Oblivion

CHAPTER 8: Helpless

EVA LEVESQUE

The double doors opened for me and I saw Kyros seriously talking to someone. A female probably in her forties and a tall male with the same age as her or slightly older. The woman was sobbing while who I think is her husband had his arm around her shoulder trying to comfort her.

When they noticed I had arrived, they turned in my direction. The woman’s eyes widened and quickly came to me. She held my hand tightly with tears streaming nonstop from her eyes.

“You must have seen my daughter, right? You were there when it happened. A monster did this right?” she asked continuously. I looked at Kyros who looked at me sadly and shook his head. My eyes turned to look at her husband who had dark bags under his eyes. He was obviously tired and burnt out.

“Please help us,” she sobbed “my daughter did not deserve what happened to her. You need to find the monster who did this and kill them.”

My mind did not immediately process what she was saying. I felt mixed emotions like pity, sadness, and also confusion.

“Maam, she’s only a student, she doesn’t have the means to investigate—”

“I heard you’re an executioner,” she said, her eyes widened it sparked as she came with an idea “that’s great. You used to kill minsters all the time in the past. You can find the murderer and kill them.”

I felt a push and when I came to realize it, Kyros was already in between me and the woman.

“Elena, please stop this already,” her husband begged while holding her back.

“Please! Please you need to help me!” she shouted, “find the monster and kill them for me!”

“Ma’am please stop saying those things. Executioners don’t exist anymore,” Kyros said firmly, also holding the woman back and stopping her from reaching me.

“You need to! You were there! You saw her state!” she screamed while looking at me desperately “those monsters never should’ve lived!”

“Elena Stop!” the man’s voice echoed through the corners of the room. The woman stopped when the man screamed. He was breathing heavily and when he realized it he shook his head and fell to his knees.

“I beg of you, stop this already,” he begged in a low and meek voice “stop involving other people into this Elena, stop acting like this,”

The woman named Elena stopped and kneeled in front of him.

“This is our daughter! You must understand why I’m doing this! She didn’t deserve this! She’s our child! —”

“And so are our other children!” he shouted, “Elena the way you are acting now is affecting our other children! Losing a child is something we can never get over and is the most devastating thing we could experience but we have other young children too! You might not notice it but they need us too! They need us now more than ever! We need to be strong Elena! We should trust the officials to bring us justice.” He said, already crying.

The woman bit her lip and shook her head.

“But-but I’m in so much pain right now. Cory, Cory my daughter. She didn’t deserve this, I can’t do this—” she sobbed, her husband hugged her tightly.

“I know Elena, we can go through this together. We’ll find out who did this and they will pay. Our daughter deserved so much better.” He told her in a hushed tone.

A few minutes after, they collected themselves and faced us. The woman was facing down, holding on to her husband. Kyros stood beside me.

“I’m sorry for troubling you,” he apologized to Kyros then faced me, “We’re sorry for saying those things. We were just desperate. But we really came here is to ask for your help, maybe in ways, you could do. Any help is enough,” he said sincerely.

“I’ll-I’ll do what I can,” I meekly answered.

“We also want to thank you,” he continued, “Thank you for finding our daughter and thank you for being there until her last breath,” he said, his voice cracking as a tear fell from his eyes.

I tried to swallow the lump in my throat and my eyes heat up.

“I-I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything to save her,” I apologized.

The woman started to sob again even though I can’t clearly see her face. They both talked to Kyros and Kyros escorted them outside the office. I bit my lip to keep them from trembling, I tried to breathe and calm myself down to stop myself from crying.

When the door closed and it was only Kyros on me, I sighed as tears fell. My lips trembled as I was overwhelmed with emotion. I fell down on my knees as they were feeling weak.

“Eva!” I hear Kyros call when he immediately came to me.

I breathed heavily, trying to stop myself from crying anymore but whimpers and sobs escaped from my mouth. I held my chest when I felt a sharp pain from it. I didn’t realize how much I was holding everything in. I can’t even stop myself from creating a mess.

“I-I couldn’t even do anything for them,” I cried, “They-they were begging and crying for me to help them but I couldn’t do it.”

“It’s not your fault Eva, you couldn’t do anything about it.” He said in a calming and soothing tone, “you can’t control these kinds of things.”

I was just in so much pain. These days it kept bothering me, I could even see her in my dreams asking for help. Every time I would pass by her class, I’d see her empty seat with her picture in a frame a couple of flowers, snacks, and letters.

