I wasn’t surprised in the slightest. I needed her to slap me, I needed someone to tell me I was wrong. That I was taking all of this too far. An effect from her rampant hair pulling was a disheveled head of hair. Her body was hunched into her legs which wouldn’t stop rapidly tapping the ground. While I was left with a red handprint on the side of my face.

I’m stalling…I don’t know how to act here. I want to in some way ease her sobs. I want to stay at arm’s reach to rub her back. But that is unbefitting as I was the one to cause this scene.

But as I sat there watching her, listening to her. I cursed my weak will and began rubbing her back. She flinched at my touch but didn’t take action to stop me.

I wanted her to feel at ease. I wanted to say screw everything and pull her into my chest. I wanted to lull her to sleep as the worries washed away! I wanted to do anything! Something to help her…

I hate her! I hate her! I hate her! Tears soaked my cheeks as I repeated the same phrase. Seemingly telling myself that this is the truth, reaffirming myself of the truth I created. Why do you make this so hard! Damn it, Megan!

She was curled up in tears, her will broken from one simple fact. I couldn’t stand it! I couldn’t leave her like this! I could feel the coursing pain, the side effect from the overdraw still present in my body. My cheek still heated from her reverberating slap. My eyes still watering much like her own, from the truth I constantly told myself. That I hate her, that she is the reason for everything wrong with my life.

‘She deserves this! This is what she deserves! Make her feel a fraction of what she made you feel! This is fine! This is normal! Come on Aster! Don’t do it! She is a monster!’

I gritted my teeth as the pain spiked. Even the world was telling me she wasn’t worth it. Everything was against me. I may be the subject of her ire! She may be the person I hate most in the world! But here and now, I can’t stand this!

No matter the pain, I reached out a second arm. No matter the past, I sat myself up further. No matter the present, I grasped her shoulders. No matter…I pulled her into my chest. No matter…the future. As the world went back.

As the sunlight broke through the covered windows forcefully awakening me from my slumber. The bright white burning my unaccustomed eyes. I put energy into moving my arm but to no avail, tightly held in place. After noticing the weight on my arms I began to notice a weight all over my body. The scent that floated toward my nose, strawberries. My reminder of the night prior. On my chest, she laid peacefully. I couldn’t bring myself to wake her, allowing the bright room to burn my eyes. I ran my hand through her hair, reminded of the past. Over the years such a scene occurred but instead of the heavy frown that I currently wore, a warm smile. 

 

Maybe because I forgot, or was too removed from the world to remember. A door that was never meant to be opened, written as world enhancement for the astute readers. 

“Savoir, penser, rever. Tout est la.” The countless times this phrase left my lips, still ingrained in me. “L’amour es tune rose. Chaque petale une illusion. Chaque epine une realite.” I couldn’t speak a lick more of French but these two phrases rolled off in perfect unity.  

Their translations were respectively “To know, to think, to dream. It’s all there.” “Love is a rose. Every petal an illusion. Every thorn a reality.”

 

“Dad…” She pushed further into my chest, my brain naturally recalling the continuous scene I tried countless times to forget. The feeling of her on my chest, the addicting smell of strawberries that tickled my nose. Her peaceful face as curled up like a kitten. Her smooth cheeks as my hand ran across them. And the pair of quotes that meant the world to us.

 

‘#!@$#!!#@’ I internally swore like a sailor, I could feel the heat rise to my cheeks. I hate admitting it to myself, that she still has this pull over me. 

 

“So this is where she has been.” I knew the voice by the first word, Kys.

 

“One moment,” I whispered back before methodically removing myself from her grip. My motions were fluid as she remained undisturbed from my actions.

 

The two of us walked out of the infirmary after I made sure to lay a blanket over her. 

 

The nurse on staff didn’t question my leaving as they weren’t ordered to. The school was very laid back in the sense of if you could walk out on your own you were free to leave. It was to not worsen the drive of students to push through injuries. 

 

“I didn’t even know you knew Scarlet, yet here you two are cuddling in the infirmary bed.” Kys teased with a hearty laugh.

 

I returned his laugh with a soft one, “I don’t know her, just rumors about her.”

 

“Whatever you say, man.” He shrugged it off.

 

“How’d the event turn out?”

 

“Two surprising outcomes.”

“Oh, what happened?” I expected I was one of them but the second one was beyond expectations.

 

“Scarlet bombed the test, barely passing the first evading target.” He confirmed his statement by showing the video of Scarlet’s test. 

 

It reminded me of the night and day of when she first started learning archery. It was a flaw I kept in her written character but I overlooked how bad it was. She was overly tense and her eyes were jittery. 

 

Watching her performance brought a frown to my face as I was at fault. 

 

“And then there is you, mister dark horse. Feels like it was only yesterday I whooped your ass in a spar. But here you are being 60 for the archers.”

 

I saw the final seconds of myself standing there, unable to see or feel anything. I watched as my own shadow brought itself off the ground and corrected everything about my stance. Before it shrunk down and encased the arrow. 

 

But the only sound was the ticking, the damned never-ending ticking.

 

The arrow missed as the target dodged with ease. The arrow tried to swerve into the dummy but as if expecting it, it side-stepped.

 

The arrow regretfully was embedded into the ground and I fell to the ground. 

 

But Kys wasn’t done. He scrolled down and a white number grabbed my attention on the black page, 107,315 views.

 

“What the hell!”

 

“The school has pushed you forward as the star of the event, the ideal shadow student.” 

 

‘The Ideal Shadow Student,’ A phrase that shouldn’t yet exist. It was a term used to praise a shadow student who was beyond exceptional but wasn’t the star. They break through barriers as a dark horse but never overshadowed light.

 

No one was ever worthy of this title for another 30 years, what was it doing here now! And with it being used now, that means the flow of the story is pushed forward! 

‘NO! NO! NO! They can’t deal with that world event yet! Damn it!’ The world is out of sync; this one phrase awoke a beast that shouldn’t be awake yet.

 

I heard the blare of the sirens. The flashes of red that veiled the world. It had come. I tightly gripped my vest and felt the rampant beats of my chest. 

 

I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t ready for what was to come.