‘Eyes down…’
‘Broken shards of glass…’
‘Their screams and cries filled the room…’
‘They were all scared… as if looking at a monster…’
‘And I simply stood there… still as a stone…’
‘I still don’t know… at that time…’
‘Was I simply unbothered by them…’
‘…or was I scared of acknowledging what kind of monster they were looking at?’
A distant memory that rushed back to the surface in his mind. A scene memorized as if it had happened just yesterday, looking at the very tiny body of a black-haired boy, standing still with his little back facing the shattered window of the classroom. All eyes were on one boy. He could imagine what they truly looked at that day; he could imagine a disgusting disturbing-looking monster playing as the child’s shadow, jutting out from below his tiny feet to hug its little owner from the back with its long, sickly arms.
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The Red Flower
Chapter. 4
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Davante slowly and hesitantly brought his hand to the cold surface of the mirror, eyeing the pointy and slender fingers of the monster reflected before him. Then he observed the full view in front of him; the monster with black sclera and ice-blue irises glowing faintly looked like a mix between a horrifying-smiling deer and a black skeleton with long horns attached to its head. The monster had the same hair just as his own, albeit a bit longer upon a closer look. It all looked too disturbing to look at in the dimly lit restroom. He barely found his voice to utter anything to question the ridiculous situation unfolding in front of him, “Wha… what is…”
He stared, too shocked to do or say anything; with his mouth slightly hanging open, he stood frozen in place as the memories of a forcibly forgotten day surged their way into his mind unwelcomed.
A flashback to when he was a kid in kindergarten, children and even teachers stared at him with so much fear in their eyes. The atmosphere was unbearable as everyone feared him, crying and calling him a monster over and over again as he stood in front of the shattered window behind him, staring at them with confused, innocent eyes that only looked cold and scary to everyone else in the room, as he looked down at the floor with eyes that looked they had given up. He remembered how he felt lost and hopeless at that moment, looking at the glass shards scattered around him. His own little feet didn’t look innocent to him, and he felt they were right; even though he didn’t know what they could look at that he couldn’t, he felt they had every right to fear him. Speechless, he didn’t utter a breath despite the insults and cries aimed at him.
Despite accepting the depressing fact in his mind, his brain forced another memory of a gentle and warm smile from a blond man looking down at him as he bent to carry his son’s little body up, repeating the same words to the silent boy and forcing them into the tiny ear to be delivered and stitched deep into his brain to understand and believe.
“You're not a monster… Davante.”
It was laughable to Davante, yet he couldn’t laugh. The sheer contrast between the same man from then and now was indeed sadly amusing yet painful and questioning. How could he believe the gentle words of a man who shifted suddenly with no prior signs to force Davante into hearing all kinds of vile insults stabbing at him every time the man looked at him? He couldn’t and wouldn’t make himself believe the empty words of a man long gone and replaced with someone ready to prove at any second that Davante is indeed a monster. He found himself muttering in the dead silent washroom, “… Dis… gusting…”
He forced his legs to move and turn around, decided to no longer look at a truth he had long known; a disgusting monster. But despite accepting that fact years ago and growing numb to it, he pointedly forced himself not to think of how the monster in the mirror would move the same way he did, would reflect every movement he made. He lastly forced himself to believe that he was delirious. ‘I must be imagining things…’
Heading toward the door while fixing his slightly messy hair, he expected to see the same round hall filled with students and teachers walking and chatting just about anything and everything, where he last left his slightly concerned roommate and the others…
The surroundings made him question just how long he had been away and hiding in the restroom; he assumed it was around 5 or 10 minutes ago. But he wondered if the whole world ended in those 10 minutes he was away from everyone, and if it was true, how couldn’t he feel or hear anything at all if an explosion occurred nearby? Was he so hung up on Belvedere’s appearance and the whole mess that he couldn’t hear anything outside? Or were the walls and doors of the academy so heavy that all sounds were muted? Nothing made sense to him as he took in the quite ruined place he came into.
Thick, dry branches and roots pierced through the ground and the roof of the once was a fancy place. No lights were found, only dark red hues pushing through the dark and ruined area; he couldn’t really call it a light from how suffocating it looked to him. He questioned what it was outside that the redness came from, but his attention was on the only person standing in the middle of the empty and ruined hall.