The school hasn’t given any announcement and the students are acting as if nothing happened like it was a normal thing to happen. The only thing that has changed is the behavior that hybrids and humans have towards each other.

I calmed myself down after that. Kyros helped me get on my feet and gave me some water to drink because I was still sniffling. When I was done, I fixed myself and stood in front of Kyros.

“Do I look decent?” I asked him. He tried to hide a smile but I caught him and slightly hit his shoulder.

“Stop making fun of me,” I told him.

“Aside from puffy, bloodshot eyes and a red nose, you look fine,” he said.

“What do you mean I look fine?!” I raised my voice. Kyros should be serious at times like these.

He insisted on taking me to the classroom even though I rejected him. The walk there was uncomfortable with me looking like I cried for years and Kyros, the council president escorting me. It made it seem like I was rejected by him and he was kind enough to take me back from where I belonged. Not to mention there were a lot of student on the hallway looking at us.

When we were a room away from my classroom. The door from the classroom next to us suddenly opened and a group of noisy students walked.

“Man, that quiz almost sucked my soul out,” a guy said.

“At least we’re done now,” another answered.

“You totally failed the test,” another said.

“At least we’re done now,” the guy answered back.

“I think Sigrid aced the exam,” a short hybrid girl with pointy and furry ears said.

My eyes immediately landed on the guy on a black hoodie, disheveled hair, and a piercing. He grinned showing his dimple and raised his brow. My face immediately heats up and ran behind Kyros who was as baffled as me.

“Kyros?” he asked, “what are you doing here?”

“It’s rare to see the president walking around the hallway,” one of his friends said. The girls from their group fixed their hair and took out their mirrors.

“You need me?” Sigrid asked and then his eyes met mine. “Eva?”

“I was just taking Eva to her class, I borrowed her for a moment,” Kyros explained casually. My eyes widened and noticed the same reaction from Sigrid’s friends. It was unusual for Kyros to talk in a casual way especially in front of other students.

Sigrid came near us and took a peek from Kyros’ shoulder.

“Stop hiding Eva, why are you so shy—did you cry? Why did you cry?” his expression immediately changed and turned to Kyros. “What happened?”

Kyros turned to me and I immediately shook my head. I looked at his friends who are also listening to our conversation. I don’t want people to know what happened, we should respect the private matters of the family.

“Uh,” Kyros trailed off “it seems that I’m staying here for too long. I have a business to attend to at the office, Eva you can take a few steps to your classroom on your own right?”

My brows furrowed. Of course, you dimwit, you were the one who insisted on taking me to class.

His brows also furrowed and nudged at me, I nudged back at him and now it turned into a nudge fight. He slightly pushed me away and walked away.

“I’ll see you all later then,” he said.

I was left there alone with my messed-up face in front of Sigrid and his friends.

“Wait,” the hybrid girl on pigtails said, “did you confess to the president and got rejected. That’s why you look like that?”

“Oh!” another one of his friends added, the lion hybrid from the first day, “and was the president kind enough to take you to class?”

I looked at Sigrid’s serious expression. I didn’t like it when he was mad, it made me scared. But I also don’t want to talk to him at the moment, not when I look like a mess.

“Yeah, I think so,” I answered meekly. They flinched and shook their heads.

“Well-well that’s life,” I just said “I’ll go now.”

I walked as fast as I could from there and never turned back. I hated to see Sigrid’s angry face. When I entered the classroom, I walked straight up to Helle who was teaching Irene a trick or something. They both lifted their heads up when they noticed me in front of them.

“Gosh Eva! What happened to your face?!” Irene exclaimed, “you look like you got rejected!”

“Was it Mister Sigrid?” Helle asked.

I sighed and sat on the chair.

“Stop asking me questions, and no, I wasn’t rejected,” I told them then suddenly stopped. I remembered what happened last night but that wasn’t rejection, right?

They walked towards me and eyed me suspiciously.

“What happened Eva? Why did you cry?” Irene asked. I looked around and saw our classmates. I can’t open up here and I’m too upset to tell them, I might just end up crying again.

“I’ll tell you later at the dorm,” I said.

“This won’t do,” Irene said. I looked up and saw her grinning.

“What are thinking about now Irene?” I asked her and squinted my eyes. Whenever she’s grinning I feel like she’ll do something crazy.

She got her bag and my bag and gave them to Helle who was already carrying her bag.

“Let’s go!” she shouted and held my wrist.

“What do you mean? We still have class?”

“Irene?”

“IRENE!”

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END