Hero Academies

Chapter 17: Abduction

It worried him how no one spoke about their feelings. It worried him how they chose to clam up, refusing to discuss the events that had happened and went about life as if it were normal. Except it wasn’t. None of them were like how they were before.

Niall was still depressed, and closed himself off from the others. He hadn’t admitted what was bothering him, but Liam had a suspicion that he was fairly sure about. The mob incident was probably traumatic for him as well. Louis had masked his confusion, pretending to act as brazen and cheerful as usual, but all of them could see his eyes weren’t into it, uncharacteristically somber. Harry was angry, his silent rage boiling inside of him. It probably wasn’t healthy. Liam could practically see the rage in his eyes, threatening to spill over if anyone made a wrong move. He had also become much more protective of everyone afterwards and paranoid. It was unlike the usually cheerful Harry they all knew.

As for Zayn, Liam didn’t know what to do with him. He had expected the older boy to lash out, release his anger and stay mad at the world. But he didn’t. Instead, his self-esteem dropped immensely. Liam heard him muttering words like “monster” and “hateful,” most likely addressed to himself. In class, he was terrified to use his power, the constant terror that he might hurt someone restraining him. It had gotten better recently, but ever since the mob occurred he had reverted back to being insecure.

Harry and Louis, a lot of times, had silent conversations with their eyes. All they needed to express themselves was glances, fleeting looks shared between them and that was all it took to get the message across. Their usual laughter and antics no longer filled the halls of the school, and that scared Liam. But at least they had each other to lean on. Although Liam wished that all of them could have some closure.

Niall wouldn’t let him in, no matter what he tried, and that stung a little. He considered himself close friends with the blonde, if not like brothers, and yet the smaller boy couldn’t bring himself to trust him enough to tell him what was wrong. The result was Liam having to do some investigating on his own. He recalled a conversation that Niall had with him many nights ago, one about a friend that he had upset because he lied to him. It had to be that guy. If only he knew who this mystery friend was.

The brunette wanted to tell Zayn everything, he wanted to pour out his grievances and just to let go. He was getting tired of being the dad of the group, of keeping them together and making sure they didn’t fall apart. But Zayn needed him to be the responsible one this time, he could barely handle himself. The older boy had done so much for him when he was going through his depression; it was his turn to help him now.

Rumors had spread throughout the school, all about the shocking anti-hero events that had been occurring recently. The mob incident only fueled their gossip, students whispering in the hallways about what had happened where, how far the protesters had gotten, who had been victimized last.

People would send them glances as they walked in the hallways, some curious, others sympathizing. Liam had heard that some of the other top ten had been caught in the mob as well, but escaped before things could escalate and made a safe getaway. They must have been the only ones to have faced the brunt of the force.

Some people were nosy, questioning them about what had happened at the mob and prying into their lives, acting like they cared when each of them knew that they were only trying to get some information out of them. He was too polite to refuse them, trying to answer as best as he could, but the interrogations soon became overwhelming and Harry had to pull him away from the mess. After Louis had finally snapped at one of their classmates who had questioned them, letting the entire cafeteria know how pissed off he was, the school quickly learned to stop. By then, no one needed their confirmation anyways. It was all on the news.