‘It's common in life…’
‘People can throw away things so easily…’
‘Things they don't need anymore…’
"To you, I'm one of those things…"
‘That was what I thought back then…’
‘As I grew up, it wasn't just a mere thought anymore…’
‘The truth has always been there for me…’
‘To everyone, I'm unwanted.’
The little boy stood beside the luxurious gate of the black castle, with innocent, longing ice-blue eyes looking at the distancing blonde’s back. His tiny pale hand raised a bit toward the retreating figure; the need to call for the blond man to come back to his side filled his being. However, the boy remained still in the too-quiet and lonely place. Despite the beautiful scenery of the trees and golden sun rays gently showering the area, the boy couldn’t help but feel alarmed, easily fallen prey to the spider web.
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The Red Flower
Chapter. 3
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‘It's her again—!’
Panting, gasping, and running footsteps were all heard loud in the silent dim forest at night. It was too dark to see anything, yet ‘He’ could see her by her very detectable long white hair and tattered, dirty white dress. Cold, ‘His’ body felt the chilly night more than any time before, ‘He’ questioned if it was always this cold at night, but ‘He’ didn’t care at that moment. ‘He’ kept running after her, occasionally extending ‘His’ hand in an attempt to hold her back, showing the classy sleeve of an aristocratic noble to be in his view. All that filled ‘His’ mind was telling and wishing for the girl to wait while ‘His’ eyes followed her figure running too close to a tree.
‘Faster, faster!’ ‘He’ hoped desperately that ‘He’ could catch her this time, even if it was terrifying for ‘Him’, even if it felt like ‘He’ was running to death, ‘He’ needed to catch her.
The view shifted to a bloody scene all so suddenly. Blood was scattered around the tree, and ruined-noble clothes were bathed in the thick red liquid on the grass. And all too suddenly, Emmie’s voice rang in his ears as he witnessed the bloody scene with his own two eyes, not ‘His’ eyes.
“The stranger disappeared with only his clothes and blood left under that tree.”
He snapped his heavy-lidded eyes open at the sound of his loud gasp; it took him seconds to realize whose panting was in the dark. He was starting to take in his surroundings in the dim room, staring at the not-so-familiar ceiling. Davante took some time to even his breathing. Again, he woke up from a nightmare with a cold sweat. He clutched the blanket so tightly to his rising and falling chest as he recalled the dream again, ‘…a dream…?’
Once he’d calmed down a bit, he forced his exhausted body to sit up on the bed. ‘I've been having dreams of someone else as of lately… they… feel so real… so familiar…’
“Can't sleep?”
He was a bit startled by the calm voice in the quiet room, sounding almost cautious. He turned a little to his left to find his roommate, Elois, sitting on his own bed with his laptop on his lap and looking at him with faint concern shown in his unbothered eyes. Davante noticed he hadn’t answered the other yet. “Yes… and you?”
Elois removed the earphones slowly from his ears. “It's not my habit to sleep early,” he closed the laptop and put it along with his phone and other stuff on the bedside table, then shoved the blanket to the side to stand up and leave the comfort of his warm bed. Stretching leisurely, he noted, “Your ID card is done, by the way.”
Davante turned to his bedside table, and true to his roommate’s words, he found the tiny simple card on it. He silently took the card and observed his picture along with… his fake name that was given by a certain Alvis. ‘Dante Gabrielli…’
“Don't lose it—”
Both stopped at the sound of a loud growl filling the air between the two. The two roommates remained silent and unmoving for several seconds to comprehend what had just happened. Davante turned his face to the side in an attempt to hide his slight embarrassment from the other.
Elois didn't laugh, just walked around silently wearing his boots and short jacket, taking his phone and wallet and stuffing them in his pockets. With a suppressed huff, he stated, “Yeah, you haven't had anything to eat since yesterday. I'll bring you food. Wait here.” just as he was about to grab the doorknob, the other spook calmly, which made him stop midway.
