17 John

"Knock!"

"Knock!"

All of sudden a loud banging on his door awakened him from the middle of his sleep. Aroon stood up abruptly and glanced with unparalleled anger towards the door. "Who's there?"

"It's John, open up."

"John?!" Aroon kept himself sitting half way on the bed. "What do you want? It seems a bit early to wake other people in such a way."

He glanced outside his small window and could see the darkness was still fading away. It was probably four or five in the morning, so early to wake him up.

"Mark is waiting for you down there," John's sinister voice came from behind the door, "he wants to speak with you about something."

"Tell him to wait," Aroon didn't find anything urgent about this. "for the sun to rise in the sky."

"C'mon man, don't make things hard on yourself," John's words seemed nice but his tone wasn't. John was one of the worst fallens in Aroon's vision.

After all, he was one of the few who decided to accept the invitation to go to the academy.

And that turned him into a coward and a traitor in the eyes of everyone.

"You know him, he won't let a useless door stand between you and him," John urged with some threatening words that Aroon got.

"I'll get down then," Aroon's eyes twitched before he took a deep breath. "I'm not asking for that old man, he came all way to ask for trouble."

But he got nothing from the system at this moment, which slightly confused him.

Yet he stood up and opened the door to see John standing there with a smug smile over his face.

John was a white haired youth with such a nice building. He wore his favorite uniform, a brown leather long jacket that reached to his knees.

He was pure American, born in Texas and raised with a single mother who tried to take care of him and his other twin brother.

Despite having things running cool for him since he was twelve, this seventeen years old kid acted like the whole world was conspiring against him.

He even considered joining the O academy despite all the complaints of others just to make sure he would be more privileged than others.

He was like that, feeling he was oppressed by the entire world and should get something in return as compensation all the time.

Yet Aroon couldn't yet see how this worked. For Aroon John was just a spoiled kid who found everything ready for him and didn't need to sweat his hands.

Even here after becoming a fallen he considered himself like vice president of the group without anyone electing him for that.

"C'mon, he is waiting down there," John said while putting a toothpick in his mouth and started to move it per habit. "You are in deep sh*t man. You should lay low and listen to my words if you wanna get out of this unscathed."

Aroon ignored his trash talk while descending the stairs. Yet his silence didn't stop the talkative John from continuing.

"They are all there, a whole court formed of fallens, or… what's left of them," he sarcastically said and that made Aroon give him a deep glance.

Just before they could descend to the lowest floor, John suddenly turned around and pushed his index finger to Aroon's chest.

"I know Cheryl has a thing for you," he seriously said, "but for your own good and if you wanted some friends around at times like these, you shouldn't encourage her."

Aroon paused, gave John's finger a deep glance before grabbing it.

Then he simply squeezed, applying a soft power over his grip.

"Ouch, that hurts… stop it man! I said stop it!!" John panicked all of sudden while his white face turned slightly red.

He couldn't handle the force Aroon used on him, and even had to lean to the side trying to get his finger off Aroon's firm grip.

"Watch out your words next time, my friend," Aroon said before releasing John's finger, "or else you might lose something in return."

John took his hand back and hurriedly pushed it against his other hand while shouting in anger. "Damn you, loser fallen! Acting all might and high while attacking me from my back!"

"Humph, you deserve it… You touched me first," Aroon sneered before turning around and descended the remaining stairs, "and only Cheryl is allowed to do that."

"F*ck you!"

Aroon didn't answer with words but he leisurely raised his middle finger in the face of John.

The slight disturbance here coupled with John's shouts attracted the attention of those down below.

Even before Aroon could get halfway through the remaining stairs, he could already spot many faces looking strangely at him.

"So you finally decided to join us," Mark moved between the masses, "come, we have to talk a little bit."

Mark gave John a short glance while feeling puzzled. John was standing fixedly there while treating his hand like it had just got burnt or smashed by something.

John kept shaking it hard in the air, while trying to descend the stairs. However he had to do it at a slow pace, even staggering a little out of pain.

"Are you alright?" Mark couldn't help but ask.

"I'm… good… I just had my hand stuck between that stupid rail," John lied and Aroon knew he would.

Someone like him wouldn't allow anyone to know he was just beaten. Especially if this was done by no one but Aroon, the weakest one in the entire group.

Mark gave John a final glance before turning to Aroon. The latter was leisurely walking with ease and confidence until he reached there.