DARKLING

10

Unedited.

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Hazel sighed as she exist her last class for the day.

She pushed her hair back for the umpteenth time since she had went to clean up in her dorm. There was no time to braid her hair again after washing it.

"Dumb idiot."

She grumbled as she started towards the library.

Hazel noticed the stares had intensified even more than before.

She could hear some of their words as she passed, not that they were being quite though, they were purposely raising their voices so Hazel could hear them.

"Did you hear? She messed with Daryl Waterfall."

The gasp that came from the other girl was overly dramatic, her eyes opened wide like saucers.

"Who does she think she is?"

One scoffed.

"Does she think just because she's an Ivanov heiress she could mess with a Waterfall and get away with it?"

"Let her be...she's about to learn anyway."

"Do you see the way she walks? With her nose up in the air as if she's better than us all? She doesn't even talk to anyone, I said hi to her in the dorminatory earlier and she just walked past and ignored me..."

"She did? She smiled at me earlier...?"

One girl trailed as she remembered the awkward grimace like smile she had received back in response.

"Doesn't matter, she messed with the wrong person I heard she poured smoothie on him and even had the guts to ask him who he thinks he is?"

Hazel's steps didn't falter as she continued walking as if she wasn't hearing a thing.

The person who spread those rumors must have been blind...or just plain dumb. And how could the person forget to add that a wrist was broken and it wasn't hers?

Hazel reached the double doors of the library twisted the knob and pushed the door open.

She closed the door behind her, her eyes did a quick scan of the library which seems to have no end.

The room was vast it was impossible to see the end of it from where she stood, with multiple shelves filled with books there was hardly any empty space on it.

The place was almost empty save for the five student scattered around on different tables with their heads buried in a large text books.

"Hazel Ivanov?"

Hazel looked beside her at the source of the voice.

An average heighted middle aged woman with glasses and a formal gray suit attire stood by the desk with a polite smile on her oval shaped face, just like most people meeting Hazel for the first time, she had that slight look of dumbstruck.

"How did you..."

Hazel trailed while giving her a curious look.

"Oh I just got a call from Mr Baxter saying you were on your way here."

The woman waved the telephone she held at Hazel.

Hazel frowned.

"How did he...nevermind."

She was probably being watched on the CCTV again.

This place felt more like jail than a school.

Everything was being watched on camera and the security was suffocatingly strict.

"I'm Olivia Quinn, the librarian."

Hazel already guessed as much. The woman had the typically libaraian look,with her glasses and thick bangs resting and inch above her eyes.

"You're going to be here for a long... time."

Olivia emphasized on the 'long' with a slight widening of her brown eyes as she glanced behind her.

Hazel shifted her eyes to look behind the woman at the array of boxes on the floor.

Hazel's eyes follow the arrangement of brown boxes. Up, down then to the sides.

"...A few new books came in to the library earlier today, I'm sure the librarian would appreciate a helping hand in..."

A few?

She couldn't even approximate the number of boxes she was seeing here, and they were all filled with new books.

Yup.

Hazel sighed.

She really was going to be here for a long....time.

★★★

"Will you look at that, were down to only a few more boxes."

Olivia beamed.

Seriously where does she get all that enthusiasm from?

Hazel thought.

She was beyond exhausted, but it didn't show on her. She didn't slack, not one bit. Her expression remained blank, like always.

Olivia bent down to go through one of the boxes,

"This one's history it goes wayyy back there, just a few more shelves after the economic section, its written on top."

She picked up the heavy box and hand it to Hazel with a strained smile. The box was heavy.

Stop smiling.

Hazel thought lazily while taking the box from her.

She hadn't said a word apart from nodding her head once in a while if necessary.

Well that was expected.

She's just like all the other kids in the academy who thinks they're too posh to interact with the likes of people like us, from the lower class.

But she really has exceptional looks...

Olivia thought as she watched Hazel walk away while standing straight with the box held steadily in her arms as if it didn't contain heavy text books that weighs a ton.

And cool too.

Hazel reached the economic shelf section and looked around.

'...Just a few more shelves after the economic section...'

A few more shelves left?

A few more shelves right?

Or a few more shelves forward?

She hadn't ask.

Never mind I'll find it...

She walked forward.

Hazel quickly stopped in her tracks when she almost reach a shelf.

Her eyes remained trained to the thing she saw on the floor.

A long white...wood?

No wait that wasn't a wood.

It was a leg.

A human leg with white pants that almost blend with the white tiles of the library floor.

A human leg sticking out in between two shelves.

Hazel's mind went blank and then it panicked

What if...someone was murdered here?

Oh f**k please no, don't let it be what I'm thinking.

What if someone was really murdered here and she was labeled as the murder since she was the first person to find the body.

But there are CCTV's everywhere right?

Hazel looked up and just as she thought there's was a blinking camera up in the ceiling.

OK. Calm down.

With slow steps Hazel walked closer to the shelf, crossed over the leg and looked between the shelves.

She froze.

It really was a person.

A person dressed in all white holding an open book which was laying on the floor beside him.

And that person was...asleep?

With his back leaning against the shelf while one of his legs stretched out in front of him the other brought up so his knee was folded.

Only the steady rise and fall of his chest indicated he was still alive.

Hazel stared, frozen.

White...

She hates white.

He was the same person who had came to the academy earlier today along with three other boys.

Hazel hadn't seen his face clearly, but that person had been wearing white too and the hair... The way his hair fall over to completely cover his right eye was the same.

She didn't know how long she stood staring at the person whose color of clothes brings her a raging headache, but when his eyes had snapped open, the box she held came crashing from her hand to fall on the floor with a loud thud.

Silver.

His eyes was a steely silver.

So intense, so cold , so sharp it seem to be cutting through her, seeing through her, ripping apart all of her facades and defenses, as if it were seeing...all of her darkest secrets.

His gaze had her staggering back.

Why?

Why did he look so familiar as if she's seen him before...as if she use to know him, from the past.

That wasn't good.

It wasn't good at all.

If she's seen him before, long ago, then it meant she's seen him from the past.

The past.

The past wasn't something she wants to remember...ever.

Hazels heart trembled...with an emotion she couldn't name.

Was it fear?

She hadn't felt fear in a long time...not this type of fear, not the fear associated with her past.

Hazel was lost...lost in the intensity of his gaze that brought back memories she couldn't seem to identify. No emotion crossed her face, nothing to reflect what she was feeling inside.

The words that came out of his lips broke hazel out of her trance.

"I'm handsome, I know."

And her brain went blank.

She blinked.

Once.

Twice

thrice.

What?

"Oh I forgot to tell you where the..."

Olivia froze as she stare at the two.

She had come to check on Hazel to see if she had found the history section as she had forgot to tell her where to turn to afterwards. Who knew Ryder Waterfall was here too.

"Young master Ryder."

She greeted with her gaze lowered and her head tilting downwards slightly.

Ryder rose to stand in his full height.

He was intimidatingly tall.

Ryder didn't seem to bother about her anymore after what he had said.

With the now closed book still held in his hand, he started to walk away but not before saying to Mrs Olivia,

"This is a library, why is it noisy?"

"Actually..."

Olivia trailed off seeing as Ryder wasn't looking for an answer and he has already walked out of sight.

She looked at the box Hazel had unconsciously dropped. Some of the books had fell out.

"Oh dear...did he scare you?"

Olivia asked, her tone carrying a hint of worry as she bent down to straighten the box and return the books inside.

'Who is he?'

Hazel wanted to ask but she couldn't find her voice, her throat felt clogged.

The only thing she could ask herself is...

'Why does he seem so familiar?'

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