Volume 9: Eclosion

Issue 6: Saving Throw

Florian Reyes Honeywell

By Roach

I turned my quiz in, avoiding Mrs. Porters’ piercing stare as I placed the sheet of paper onto her desk. I quickly scurried out of the classroom, hoping that at least a few of my half-guessed answers had been correct.

Since our encounter with Reticle, I had completely forgotten about studying for biology. I had spent the better part of the night pacing the greenhouse on top of my apartment building, trying to figure out what we would do next. Even if Amber could work out Reticle’s true identity, I wasn’t sure how we were going to win in a fight against her.

We had a better idea of what Reticle was capable of now, which meant we had a chance to prepare ourselves… But, if we couldn’t bypass her force field, I wasn’t sure any amount of preparation would help us.

Maybe Amber’s bonds could bypass it, but—even so—that would really only work as a last resort… and only after we had spent enough time fighting her.

I couldn’t help but think that the longer we fought her, the worse our odds would be.

Maybe Vorpal’s blade really was the solution… Then again, we hardly knew Vorpal. Could they—

As I walked down the hallway, a familiar voice interrupted my train of thoughts.

“Hey, Florian,” Hannah called out to me.

I halted, and turned to face her. She emerged from the group of students filtering out of the biology classroom, and now waved to me. I waited as she caught up to me.

“Hi,” I murmured. A bristle ran through the swarm, as a new sense of panic crushed whatever anxieties I had left about the quiz. After everything with Reticle, I hadn’t just forgotten about biology—I had forgotten about the study session, and Hannah’s rushed departure from Aesop’s… Was she going to explain? If her explanation was about me, did I even want to know?

“How did it go?” she asked, as we started walking down the hallway.

“Huh?”

“The quiz,” she clarified.

“I think…” I paused, deliberating with myself whether or not to sugarcoat it. But, when I caught her gaze—inquisitive and soft at the same time—I found myself unable to lie. “It was catastrophic,” I said.

She chuckled. “Yeah, I think so too…”

For a few moments, neither of us spoke, as we continued down the hallway. I tried to think of something to say next, when Hannah broke the silence: “I’m sorry I didn’t have more time to study with you yesterday… But, to make up for maybe failing biology, how about the two of us go to this festival thingy happening tonight?”

Was she… asking me out? Or, perhaps more likely, did she just want to hang out? Not that it would really change my answer. Without thinking, I replied, “Yes.” But, the moment I said it, it hit me that we were supposed to meet Vorpal tonight. “I mean…” Shit. With a sense of guilt, I realized that I would much rather be with Hannah than spend my night sitting at the bottom of an empty pool, debating the many different ways in which Reticle could kick my ass… Was it wrong of me to want a break from it all? Couldn’t Camilo and Amber go without me? “Umh, where is it?” I asked.

“It’s in Chinatown, not too far from my place,” she said. “It’s called the Spring Festival. They’ve set it up on Joice Street, near the Chinatown museum. You know it?”

Not too far from where we would meet Vorpal… Maybe I would have time for both? “Yeah,” I said, “that sounds great.”

A smile lit up Hannah’s face. “Great,” she said. “It’s—”

Before she could finish, a sing-songy voice interrupted her.

“Heeey guys!” Amber interjected. I didn’t realize that we were about to pass by her locker, and she had been standing just a few feet in front of us. She stared Hannah down with a deathly cold glare as she smacked her locker to a close with a solid thud. Then, she crossed her arms over her chest, and leaned against it. She continued, “Oh my God, you two are going to the Spring Festival?” The sickly sweet lilt of her voice completely contrasted her tense posture and the cold look on her face. “Me and my boyfriend Ranger were planning on going! We should totally go there together.”

What the hell was she on about? It was clear that something was up. She had acted weird all of yesterday, but this was a new level of strange. Besides…

I really just wanted to spend time with Hannah, not Amber and her boyfriend.

“Actually—” I started, but—before I could finish my protest—Amber cut me off.

