☽︎ [ How to Kill Your Friends ] ☾︎

Chapter Six | Escape

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Burning embers dimly lit the common room. I wondered why the caretakers had lit the fire on a hot summer's night like this. All was quiet except for the quick tapping of my shoe against the wooden floor. It was hard for me to stay still. Elijah stood next to me and put his foot on mine to stop it from tapping,

Larkia was the first to show up after Elijah and me.

"It's warm in here," she whispered. "It's stupid to light the fire in summer," she turned to me and saw I was the only one in a sweater. "Aren't you hot in that?" She asked.

"Erm, no. Not really," I said. "I'm alright,"

I was sweating underneath my crimson knitted sweater but I didn't want to remove it. Elijah had already taken his sweater off. He clutched it to his chest.

Quinn was the next person to tip-toe in. He was wearing a hunter-green sweater but he soon took it off.

"How do you wear a sweater in the middle of summer, Ezra?" He asked.

I shrugged.

Aspen and Saaghan were the last to arrive. They came together. Saaghan had a black sweater slung over his shoulder.

"...everything is st-still h-hard," I heard Aspen telling him as they got close enough to hear. "I wish I c-could sp-speak p-p-properly."

"There's nothing wrong with having a stutter, Aspen," said Saaghan. "Perhaps one day you'll wake up and it'll be gone."

"Maybe you're right," said Aspen. "M-Maybe it'll g-g-go away eventually."

I noticed that Saaghan seemed to have changed his personality after he joined our group. He used to make it more obvious that he was the cool one and he was the popular one. Now he seemed a bit more sympathetic and a bit more helpful. He wasn't so much the show-off that he'd previously been.

"Why are you wearing a sweater in this heat, Caedis?" Asked Saaghan.

"Can everyone stop asking me that?!" I was getting annoyed.

"Jeez," said Saaghan. "I was just asking."

"Okay," I said. "Does everyone have everything they need?"

I saw that everyone had some sort of bag with them. So did I, I had a black leather satchel over my shoulder. I had packed a map that I tore out of my own A History of Lupadura book, some spare clothes, a little bit of food I'd saved from the past few days, and more stuff that I may have needed.

"Yes," everyone said.

"I suppose it's time to go then," I said. "Does everyone know the way to go?"

"Yes," answered everyone except for Elijah.

He said, "No."

"Just follow us," I said. "We know the way."

"Alright," said Elijah.

Larkia led us down to the stables. It was dark so we each carried a lantern to light up the overgrown path. The grass was long and scratched my bare ankles. The air was cool and I didn't think about wearing long pants. I had packed some but now was not a great time to change.

The horses weren't looking out of the stall like they were when I last saw them. They were all sleeping.

As we got closer, I heard rustling in the stables and assumed they had heard us and started to wake up. Idun was the first to show herself. Her black head was like a shadow in the darkness. She started shaking it up and down with her ears flat back in an attempt to scare us away. Loki, Sleipnir, Odin, and Freyja's heads appeared to see what was agitating Idun. When he saw us, Loki greeted us with a nicker.