Monday (Part Two)
Suddenly, she grabbed me by the arm and dragged me out of the classroom, muttering something about trusting instincts.
But the electricity control room is on the ground floor. How the heck could she trust that kind of instinct??
Night saw us running past through his classroom (he’s only two classrooms away on the same floor). I waved at him so he could follow. And he did, since his class had the same chaotic status anyway.
‘Where are you guys going?’ he asked.
‘Control room.’ Sylvia snapped. ‘There are people there.’
‘What makes you so sure?’
‘Instinct.’
We didn’t say any more when we reached ground floor. It was darker than back at the seventh floor, maybe because it lacked windows. The control room was only by another set of stairs in the same building. You couldn’t exactly call it a room, because the control box was under the ground flight of stairs, and only separated by metal bars and a simple lock.
We could hear someone breathing heavily as we got closer to the control room. None of us dared to breathe a word. Sylvia and I clung onto each other, and I was sure Night is fine by himself behind us. (The scene must’ve looked weird though, considering I’m still in my male form, ehehe).
‘ARGH!’ it was a man’s scream from the control room. Sylvia immediately broke into a run, and I was about to run after her.
But Night paused in his ground.
‘Night?’
His eyes seemed to glow like Sylvia’s, but instead of a cool blue, they were a flaming dark red. They seemed to be scanning around the corridor, and somehow it reminded me of security cameras.
Suddenly he broke into a run as well, but in the opposite direction of the control room. ‘They’re escaping!’
‘What?!’ I gave a short glance at the control room before running after Night. ‘Who’s escaping?! The culprits?!’
But he didn’t say anything. I still went after him, and we ran out of the junior building and past the teacher’s lounge. We made a big round around the building, and suddenly he pushed me away.
‘Walk the other way round!’
I did as I was told, even though I didn’t know why he told me to do it. The teacher’s offices are all in another separate single-storey building, so its perimeter was pretty huge. It would take a while before I run into Night again.
But instead of him, I bumped into someone around the corner. I didn’t see him clearly when I apologized. ‘Sorry.’
I looked up to see the obstacle before me. I gulped.
They were a pair of senior twins holding hands. Not in a gay way, but in a forced way. The way they intertwined their fingers looked complicated and uncomfortable. But that wasn’t the thing that really caught my attention.
What really scared me were their scars than ran down through their murderous-looking eyes. They could only be told apart by the sides of their scars. One on the left, and the other on the right.
‘The Lord asked for you.’ One of them smiled, showing his unusually sharp canines that were stained with something…red. They both towered over me, and I felt weak in their shadow.
‘Uh…I…’ I could feel myself trembling. As I looked into their eyes, I could see some sort of crest in their pupils, replacing their irises, which gave their eyes a tint of purple.
It seemed addicting just by looking at them.
‘Nini?!’ It was Night’s voice.
I heard an awful clench from their uneven, entwined hands, and time seemed to have gone slower for that one second. Suddenly, the twin with the scarred left eye grabbed my arm, and a gust of cold wind swept over us. I watched as their bodies disappeared with a fast sizzling white mist. The mist quickly crept from the first twin, then to the one that grabbed me. I feared of pain as the mist ate away at him, but I couldn’t get away; his grip on me was strong.
The mist started to reach for me…but it only tickled. If I weren’t in this situation I’d have giggled.
I saw Night skidding to a halt when he came out of the corner, glaring. ‘Shit! Nini!’
The twins started to run, and I was pulled along with them. I guessed the twin in between controls invisibility. But I wasted no time in fighting back.
I pulled back my free arm, and let my imagination soar like it always did. I grew a little accustomed to the muscle’s pains as the lower half of my arm morphed into claws. It was random, like a werewolf’s hand.
I was about to claw the twin that had a hard grip on me.
But he saw me, and his grip loosened to a point his palm was barely above my skin.
I swung as I could feel that same mist regaining my visibility, but I couldn’t see them anymore. I was sure they were there, because I could feel that palm’s heat still close to my skin.
But all I managed to claw was thin air.
