Tears fell from Myoqi Layra’s eyes as she pressed her hands to the screen. Chains rattled when she moved, her wrists manacled and red from chafing. She kissed the screen gently and whispered words of comfort to Logan, even though she knew he could not hear them.
“I’m so sorry, Logan! I never meant for this to happen! Please don’t cry! Please just go on being happy! Your life is good! I love you Logan! I love you! Please don’t miss me! You have your whole life ahead of you! Go on and live it! Forget about me! Please forget about me!”
She knelt before the screen, her head bowing so low it touched the cold black floor. Her tears dampened her knees as she cried softly to herself. Suddenly, light spilled into the tiny room, and her screen vanished as she looked up swiftly. Two guards stood before her in the doorway, and she stood to her feet, knowing what they were here for. They took her elbows and led her from the cell and down a black marble hallway, lit brightly by blue lanterns hanging near the ceiling. They reached the end of the hallway much too soon, and the doors were opened before them. Layra was marched in, and forced to her knees on the smooth marble floor. The High Council sat before her in all its regality as the members stared down at her solemnly. The leader of the High Council stood grimly and spoke to her directly.
“Observer, Myoqi Layra. You have been found guilty of forsaking the way of the Osmatrac, evading capture, interfering with the lives of more than one human, and rebelling against the High Council. You are an infidel and a traitor. Do you deny this?”
Layra remained silent. The leader looked sharply at the guard, and he slapped her across the face.
“I shall repeat myself. You have betrayed and rebelled against the High Council, and willfully broken our valued laws. Do you deny it?”
Layra shook her head silently.
“You have been given solitary confinement to consider and renounce your sins. Have you considered them?”
Layra again nodded. The leader lifted his chin in self confidence.
“And have you repented of them?”
Layra was silent. The leader nodded to the guard, who again slapped Layra in the face. The leader looked a bit frustrated as he asked again,
“Have you renounced your sins, Myoqi Layra?”
She still remained stony, staring silently at the marble floor. The leader himself took a sudden step forward and slapped her himself, grabbing the front of her garment and pulling her up so that they were face to face.
“Do. You. Repent?” He asked her angrily. But to his shock, her eyes were not scared or sad, but flaming with righteous fury. She glared back into the leader’s face defiantly, not even flinching. He released her roughly and took a single step backwards.
“What is this rebellion? You dare to defy the High Council?”
Layra stood slowly to her feet, the guards stepping back also in confused surprise. Layra lifted her head slowly, her eyes flickering purple and yellow as she stared in hot, angry defiance at the High Council.
“Listen to me, all of you. I will say this but once, so unstop your ears, if it is at all possible for fools like you to listen at all. I do not repent. I do not renounce. I do not apologize, or beg forgiveness, or grovel, or quiver in fear! I do not regret! I do not regret what I have done! I do not regret my actions, for my actions were in the right! I did what was good and honorable! You have done wrong in trying to force me to say or think otherwise! You are all in the wrong, and your authority is false and pretentious! Listen well as I say this! There will come a day when you will call this moment to mind, and you will cry for mercy, but mercy will not come! Your sins have been tallied against you, and there is no repentance in your hearts! I will not tell your to fall on your knees and beg forgiveness, for it is of no use. You would not do so, and even if you did, it would come to nought, for no one will forgive you. I may die for what I have done, and I may die for what I have said, but it matters not, for you cannot harm my soul. You would do well to hear and consider, but you cannot change the future. I know that now.”
Layra bowed her head at this last sentence, and the shock of the High Council broke forth into rage as she fell silent. The leader screamed for the guards to take her away, and they dragged her off roughly. She did not resist, and they took her from the room, the leader shouting after her, “This treachery shall not go unpunished! You will return to solitary confinement until you learn obedience! Until you renounce what you have done, you shall have no sustenance whatsoever!”
The doors closed with a loud booming thud behind them, and Layra was flung again into her tiny stone cell, and the door sealed once more, shutting her in absolute silence and darkness.
