Chapter5
1117 Words
The whispers started the moment I stepped into the lecture room.. They didn't even try to hide it.
“That’s her.”
“She’s the one who talked back to Malrik.”
“Is she serious? Does she have a death wish?”
"I heard she told him he was cruel."
“She challenged him. In front of everyone.”
“Her life is a living hell now. She just doesn’t know it yet.”
A few students laughed while others quickly looked away when I glanced in their direction.
Two girls ahead of me stepped aside as I approached. It was as though I had suddenly become the most famous person in school.
Zephyra stood silent beside me, which was unusual for her, since the whole walk out of the cafeteria she hadn't uttered a word.
I sat down and put my bag on the desk, but I immediately felt the shift, something wasn't right.
I frown.
My bag looked strange, black paint was poured all over it, it was drenched, the zip had been slashed open, and several pages were torn and lay scattered all over the classroom floor.
I froze.
A few students started laughing. "Looks like someone made an enemy."
"You should've kept your mouth shut."
I gently bent and picked up one of my books. I still trembled out of sheer confusion. ‘What had I even done to warrant this?’
“Hey.”
It echoed from the classroom entrance. Every conversation ceased. I turned, and five boys were standing at the classroom door.
All of them were noticeably older than many of us.
They had the same silver crest of senior students on their uniforms. The largest among them smiled.
“So…?”
He folded his arms. “You’re Nyxara.” I didn’t respond. “I see,” He nodded slowly, “Come with us.”
“No.”
His smile faded. “It was not a request.”
And then, before I even knew it two of them grabbed me each from both sides.
“Let go of me!” I thrashed.
The class was in utter silence as none of them dared intervene. Zephyra behind me started crying silently.
"HELP!!!!!"
My scream echoed through the empty hallway. Students just looked at me, then kept going about their day as they roughly pulled me away.
I saw some stare at me with pity, some turned away from me quickly, as if they had never seen a thing in this lifetime.
They carried me through a side door I'd never seen, down to a dusty tunnel and into a section of campus I hadn't ever recognised before.
Then we arrived at a place that I had never seen in my entire life. An unused part of campus. Tall trees surrounded the place, an unfinished building not far away and a lake deep enough for me to drown.
The boys tossed me on the ground and I fell on my palms and knees.
The mud was cold. I looked up to see Kaelor standing on the second floor of the unfinished building. Leaning on the frame, his arms crossed, and he wore the same grin as if he were watching a happy show.
One of the boys grabbed my hair and yanked it upwards. “You should have listened earlier.”
Then, a hard blow hit my face, sending me crashing on the dirt below. Pain exploded all through my cheek, all of them started to laugh.
A boot landed on my abdomen, then on my shoulder, then on my ribs. I curled into a tight ball to try to protect my body.
"Please..."
They don't hear my words, and a foot lands on my side.
I yelped.
Everything spun around me, and up above the trees, I heard Kaelor's chuckling laughter. He looked down at me like I was nothing but a crawling ant. "Not feeling very brave today, huh?"
My vision blurred, but I managed to glare at him." You are a coward."
Blood dripped from the corner of my lips.
Oh?" His grin widened.
"It takes five men to fight one girl, I understand.”
The boys kicked me again just before I could finish, and everything went black.
“I really like her spirit," Kaelor's laughter echoes. He glanced over at the boys. "Just make sure she remembers this day."
The boys nodded in agreement and Kaelor turned around, held up a hand and sent them a silent signal before walking away, without looking back. The moment Kaelor disappeared, one of the boys cracked his knuckle.
"So, what now?"
"Let's finish it up."
The tall one smirked. They gathered around me. I tried to crawl back, but my back was already at the lake. "No..."
One of the boys grabbed my arm and another leg, and with no mercy, they shoved me into the water.
The cold water pulled me down, and before I knew it, my entire body sank to the bottom. I couldn't swim, I flailed around for a bit until my eyes closed as the darkness enveloped me in a watery abyss.
Am I... going to die?
Just then an overwhelming heat flared from my wrist and my entire body began to burn, and then my eyes fluttered open under the water, burning.
They glowed, and above me, the boys stopped laughing. “The water… ”
“It’s getting hot…”
“What the hell is going on?”
Water steam rose off the lake, and it rippled once, then shimmered, then churned. The boys backed away, their laughter replaced with fear now “Stay away from the water!”
Just then, the lake erupted with the shriek of a hundred thundering beasts.
A plume of water erupted into the sky, exploding outwards with colossal power. The boys yelled, one was hurled to a tree, one crashed hard against a giant rock, and the last two went sailing metres across the ground.
Nearby trees were ripped from the ground by the blast like twigs. The land shook, the half-building vibrated, and the lake boiled, fire flickered in its depths.
Slowly, slowly I rose to stand in the centre of it.
The water parted around my body, my fingers changed to a claw and my body tensed up. My eyes were more alight than the surrounding flames. The earth pounded once more.
My attackers lay on the devastated shore unconscious after everything.
After a time, the flames died down, and my fingers returned to normal. My eyes went back to normal and every ounce of strength in my body drained away as I collapsed onto the muddy shore.
The blackness crept in, then all was black.
- Writer
