Astoundingly Outcasted

Chapter #18; The Apology

He tried to open the door and walk in, hence slamming his own face into the door. He rattled the door handle violently in an attempt to open it, but all in vain.

Sakin didn’t remember locking the door. He wanted his guest to be able to leave whenever she pleases.

He tried knocking on the door, though not as gently as he usually would.

Still no result.

Now his face was stuck on the door trying to listen for the usual chaos inside. It was quiet. Too quiet. This made Sakin a little concerned regarding the overall situation and was now scrambling to open the door, this time with the key hidden in the pouch of beryl.

The door slid open and let the last few streaks of the evening sunlight into an abandoned flat, with upturned chairs and a burnt stench.

What did they do?

Sakin strolled upon the sidewalk in his neighbourhood, the silhouette of the buildings nearby only being illuminated by the twinkle of twilight and a fiery light source.

That source of light caught his eye, leading him to a pile of trash burning by a soot-stricken wall. For a second he thought it was Iris and Aibek, who were running around in the alley where Leila and Ryeon were due to meet that night. Why the night? Sakin recounted Ryeon recounting to him how it was easier in the night since not many people are around and there’s less light for the water to reflect mid-air and is hence less prominent.

They’re planning to get the jump on them, aren’t they?

He watched from behind the corner of Ryeon’s house, a small, shimmering bird accompanying him, hovering right over his head. It let out a little squeak, alerting Sakin to its presence.

Sakin let out a very confused groan, taking care to keep quiet, since whatever those two were up to, they did not want him to be part of it.

The bird squeaked a bit more, somehow conveying a tone of inquiry. Sakin mumbled under his breath.

“Whatever those two want to do with Ryeon”

The bird gave him another set of squeaks, this time with an aggravated pitch.

“And Leila”

The bird gave him a satisfied squeak, to which Sakin rolled his eyes.

“They aren’t going to have great intentions for it.”

Hearing that the empurpled bird dashed to hover over Aibek’s head, who was oblivious as compared to Sakin, who watched in a shocked horror. The bird started squeaking rapidly in the same aggravated tone above his head, though it was looking towards Sakin.

Aibek squeezed the squeaky toy, and, as he proceeded to clench his fist even tighter around the bird, it squealed just like a squeaky toy. This distracted Aibek, who proceeded to then play with it like one.

“We don’t have time for this.”

Iris stated before snatching the bird from his hand, lighting a matchstick one-handed, and controlling the fire to burn by the tip of its beak.

Aibek grabbed her wrist with the same grip he would for Sakin’s hand.

“We don’t need to go that far.”

The starling flew off at a great speed from her grasp.

Oh that’s it. They can mess with people all they like, but animals?

Sakin found his fists tightening with fury.

Calm down.

He told himself.

You can’t go against literal fire just like that.

He took a long, deep breath in. Just as he exhaled, he saw Leila approaching the alley.

“Wait!”

That escaped his lips faster than he could think.

She turned immediately, catching sight of the speaker.

“I—I can explain.”

He muttered while waving his hand around mid-air as if he were trying to catch someone’s attention.

Leila listened as Sakin explained the whole situation to her. She had some doubts regarding his explanation, but the starling squealing out of pain of a burnt beak attested to his story.

Leila looked at the bird with a patient smile. How could they stoop so low?

“So what do we do?”

Her understanding relieved Sakin. She was ready to listen to him.

“None of them are the patient kind. We just wait, stay away and keep any, er, entertainment away.”

She gave him a demeaning askance.

“That’s it? Wait?”

“Look—”

He now had to calm down the angry teenager fuming at him.

“Ryeon’s going to come out that door and god knows what they have in store.”

Sakin commented pointing towards the back door of his house.

“You can’t beat a dice at its own game.”

Leila huffily leaned against the wall, holding her hand up to care for the little feather-ball.

“How did they find out?”

She questioned without looking up from the faint light of the street lamps bouncing off the reflective plumage.

“They must have seen you walking on the streets just like that. I think Aibek would know quite a bit about your whereabouts, so seeing you head somewhere else might have caught his attention.”

It was quite an eye-opener for Leila realizing that Aibek probably remembers anything she even hinted at in his presence. It sent literal shivers down her spine to even think that Aibek might even have an ounce of regret or recalls what went down during the smoky night.

Well, at least he saved the bird?

She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and finally looked up at Sakin, desperation filling her eyes in place of the tears.

“How will Ryeon know not to come?”

Sakin’s face lit up with another detail of the comprehension. How is Ryeon going to know? He asked himself.

It took him only half a second to ring the doorbell, keeping careful not to ring too much as it would indicate chaos.

They waited a moment. Then another. Nothing.

“He’s not answering”

His voice was filled with a fresh wave of panic. Sakin looked to Leila for what to do, then the back door which led to the alley where they were camped. He heard the metal grating of the door lock and closed his eyes tight, unable to see what he predicted was to come next.

“What are you doing?”

He opened his eyes to try and respond to Leila. He tried to respond, he really did, but the words refused to form in his head. Or any other thought as a matter of fact.

Leila disgraced him by the way she looked at him momentarily and proceeded to run at Aibek at Iris at full speed, while pulling water from the source they used for practice.

“Leila!”

That voice. That accent.

It made her stop immediately, causing her to trip on the concrete road. She turned her neck upwards while she lay on the road, the gritty surface constricting her breath, so her eyes could see the doom to come.

Aibek held his hand out to help her up.

She let the concrete rub against her cheek and let out a groan indicating quite clearly her disgust.

Aibek looked at her with a very forced but sweet smile.

“I never really got the opportunity to apologise, did I?”

Leila lifted her hand up to use her fingers as counters.

“The recontre, the time you were bullying Ryeon here, the night you gave your pretentious monologue, do I need continue Bloke?”

He let out a nervous laughter.

Leila got up, dusted her clothes and stared him straight in the eye.

“Don’t even try to pretend to be nice, I know you’re not.”

The echo of her sound was interrupted by the sound of a match lighting, the sound of a fire being put out and sizzling metal, and, finally, by a high-pitched shriek.

Iris had sent a blaze through the metal bars of a window as soon as she saw Ryeon’s shadow approaching. In return, Ryeon instantaneously threw a jet of water the way of the fire. Though that might have set out the burning wooden framework of the window, any water that didn’t boil away came cascading down on Iris.

“I—want—him—DEAD!”