Haze of Dusk (A trilogy) (13 page)

“Really…oh…”
Jorsay the cutest in class… yuck, he's a twig. I can’t deny he has nice biceps now thanks to my daily workout.

“I was nervous, to be rejected by you … n-nobody thinks a girl like me can…b-be with a…with such a handsome boy like you.” She stutters. Her fair skin has a fresh redness. I eat my food quickly. The taste is pungent, thrusting down my stomach like a hard ball. Every gulp is difficult. Every breath is disturbing. I flesh in the food.

“Done!
We should go,” I blurt with my mouth full. She shows me slice apples in a container, offering it to me. “No-no, I’m full,” I swallow roughly. I wobble my hands on the air.  “Oh…you don’t want to be with me here…am I that repulsive,” she says brokenhearted. I can see sadness in her eyes. I gasp.

“No, no…
Azania, you are absolutely beautiful…really…” Azania’s eyes expand. She stares at me with twinkling eyes.
Uh-oh… why did you say that? Now she’ll think
something that is not
. Azania bashfully stares at the ground, rubbing her hands together, I seal my lips.
I’m feeling awfully weird right now
.  I gawk around the area, but when turning to meet her sight, I find her moving towards me, with a glimpse of an eye she swiftly presses her lips against mine, startling me. To make matter worse, I inhale in her mouth, taking her warm humid.

“No!
” I jostle her, her back thrust the hedge. My strength has totally increased. She stares at me wrecked. Her eyes consume water, and tears rush down her cheeks.

“
Azania, I’m so-sorry.” I say reaching to her, but she stands and hurries away from me. “Azania, wait!” I shout. I run after her, her hurting breaks me. I need to explain my behavior, even if it means telling her the truth. Azania runs quickly, and proceeds to the mealroom, probably to hide among the many people. I attempt to catch up with her, but she’s so tiny a crowd rapidly covers her, and I lose sight of her.  I gaze around the room. In our ordinary table I see my friends eating. I dart towards them. I need their advice. A big fellow falls in front of me, and we hit one another, only that it’s my smaller body that drops to the floor, on my knee.

“Oh man, I’m sorry,” the big
fellow says. I stand, rubbing my knee.

“JORSAY!” the
six feet, muscular man I stumble into hollers. I narrow my eyes.
Who the heck is this fellow?
“No way, Jorsay Zayras…in the end you were brought here too,” he says excited. I scowl. After repeating his words in my head a few times, I establish he knows my brother. “Oh…yeah…hey…” I couldn’t say it more awkward. Damn it, my plan is going to shut down because of this big moron. I should have run away when he called Jorsay’s name. Who knew Jorsay knows people… I mean, our town is known for having the weakest kids and having more girls than anything. “It’s me, Jameson…you don’t remember me, do you?” He asks. Behind him, there are three other bulky fellows, the dark skin, six foot four, is very muscular, and quite handsome.

“It’s been a year since I was appointed to join the war. Hey, remember
ninth year… that thing that happened…”
Holy shit, is this kid Jorsay’s age? No way, he looks older than Corr. Wow
,
what is this kid eating?
“Yeah…that thing…” I laugh trying to play the part. He chuckles.

“
You fellers want to know what this magician did last year?” He says to his friends who appear to be highly interested. I groan.
I really don’t have time for this.

“This is the
feller I talked to you about. Thought he was big shit because he was the strongest magician in our late class. He locked me in a closet then summoned a spider the size of an ogre. I was ensnared in its web for an entire day… until the magic faded.” My eyes widen together with my mouth. I swiftly shake my head. The fellow’s smooth expression changes, he seems conniving. “No…you…you must have the wrong person,”
my brother would never do that
.

“
Ah…want to clean your name now. After you terrorized half of the school because of our normality or magic weakness…it is people like you that make me sick,” he shoves me on the chest, pushing me rearward. I hit a table of four, scaring away the apprentices that sit. “No, I wouldn’t do that…and if I did, I changed…I…. I’m sorry…alright…I’m sorry,” that can’t be possible. First of all, Jorsay gets sick when he uses magic; second, magic rules don’t allow a spell to continue that long unless combined with other powers. My brother is no bully. This kid is insane.