“Why don’t you just tell me when you guys are going?” she said. “Ranger and I are gonna be there all night anyways, so you can just let me know. Florry, you can just text me whenever.” She gave us a strained grin, showing her pearly-white teeth. “It will be so much fun! I gotta run to class, but I’ll see you guys there. Ta-ta!” She waved her hand and abruptly turned her back to us, before either of us had a chance to say anything else.

Hallway chatter continued around us as Amber strode down the hallway, then turned a corner and disappeared from view. For what felt like a minute, neither Hannah nor I spoke.

“Well…” She trailed off, before finishing, “Guess I’ll see you tonight, Florian.”

“Yeah…” I finally dared to glance her way, although I had already heard the disappointment in her flat tone. Now, I could see her knotted brows, partially obscured by a stray lock of hair hanging down her face. She didn't return my gaze. “See you later,” I murmured.

With that, Hannah turned away from me—heading to whatever class she had next.

For a moment or two, I remained in place, only stirring once someone nearly bumped into my shoulder. I shifted closer to the wall as students continued to pass me by on their walk to and from classrooms.

What had just happened?

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

After yesterday, I hadn't thought Hannah wanted to spend time with me, let alone… invite me to what sounded like—if I didn't know any better—some kind of… date.

And, least of all, for Amber to invite herself to our maybe-date.

I could probably dismiss that possibility entirely, now. At the realization, a sudden anger welled up in me.

I suppressed the swarm's buzz as I strode down the hall, and made the same turn I had seen Amber make just minutes ago. It didn't take me long to find her; I recognized her bright, flaming hair at the end of the hallway. She stood with her back turned to me, chatting with Jazmine and Raegan outside the history classroom.

As I approached the trio, Raegan was in the process of showing the others something on her phone. I only caught a fragment of what she said:

“...trying a new recipe for my breakup cake. What do you think?”

They didn't seem to notice me until I spoke up. “Amber,” I said, “we need to talk.”

The three turned to look at me, their movements in perfect synchrony. But their annoyed glares didn't exactly make me more sympathetic to Raegan's ‘breakup cake’ situation. I didn't waver as I returned Amber's stare.

“Are you dense?” Jazmine said to me. “Can't you see that we're in the middle of—”

I cut her off. “I don't care.” As I spoke, I didn't look away from Amber. “We need to talk. Now.” The harshness of my tone took me by surprise. Just a couple of months ago, I couldn't imagine myself saying as much as hello to any of the three, let alone talk back to them.

“Who do you think you are?” Jazmine scoffed. The two of them looked expectantly at Amber, presumably waiting for her to put me in my place—like she probably would have, if this interaction had taken place a couple months ago.

Maybe it would have served us better, to play into the roles they expected us to. My low profile had always kept me safe; far off the radar of my classmates. But, now, I found myself front and center, as Jazmine shot me a chilling glare. At the Extinction Refuge, she hadn't seemed happy about Amber spending any amount of time with me and Camilo… I couldn't imagine that my current interruption was helping me fall into her good graces.

But, in spite of any rationale I could come up with, I didn't care. I was angry. The swarm was restless, writhing inside me; I gritted my teeth, focusing on keeping calm. If Amber had no qualms about imposing herself in my business, then I shouldn't feel bad about intruding hers.

Amber only narrowed her eyes at me. “Rae, Jaz, excuse us for a moment,” she snapped at her friends.

Jazmine’s mouth opened slightly, as if she wanted to say something more to me, before thinking better of it. She turned away, Raegan following at her heels.

As they moved away from us, I hissed to Amber, “What are you trying to do, exactly?”

She blinked at me. “I'm not trying to do anything,” she said coldly, shifting her weight as she rested a hand on her hip.

“Really?” I said. “That’s interesting, because you're acting real fucking weird for someone who's isn't trying to do anything.” As I spoke, Amber’s shoulders tensed and she shrunk back from me—but, once the words started coming out, I found myself unable to stop. “First, you blow up my phone when I’m studying with Hannah. And the moment she leaves, you show up… in a window. Did it even cross your mind how creepy that is?”

