Behind the Mask

Behind the Mask | One

One: Blaze

Yells, grunts, and incoherent curses filled the abandoned factory until unconscious bodies of delinquents started to cover the concrete ground one after another. They were exactly like the ones you'll see in movies and TV series: rebellious trouble magnets who do not give a fuck about anything – typical teenage dirtbags.

Not like we're any different though.

Panting, I wiped the blood oozing out of my bottom lip and announced our victory, "That's the last one of them."

"How many casualties?" our president asked, his eyes traveling all over the bodies lying on the floor. I ran my fingers through my hair and shifted my gaze from our dear president to his best friend Karl, who was helping our guys up together with the leader of my squad.

"Five, three of mine and two of yours," Karl answered, meeting my gaze in the process.

"Fuck." An exasperated sigh escaped my lips. "That's why I told you not to go for it!" I blurted out in frustration as I turned to face our president Ethan, "And you did not even bother to intervene."

This whole time he was doing nothing but lean on the wall and watch the chaos unfold before his very eyes. Calm. Too calm even. As if his girlfriend was not putting her safety on the line.

He sighed and took a long drag of smoke from his cigarette.

"Chill," Ethan grinned cheekily as he walked over to me. "Breathe in," he instructed, his eyes fixated on me. Of course, I did as he said. "And out." And out, again, just like he said. Laughter suddenly poured out of his chest, making me raise my brow as if I was ridiculed. Truth be told though – I found it adorable.

Weird, I know.

"I can't seem to fathom what's so funny." My voice was dripping with sarcasm, matched with my piercing eyes and a scowl. It's my infamous 'what-the-fuck?' look. He simply smiled at me, motioned forward until our shoes almost touched, and held my chin to look at me straight in the eye.

"Calm down."

That single gentleness was all it took for him to calm my nerves.

"Dismissed," he ordered as he turned back to our members. Superiority was back in his system. Every pore in his body was oozing with it.

I see. I forgot he doesn't want our underlings to listen in on our conversations.

As he said his command, they all obliged and started to leave one by one until there were only three of us left: Ethan, Karl, and I.

"Do you not trust me?" The words were out of my mouth before I knew it. It felt justified when it was still on my mind, but once I had said it, even I started to question why on Earth would I fucking ask that.

"Are you doubting me?" Ethan asked, puzzled.

"No, Ethan... I–"

"I'm kidding," he laughed his ass off, making me stop midsentence and stare at him in disbelief. "Calm now?" He gave a me playful toothy grin. For once, his smile was genuine. I knew what he was doing.

"It's not that I don't trust you, babe," Ethan began, "but if we don't get through this fight, which we won by the way, this weakass group will keep on pestering us. Besides, how many of us came here to fight?"

"Twelve–" I paused to correct myself when I saw his questioning but playful look: "Thirteen if you fought with us." He seemed to have found it amusing.

"And how many were they?"

"I don't know. Twenty? Thirty?"

"Right. And how many of us were injured?"