I freely walked through the street without giving a care in the world, now knowing about my guaranteed protection I felt much more at ease with my surroundings. Come to think of it, I remember what Yurinami said yesterday with following new rules. He must be following some sort of instructions, maybe he’s in charge of protecting me. But he seemed really mad about it. Whatever, that really isn’t all that important.
I strolled through these streets so casually like it was just a normal day in the park, like the world hadn’t gone to shit. The sun was shining down and the clouds were nonexistent, it was honestly quite peaceful. I almost completely forgot I was gonna go to the place I despise the most.
The horrific sight of the bright white building of the school made me shudder and completely shattered my good mood. Though I should’ve expected this, I knew what I was getting myself into when I made that promise to Jesse, also I still needed to talk to Slinca since I missed my chance yesterday.
Walking up to the door, every step I took ringed in my ears as it meant it was one more step toward this god forsaken place. Like yesterday, I knocked on the door and told whoever was looking at me through the camera my identity. The door opened and I reluctantly stepped through and felt the rays of the sun fade away off my body.
Everyone darted their eyes towards me and I took a deep sigh as I was just struck as to why I fucking hate this place. I hate being the center of attention, even if it was for doing something good or heroic. I just can’t handle the social pressure it clings on you. I slowly walked over to the group mid-lesson and no one said anything to me, not even Yurinami. I was now forced to do the lesson, but I shouldn’t be complaining, I did this on my accord.
The lesson was very basic shit that I already knew and nothing was learned during that session. During it, I considered just leaving this whole city and never coming back. But that would probably do no good for me nor Alice.
Lesson ended with a cheeky quote that Yurinami said, and it was so cheesy I physically gagged and almost threw up. God I fucking regret ever coming to this school or even enlisting in it at all.
“You’ve gotta stop showing up late Lee.” Yurinami called me out.
“Eat my dick asshole!” I snapped back, leaving Yurinami with nothing else to say. I ran through my silky hair with my fingers and took a deep breath and tried to not to lose my temper and completely go off on Yurinami. I felt a slight pat on my back and immediately turned around, it was Jesse giving me a smile.
“Glad you made it.” Jesse says, still smiling. “Thought you died out there.”
“Never.” I said.
“I know, but you still had me worried.”
“Sorry.” I rubbed my head a little bit.
“Wanna go?” Jesse said.
“Yeah, just need to talk to Slinca first.”
“Alright.”
I swung my head back and forth trying to look for Slinca’s blonde hair. I caught a glimpse of the bright color of it as she stepped out of the school. I rushed over to her, kinda shoving Jesse out of the way. I’ll definitely need to apologize for that later.
Slinca was walking away briskly as I ran out of the doors and hopped down the stairs, I called out her name and she didn’t turn around or even notice that I called out to her.
“Slinca!” I screamed out like she was gonna get hit by a car. She stopped walking and turned her head to face me. We were probably twenty feet away from each other but I could see the tears that were slowly dribbling down her face.
“What do you want?” She asked in a fierce tone.
“I-” I wanted to talk to her so much, but I never thought why or even what I wanted to say to her, my mind was drawing a blank. Maybe I wanted to talk to her because she was the only person that I felt comfortable around. She was the only one to hear me out on my trauma, and what I’ve been through.
“Nothing. Good, cause I have nothing to say to you.” She started to turn her head and continue walking.
“Wait!”
“I don’t want to hear it.”
“Why are you mad at me?”
“Why!?” Slinca fully turned around. “God, I can’t even look at your face. It reminds me so much of her.”
“Who are you talking about?”
“My sister, she had the same exact expression as you do right now.”
“Oh.”
“You’d even act like her, the total lack of compassion and emotion. It just disgusts me to my core.” She started to cry even more, clenching her fists. “Trust me Lee when I say that I did want to see how you were doing after everything I heard. Trust me, I really did. But the first moment I saw you, and that expression you had.” Slinca wiped her eyes and choked up a little. “I didn’t know who you were anymore. You weren’t the Lee I knew in school, the one that was there for me all the time, and the one that kept me going on. You just weren’t him.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, but she’s right. I had become something different. I tried but couldn't get rid of the expressionless expression I had. Even at this moment when I felt truly hurt at what she was saying, I couldn’t even express that out to her.
“So tell me!” She started charging towards me, and I knew what she was gonna do next but I chose not to do anything about it and let it happen. She slapped me with so much force that the smack she made across the flesh from my face sounded like my skull cracked completely open. “Who the fuck are you!? What the fuck have you become!?” She was shaking me violently. She stopped shaking me and let go of my shoulders. “Are you gonna say anything!?”
Her slap left a big red handprint on my right cheek, and it stung like a bee. “I don’t know Slinca. I don’t know.” Was all I could muster up, and it was the truth. I have no idea what I’m becoming or why I’m even feeling this way, and I’m scared of that.
