"Do you have a deal with the cute teacher? He keeps looking this way." Diva asked and Sam flipped her ear.
"Stop calling him cute, I don't like it." He said.
"Well, none of you can deny that fact so I am not wrong saying it. He has just been looking over here for the past few minutes. I have never seen anyone as curious as he is."
"How do you know he is curious?" Kelvin, another guy asked her.
"He does not hide it," Diva responded.
Fred didn't say a word and continued eating, his eyes were focused more on the outside environment.
"Do you think the council was able to come up with something tangible?" Don asked the group. He was considered to be the youngest in the group.
"That will be hard to answer, none of us was in the meeting but whatever solution that they might have decided to bring up now, they'd better impose it now before it becomes too dangerous," Kelvin responded.
"I feel like Lydia is hiding something from all of us, don't you agree Fred?" Diva questioned.
Everyone looked at him as he wiped his mouth clean of any stains. He drank the glass of water on the table and looked at each of them. They were looking at him as if they were looking at their savior.
"I agree. She is indeed hiding something from us." He finally spoke up.
"I said so. But what could she be hiding?" Diva asked rhetorically.
"I am going out for a walk."
Fred stood up, carrying his tray. By the time he turned around, he collided with Mack and the tray fell to the ground as he held the latter tightly before he could fall.
Everyone in the cafeteria took a glance at them and whispering started. Mack felt his heart drop to the ground in a second before it bounced back to its cage. He had accidentally curled his right leg with the left one when walking with his phone in his hands and he hit whoever it was.
He quickly looked up and saw who had saved him. It was Fred, the guy from the music room. Looking at him up close, he did have pretty eyes. Fred's brows creased for a moment as he looked into Mack's eyes as if realizing something.
Mack's heart suddenly started to ache and he had to touch it. Fred slowly let go of him and trailed his hands to where he placed them.
Mack looked at him and bowed slightly.
"I am sorry, excuse me."
He walked past him but the pain became excruciatingly unbearable that he fell to the ground afterward and lost consciousness.
"Mack…"
Desmond and Eli rushed to help him up. Fred was the most confused as he looked at the situation. Mack was quickly lifted and taken to the school's clinic.
Sam glanced at Fred who was unmoving at the moment. He touched his shoulders slightly.
"Don't you want to leave?" He asked him. Fred then left the room. His friends watched him go.
*_*_*_*_*_*_*
[ There were clashing swords and lights. Grunts of people and splashing of blood filled the atmosphere. The young boy was tied to a tree in an X form. He was crying profusely, chanting out a name.
"Demetrius…Demetrius, where are you?" He cried out.
Things weren't clear. They were blurry but the way things were sounding, one would know that there was a fight going on. Then someone was about to reach out to him but only a pair of distressed eyes were shown as he was pulled back into darkness.
"He won't be able to save you."
Then there was a flash again, the boy was stabbed with a knife in the heart. He screamed in pain, every other sound was blurry to his ears. ]
Mack's eyes opened in horror and he sat up in fear. He felt a piercing pain in his heart and he held onto his clothes. His breathing got heavier and he looked around.
"Mack…Mack, are you alright?" Stella walked into the room and quickly went to hold him.
"I need…I need water." He whispered.
Stella helped him with that and he drank it at once while she looked at him worriedly.
"What time is it?" He asked.
"Nine pm," Stella replied to him. He was shocked.
"I was out for that long?" He whispered.
"Yeah, what happened? Are you sick?" Stella asked him.
"No, I am not. I don't know what happened as well, I just lost unconsciousness after feeling a pain in my heart." He replied sincerely.
"Has it ever happened to you before?"
"This is my first time."
"That's strange. You should try seeing the doctor whenever you are free. Maybe take a leave tomorrow…I will help you with that."
"Nah, I am fine. There is nothing wrong. It could have just been a brief process. It's nothing to be afraid of. I will be fine, thank you so much, Stella. I need to go home."
He tried standing up, and Stella helped him up on his feet.
She pulled out a brown paper bag and handed it over to him.
"Desmond wanted you to have it. It's your dinner and here are your medications. This should help since you don't want to see a doctor." She smiled.
"Thanks. I will head back, goodnight."
"Goodnight." She waved at him.
Mack touched the left side of his body as he left.
*_*_*_*_*_*
In the night, a man was walking Inside the forest with a headlamp on. He had a bag strapped behind him as he continued walking. His left hand was holding a rifle as well.
As he walked deeper into the forest, there were echoes around and this made him stop for a moment. He looked around with the help of the headlamp. He didn't find a thing and soon he hastened in his footsteps because of how noisy the place had become.
A shadow flashed in front of him and he jumped backward.
"Who is there?" He shouted but there was no response.
His eyes shifted to the corner of their sockets, he spotted a lurking shadow and he got goosebumps. He turned around swiftly but the place was void.
He started running towards where he believed was the main road while being chased by something unknown. He started shouting, screaming at the top of his voice.
He was suddenly grabbed by the shoulder and thrown against the tree. The man yelled from the pain. He quickly looked up only to see dark smoke…he had never seen anything of such in his entire life. The thing approached him and he stood up, leaving his bag, rifle, and headlamp as he thought that could give a clue as to where he could have hidden.
He was thrown again and pulled into the dark smoke. He gave out a piercing scream and his lifeless body fell to the ground. Slowly, the dark smoke rolled to the ground and a human showed.
The person pulled down the hoodie they were wearing and it revealed Lydia's face.
"Pathetic."
She looked at the corpse with no remorse for a while before covering her hair with her hoodie. In a second, she was out of the forest.