Chapter 19: Bunny
Friday, 17th 2023
6:45 am
Gray, who had just rose from his bed, couldn't help but want to skip school due to how tired he felt.
Through all of the sixteen years in his life, he had never felt his limbs aching in such a way.
Regardless, this meant that his training was working!
Not wanting to make his sister mad by daring to skip, or be late at school, he started to get dressed, deciding to wear a white t-shirt, a grey hoodie and a pair of random jeans he found inside his wardrobe.
Once Gray was ready, he went inside the bathroom.
…
After answering the call of nature and brushing his teeth, he decided to have breakfast.
There in the living room, he found his sister eating a bowl of cereal.
"Good morning," he yawned.
"Good morning," Kathy said, her mouth still full of food.
He then went inside the kitchen, took a bowl, went back to the living room and sat next to his sister.
Gray took the box of cereals and poured it inside the bowl before doing the same with the jug of milk
"How did yesterday go?" he asked, unlocking his phone.
"Annoying like always. The worst customers always come when we are short staffed too; it's like they have a radar," Kathy sighed, "Matter of fact, there was an old lady who kept screaming because her order was a bit late."
"If a blind person had entered the store and heard her, they would have ran out in fear, thinking that someone was getting killed. Her family members were embarrassed, they even decided to tip extra for every waiter or waitress cursed with coming to their table."
"That must've been hell…" Gray chuckled. "I don't know how you have the patience to keep serving people like her. I would have thrown the whole plate in her face since she wanted it that badly."
"What you're saying is true, but I am the sole provider of a young brat living in my house rent-free. I simply can't lose the job," Kathy remarked with a smile on her face.
"Yes… it won't last for long, though. I got Casanova's job, remember?" Gray grinned.
Kathy shrugged her shoulders. "You're right. You've won today,"
"It's still soon to ask, but are you aware of how much money you are going to gain hourly? And do you know what type of work you'll do there?" she asked, slightly concerned.
Gray's lips twitched as soon he heard her sister's pressing questions. "N-No, I'm not aware of anything… Casanova said he was going to think about the details."
"His job requires a certain level of strength… I'm worried of what you'll do with those skinny arms…" she muttered, pointing at his stick-like appendages.
'What she doesn't know is that I just started training…'
Gray sighed, "Yes, I'm aware. Yet I prefer getting the job from someone who I trust. There's no way that he would rob me by making me work like a slave for like an euro per hour."
"You're right," she nodded. " I don't want you to face those poor experiences I've had with my employers. They were all vipers—always trying to take advantage of a young woman," she spouted, anger etched into her voice.
At her words, Gray clenched his fists.
The world wasn't only filled with Nephilim and other inconceivable existences. For some people, their worries didn't touch the supernatural, they instead regarded the neighboring humans.
"I'm glad—I'm really glad that nothing bad had happened. I don't know if you are aware of this but…I don't know what I would do (to them) if anyone were to hurt you."
He could still feel his hands gripping the head of his sister's assailant and the blood that oozed from it. In his mind, the images of the creature's crushed face kept on flashing. He could see all of its shattered teeth, its purple nose bent to the left, its alien expression shocked, and every single of its four eyes widened.
His pitch-black pupils restricted. Silently, he looked at his hands with an hidden, primal ferocity.
'I should've lengthened its suffering,'
"Aww…" Kathy said, looking at his brother with her big, black eyes.
"Nobody can hurt me, though…Remember, your big sister is super strong!" she flexed her not-so big muscles.
As he brought his gaze before her, his pupils subconsciously dilated.
"Yes…you are," he quietly said.
Seeing Gray's expression darkening, Kathy pouted. "You don't believe me!"
"No—No, wait," he stammered. " I believe you, I promise! I jus-I just couldn't remember if I did the math's homework!"
Shooo… Shooo… Shooo…
That moment, Gray Montoya could swear to have seen a cloud of dark smoke coming from his sister's ears.
"So, did you do the homework or no…?!" Kathy looked at him fiercely.
"H-hey… Don't put it like that. Yes, I did do the homework. I just couldn't remember because I've done it two days ago!" he said, lying out of his teeth.
Math was the subject he hated the most.
There wasn't any other subject he hated as much as he did with mathematics.
Music was a walk in a park compared to it; English was like stealing candy from a baby, the only issue being the shrieks of that banshee who posed as an english teacher. Greek too, was a child's play compared to that damned subject.
There wasn't anything he could understand about maths.
The only thing he was capable to do where to most simple things; division, subtractions, additions, multiplications and expressions.
For the others, it was as if he was inside an empty shell. The fact that he still was like that before even having his memory almost wiped said a lot about his issues with the subject.
"Good…" Kathy said, the smoke coming out of her ears retracting slowly.
The two then kept on eating their breakfast, chatting idly between each-other.
…
Once he was done eating, he went inside of his room to prepare his school-bag.
Like always, he checked the timetable inside his notebook first.
Friday:
1st hour: Math
2nd hour: Math
3rd hour: Philosophy
4th hour: Art.
5th hour: Art
6th hour: Religion.
'As soon as school ends, I also have to go at Rowan's house. Let's see what movie he has to offer…'
Gray started to toss the needed books inside his backpack, glad of not having to worry about Nekhare.
Although she was a Nephilim like he suspected, at-least she wasn't harboring any kind of hatred towards him.
Once he was done, he said his goodbyes to Kathy, making his way towards school.
…
After he arrived there, he sat on his desk and prepared himself mentally for two grueling hours of maths.
Of course, he didn't forget to do his reality-check, and was displeased to see that his morning wasn't a nightmare.