“What if I run away?”
The sharp-eyed roommate slowly turned a little to look back coldly at the black-haired teen from the corner of his eyes, and with a cold tone, he challenged, “Go on and try.”
“You… don't look like you'd do anything to harm me, though…” it was Davante’s way of telling the other that he didn’t look threatening, not one bit just now. It wasn’t sarcasm, but that was enough for him to know about the other’s personality.
Elois turned around to fully face the other and curiously asked, “Yeah? And why are you so sure?”
Davante showed the tiniest smile given to the other for the first time since he came to the academy; he calmly answered, “I can get a quick glimpse of what kind of person you are at first glance…”
Tiffany-eyes stared at the teen for a short while, silently observing the other and seeming deep in thought. Turning back to the door and opening it, he warned the other as he closed the door calmly behind him, “Don't you dare leave this room.”
As the door clicked close and he was left alone, Davante slowly brought his knees to his chest and looked down in silence. ‘If I want to… I can run from this place now but… where to?’ his cold ice-blue eyes seemed numb for a moment. ‘To the castle…?’ he slowly raised his head to look at the closed door. ‘Do I really… want to go back there…?’
“Kaven is here…”
He didn’t quite feel the ID card in his numbing hands as he recalled Alvis’ warning on the first day for him in the academy. He silently stood up and slowly walked to the door. He moved his hand very slowly to finally hold the cold, round doorknob. ‘I'm… unwelcomed here…’
.
.
The beeping sound echoed in the dark, empty hallway. Elois took the small bag of food from the vending machine and stared at it absently as he recalled the scene a moment ago, back to his new roommate.
“I can get a quick glimpse of what kind of person you are at first glance…”
“Dante, huh…?” he walked away from the vending machine after a while of standing in the middle of the hallway at midnight. He was walking in complete silence along the corridors and turns with little light lighting the place that he got startled a bit by the unexpected figure standing in front of their shared room. He thought his roommate was trying to run away for a second there. Still, he quickly recognized the person when he got a closer look in the dim hallway; the moonlight coming from the long window at the end of the corridor helped to reveal the smiling man with sharp eyes. Elois stood within a distance and questioned, “Ivailo?”
“Ah, Elois,” greeted the eunry-colored wavy-haired person with a formal smile. “Still awake, I see.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Elois eyed the other and carefully asked, “Need something…?”
Ivailo moved from his place in front of their shared room and walked to Elois at a relaxed pace, waving one of his bandaged hands lightly. “No, just the same, patrolling.”
“Oh, good work, then…” Elois followed every move of the smiling man, who came closer and gave a light pat on his shoulder and whispered just enough for him to hear in the quiet corridor.
“Have a good night’s sleep.”
Elois still followed the other's retreating back with his eyes until it disappeared through the dark hallway; he then turned to enter the room once he made sure he was finally alone, unaware of the person hiding in the shadows who had seen and heard the whole interaction between the two, standing straight till his ears caught the sound of a closing door before leaving the place.
Elois won't lie; he got worried for his roommate for a moment there. He worried if anything had happened by any chance, but all he found was his sleeping roommate. He stared at the teen, who looked too deep in sleep. “Hey… whom do you think I brought the food for?” he sighed as he quietly left the plastic bag with the food on the bedside table and covered the other properly with the thick white blanket. “Well, at least you're finally sleeping peacefully for once…”
He observed the other some more before yawning and turning to his own bed. ‘Time to sleep.’
.
.
.
At 7:00 am—
The door swung open all so suddenly, disturbing the two roommates who both went to bed late at night. Standing at the door is a very bright Javi, smiling so brightly with his loosely tied long hair and casual outfit. “Good morning, young boys~”
Elois stirred and pulled his head with short tousled hair from under the covers to stare darkly at the source of the disturbance. Javi stood by the door laughing, unbothered by his friend’s glare.
“Get out,” came the grumble from Elois.