What surprised, or somewhat spooked Davante, was that the man standing was none other than the one in his nightmares, looking almost like his twin, except for their attires and eyes; they were very obviously different. He wore the same rich noble clothes, all black, that matched his long black hair.
‘The place… and that… guy…’ he stared at the guy, hesitant to call out to him. ‘He only shows up in my nightmares… am I really dreaming now? Did I pass out in the bathroom…?’ he gulped and stood still as the noble stranger finally glanced at him and silently started walking elegantly to the entrance. He only stood in his place and followed with his eyes where the other was heading. He found himself yet again observing how really similar they looked. ‘If it weren’t for his red eyes and slightly pointy ears… one would say we’re the same person…’
The said person stopped at the open entrance, put his white-gloved hand on the wall beside him, and turned his head to stare at Davante from the corner of his eyes. Davante almost jumped in his place under his stare. Though he was scared and lost, he plainly stared back at the guy with a stoic face.
He expected the guy to, what? To attack him, kill him, maybe? To eat him alive? Some wild images ran through Davante’s head, but nothing; nothing happened, which confused him even more. He couldn’t really understand how he felt toward the familiar stranger; he couldn’t put his hand on the feeling and express it in words. It was just uncomfortable around him. The confusing thing was that it wasn’t uncomfortable in a “bad person” kind of way. If he could try hard to express it in words, it was painfully suffocating to look at him. As the person brought unknown sadness to his heart, which was strange, they clearly hadn’t met before as far as he remembered, but perhaps the content of the nightmares he had of the stranger was the reason.
As if assured Davante was looking at him, the guy looked back outside the entrance and proceeded to walk out. Davante blinked and questioned before moving slowly toward the exit and behind the stranger. ‘Is he… telling me to follow him?’
This seemed the case; the guy kept on walking and didn’t stop at the sound of the footsteps behind him, assured that Davante was still following him within a distance.
The first thing that attracted Davante’s attention was the black sky with red clouds. He slightly widened his eyes as he looked up in silence while his legs followed the stranger. He slowly took in his surroundings, dry branches and sand; there was nothing else, a deserted and dead place. He felt a slight sting on the back of his left hand from one of the sharp branches, and he silently stared at the reddening scratch as he kept walking behind the noble. He halted suddenly when he found himself too close to the noble’s back, who stopped without uttering a word for some reason.
He peeked over the noble’s shoulder to get what he wanted from him this time. His eyes fell on the footprints on the ground. “umm…” he turned his face to finally ask the stranger, but found himself alone in the place as if the noble wasn’t there from the start. Calmly looking in all directions and finding no sign of the stranger, he mumbled to himself, “Where did he go…?”
Nonetheless, he suppressed a sigh and stared back at the footprints ‘He wants me to follow these…?’ He stared some more and, hesitantly, followed the footprints. Stepping above each print, he ducked down a bit to avoid one of the huge branches. He raised his head to look ahead and widened his eyes at the horrible sight in front of him. He wasn’t expecting anything good from following the footprints, but he also didn’t expect this.
He stared with slightly wide eyes at a big tree with no leaves and was dry, just like the many around him, observing and taking every detail in front of him. A body, more like a skeleton, trapped against the tree by long, thorny, and thin branches tightly tying the skeleton against the tree along with many skulls hanging in all directions by the tree. Only one complete skeleton was there, with noble clothes. He noticed how two thorny branches were pierced through its heart and skull. His eyes focused on the clothes. ‘Just now… he was wearing the same clothes…’ he recalled the guy’s clothes moments ago as he stared at the ones in front of him.
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Oddly enough, Emmie’s words came to his mind again.
“A stranger was standing under that tree.”
“Something happened. Blood was all over the place…”
‘He is… that stranger…?’
He lowered his head, looking down with pained eyes. The suffocating sadness washed over him yet again despite not knowing anything of the said accident of the stranger. Was the noble from his nightmares indeed the same stranger of the infamous story? He felt he was correct; something in him was confirmed even if no proof was evident to him yet. But then he questioned, what was the noble trying to tell him? What did the noble want from him that made him not only show up every night in his sleep but also show him his corpse?
