go anyways." I say but Wallace looked somewhat disappointed.
The principal's office, a floating exterior building detached from the school. It houses all the protective magic that spares us from exterior harm, curses, poison etc. It's also the hardest place to get to. Luckily, I have telekinesis and we were directly underneath. It was the perfect position. Wallace thought different.
"Here, use this." Wallace handed me a rock in fear.
"A rock? For what?"
"It's your test subject.?"
"I would never hurt you." He stays still, waiting for the rock. I sigh and inject my telekinesis. I see the rock's structure and I attach my mana to its center. Though I haven't mastered my magic, it's easy enough gently raise a 60kg object to the principal's building. Including myself. Though anything faster and higher would be too exhausting for my mana. "You ready? I ask Wallace as he seemed slightly relieved.
"You drop me, I'll drop you, got it?"
"yeah yeah yeah, stop complaining." I start using my magic. I shape and join my hands, leaving a space in between for mana condensation and circulation. My eyes rendering Wallace's mana structure. Now where should I lift him? His two shoulders, his head, and his thighs. I assign my mana to the points. I raise my hand, but nothing happens.
"Marc-"
"Shut up. Let me concentrate," I said as I wondered why Wallace wasn't moving, "It's because you're too fat."
"Excuse me"
"How heavy are you."
"I'm 75, why?"
Shit
"It's not because of his weight." A voice emits from above. The principal, he had been watching this whole time, "For what reason have you come to pay this old man a visit?"
"Sir, we have something dire to tell you."
⁜⁜⁜
He sits in his chair as the smoke from his vape rises, his face frowning deep in thought. We'd expected a reaction full of doubt. "He took us seriously…" Wallace whispers in my ear.
"You're telling me," he begins to break the silence, "that you have seen one of the perpetrators of this incident, right in the secret library? And that it implied that they are working with the library department?" We nod and he goes into a deeper frown, "I did not expect this… You two are not to speak of this," the air suddenly becomes damp and the lights in the room became weak and hollow, "But let me ask another question. How were you two allowed in the secret library?" His voice becoming strangely more imposing
Wallace speaks up, "Because we're in a high school ranking?"
"That's not possible," the headmaster speaks, "they do not, and should not, know what happens in our school, be it our rankings and especially our student's names which are kept confidential. It is for a reason so that students are not exploited by other organisations. And it seems one of those organisations have snuck into Argos."
"What organisation?" I ask out of curiosity.
"We'll have to find out. You boys better stay away from town. These people are perceptive and cunning. Stay in your dorms for your own safety." He says as he chants a circle, light flowing out underneath our feet, "stay safe and I shall reward you after this," the light covers our bodies from head to toe. It was all white and I was in a room, but my body felt different. I was travelling a high speed. I didn't know where. All I knew was that we were being sent.
The white walls crumble to reveal a dazed Wallace and a number plate. 636. Our dorm. I sensed a figure behind me. I look back and a handful of people peering down our dorm hallway as if we were some specimen that caused commotion. We quickly escaped to our dorm from the stares. We shut the door, walling ourselves in.
It was already night, and we were in bed. Many things have taken place and my mind went from foggy to sober. Night was clear, it was dark and quiet and yet I couldn't help but keep my eyes open. Pried open just in case.
Then I caught sight of a silhouette. Its shadow casting light off our window. A hand slowly reached out, putting its fingers in between the window handle. I tell Wallace to wake up, but he responds as he looks at the window.
There's nothing there.
And he's right. There wasn't a window handle. There wasn't a hand nor a silhouette. Just the quiet night.
⁜⁜⁜
The next day, Wallace needn't be my alarm since my eyes have been awake since I went to bed. And the next day. The next. And the day after. And the day after that.
"What are you thinking about?" Wallace still as bright as ever. I look down at myself, I look at Wallace, I look at the teacher. I could hear both Wallace and the teacher, but neither I listened to.
"I…" I start to speak but my thoughts slow down before I can speak, "am not myself." It's been five days and I still haven't slept, not a wink.
"Well, I haven't seen Isla or Clara in a while. Wanna go search for them? We still need to finish our project."
"They're right here," I say as I point towards their empty desks, "where are they?" I could've sworn I saw them.
"Not for the past six days. I'll go ask the teacher after class."
And after class, I sit on my chair as Wallace walks up to the teacher. The teacher shakes his head while Wallace looks disappointed. He comes back and helps me up, saying something about searching for them. I followed him instinctively. A few days ago, I was fired up about something like saving the town. Something like that. But now I felt all that motivation fly out the window.
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