Javi invited himself to the room and walked cheerfully to his friend, who still stared daggers at him. “Wake up already. It’s the weekend, you know. It’s time to—”
“Shut up and get lost!”
“Not happening~”
“Javi!!”
“Elois~”
“Please. Be. Quiet.”
Both friends immediately stopped their bickering at the low yet threatening request of the new roommate, who hadn’t yet given up on his precious sleep with closed eyes. After some time of silence, Elois dove back under his blanket. “Good night.”
“Oh, okay…” Javi blinked, blankly standing between the beds of the two sleeping roommates. He snapped back after seconds and strode closer to his friend to pull the covers from him. “HEY! What ‘Good night’?! It’s morning already! Don't you close your eyes, dude— Alvis said to show Dante around the place! WAKE U—!”
Before they knew it, both their heads collided with much force when Elois suddenly decided to comply and wake up at the mention of Alvis. The two friends took a moment to register what happened before the blonde glared at his friend accusingly; he threateningly asked, “How dare you—”
“Could you wake up already?” Sighing, Javi decided to stop joking around with his grumpy friend at the moment, still feeling his forehead throbbing.
Elois didn’t take time to stand up and drag himself groggily to the bathroom; he mumbled sleepily, “Wake him up… gonna brush my teeth.”
“Huh? Wai—” The door slammed at Javi’s troubled face before he could say anything. Rubbing his neck, he sighed, “How am I supposed to…” slowly, he dared to glance at the teen, only to find him glaring back at him. “Oh, you're awake……” he stared at the dark-haired teen with long bangs fallen over his face with a clear glare aimed at him, “um…”
A few minutes later—
The door to the bathroom opened; Elois came back into the room while rubbing his messy hair, less sleepy. “Hey Javi, why don't you show… him………” he tried to take in the scene that welcomed him; Javi blew little air at the scissors to get rid of any remaining hairs, and with a satisfied smile, he looked at Elois. Blinking, Elois was flabbergasted. “You guys… I left you alone for like… only 5 minutes…”
Smiling brightly, Javi took hold of the black office chair and turned it around, showing a quite disturbed and traumatized Davante with freshly cut hair that reached his mid-neck. “Doesn't he look better now?! He doesn't look scary anymore, right?!”
Elois took a good look at his roommate, who was slightly trembling in silence with wide eyes looking at the floor. Indeed, he looked better, Elois thought. But the fact that the teen was tied to the chair by the bed sheets and forced to stay still to be played with by a literal stranger… Elois couldn’t really applaud his friend’s work even if he wanted to. “He looks… traumatized…”
“Ah, he's just shy—”
“Can I please kill you?”
“Ah…” the confident self-proclaimed hair stylist lost his confidence in mere seconds with an apologetic smile.
“Shy, you say…” Elois couldn’t blame the teen for wanting to kill his chaotic friend; he could even share the same sentiment sometimes.
And for the second time that morning, the whole room fell silent at the youngest’s words.
.
.
The day went on with the three of them shopping and trying different shops one after another, and Javi was visibly happy choosing a random collection of outfits for their new young friend. “This looks good! This one too!! Oh my gOD, THIS ONE IS SUPER CU—” he tried to force the coat with the cat-eared hat on the silently upset Davante, but as expected, the teen struggled and fought back.
“Cut it- Cut it out, will you?!”
“Aww~ c’mon~”
He tried to push the taller man away from him, and he was having a hard time, obviously, so Elois decided to save the poor kid from his idiot, active friend as he walked toward the two and lightly pushed Javi away from the kid. “Stop tormenting him.”
Davante was thankful for his sane roommate and felt he had just gotten out of a real-life struggle; huffing a little bit with slightly messy hair, he glared at the long-haired guy, who obediently stopped with a comfortable smile and calmed down.
“Guys, what are you doing?”
The three of them turned to look at the approaching guy, beige-short hair combed to a side and wide-round dark khaki eyes staring at them questionably and curiously.
