SERAPHINA'S POV:
Finally, I have a peaceful moment to myself after running into countless unavoidable and dramatic situations all week.
The library is the perfect place to spend free periods, and on days like this, I'm grateful for the gaps in my schedule, especially when they fall on days when I really need them.
I haven't been able to read that mysterious book I swiped from Artemis' room - a chance hasn't presented itself. From the moment I took it, I was attacked, partially traumatized and thrown into election activities before being threatened and subjected to those assholes at lunch.
Not a moment was given to even wonder about its contents, but now I can.
I find the perfect and least populated area far in the back, behind heaps of shelves in a section least explored. The thick red book weighs heavily in my hands while I sit on the floor, folding my legs to myself and rubbing my palms together with anticipation.
I either realize there's nothing special about it, or that the words really do change.
I pull the book open and the same page opens itself up to me, almost automatically, revealing the image of the warrior human. The words somehow have reverted back to the foreign language that I can't read, but my focus is on the woman.
I have more time to take in her details. Her ravenously wild head of hair, cascading down her back.
Her toned figure, holding the spear like a true warrior, and the conviction in glinting in her eyes as she spears through her enemy, killing the beast.
I find my heart pulsing faster, running my fingers against the page in awe and so much interest, briefly imagining myself as strong and powerful as she is.
Not stabbing a wolf, of course. I'm not one for violence, but I like to imagine I'd be stabbing through social vices and oppression, discrimination between races and the sort.
My graze against the pages seems to act as some kind of magic key as the letters flash golden, like real actual magic, and just like before, the words begin to morph.
They glitch across the pages until they settle for words that somehow make sense to me. My brain deciphers it as if I've known the language all my life.
The words Astria tribe flickers, and more words become more readable.
'The cursed tribe of human warriors that wielded magic like witches themselves, offering up their hearts to demons in exchange for strength against the wolves.'
I read the words out, feeling a sudden weight hanging on my chest and chills running up my spine from the ominous vibes it gives off.
'All children of Astria bear the mark, and those who carry its burden find their souls divided between darkness and light, taking on physical forms that can never be sundered - the light manifesting in flesh, the dark forever lurking in the shadows.'
I flip the page, meeting a different picture. The silhouette of a human man and his shadow cast into the ground behind him.
I don't understand what any of it means, yet the cryptic words and weirdness pulls my interest like a bewitchment of its own. My eyes stick to the picture, unable to pry away for a moment and completely taken it by it.
I hear footsteps shuffling and growing closer, and on instinct, I quickly hide the book behind me, pulling something else off the shelf and posing before whoever it is reveals themselves by poking their head through.
"Hey."
I look up, masking my jitters, only to meet Artemis' blue eyes looking down at me with a plain forced smile that seems tired for some reason.
My tensed shoulder drops, and I let go of the pretense.
"Oh... it's you." I say dully, though never pulling out the stolen book from the hiding spot. Securing it even further.
"What are you doing?" He raises a brow, looking at me.
"Reading, obviously."
"I see you're reading a book on wolf biopsy upside-down?"
I look at the book in my hands, and just as he had described, it's a gory book with very vivid pictures of organs and the likes, turned upside-down, exposing my lie immediately.
I turn it the right side up now.
"So? I have hobbies."
"Whatever."
He rolls his eyes, dropping on the floor right next to me, surprisingly.
He rests his back against the shelf, letting out an exhausted breath, looking drained, and I faintly see a red stain on the edges of his light blue shirt, and I'm sure it's not paint.
"What's with you?" I ask, turning my attention away from him.
"Well, aren't you interested in my wellbeing?" He quips sarcastically with a small smile directed at me.
I pry my eyes away, looking down at the book in my hands, not expecting the action that takes me off guard.
"I'm the least bit interested in anything about you, just... if you're going to sit in front of me, don't look like you just got ran over by a bus." I make up an excuse, not wanting to admit to his claims.
He chuckles lightly, and it's soft and gentle. I realize it's been a while since I heard him laugh like this with all that's going on.
"It's all your fault." He finally confesses, and I look up at him again.
"I'm in this state because, despite my efforts to shield you from harm's way, your stubborn ass just seems to love sniffing them out, don't you? Or maybe you just attract the most bizarre things your way." He says it with a light tone, actually considering the possibilities, but I can't help but be offended by it.
