Poisoned Hearts (A Jaric Fanfic)

Prologue

Japeth sat on the rugged wooden floors of his rundown dorm room, kicking at the wall with incessant boredom. Ever since he'd been dropped in this school- though he could hardly call it that- life had been nothing but hell. Every night, he lay awake in his bed, plotting his escape from this nightmare. Days were dry and dull, having no company except for his lame brother, Rhian. Each day felt like a million years, and each night went far too fast, welcoming the arrival of the next day.

On top of that all, none of the other boys would come near Japeth, let alone be friends with him. Not that Japeth minded. He knew that his talent made him a freak, and that his intimidating demeanor didn't exactly help this matter. Besides, he had never yearned for friends, nor had he ever cared about anyone enough to consider them one. His scims provided more than enough company.

On days like this one, Japeth wondered if his existence even mattered. Each day was the same, listening to Dean Brundhilde's meaningless lectures about the importance of being kind. Like that mattered at all.

Japeth's life, in a nutshell, was completely and utterly pointless. But today, that would change. After all, things seldom stay as they are.
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How dare they, Aric fumed, sitting in a cage on the back of a carriage in full body chains. How dare they lock him up. He never even wanted to be in Foxwood to begin with. It wasn't like he chose to be adopted by that stupid family of do-gooders. He would have preferred to stay in the Woods, where no one could lock him up or tell him what to do. Where he answered to no one.

But of course, as soon as the Mahut family saw that "poor little boy" all alone in the Endless Woods, they had to take him under their wing. Naturally, Aric hadn't responded well to this. He'd burned down their house, murdered their pets, and nearly killed their idiot daughter, Kisha. But so what? He had full right to do what he did.

Now here he was, being carted off to prison like some sort of criminal. As he passed by gawking residents, he glared at them with a murderous look, daring them to keep staring. The rest of the ride went on like this until he arrived at what Aric recognized as the Foxwood School for Boys. The carriage went around the school to a small, rickety wooden building. Then the carriage came to a halt, in front of what definitely wasn't a jail. The two guards mounted on either side of the carriage began opening his cage. This was definitely not what he was expecting.