╚╩╩╩╝ Hazel ╚╩╩╩╝

I sat upright on the bed scratching Bella. Malcolm had just run out of the room. There was no doubt in my mind that he was starting a fight. He had scolded me for letting myself become like this without telling him. I had wanted to try and convince him to forget this happened, but the look on his face left me speechless. He truly cared for me.

In my entire life, I’ve never felt like this before. My mother died when I was young and my father was a brutal alcoholic. I’d never felt the warm embrace of a loved one or the kind words of a friend. A trembling feeling filled my chest when I pictured his face again. I didn’t want him to worry about me, so I didn’t tell him about what was happening to me. I’d dealt with bullying of this kind before, so I thought that I could just deal with it. Now, however, I knew I couldn’t keep dedicating my life for another. I had to truly live my life.

For Malcolm, I would live my life to the fullest. No more holding back. Let trouble come. I’ll- we’ll take it. Together.

Patting Bella, the cat purred happily and mewled softly. Picking her up, I kissed the top of her head and hugged her to my neck, trying to relax my trembling heart, though it seemed that nothing could stop it.

The door to the room opened, drawing my attention to a nurse. I vaguely recognized her and remembered from where after a moment of thought. She was the one who had checked me in and brought me to a room and had been there when I had ran away too. She had clearly seen that I was being chased, but made no effort to stop my pursuers.

Meeting my gaze, a shadow of guilt crossed over the nurse’s face. “I see that you’re awake.” She spoke, turning to face the wall. “You have a visitor.”

Harper, my roommate, stepped in from behind the nurse and shooed her away. Closing the door behind her as the nurse hurried out of the room. I’d known that Harper didn’t like me too much, but I never thought it would be enough to try to harm me.

I’d had plenty of time to think while lying here and quickly pieced together what exactly had happened to me. Harper was a student of Natural Magic. Just recently, after glancing at her notes in passing, I’d seen that they were currently studying plants and their effects on humans. The day I started feeling sick, I’d noticed that my tea tasted different. I just assumed that it had gone bad, but Harper must have mixed in some kind of poison into it.

“Quite a fighter, aren’t ya.” She muttered as she strode over and sat down in the seat that Mal had been sitting in not too long ago. “Your little running fit got me in a lot of trouble.”

Why did she do something like this? Why to me?

“Are you admitting that this is your fault?” I asked, meeting her hollow stare.

Sneering, she retorted, “Oh, you can speak! Has little miss prissy finally come down from her throne?” She mocked loudly. “Next time, why don’t you just save everyone the trouble and sit still.” She reached her arm out slowly, reaching for my head. “I’d hate to have to hurt that pretty hair of yours.”

Before she could touch me, I slapped her hand away. “Don’t touch me!” I shouted at her. “Do something like this again, and I swear that you’ll regret it.” Seething, I glared at her.

Suddenly, I felt my vision shift as all the color disappeared from the room. Locking eyes, I felt anger well up inside me as a voice deep inside me urged me to attack, to kill. Then, surprisingly, the contempt in Harper’s eyes turned to fear for a brief second.

Gritting her teeth, my roommate snapped her head to the side and left without so much as a word, slamming the door behind her.

Relaxing, color returned as I shuddered, recalling the urges that I had managed to suppress. I’d never taken a life before, but a part of me was more than ready to. It felt normal which frightened me greatly. What was happening to me?

Breathing deeply, the trembling in my chest subsided. Glancing over to my clothes, I could tell that they were still wet, but I didn’t want to stay in the infirmary any longer. Standing from the bed, I stepped over to my clothes and rummaged inside of the pockets, searching for something specific. Finally, I felt the familiar shape of the invisibility ring. Mal had given it to me some time ago, though I never used it.

Cringing, I changed into my moistened uniform and shuddered from the cold. Activating the ring, my body disappeared. Suddenly, Bella started to mewl from the bed. The cat sniffed at the air and looked around before leaping onto the ground and sniffing around my feet. She then started to rub herself against my invisible leg, purring. I couldn’t just leave her here, though she would definitely not want me to carry her with my wet clothes. Deciding to take the chance, I scooped the cat up and held her in my arms and, to my surprise, she didn’t try to escape.

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Quietly leaving the room, I was careful to not walk where people were. I couldn’t help but let out a slight chuckle imagining their reactions to a floating cat moving down the hallway.

Finally making it out of the infirmary, I let the warm sunlight wash over my body and noticed that people were gathering in one direction and that it happened to be in the direction of the women’s dormitory. Following behind the crowd, I set Bella on the ground and watched the cat sprint forward ahead of me. I wanted to chase after her, but she was too far ahead and too deep in the crowd. Though, she did manage to find her way inside the College, so she should be able to find her way back to Mal or me.