I didn't wait for her to answer, although I could see that her posture was changing again. While there had been a glimpse of uncertainty only moments before, she furrowed her brows now—in anger. But that didn't stop me from continuing, “And you won't even let me make plans without you. It's like I can't do anything unless it's—” I wanted to say something to the effect of superheroing. But, obviously, I couldn't say that in the middle of a hallway.

In my moment of hesitation, Amber spoke up; her tone accusatory. “You're the one who's skipping out on our meeting with—” She stopped herself before she could finish, and surveyed the hallway which was still busy with a steady flow of students moving between classrooms. A few gave us curious glances as they passed us, clearly sensing the verge of an argument. Amber lowered her voice as she continued, “Our meeting with Linda and Jan tonight. We were gonna play DnD, remember?” She put a strange emphasis on the words that were obvious code. “We're supposed to prep for a possible dragon attack.”

I rolled my eyes. Of course, she meant we were gonna meet with Vorpal and discuss Reticle—but, once she said that, I realized something else. “Weren't you already planning to ditch, anyways?” I said. When an expression of confusion crossed her face, I clarified, “The festival, tonight. You already made plans with Ranger, right?”

“I-I mean,” she stammered, “I only made that up to make sure that you would be going. Like… If you leave the festival early, we can still be on time for… DnD.”

“Hell…” I sighed, my anger gradually caving in to annoyance. “Amber, you can talk to me like a normal person instead of… whatever it is you think you're doing.”

“I just… I thought this was important to you. That we figure out why Re—” She paused, blinking a couple times. “That we defeat Dragon's Tee—” She stumbled over her words, finally finishing, “I mean, just, the dragon. That we defeat the dragon.”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “Well, I thought Aurora”—being Amber's DnD character—“was about to find out something more about this… dragon? Did she, uh, fail her saving throw or something?” We were approaching lunchtime… Could Amber have spotted Reticle yet?

In the ensuing pause, a flicker of pain flashed across her eyes. “I…” she started, but trailed off. The moment of vulnerability took me by surprise, but it was short-lived, as Amber quickly looked away from me. “No. Aurora hasn't failed her ‘saving throw’,” she said, peering down the hallway at seemingly nothing in particular. “I think that the dragon doesn't want to make an appearance right now, considering how we confronted her… it… last session…”

Amber suddenly groaned, slumping against a nearby locker. “This is… so fucking stupid…” she muttered. “You know what I mean,” she hissed, “I… don’t think Reticle’s gonna make an appearance today.”

“I see,” I muttered. It wasn't the news I had hoped for, but I supposed that it made sense. Since we had directly asked Reticle about her operations at Chapel, maybe she wouldn't want to come back here—at least not today. Especially if she had any awareness of Spindle's powers. While Spindle hadn't wielded them yesterday, maybe Reticle could have observed us in the weeks prior… That is, if she were ever here at all, and didn't have some other Dragon's Teeth goon go in her place.

“Look, maybe we should talk about this later?” Amber said. Her entire demeanor had suddenly softened. “I just… I think it's important that we mee—”

Her sentence remained unfinished, as our phones let out a simultaneous buzz. We both reached for our pockets.

I half-way expected it to be a text from Hannah, saying that she wouldn't make it tonight. Which I couldn't really blame her for.

Instead, a new message had popped up in the group chat. It was from Camilo. He had sent us a picture of the school's bell tower.

I exchanged a look with Amber, who was studying the same picture on her own phone. Although a bit blurry, I could make out the silhouette of a person through the tower's windows. The dark figure was outlined against the golden hue of the bell. I pinched my screen to zoom in.

As soon as I did, I recognized the blurry shape’s black clothes, and the streak of something pink at their hip.

It was Vorpal.

A message accompanied the photo,

> | Camilo: i think this is for us.