Klein Is Dead

"Thank you for the advice but I don't need it," Alex retorted with a frown on his face.

Atticus laughed and shrugged his shoulders. "Kids will always be kids," he mumbled. "Well, let's head back to school. My bro could be waiting for us," he said and stretched out his arm. He made the same hand movement with the Dean's and the space cracked open. 

"You have the same ability with the Dean?" Alex asked him.

"Yes but unfortunately, his is stronger than mine," Atticus replied.

"I see," Alex muttered.

"But that doesn't mean he's any stronger than me. I am far stronger than him, you can ask him if you wish."

"There should be no need for that. Let's just return to the school," Alex replied. He didn't want to know Atticus' power or anything related to him, not like he wasn't interested, it was just that he recently developed the habit of minding his business and for some reason, he liked it.

"If you wish then," Atticus replied and placed all the teachers on each of his monsters. The monsters of course knew the assignment and thus, each of them went into the cracked opening in the space with the teachers on their backs. "You two should get in now," Atticus instructed Alex who nodded and also went into the cracked opening with Raphael behind him as always. It was like following one room to enter another, thus, Alex found themselves inside the school, next to the Dean's office. "This ability is called space manipulation, I can travel through portals with this ability as long as it is within Arcane. Anything beyond, I can not," Atticus said to them the moment they arrived. 

"Can anyone learn this ability or is it an innate ability?" Alex asked him.

"My innate ability is just like the Dean's. The ability to see beyond the human eyes. Space manipulation is what we three brothers were forced to learn so it can basically be taught to someone else," Atticus replied. He then gazed at Alex and saw the look on his face. "Do you want to learn it?" He asked him.

"I don't know, I'll think about it for now," Alex replied uncertainly. He was not sure if learning the ability would be of help to him someday, secondly, the ability isn't something that will give him more powers so to him, it would likely be a waste of time.

"If you have a change of mind, come find me with this," Atticus said and handed Alex a card. He then went closer to him and lowered himself to his height. " I have developed a certain like for you," he whispered before straightening up and walking away afterward. 

"What did he say to you?" Raphael curiously asked Alex after the fair man had left with his monsters.

"It's nothing important, let us go back to the dorms," Alex replied and began to walk away. Unknown to him, Raphael didn't follow immediately as he was burning in rage. It wasn't until he noticed that he wanted to turn around that he came back to his senses and followed after him.

When they arrived at the dorms, Alex went straight to his room without paying any attention to Raphael and this made him upset but he could not bring himself to tell him. Meanwhile, Alex had a lot of things going on in his head that he wasn't paying attention to any other things. He didn't know when he got to his room, how he went in, and how he fell face flat on his bed until three hours later when a loud knock woke him up from sleep. With sleepy eyes, he grumbled and went to open the door, and when he got there, he saw a panicked Raphael standing there.

"What is the matter?" He asked him.

"Klein is missing!" Raphael announced and the sleep disappeared from Alex's eyes that instant. 

"Klein is what?" He asked in shock.

"The school has been searching for him for hours and no traces of him have been found. They realized late that he wasn't among the students rescued," Raphael replied.

"I have to search for him!" Alex said and hurried out of his room. Raphael followed immediately and the two left for the Dean's office. Getting there, they saw Derek who was already awake with the Dean. The two of them were discussing something and when they saw them, they stopped whatever they were talking about.

"Alex, what are the two of you doing here?" Derek asked Alex the moment he saw them.

Alex studied Derek carefully, though he was already awake, he still looked weak. "Klein is missing, we are here to search for him," he replied.

Derek and the Dean glanced at each other before Derek decided to be the one to talk. "Klein is not missing. He is dead," he announced to them. 

Alex and Raphael were shocked to hear that Klein was dead, Alex didn't want to believe that the boy was dead, so he walked up to Derek and grabbed him on the collar, his eyes brimming with anger and fear.

"What did you just say? How can Klein be dead?" He asked him.

Derek gently pulled Alex's hand off his collar as the grip was too tight. He then looked him in the eyes and repeated it. "I said Klein is dead, follow me to see his corpse," he said and turned around as he made his way to the infirmary.

Alex glanced at Raphael and began to follow Derek. Soon, they got to the infirmary and headed straight to the room where Klein was kept. Along the way, Alex saw other students who were dead as well. Clenching his fists, he increased his pace as he was more concerned about Klein. Finally, they got to the room where Klein was being kept and he rushed inside.

Getting to where his body was laid, Alex gasped in shock at what he saw. He fell to his knees beside the body and stared at him.

"H-how did this happen?" He asked Derek who was standing behind him.

"He was attacked by Lucien's demonic monster. The same ones that attacked the school a week ago," Derek replied. 

Hearing him, Alex clenched his fists. Half of Klein's body was missing, it was a horrible sight to behold but still, Alex took Klein's hand into his and lowered his head as tears filled his eyes.

"I could have been the one lying here dead but how come? How did you end up being the one?" He asked Klein.

"Atticus said the monster was after a student but Klein had run after it to save the student," Derek said to him.

"That student was me, I guess..." Alex replied and paused as he raised his head and turned to face Derek. "He sacrificed himself to keep me alive," he told him and tears began to stream down his face. "I killed him," he cried and Derek knelt beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I don't know what was between you two but you killed no one. Klein is one of the students I can vouch for. Believe me when I say that he is ready to do this for anyone, not just you. He is ready to protect those he cares about even though it would end up taking his life in the process so don't blame yourself, you did nothing wrong. The only person we should blame is Lucien, he killed him and the others."

Alex suddenly stopped crying and wiped his face. He stood up with his fists clenched as anger filled his eyes. "Yes, he killed them... I'll kill him!" He said and turned to leave the room but Derek rushed to him, dragged him back, and slapped him on the face.

"Wake up, idiot, and stop being impulsive!" He said as he slapped Alex hard on the face.

Alex staggered and fell on the floor, with his hand on his cheeks. He looked at Derek who was staring back at him in anger.

"Do you think you stand a chance against even his weakest lackeys?" Derek asked him. "Not even the Dean could fight him, so who do you think you are? Not everything can be achieved by just self-will, if you are weak, you are as good as dead! This is what happened to him..." He said and pointed to Klein. "If he wasn't weak, he would not be lying down there now! If you can't become strong, don't ever think of achieving your dreams because you will end up failing drastically!" After he finished talking, Derek stormed out of the room, leaving only Alex to think for himself.