“Not so tough now eh, not so tough magic is forbidden to use…come on…give me some of that shit of yours, come on
,” he taps his hard chest. His resentment toward Jorsay is conspicuous, almost as if what he speaks is true. I shake my head, in dismay. “I’m sorry.” I insist. Jameson frowns.

“No, I’m sorry!” he
hisses through his teeth, within him an anger I don’t comprehend. He lifts his arm, and in a firm knuckle, he strikes his fist on my face, pounding me hard. I drop to the floor. My nose is frenziedly bleeding. I whimper overtaken by the excruciating pain. But I try to hold my soreness. I’m not going to show weakness. The people in the room encircle us, excited by the quarreling. Jameson’s three friends grasp his arms, begging him to control his temper. I force myself up. I hold my runny nose. But Jameson hasn’t had enough. He jerks away from his friends and rushes towards me for a second time. He takes me from my collared and bangs me to the wall. I hit the back of my head. I have to fight back. I have to get out of his clutch.

“
Get-
OFF
-my friend!” a wild Ramuso screams. He pulls the bulky kid away with a strength I’m daze by.  In a jiffy, Ramuso slams Jameson on the flat-bottom surface and punches him frantically. Immediately, Jameson’s friends intervenes beating on Ramuso all together. My instinct says to protect my friend, so I jump on the back of one of the fellow and bite his ear.  He squeals; slams me on the floor. He holds a knuckle high with the intention of striking me on the face, but an abrupt Osys wraps his tiny body around him, choking him.

I’m angry by the attack. I hear the crowd screaming in panic, but the buzzing in my head causes the noise to be distant. I furiously run to the kid whom is now beating on Osys, and I fight him using all of my fighting knowledge. As I fight him, Osys traps the weary fellow from behind— I punch him on his face tendering my knuckles, yet finally knocking the kid to the floor. Breathing heavily, I gaze around to see my friends are fighting to defend me. Ramuso is winning the battle with Jameson, as for Onnet, he dangerously fights the biggest and toughest fellow, battling him like in the self-defense classes. Ikumus, the one who tried to avoid the fight is obligated to join, when a brainless kid throws him a punch because of his association with us. But Ikumus is not the person to mess with— with a kick on the fellow’s chest, he sends him flying across the room, instantly pounding him down. Fortunately, Corr saved his ass by not being around. He skipped meal time, because of his distressing love affair.

A group of
twenty defense guards rush into the room, breaking us apart by using a powerful paralyzing spell that stiffs us like the point of their staffs. With my potentials if I want I can effortlessly break the spell. But I remain captivated by the force, like the others.  Some instructors come upon us. In them, I see Srogeri shaking his head in disappointment. I want to shout,
“it’s not my fault, not this time!”
but she enters, bringing fear to us all. Her arrival creases my skin. Something I notice of the headmistress is her obsession with the color black. Never have I seen her wear another color. “You again,” she says, her eyes on me. She scoffs, and heads towards me, hastily assuming I’m the one who caused the chaos.

“You should have left when yo
u had the chance,” she whispers, staring straight into my eyes. Her eyes are captivatingly beautiful…gray, with such crystal clearness one can see the light. “I hope you all know what happens when these scenes occur.” She shouts loudly moving away from me, standing on the center of the room.

“You want to fight. Very well, it will be done. Since you boys decided this…
deathrow
has now been unlocked," at once people talk among each other. Deathrow is the place where fighters' brawl until death in the arena, but that’s if challenged by another. Yet, if nobody selects a rival, the headmistress herself chooses who fights who. The room falls still. No-one wants to risk their lives. No one will challenge anyone. “Me!” someone bellows, “I challenge Jorsay!”

