Sitting comfortably in his chair, the man let a big sigh of relief, then grabbed his mug full of coffee, taking a small sip from it. As he anticipated his coworker's presence, he could only give a good look at how the students were doing on the test. Aldric was curious to see how much his favorite one this year was doing so.
As he took the last sip of his coffee, the sound of a door opening caught his attention. A smile appeared on his face, and he got up from his chair, immediately doing a polite pose, arching his upper body closer to the ground.
"Aldric, good morning."
"Good morning, Boss, how have you been?" The man smiled, and Aldric straightened his back once more.
"Urgh, you know I still am not accustomed to being called Boss." Aldric laughed. "You do on purpose, I know it."
He raised both of his hands with his palms open. "ya gotcha me."
"Where are the others?"
"Oh, taking a break, I think. I don't care." The man laughed and then sat down on his desk. It was the same as everyone else.
"You never cared, huh?" As the man said, Aldric stayed quiet. He knew that man's intention.
"I know what you're going to say, Molter. I… Fuck, I can't see it, okay? Yeah, I care, I do fucking care,"
"I'm not judging you, friend, you know that, I know why you do it. I just don't see why you can't admit it." Aldric stayed quiet, just letting a deep sigh escape from his mouth. Then the door opened again, with two other people coming in.
One of them — the first to get in — was Poimen, laughing while talking to another one of the teachers. She was a little bit taller than Poimen, with really long black hair that reached her knees; tired eyes with bags right below them, a skin with a golden hue, and yet, seemingly very tired, the girl had a long, happy smile on her face.
As Poimen's eyes locked onto Aldric, she smiled at him! "Brother-in-law! How are you doing!" Aldric smiled back at her, just waving his left hand in the air.
"Well, everyone here?" Molter's voice now sounded very low; not only that, but more demanding, more professional. They were a family, yet colleagues. Everyone shook their heads in agreement, and he clapped his hands.
The room immediately lost its light, and a huge TV came from the ceiling. He looked at every teacher, then pointed at Aldric. "Let's see your boy wonder, shall we?"
The man smiled, as he was curious too. After all, that test was chosen by his own hands. As the TV turned on, they all saw Naevius and his partner looking into the bushes.
Leaving it, a huge wolf came to the moonlight. Purple fur just like his eyes, but that was not the worst part, he was definitely different from the other wolves, just in four, the wolf had at least three meters of height.
Naevius took a step back, looking for the best moment to run. The girl at his side thought differently, her nails slowly and painfully mutating into claws, the fur below her ears becoming more prominent in other parts of her body.
He saw her slowly preparing to run, as he looked back at the alpha wolf, his heart skipped a beat. "DON'T GO!" he shouted from the depths of his lungs, yet it was not enough to stop the girl. As she ran towards the big foe they were fighting, Naevius could only watch.
She finally reached the big dog, and then with a strange strength that came out of nowhere — at least for the boy — she jumped between the wolf's head, falling right onto his neck. Suddenly, the thing that made Naevius so scared had happened.
His fur got stronger, more like a crystal. In his eyes, something strange occurred, as if energy had just passed between them. And in just a fraction of seconds, the girl could feel her own body becoming carbonized, feeling the weight of twenty thunderbolts under her body.
She couldn't release her grasp, for her hands were already melted within the wolf's fur. And in those mere seconds, she tried to fight against him, but she was dead. The putrid smell came directly to Naevius, immediately forcing him to puke on the ground.
"I-I… W-what?" Tears formed below his eyes, and despair caught him in a spider web. Then, he was caught by something else, stronger and sharper. He felt his lower body being disconnected from his upper body by just one strong bite. Something filled his heart.
If… If… If… It's all he could think about; it's all he ever thought.
No, he was tired of it; he was tired of just thinking about what to do. He looked directly at the eyes of his killer, seeing that he didn't even deserve the strike of lightning his partner had received earlier.
Anger struck him. His eyes changed, his stare holding more meaning than before. "You," he coughed blood. "Be sure, I will be back, even if it takes me years to heal, I WILL BE BACK TO KILL YOU."
Then darkness came as his head was smashed by the wolf's jaw. Naevius lived a pathetic life, died pathetically, and in that darkness, he cried like a baby. It was more than sadness; it was frustration for not being enough, it was anger for not doing what he wanted to do.
And a deep disappointment in himself.
Just one more chance, just one more.
He would make sure to win against that beast.
Then he woke up, in the same place as before, at the same time. The feeling of grass touching his skin, the sensation of the cold but thin breeze messing with his hair. He sat lying down, looking up into the sky, when a strange sound caught his attention.
Muffled, he could hear a crying sound. Then he was baffled to see the same girl as before alive, and she was shocked too. Her hands were shaking while tears dropped from her eyes, with not a sign of stopping. Naevius looked at her, then his watch.
He wanted to kill that beast, that creature. But… could he do it? Ambition was not the problem, but empathy.
"We should've give..." Her cries stopped, then she raised her head and looked at him. "GIVEN UP? DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I NEED TO BE HERE?"
"I…"
"QUIET. I DON'T WANT YOUR PITY." She spat, then got up. "I'M FUCKING TIRED OF PITY, OF THOSE WHO LOOK DOWN ON ME…." Looking at the stars, a last single drop of tear fell through her cheeks. "I don't care how many times I die. I will pass this test."
"Good, then this way we both want the same."