“YOU!!”
His body was pulled back by a grasping hand on his shoulder, he was startled but forced himself to stay calm as it was a human’s voice who called out to him just then, yet he gasped when he was met with another monster looking pretty much disturbing and creepy and the closest thing he could describe it as was a smiling red clown? He switched to fight-or-flight mode and quickly punched the monster with all the force he could muster with his tiny fist compared to the monster’s size.
Only, his ears caught the groan of a human being, a familiar voice at that. He stilled and took a moment to understand the situation; he calmed down once he caught sight of orange and stared blankly at his glaring roommate.
“…Huh?” questioned Elois, with threatening sharp eyes and slightly swollen skin by the side of his lips.
“Ah…” was his only response to the obviously angry roommate.
“‘Ah’?”
“Oh…”
“Really?” Elois smiled with wide eyes glaring dangerously at the quite confused teen; he slowly narrowed the distance between them and leaned closer to Davante’s slightly troubled face as if he felt the need to let his young roommate have a closer look at his face to let him know just how really, really pissed off he was at the moment. “Do you have any fucking idea how long I’ve been looking for you?” he asked with an aggressively calm tone, the smile was still evident, but his eyes clearly were not smiling.
“……10 minutes?” Davante answered, more like questioned. He knew he had nothing to defend himself from his usually calm roommate. He also knew how stupid he sounded given the time of day; it was clear to him from their surroundings that it was night, and the black and red sky was long gone as if it had never happened. He noted they were strangely in the forest.
Elois grew angrier, if possible, yet the smile remained all the same. “Oh, Ya think?”
“I’m… sorry?” he tried his luck to be forgiven and let go.
As if finding something odd, Elois wiped his smile and decided to calm down. He took notice of how strangely confused his roommate was. Closing his eyes, rubbing his throbbing cheek gently with his finger. “Were you sleepwalking or something?” he questioned with a hint of concern in his tone.
Davante questioned that himself. Everything was like a dream, yet it felt so real. He lowered his eyes to look at the one thing that could confirm it for him. The scratch on the back of his left hand was there with his dried blood. It could be proof, but still not proof enough. He could have sleepwalked into the forest just as Elois assumed and accidentally got scratched by one of the branches in there. So, he stared in long silence, forgetting about Elois, who was still waiting for an answer.
Elois joined his roommate and stared at what the other was staring so intently at. He questioned if the scratch was so important to the teen, like it held all the answers to the world. He questioned where he got that scratch from but quickly assumed it was from any sharp branch somewhere in the forest. He decided to focus on the most important thing at that moment. Grabbing his roommate’s skinny wrist before turning around and walking to the exit of the dim forest, “You look tired. Let’s go back.”
“um—”
“Can’t let you get lost a second time.” that was enough to shut down any attempt from the teen to be let go from his firm yet careful grip. He kept on walking and dragging the silent teen with him, looking ahead and unaware of his roommate, who turned his head to take one long look at the big tree behind them.
‘… it… wasn't a dream…’
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“Aww, man, do you know how worried he was? Poor Elois,” asked Javi, as he dramatically brought a piece of steak to his mouth. He kept on complaining after chewing and gulping each bite, feigning concern for his friend, who just kept on sipping his coffee. “He nearly yelled at everyone in the academy, asking them if they spotted you somewhere. You should’ve seen his face.”
His cousin joined him as he leaned on the table, laughing playfully as he recalled the scene of their grumpy friend frantically searching the whole place and almost threatening each student he had asked, “How many times did he search the toilet again?”
“10 times, he even looked inside the bin and under the sinks,” Javi answered without missing a beat as if waiting for someone to finally ask to retell the whole humorous story.
“What, really?! We should’ve taken a video or something!” Edmund stopped laughing to immediately fix his expression and posture to look dramatically worried. “Oh boy. He was really scared to death of losing you, you know?~”
Javi put his fingers on his forehead and closed his eyes to force a tear out staying at the corner of his eye. “He was waiting all these years for a roommate, and just when he got you, he couldn’t let go knowing he would be lonely again~”
Davante remained still beside his glaring roommate, looking to the side as he felt the dark aura coming from his left. He awkwardly smiled a little to himself, silently stating what a miracle it was for the cousins to still be alive. ‘Isn’t this bad…?’