-
10
-

Preparation

Stillness falls so heavy in the room I can hear every person’s breathing. The explosion within me when I heard Jorsay’s name was petrifying. I feel as if I'm holding a high-tree branch, and underneath are only spikes— deadness now takes over. I fear, but it’s not death I fear, but to get hammered down repeatedly. With his first punch I dropped kissing the floor. The pain so excruciating I wanted to die. I can still hear a tingling sound in my head, a sound that puzzles the life around me. To think I have to support more of those, to think I have to go against this monstrous boy, who hits as if his knuckles are made of rock, scares the hell out of me. Jameson is going to beat me down so hard, I’m going to lose my life.

“I decline
. I
challenge
him!” like the good friend he is, Ramuso intervenes, he’s pointing at Jameson. I sniff, that boy is always sticking with me. I’ve finally met true friendship, well, Jorsay has.“I decline as well. The kid won’t make it. He has less than a month here. Therefore, I challenge the rival,” Onnet says. Another friend, I snivel. I’m so sentimental I fear crying.
How lucky am I to have them?
Sandrine shakes her head. “Once a challenge is made it cannot be broken. The deathrow will start in four days,” she speaks indolently. “Meanwhile, you can all spend it in prison, for creating trouble. Take them away!” Sandrine commands the guards. They magically chain our hands together, and take us by force. Onnet, Osys and Ramuso are thrown with me, as the rivals are thrown to the other side of the prison. Ikumus was saved for he left the scene before her arrival.

Ramuso, Osys and Onnet,
look at me with snotty faces, making me feel guilty for the accusations. I bow down my head. “I’m sorry I got you fellows into this, but this time I
swear
it wasn’t my fault. He started it,” Osys sits hugging his legs. He’s shaking. He’s afraid of his surroundings. Terrified like a kitten. “I can’t believe I’m here. I've never been here,” Onnet growls hitting the wall, his fangs longer when in anger. I’m starting to think he really is part wolf.

“I’m used to this,” Ramuso says coolly.

“Yeah, keep pissing them off!
Once you hit twenty-five broken rules, you’re
dead
moron!” Onnet screams at him.

“I’m already dead by being in this
damn
castle!” Ramuso yells back, showing a rage I’ve never seen before. It’s obvious he hates being in the war castle more than anything else. His bad behavior has plenty to do with him being removed from his mother and father. That same day, he watched how his village with his family burned, supposedly because of the hot suns. Ramuso thinks it was the leaders idea to burn them all down that way they can take all the young people. He doesn’t believe in the sincerity of the collectors, and isn’t thankful for anything.

“Lower
your voice creep!” Onnet yells back, a second more, and they are going to be pulling each other’s hair. Thankfully, the prison gate opens, silencing us. We stare speechless. “Srogeri!” I say gushy, next to him is Ronneto.  I partly smile.

“
Don’t look too happy. This time you over did it,” he hisses.  I shake my head.

“It’s not my—”

“Let us go, now!” he breaks in, not giving me a chance to explain.

“I’m not going anywhere without my f
riends,” I assure, Srogeri chuckles. Ronneto’s and Srogeri’s eyes meet. “Want to bet,” Srogeri looks at me artfully. I cross my hands on my chest. Srogeri and Ronneto point their staffs at me, and together yell, “Helinatte!” a lightning collides with me, capturing my skin. I can’t believe it. They used a teleporting spell on me.

Headmistress
Srovio granted Srogeri and Ronneto permission to pull me out, for they named themselves my caretaker, and because I have four days to prepare myself for my battle, concurrently, they let Jameson out with the court of another instructor for he too, has to prepare for battle. Srogeri lectures me, and speaks of his disappointment, but this time I won’t let him place all the blame on me. I blurt out the entire truth—Jameson’s and Jorsay’s conflict. “Could you believe that? That kid says Jorsay trapped him, insane brat. He hits hard too,” I rub my nose, still awfully sore. I’m sitting on Srogeri’s headquarters, Ronneto is with us. He sits silently, watching me in dismay. Srogeri sighs. “Jorsay is very powerful…just like his father…” I gasp.

“You believe him!”

“You’re brother might have a magic deficiency, but that does not say he is weak. He is not easy to handle. Your father was very reckless. He would’ve always gotten in trouble, the things he did when he was a boy are just too chaotic.”