Slinca still had a tough expression on her face even with the tears flowing down her face, she looked at me in complete and honest disgust. She ran down the street and disappeared through a dark alleyway, leaving me there to wallow.
“Is this a bad time?” Fred said, waiting outside of the school alongside Jesse, Ian, and Penny.
“What the fuck do you think?” I snarkily said.
“Trust me we get what you’re going through.”
‘Yeah, everyone does at this point. Everyone that fucking lives here knows what I’m going through aparently.”
“You’re not the only one here going through trauma every single day! So stop acting like you’re fucking special.”
“Oh but I am special Fred. In a way that I don’t want to be.”
“Get off your high horse you fucking dick. We all heard from Jesse about your situation.”
“Now what could she tell you that everyone else in this whole wide world doesn’t know about me?”
“That you’re broken.”
“Was that something so subtle that someone needed to tell you? It was more like a bright shining light in your face it was that fucking obvious.”
“Fred shut up and let me talk.” Jesse put her hand on her chest and stepped forward in front of Fred, basically knocking him off the podium and making Jesse the leader. “Lee, I know this may be bad timing but we’ve come to a proposal. Note, they totally understand if you’re not up to this. They want to come stay with us.”
“Really?” I sighed.
“Yes, really.”
“You were right, it was not the best time to bring that up now.”
“Please!” Penny pleaded. “We just want to be safe with you in the sewer!”
“Jesse,” I said in a disappointed tone. “DId you really tell them where I live?”
“Yeah, I thought you would be ok with that.” She said.
“I’m not.”
“Sorry, they just wanted to know and thought it couldn’t hurt to tell them and then all of them just wanted to come stay with you.”
“I really appreciate that you all want to come to stay with me. But, it’s just not gonna work out.”
“If you’re talking about food you shouldn’t worry about that.” Fred said. “Hell, I can bring you a whole month's worth of food supply, along with water. My dad has so much that it’s not even funny.”
“You’re just gonna steal from your dad just to stay with me?”
“He can go and fucking die for all I care.”
“Must be a loving family.”
“We can bring extra tents!” Penny said.
“You guys aren’t getting the point here. I don't need you guys to come live with me. Not even Jesse. Just leave me alone.”
“Do you want to get better!?” Jesse asked. “Because it seems like you don’t want to.”
“What the fuck do you want me to do then!? My whole life has just changed two fucking days ago and I’m supposed to just act like thats just another part of this life!”
“You’re the one that decided to fight Runasi, not anyone else.”
“How dare you say that! You weren’t there, you don’t know what actually happened. So stop pretending like you do.”
“Lee, if you keep being by yourself, it’s only going to get worse. You’ll be too stuck in your head and you’ll keep on your downward spiral. So, please, just consider it.”
“You all make this hard for me, you know that right?” I thought long and hard about it, about how to get better, but none of them seemed to be the right direction to take. I was happy when Jesse stayed with us for that night, but now it seems like more of an annoyance. Now with a bunch of people now just wanting to stay with me for no particular reason, it’s all just too much. It’s not that I’m worried about if they’re gonna do something bad, I’m just wondering what Alice would think. I hope she’s not thinking I forgot about her, I never will. It’s just this is all too much to process. Just like always Jesse was right. I need this to happen, be around people and not let myself coil up until I explode from the overbearing emotional baggage.
“Fine.” I finally said. “Come follow me and I’ll show you how to get there.”
“There you go, that wasn’t so hard now was it?” Fred said and was immediately hit in his hip by Jesse.
I motioned everyone over to the manhole cover and lifted it up, and everyone went down one at a time until there was just me and Jesse left at the top of the ladder. She put a hand on my shoulder.
“You made the right decision.”
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We all got down into the sewer and I led the group through the twists and turns throughout and finally got to the camp. Alice was waiting for me to return and she ran at me and hugged me with full force and I fell to the ground on my back.
“Where were you this morning?” She said, “I was worried because you didn’t say where you went.”
“Sorry about that.” I responded, getting back up from the ground.
Alice looked up at everyone who followed me here. “Who are these people?”
“Some more friends.”
“Heh, hello.” Alice shyly said.
“Hello there.” Fred said. “You didn’t tell me you had a little sister.”
“Well, I usually don’t tell strangers about my life.” I lead them over to the tent I stay in, I can’t really even call it my own, it’s just Nancy’s tent I bombarded. “Here it is, the place I live.”
“Not bad.” Ian said. “Not bad at all, perfectly hidden underground.”
“Yeah, the smell might be unbearable but if this is the place you choose to hide, it’s not a bad choice.” Penny chimed in.
“Plus, this really is a place where you can easily expand.” Fred added on.
“So now you’ve seen the place.” I said. “You know how to get back here if you go on and get your stuff?”