Days, weeks, two months passed since Layra had vanished, and sometime during the first month, Chris had convinced Logan to come back to school. He was depressed and not himself, but he did return, and was welcomed sympathetically by loyal friends. In the two months after the school fair, the students were quickly becoming familiar with the name “Laini Arya.” She was already infamous among her own classmates, and the rest of the school was fast learning who this girl was. In only two business weeks (ten days, overall), she had skipped class twice, got into four fights, three with other students, and one with a teacher, and was found behind the gym trying to dig up a tsubaki bush. After the bush incident (which was the reason she was fighting with a teacher), the incidents died down a bit, but her point had been made. She was not a tansy pansy, eyelash fluttering, sugar and spice girl. She was a force to be reckoned with, and she would not be tamed or surpressed by anyone. The other event that happened whilst Logan was absent was that Arya had ceased to eat in the lunch room with everyone else. She ate her sandwiches, soup, and cakes, and drank her tea in the cool quiet of the classroom, without a hundred teenagers watching her every move. Shall we for one chapter document the passing of time, not from the perspective of werewolf, former or current, but by way of a handsome and charming young man of sixteen years, respectively? Through his eyes, we shall view a single week pass us by while we observe Logan’s return to life as we know it. Monday morning, the first bell has rung, and the students are filing into the room and finding their seats quietly and calmly. Blake Matthews has also taken his own seat near the front of the room, and the secon bell rings out that class is beginning. But one seat remains empty. Whose is it, do you think? The door opened again, and in walked Laini Arya. She ignored the glares of Mr. Black and took her seat calmly next to Chris, giving him an eyebrow raise before leaning back in her chair and laying on ankle over the opposite knee. Blake watched her walk in and glanced back at her secretively behind his book. She caught his gaze and smirked at him boldly. He leaned back in surprise, his eyes widening, and he turned away swiftly. He felt his face getting hot and put a hand to his face momentarily, dropping it instantly to his side. He knew he was blushing, and he couldn’t stop. Horribly embarrassed, he hid his face behind his textbook and hoped no one had noticed. From the back of the room, Arya could see his ears turn pink, and smirked even wider before returning to her usual not-smile. The class passed rather uneventfully, although Blake could not seem to stop thinking about Arya and her smirk in his direction. And every time he caught himself thinking about it, his face grew pink, and he slumped over his desk, feeling embarrassed. School was always hard for Blake, especially with his grades, but the class seemed to drag out longer than usual for him, and when the lunch bell rang, he nearly jumped out of his seat in surprise, not expecting the loud noise. He collected his lunch and sat with the gang at their table, conversation buzzing about him eagerly. He found a seat next to Logan and opened his lunch. Logan was eating a school lunch again, and Chris was on his other side. Blake turned to Logan and attempted to start up a conversation as he dug into his lunch.
“Hey Logan! It’s great having you back on the team. We lost our last game with you gone.”
Logan nodded gratefully back at Blake and swallowed a bite of food before replying.
“Thanks Blake. I’m glad to be doing something, at least. I fell behind on exercising since…”
He paused for a moment, then took a sip of his drink. He turned back to Blake with a forced grin and continued.
“Anyway, Chris here’s seen to it that I get back to practice and all that. What’s new with you?”
“Not much, I guess. My cousin was visiting from France last week.”
“France? Your cousin lives in France?”
“Yeah. She’s studying at one of their universities for cooking and gourmet something or other. She wants to be a chef. She took two French courses in college for that specific purpose. Anyway, she left on Saturday. How about you? Started fixing up that old mansion of yours?”
Logan chuckled humorlessly.
“No, not really. I guess I’m just lazy, but I really don’t want to touch the place.”
Blake nodded sympathetically.
“I understand how you feel. Just too many memories, huh?”
Logan turned his face down and nodded. Blake glanced at the rest of the people sitting around the table. Eleven boys, and one girl. Leader Stuart, his best friend and assistant, Julian, the joker who kept up their spirits, Shane, his partner in crime, Charlie, the quiet Laurie, the strong but immature Trent, the little bookworm, Seth, Blake’s BFF, the ever-cheerful Chandler, the sweet but brave Logan, the newest addition to the posse, Chris, the kind and thoughtful Kyle, and last but not least, his sweet other half, Anna. They all looked so happy and content, even though under the surface they were all sad and missing Layra terribly. But youths tend to bounce back fairly quickly, and there wasn’t a tear to be seen. The day passed as every day passed, slowly and painfully, with the final bell heard to the relief and delight of all the students. Blake and Chandler walked out of the classroom together, laughing and chattering like best friends do, but Blake’s eye had wandered to the familiar blue stripe and black glasses. She breezed past them coolly and disappeared around the corner, and Blake found his face growing hot once more. Chandler noticed.
