“I'm leaving now. If you need anything, you know which class I'm in.” said the orange-haired roommate as he stood by the door and cast one last look to his sleepy roommate, who was still sitting on his bed swaying left and right a little, trying to stay awake after another long night of nightmares. Elois remained at the door some more before deciding to go with one last instruction, “And try not to get lost again.”
Davante was left alone with the click of the door closing behind his roommate. Looking sluggishly at the door as he repeated the word. “…class…” feeling the word foreign in his tongue, “I'm really… going back to school… after all this time…”
He looked down in thought as he recalled the one time he went to a place called a class, but it ended up his first and last time. ‘Why is it this time… I feel like… am walking into a cobweb?’
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The Red Flower
Chapter. 5
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A sigh was heard in the quiet office with no one other than the man standing in front of the window with a cigarette in hand. Alvis stared down at his own two feet, deep in thought of his last talk with his childhood friend, who is also the principal and his boss.
“I told you, didn't I? That freak is no longer my son, yet you welcomed him into MY Academy without my permission?” said the boss as he slammed both palms on his assistant’s office.
The assistant ignored his trembling fists, staying firmly in his seat and facing the other, “Frea—! I don't know what he's done, but I'm sure he doesn't deserve to be called that way! No matter what, he's still your son!”
The blonde scoffed, looking down at his assistant as if he heard something utterly ridiculous, “What has he done? He simply killed my wife!”
Alvis clamped his lips shut at the mention of the man’s wife, looking wide-eyed at the man for a moment with complete silence before forcing his voice to come out. The assistant voiced out firmly, looking angered and determined. However, what came out of his mouth wasn’t what he wanted to say.
“Fine. If you don’t care for your son, then I will! Just know I'm quitting our friendship and this place once you decide to kick him out!”
He sighed the smoke out again before gritting his teeth, holding back on crushing the cigarette in his hand as he mumbled to no one but himself.
“I'm such a coward…”
.
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‘Class 3-B…’ standing by the class was Davante, the new student. Looking up at the fancy red signboard by the door, then looking back down at the small paper prepared by his responsible roommate, he deduced he was at the correct location.
Stepping into the busy classroom while looking down at the paper, ‘Seat E8…?’
“Hi! The new student?”
“Yes…” he was silently startled by the sudden appearance of an unfamiliar blonde student who oddly looked a bit too energetic in Davante’s eyes.
The student offered a friendly smile as he introduced himself to the stoic student, “I'm Jack Harris, the class president. Nice to meet you!”
“…….” Staring down at the extended hand for a moment before accepting the handshake reluctantly, “…Da-Dante…” right, he almost forgot his fake name for a second there.
As if he had brushed off the hesitance shown on his new classmate’s face, Jack turned around, looking at Davante by the shoulder with his friendly smile as he walked forward. “If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask me. And if you're looking for your seat, it's over here.”
Davante hardly paid attention to what Jack was saying as he followed silently behind and glanced from the side of his eyes around him at the other students who were looking in his direction as if he was an alien of some sort, which wasn’t a new treatment to him, ‘How many of them here were present in the accident that day…?’ he looked at the back of the energetic classmate, ‘It seems he wasn't there…’
“Ah, the teacher's here.”
As the class’s president declared, everyone moved to their seats with some light and low grunts and complaints. Davante was pulled back a little to be guided to his seat by Jack, who offered a smile before sitting down on his chair beside Davante’s.
After several minutes of silence with the old teacher organizing his papers and preparing them for the class, the old man fixed his glasses as he announced with a frown, “I'm sure you already know we've got a new student in our class starting today, try to get along with him.” And that was it for the introduction about the arrival of the new student as the teacher immediately went ahead to start the day’s lesson.
As the class listened to the teacher’s long explanation, Davante was thankful that no more stares were directed at him like he was some weird being as he sat beside the big window in the vast class. He wasn’t sure if there was a reason for making his seat be in the last row in the corner beside the window, but he wasn’t complaining; he had always liked to sit beside the windows for some reason he wasn’t sure of. The sun’s lighting gives him a specific type of soothing warmth he couldn’t describe well.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
He just sat in silence, relaxing under the warm sunlight through the window glass, not bothering to listen to the teacher since he wasn’t into learning or studying in this academy to begin with; he found it pointless to make any effort when his stay was only temporary. He was, however, pulled out from his bubble by a pair of eyes staring at him. Staring back at the student in front of him, causing the boy to avoid his eyes and turn around immediately. It was obvious the boy was nervous from the look of his raised and stiff shoulders, or maybe fear? Davante voted for the former. He soon noticed the unique color of the boy’s fluffy hair, ‘…pinkish hair? Juli’s brother...?’