All of them look at eachother like hoping one of them said yes.
“I do.” Jesse said. “I’ll help you guys to your house and back.”
“Thanks.” They all said and they started to head back.
“Be back here before it gets dark.” God I sound like a concerned mom. They all leave with Jesse to get all of their stuff. “Never really got the reason why they all wanted to stay. I’ll ask them later when they get back.”
“Lee!” William came storming over to me, with every footstep pounding into the ground like he was a big monster. “What the fuck are you doing!?”
“Well right now, nothing.”
“Don’t hit me with that cheeky bullshit! I allowed you to bring in one friend and now you’re gonna have a whole goddamn group come in? Without even asking for my permission!?”
“I’m sorry. It’s not like I wanted them to come with me, they just clinged onto my shoulder.”
“When they come back, tell them to take their stuff and get!”
“Hold on just a second, it may be beneficial, one of them can bring so much food for the whole camp.”
“Really? You better not be saying bullshit right now.”
“Don’t believe me? Watch when they come back.”
“Fine Lee. You’ve only been here for one day and you’re already giving me a fucking headache.”
William walked away mumbling to himself in an incoherent rant. Hopefully Fred was right and he can actually bring that much, because if he doesn’t then that's it.
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A whole hour passed and during that time I was with Alice and we were reading a book together as Nancy listened along as we all were sitting in the tent. The book wasn’t really interesting to me, but if Alice enjoys it, I’ll sit through it. We all heard a bunch of footsteps and voices coming from outside the tent and assumed that it was the group back with their stuff. And I was right, when I peered out the tent after closing the book, all of them were actually smiling and laughing. It seems like they had gone out for the best night ever. It made me feel left out of the group, like we were separated by a brick wall.
“The look on my dad’s face was fucking hilarious.” Fred laughed as he was holding the biggest sack I’d ever seen. “You should’ve been there Lee, it was awesome.”
“Is that all the food you brought back?” I asked, walking over to them.
“Yep, stole all of the food from my dad.”
“You stole all of the food from him?”
‘That’s right.”
“Good, I was afraid you wouldn’t bring it.”
Ian and Penny were both carrying a tent.
“We got our tents from our place.” Ian said. “So now we just have to decide where to place them down.”
“And who sleeps in which one, it’s kinda like a sleepover.” Penny said.
Then there was a whole conversation about who gets one tent that ended rather quickly. Jesse was already staying in my tent alongside Alice and Nancy. So Ian and Penny shared a tent and Fred was all by himself. Once we had all of the housing situations all settled and convinced William to let them stay, we were finally all settled in after a whole two hours.
We were all sitting down in Fred’s tent in a little circle, Alice and Nancy weren’t there and it was just the main group. I was seated next to Jesse and Fred, sitting shoulder and shoulder together. It was pretty cramped, but I didn’t mine and so did no one else.
“Wow, this really does feel like a sleepover.” Penny started the conversation after everyone was settled in. “Have you guys ever been to a sleepover?” No one responded. “Oh cool, me neither.”
“It’s hard to have a sleepover during these times.” Ian said.
“Yeah, it was kinda of a dumb question to ask, sorry.”
“Guys, I need to ask something.” I said. Everyone was now all looking at me, anticipating what I was going to say. “Why did you want to come stay with me all of a sudden?” They all looked at eachother.
“Well-” Ian started to speak until Fred cut him off.
“Because we thought it would be a good idea, I mean, we all live alone. Besides me and Slinca, probably and you of course.”
“Is that really it? Or is it because I’m famous?”
“I mean, it was a huge factor in our decision-”
“Fucking knew it.”
“Wait, it’s not like that was the main factor, we actually like you.”
“Whatever you say.”
“Look, I know you don’t like to bring it up but I just need to say this. Thank you so much for getting the first hit on Runasi-”
“Drop it!” Jesse snapped at Fred.
“I’m not trying to make him feel bad, I’m saying this because you just saved me big time Lee.”
“What do you mean?” I said.
“My dad wanted me to become the first person who did that, everyday he tried to pressure me into going to his facility, but I never listened to him. So once he heard the news you did it, he basically gave up on me!”
“He gave up on you? Is that supposed to be a good thing?”
“Fuck yeah it is, I fucking hated that guy, he was on my ass everyday. Hell, abusive isn’t even the right word for it. So thank you.”
“You’re welcome, I guess.” I didn’t know what other way to respond to that, he talked about it so casually, like it was a normal dinner conversation.
“Only two more weeks.” Ian said. “Then we’ll finally be out of that school.”
“What?” I said.
“Oh, forgot you weren’t there. Yurinami said the day we graduate is two weeks away from now.”
“Wow, that's not that far away.”
“What are you going to do when you graduate?”
“Moving out of the city, that's for sure.”