“Hey, Blake, what’s the matter? Your face is as red as a tomato!”
Blake turned to look at him, startled.
“What!” he choked out, then flung his hands over his face with a witty remark of,
“Dangit, dangit, dangit, dangit, dangit!”
Chandler’s eyebrows went up and he glanced down the hall briefly.
“What were you looking at, anyway? And why dangit?”
Then he looked back at Blake and saw his face clearly. A huge, teasing grin lit up his face as the realization dawned upon him.
“It’s a girl, isn’t it?”
“What! No!” Blake protested loudly. But Chandler continued to tease.
“You like a girl, don’t you? Little Blakey’s in love! Ain’t it sho shweet!”
Blake elbowed him sharply in the ribs, hissing at him,
“Shut up, will you?”
They walked down the hall together, Chandler’s teasing always right behind him, endlessly tickling at Blake’s pride, until, finally, they got into a bit of a scuffle. They both went down on the pavement, with loud shouts from both parties.
“Take it back!”
“When’s the wedding?”
“Take it back!”
“I can be ‘best man’ right?”
“Take it back!”
“You won’t mind if I kiss the bride?”
“TAKE IT BACK, DARN YOU!”
In the end, Chandler ended on top, sitting on Blake’s shoulders while the latter scowled in defeat, and both breathing heavily.
“Alright, you win. Now get off of me, you great lump!”
Chandler happily stood to his feet, offering his hand to Blake pleasantly. Blake took the proffered hand and was pulled to his feet. They walked off together, almost as though the fight hadn’t even happened, although Blake still felt a bit sullen after his loss. And so the school day ended. The next day began much the same as the last, with students filing in through the door as they always had done. Blake found himself again watching as Arya entered the room, walked carelessly down the aisle to her seat in the back, and sitting in it as she always did, with her arm over the back, and her legs crossed before her comfortably. Mr. Black’s annoyance was obvious, but Laini Arya appeared that she could not care less. Our Blake felt a strange sensation come over him as he watched her performance, and felt his face growing red once more. In horrified embarrassment, he hid his face behind a book and hoped desperately that no one had seen, most of all Arya, and Chandler. If Chandler had caught sight of this action, there would be no end to the teasing, he knew. He glanced over briefly at Chandler, who seemed very much absorbed in staring at the bright pink eraser on the end of his pencil. Slightly relieved, Blake turned again to glance at Arya. She had now picked up her book and was skimming across the pages as though she could really care less what was printed within. She flicked her eyes up and saw Blake looking at her. At this she smirked at him teasingly, and he turned to face forward quickly. With class passing agonizingly, the bell finally rang, and Blake stood and collected his lunch, walking out of the room with Chandler, who had seemingly forgotten about the previous day’s activity, and was now completely occupied in worrying about term exams coming up in only a few weeks. He chattered on as was his way about how unprepared he was, and how he would flunk again if he didn’t get his grades up soon. Blake grinned at his big friend’s prattling, which drew Chandler’s attention away from himself.
“How about you? Are you ready for finals yet?”
“Channy, it’s nearly a month away. There’s plenty of time, for me anyway. If I were you I’d get studying soon. You don’t want to flunk out, do you?”
“Ha ha, very funny. Your grades aren’t much better than mine are, Matthews. But I guess a month is enough time. We can meet up at the library to study after school sometime, ‘kay?”
“Sure, whatever. I don’t really want to start worrying about that yet, though. Plenty of time to worry later, you know.”
They came to the cafeteria and sat at the gang’s table and opened various lunches alongside their friends. Shane sat on Blake’s other side, and Seth beside Chandler. Both opened lunches and turned to converse with each other. Shane was the first to speak to the three of them.
“Hey guys. How are you all doing? Pretty hard quiz today in Language Arts, wasn’t it? Mrs. Tenner sure knows how to pick ‘em.”
Chandler nodded.
