Bye Arsène

Chapter 3

I avoided their spells one after the other but they kept me at bay and so I could not attack them in return. The irritation could have been read from my face because one of the attackers laughed:

"It's difficult without your powers?

-You should know that according to the protocol of transparency towards humans you do not have the right to use your powers in a public place. You have an auditorium of 200 people as witnesses. You could have big problems. "

They laughed.

"Mow poor us we didn't know. Maybe we should have thought this through before we came here.

-Oh no what will become of us? "

I rolled my eyes.

"I'm saying that for you. Once I knock you out you will wake up in a cell and you will never get out.

-We don't care. We're willing to take that risk to take you.

-But you want to take me where?

-The rumors spread quickly. We know what your powers are capable of. You would be a great ally in our business.

-So you want to take me by force to convince me to join you? Frankly you should reconsider your methods.

- Make fun of us as long as you want. You have to come with us. You must hear what we have to tell you.

-No thanks.

-If you take it like that. "

The attacks became more and more violent and less and less spaced out. It was more and more difficult to avoid them and I ended up being thrown against the wall that I hit full force. I fell to the floor under the frightened cries of the students and stood up somehow hearing a buzzing in my left ear.

The women laughed loudly when they saw me coming back to them.

"Face it. You can't beat us without using your powers."

I smiled painfully.

"You really have to stop underestimating me. I don't exist just because of my powers."

I got back into fighting position which frustrated the two women in front of me. They resumed their spells and I avoided them one after the other. As I avoided them I approached step by step  which obviously caused panic in their minds. Suddenly at their level I gave them both a simultaneous kick which put an end to the surge of magic. I turned to the professor and saw that my friends were taking good care of him.

Emma gestured to me that the ambulance was coming soon when suddenly her eyes widened in fear. I avoided the blow of my assailant who had stood up at the last second and turned to face her. I decided not to give her time to think it over and attacked her with aggression and determination. I could only think of one thing: to see her on the ground. But while we were fighting the woman tried to reason with me, feeling that she was not going to last long:

"Listen to what we have to tell you Atalante. It's all in your best interests. You could save us all. This society is rotten to the core. You have to do something. You think you're on the safe side but they're lying to you. They're just like that. Do you really think you're important to them? All they care about is your powers. "

I listened only with one ear to everything she was saying but her next sentence disconcerted me and the young woman took the opportunity to grab my arm and break it on her knee. I screamed in pain but refused to fall. I remained standing determined to end it. I didn't have to however.

A powerful spell lifted the woman from the earth and locked her in a prison with green bars. Arsène was standing at the doors of the amphitheater and he never took his eyes off me. He ran towards me and I had never seen him so worried in the little time I knew him. He was often cranky or tired, but I had never seen him fear for anyone before. He knelt in front of me and examined my arm. I couldn't hold back a cry of pain and suddenly Arsène's eyes darkened. He was furious. Without letting go of my arm he shouted in my face:

"Why didn't you call me? Are you crazy? Did you think you were good enough to fight alone against five? And without your powers! You are really stupid I swear."

I tore away my drunken arm.

"If you came to yell at me then you might as well go."

Arsène tried to catch my arm but I pointed to the teacher who needed more help than me. Arsène got up against his will and went to treat the professor doing the maximum before the arrival of the ambulance. So my friends got up and came to my side to see how I was doing. They were very worried and I was angry with myself for letting them witness this scene.

"Is your arm okay?"

Emma asked me softly. I smiled.

"Yes. It's nothing.

-You are very pale.

-Oh it's the lack of sun. "

I wanted to laugh but I didn't have the strength. My friends just stared at me in silence, not knowing what to say. I could tell they had tons of questions but they didn't matter compared to my current state. So I answered their silent questions to occupy their minds.

"I don't know who these people are. And I don't know what exactly they wanted from me. They must be some sort of wizarding world revolutionaries or something. They sure want to take power to shape the world to their vision of perfection. My powers interested them that is why they came here. "

I was silent for a moment.