Rowan, who sat next to him, reminded Gray to come to his house once the two of them had finished school.
Aware of it, he nodded silently before turned around slightly to look at Nekhare.
She was writing something on her notebook.
As he was doing that, his friend looked at him suspiciously.
After some moments, the bell suddenly rang.
Gray then decided to do his best to focus on the lesson, wishing that time would pass quickly.
…
"Finally…" he murmured as soon as the hours of math ended.
Since the bell had rung, the two friends decided to hang out during break.
Rowan and Gray talked about trivial matters to relieve their boredom, and after ten minutes, the bell rang, making the herd of students go back to their classes.
Once the classroom was full once more, the professor of philosophy entered inside it.
He placed his bag on his desk, opened it, took some stacks of papers and placed it on his desk, on the left of his bag. He then took a sheet of paper and called Gray's name.
The young man immediately stood up and went towards the professor, aware that it was the result of his test about Descartes.
Once he reached the desk, the man showed him his sheet of paper, addressing his errors one by one.
Luckily, his only mistakes were the date of Descartes birthday and some small, grammatical errors.
Nonetheless, he passed the test, gaining a score of 8.
"Overall you did a good job. Just keep in mind to be as formal as you can." The philosophy's professor said with a smile, telling Gray to go back to his desk.
"How did it go?" Rowan asked with curiosity.
"Pretty good actually. I got an 8." Gray said, satisfied of his results.
"Yeah, no shit, you've always been good in these kind of subjects." Rowan shrugged.
"Heh, it's all thanks to my mother's library!"
'If only he knew that most of my knowledge regarding the subject had been wiped…'
"Silence, both of you," the professor said, shushing them up without any effort.
After the class became deathly silent, the teacher started speaking once more.
"Like the greek professor said, we have decided to partake in a new project that will make you guys and girls understand about the sheer importance the greek philosophers had from their ancient world, to ours."
"Since the greek teacher explained about Thales and his belief of water being the Arkhé, I'll explain about the theories of his disciple Anaximander. Like his master, he was born in Miletus, and lived to be the first philosopher who's known to have written down his studies and theories."
"Once again, like his master Thales, he tries to observe and explain the universe—especially its origin, without regarding the hellenic dogmas entirely, but while being inspired by them."
"He claimed that, since human societies are governed by laws, then nature must be governed by laws too; with those who dare to disturb the balance being punished."
The professor sighed. "Anaximander would have an heart attack if he were to see how humanity is treating our planet."
"How shall we, murderers of murderers console ourselves? What was the most important thing of all that this world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe the blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement shall we have to invent? What punishment shall befall upon us? Us who disturbed the balance of nature—us who exploited and destroyed it with our bare hands for a measly gain?"
The professor's speech came from the bottom of his heart. He quoted and changed Nietzsche's words to benefit his explanation and his strong feelings of how Earth was being treated.
"Anaximander, while he respected Thales deeply, he argued that water wasn't the principle of all things. And that is because water cannot embrace its opposites in nature— for example, water cannot meet fire and cannot be dry."
"Therefore, since it cannot meet them, it cannot be the primary substance; nor could any of the possible other substances—be it air, like Anaximene believed."
"For Anaximander, the principle of things is something that cannot be defined in any way. He called it Apeiron—meaning infinite. He believed that the beginning is eternal and boundless, subject to neither old age nor decay, while forming new creations from which everything we can perceive is derived."
"Everything is generated by Apeiron and then it's destroyed, returning back to the Apeiron, forming a chaos made of eternal beginnings and destructions."
"He believed that everything was born after being separated by its opposites: the hot with the cold, and the wet with the dry, and was once all united in the Apeiron."
"Because the infinite is engaged in a perpetual motion, the opposites are seperated out to form the universe as we know it. He considered this process to be a cyclical frantic and chaotic dance, that will one day return to its original state of perfection."
"Anaximander also held the belief that an infinite amount of worlds were created by the Apeiron, and then they were to be destroyed, returning to it once more."
Just then, Gray's heart began pounding inside his chest. In his mind, the words of that holy, sacred voice belonging to an uncountable amount of men and women resounded.
This is not the first time He witnessed this—and it won't be the last.
Everything that happened had, and will be wiped once more.
This is His will, the will of The Monolith.
He immediately tried to explain rationally 'their' words.
'Does He, The Monolith want to destroy our world? If so, why didn't He do it immediately? What is He planning?'
While the professor explained Anaximander, Gray couldn't help but immerse himself into his thoughts, trying to grasp the truth standing beyond him—beyond anything he could have ever imagined in his life.
…
'I can't figure it out. There has to be a reason, though!"
The bell then rang, and the philosophy's professor, and the students went out of the classroom.
"Wake up, Gray. We have art," Rowan tapped on his shoulder.
"Yeah." he said, standing up.
The two then speed-walked toward the class, and when they reached the room filled with canvases, they decided to sit close to each other.
After seeing that the only two spaces with nobody on were in the first row, they started to move across the class, passing around each canvases.
Meanwhile, Gray couldn't help but look at each student painting.
Some started to draw hyper realistic faces, some tried to replicate the Starry Night, while others drew the first thing that came up their minds.
Once he saw Nekhare's figure, he was extremely curious of what she had painted now, and all of the times he'd seen her be immersed in either writing or drawing inside her notebook.
After reaching her canvas, he looked at it.
It was a crude, doodle of a bunny.
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Notes from Midnight: While sometimes the philosophy, epic poetry and greek mythology sections that'll come may be slightly boring, they are really important to the story, so don't skip them!!!!