I stumbled to a halt (because I was launching my attack when we were in the middle of running). They reappeared before me again, and the right twin (who I refer to as the twin with the right scarred eye; same goes for his brother) gave me a smooth low front house kick. It hit me right in the chest, and I fell down on the ground. My head throbbed, and I couldn’t dodge the other attack launched by the same person. He stomped me twice on the same spot, and I began to spit blood.
‘Stop it, Lance. We can’t carry him back at this rate.’ The left twin snapped.
‘It’s a she.’
‘That’s not my point!’
‘NINI!’ Night finally caught up to us. He was about to punch the twins in sight while charging, but after another clench of hands…
He ran straight through their bodies.
‘Oh SHIT!’ he tripped because I was in the way, and landed on my stomach, causing me to cough more blood. ‘Night!’ I growled.
‘Lance!’ the left twin growled.
‘Fine, Dimitri!’
They disappeared again, and Night and I stayed in that position behind the teacher’s lounge for a while. Night was the first to sit up. ‘Damn, they’re fast.’
‘And cunning. But the one with the right scar is a little bit reckless.’ I said, waiting for the pain on my chest to fade.
‘Didn’t you see them run out of the control room?’ he asked. ‘They even ran past right in front of us!’
‘…No.’ I spat, and coughed. ‘They were invisible. The other twin could run through solid obstacles, something like that.’
‘…Wow. I am so awesome. I have X-ray vision! I’m going to watch women undress and my neighbor’s free porn!’ he quickly jumped to his feet and did a small dance of the cancan.
I glared at him.
‘Sorry.’ He chuckled. ‘I’m just happy I have superpowers as well. Are you alright? Can you sit up?’
I tried to do so, and ignored the throbbing pain of my chest. ‘Yeah, I can.’
‘Then come on, we gotta get to Sylvia!’ he pulled me to my feet so fast I nearly lost balance again. He had to help me walk the way back to the junior building. Sylvia was just standing outside the control room.
‘Sylvia, we-‘
‘Let’s just go back.’ She didn’t want to hear any stories from our side. She looked disturbed.
We went back. No one knew of our misadventure. The noise just continued, and everything went on.
But I still couldn’t get the image of their murderous eyes out of my mind.
Lunch Hour
At least the classroom had quieted down, since people need to eat too. Most of my classmates were either down at the cafeteria or the fields causing even more ruckus with the seniors. Aside from some lazy sleeping guys, Zach and I were the only ones left in the classroom. He was still engrossed in his drawing.
‘What is with you today? You keep drawing and drawing. Do you have a commission or something?’ I looked at his work in progress, and soon couldn’t help but make a face.
‘Ew.’
It contained mostly of zombie-like dwarves that have huge fangs and claws even creepier than my werewolf version from earlier today. I didn’t find any humor in that. ‘What made you draw that?’
‘Shut up.’ He said.
‘You usually draw cakes and muffins.’ I’m not lying. ‘What’s with the zombie addiction? Did one of your siblings play Left 4 Dead recently or something?’
‘I said shut up.’
I glared at him, even though I’m sure he didn’t catch that expression. He was really into his emo mood.
I grabbed his papers of zombie drawings.
‘Hey!’ he scowled. ‘Give it back!’
‘Suck it up, Zach. You’re not a woman. Lighten up, would you?’ I used the papers together as a fan and fanned myself like a Chinese lord.
Zach attempted to reach for his drawings, but I just took a step back. He scowled again, and grabbed me by the collar.
‘Stop acting like a child! Get back to your damned, pitying girl self and give me back those papers!’
My eye twitched. ‘Take. That. Back.’
‘No.’ he glared.
‘Stop being so emo!’ I slammed the papers in his face, hoping he got a good slap along with that too. ‘What the hell is wrong with you?! Did you take the wrong pills this morning?!’
‘…I think I did.’ He spat.
‘Huh?’
‘Keep this.’ He shoved a piece of paper into my chest. But he didn’t know about my chest damage, so I coughed and stumbled backwards while clutching onto the paper. He glared at me.
‘What.’ I glared back while unfolding his little gift.
He just left the classroom with his papers and a few drawing tools.
