It was the principal. Rain's mother. She was standing at the wooden door staring at the scene before her. Her eyes were fixated on Mateo's crushed face, which was turning blue and even black at a few places.
"Nurse Johanna," she turned back towards the nurse, standing behind her with the same surprised face, "please do the needful."
Johanna nodded then paced towards the body with her supplies hurriedly put into a big, white bag on her shoulder. She checked his faint pulse then began to hurriedly clean his wounds.
"You two with me, now." She then walked away from our sight.
Rain Livingston is the best person ever, for she finally noticed me on the cold ground. She silently picked me up and placed me on her shoulder, giving my limbs some much needed rest.
She then walked towards the door, never once looking back at Master behind her. She radiated anger enough to burn down the shameful boy behind her. So Master kept his distance whilst following her. God knows why he lashed out in the first place.
The sun was still bright, with the periodic cloud blocking it's rays every now and then. We had reached the stone path that led to the high school building /castle. The wildflowers lining the path were the same as the other day, bright and lively. Rain bent over, for a moment and swiftly picked up a little white daisy. She twirled it back and forth between her fingers and there was this weird relation that I had developed over it. The flower was a little, helpless creature in this big, wide world. A creature like me.
The big wooden double doors opened with a loud creak and we found ourselves back in the majestic office. Rain's mother's beige dress flowed behind her as she took a seat behind the glass table.
Once Master had reached and stood beside Mistress the principal sighed and asked, "Care to explain?"
Master was quiet. He knew the stakes. His mother hated him already and now if he were going to be expelled then-
"Miss Henris." Rain looked up at her with brown, blazing eyes. The daisy still in her hands.
"Mateo Robinson had posted an inappropriate photo on his account. The people in the image had given no consent to be in it, yet he posted it anyways-"
"I don't see why any verbal communication couldn't have solved that?" The principal interrupted.
"Please let me finish." Said Rain dangerously calm. The calmness which scared everything and everyone present in the room. I never thought calmness could be this powerful.
Her mother nodded, regaining her composure.
"Continue."
"He had done much more than that, Miss Henris." She smirked then continued, "he was seen in inappropriate settings in his school uniform the previous term, over half the injuries and fights in school were his doings, he was caught vaping in school premises, he was seen in clubs in the nearby town, and might I add, wearing the prestigious school uniform."
The principal's mouth was agape and as she was about to say something, Rain continued.
"If me saying all this doesn't make any difference, then maybe this will." She slipped out her phone from the pocket of her dress and then opened an album with all the photos of Mateo doing exactly what she had told her mother about.
She walked towards her then placed her phone on the glass table with a click. After a while of examining the images, the principal shook her head. "All this is punishable indeed, yet I still do not understand why you didn't bring this up to me? Violence was truly unnecessary here."
"He was saying-" Master spoke up yet his voice died down the moment Mistress glared back at him.
"Pardon?" Asked Miss Henris.
"Nothing ma'am." He resumed his floor staring and bobbing back and forth on his heels.
Rain then resumed, "He was threatening us. He said that if we made all his offences known to the authorities, he would post something vulgar about me on social media. In this case Caspian here," she turned back towards him and he looked up, "thought that it was best to save my image using force."
"If he hadn't done so I wouldn't have been standing here, in front of my mother." She finally pulled the 'mother' card.
Her mother sighed. "I'll let this slide. But just this once, Rain."
"Thank you, mother." She took her phone then turned around, motioning for Master to follow her out.
The door closed with a small creak and Rain continued to walk towards the foyer, never once looking back at Master.
The beautiful carved, main doors were pushed open by her and she held onto them until Master went through.
"Thanks" he murmured and was ignored by the fuming Mistress.
The first day of their relationship and he had messed up already.
"Rain. Slow down?" He said, surprisingly in a very small voice. We were almost there, back to the dorm and honestly Rain wasn't the fastest person I knew. She was quite 'hamster' in pace.
Rain was intrigued now, so she turned around and found him clutching his abdomen, over the slightly wet black fabric of his shirt. His eyes looked helpless and guilty at the same time making him look like a small dog.
She quickly took a couple of steps towards him, gently removed his hand and pulled his shirt up, revealing a deep cut on his tanned skin.
"Wh- Why didn't you tell me earlier you dummy?"
"You were angry and I didn't want your temper to get worse, so-"
"You're such a big idiot!"
"I-"
"You're bleeding to death and you didn't tell me, just because you're scared of me getting angry?"