“Hard doesn’t even begin to describe it. I don’t think I even got one question right.”
Shane chuckled.
“If you did, it’d be out of pure luck. We all know how good you are at quizzes.”
Chandler frowned good-naturedly, then Seth offered his two cents.
“It was a bit difficult, I agree. I’m just glad I decided to study that very subject last night in my free time. Mrs. Tenner has been dropping hints that we might be learning those very things soon. I just took her for it.”
Blake slurped up a noodle and mumbled across to Seth,
“Well, not all of us are teenage super geniuses, now are we? I doubt any average person would have caught onto that.”
Shane nodded, although Seth looked a bit hurt.
“He’s right, though, Seth. Don’t take it personally. You’re just a lot smarter than the rest of us. How do you think you did, Blake?”
“No better or worse than I usually do, I suppose. I’ll be lucky to get a C, anyway. At least it’s not a test or anything. You guys know how I flake at tests.”
Chandler laughed at that.
“Yeah, we know. Poor Blake flakes! Hahaha!”
Blake rolled his eyes.
“Yeah. Hilarious.”
Seth chuckled a little bit at Chandler’s joke, muttering to himself,
“Ah! Blake and flakes! A rhyme. Quite humorous!”
Shane grinned and elbowed Blake understandingly.
“Those two, huh?’
Blake nodded back, whispering,
“You have no idea.”
They laughed among themselves before finishing their lunches and returning to their classroom. Blake walked to his seat and watched Arya privately hiding a brown paper bag in her desk as the other students filed in. He thought about this slowly and carefully throughout the remainder of the day, and added up the facts, a difficult feat for one such as he, I might add. He hadn’t seen Arya eating in the lunchroom for a while now, and she had brought a brown paper bag the first day for her lunch, so had she, in fact, begun to eat in the classroom, or ceased to eat at all? He came to the conclusion that she had decided to take her bag lunch to the classroom to avoid the stares of all those unused to her strange ways, which would be the entire school, in any case. The next day, he returned to school knowing this, and a sympathy, if not an understanding, of why. He watched her enter the room, late as usual, and walk past his desk with her usual attitude of indifference to everyone else. Blake admired this quality in her subconsciously, and when she turned to the front and sat in her seat beside Chris, who looked as uncomfortable as Arya looked indifferent, he caught her eye on accident, and she smirked at him scornfully. He had grown slightly accustomed to her smirk by this time, and turned about, but his face did not grow red or warm. After class that day, Chandler approached Blake, and they walked out together.
“Hey Chandler, I heard your parents went on a trip out of town. You didn’t go?”
“Nah. They decided that I should stay for school. My grades are behind as it is, so they left me here.”
“Where are you staying?”
“In the school dorms. Surprisingly, a lot of students from our year are staying there. A lot of kids from other years, too. Anyway, it’s not so bad, you know. I’ve got pocket money from my folks, and they stocked me up on food, too. Oh, that reminds me! I’ve got to stop by the house and make sure my sister’s pet bird gets some food. She’ll skin me alive if that thing dies. You wanna come with me?”
“Sure! You know you could’ve asked me if you wanted to stay with us, right?”
“It’s just a week Blake. No need to bother you about it. If I needed a more permanent place, then, yeah, I’d ask you, or one of the other guys, don’t worry about it.”
“Okay, okay.”
Blake glanced back up at the school, trying to find the dormitories, when he caught a glimpse of Arya walking up the hill. As he watched, she walked along the side of the school, and came to another set of buildings that Blake assumed was the girls dorms. She stopped before the door and turned her head. Her eyes locked on Blake, and he turned back swiftly. Chandler had seen the whole thing, but turned back and acted as though he hadn’t. They walked out of the gate, and down the street towards Chandler’s house. Blake knew where it was. He had been there many times since the two had been very small boys. They had always gone to the same school, and every since elementary school, they had been friends. Their moms had been friends in middle and high school, and so they had been introduced on the first day. Blake still remembered the day.
“Blake, honey, this is Chandler. You’ll be friends, won’t you?”