“Oh Edmund, wanna join us?” Javi asked nonchalantly, easily inviting another stranger to the group without asking his two companions first. Elois looked used to it yet not really welcoming the arrival of the new stranger named Edmund; the orange-haired’s face remained stoic and stayed silent nevertheless, Davante noted as he silently observed.
Davante did not miss how Edmund eyed him strangely for a short moment once he noticed the group’s new member.
“Ah, right! This is Elois’ roommate whom I told you about, Dante~” Javi smiled at the youngest in a friendly way before he pointed at Edmund. “This’s Edmund, my roommate and my cousin.”
Davante silently exchanged looks with the said Edmund; he wasn't sure what to do when he could see that the other didn't look pleased to see him for some reason. Edmund eyed him some more before he smiled brightly as if nothing had happened. “Nice to meet you! Seems like my cousin’s been causing you trouble. That’s the only thing he’s good at, so just ignore him.”
“I'm hurt…” and so the cousins started with their banters.
Davante looked down and still questioned, ‘Just now… what was that look in his eyes…?’
They went on bickering and blabbering about video games and some other stuff that neither Elois nor Davante were interested in, so they chose to walk silently along with the loud cousins. They then settled in a restaurant to have their breakfast as they felt their tummies growling all the way in the mall. The two cousins sat beside each other with all their food, and on the other side of the table sat Elois and his new roommate. Taking lazy bites from his meal and sips from his coffee, Elois observed his roommate silently as the other calmly sipped on his orange juice. Davante noticed him staring for a long time before finally asking, “What…?”
“Aren't you eating? You didn't even eat the food from last night… clearly orange juice isn't enough to…” he trailed off, sure that the other got the message.
Davante looked back down at the empty space of the table in front of him and kept silent for a moment, face as expressionless as usual. He plainly answered, “I’ve no appetite in the morning…”
Elois rested his cheek on his palm, stroking his cup of coffee with his thumb while side-eying his stoic roommate. Silence filled the air between the two; they forgot about the other two roommates in front of them for a moment.
“Hey guys, listen to this,” started Edmund, wearing a curious expression as he gained the group’s attention. “I heard that twin sister Juli has been missing for 2 days now. Her family thinks she's somewhere still in the Academy since the guards haven’t seen her out,” Edmund then turned to Davante, resting both arms on the table and leaning a bit toward the teen with an innocent smile. “I heard you came here with her, am I right?"
Davante stared back in silence; there was something behind that smile, clearly. His face remained ice-stoic despite feeling cornered and wronged.
Before anyone could say anything, however, Elois intervened. “I also heard, based on her brother, that she was about to leave at the same time Dante was still passed out in my room. So, it doesn't have anything to do with him. Case closed.” he sipped his coffee as the whole table fell into awkward silence with everyone’s attention on him.
“What Elois means is, stop playing the detective here and eat your food in peace,” Javi supported as he took a bite of his food.
Edmund glared at his unbothered cousin, offended. “I wasn't playing anything! I was only trying to start a conversation with our new friend!”
Davante glanced at his roommate, who kept drinking his coffee in silence and ignoring the usual banters of the cousins in front of him. He noted that despite looking calm, Elois seemed tense as he ignored everyone at the table, it was too subtle, but Davante noticed nonetheless. He silently went back to drinking his almost-finished orange juice.
.
.
“Where to now?” asked Javi.
They finished their breakfast and decided to finally have a good tour around the academy for the youngest in the group. As they were walking down the huge stairs, they were met with the academy's principal, with blond hair neatly combed back, pale skin, and ice-blue eyes.
“Oh, that's Kaven, the headmaster!” Javi said loud enough for the person to hear him from the other side of the huge round hall.
Just as Davante tried for a moment to change direction and avoid the man, the said headmaster noticed them from afar and decided to walk toward them with a trained smile. “Hello, kids. How are you doing? It's not usual to see Elois early in the morning on a weekend day,” he chuckled at the grumpy one in the group.
