Chapter Eight: Sometimes friends cannot be trusted.

"I betcha!" A voice interrupted our ritual of luck.

Everyone turned their backs on a pair of seniors carrying papers. There were wearing the school's uniform, a piece of wool cloth hanging in their left shoulders up to their knees. We sat and behaved. I looked around without moving my neck. The Tisiphone's lined up straight facing the senior's way. Marching to the senior's direction, they started murmuring words. And then when they reached 1 foot away from the seniors, they stopped.

A red-haired gentleman stood forward and scrambled the piece of papers in his hand. He coughed, and spoke;

"Today is the first day of school, and we seniors will introduce the rooms dedicated for the three groups in CLASS 1- FURIES."

Another senior continued;

"Without further ado, let's start the tour around the school."

 I patted my skirt and stands up. And then everyone followed, walking toward the Tisiphones and lining up. I brushed my hair as I step forward. A hand slipped and hit my face. The glasses fell to the ground, and I stopped walking. Searching for the glasses, I tripped and dropped to the ground. My hands saved me. With my two hands glued to the ground, I forced my poor eyes to open. I shut them when I fell. My knees glued on the ground, feet trembling as I keep my balance. My feet can't take it. I trembled heavily and then stopped. I can feel my body raised from the ground. 

A hand put my glasses on. I blinked several times. 

He dropped me on the ground. I bounced and rolled. I blinked once again. Now I saw myself lying next to the feet of one senior. 

"Get up Jenkins, get up." Said he rudely. 

I flinched.

Tobiah ran to me, helping me get up. I stand up with him as my cane. 

"Are you okay?" He whispered. 

I nod.

I can hear a grunt, coming from my back. A rustle of papers made me flinch. 

"Hurry you two, don't act like sloths in this school." He growled, ending his sentence with a face of annoyance.

Tobiah turns to me, and then directed me to the end of the line.

"Can you walk by yourself?" Tobiah asks.

I nod.

Slowly, he let go of my shoulders and then I pull myself away. I moved a foot and maintained my balance. I turned to him.

He smiled with his eyes closed. In my eyes, he looked like an angel, sparkling and doves flying above him. I blinked and saw him walk away. French people are so majestic creatures, right?

I positioned myself in front of the second to the last. From afar, the seniors are walking and the scholars followed. The person in my front started walking.

I looked around and then kept up with them.

We entered a dark alley, even though it is still a day. Even how narrow the alley is, we can get through since we are walking in one line.

A scream shook the group to stop. 

"What was that?" Asked a kid coming from the middle of the line. His voice echoed, and then another scream was perceived. 

"Uh, are you guys aware that we are walking through an alley? You know, in the middle of two buildings?" Another kid ejaculated. His tone seems to be anxious, maybe he thinks we are lost.

He was right. We are walking through an alley, screams coming out from the building. Someone died here, or a slave is tortured inside those two buildings. Lost in thought, I did not notice the line marching forward, and I was left behind.

I sprinted to them, ignoring how wet the path was.

I stopped in front of the person behind me. He turned around to look at me. He showed me a smirk, something I have seen before. At that moment, I realized, he was that guy in the exam back then. His face is neat and clean, unlike before where his face is covered in soot.

“Huh?” I said. A touch of pink can be seen on my cheeks.

“Nothing.” He replied, turning his head to the line.

I frowned. Suddenly smirking in front of a stranger isn’t a good thing to do you know? You will never know if he or she like you. He needs to mind his moves and manners, such a disappointment if I were his parents.

Hope he is the next to die.

I suddenly covered my mouth as that thought echoed on my brain. I asked myself, why are you hoping for him to die, just why?

It was my inner demons attacking me. The part of me who is a sociopathic narcissist.

He deserves it, ain’t he? Death. Haven’t you remembered? Things that happened to you earlier?

I choked myself and kneeled on the ground. I removed my hands from my neck and put them on the ground. It felt like cold cobblestones with lava underneath the stones. A raindrop fell on my head, and I felt a cold touch.

