Decemberland

Chapter 30: Sick

The sound of a cap clicking open and the slow rattle of pills filled the air as Nico stood under the shadow of the person she called her brother and watched him swallow.

“Is it making you better, brother?” she asked. No reply came, except a stare and a kind smile from a face with no eyes. Once again he tipped the bottle above his head and opened his mouth. A hand from behind reached under his chin and grabbed his jaw, forcefully opening it. A shadow lurked at his back, grinning devilishly. All of a sudden she realized that it was not her brother’s hand tilting the pill bottles, but the hand of the shadow. The shadow of a human.

The shadow vanished and her brother went limp in front of her, collapsing on the ground. She panicked. Her brother never taught her what to do in case he fell in danger. He never did. Too small to pick him up and too scared to find a solution, she desperately shook him, hoping he would get back up.

Her cries faded into nothing, muffled in the air. No one came to her rescue. Her brother was dying and it was all her fault.

******

SLAM.

Nico shot up, snorting. Drool beaded from her lips to the desk as she lifted her head from it. The teacher, cynical and cold hearted Ms. Jin, had slammed a textbook on her desk while she was sleeping.

“I don’t mean to interrupt your nap, but you snore very loudly.”

She looked around the classroom, most of the students staring and giggling at her. Of all the nights she could have had trouble sleeping, it had to be the one directly before school started up again. This wasn’t the first time either. Just before school, she had nodded off standing up as the Professor and Doctor Short lectured her about her irresponsibility the other day, and it only made things worse.

“Stand up and come receive your test scores when I call out your name,” Ms. Jin announced bitterly as she walked up to her desk and pulled out a small stack of papers. The class groaned, adding to the already dank atmosphere of the half repaired room.

“Nico.”

Nico stood up and walked to the front of the classroom. The test the class was receiving was one that they had taken before the attack. Somehow the teacher managed to salvage them. Not too many students were happy about it.

When Nico received hers, it scored an even eighty percent. She silently cheered. Just like she wanted-not too strong, yet not too weak a score either. Just perfect. Now to do it for the rest of the semester and she could maintain decent cover as a normal student.

“Clarity.”

From across the room, Clarity stood and walked to the front like it were her last march. Hesitantly, she took the paper from the teacher. Her eyes lingered on it for a moment. Then she dropped the test to her side and hung her head. Like the dead, she dragged her feet back to her desk, sat down, and buried her head in her arms.

Clearly Nico’s tutoring sessions hadn’t helped. She seriously considered starting them back up for her on her own, as at this point Clarity needed more help than ever, and in more ways than one. She looked no better this morning than she did last night. In fact, just as Nico suspected, she became progressively worse.

When the bell rang, Nico hurriedly packed her things and rushed over to Clarity’s side before she could slink out of the classroom by herself.

“Hey, Claire!” Nico called.

“Oh,” she replied half-heartedly, “Hi, Nico.”

“So… you wanna do something today?”

“Not really…”

“What? Why? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I’m just tired.”