He looked at her with the most apologetic and afraid expression, the kind which little humans make when they're scared.
Mistress's mouth slightly opened, in realisation. "You were really scared." She stated more than asked and then pressed his head on her other shoulder.
"I'm not the best hugger you know? But this will have to do." She put her arms around his waist and kissed the side of his head. She lingered close to his hair for a moment longer than needed. Smelling and drooling on eachother's hair was quite the habit of humans.
Master let out a shaky breath against Mistress's shoulder and put one of his strong arms around her waist, gripping it tightly.
After about a minute or two, Mistress spoke up, "Okay, let's see.." she gently pushed him away and revealed the deep wound on his abdomen.
"Hold this-" she asked Master to hold onto his t-shirt then she bent down?
She tore the side stitch of the bottom of her dress, then tore a long strip of fabric from it. Now, leaving the ends tattered and the dress grazing her bare knees.
Master looked at her with wide eyes, not being able to believe what she was doing for him. She wrapped the fabric around his toned waist tightly to stop the bleeding.
"Okay let's walk slowly, yes? She smiled softly at Master.
"Yeah." He said in his hoarse voice and interwined his bleeding knuckles with her soft hands.
As they were walking I noticed them leaning more and more into eachother. There was this invisible force holding them together and at this point, I just hoped that it wouldn't break.
The evening glow illuminated Master's study. He was fast asleep, slightly snoring, tired from the long day. The silence was good for thinking so my mind drifted off to the little daisy in Mistress's hand.
I was a helpless little creature in this huge world.
The thought itself was heartbreaking. I looked outside our window and found my vision blurring. My heart started to pound harder and harder in my chest until I couldn't feel it anymore. I tried to blink it away, what ever it was, blocking my vision, but it only seemed to make it worse. My sight slowly faded until all I saw was darkness.
Then I remembered. I remembered being Master's shoulder buddy for three years, I remembered seeing Mistress for the first time, I remembered being her paperweight, I remembered her crying face, I remembered Master's cruelty, Mark's kindness, Carlo's random loudness, Mateo's crushed face and the evening sun I was just seeing a moment ago. Everything and everyone was a memory now.
Then all of a sudden-
I didn't feel anything. I wasn't even numb. It was like nothing. Absolutely nothing. And that nothing lasted for what seemed like hours until I myself, was nothing.
"Mistress, I think I've Found Death."
Caspian Hernandez -The next morning.
He was dead. Julian was dead.
The fluffy ball of fur now lay lifeless on my study. I never really appreciated him, all these years. He was always there, by my side, literally, and yet I would never once care about him. You only understand one's worth once they're gone, they say. I guess that's what happened.
I picked up the handful of beige fur with slightly shaking hands and unknowingly, felt a pang of guilt. That guilt lasted me a lifetime.
I opened the door and walked down the stairway to let everyone know.
Rain Livingston.
A knock and some chattering woke me up from my slumber. I walked towards the door and once the barrier of wood was removed, I saw everyone.
Caspian, Carlo, Mark and - Julian. Only he wasn't on Cas's shoulder. He was lying lifeless on his open palm.
"No. What happened?" I whispered and took a step in front.
I cupped both my hands around the limp body of the hamster and lifted him up. His beady eyes were still wide open, yet the sweet glow was long gone. He'd found it before me. My paperweight was dead. A lone tear slipped out of my right eye and I realised just how much this little guy had made an impact on me.
"My man deserves a grave." Shrugged Carlo.
"He sure does. Let's go. I know the perfect place." I agreed and placed Julian back onto Caspian's hand and led him outside by tugging on the other.
The meadow was unusually silent today. The sky was overcast and the sun was nowhere to be seen. We soon reached the willow tree, the same place where I and Julian had spent a silent afternoon.
"Perfect." Whispered Caspian, behind me, making me smile. I grabbed onto Julian until the little fist sized hole was done. Mark brought a little wooden black box for him and I gently placed him into it.
Soon the grave was covered and a tombstone was placed behind it. It was a colourful slab of stone on which all of us had painted a few pictures and written a few lines on ''the greatest hamster to have ever lived''. He will forever and always be remembered.
That morning was spent with breakfast and 'The various adventures of Julian and Caspian' -As told by the Caspian himself.
Julian had truly lived a full life.
So. Julian found death.
It's sad really. Poor thing.
Look forward for the next chapter!
With love,
P and H.