“Oh, but then Elois disappeared as well. We ran around like losers calling out for him, then decided to go sleep anyway. No one dares to lay a single finger on our grumpy friend, after all, right?”
Davante stilled for a second, taking in what Edmund had announced playfully to further torment their friend. He looked to the side with a stoic yet questioning face. ‘Right… he was the only one who found me in the end…’ he kept staring at his roommate in deep thought until the other noticed and looked back at him with his cup of coffee still in hand. Elois was about to ask the teen, but the cousins weren’t done yet.
“It’s possible he went to hide somewhere to cry alone, y’know, living without a roommate sure is unbearable~” Javi took another bite without looking at Elois, who stared daggers at both bastards who wouldn’t stop their silly mockery.
Davante flinched a little at the crack sound coming from Elois’ cup in his hand; he found it worrisome how the guy was still silent.
“Have you seen him cry before?” Edmund asked, curious for a moment as he looked at his cousin.
“No? Bet he’d look hilarious though… but just to make sure, you’re going to protect me from a certain someone tonight, right, Edmund?” Javi asked with no apparent fear shown on his face, feeling no need to explain to his cousin who that ‘someone’ was.
“Oh no dear, a life without a roommate who snores loudly each night would be great, I assure you~” Edmund smiled sweetly at Javi, who only plainly corrected with, “But I don't snore…” in response.
Meanwhile, Davante was still looking at the broken cup and muttered, “I’m sorry…”
“Huh?” and that was how Elois ignored the other two and joined his roommate in the comfortable silence between them.
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Alvis looked intently at the papers in his hand as he listened to the other’s detailed report.
“Juli is still in the academy. She’s targeting Davante for some reason. Yesterday I found her going inside the restroom right after he went in. After some time, I also went in and found her passed out on the floor with blood on her hands. But Davante was nowhere to be found. There was also that night when Davante was left alone in the room waiting for Elois to bring him food, I found her walking toward their shared room, but Ivailo stopped her and told her something that made her retreat back somewhere. Fortunately, nothing happened to Davante.” Stated Neron, an expressionless young man with greyish-purple hair styled perfectly to the side, covering his left eye and revealing his right sharp black eye.
Alvis frowned and raised his head to look at the young man, “Ivailo? What does he have with Juli?”
“I've no idea,” answered Neron, no hint of any hidden truth to his tone.
Alvis seemed to trust Neron’s answer even if the guy showed no particular expressions as he answered; he sighed and slumped his shoulders down, the tension from earlier at the mention of Ivailo gone, “…and how is Davante now? Elois found him in the end, yeah?” Alvis asked tiredly, holding back from crumpling the bunch of papers in his hands out of frustration and fatigue.
“Yes, he is doing good, but one thing is that Elois found him in the forest for some reason.”
‘The forest, again…?’ the 42-year-old man wore a tired expression as he questioned just what it was in the forest that the 16-year-old teen liked so much. “……. All right, inform me if anything else happens. Thank you,” he said tiredly as he tapped the papers on the table and pushed them into the beige file in his office.
“Do you need me to keep an eye on Ivailo as well?”
“…” the man contemplated for a moment, the offer was great, and he felt that the young man was the perfect pick for the task. However, he also cared for the purple-head guy as he had too many tasks to take all at the same time; even if he was competent and diligent, he was still a human at the end of the day. “I'll ask someone else for that. You just look after Davante for the time being. Sorry for troubling you again.”
“It's no problem, do excuse me then.” Neron silently turned and left the office right after showing proper courtesy to Alvis like a well-behaved member of a high-class family.
Alvis leaned back on the chair, closing his eyes as he brushed his hair back with his hand; he sighed and mumbled, “Just what’s happening with you, Davante…”
“Oh, mind if I ask you about this Davante?”
Alvis froze, barely holding back from jumping in his place at the sudden voice of a certain blonde he knew. He slowly opened his eyes and came face to face with no one but his friend, the smiling principal “uh… good morning to you too, Kaven…” he knew what that friendly smile of his friend meant; it was anything but good.