“Are you sure that's a good idea?”
“Whether it is or not I don’t care, I’m tired of being here all my life. I’m gonna go somewhere else.”
“Whatever you want.”
“What’re you guys going to do?”
“I don’t know, haven’t really thought about it. Maybe just stay here, it really doesn’t seem like a bad idea. It’s not like this city is the death capital of the country.”
“How about we move to one of those utopian cities?” Penny said. “I forget the name of them.”
“Oh you mean the Invlands!” Fred said excitedly, sitting up as he said it. “I’ve heard about them, don’t you have to be rich to be one?”
“I think so, though I’m not sure.” Ian said.
“That's the place my dad always talked about, apparently if you pay a very hefty price, they’ll keep you in a city that's supposed to replicate the old times, before everything went to shit.”
“Those places are really nice.” Jesse said. “Though calling it a utopia is kinda ridiculous. It’s like a zoo, a bunch of dangerous animals just trapped in an environment where they can’t hurt each other.”
“You say that like you’ve lived in one.”
“I haven’t but if you read up on them, it’s actually kind of shocking the events that happen in there. They claim to be a better society when in reality they are more violent than the people out here.”
“That sounds kinda right.” I say, as I lay down on the hard cement floor of the sewer. “If you put enough rich assholes together who all have a stick up their ass shit is about to go down eventually.”
“Exactly, whoever called it a utopian society is a fucking idiot.”
The chat went a little silent after that, mainly people bringing up on what they want to do in the future. Mainly the answers being about just wanting to survive, which is the main objective no matter what. We talked for a straight hour until we were all tired and decided to wrap it up and go to bed.
This’ll be the first night we’ll be sharing together for the first time. We all said goodnight to each other and went to our respective tents. Me and Jesse went into Nancy’s tent where she was already fast asleep with Alice as well. I layed down and rolled over in the sleeping bag to look at Alice sleeping peacefully, and I thought to myself. I need to tell her that I fought Runasi, she needs to know. But I’m too afraid to even bring up that conversation in the first place.
Right now, I just need to get through Yurinami’s stupid fight school, it’s literally the only thing holding me back from going anywhere at the moment. It’s not like I'm being forced to stay here, it’s that if I leave right now, I'll let them down.
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For the next two weeks it was basically like a routine: wake up, go to Yurinami’s school, come back here, and spend time with the group. Honestly, I’m not even complaining about it at all. This has been the best two weeks of my life. Constantly spending time around the people I like has brought back my humanity a little bit. Every second after that fateful day it was so hard for me to feel another emotion besides nothing or anger.
Though there has been one problem, Slinca. Everytime we try to talk to her she shuts down the conversation immediately, not even letting me get one letter in or even a body motion. She hasn’t looked me in the eyes ever since our argument. It’s just disheartening, she’s been my friend for so long and now she doesn’t want anything to do with me.
Yurinami’s school didn’t feel like a school at all. It felt more like a day job than anything else, every lesson ended with nothing being learned, only my time wasted. The funnest part about that class was just counting down the days until it was all over and I can move on with my life.
Today we just got back from the Yurinami fight school, the day before the graduation ceremony he called it. Yurinami says he has something very special planned for us, though none of us have a clue of what it might be. If it’s on par with everything else he does, it’s probably gonna be lame or boring. Hell it might even be an exam.
Our night talk consisted of coming up with ideas of what the final day might consist of and the overwhelming joy of the school finally ending. When we said all of our goodbyes we all hugged each other, since we thought none of us would see each other again. It was just like the last day of normal school with Slinca.
I went over to the tent for the last time that night, since when I come back tomorrow we would be packing up and leaving. Alice and Nancy were sleeping together in the same sleeping bag, they’ve become really close with each other over the course of these two weeks. Alice looks up to Nancy like a mother figure, since our real mom is, you know.
I laid down next to Jesse and was about to close my eyes and get some rest for tomorrow. Jesse put her arm over my neck and we were now basically cuddling as she pulled my head tight to her chest.
“Hey Lee.” Jesse said as she smothered me.
“Yeah? What is it?” I asked.
“Can I stay with you after we graduate? I just want to stay with you and Alice.”
“Sure you can. There’s no problem with that.”
“Thanks.” She held me close to her until I heard her snore, and her grip loosed as she dozed off.
I’ve always felt some sort of way about Jesse, that she was always the tough girl with no emotion whatsoever. I remembered the first time I tried to talk to her she basically told me to fuck off. Now, we’re even closer than ever along with everyone else. These guys seemed like assholes at first with no other redeeming qualities about them. Now, I’ve been proven wrong, and I’m glad I was.
I drifted off to sleep as the excitement of tomorrow was getting overwhelming. Hopefully tomorrow will go smoothly, hopefully139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQHyjnWVJqa
