Haunting Words - an unORDINARY Fanfic

7 - Leap of Faith

< Seraphina POV >
< Wellston Rooftop >
< Tuesday May 4th 3:32pm >

As the first of likely to be many raindrops landed, John's trembling jaw opened with the promise of explaining what exactly 'readjustment classes' entailed. Truthfully I wasn't sure I wanted or needed to know- it could easily bring me nothing but sympathy for him- but something kept me from stopping him.

"The first time I got there I was handcuffed to a table and during the three months I spent at the readjustment facility that was where I stayed. People would bring me food and water, but not once did they let me take the handcuffs off. I even slept in that chair, and the days weren't any better, in fact they were worse. So much worse. Keon's ability... I don't know the specifics but it... it replays memories.

"Every day he would show me everything. Every beating I gave, my losses to Zirian, the beat up bodies of everyone I fought, and most of all everything Claire said. Claire's words were really what tied the image together, and with that weapon against my brain I was broken by the 3rd week. That didn't stop him though. He kept driving home that I was a monster for the rest of the time I was there.

"I must have watched Claire spit those words out at me at least 300 times, and by the time I got home I didn't want to do anything with my life. I wanted to die and be forgotten, and I would have done it if it wasn't for my dad. I had shut myself in my room, but every day he would bring me food, water, and just check in on me to see if I was doing alright. I couldn't just leave him so I stayed in my room as a compromise.

"Then one day he brought me unORDINARY, and I loved it. Everything the hero did gave me insight into who I should be instead of who I was. The most important lesson I got from it was to stop looking at people at face value, and instead to see their good attributes.

"I enrolled into Wellston with that mindset; I was gonna be an over-the-top optimist, and to stop myself from hurting people with my ability I would pretend to be a cripple."

That's when I cut in. "Why? Why'd you go to that extreme? You could've just been a mid-tier. You'd blend in and no one would pay attention to you."

He chuckled. "I thought of that, but you've seen how I fight; no matter how much weaker my opponent is I never hold back. That's why I couldn't pretend to be a mid-tier: I'd never be able to stick to a middle ground, I knew it was all or nothing and I chose nothing. At least for a while." Truth-be-told I disagreed with his logic. The way I saw it was that he felt angry at the school because of everyone who wronged him, but I couldn't see inside his head- if I could we wouldn't even be here- so I stayed silent.

"Anyway, the first few days were pretty rough, but I held on by reading it whenever I could. Then something changed; I met you. And oh god I hated you." He said, chuckling at the last part. A second later he continued with a nostalgic tone and sad smile. "You were different. You threw me into the wall over cake of all things, you were so uptight and never smiled or anything near it, and you were so strong no one could stop you. Put simply, almost everything about you reminded me of who I was at New Bostin.

"But when we were put together on that project I started seeing you differently. I started to understand that you weren't like that for no reason, but because of all the pressure from most people if not everyone in your life. At the same time I was also trying to employ my optimism and see what was different about us instead of the similarities, and there was a big one: despite my first impression of you, you were so much less violent than me. Instead of attacking the students who would gossip about you and beating them to a pulp, you either glared at them or did nothing.

"With those things about you in mind I tried to restart our relationship, and trust me you did not make it easy. It was clear that you weren't interested in restarting at all and there were so many times when it seemed impossible to get you to see that you didn't have to live like that, but there were also other times, though not many, where you seemed to be changing a little bit.