“We're showing the new student around, that's why,” Elois stated casually, not noticing his roommate tensing beside him, feeling like hiding behind Elois.
“Ah right, Dante Gabrielli? Alvis talked to me about… you…” the smile was gone for a moment, eyes observing, then turning cold all too suddenly. Davante kept avoiding looking the man in the eye.
“What? You like him?”
“What…” the blonde smiled awkwardly at Javi's sudden and weird question, which Davante was thankful for even if it was stupid.
“Wha- What are you saying?!”
As Javi and his cousin bickered yet again, with Kaven in between them, Davante took the chance immediately and stepped a bit closer to his bored roommate and asked, “Um… the restroom?”
Elois was confused, but one look at the teen’s face made him answer immediately, keeping his questions for later. He pointed to the side to calmly guide the younger one. “Right there, at the end of the corridor—”
“Thanks.” The black haired didn't waste any second and started walking fast in the said direction, hoping the washroom would be empty.
To his luck, it was indeed empty. He stood right in front of one of the mirrors, silently standing with his back bent a bit, resting his palms on the black countertop. He turned the faucet on and gently brought the cold water to his face. He turned it off and closed his eyes as water droplets fell from his face to the sink, breathing calmly. ‘He must have recognized me immediately…how he looked at me… I should have run away while I had the chance last night…’ he stared coldly at the sink. ‘But anyway… he could kick me out any time if he wanted to…’ he straightened his back a bit.
“Found you!”
He froze in place, not even a blink, despite feeling like his heart stopped for a moment when someone appeared beside him too abruptly out of nowhere. Stiffly, he turned his head to the left to see a smiling Juli. He immediately noticed the state of the girl beside him, messy hair, eye-bags, hysterical-like eyes, and an ‘X’ mark over her lips drawn by what he assumed was a sharp weapon, “Ju… li…?”
The girl wearing only a baggy white shirt and a face mask pulled down to her chin, widened her eyes creepily and took a step forward even closer than she already was. “I knew this girl was going to be useful somehow! AHAHA!”
Davante widened his eyes and flinched away from the girl, alarmed. “Belvedere…”
“Aww~ You still remember me. I'm touched~”
Davante grimaced at the overly fake-sugary display the man was showing with the innocent girl’s body. “What have you done to her…?” he glanced at the door; Belvedere in Juli’s body was standing in his way, preventing him from running away. He was cornered, and nothing was behind him other than the countertop.
“Now, let's see why is Emmie hiding you from us~” Belvedere strode excitedly and closer to the other, extending the soft little hands of the girl to the teen’s head, who immediately stiffened and had no time to react. All too suddenly and painfully, Belvedere dug the fingertips into the teen’s head, and blood gushed out like a fountain.
He screamed so hard and felt blood coming out of his eyes, and the fingers dug even deeper. Painful, he had never felt this pain before. Unable to hold back his cries, he shrieked and cried even louder than ever in his entire life, but he wasn’t able to thrash or move like he was just meant to stand there and take the torture for as long as Belvedere liked.
Belvedere narrowed his cold eyes, smirking satisfyingly at the scene and what was about to come. “Are you in there, Yeolard?”
A firm, gentle voice was heard at that moment “STOP.”
With a gasp, the pain stopped, the blood was gone, and, most importantly, the tiny body with Belvedere in control of it was gone. No sign of them or anything at all. Davante was alone in the empty restroom.
He tried to calm his breathing quickly, bringing his weak and slender fingers to his head to check for any wounds or blood; none was found. ‘Was I imagining things…? Whose voice was that?’ he looked around him as he turned slowly, noticing how the place was the same, but something felt different than a moment ago. “Something’s strange… the place… is darker…?”
He froze as he came face to face with his reflection in the long mirror.
A monster.
There, on the other side, stood a monster, looking back at Davante in the same posture.
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The End of CH. 3