Ｔｗｅｌｖｅ ｙｅａｒｓ ａｇｏ， ｔｈｉｎｇｓ ｃｈａｎｇｅｄ．．．
The world is broken. The idea of school has become obsolete since the war started twenty years ago, and chaos is possibly the only order that exists anymore. The Catago, the group that attacked those twenty year...
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Just fifteen minutes after Aiden had settled into bed, he was ripped back to full consciousness by a noise downstairs. The sound in question was a muffled, steady, thump, thump, thump. Before his world changed, before his perception of things was shipped straight to hell in a handbasket, it wouldn't have bothered him. He would've written it off as one of his siblings or Ada going downstairs for a late-night snack, whatever he could come up with to calm his nerves. In the past few weeks, though, his classes had drilled him to not ignore anything that could be dangerous. It was better to be wrong about something being dangerous than to be wrong about it being harmless, and so the sound made sweat bead on his forehead.
Aiden flung the covers off and hopped out of bed. Normally, he'd sprint down the stairs, but he was shaking so horribly that he was fairly certain that trying to run would result in him falling down the stairs to land in a heap at the base. Possible with a broken neck. He didn't want to break his neck, so instead, he gripped the railing like it was a lifeline and walked down the stairs carefully, even as his entire body quivered.
Despite how slowly he was moving, Aiden slipped about halfway down. He yelped, forced to let go of the railing and bolt, practically marching down the stairs must faster than he'd been moving before in order to regain his balance. He finally stopped, and continued down the stairs, this time facing the wall with both hands gripping the rail so tight he wondered if another tumble would yank his hands off.
He made it to the base of the stairs. The thumping was coming from the door, increasing in volume and desperation as time went on. The fear gave way to relief - he could just look through the window, see if it was somebody he knew, and let them in. He'd gotten himself so worked up over noth-
"Rico! For the good of everyth - open the door! I heard you walk down the stairs, don't ignore me, dammit! I know you're there!"
The person on the other side of the door jiggled the doorknob up and down, left and right. It turned from side to side as whoever was there tried in vain to open it.
Aiden's blood went cold and he remembered the glory hunter from his first day... it seemed like he was going to be facing one earlier than Rico had promised.
He crept towards the door, gritting his teeth and trying to ignore the increasingly desperate pounding.
"Rico!"
The door shook. "Open the freaking door!"
Aiden grabbed an umbrella from the stand beside the door and backed up against the wall, holding it like a baseball bat as his blood roared in his ears. He wanted to yell, ask who they were, demand that they go away, or claim that Rico wasn't there or that he didn't know a Rico, but the words either turned to ice in his throat or came out as a soft whimper.
The knocking - pounding - continued. Aiden's breathing came in short gasps, practically wheezing. His chest hurt. "A-Aiden?"
Aiden almost jumped out of his skin at the voice from his left. He held the umbrella above his shoulder, ready to beat the crap out of the intruder--when he realised that it wasn't an intruder at all--it was Leslie.
