Chapter 33: Long Day

Mill walked into his room and dropped onto his bed. He was tired. He didn't have that many classes to go to today, but they were all out of mental or physically taxing. Finding your aura, understanding the definitions of the elements, understanding how spells are constructed, and sparring with his classmates using a weapon that he chose. It was a very exhausting day and he still had one more thing to do. Mill stood up from his bed and took his yellow jacket and white shirt off. He stood next to his bed and started to go through the movements of Taichi at a nice, relaxed pace.

"You're tired but you still have to focus. Focus on your emotions and the thoughts related to those emotions. You need to learn how to control these emotions and trigger them when you need them." Mill had entered a state of calmness, and he could now feel the slight breeze from the air conditioning and could hear the sound of his roommate entering the dorm. Mill kept his eyes closed as he imagined his younger self running around the open fields of his childhood home with his sister. He was relaxed and free. Mill felt the air around his hand and gently moved them both. He started to slowly spin in a circle as he moved the air around him.

Mill continued this pattern gently moving the air around him for another hour before he stopped. Though he was making small movements his concentration caused his to become drenched in sweat. Mill sat down on his bed and breathed out. "Calm is the wind and enhanced senses. Nice to have that down finally." Mill started to do this exercise around a month ago to understand his ability more and it led him helped him understand it more. For one, the more intensely he felt an emotion, the more powerful the ability manifested, but if the emotion was too strong, he would lose himself to the ability.

"Man, this thing is complicated. So, I have to use the emotion to activate powers but if I don't control the emotion then I'll lose control. Who the hell came up with this shit?!" Mill fell back on his bed when his phone vibrated. He grabbed and saw that Darren had sent him a text.

"Dude, you've got to come to the simulation room now. Karl's going crazy in here!" This caught Mill off guard because no one had seen Karl except in a few magazines over the past few months. They all thought that he might not have made it into the academy, but he was here. They had found him. Mill grabbed his jacket and ran out of the dorm passing his roommate on the way out. "I'll be back later sorry!" Deon stood in the hall for a few seconds before continuing back into his room. "First years are strange."

Mill ran as fast as he could without relying on his ability due to his fear that he might lose control of it, so it took a few minutes for him to make it. When Mill got into the room he looked around until he saw Darren and Lua standing near each other looking away from the door.

"Hey, guys!" Mill called out as he moved over towards them, but they didn't respond, in fact they didn't even register that Mill came in. "Darren? Lua? What's happening? Where's Kar..." Mill was shooting questions at his friends when he finally saw why they were ignoring him. The simulation room was naturally white. Just white and made of a smooth metallic material with nothing really special around the room. What stood before the three, however, was not white nor was it smooth. Mill saw red, a lot of red that was slowly running across the floor along with an irony smell that seemed to be coming from the red. Within the red there were chunks multiple types of fur, claws, talons, and even teeth from many different animals. 

This was horrible. This was one of the most gruesome scenes that they had ever witnessed, and Mill could only wonder what happened when he finally saw him. Karl was sitting upright against the wall, covered in cuts. It was his blood on the floor. It was his fur, claws, teeth and all sorts of animal parts that were everyone in the room. Mill ran up to Karl and tried to listen to his heart. It took a few seconds as his own breath was covering up the sound, but Karl's heart was beating. It was slow and quiet, but it was beating.

"Hey, Karl. I'm gonna take you to get some help alright? Okay buddy so just stay with me." Karl did not respond, or could not, respond to Mill but allowed himself to be lifted by his friend. Mill turned to Mill and Darren. "HEY! GET OFF OF YOUR ASSES AND LET'S GO!! Lua and Darren jumped for a second as Mill ran pass them and they followed.

The three of them ran across the academy until they found the infirmary and managed to get help for Karl. The nurse tried to ask them what happened, but they were clearly all too worried to answer the nurse told them to wait outside while she helped him, and they did. The entire process only took thirty minutes but felt like hours for the three friends of Karl. Once the door opened, they immediately surrounded the nurse.

"Is he alright? Did you save him?"

"Did we make it in time? Were we too late?"

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm so sorry, Karl." The three students were clearly stressed out. "All right calm down you three. Your friend is fine. He's just asleep right now." This information caused the three to let out a breath a of relief. They had been so scared that something happened to their friend that they didn't even think that he would wake up, so it was good that their bad thought hadn't been realized. "Now, I think it would be best if you all go back to your dorms for the day. You all seem very stressed and tired so you should go to bed and come by whenever you have free time.

They nodded to the nurse and left. The three were silent as they left. They didn't look at each other, they didn't talk to each other. They just went their separate ways thinking about their friend. Mill made it back to his room and sat on the bed, confused. "What the hell happened? Darren and Lua wouldn't say anything so I can only assume that they didn't see everything or maybe they did? Gah I just don't know! Mill fell to his back and stared at the ceiling.

"We'll ask Karl tomorrow. That's the best option. I hope he's in the mood to talk about it after today." Mill made plans in his head to visit his friend after his final class of the day. He tried to sleep but couldn't so just stayed awake thinking for a few hours until he eventually fell into the warm embrace that is sleep. Only two days at the academy and this happened. Mill could only dream about what could come next.

"It's been a long day."