"I hope they don't come back ... If they've all seen my powers then I'm afraid it's going to happen again ... Maybe I should stop coming to class ... "

Emma shook her head sharply.

"That's not why you have to stop coming. Don't let them control your life or they'll win.

-But that would put you in danger ... "

Nael shrugged his shoulders.

"We don't care."

I smiled at them. My friends I loved so much accepted me as I was without asking questions. I had imagined their reaction so many times to the discovering of my powers but I never thought they would be so tolerant. I wanted to tell them everything. Share everything with them but I knew they were going to erase their memory. I told myself that it was better to live in ignorance but seeing them looking at me with so much support made me doubt myself.

Maybe it wasn't our decision but theirs. Maybe they had a right to know. I didn't want to erase their memory. I wanted to have them near me.

As if Arsène had sensed my thoughts he appeared beside me and ordered my friends to return to the professor.

"The ambulance will arrive soon. He will be out of the woods but I have to take Atalante to treat her too.

-The ambulance could take care of her.

-I prefer to take her to our nurse. "

I got up and followed Arsène out of the hall. I gave my friends a last sad smile before leaving. Arsène offered to help me walk but I didn't need it. We walked in silence and behind us I heard the ambulance arriving.

I felt that Arsène wanted to tell me something but I really didn't want to argue with him. One because I was in pain and two because I had nothing to say to him seeing how he yelled at me. I made him understand this by speeding up suddenly when he opened his mouth.

Arsène then accelerated to catch up with me and put a hand on my shoulder gently so that I stopped. I turned to him, my face expressing extreme weariness.

"What?"

Arsène withdrew his hand and fixed his gaze on my shoes.

"I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry."

I did't say anything. He had better be sorry.

"It's just that... Seeing you hurt made me panic. I was genuinely scared and didn't know how to deal with that feeling."

He smiled. A smile that made me want to smile too, but I held back.

"I realize now that I have things to improve on."

I breathed in a way that said: no kidding. He looked me in the eye with a softness that I never knew him.

"I am really sorry."

I breathed one more time before smiling at him.

"Well come on, my arm hurts."

We made our way to the old building and the air between us had become much more breathable. That day I had discovered a new facet of Arsène that was not to displease me. Within a second I felt like I had gotten a lot closer to him.So we continued to train together but something had changed. It was very light. Almost invisible but I could feel it. He was slightly more patient than before and smiled more often than usual.

However, he might have promised to have learned from his mistakes, he reacted in a fairly similar way the second time someone attacked me.

I had not succeeded in convincing Arsène and the others not to erase the memory of my friends which had greatly saddened me. Once out of sight I crouched down crying telling myself that the world was unfair. I had never felt so helpless before.But in exchange for the memory of my friends they assured me that I could live peacefully because they would protect me from any external attack.I would have preferred not to go to class and leave their memories to my friends but I had not succeeded.

They had been so understanding and kind to me and I didn't even have the strength to let them keep their memories. I felt really guilty. Every time I looked them in the eyes I felt extreme sadness so I started to pull away from them a bit. Noticing that I was not at the top of my form Emma suggested that we had a little reunion between us and Arsène assured me that I could go without a problem. So I accepted.

I really wanted to spend time with my friends. For one evening I wanted to pretend like nothing had happened and live my life as before for just a few hours. I really needed it. I went to Artelo's house to find them and we played board games in a good mood. For once in a long time I let my guard down completely and really had a good time caring about nothing else.

We laughed heartily and part of me regretted having discovered the existence of magic. As I was thinking this to myself we heard someone knock. We looked at each other puzzled before I offered to go open. Artelo was surprised of my proposal because after all it was his house but he let me go. I didn't want to take any chances.I looked through the eyelet on the door and saw nothing. While I was still looking outside I heard a knock again. I didn't want to open and just stared at the door knob. My friends behind me asked me what I was doing.

I motioned for them to be silent without taking my eyes off the knob. I tried to remember if after we arrived Artelo had locked the door but I couldn't remember. I prayed inwardly that he locked the door, but I was afraid he didn't.