Yes, you are getting an update out of schedule but I'm skipping Science homework so BE GRATEFUL! Also if one of my friends is reading this right now, you saw nothing!!! lol Don't worry, nameless person, I'm gonna do it.
...later...
Recap: Layla will not speak.
And Cora, still, will not look at me.
~~~
"You know what?" Kyle says suddenly.
"What?" Amaris responds, playing a finger game with Layla.
"If I get assigned to be a Fighter, I want to put out the First Flame," he tells us.
"We all do," Eval grins. "That's the purpose of the Resistance. Then Evil is banished and so forth."
"No," he protests, "I want to put it out myself!"
Eval's grin vanishes. "Do not let false hope blind you, Kyle. We are all in this together. Do not think you are a one-man show. Sometimes we have to stand alone, but we are better together. Pride will be your downfall, and Viel will use it to your advantage. Do not let pride blind your view of life."
"Whatever," Kyle responds dismissively. We resume talking, but the easy atmosphere between us is strained and tense.
"Guess what?" Orla says, trying to revive the easiness.
"What, you finally figured out you're brainless?" Cora jests.
"No, of course not! If I am brainless, which, thank you very much, I am not, then how would I figure out I am brainless with out a brain?"
"Oooohhh, Cora got roasted," Bern laughs.
Cora rolls her eyes. "What did you figure out?"
Orla smirks mischevously. "That Bern hates it when people crack eggs in his hair!" she crows, cracking an egg into his hair.
"EWWWW!! EWW! MAKE HER STOP!! AHHH! AHHH!!! GET IT OUT! GET IT OUT! GET! IT! OUT!!!!!" he shrieks, his voice rising with every word.
"Don't we all?" Eva points out.
"True, so-- HAH!" Orla produces another egg and deposits the inmates in Eva's hair.
"EW! EW! ORLAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Eva screams.
From then on, it is a full on food fight. I join in, throwing a tomato at Eval and it explodes across his face.
"ARA SHAY!!!! HOW DARE YOU!" he yells.
I skid to a stop.
"When did you learn my middle name?" I ask, surprised.
"It's on the official records," he replies, focusing on wiping tomato off his face.
"And you got access to those... how?"
"I'm one of the Five," he explains. "Duh."
"Right." I smack myself in the face, which proves to be a terrible decision because I get tomato juice and egg all over my face-and I have no idea, nor do I want to know, how that got there.
I look away, into the candle flame on the table. It, miraculously, has not been knocked over. So small, yet so deadly. WIth the right fuel, it could burn us all up. As I watch, it changes until I see my parent's eyes, and in their eyes I see the same terror of fire I see in mine. The candle haunts me. Fire haunts me.
Do not let it break you, Ara.
It will not.
It must not.
The floor seems to tilt, under me, and I fall. Eval catches me, alarmed.
"Are you okay?" he asks.
"Yeah. Yeah, I-I'm fine. Excuse me." I slip out of his arms and dash through the halls until I collapse on my bed, shaking.
Layla crawls up.
She clung to me during the food fight, refusing to let me go.
Go.
Such a word. It has so many meanings. Go-leave the room. Go-go away. Go... gone. Dead.
I lay her on the bed and pick up my sword. She watches me with large eyes.
Still no sound from her.
I rotate my sword, spinning to fight an invisible opponent-but find my move blocked.
Eval leans casually against the doorway, blocking my moves with his sword. He pushes himself off the door and takes four slow steps toward me.
I swing, and we lock in combat.
Our swords ring throughout the room.
We fight. Spinning, flipping, parrying.
"You... are not a bad fighter," I say.
"I am the defense teacher."
"Touche."
I spin my sword and his flies up.
"Ahhh, the student becomes the master, no?" Eval tells me.
(I'm sorry!!! *wheeze* (breathe, Elle, breathe!) I'm imagining them with Spanish accents like in Princess Bride and I... can't... do it. *wheeze*. Tell...my parents... I love...them. I'm dying of laughter!!!!)
But then he flips and grabs his sword and lands back down, whips his sword in an arc, and disarms me all in one fluid motion.
"Not quite. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve," he says.
I gasp.
"I win." He is dead serious now. He sheathes his sword and leaves the room, my sword stuck in the wall.
I stare, confused, at the doorway, and only after many minutes do I retreive my sword.
~~~
I swing Layla up. She is very light for a seven year old.
She grasps my sword and tries to swing it, but knocks over our candle.
The blanket catches on fire and I scream.
Layla does not make a sound. She is shaking in terror.
Fire.
Death.
Parents.
It was all my fault.
I let them go.
I let them leave.
They slipped from me because I did not know what I had until I lost it, and then it was too late.
It is my fault they are dead.
It will not happen again.
I snatch up Layla and run out of the door, collapsing on the floor near the doorway.
Raina, Amaris, Orla and Cora race to put out the fire.
Only Orla and Cora know my story. Only they know why I am on the floor shaking in so much fear I could drown in it.
I know, in that moment, that if I choose to, I can release the thread of life and be free.
And yet, two people hold me down.
Layla.
And Eval.
They have connected themselves to me, bound themselves, and the thread that binds us is too thick to cut.
So I stay.
For them.
They are a fire in my heart, and it burns so bright that it lights my way.
I release the way to leave, and stay.
It is not my time to go.
But when Raina, Amaris, and Cora emerge from the door, Orla is not with them.
"I'm sorry," Cora says.
Not Raina.
Not Amaris.
Cora.
My ex-friend.
I'm sorry.
Where is Orla?
I'm sorry.
No. NO NO THIS CANNOT BE HAPPENING! Orla is okay, she is okay, she is okay.
But she does not leave the room.
I'm sorry.
Cough cough cough.
I'm terrrible.
Gonna cry myself to sleep cuz I can't believe I did that.