I stand up and ran to the line since I was left behind.

I had been always a narcissist, a part of me who was born after I was proclaimed a genius. Whether I need it or not, it will suddenly appear, making me question why.

It was the part of me that makes me think reverse on what should I think of.

I had left it out for years, since being humble is tiring.

And, I left it on the corner where the spotlight can hit anytime.

I tapped my waist to find where is the sling bag.

I felt a texture of smooth leather and a touch of yarn overlapping from the inside. It’s the sling bag. A small hand grabbed one of my fingers. Even it is small the enormous strength inside is undeniable.

I raised my hand and saw the doll crawling on my arm.

It shook as I slowly raise it in the air, quivering while maintaining its balance. It squirmed to my shoulders, making its way inside my blazers. I folded the blazer's sleeve to give my skin air, which makes me comfortable whatever the occasion. 

The doll hid on my shoulder caps, making a big lumpy ball form outside. 

I looked at the line again, and like always, I got left out.

I sprinted to catch up, holding the lump so the doll won't fall out. In my face was disgrace and disgust, looked like I was eating a whole slice of lemon.

...

We gathered around into a crowd in front of a building. I looked around. I can see everywhere dead trees, even it is not that time of the year for them to wilt. The buildings look rotten and old. Even though we were told it was built a year ago.

Yet something is bothering my mind, something that makes me have those heebie-jeebies. It happened before, the day before yesterday. 

The day where I entered this mysterious school and had me question my existence. 

This is supposed to be a normal school, no, a prestigious school where students fight each other to keep their scholarships through keeping their grades high. Not killing each other.

I flinched when I felt a tap on my shoulder. 

I suddenly hyperventilate when the flow of emotions behind me grew stronger and stronger. My body trembled and my brain panicked. I sweated heavily as I felt my atmosphere grow darker and darker. I looked down, a shadow of some creature is in my back, the size bigger than I can imagine.

I gathered small drops of my courage and turned my head to my back. To only see a giant monster made of unhappy souls from dead students. In its face was the only emotion was the feeling of shock and disappointment. Their dreams were destroyed and they cannot go to heaven nor hell. They'll join other unhappy souls to form this monster. 

The monster that represents their pain and anxiety.

The emotions they let out.

The hand on my shoulder was a corpse's hand, its skin stitched together. The emotions in its face, which is a smile, stitched with a strong string, kept together with his fake emotions forever. 

I screamed and bolted in the crowd's direction. Everyone started running for their lives while the seniors stay there in their place, watching us panic. They stood still without letting out any emotions. This is it. This happened on the exam, and now, it will happen again. And I'll continue to the first period, alive.

I tripped on some rock and hit my head on a dead tree. While I was recovering from the hit, I saw a shadow behind me, with a knife in its hands. I rolled over to dodge the attack. I saw who was trying to kill me. It was Jesse.

"What are you doing!" I shout. My back on the ground, my head lies on the roots of the dead tree.

She looked at me like she was ready to murder. She raised the knife in the air, trying to stab me. I rolled over the ground several times, dodging her attacks. 

"Keep this in mind Lily, not all friends are real." She threw a knife at me, it rolled in the air and it hit the bark of the tree. "And the fake ones can stab you behind your back." 

She stands in a bizarre posture in front of me.

"I never thought it was you all the time. You betrayed us right on the first day!" I said. 

She pulls out another knife from a small pouch bag in her waist.

"You are not getting my point, Lily." She lets the sunlight reflect on the knife. "What I meant is that,"

She breathed in heavily and pointed the sharp end of the knife at her.

"Sometimes, a friend cannot be trusted anytime. At the end of the day, we'll end up killing each other." She tossed the knife, and I rolled.

I ran away from her. Teardrops fall from my eyes as I got her point. Even we'll survive, we will just end up killing each other.

Are they really my friends?

Or wolves disguised as sheep?

Can I still trust them?

Drowned in thoughts, I made a cry for it. I cannot trust anymore unless someone proves we were friends.

If someone will.