I followed the crowd until the people in front of me had stopped and were trying to see over each other’s heads. Searching around, I saw a nearby boulder with a couple sitting atop it, watching whatever was happening. Quietly I rushed over to the boulder and climbed up behind the two spectators.

Not too far away, surrounded by at least two hundred students, Malcolm was fighting another student. I vaguely recognized that the other student was the one who had picked a fight with him when we had first arrived and the one whose voice I had heard before running from the infirmary. I think his name was something like Werner, though I didn’t care enough to try and remember his name.

Malcolm was running and dodging at every attack that the other student was throwing at him, and it seemed that Werner was getting frustrated. The boy had even brought his own weapon, a simple, arm length, metal rod. The ring of students had closed the two of them in, forming a kind of arena. This arena was very small, which put Mal at a disadvantage since his opponent was a warrior. Despite this, though, the two seemed to be fighting on equal grounds.

Werner, with his indigo aura wrapped around his body, leapt towards Malcolm, closing the short gap between them in an instant and swung his weapon downward. Malcolm narrowly dodged this attack, ducking just to the side. In the short moment where Werner’s attack whiffed the air, Mal sent out a quick jab aiming for the other boy’s eyes. His aura blocked the attack, but he still flinched and stumbled back as Malcolm raised his hand, spell ready, and let loose a ball of fire that collided with the boy’s fading aura. Crying out in shock, Werner righted himself and steadied his aura and attacked again, wildly swinging his weapon.

Taking advantage of his opponent’s recklessness, Malcolm stepped back and quickly prepared another spell and cast it, though Werner didn’t seem to notice or care. Rushing forward, the boy’s foot sank into the dirt and held tight, causing him to fall on his face. Groaning, he pulled himself out from the ground and started calling Malcolm various insults and other terms that I didn’t dare speak, myself. The crowd in its entirety seemed to have a similar reaction to myself and cringed at the boy’s temperament.

Suddenly, a new contender entered the arena. A little tabby cat strolled out of the crowd and over to Malcolm. Surprised, Mal lost focus just as Werner charged again. The boy’s attack this time wasn’t aimed at Malcolm. Sensing this, Mal turned and summoned a Magic Ring. In that moment, I could feel his rage boiling over. At this distance, I saw what I had seen when he had been fighting his brother two years ago. Blood red writing appeared on the Magic Ring at a rate faster than I could see. The spell was finished in a moment and from the ground, a dark gray spike shot out and hit Werner in the chest. If his aura had not protected him, he would have been killed just like Mal’s brother. The attack didn’t stop with that, however. Flying through the air, a thinner rod of metal shot from the ground, moving like a snake as it caught the boy, wrapping around his neck and shoulders, holding his arms out and his head up.

Malcolm summoned another Magic Ring, though he did not immediately cast a spell. This time, the ring shifted from its usual white color to a bright yellow before the red writing appeared once again. The spell finished in an instant as the clouds overhead began gathering, quickly turning dark.

“Stop this instant!” A voice cried out from nearby.

But it was too late. The spell had finished, and the storm clouds had formed a menacing shadow over the school grounds. But before any lighting could strike, a massive metal spike shot out from the ground, much larger and higher than the ones that Mal had created. In that same moment, an enormous arc of lightning erupted from the sky, crashing into the massive metal spike. The lightning was then dispersed in the ground, shocking everyone nearby and leaving heavy static in the air.

Quickly, two adults, I assume to be teachers, arrived in the arena, dispersing the crowd. The metal holding Werner up sank back into the ground, dropping the boy on the ground, coughing and choking. One of the teachers ran over and grabbed Malcolm, forcing him to the ground. I wanted to go and help him, but new that it would only bring more trouble than we could handle. The students that had gathered quickly dispersed, leaving only the teachers with Mal and Werner.

“Take that one to the disciplinary hall.” One of the teachers spoke, helping Werner up. “I’ll get this one checked and then bring him over too.”

The other teacher nodded and then dragged Malcolm away. I could tell that he was more confused than anything. He was also worried, though I couldn’t tell if it was about me or about Bella. Seeing Bella nearby, I rushed to the cat and scooped her up and tried as hard as I could to tell Mal that we were both okay, though I had no idea how our connection worked. There was no indication of whether or not that the message got through, but I could feel the worry disappear shortly after.

Holding Bella tight, I entered the women’s dorm and went to my room. Standing outside my door, I checked that there was no one nearby and turned off the invisibility ring and entered the room. Harper was sitting on our sofa reading. She looked up at me as I opened the door and hurriedly averted her gaze.

Ignoring my roommate, I brought Bella to my room and laid her on my bed where she flopped and started to roll around.

Peeling off my damp clothes, I took a bath. The warm water was a blessing to my tense, cold body. How big of a blessing was it to be able to take advantage of this new technology. The castle only had it installed a few years ago.

Wait… that’s it! Something finally clicked in my mind. I knew where to find Faria’s contact in the College!