The paper contained only a dragon entangled in chains. It wasn’t struggling at all, but its skin looked like anyone could peel it off the poor thing. It looked it lost its soul. It was a joke my friends and I made last Halloween, about dragons invading our neighborhood or some sort of imagination. I didn’t know Zach still remembered this incident.
But something on its neck caught my eye.
The strokes of the round padlock drawn on a crossover of chains on the dragon’s neck were rough, unlike the rest of the drawing, like someone else had drawn it instead after Zach. It had a symbol on it too.
Wait.
The symbol….the symbol…it was the same as the crest I saw in Dimitri’s eyes (or was it Lance?).
‘Nini? What is that?’ Klaire snatched the paper away from me and had a look on it. ‘Zach gave you, right? Who else. I didn’t know he’s interested in dragons though.’
I shrugged. ‘Beats me.’
Just before Klaire snatched the paper away from me, I thought I saw a part of the drawing glow purple. I looked over her shoulder to have another look.
No purple. Just plain paper white.
‘Just say it if you want it back.’ Klaire handed the paper back to me, thinking I was just impatient.
So I took it back, and kept it in my drawer. I made a mental note to ask Zach later about the crest on the dragon’s neck.
English Class (After Lunch Hour)
My table kept shaking whenever I try to write. I already wedged a few pieces of paper underneath one of the table legs I assumed was loose, but it didn’t help at all.
‘Stop it, Nini. You’re annoying me.’ Zach snapped.
‘It’s not me, it’s the damned table!’ I hissed. It truly was embarrassing to make such a noise when the rest of my class was quiet, taking notes of what the teacher was writing on the whiteboard (which was a rare occasion considering today’s events).
After a few failed attempts and limited patience, I gave up on trying to write on the table. I took my notebook, crossed my legs and continued in my taking notes.
But the table still shook.
Zach turned to glare at me, but realized the table was shaking on its own.
I shared a glance with him, and fished my hand around the table drawer. Papers, textbooks, my hand phone, some food wrappings I kept forgetting (or maybe refusing) to throw, scales…
Woah, wait.
‘OW! Something bit me.’ I was aware of heads turning my way, but my hand’s bleeding was the main problem. I took it out, to find a snout with razor sharp fangs clinging onto the palm of my hand.
And the snout was coming out of the drawing paper Zach gave me earlier.
‘Wha-‘
‘HOLY SHIT A MONSTER’S EATING YOUR HAND!’ Sylvia shrieked.
And with that one sentence, she set off the classroom alarm. Within the minute, everyone was screaming and pointing at my victim of a hand. The teacher looked back to see what was the commotion, and saw it as well.
‘You’re fucking bleeding, Nini, aren’t you supposed to do something?’ Klaire said.
‘I don’t know. What am I supposed to do?’
Suddenly, the snout snorted, and grew larger. I looked around in panic, and saw my penknife on the table. I grabbed it and stabbed the top of the snout. It finally opened, and the numb feeling on my palm was gone, replacing it with pain.
The drawing dropped onto the ground with a pound, as if it were made of stones instead. The dragon looked at me, and growled. It pulled its head out of the flat surface and started to wedge its claws through the paper that now seemed so small to it. The chains clinked loudly over everyone’s awes and screams (mostly awes, because they didn’t see what was to come), the lock on its neck glowing an immense purple.
‘Everybody evacuate!’ the teacher demanded.
My classmates did as they were told, and so did I. Sylvia grabbed me by my shoulders and asked around, ‘Can anyone heal here? Is anyone at least a member of St. John’s Ambulance?’
My left hand trembled in pain, and I wanted to bite it in so badly just so it could be numbed again.
‘Oh, fuck.’ Klaire pointed to our classroom.
We all looked, and saw the dragon grow larger by the minute, the chains’ noises starting to echo in the corridors along with its unsatisfied growl. The tables and chairs creaked and broke under its pressure, and the huge beast started to struggle in the space that seemed too small for it now.
Without any warning, it opened its snout again, and exhaled loudly.
Everyone went down to their knees to avoid the fire. I was a little bit slow.
‘NINI!’ Sylvia, who was already crouching, pulled me lower to the ground. ‘Jesus, you’re rusted.’
