The Calm Before The Storm

1st PoV

The next day it was peaceful, I still trained and visited Lily and Noah. Lily had no trouble aside from remembering her family as she again feels guilty for not saving them.

But Noah is helping her. He is making her help move on. He is a hypocrite. I can see in his eyes that he is too affected by this but he doesn't want to show that.

He just buries it in his heart and moves on with the day like nothing happened.

I decided to confront him about this. I walked in front of his room's door and knocked on it.

He said "Come in" and I did as he said. He was hearing music as his headphones were on his shoulder. He was drawing a picture of a boy walking on the side of the road looking up at the sky, watching the sunset. He also had alcoholic marker pens beside him as he decided to ink his drawing.

He said, "What made you come in here Mr Adair?". I said, "I wanted to talk to you about something".

His eyes showed his thinking as he quickly changed into a fake amused expression. He then said, "Do you want some advice on picking flowers or chocolate?".

I then said in the same tone of seriousness as before "You can't fool me you know. I can see lies".

Noah dropped his act as he looked at me. His eyes, which were full of life, lost their glow. He then said while chuckling sadly "I guess I can't fool you."

I then said "You can't fool anyone but another liar. Though our circumstances were different, we both used lies to portray who we are. We like to get what we want. I manipulate others so that I can get what I want while I distort or twist your personality to get less attention."

He looked a bit shocked but quickly recovered and continued to listen.

I continued to say "I won't ask you anything but don't bottle up those emotions. It may cause you trouble. I won't force you since I do the same. Try to change."

As I was about to leave Noah said "I am an orphan. I used to live in an orphanage and interact with everyone. We were happy. I was happy. But it all changed when I was 10. The orphanage's funds got less as they started to remove the ones who are 10 or above to an apartment the government provided with an allowance. I started going to school again but I didn't see anyone I knew. All of them were transferred all across the countries. I walked into the school. As I was going through the classroom alone. It was hard to interact with others as the school was ending. The only friends I had were those who were from my orphanage. The rest of them avoided us. The school ended within a month or so. After that, making friends was hard for me. I guess I was afraid deep inside that I might lose them. I got into comics, novels, movies and games. I was socially awkward with everyone as the minority also joined the majority of the people who avoided me. I had zero social contacts but soon I got used to it. When I was 14 I got a part-time job and started saving. Since I had no friends I worked till night every day after I went to school. I expected high school to be like that but I found some friends who like me and talk to me. But just when I was having the best time after a while, reality crashed as I realized everyone who was my friend was dead. I lost everyone again. Now with this Undead King and his minions, I might lose everyone again. I am courageous enough to fight and die but I don't want to lose anyone. I have lost enough."

When Noah finished his talk he was trying to hold back his tears but they were flowing down as I remembered that both Noah and Lily were just 16-year-olds. They are not soldiers who fought wars and lost comrades every day. They are just students who got into this situation.

Eventually, Noah succeeded in holding back his tears and said "Yeah that felt better. I felt a weight removed from my back."

I smiled and said "Now go do what you want, but remember to be strong to protect everyone. Be strong enough to defy fate."

After saying that I got out of the room and saw Lily distracted. I said, "You know it isn't good to eavesdrop."

She was startled and flustered. She said, "I wasn't planning to. I accidentally happened to hear it".

I said nothing to her reply and simply smiled and left the house. Time passed on as this was mainly the routine. Train, meet up with friends and take a break.

It had been 2 months since we lost magic. Things were looking up. It was peaceful, too peaceful. The missions I went on were easy too. No trouble was caused in the nation aside from the usual robberies and other petty crimes.

The Ghost was also growing more and more popular as the people started to believe he was a vigilante. He had a big social media presence too. His posts were posted repeatedly on multiple accounts to keep the account alive as the cops took it down the second they saw one.

I also checked about the principal and other students who escaped but none of them were found. Their families also went missing. I guess they were lying to keep the situation under the covers. If the world knew something like this happened, they might lose their trust in the government. So they were silenced. Most likely if they agree to never tell about this incident they might be left alive or something along the words. That will most likely be the makeup of the government.

I sighed and thought about how happy I was with my life. But I somehow have a bad feeling. A feeling that this might be just the calm before the storm.