“I…”
A man with blood dripping from his hands and face weakly tried to stand from his spot on the floor and away from the pool of blood underneath him, resting one hand on the table by his side but unable to do much with how bad his hands were trembling as he looked to the child sitting silently on the sofa on the other side of the room.
“I'm sorry…”
Attempting to reach his trembling bloody hand to the small child, who only stared back with his knees hugged to his chest.
“I-I didn't mean to—”
Slipping and tripping weakly from all the blood coming out of the cold body on the wooden floor.
“Davante…”
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The Red Flower
Chapter. 7
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Eyes fluttered open after so long of silent darkness in his deep sleep. Elois squinted his eyes weakly, adjusting to the flickering lights from the buildings outside at night. He blinked multiple times before it occurred to him that he was in a dimly lit hospital room, with only the lights from the window as the light source. He stared silently at the plain ceiling for a while, feeling the cold of the room and the humming silence. He slowly pushed himself up to sit on the white bed, looking at the tall buildings through the big window for a moment before shifting his eyes to his cold hands lying limp on his lap above the blanket.
The bandages on his right arm immediately refreshed his mind, yet he remained silent and still. He felt numb everywhere. He stared unfocused at his hands; even his mind felt numb, he thought. The sound of the winter air outside the room and the distant noise from the busy academy at night didn’t help with the numbness he felt as it worsened with each second.
“Oh, you're finally awake!”
Elois jolted slightly in surprise as he hadn’t noticed he wasn’t the only one in the room. He quickly glanced in a direction to see who it was, finding a smiling guy sitting backward on a chair not far from him but not close. Elois’ expressionless face turned back to his hands.
A guy with the same hair color as his, dark blue eye, and an eye patch covering his right eye. The guy smiled kindly at Elois, who looked too numb and tired to feel or say anything. “So, how are you feeling now?”
Elois remained stiffly silent as he gripped the blanket in his hands, trying to stop them from trembling. After a moment of silence, his head turned slightly to the window at his left as he murmured an answer, “…'m good.”
The guy closed his eye with a gentle smile, “Good to know! You looked so beaten up that I got worried for a moment there, but I know it is nothing you can't handle. You really are strong, after all. You still didn't deserve any of it, of course.”
Elois didn't say anything in return or even look up at the guy. The silence between the two only grew heavier with each passing second. However, he felt the need to answer as he felt the other’s eye kept staring at him in silence with an awaiting smile. “…Thank you…for…umm…”
The guy smiled sincerely even if the other wasn’t looking at him at all, “It's only normal to take care of you! We're—” a pause, he noticed the other tensed for a second there, so he smiled almost apologetically and lowered his head a bit. He quickly changed the topic while pushing the chair a bit closer to the bed with his legs, “I suppose you're still tired? The doctor said you could leave once you wake up since your injuries don't seem too serious anyway, which is strange but good, I think? You can still spend the night here and rest a bit, of course…”
After a minute or so, Elois mumbled an answer with his head still hanging low, “I… I'm fine. I’ll go back to the dorms…” without waiting for an answer, he immediately pushed himself from the bed and was about to walk to the door when the other stood hesitantly from his seat in a hurry but refrained from getting any closer as he remained by the chair.
“Are you sure? Shall I walk you back to your room?”
Elois hesitated for a second before holding the handle, his back facing the other, “No— Sorry, goodbye.”
And he left the guy alone in the room; the silence only grew heavier as the guy stood still for a long minute before he deflated with a sigh. Rubbing the back of his head as he looked to the floor disappointed, “And he ran away…”
.
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Javi walked around near the area where he assumed the explosion had occurred. Turning left and right in search of the exact location, “The explosion was somewhere around here if I'm not mistaken…”
“Yeah, it was Elois.”
Javi halted suddenly at the mention of Elois coming from someone on the balcony above him. He looked up with a frown, trying to understand that one sentence, ‘Elois? Did something happen to Elois?’
“Let’s not bother with that now. Have you found Davante yet?” the voice’s owner calmly asked someone, though no one answered. Javi assumed that the person was on a phone call.
‘Davante? I've heard this name before… I think.’ deep in thought, Javi then frowned at the following words the man had said after.
“So he’s Elois’ roommate? Then let’s keep an eye on Elois as well.”
‘Davante…? Elois’ roommate…?’ Javi thought carefully before he widened his eyes in recognition, “Could he be—” he whispered without thinking.
Swiftly, the guy jumped from the balcony to the ground where Javi stood a second ago, as Javi immediately hid behind the wall at the end of the short corridor between two buildings as fast as the guy’s jump. Thinking it was too quiet, Javi tried to peek at the other side but found the guy still standing quietly with his broad back in his direction. A guy with his hair reaching his shoulders, black from the top, then gradually changing to red at the ends, wearing earrings that looked suspicious to Javi and a cap on his head. He kept staring at the stranger before hiding again when the oddly-silent guy slowly turned around.
The guy walked calmly until he stopped at the corner at the end of the corridor, at the same place Javi was standing a moment ago, except it was empty. In silence, the guy kept staring in a specific direction with his sharp crimson eyes for a long while.
.
.
Davante stood in place, observing the ruined garden before him, lost and confused. ‘What exactly happened here…? Or maybe it's been this way before…?’ He quickly ignored that and focused on the Diary in his hands, ‘The diary… or not really a diary…’ recalling what happened not too long ago with the strange girl. ‘Yeolard was definitely trying to tell me something through this book… it felt like he was directly talking to me…’ deciding to keep the book, he calmly pushed it into his bag hanging on his right shoulder, ‘That girl seemed so keen to snatch it away from me for some reason. I was so sure I'd remember her from my past, but it's all gone now… I have to read it all…’
“YOU THERE!”