At that moment, he remembered the last time he met Juli and all the disturbing things that had happened the previous day. He remembered Elois telling him that he had also lost his memories under the tree. Looking at the boy’s back with a stoic face, he felt sorry for the boy as he recalled his sister’s condition from yesterday.
‘His sister… I'm still not sure if that was just a dream…’
He questioned the events once again, ‘The rest wasn't a dream, I'm sure. So it only makes sense what happened in the toilet with Juli… wasn't a dream either, so she's no longer…’
Recalling who had started the mess and what had been said and done within minutes in the restroom, ‘Belvedere… what's the point of taking control of Juli? What did he mean by saying Emmie is trying to hide me from them…? Who is Yeolard? Was he the person who uttered ‘stop’ when Belvedere tried to kill me in the toilet? Was he that stranger in the foreign world…? What's that monster that was in the mirror? Is it really… me?’ His head was a mess, with no answers to confirm anything to him; not like he could ask anyone about it. Then he was pulled back to what Elois told him the last night.
“I don't remember what happened, and I've no more to tell you. I just felt like sharing this fact with you. It's better to ignore whatever you may have seen in the forest.”
‘It just… doesn't feel right to ignore it…’ thought Davante as he recalled Elois’ cold expression as he told him to be ignorant and go on with his life; he would so like to do that if only he could. His gut feeling wouldn’t let him rest, however.
He calmly looked back at the sneaking pair of eyes again. This time, the boy flinched at the look from Davante’s icy eyes and turned around, more nervous than before. Davante caught an apology uttered by the boy, barely heard, but he just ignored it and looked out the window and back into his own bubble.
It took a whole hour for his first class to finish, Davante remained in place even when the teacher left, and the students were left free to rest for 15 minutes; some were talking and laughing together, some were in their own world, and some were staring at him again, simply staring.
And there it was, the same eyes glancing nervously at him. This time he made sure to stare back till he got a proper reaction. And as expected, the eyes tried to escape again, avoiding his eyes. He waited patiently and silently as the boy turned back and forth; it was almost comical to look at the expressive boy; he would look determined, then deflate back in one second before regaining his courage again, then back cowering, and so on. The boy finally turned to face him and stood up so fast it made Davante startle a bit in place.
“Nice to meet you! My name’s John!” the boy announced, more like yelling unintentionally from all the nervousness he was going through; the boy didn’t wait for an answer before he went straight to the topic, “M-May I ask you something?”
“Sure…”
The boy nervously fiddled with his fingers, looking down at them while forcing the awaiting question out, “Y-You, you know a girl named Juli, right?” he asked. Yet again, he didn’t wait for the answer as if it was a fact everyone was sure of by now that Davante was acquainted with the girl. “D-Do… do you know what happened to her the night you came here…?”
“No, we parted ways the moment we arrived here… sorry.” He chose to skip the details of the latest events and answer what was asked only. No one would believe him, and nothing good would come from telling anyone the tales of a vampire controlling this poor guy’s sister.
The boy smiled nervously, waving both hands, “Oh, no! It's all right, sorry for bothering you and um- thank you…”
‘Why does he look relieved…?’ he questioned silently as the boy in front of him suddenly looked like he felt a huge weight had been lifted by the answer, as if Davante’s response assured him to some degree.
Back to fiddling with his fingers, the boy awkwardly smiled as he asked once more, “Er- Is it okay if we hang out aft—”
“Sorry to interrupt— Dante?”
Both students turned at the voice of the smiling class president, Jack.
“The headmaster's asking for you. He’s waiting in his office now.”
He turned all quiet and detached from his surroundings, unaware of John’s disappointed face, who looked down and mumbled, “O-oh… next time, then…”
‘Any father would easily recognize his son, I think…’
Davante only nodded, gathered his stuff, and walked out of the class when in truth, his mind wasn’t functioning much as he walked absent-mindedly. He wasn’t even sure where he was going; he wasn’t yet familiar with the academy. Once he realized this, he stopped his legs and found himself by the windows in an empty hallway.
Staring at the ground for several minutes in silence with the sound of birds chirping outside, he silently admitted, ‘I… don’t want to see him…’
His father's last words from years ago still felt all too fresh in his ears, echoing every time he remembered the wide, dark smile directed at him.
“You… You've done it now!”
