unOrdinary | Inspired Archive

Chapter 14

"Why did you help me?" John asks aggressively, pushing Isen up against the wall. Then he sees it. Fear. 'He knows.' Voices fill his head, flashbacks from New Bostin flood out from dormancy, engulfing his thoughts with hell.

"You don't deserve all of this power!"

"Hypocrite!"

"Monster." John drops Isen, kneels down, and clutches his forehead with his right hand, seeing his memories of New Bostin, memories resurfacing similar to Keon's... "therapy". He stands back up, and looks back at Isen studiously, who was intrigued by what had happened.

"How much do you know?" John asks bluntly, barely giving Isen a glance. Isen attempts to play coy, framing his innocence a little too much.

"Know what? I don't get what you're referring to, John."

"Don't play coy with me, Isen. How much... do you know?" John pushes, looking back at Isen, his stare boring into Isen's soul. If it is any indication, Isen's sweat falls from his face to his chin, and drops to the floor.

"Enough, I know enough!" He says defensively. John lessens his threatening aura, and looks at him a little less angrier.

"Who else knows?" John asks.

"I've only told Isen, but I think Blyke caught on, and so did Remi. I didn't tell them anything, I swear!" He answers. 'So Arlo really told him nothing. Interesting tactic.'

"I'm not going to hurt you, Isen," John says to him, although his tone said quite the opposite, "and it isn't your fault they know, because I was the one who told them." Isen's mouth stands agape, shocked at his fortune. He seemed relieved it wasn't... all his fault. 'Weirdo.' Isen sighs a deep... deep sigh of relief.

"So are we good?" He asks, hoping to not be on John's bad side.

"What, no, of course not. I won't trust you for a while for prying into my past." John replies. Although not comedic in context, the way he said it was almost so.

"Yeah, I guess that's fair. You're not gonna make my life a living h*ell, though, are you?" He asks, still worried about himself.

"As tempting as it may be, I have... issues with that. So... for the time being, you're fine as long as you don't do anything stupid." He responds, partially relieving Isen of some of his worries. "Although, I'd like you to do something in return..."

==========

Blyke walks out onto the courtyard, getting some fresh air during lunch. It was pretty packed, but he didn't really care, as he had a marvel of engineering, magical technology, an astonishing solution to a loud crowd, known to most as the earplug. He opened his phone and started to play some 80s R&B. About 20 minutes of vibing has gone by when the crowd begins to thin out. He doesn't notice at first... but when he notices people starting to watch the courtyard in anticipation as if something was going to happen, he takes his plugs out. He briefly hears the conversation of the nearest two students talking next to him.

"This better not be a joke. I've got things to do, and I'd rather not lunch be ruined by Isen wasting all of our time." One says, a pink haired boy states, probably in his second year. Blyke never really paid attention to specific people's names, but he could at least recognize what year each person belonged to. Sort of. 'What the h*ll?' Blyke thinks to himself. 'What has Isen done?' He asks. He walks over to the two second years, and turns to the one he's pretty sure is in one of his electives.

"Hey, do you know why everyone is watching the courtyard?" He asks. In response, the two are surprised to say the least.

"You mean you don't know?" The other pipes in, with dark green hair. "Isen sent out a post to everyone saying, and I quote, 'An unknown challenger to challenge the Royals! He says he'll first go after our Jack.'" the boy states, with his arms imitating the shape of an imaginary headline. "Followed by the time and place, which is odd, but convenient."