7 A Storm Upon Daybreak

The next day, on Thursday, Autumn, Simon and I found each other in front of the Biology classroom. A few others were there too, but Christine and Madison weren't in sight.

"Morning Larissa."

"Goodmorning."

"G-g-g-"

It was all back to usual if I can call it that. Autumn called me Larissa again, and Simon had more trouble talking to me than yesterday. I let out a sigh, without realising how prominent it was.

"You okay?"

"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine."

It went silent after that. In that period of silence, I noticed Simon gazing at me a few times, but nothing else happened. The buzzer went off, and our biology teacher, Miss Clover, opened the door.

We went to sit down in the back of the room, and I sat down in front of Autumn and Simon again. The door was right next to us, in the bottom left corner of the classroom. Christine and Madison passed us and went to the upper right corner, as far away from me as possible. Madison looked back at me for a moment, and at that moment I briefly picked up on the worried expression on her face.

"Don't bother with them anymore."

Autumn suddenly spoke from behind me. I turned around and saw him looking to the right. The right wall of the room consisted of large rectangular windows, with relatively thin horizontal and vertical beams to support them. The windows went all the way from the back of the classroom to the front. I sighed again and mimicked Autumn by looking out the windows too.

"I don't know, Madison looked-"

"She's just faking it. People like her just want to win others to their side."

"I guess."

Miss Clover called out to the class, and we started our first biology lesson of the year. Simon had already opened his textbook on the new chapter, while Autumn and I still had it closed. We kept looking out the window, and Miss Clover didn't seem to notice us. It was a moment of silence, a moment peace and quiet after all that had happened the days before.

"Larissa. Larissa!"

"Oh, sorry! I dozed off a little."

"I noticed. The year has only just started."

"Yeah I know, sorry."

"Anyway, could you explain how cytotoxic T cells work? It was in last year's final chapter."

"Of course!"

Without looking in my textbook, I explained it to them. It was quite easy, and I felt proud of myself when I realised I remembered correctly, which Miss Clover had confirmed at the end of my explanation. Some people were looking at me, envious, but I tried my best to ignore them.

I let out a sigh again and started flipping the pages in my textbook. That was when I noticed it.

A presence.

I felt my ears sharpening, taking in every single rustle they could. I had no control over it. Every single sound in and outside the room was audible. I looked around, but everyone else seemed to be ignorant of it. It was as if my mind felt something that I didn't. It was a mesmerising feeling, one I had never felt before.

Turning around, I saw Simon working in his textbook, and Autumn looking out the window again. Extremely briefly, his eyes turned to me, and then out the window again. I also turned myself to the window.

The presence grew stronger.

I had no idea what it was. My heart started racing, but there was nothing seemingly dangerous close by.

Nothing dangerous I could see or hear, but I could feel it.

Most of the windows shattered.

Glass shards flew into the room, hitting unprepared classmates in the side and face. Girls were screaming, and boys panicked in place. I heard Madison's scream above all of them, but I was frozen in place. I couldn't help anyone.

In the window was a person with torn clothes, hanging from the gutter with one arm. The palm of his left hand was pointed into the room.

I turned around, and Autumn was sitting behind me. He had a glass shard between his fingers and held it right before his face. I assumed he caught it using his lightning speed, but I couldn't find a reason for him to stay there. To sit there, and not fight back.

"Was it one of you?"

The person spoke with a male voice. He went on to hop inside the classroom with a gentle jump. Some people tried to run towards the door, the only exit in the room.

"Don't you dare run away from me! I'll blast a hole through your head if you try to leave!"

I looked at Autumn, and back at the person. Autumn, person, Autumn, person. I had not a single clue on what to do. The stress was overwhelming me, so all I could do was watch.

"The name's Guster, that's what I like to be called now. If you're here, give up."

Guster was looking for someone. No one in the room seemed to flinch. The person he was looking for didn't seem to be here.

I looked at Autumn again. Still no movement, but I could feel something was wrong. This Guster person made something within Autumn click.

I could tell, from only looking at his distressed face.

It was subtle, but Autumn was locked up within himself. Behind him, Simon was shrugging his shoulder to wake him up, but it did not work.

"I know you're here. You must be somewhere."

One quick look at Guster told me he was around our age, judging from his height and face.

"No… no one's here."

"And how would you know, huh?"

Miss Clover tried to reason with him, but he pointed his left arm at her.

"Duck!"

Simon yelled at her. Only a fraction of a second later a strong gust of wind filled the room and perpetrated towards Miss Clover. She ducked behind her desk in time, because of Simon's call out.

Loose papers went flying and roof panels shook.

Christine ran past me, towards the exit, as she might've thought this was her only chance of escape. She was so frightened, that she left Madison behind. At that moment, she only cared about herself.

"You won't escape!"

Guster pointed his left arm at the door, which was right behind us. People jumped away, but Christine kept running straight for the exit.

Guster fired again.

The wind itself is invisible to the human eye, and that was also the case at this moment. I could only predict the direction and speed of the wind by looking at the papers and books flying around, but I didn't have time for that. I hid under a table, and a moment later I heard a loud thud.

"Are you okay?"

Autumn was back to his senses after Simon pulled him down under the tables. I had a feeling that he asked this already, but this time it sounded more serious.

"I'm fine, is Christine okay?"

"No idea, I blacked-"

"Yeah I noticed, why didn't you do anything? You could've-"

"Larissa."

Simon addressed me without a stutter.

"We'll explain it later."

"Okay, but-"

"Well, well, well, looks like I was just in time!"

I recognized the voice, which dominated our whispering. It was someone from our school, from a class under us. His righteous voice was immediately recognizable.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of him. Here, sit down."

I could hear Christine crying in the hallway, and a feeling of relief went through me. I peeked my head above the table to see if it was indeed him, and I was right. He proudly stood in the door opening, directly facing Guster.

"Floran, you-"

"That's right, Guster, it's me! Floran, The Cress Master."