The Swords

Chapter 3

Once I got home, I ran straight up to my room and locked myself in, wanting to be in a quiet place where I could think unbothered. My first instinct was to reach for my phone and call all my friends, to be sure they are alright. However, considering the time, it would have been of no use, since they were still having classes. I let out a sigh and took a few deep breaths, gathering my thoughts and starting to try to work with what I knew. Lying on the bed, I closed my eyes and focused solely on my mind.

There wasn’t much to work with in the data I had, but there were two certain things: there was going to be an attack on my friends and it was going to happen today. I clenched my fist thinking about the conversation I’ve had earlier with Merizar. The more I thought the more I hated this situation straining my muscles to avoid taking my feelings out on the room. Who had the audacity to provoke the High Inquisitor of the Swords? Even worse, I was dealing with someone so despicable that they were going after my friends. I was used with my life being at risk, but I wouldn’t allow it when it came to the people that made me laugh, that supported me in ways the Swords never could and most importantly the people who reminded me of my humanity and of what it meant to be a normal human being. If not for my relationship with Zara, I doubt that I would still know what happiness and flirting meant, Chris’ crazy ideas and intelligence were my inspiration for several plans, I’ve used in order to get out of tight situations. In a way, even my platonic relationship with Aria was helping me daily, reminding me that there are some things that not even the High Inquisitor can have and that I should treasure everything and everyone around me. Thinking about this, a scream got out of me. It lasted for several seconds, but once it came at an end, my mood and capacity to think were highly improved. I couldn’t allow my emotions to get the better of me again, if I wanted to be able to figure everything out.

Maybe this wasn’t all for nothing, though. Through this episode, I understood that there were only three people out there whose friendships meant everything to me. Wondering whether the assassin would know that, I’ve realized that this could be nothing, but a personal vendetta, which meant that whoever was behind this did their homework. Of course, I wouldn’t want for anyone to get killed, but no matter the size of Zara’s party, I couldn’t protect everyone on my own and that was the first thing that had to be well-imprinted in my mind. My focus couldn’t be split or everything would fall apart.

What was that everything though? I didn’t even know how many assassins were sent here. For all I knew, there was an entire order here. Although, after thinking about it, I’ve realized that it made little to no sense. This mission probably commenced a few days if not hours ago and it was meant to send a message. This meant that, in theory, nobody could find out about this mission fast enough to stop it, so there were quite a lot of chances that there will only be one assassin. Even so, I still had to find out who, or rather try to guess who. In order to narrow things down, I started thinking what kind of person would be the right one for such a job. My bet was on someone who could keep their cool under pressure, who would be able to read the room in order to know when it was the best time to act and either someone courageous and fit enough to do it fast and then run off, or sneaky enough to bait their victim away and do it privately, giving themselves enough time to leave the scene. Most importantly there had to be someone, close enough to all of us to be able to be around us without alerting anyone, especially me. Half of the school could get a one on one with Zara, especially at her own party, where she was forced to be a good host. Aria ran with a small group of her classmates only, none of which would normally hang out with the rest of us, so it was enough to draw her away from them and the assassin was in a difficult position, which meant that it was unlikely to be any of them. When he wasn’t spending his time with me, Chris was mostly hanging out either with the football team or with Zack, the class’ mathematician, who, even though had a fantastic brain, was way too nervous about everything in order to be an assassin. The guys in the football team all had the physique to land a blow, but they would rather be warriors than silent killers. Also, they were not really on the best terms with Zara ever since she has harshly rejected Derek, their captain. So, it means that it had to be someone from the people I normally hang out with. Except for these three friends, I spent my days with the guys from the boxing club and with Mark and his friends. I can easily get the boxing club out of the equation, since none would ever be invited at Zara’s party, which only left Mark and his friends. Mark is the only guy in the entire school who rivals my billiard skills and ever since we went head to head for the first time, we remained good friends. But he couldn’t be an assassin, I mean sure, he is on pretty good terms with Zara and is part of the football team, but he hardly ever speaks with Aria. Thinking about that, however, made me remember that Aria has a long-time crush on the two meters quarterback. This meant that her friends would gladly hang out with him, for Aria’s sake, while he could easily approach Zara or Chris. But…no, I refused to believe that the cheerful and calm Mark could be an assassin. He was also…my breath got heavier as I thought about the words intelligent and fit, which, added to the picture, were completing all the criteria I thought about earlier. After a few deep breaths and doing some motions with my hand, so I wouldn’t lash out at anything in the room, I’ve thought that maybe I forgot something crucial, so I went through my line of thought again. After founding nothing to add, I’ve taken into consideration that I was overthinking things, so maybe there were simply too many things I knew about Mark for him to be the assassin. He had so many opportunities to hurt us along the years, but he never took any of them, fact which was just strengthening my beliefs that he is not a killer. Why was I still thinking about this then? Why couldn’t I find anyone else to fit this pattern as well as he was? My friends were counting on me, I couldn’t afford to be nothing but my best self. Maybe right now all I was doing was making up excuses and denying what was right in front of my eyes, but maybe…hmm…

An idea suddenly arose in my mind, making me realize that maybe the other guy didn’t have to fit the pattern better, it was enough to…but before I could continue, my doorbell rang two times. Being so deep in my thoughts, I jumped from my bed with my sword in my hand, startled by the sound. I took a few second to relax and catch my breath, my watch reappearing on my arm. This only gave the unexpected visitor the occasion to ring a few more times.

