Chapter #11; Challenge Accepted
1561 Words
He ran as fast as his legs could carry him. He weakly pushed the door to the Comradery High gymnasium wide open. This was where he was just a few hours ago, although it felt like a couple seconds to him.
He stopped in his tracks, resting the weight of his chest heaving on his knees as he lowered his head to catch his breath and cease panting.
The place still had a burnt accent, the smell of smoke in the air reminded him of Eid, particularly the one where he’d have to run after livestock after dark in the days leading up to the event.
Iris won’t be seeing him then.
Positioned near the drab bleachers were Melanie and Dolores.
Dolores was blissfully unaware of his presence, unfortunately Melanie wouldn’t let her maintain that bliss.
“It’s that synthetic squirt!”
She pointed him out, refusing to use his actual name and slightly put off by his return.
He looked up momentarily, struggling to mutter.
“Where’s... Leila?”
She impudently gazed at him, holding her head high.
“She’s at home.”
He grumbled slightly.
“Where is her home?”
“Don’t you know?”
She commented, smirking.
“How would I know!”
He straightened his back, raised his voice an octave and neared a few steps.
“You, your pal and the dagger!”
Waving her arms around dramatically, she raised hers an octave higher as well.
Both Dolores and Ryeon’s eyes widened as they immediately turned their heads towards Melanie.
Melanie herself stood there, dead quiet, trying her best not to make eye contact.
She quickly glanced at Dolores, who was impertinently eyeing her.
“How’d you find out?”
She turned her head the other way whilst pushing a lock of her dark hair behind one of her butterfly ears.
Her expression washed away, she was almost certain of how she found out.
“You read my journal?”
“No.”
“You read Odin’s diary?”
“No.”
Her eyes narrowed as she delivered a demeaning askance.
“Then how’d you find out?”
Ryeon excused himself out of the strange scenario, leaving the two sisters be.
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His fist pounded heavily on Leila’s door, there was no answer.
He tried several times, yet still, no answer.
He leaned against a wall, hands pressing against his eyes, and slid down. He was done with all of this.
Sitting against the wall next to her door, he opened his messages to Sakin. Should he tell him about this?
His thumb hovered over the keypad, he longed to tell his best friend, but something inside him made him hesitate.
Most likely it was Sakin’s directory with the whole ordeal. He wasn’t against it or anything, but it seemed like he knew more than he was letting on.
He typed out the whole dilemma, and with a deep, heavy sigh, sent it.
He heard a distant sobbing.
Looking up, he saw Leila approaching, with dark shadows forming under her eyes trying to wash the colour away with the tears. Her hair, which was previously tied in a messy bun, was now quite loose and all over the place whilst her clothes were covered in smudges of dirt and dust.
Leila’s dangling sword screeched, dragging along the concrete as Ryeon scrambled to get back on his feet.
He watched as Leila walked past her.
“Uhm...Leila?”
“Hm?”
Even through all the tears there was a visible spark in her eyes.
The creaky door remained ajar as he stood there, gaping.
He pursed his lips shut as he violently shook his head.
(کیا گھنٹے کی طرح سر ہلا رہے ہو؟)
“Uh...Nevermind. It’s nothing.”
He clenched onto his arm as the door to apartment number 786 closed behind him.
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Crashing onto his bed, he looked up at the bedpost. There was another baseball cap hanging from it, this one being a deep blue with orange markings. It was from some school event, Sakin most likely kept one similar to his.
The previous one was a deep green with the number 3 plastered upon it now lost.
Ryeon let out a slight grumble while recounting the day’s events, before drifting off to a serene slumber.
A heavy pounding of footsteps could be heard outside his bedroom door before it swung wide open.
“Hello alien entity! I come in peace to ask you where you come from.”
He opened his eyes, expecting to see an annoying Ammara standing at the door, but instead found a vast nothingness and a severe headache.
“Oh... not the best time I suppose.”