He was startled at the sudden rough and urgent call from behind; he only felt more alert when he caught the sound of heavy boots running toward him at full speed. He turned fast and was met with the academy guards, all pointing their flashlights at him like he was some criminal caught in the spotlight. One of them asked accusingly, “What're you doing here?!”
He was cornered for some unknown reason, but this wasn't new activity in his life, so he forced himself to stay calm and open his mouth to answer as he slightly squinted his eyes and tried to block the flashlights with his hand, “I'm lost…”
They didn't look too convinced at that; one of them ordered, “Show us your ID!”
Another one stepped forward, “No need, he's the new student. We were told to take you to the headmaster as soon as we found you. Come with us.”
He tensed at the mention of his father, turning his head slowly to the side. ‘I got to… somehow—’
“Dante?”
“Sir Alvis?”
“…”
Davante happened to look in the same direction where the assistant showed up. The assistant looked like he was running and only came closer to ensure it was the same teen he was looking for; he seemed to be taken aback by the guards there as he halted midway from approaching the teen. There was a short moment of awkward silence as he and Davante looked back at each other with troubled faces only they could see on the other. Alvis composed himself quickly and put his hands on Davante’s shoulders, standing behind the teen and gently yet hurriedly turning him around, giving their backs to the guards. He managed to control his face and look strict as he turned his head and ordered them, “I'll handle him from here on. You guys make sure nobody roams around the area!”
They only nodded obediently, even as their faces looked confused about the whole situation, “Yes, sir.”
He carefully pushed the teen, hurrying away from the guards, far enough from all ears to eavesdrop. Brushing his hair back with his hand as he sighed with a slight frown, “Kid…” Alvis slowly bent down a little and pushed his face close to the silently troubled teen, looking at him with narrowed, tired eyes, “I was looking for you all day. Where were you? How did you even end up surrounded by the guards?”
Davante felt guilty for causing trouble once again as he mumbled an answer, “umm… My father called for me, and I just… uh…”
All the fatigue and poor mood were gone at the look of the troubled teen in front of him and what he heard just now, “Ah, right… about Kaven…” Alvis relaxed as he straightened up his back, smiling gently at the teen who silently and patiently waited, “I will tell him everything… about the accident 10 years ago.”
Icy eyes widened slightly, “Wha…”
“Oh, hi there!”
Both Davante and Alvis turned to the voice, which belonged to no other than Javi, standing from a distance with his arms crossed in front of his chest.
“If you've already found Dante, you could've informed us or something, man! Elois and I were looking for him, you know.” he huffed, looking annoyingly at Alvis with crooked eyebrows as he walked to join the two.
“Sorry, kiddo. I just found him not too long.” Alvis smiled apologetically at Javi, who casually brushed it off, looking to the side.
“Right, sooo…” he eyed the guards from afar, investigating and searching around the area where the explosion had occurred, “What happened? What's with that pit over there?”
“That's what I'd like to know…” Alvis said with a sigh as he looked at the guards, then turned back to the two students with a convincing smile, “Why don't you boys go rest for today?”
“So we have to stay out of this?” Javi smirked knowingly as he suppressed a scoff, “Yeah, sure, Good night.” he turned and started strolling away, “Let's go, Dante.”
Davante followed obediently, passing by the smiling man when he whispered, only for Alvis to hear, “You don't have to talk to my father.”
He didn't turn to look at the other's reaction or wait for his answer. He walked to Javi, who had stopped to wait for him.
They walked the whole way silently to the dorms, with Javi walking ahead of Davante, who was silent and stared down in thought.
“You okay?”
Davante looked up at Javi, confused. “Yeah… why?”
Face forward, Javi kept on walking straight with his hands in his pockets as he calmly answered without his usual teasing smile, “Just, you look tired.”
Davante noticed how Javi's face darkened for a second at the approaching of an unfamiliar guy wearing a cap and walking casually opposite their direction in the dimly lit hallway. He felt the tense air between Javi and the guy even though they weren't talking or close by distance.
“A- huh?”
Javi suddenly grabbed Davante by the arm, “This way's faster." he said before turning to another hallway to their left.
Davante went along with him even as he questioned, ignoring the distancing steps from the stranger a second ago, “Isn’t your room the other way?”
“I'm walking my tired friend to his room. I’m being considerate here~” Javi raised his chin proudly, back to his usual self, Davante noticed.
“I'm fine…”
“I'm still coming with you~”
“…Okay… thanks… you can let go now.”
And his arm wasn’t let go until he was safely delivered back to his room.
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“So, nothing new about the explosion yet?” Kaven asked as he signed another paper, sighing at the number of the remaining reports lying before him in his office.
“We'll need to investigate more…” came the answer from Alvis, sitting on the sofa in front of his boss’s office, avoiding looking at the other even if Kaven wasn’t free enough to raise his head and look at him.
A heavy silence hung between the busy boss and the tense assistant. The only sound of the ticking clock was heard for a long while.
“We have to talk…” Alvis finally announced, ignoring how nauseous he felt and the ache in his stomach. He was thankful for he was able to control his face at least.
“About?” Kaven still couldn’t bother to raise his head and look at his assistant as he had just finished signing another paper.
“Ebele's death…”
Kaven widened his eyes. Both men stared at each other. The room became dead silent and heavy, and the ticking clock became even louder.
Alvis looked straight into Kaven's eyes with a composed face, turning his hand resting on the office beside him into a fist to stop his cold and numb fingers from trembling.
“I was the one who killed your wife.”
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The End of CH. 7