“So? Care to explain how my son got into my Academy?” Kaven asked gently as he smiled very sweetly at the stiff assistant.
Alvis was very sure he heard a weak click from the door just now behind Kaven’s back; he didn’t want to think of the possibility that his friend actually locked the door to prevent him from running away. He ignored it and decided to face him properly, only to look to the side and mumble a complaint, “…you also accepted Ivailo in when I insisted not to…”
“What are you, a kid? I'm the headmaster here, y'know.” the smile was gone for a moment there as he looked at his assistant with a face that asked, ‘Are you for real now?’ It didn’t take a minute to return his smile back, but this time it wasn’t friendly; it looked cold to Alvis. “Well? Will you explain to me, my dear friend?”
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The silver-haired man brought his white-gloved hand to gently rub his forehead under his bangs with his fingers; he let it stay in there for a short moment, eyes closed as he felt the coldness in his hand even with the gloves on. Sitting in complete silence by the long and wide window in the vast room with no light but from the moon.
“Albern~”
He didn’t bother to sigh or react at the cheery disturbance of a certain Belvedere.
“Wah~ that blood looks yummy~” stated Belvedere as he eyed the half-filled glass sitting untouched by the silver-haired’s side on the table.
Albern, still closing his eyes and leaning his head elegantly on his fingers, coldly ordered the other, “Spit it out and leave.”
“Someone's in a bad mood~” Belvedere provoked before immediately shifting the topic. “Big news!!” he threw his hands in the air, feeling satisfied as the other finally reacted and slowly moved his hand to hold the glass filled with blood. Belvedere smirked playfully before declaring out loud, “We were right. Davante is the one who holds Yeolard’s soul!”
“Oh? And Emmie?” Albern looked the tiniest bit amused as he slowly twirled the glass elegantly in his hand, looking down at the blood with a relaxed smile.
The cheery vampire suddenly wiped his wide smile away and looked to the side as he answered, looking unbothered and uninterested at the mention of his sister. “Well, still keeping an eye on her beloved Davante, or Yeolard? Though both are the same now,” he went back to smiling as he shifted the topic back to what he witnessed, as it was more interesting to him than his own sibling. “Anyway, listen to this! When Yeolard helped Davante escape to the other world, no one should have been able to see him. But there was that kid called Elois, and he was able to see him! And what’s more, he easily pulled him back to the real world! Now, aren’t you curious just like me?!” Belvedere smiled even more once he caught sight of the amused cold smile from Albern, who looked at the moon with his chin resting on the back of his hand and holding the glass with the other.
“Then… maybe I shall pay them a visit soon.”
Behind the door stood a buff man with arms crossed in front of his chest as he carefully listened to everything from the two vampires inside the room. He silently and stealthily moved away from the room and deeper into the long unlit corridor.
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“…Elois,” Davante called out for his roommate after a long silence. He noticed how the sound of tapping on the keyboard stopped immediately at his call, and no answer came from the other; he assumed that was Elois’ way of telling him he was listening. He looked to the side to observe the other’s expression; even if the room was unlit, he could decipher the other’s face in the dark, even if little. “…. Edmund said… you went missing too… yesterday…” Davante brought back the topic hesitantly. He wasn’t one to ask questions unless very necessary, even less with strangers or people he had just met. But he could not keep the question to himself this time, and he felt his roommate had noticed that already.
Elois continued clicking on his laptop as he answered, looking as unbothered as usual, “That’s what Edmund and Javi said, even though they were beside me the whole time. I searched for you for hours, then suddenly spotted you at the entrance, I followed you to the forest as fast as I could, and you know the rest.”
“……” Davante looked back at the white blanket of his bed, resting his chin on his knees. He wanted to ask some more, but Elois’ answer made him feel like there was nothing to ask about anymore.
There was silence again; this time, Elois decided to break it. “Hey,”
Davante looked at him from the corner of his eyes. He noticed something from the other’s face this time. He observed how Elois calmly closed the laptop on his lap and had a distant look in his eyes.
Elois stared down at the laptop, thinking carefully before finally speaking.
“I also… lost my memory under that tree.”
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The End of CH. 4