10 Heat

Bodhi, Lancaster, Terry, and Jinn mop down the floors of the side hallway.

"Do you think they told our parents about what happened yesterday?" Jinn pushes across the hallway, voice low, head down.

Terry mocks a shrill secretary's voice, "Please, come pick up your juvenile delinquent. Monsters invaded the school grounds at twilight."

"They probably wanted us here so we could clean up the mess," Lancaster comments.

Bodhi pulls the finger of a monster from a pile of condensed blood. "What were these things? Reptiles? Amphibians? A cross between the two? Or, perhaps, mammalian hybrids?"

"Maybe he knows," Terry throws a pointed glance at Noe who is jetting across the hallway, poking his head left and right in search of Mr. Henderson. His mop is only an accessory.

The four others sigh.

No more than five minutes after Noe's consciousness had returned, having slain all the monsters, his added extremities, feathers and mutations, had disappeared in time for help's arrival. Mr. Henderson sent him to the now windowless infirmary. With the nurse's clearance, Noe was sent back to his room to continue the next school day as normal. Eris felt something was off about Noe, watched him for half an hour, then dismissed the inclination as the day's excitement.

Noe has not seen Mr. Henderson in fourteen hours. All the nerves in his body, Veren or not, are standing on edge.

With Sir Renner observing their every move, two hours later, the halls are stripped cleaner than a dinner plate.

"Classes resume after lunch!" he screams down the hall. All the students return their mops to the closets at the end of the hallways, wash their hands, and head to lunch. Surprisingly, the only remnants of the night before are a gaping window and smudges of purple on their uniforms; scentless, absorbing.

Food tastes like nothing as it touches Noe's tongue. Conversation ensues around the table, his eyes are far away. He does not notice the seven pairs of eyes digging into him from across the cafeteria.

As the bell for his class chimes, an idea befalls him. He chucks his food tray to the side and dashes out of the cafeteria - trajectory: Mr. Henderson's Fine Arts Class.

The warm, mahogany door comes into view. With every step that Noe nears, the sunshine streaming out from its crack heats his thawing heart. Breathing comes easier to him. Touching the cool doorknob, it is thin and sturdy within his grasp. He twists the knob and walks in.

Noe turns his face to his sun. The teacher is leaning against his desk, eyes contemplating, pushing up his glasses in agitation.

Mr. Henderson and Noe make eye-contact.

An audible fire whirls between the two and Mr. Henderson staggers off of his desk. His heart begins to bang against his chest in trepidation.

"Mr. Henderson," Noe extends a hand in a gesture of surrender.

"Stay away," Mr. Henderson pulls himself further away from Noe, using his arms to stabilize himself, knees bent.

"Okay," Noe responds, standing rooted in the ground.

Mr. Henderson breathes in, eyes trained on Noe, and holds his breath. The air distills as a crease forms between Noe's brows. James cruises past him and asks, "Nehruma?" but Noe has every fragment of his attention on Mr. Henderson. A wave of questioning crashes into Noe's heart.

"I'm sorry for disobeying you yesterday." Noe begins to explain, "I was just... worried that something bad would happen to you. After I got to you, I don't know what happened," Noe looks down. "I'm sorry..."

A smile cracks the tension. "Don't sound so insincere," Mr. Henderson's fear melts away. "I know you would never hurt me. I'm sorry for the way I've treated you. You did it all for Jinn and me, after all." He sighs heavily.

Noe continues to glare at the ground.

Mr. Henderson's heart skips a beat, "Who are you?"

Noe sucks his bottom lip into his mouths and sinks his teeth into it... "I don't know."

"Then, how did you... deal with... all the creatures yesterday?"

Noe's eyes flutter onto Mr. Henderson's. They share wordless communication.

"What I do know is that you have a class to attend," Mr. Henderson states. At that moment, Eris lands in the doorway, sweat glistening, out of breath. He grabs Noe's collar and hauls him to their next lesson.

Noe grabs onto the door frame and peers over at Mr. Henderson. "I'll come back after class. Promise you'll be here?"

"I will, I will. Now go before Eris rips your head off," he shudders as he remembers the dismembered bodies from last night. "Make sure you pay attention!" Mr. Henderson calls as they leave.

A teacher Noe has never paid attention to lectures in front of the blackboard. This classroom follows a traditional layout with students filling all available desks.

For the first time in his school career, Noe directs every effort to memorize what the teacher is speaking of.

"When training your personalities, we reference one specific philosophy, Confucianism."

In his notebook, Noe jots down: Confucianism.

The lesson passes by with Ms. droning on about the importance of self-reflection, ignoring human instinct, and self-consciousness.

"And remember: You don't have to control your thoughts. You just have to stop letting them control you."

Almost synchronizing with her final remark, the gong drums to signal the end of the lesson. Quickly shifting through the seven pages of notes he squeezed in during the lecture, Noe wonders if he has paid enough attention.

Eris joins him, "Hurry up. We hav-"

"Noe," Ms. beckons him toward her. Noe steps forward. "You're having your first lesson in Solitude for the rest of the day. Please, make your way to Headmaster's office, immediately."

By the time Noe turns around, Eris has long left the classroom. Eris must have known what the situation was before he did.

As Noe exits the room, two students slightly taller than him intersect his course. Trying to swerve around them, he is stopped in his tracks.

"Hey, aren't you that freak who had a fit the other day?" one swings their arms over his shoulder and violently pulls him into their chest. A smile is knived across his face.

"Yeah, I think it is!" the other projects them in the opposite direction of the Headmaster's office.

Before he has an opportunity to think, Noe is shoved into a vacant laboratory and sprawls across the floor. Its ceiling is lined by titanium piping that carries flammable gas.

In the darkest corner, James is curled into himself, knitting needles into long scarf trembling in his hands.

Tapping soles fill his ears and seven pairs of shoes come to eye level against the tiles. They have no reflection, like the people who wear them are soulless.

"What should we do this time?" one scrutinizes Noe as if he were a biological specimen.

"Let's give him the same treatment we gave the other one from his group."

"Jinn or James?"

James whimpers, retreating further into the darkness. "Nehruma. Nehruma. Nehruma," he pleads with Noe. His eyes haunt Noe's heart.

"James."

"Good one!" they all explode in chortles and claps, congratulating their comrade.

"I heard you like to kill people," one faceless student says to Noe and leans over to pulls him up by his shoulders. "We're gonna return the favour."

"Get the rope," another commands. A long rope, as flexible as a scarf, is secured in the ceiling, a noose at its end. "Now, for some foreplay," they all raise their fists.

Long past dinner time, Mr. Henderson visits Noe's dorm to check on his student. No one answers. Moving through the deadly silent halls, he comes across a door that is slightly ajar. It swings open at the softest touch to reveal a noose, swinging to and fro, as if someone had just vanished from its choke-hold.

--

Confucianism:

The goal of Confucianism is to create a peaceful society by bettering the attitudes and behaviors of individual followers. Core values prioritize human heartedness, goodness, benevolence, dignity for human life, and characteristics that make humans, humans.

(study.com and confucianismnb.weebly.com)