The Initials | Nanowrimo 2023

37| Silver Oak Academy

"Okay, not what I was expecting...a little anticlimactic if I'm being honest." Casey confesses, fluttering his eyelashes as he waits for a reaction.

"No, no, no. You don't get it. If you met this guy you'd realise how wrong this all is." Cloud shakes his head, flipping through the pages but not seeing a single mention of Helel specifically, only his last name, Ben Sahar, repeated several times throughout. "A nursery rhyme? This has to be some kind of joke."

"Alright buddy, we can have a breakdown some other time, right now we need to-" Casey cuts himself off, sensing the arrival of a third person before they appear, leaping at Cloud from his blind spot and covering his mouth.

At first Cloud struggles against his grip but once Casey points at the dark shadow emerging on the other side of the room, he immediately lets him pull them both back into the safety of the shadows in between two bookshelves.

When the darkness is completely done forming, a shadowy figure emerges from it, sweeping across the room in search of something other than the two of them. "Mortimer?" the Professor calls, listening out for a reply from his furry companion. "I thought I heard whispers."

Cloud wonders if his heartbeat is only beating loudly in his ears or if its drumming can be heard through his shirt, especially once the Professor continues to trace their movements as if following a treasure map. "Oh I hear something else. Tiny, tiny, little feet tiptoeing around where they shouldn't be."

The Professor walks straight into the shadow cast upon the wall, disappearing in an instant.

Cloud takes this as a chance to take a breather but is again struck with terror once he sees the man dressed in black float past the bookshelf, barely three meters away from discovering them. He notes how the darkness clings to him like a robe, almost as if the two are one in the same.

"There's no point in hiding, I already know you're there." he chimes with a roguish grin, humming a hauntingly sweet tune as he tips random books off the bookshelf. "Tiny little heartbeat going tick, tick, tick."

Cloud retreats further into the shadows, shuddering when the clicking of the Professor's fingers eerily matches the drumming of his own heartbeat.

He gets closer and closer, the sweet smell of berries lingering in the air after him.

There's no doubt he'll catch them, and then what? Probably expel them both which would suck since Cloud still needs to get his hands on the Apothecary.

"Marco?"

Before the Professor turns the corner, a pair of giant hands emerge from the shadows and drag them both into its empty embrace; no taste, no smell, no noise, just a void of nothing.

Cloud gasps for air once the earth is returned to him, crawling over the exposed roots of a tree as he coughs up his lungs, peering up at the person offering him a hand, recognising his beefy frame before his face snaps into focus. "Hunter?"

Casey leaps onto his feet like an agile cat, itching at his skin as he tries to figure out if they're in danger or not. "What the hell did you just do? Man, who or what the heck are you?"

"It's called shadow travel. You're welcome by the way, I just saved the two of you from being found."

"How'd you know we need help?"

"Fear is a primal emotion, doesn't matter how hard you try to mask it or to shut me out." Hunter growls, yanking Cloud by the back of the shirt like a little pup. "You mind telling me what that's about?"

"Hey, back off!" Casey shouts, drawing for the air around them, the ground trembling because of it.

Hunter drops Cloud, turning his attention on the new challenger, the claws finally coming out. "Perhaps if I break a few bones we'll never have to do this again."

Cloud separates the two, imagining how pleasant their first meeting could have been under different circumstances. "Both of you, take a chill pill, we're all on the same side!"

"Are we? Because by the look of things it doesn't look like it." Hunter retorts, begrudgingly retracting his fangs and claws when he can see that Cloud isn't budging.

"He's the Hellhound, isn't he?" Casey inquiries. "He's your Paragon."

"Look I don't know what that means but...yeah, he's a Hellhound."

Casey's eyes water as he stares into his best friend's eyes, lightly biting down on the inside of his cheek before speaking. "You know Cloud, this entire time I was okay with being in the dark because I thought eventually you'd tell me what the hell is going on with you, what's been going on with you!"

"I know, I know, these last few weeks-"

"-no, before that! Before him! This all started with her!"

Cloud squints his eyes, lost as to the true meaning of his friend's words. "I, I don't understand."

Casey wipes his mouth when spit flies. "Freya was the one who took her life but all this time...all this time it's felt like you were taken with her."

"Wow!" Cloud gasps, recoiling in disgust. "Just...wow!"

"I wish I could take it back, I really do, but it's the truth!" Casey sniffs, wiping his eyes when the tears get too much, all the pain and torment sobering up as he seals it all away with a steel-like expression. "Bro, when you're ready come find me but as of now I'm done waiting."

When Casey walks away Cloud catches sight of the bomb fire party In the woods, faintly catching the sound of music after hearing the drunken screeching of his fellow first years.

Hunter waits for some time to pass before speaking. "You okay?"

"I gotta go." Cloud replies, taking a look down at the nursery book in his hand and questioning if this was all worth it.

"-Cloud."

"Go! Before someone else sees you."