And he remembered Chandler’s big, goofy smile. Since that day, they’d been best friends, sharing the best of times together. Blake and Chandler were now standing before Chandler’s house, a small but nice house in the suburbs, only about a block away from the school, and about half an hour’s walk away from Blake’s home. Chandler walked up to the door and fiddled with the key in the lock for a few moments before the knob turned, and the door opened inward.
“And here we are,” Chandler said cheerily, standing aside for Blake to walk in. He’d been here many times before, and knew exactly where everything was. Chandler grabbed the bag of birdseed and Blake helped him pour the feed into the little tray inside the cage for the bird to eat, all the while chatting as boys do about nothing and anything. Blake had nearly forgotten about Arya at the school by the time they had walked all the way back up to the school and they were saying goodbye at the gate. After waving to Chandler, Blake was about to turn and walk to his own house, but he saw Arya walking out of the school building and down to the gate. She exited the gate and started walking down the street. Blake jogged to catch up with her and fell in step at her side.
“Hey, Arya, right? Where you headed?”
Arya glanced sideways at him and turned back to the road ahead of them.
“What’s it to you, pretty boy?”
Blake’s face turned pink. He stuttered a bit, then mentally got back to his feet and retorted less than enthusiastically,
“You shouldn’t be walking alone. Don’t you have any girlfriends you could walk with?”
“I’m the new kid. And besides that, I’m the scary new kid. I have no friends.”
Blake was surprised that she bothered to tell him this.
“Then… I’ll walk you to wherever you need to go today,” he said firmly, surprised at his own resolve. Arya didn’t react quite as vibrantly as she might have.
“Yeah, whatever. Just don’t bug me, okay?”
Blake stopped for a second, surprised that she would let him, then caught up with her and they walked off together. Chandler had seen the whole thing from behind the gate. He turned and walked into the boys dorm, his goofy grin lighting his face as he chuckled to himself.
Arya had been walking to town, and Blake, having joined her, was now also walking to town. They stopped by a few stores, and Blake waited outside each one while Arya did her shopping, and walked her to the next stop. After she had finally finished shopping, she turned to Blake and asked hi tonelessly,
“Are you hungry?”
Blake was taken by surprise, and stuttered a bit before replying.
“Uh… Y-yeah, I guess so.”
“Then I’ll buy you dinner. There’s a good restaurant around the corner.”
“Oh... Okay... then.”
They walked to the restaurant, which happened to be a cute little place with good food, and even better service. The conversation started after they had ordered their food and the waitress walked off. Oddly enough, it was Arya who began it.
“So why’d you decide to come with me?”
“Like I said, it isn’t safe for you to walk to town by yourself.”Blake helped her in, and heard her mutter,
“I told you, don’t try be the hero. I’m fine, now put me down.”
“Well aren’t you such a gentleman,” She said sarcastically.
“I would have been fine on my own. It’s not like I’m totally defenseless.”
“I guess you’re not, but it was still right to at least offer to accompany you.”
“The right thing, huh?”
There was a short silence while she pondered this.
“In any case… thank you.”
Blake was taken aback. He had not expected this. She always seemed so cold and uncaring, he hadn’t thought she would thank him.
“Sure, anytime.”
The food arrived then, and they ate heartily, with little conversation, but it wasn’t awkward in the least. Finally they had finished, and, true to her word, Arya paid the bill. They walked down the street together, headed back to the school.
“So you’re staying in the girls’ dorm?”
“Yeah. It’s okay there, but my roommate is really annoying. She’s one of those prissy nerds who think they’re so much smarter than everyone else.”
“Yeah, I know the type. I don’t mean to pry, but why do you live at the school?”
“It’s fine, I don’t mind telling you. My parents were alcoholics, both of them, and my dad did drugs, too. I moved out when I was twelve. I pay the tuition for school myself. It’s better than living on the streets, even if I’m not academically inclined.”
Blake felt a twinge of pity for her.
“Wow,” was all he could manage to say.
“It’s okay. I’m not digging for sympathy. I don’t tell a whole lot of people because they’d try to help out. I’m independant, so I hate it when people try to give me charity.”
“And you still let me walk you to town,” Blake joked.
“I’m so honored.”
Arya gave a little sarcastic snort.
“Hey, you’re okay, I guess. But don’t even think of being some kind of knight in shining armor. I might belt you one.”
