CHAPTER 15

Pike spends too much time on a little boost (part 2)

 

Pike jolted awake, his head snapping upwards from its resting place in the cradle of his folded arms next to two empty cups of cup noodles. The art classroom was dark, with only the moonlight to illuminate the room wherever it could from the windows. He rubbed the palms of both hands up and down his face, with a particular focus on his eyes, before pulling away and letting his glasses fall back into place on the bridge of his nose.

 

He scanned the room with eyes that were still finding their focus. It seemed all of his classmates had left a long time ago. Nothing new there. It was perfect for him, since he wanted to remain discreet about the fact that he was luminescent. Truly, it paid to be a side character that most people didn’t take notice of.

 

Letting the last of his post-slumber sloth lapse with a stretch, a groan, and a heavy sigh, Pike looked at the heart-shaped earring sitting on the small bit of canvas he had laid out for its resting place. He had been in and out of his luminescent state all afternoon and most of the evening, leaving the room only to use the bathroom or pour hot water into his cup noodles.

 

Propping his head up by the elbow, he continued to gaze at the piece of jewelry.

 

Chaos and luminescence were both types of energy, and they could interact with the physical world. When he spoke with his aunt, she agreed that, in theory, one could infuse an object with luminescence like charging a battery. However, she didn’t know of anyone who had tried that before, let alone succeeded.

 

Once again steeling himself on that prospect, Pike prepared for another round. He gently scooped the earring up and cradled it in his cupped hands. His eyes began to glow.

 

His luminescent energy flowed along the surface of his glowing aura from various parts of his body like the rippling waves of a river. It gathered in his cupped hands and began to tumble over and under the earring, gradually encasing it in layer upon glowing layer.

 

Mindie didn’t need his help getting her game to the next level; he had every confidence she could do it on her own in due time. But the frustration she felt resonated with him. He just wanted to give her a little boost.

 

Pike’s luminescence had broken five times since he sat himself in the art classroom. Each time, his determination grew, and his focus sharpened.

 

Mindie’s soul was strong. This was something he knew ever since they first met.

 

Mindie was stubborn and ambitious. She would pit herself against any odds without a second thought.

 

Mindie’s enthusiasm—especially for being luminescent—was infectious. Being by her side gave Pike reason to believe in a bright, tangible future.

 

Mindie was by far the best of her peers. It didn’t matter if that was his bestie bias. He wanted more than anything to see her soar and shine like the Star she was aiming to be.

 

Up until this point, his luminescence seemed to wander away from its target like wayward pixie dust. But now, the threads and streams that wove around the trinket began to fuse in. It was almost as if it were finally responding to his intent.

 

And Pike reciprocated that response. All his focus was centered on it. There were no distractions in his glowing state. There was nothing but this little heart-shaped earring and his will to make this solution work.

 

=-=-=

 

An hour later, Pike tossed the two empty instant-noodle cups into the trash, then flipped his messenger bag closed and slung it over his shoulder. As he reached the door, it suddenly opened and caused him to flinch in surprise. He instinctively prepared for the worst, knowing that he wouldn’t last long if it was a Shade that had consumed a fellow student like the one in that bulletin post.

 

Fortunately, it was just Professor Belle.

 

Pike immediately loosened up at the shoulders and smiled bashfully, suddenly overcome by a wave of embarrassment in knowing why she was here. “Professor… Again, you really don’t have to wait for me every time. I can lock up so you can leave earlier.”

 

The foxy professor trained her lavender eyes on her student inquisitively, a hand on her hip. “Perhaps you’re right. After all, you could easily leave the building by going luminescent and phasing through the wall.”

 

“Isn’t the Luminescence Department strict about making sure use of luminescence is limited to just fighting chaotic energy?” And anything related to official Halo Tour business, of course.

 

“That it is.” A coy grin curled along her lips. “I didn’t realize using luminescence on your artwork was considered appropriate these days. Are you trying to purge it of its chaos?”

 

Pike averted his eyes. Guilty. “Oh, well uh…”

 

But Azalea leaned forward and pressed her index finger to his lips, causing him to clam up and cutting off any excuse he may have had in the following moments.

