Eluding Darkness: Luxvell High (English Ver.)✓

Chapter 16: Getting Over

IT'S been three days after the horrible nightmare...

I'm in the hospital. Maybe tomorrow or overmorrow I'll be discharged.

"Rei..."

I looked at my brother Acer and smiled a bit at him as he entered...

"Are you feeling well now?" He sat at the edge of my hospital bed.

I didn't respond and looked outside, watching the cloudy sky...

"Mom and Dad called earlier to check you and your friends, they're outside."

I stunned. I bited my lips and looked at him.

"Want me to let them in?" He asked while caressing my hair.

I nodded. No one had spoken to me the past days after the incident except for my brother. He told me about how they got me and Samuel. I'm already taken in the hospital as he got the call and haven't talked to the students who brought me here and about Reinne, no one knows what happened to her...

My brother smiled at me. He arranged the fruits that had been given to me before he left the room.

After some minutes, my friends entered. Chelsea smiled at me and gave me a warm hug.

"Athen..." Her teary eyes brought pain and sorrow to me.

"Glad that you're okay, I guess..." Gian said and placed the basket of fruits at the side table.

Kenzo remained silent and seated near the couch while looking down.

No one broke the silence that envelops the room. My eyes started soaring again as all the memories of that nightmare flashed...

"I-i'm sorry..." I sobbed when I remembered what happened to Reinne and Samuel...

I'm crying so hard. It's too painful that I can't barely breathe. All the outburst of pain, sorrow, guilt and regrets combined. It's all coming back to me, the same intensity of what I felt at the time when both of them suffered...

"Cry your tears out, we're here Athen. Don't be sorry, no one's fault okay?" Chelsea started crying too.

"N-no it's not! It's all my fault!" I hysterically confessed.

"If only I s-stayed! If only I didn't leave the hall, if only I didn't followed Sam that night, m-maybe nothing b-bad happened!"

"Stop blaming yourself Athena..." Gian calmly said.

I shook my head, not believing him for I'm responsible for everything! I must be blamed...

"N-no, you don't understand..." I sobbed.

They're staring with pain, symphaty and confusion, except for Kenzo that still silent...

"I followed Sam, not e-expecting that R-reinne will follow me too. W-we got captured t-there with goons w-wearing masks..." I bite my lips and continued.

"I-i tried to save R-reinne. I tried, b-believe me. I don't know what's with them to kidnapped me. R-reinne suffered because of m-me. Because o-of me..."

"What do you mean?" Kenzo coldly asked.

"She's been r-raped in front o-of me a-and I haven't d-do anything t-to s-stop it!"

Chelsea covered her mouth trying to stop her sobs, Gian got dumbfounded and Kenzo was shaking hard while staring at me, it's like his world stop...

"I-i cause her sufferings a-and h-her death---"

"No! She's not Athena. S-stop saying t-those things okay?!"

She's shaking her head a lot of times while covering her ears and crying loud. Seeing them in this kind of situation makes it more harder for me to accept that it's not my fault. I'm regreting everything and this regret will be buried with me in my own grave...