“I am coming!” I yelled annoyed at the sound.

“Faster, darling, I don’t have all day.” Zara’s voice said on the other side of the door, just as I was opening it. Seeing her made my day become a lot brighter all of a sudden. For a couple of moments my muscles relaxed and I took my mind off of everything, enjoying the sight of her and the fact that she was there, safe and sound, her stance impeccable, as always. Immersed in my feelings, a warm feeling enveloped my body, giving me an irresistible impulse to hug her, which I did. She was taken by surprise, but after a few seconds she relaxed and returned the hug, both our hearts beating faster, feeling understood, while I took my mind off of everything.

“You are really glad to see me, aren’t you?” she said as we broke apart.

“I guess I didn’t get my fair share since I skipped school today.” She grinned as I invited her in, taking my schoolbag from her. “I’ve just dropped by to give you your books, since Chris had an emergency.” The irony of the last two words was crystal clear. “But I guess I won’t mind catching up a little bit.”

“Well, then the least I can do is offer you something to cool you off in this hot day.”

“But I love hot things.” She winked at me and then went straight for my refrigerator, from where she took out a big ice cream box.

“Did anything unusual happen today at school?” I asked her, trying to keep cool, but my voice still faltered a little.

“Unusual? Not really, though that Stacy i***t almost spilled her coffee on me. She’d deserve to be sued if she stained this blouse.” She was really serious, but I couldn’t help a laughter. However, Zara’s expression remained unchanged, so I’ve decided to move on.

“Anyone else that annoyed you?”

“Well, just the usual.”

“Ah, so there were 4 guys who you rejected today?” she made a face. “five?” she shook her head. “Oh, come on, anything above five is not the usual.”

“Mondays are special.” We both smiled, as the ice cream box was emptying by the second.

“I am glad you are alright.”

“Of course, I am. What exactly did you expect to happen?” she asked, sensing the relief in my voice.

“I don’t know, but every time I leave you alone for five seconds someone gets heavily annoyed, or worse. It’s hard to imagine an entire day.”

“As I said, Mondays are special.”

“What about Chris? Is he alright?”

“As long as he didn’t hurt his eyes when he opened his wardrobe realizing he doesn’t have anything to wear tonight, then he is just as fine as he was when he left school.” She paused, waiting for my reaction. “What’s happening with you? You first skip classes, then run back home and now this. You are behaving weirdly.”

“Don’t mind me, it’s just something that an old acquaintance of mine said today.”

“So that’s why you skipped school? You went on a date?” she grinned as she was l*****g off the ice cream of her teaspoon. “Was she hot at least?”

I laughed at the thought of Merizar being described as a hot female.

“It was a he, not that it mattered, and I think a date would have been way more pleasant.” It got out with way more frustration than I wanted it to, so I tried to ease it up “Why? Are you jealous, Heidelforg?” I returned her earlier grin, getting back into our usual back and forth.

“Jealous? Darling, people are the ones jealous on me, not the other way around.” She winked. “But really now, what happened? You really seem bothered by it.”

Was it that obvious? Was it just because she knew me better than pretty much anyone else? It could also be that I was just bad at acting, although I doubted that, since basically my entire life was an act.

“He just told me about someone involved in some pretty shady s**t and I was thinking of ways to get out of it.” Zara’s eyes gleamed, but before she could say anything that would force me to lie to her, I continued “It got me thinking about that smart detective that I always tell you about and how he…”

“When you start with that excuse of a crime show, it is clearly the cue for me to leave.” She stood up and went for the door.

“But he…” I pretended to continue the act

“Don’t be late and be presentable.” She put her sunglasses back on, ignoring my remark and turned around one more time.

“I will see you tonight.” Telling her that put my usual grin back on my face “And your game would better be on, because I still run unbeaten against you.”

“Don’t worry, Elijah, that arrogance of yours will bring your downfall at some point.”

“Ha! Look who’s talking about arrogance.” We smirked.

“Oh, and please borrow something to Chris when he realizes his closet is all made from black jeans and t-shirts. My eyes would bleed if he wears his usual clothes.”

“But what’s wrong with those?” I said jokingly as she lowered her glasses and gave me one of her piercing looks. She then turned around and disappeared in the black limo waiting for her outside my house.

Just like her, I had a party to prepare, it was just one of a different kind and for only one person. I grinned, feeling sorry for the guy who thought that it was a good idea to mess with the High Inquisitor of the Swords.