She shifted to a more relaxed stance.
“Should I... should I get help?”
He turned his head to the source of her voice, raising his eyebrows slightly.
Without having to say it out loud, she understood that she shouldn’t even be considering it as an option.
“بابا۔۔۔”
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Dolores, now sinking deep into her chair, frantically texted Leila.
brattylittlecrepe>
that boy was looking for youthe one with the daggerdid you see him???
not in the mood to talk rnbyee
Practically laying in her seat at this point, she decided to relax a bit before anything else crazy happens that day.
Meanwhile Melanie burst into Odin’s room uninvited, moaning and moping.
“Whassup NERD!”
...
“I said Whassup NERD!”
...
“I said...”
“Mitä haluat?”
Her eyebrows tightened as her face scrunched up.
“The synthetic squirt came back.”
He gave her a demeaning askance as a slight frown formed across his face. He then proceeded to scribble what seemed to look like musical notes in his spiral notebook with yellowing paper.
Melanie relaxed her facial expression and abruptly fell onto his mattress.
He looked over his shoulder to see her fall face first. He wondered if now she’ll be annoying him in Kaputt. His theory was debunked as her long, heavy sigh was heard.
“Odin...”
“Mitä?”
No answer. He got up to see why she was bugging him.
He found Dolores having completely melted into the chair, dripping like liquid onto the floor.
She looked up at Odin while taking form of the container holding her.
“Did you get your cape thing back?”
Each word that came out sounded like she was complaining about something.
“Ei.”
Tsk.
She resembled the sound of a car’s turn indicator.
“Keep your hood on when you go outside. Okei?”
He nodded his head slightly in resentment.
“I’m not five.”
“I know. You’re three.”
He redirected his phase to non-Newtonian fluid wearily smirking. He decided to change the subject.
“Melanie said the boy came back.”
“Honestly he’s a little suspicious to me.”
“SUS?”
The intrusive girl’s voice boomed, jittery.
“Keep out of this nosy little miss!”
She commanded, marginally leaning up from her position.
“I think it’s that friend of his that’s... uh... dubious?”
She let out a little chuckle before continuing.
“Whoever it is we have to make sure they don’t stir up any more trouble.”
There was a short silence as Odin stared off into the distance, pondering.
Something clicked.
“What if Aibek has something to do with any of the two.”
Her eyes widened as she quietly considered the question, twiddling with the cuffs of her sleeves.
He looked at her solemnly, realizing that the gravity of the situation was growing stronger.
Odin hurriedly laced his canvas sneakers as Dolores slumped, ponderous.
“Palaan pian.”
He announced by the ajar door.
“Don’t forget the hood!”
He replied onerously, before proceeding out the door.
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Odin frenetically looked around the backstreet where the discussions were prompted, hoping to find Ryeon, or better yet, Sakin.
Even now he still couldn’t shake off the feeling that he knew Sakin.
Looking around, he found a girl roaming, her cultural clothing being of similar colour palette to Ryeon’s.
He approached her, desperate for answers, whereas Ammara herself was struggling to look away from his direction, fearing for the worst. She had no context on who he was and accepted the fact that he was likely a stalker.
She cherished the sudden rubatosis as if it would be her last.
“Blue girl! Do you know Ryeon?”
His voice seemed calming as she realised he was amongst the group trying to sleuth out an answer to the hydro-kinectivity. She instantly cooled her nerves.
“Oh, yeah. He’s my brother.”
Her comment seemed to calm him down as well.
“Is it okay if I can get the dagger?”
“The dagger?”
“Yeah.”
“What dagger?”
The question momentarily jostled him.
“The one he had during the recontre.”
“He didn’t have anything on him coming back from there...”
“What?”
...
“Does he still have the abilities?”
“...Yes?”
Odin started panicking on the inside.
Looking at his state, she felt bad for being so blunt.
“Uh... If you still need one I can lend you mine...”
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- Writer