I rubbed the small rust off my metallic face. The upper half of my body was covered in platinum, because I thought that was one of the metals with the highest boiling point(I’m just an average in chemistry), and sometimes a brain can’t really function the second before a human is attacked.
The dragon continued to grow, and the walls started to crack.
‘Someone has to push it out through the other wall, or the whole building would collapse!’ Sylvia warned.
The thought of Lance, the senior twin, crossed my mind, but he was too creepy and too far away in the senior block for us to ask for his aid.
‘What if I morphed into a larger person and pushed it out?’
‘No way.’ Klaire snapped. ‘You only morph in appearance. The density of your body will decrease once you increase in volume, so it’ll make matters worse.’
‘…I thought you hated physics.’ Sylvia and I chorused.
‘Are you going to push it out or what?!’
‘Fine, fine!’ I sighed, and morphed the lower half of my body into platinum as well. I ran through the door, and slammed into the dragon’s chest. It groaned, and I could hear the walls crack even more under the pressure. I ran a distance away, and slammed into it again. My chest throbbed again, and I had to catch my breath.
Suddenly, Zach intruded into the scene and tried to push the dragon out as well.
‘Zach?! What the hell?!’
‘Just push it out!’ he demanded.
The dragon’s throat turned hot for a moment, and another huge string of flames attacked my classmates outside, but some of them still braved themselves to come in and aid us.
With one last push, the concrete walls finally gave in, and the dragon gave a deafening roar as it fell out of the building.
I was relieved for one moment…
But I didn’t notice my left leg entangled in one of the thick chains.
Crash, bang, and a painful but quick drag.
‘Whoa, Hell no-!’
I fell.
I could see some people looking over the damaged wall; whether they’re concerned about the outcome of the dragon or me, I don’t know.
The dragon saw me, and roared, its eyes gleaming the dangerous purple that reminded me of the twins earlier this morning. It flapped its wings, and suddenly I got dragged in the opposite direction midair.
I couldn’t hear my friends screaming my name from down below. It just feels so strange to be in midair, the sky looks so much vaster when you get a closer look. You won’t even get to see it like this on skyscrapers.
Another jerk from the dragon brought me back to my senses.
I looked at my leg. The chains were about to be shaken loose. I looked at the dragon, whose wings were casting huge, dark shadows to my whole school. It glared, and shook for a final time.
The sky looked even bigger when my leg got loose and I fell. It feels so weird. I’m supposed to be panicking, but the sight of it is just…in a way, heart-warming.
I spun around, and roared.
The dragon wrapped its wings and dived down towards me.
Even in draconian form, I still don’t know the basics of flying. But at least my wings helped parachuted my fall. My landing was clumsy, but it was better than a straight crash.
I saw flames about to rain down on me, and quickly shielded myself with my wings. The bone frames’ heat connected to my back bone, and it hurt.
I wrapped my wings back just to see the dragon about to squash me with its weight.
I grabbed a loose dangling chain just before it could crush me, and tugged on it with all my might. The dragon lost its balance, and fell sideways, making the earth shake for a moment as it made hard contact with the ground. We were both in the grass field in the middle of the school, compared to a dragon it was barely a small cage.
Great, how do I get rid of it now?
The dragon made a surprise attack by rolling onto me, and I was crushed to the ground. Panicking, I clawed at its loose skin while trying to push it off me, and it worked. It roared in pain, and glared at me once more.
‘What are you looking at?’ I spat.
It roared, and we pounced towards each other.
At some point in there among multiple times of fire-breathing, the grass field started to burn. But I was sure someone with some sort of ability can clear that out, but this damned thing just won’t DIE!
I saw something gleam in the corner of my eye, and I noticed the padlock with the mysterious crest on it. I was about to reach for it, but the dragon suddenly swung its neck, sending me flying towards the senior block. I crashed through a wall of a (thankfully) recently abandoned school building. I guessed a few decades have made the wall weak towards these kinds of impact.
I sat up, and continued to ignore pains from any and every part of my body. My chest, my palm, my burning backbone.
I had to at least tell someone about the padlock.