 

“Well, it’s been a long, long time since the Department recognized me as one of them,” she said with a wink. “And as a fellow creative, I encourage any artistic pursuit you have—even if it does bend the rules a bit.”

 

=-=-=

 

Once they were outside, Azalea closed the door behind them and gave it a good tug to make sure it clicked into place. A hollow ka-chak could be heard reverberating from the hall inside, and with that sound for confirmation, she stuck the key inside the lock and turned it in simple shuttering ceremony.

 

“You were in my classroom the entire day, Pike. What on earth were you working on that required such passionate devotion?”

 

“Something to help a friend, I hope.”

 

A glint twinkled in those lavender eyes. “A girl?”

 

“Y-Yes… A girl…” Pike suddenly felt self-conscious—less that his deed was for a girl and more that he felt the gossip energy rising within his professor. He cleared his throat. “More importantly, she’s someone who’s chasing a dream. If spending a whole day in the art building gives her even a little boost, that’s what matters.”

 

Azalea brought the back of her hand to her forehead, swooning in melodrama. “Uh! You’re such a romantic young man.”

 

Which was about what Pike expected following her first teasing remark, leaving him unfazed. “Please stop, professor…”

 

The art professor swung around and leaned towards him, the V-shaped neck of her skin-tight shirt pronouncing her bosom. She placed a finger beneath her student’s chin, daintily holding his eyes level with hers. “Perhaps you might dedicate a little of that passion of yours to me soon? I’d love to see what masterpiece you’ll create for the next art competition.”

 

Pike just gave her a weary smile, too exhausted to notice her flippant advance. “Yeah. Look forward to it, professor.”

 

Azalea flashed him one more cat-like grin and gave him a little boop on the nose before straightening up once again. “Good.”

 

They parted ways where the sidewalks met. Before he took a step towards the southern part of campus where his dorm was, Pike paused and looked towards the opposite direction where a grove of trees marked the border between campus and North End Park. Mindie’s family lived just beyond the park; it wouldn’t be a very long trip.

 

He started walking that way.

 

The trees of the park were thick and the pathway was only intermittently lit by the sparse population of lampposts that lined it. Walking through this part of the park was more akin to hiking through a small forest that happened to be paved, and somewhere up ahead it would open into the circular promenade that was popular with pet-lovers during the day and couples in the evening.

 

As Pike made his way down the path, he tapped through his phone’s apps. “It’s just a quick visit, and Mindie’s usually still up this late.”

 

And if she wasn’t, well, he figured he would still get a good walk out of it. He opened his SocialNorm Messenger app and opened the chat window with Mindie TC—whose profile icon was a tangerine with a surface that faded from orange to green.

 

The last conversation they had was a short bit of banter earlier that evening in which Mindie made fun of Pike for being in the art building all day. It tapered off with her saying she was on the way to training.

 

Apparently, she had sent a couple of impatient messages looking for her ever-available constant (which was, of course, not the case today) sometime afterward, prodding him about dinner plans. The app indicated she was last active two hours ago, but Pike figured she was never far from her phone during her downtime. He began to compose a message, asking Mindie if she were still awake and saying he wanted to stop by really quick.

 

He was blissfully unaware of a stalker tailing him from behind the trees.

 

“Short people got—no reason… Short people got—no reason…”

 

Pike perked up and shot a glance over his shoulder warily, hearing the small voice behind him. Just then, a girl with a mess of long, dark hair stumbled out into the light of a pathway lamppost. She staggered to her feet and lifted her head to look at Pike.

 

Suddenly, her eyes began to glow red. And her body began rapidly exuding a shroud of darkness.

 

Alarmed, Pike phased into his luminescent state. As the world’s detail melted away from his view, leaving only vague lines of black and white, he saw no more girl. Instead, he saw an amassed aura of chaos that flailed out in every direction from where she was like thick, gorgon hair.

 

The Shade stalked towards him. “Short people got—no reason to live…”

 

Pike cursed in his parents’ Eastern tongue. “Putang…”