At 15:30 that afternoon, Matthew was at the school gates, hoping that Hikari would come out. He watched in horror as millions of kids stormed out of the door and stampeded into the town. He kept his eyes peeled for the girl he wished to see again, and as the last few trickled out of the school, he lost hope that he would ever see her again. He stayed standing until the last person came out of the school at 15:49.
"Matthew?" Hikari said, walking towards him. Matthew could not refrain from showing a massive beam.
"Is this love?" He asked Evelyn in a hushed tone so that Hikari wouldn't hear.
"That is for me to know and you to find out." Evelyn replied childishly. Matthew waited patiently biting his bottom lip nervously.
"Oi, Hiccup!" A low voice erupted from behind the school doors. Hikari turned around and a senior burst through the door and started to run straight for her. She screamed braced herself for the impact. Matthew was frozen to the spot and watched as the bulky senior boy crashed into Hikari's small frame and knocked her to the ground. Evelyn pulled Matthew from his own shoes and his eyesight went black. He could feel himself moving but couldn't see or hear a thing. "Is this what dark evil feels like?" He thought to himself as he tried to pull himself out of the darkness. He started to feel faint, and the darkness faded into more darkness, layered by more darkness, until the darkness had taken over his consciousness and he lay as a limp 12 year-old boy on the black tarmac school grounds.
*-*
Hikari could not believe what she just saw. A year 7 boy had just knocked a senior year 10 child out and given him countless bruises. Teachers were at the scene now and at the sides of the two unconscious boys and tears were streaming steadily from Hikari's eyes.
"Where did this boy come from?" The teacher asked her, and she was too shocked to answer, but it wouldn't have made a difference because she didn't know the answer anyway. The senior came to first and sat bolt upright.
"That boy's insane!" He shouted, and jumped to his feet in fear, and Hikari stifled a laugh. The nearest teacher glared at her but made no comment. She turned back to the senior and asked the boy, whose name turned out to be Tobias, what happened. Tobias stuttered and stammered as he struggled retell the events. The retelling was biased to his own side obviously, to make it seem as though he had done nothing wrong. The teacher looked at Hikari and asked if Tobias was telling the truth. Normally in this situation she would have said: "Yes, he's right" Out of fear of a beating. But this time, Matthew had put himself at risk so that she wouldn't come to harm, so she disagreed. The smug look on Tobias's face was swept clean because he was not expecting her to contradict anything he said. Surely she knew what would happen to her if she disagreed with him. Hikari told the story of what really happened, and Matthew woke up. His eyes were filled with fear and pain, his eyebrows knotted into an anxious frightened expression and he sat up slowly. He stood up, and painfully walked to stand behind Hikari.
"What happened?" Matthew asked quietly, whispering the question into Hikari's ears. But it wasn't Hikari who gave the answer.
"You're insane! You went wild! I don't believe you! Seriously, who do you think you are?!" Tobias yelled, pointing a shaky finger in his direction.
"I may have attempted to fix the situation. I took over your body because you weren't moving and I might have made you beat him up." Evelyn said, appearing in the air above Hikari's head.
"EVE!" He shouted, and turned and ran, all by himself, straight to the field. He was convinced he was crazy. Teachers tried to chase after him but got caught in the bushes and fell behind. Hikari knew where he was going and took a short cut. Tobias was assessed for injuries and escorted to Accidents and Emergencies.
"Matthew!" Hikari shouted when she reached the field, but he was nowhere to be seen. He didn't remain hidden for much longer however, because she heard sobbing from up above, and saw him curled up into a ball in a tree. She climbed up after him and sat down on a dangerously thin branch next to him.
"Thank you for saving me." She said, touching him gently on the shoulder.
"I didn't." Matthew said.
"What do you mean?" She asked, and Matthew jumped out of the tree and landed on the hard ground painfully.
"Just, stay away from me." He said, before disappearing through the bushes and the trees. By the time Hikari climbed down from the tree, she was too far behind to catch him up.
Matthew entered the house silently and rose to his bedroom, putting the radio on which Derek hadn't collected yet. Another love song started playing and his mind flew straight back to Hikari. He felt bad for leaving her in the field and running off from her, but it was for her own good. He couldn't let Evelyn take over again and hurt any more people. What would he do with Derek? He couldn't tell him, but he didn't want to hurt him. Maybe it was just a one off, he told himself, and rested in his room listening to the radio until Derek called him down for dinner.