He repeated in his head, ‘I don't… want to…’
“Listen, Davante. Avoid meeting Kaven at all costs. Just try to hide your identity for now.”
Recalling Alvis’ warning from the first day in the academy, he slowly turned around and went in the opposite direction of his way to what he supposed was his father’s office, ‘This is pointless… still…’
His thoughts were interrupted when he noticed a short corridor to his right leading to a dusty and old door. Walking slowly towards the corridor, he eyed the ground as it was as dusty as the door, as if no one had stepped into the place for years. It was so out of place that he couldn’t help but stare at it until the door opened slightly by itself with a low creaking sound. He assumed it was the air, yet he felt it was inviting him inside. And he didn’t know why, but he felt like something was calling for him to open the door and go in.
He took a step forward, and the door proceeded to open by itself to reveal a small empty, clean room with nothing but an old book lying below a tiny window from the roof. He stared at the ancient yet clean book before walking towards it and picking it up. Opening the cover, he found a small old sticky note inside, ‘Yeolard Verick, 7th July-1326…’
He stared at the name for too long. He didn't notice the door was closing slowly behind him until he heard a sudden slam. He turned to look at the closed door, unaware of who stood behind it on the other side.
“You… Gobermouch!” cursed the blonde man as he gritted his teeth with his hand trembling as it was left hanging midway to the locked door.
He blinked. Davante walked to the door to try to open it, but it wouldn't budge, “…so I'm stuck now…” he held back a sigh. He was suddenly shocked at what he was seeing, ‘My hand- my vision…’ staring at his now thin and pointy fingers, remembering the skeleton-deer-like monster from the previous day before turning to look at the only window above only to find a dark sky, a familiar kind of sky. Staring at the red light reflecting down on him, ‘Yeolard… black sky… red clouds… it's happening again…’
Looking down at the book in his hands, ‘…is Yeolard behind all this…?’
.
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“Elois? Leaving already? We’re not done with our lectures yet, though? which is perfectly fine by me, but it’s rare for someone who’s kinda a nerd.” said the long brown-haired young man as he followed behind his friend out of the class.
“Got a message from Alvis, asking me to find Dante as soon as possible. He’s been looking for him for some time now, that's why. Bet he got lost again.” Elois grumpily answered as he checked his phone for any new messages from Alvis, a bag hanging loosely over his shoulder, trying to walk faster as if it were an urgent matter; that confused Javi.
“Hmm… did something happen?” Javi asked as he looked out the windows; his playful demeanor calmed down a bit. He would look serious if not for the bag hanging by his forehead, making him look ridiculous, in Elois’ opinion.
Elois glanced at Javi before looking forward and pacing faster toward the door of the teen’s classroom, “No idea. I will find him and go back—”
Opening the sliding door, both young men were bewildered by the empty class, “Are all the students lost today?” Elois asked, looking totally offended by the empty classroom.
“I think they're having PE now…” Seeing how pissed his friend was, Javi turned around and sauntered away from the grumpy friend with a light-hearted smile, “I’ll go and look for him~”
Standing alone in the classroom, Elois stared at his phone again, grumpily typing to Alvis. The door abruptly slammed closed behind him, making him jump and almost let go of his phone, turning immediately to yell at his teasing friend, “Seriously, Javi?! It's not the time for your pranks—…?” except, it wasn’t Javi. There was no one; he blinked dumbly, “….Javi?”
It happened in less than a second; he widened his eyes, looking at what was lying below his feet, ‘The windows—?! And the door's above?!!’ looking up to find the closed door of the classroom like it wasn’t behind him a second ago. It felt like the world was flipped out of nowhere. Elois blinked, speechless; he looked down at his legs, finding them hanging in the air. “Wha—” and before he knew it, down he fell from the suddenly opened window.
He silently panicked as he tried to register the fact that he was falling from a flipped building down to who knows where in the academy. With wide eyes and furrowed eyebrows, he closed his lips firmly while thinking loud about what exactly was happening, ‘How the heck am I falling??!! GRAVITY ERROR?!’
And he felt a quick movement in the next second coming down from above to match his eyesight level.
And there it was, a creepy huge, all-muscled man with sharp eyes and weird spiky black hair, grinning widely at him with open arms.
“Hey buddy, missed me?”
Elois stared wide-eyed as he was still taking in that he was falling to the ground beneath them, but that didn’t matter now; who the heck was that dude? This was the only thing Elois could think of now.
The man’s shadow loomed over him.
“The name’s Karl Alastair. Nice to see you again~”
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The End of CH. 5