"Then what, pray tell, made you decide to foolishly drag the stubborn human into your slave contract?"
He looks at me intensely for seconds without a response. Leaning forward and resting his head against his palm and seriously considering it, but the smile on his lips never falters.
I feel strangely open and naked with the way his eyes rake over, covering myself with the book and avoiding those deep blue ocean eyes, wanting to pull me in against my will.
He does it until I'm fed up with the suspense, deciding I don't even want to know.
"Look, if you're just going to sit and stare, I'd prefer you do it somewhere else. I have a book to get back to."
"Actually, there's a reason I came to look for you and why I'm here." He finally speaks, leaning backwards.
"Okay, out with it."
"It's time to choose your punishment, Sera, and I have two options for you."
I was expecting this very moment, anticipating it even. I've run myself through possible worse scenarios this could turn into, so there's no way I'd be fazed by either of them.
I take in a deep breath, preparing myself.
"What are my options?"
"Option 1: Spend the night with me."
"Hell no." I state sternly, frowning at him.
He shrugs.
"Option 2: Wear a leash around your neck that's attached to me, and bark when anyone besides me calls your name."
"You've got to be kidding."
"I'm pretty sure I'm not."
"That's not fair - none of those things are doable."
"Barking seems fun."
I glare at him, and he shuts up instantly.
I take the next few seconds to run over it in my head. None of them seem less traumatizing. What does spending the night with him even entail, and what if he makes me crawl like a dog for the whole day?
"Tick tock."
Spend the night with the devil, or act like a dog in front of the whole school.
Fuck it.
"Fine, option 1."
His lips turn into a wicked smile that makes me believe that I've fucked up, still. There's no way I'd embarrass myself in front of the whole school, not while I have an election to win.
"Option 1 it is. I'll be expecting you tonight; 9 pm sharp. Don't be late." He says it slyly before winking and getting up.
He leaves just as he came, leaving behind an empty space and silence that seems louder than it had when he was sitting in front of me.
***
I feel a sense of peace when I finally walk through the door of my dorm room, stepping into the place that has slowly become a replica of home.
The smells are different, and the bed isn't as hard and as cold, but its close enough.
I walk in, tossing my bag to the side and dropping on my bed, letting out a heavy sigh just before my eyes finally falls on the large lump just under the thick duvet on Olivia's bed.
"Hey." I say to her a bit cautiously with a small smile.
There's no response from her end, and I move to her bed, slowly sitting down on the edge just before there's a bit of movement that lets me know that she's awake.
"How was school?" I ask next, waiting again for an answer.
She was like this when I left in the morning, unresponsive and closed off, like there's a wall erected between us. I don't even think she went to school, seeing as the room looks exactly as it was in the morning.
"Olivia, I'm worried about you." I add as well.
The experience with the assaulter from last night seems to have gotten her worse than I'd realized. I knew it was bad, but not this bad.
"I don't know what to do here, how to help you out of this. I can't help you if you don't tell me what is wrong." I say softly.
Another stretch of silence follows again, and I'm overwhelmed by a sudden feeling of helplessness. I go further, lying down beside her curled up body.
"Please, talk to me. Truth is, I'm not as tough as I always try to seem, and sometimes, shit does get to me and it's okay. You can feel it or cry, but please, don't shut me out. You're currently all I have, and I don't want you to be alone in this either." I plead, this time getting emotional from my own words.
Tears leak from my eyes from and slides, and I sniffle, trying to hold it back in.
Hands unexpectedly wrap around me from the side, and I realize she has silently crawled out of her blanket with puffy red eyes, brimming with fresh tears that look at me with so much sadness.
"I'm sorry for shutting you out."
Seeing her inspires more tears from my own eyes, accompanied by emotions I can't quite piece together yet. I raise my hand up, rubbing the tears from her eyes with a small teary smile.
"It's okay. I'm sure you had a reason to."
Instead, she shakes her head, bursting into more tears.
"No, it's not okay, Sera. I should I should have told you before it got worse, but I was too terrified to say anything. I wanted to bury all those emotions until you were attacked, until you were nominated..."
"Calm down, Olive. Explain it to me slowly - one at a time. What are you talking about?"
She looks at me, terrified but fighting it desperately, while taking deep breaths. I doubt she's going to speak until the words leave her lips.
"I was assaulted by Morgan last year."