The dragon continued to roar in the distance, and I tried to get to my feet. My wings had begun to shrink, because I didn’t have the energy to maintain my draconian form anymore. I walked towards the humongous hole in the wall Zach’s dragon and I made, and watched as other people tried to defeat it in my place.
Did Zach do this on purpose?
Of course not. It was just a silly Halloween joke. He’s a timid guy, and my friend. I bet it was the doing of those twins that the lock was there. Maybe something happened.
‘The Lord asked for you.’ One of them smiled…
It definitely has something to do with that.
With one final effort, I tried to expand my wings again, just big enough to glide towards that thing that’s invading our school from Zach’s hands. He didn’t mean it, and I somehow know that.
I trust him.
The dragon saw me coming, and once again sent a huge gust of flames my way. I cursed, and leaned sideways, giving me a rough landing again.
As I came to my feet for the hundredth time today, I morphed back to my male form. Suddenly my nervous system became sensitive, and all my muscles start to tense again, except in worse conditions.
A shadow loomed over me, and I quickly ran aside to avoid being squashed by the dragon’s feet. I dodged and ran towards the front of it through its underbelly. It wasn’t really low since it had long, slender legs (Zach somehow has this habit of drawing animals like that), and after reaching to its front, I turned back and looked up. The golden padlock looked like a beautiful pendant gleaming under the sunlight; the crest looking like it had the effect of a deep contrast.
I grabbed onto a chain, and tugged on it. This time, I didn’t even have half the strength my draconian form had. The dragon’s neck only pulled down a little like a disobedient dog on a leash. I climbed onto them, and started to climb.
The dragon tried to look down on me, but I bet to it it would be like an obese man trying to look at its feet.
So it just trampled around the burnt grass field, sending some younger juniors panicking and the seniors making more attempts to stop it. It was really shaky up there.
I morphed my hand into my favored werewolf claws again, and tried to reach for the lock.
‘Nini!’
I scratched the chains that were bounded by the padlock, since I know gold is just too strong to be broken by mere claws.
‘What are you doing?! Nini! You could fall from there!’
I ignored Sylvia’s shouting concerns and continued to claw on the chains.
‘NINI! GET BACK DOWN HERE!’ she shrieked to the point her voice was getting hoarse.
Suddenly, a man appeared right below me. He had climbed up another set of chains to the dragon’s neck. He appeared to be a senior with bleached hair, and had an athletic figure underneath his P.E. shirt.
‘Move.’
I didn’t need to be told, because the dragon shifted again, and the chain I clung onto was shaken loose. I was about to fall when he grabbed me by the collar, making me choke. ‘GAH-AH!’
He scowled, and somehow managed to pull me back up without showing any effort. ‘Grab onto the padlock.’ He ordered me, since there was nowhere else to cling onto.
I grabbed onto the gold piece, and it was very hot thanks to the exposed heat.
‘On three, grab any part of me again.’
‘Whoa, wait a-‘
He made a hard grip on the padlock, and with an eerie squeak of metal, he began to pull on it.
‘Three.’
I shrieked, and quickly clung onto him like a koala bear would to a tree as the padlock broke under his strong grip within mere seconds. It fell onto the hard earth with a big pang.
The dragon suddenly shrieked.
With so many people on the beast, it was hard to tell who initiated the (unseen) wound on the dragon.
The monster suddenly combusted into thousands of pieces of paper shreds in various shades of white, grey and lavender, the only colors that were previously seen on the dragon. They all looked like leaves falling from a distance.
For the third time in this dragon fight, I made hard contact with solid ground. The worst thing was that I hit it headfirst, so my head was spinning. My vision blurred, and I could feel the blondie’s heavy weight on me.
‘Woah, what the hell were you doing back there?! Are you alright?!’ Klaire’s voice echoed in my head, and I tried to keep my head conscious and my eyes open.
I saw a familiar pair of purple eyes in a distance, and for a second I thought they belonged to one of the senior twins. I felt myself trying to curl into a ball, but my chest pain wouldn’t allow it.
But just a second before I gave into darkness, those eyes turned back to a soft brown, but I didn’t even have the strength to gasp.
Zach.