“Got it,” Blake agreed, not sure if she was joking or not. She only ever smirked at him still, and not that often, either. He hadn’t yet seen a real smile from her. She still wore that same not-smile that she had worn since the first day of school. They were halfway back to the school when Arya stopped stock still in the middle of the street with a gasp. Blake turned and saw her standing there, her eyes fixed on the ground, but she wasn’t looking at anything. She held her chest as if it was hurting her.
“Hey, what’s the matter?”
“Not now!” she whispered to herself in a panicked gasp. Blake was beginning to panic himself.
“Arya? Are you okay? What’s wrong? What’s going on?”
Arya grabbed his hand, clutching it tightly as she gasped out,
“I need… someplace… alone… please! I need to… get someplace… private.”
Blake took her hand and helped her over to the side of the road.
“The school’s not too far-”
Blake noticed that her eyes, which had been bright yellow only moments before, were beginning to look green.
“No! I need somewhere fast!”
Her eyes faded from green to purple, drawing his attention briefly, but he had no time to think about this.
“O-okay! Hold on, we can… we can… here! This alley!”
“Layra, why now?”
He blinked in shock. Surely he hadn’t heard right. Layra had been gone before Arya had come to the school. How would Arya know her? No, he’d just misheard. But his mind was taken off of this when Arya collapsed to the ground.
“Arya!”
“Stay back!” she said sharply. Blake backed off at her tone. Then she jerked, as though hit by an unseen force. She didn’t move for a few seconds, then she slowly rose to her feet, seeming to float upwards. Her eyes were wide open, and glowing blue. Blake fell backwards against the brick wall in shock. The only other time he’d ever seen anything like this was the night that…
“Layra,” he murmured under his breath. Then Arya’s voice was heard, but with another echoing through it.
“Blake?” the voice asked, a note of sorrow in the tone.
“Layra?” Blake asked, a bit louder.
“Listen closely. I don’t know how much time I have. Tell Logan I’m alive! Tell them all! Don’t try to find me. It’s no use. You could never get here. I’ll be fine, but you all have a job to do. You have to find the Tree! You won’t get your memories back unless you find it. You have to ask your parents how you were born. All twelve of you! You have to get your memories back. I know you don’t understand, but trust Arya. She can help. She knows about the Tree. She doesn’t have long in your world, either. She will have to leave with Anna very soon. Take care of her, please.”
“Layra, what-?”
“You have to understand, I can’t be found. Logan will want to come after me, but you can’t save me until you find the Tree. But tell him that I’m Above him, always Observing. He’ll understand the message. Please, tell him. I must-”
The blue faded from Arya’s eyes, and her feet hit the ground. She blinked hard, and saw Blake sitting against the wall, his eyes wide in shock. He began to blur, and she felt a falling sensation.
“Blake?” she whispered, confused for some reason. Then everything went black. Blake watched her collapse onto the ground and sprang forward.
“Arya? Arya, are you okay?”
She didn’t respond, so without a second thought, Blake lifted her into his arms and stood to his feet. He carried her out of the alley, and all the way back to the school. She was beginning to stir by the time he got to the gates, and he glanced down at her as they crossed over the threshold.
“Arya? Can you hear me?” he queried in concern. She groaned in response, and he took heart, putting forth another question.
“We’re back at the school. Do you remember anything?”
“Ow,” she groaned, then shook her head.
“What happened?”
“You fainted. It might have been the heat, or stress, or-”
“Oh, give it a rest, I know exactly what happened.”
“Then why ask me?”
“I meant after I passed out, you doof.”
“Well, after that, I carried you back to the school. What room do you stay in, by the way?”
Arya raised her hand and dropped her fist on his head, causing him to yelp in surprise.
“Just put me down. I can walk to my room by myself.”
“Are you sure? Are you feeling up to it?”
Blake obeyed immediately, saving himself from another clobbering, and she dusted herself off and walked to the door. With her hand on the handle, she hesitated, then turned and with her not-smile, she said quietly,
“Thanks. I had a good time today.”
Then she opened the door, stepped inside, and closed it behind her. Blake stood for a moment, stunned at the day’s events, then, with an almost cocky smile, he turned and walked out through the gates, headed for his own house.
I had a pretty good time, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment