Knocking

The excitement was still buzzing in the air when Gray stepped back to stay away from the crowd. He was done with what he came here for. He would not stay for the after-party and none would invite him anyway.

He was about to sprint away when someone grabbed his right elbow and when he spun around, he found Kei grinning at him with his eyes full of accusations.

"I didn't promise that I would go."

"Come on, you know what will happen if I don't go tonight. I'm going to be the laughingstock!" He said, stating the obvious.

"But then, it would be just for a few days. You can just brave it out and before you know it, it's all over. There will be other things that will catch their interest."

Kei clicked his tongue and looked over his shoulder.

Gray followed what Kei was looking at and saw two other kids around their age, snickering at Kei, clearly teasing him that he was not able to invite him.

"Since none regressed tonight, it ended clearly and everyone is in a good mood. Maybe I can join you for a few minutes there," he said, thinking that he could just escape from them once they reached the holy ground. He had been there many times before and he knew a lot of paths to enter and exit the place.

"You coming?" Kei's eyes gleamed with excitement and relief.

Gray nodded and watched the other kids from the corner of his eyes. He felt good with the disappointment on their faces. It appeared that they had already decided that Kei would not succeed in inviting him. He chuckled under his breath.

He threw his arm over Kei's shoulder and pulled him closer. "Let's go and see what it is all about."

Kei chuckled. "I've heard, it was really scary to visit that place during this time. Remember last year? A boy who went there went away the next day, so scared to tell what he saw in that place."

"Then, why do you want to go there?"

Kei slapped his back, laughing. "Challenge of course!"

He was still laughing when he ran to the other kids to tell them that they were going.

Gray watched them talk despite knowing that the reason why the boy who went to the holy ground last year left scAred was probably because of the Old Man. He was being sentimental and started crying like a child. He must be the one that the boy Kei was talking about saw or heard.

Kei didn't need to know about that part. Or the part where he just decided to go for him not to get teased and treated like an outsider.

Kei is his only friend or the only one who claimed to be his friend. He can tolerate him compare to others because he's easy to read.

He did not want him to be treated like him—-always an outsider. He was not complaining though. He wanted it that way because he had a plan. And he did not want a hindrance.

Gray left his thoughts about his personal plan when he saw Kei waving for him to join them. He slowly walked towards them with his hands in his pockets.

When he saw the expression on the faces of the other kids, he regretted letting the best of his emotion. But it was too late for regret.

He just followed them as they all walked deeper and deeper into the forest.

And since none of them turned yet, they had to rely on their legs to run through the dark forest as they got farther and farther away from the celebrating crowd.

"Are we there yet?"

Gray looked at the boy who asked, panting. It was clear that he wasn't physically fit to climb this rocky edge but he had all the desperation in his sweaty face. He grimaced inwardly, thinking how badly these boys wanted to belong and that they were willing to do something they were having a hard time doing just to make sure that they would not be the laughingstock of their peers.

If he wasn't going to give away the fact that he had been up there before, he could tell them an easier way to reach the holy ground, but he kept his mouth shut and stayed behind as he impatiently waited for them to climb up.

He looked down below, half-listening to their grumble, as he thought of changing into his wolf form and scaling the rocky side of the mountain in just a few jumps.

"You okay?"

"Hmm?" He looked up and was startled to see Kei looking at him. "Yeah, I'm good."

"It's a challenge, right?"

Gray snorted at what Kei said.

"Of course, it's not for him. He's different from us."

The laughter that was caught in his throat became a painful lump. He looked at the burly boy, about a foot taller than him who was the first to reach the flat rock, perched on the edge of the rocky mountainside. He was staring at him with contempt.

Gray creased his brows and was about to explain that he snorted not at what Kei said but more of with the way he said it and the mischief in Kei's eyes, but then, realized that the other boy had already formed his opinion about him that it was useless to explain himself.

At the same time, the itchy feeling of anxiety was back at the fit of his stomach. He started feeling it when they started scaling the mountainside. He ignored the feeling but now he could no longer ignore it.

It's like a small pit of fire was lit inside him and it was making him hot and uncomfortable with his skin. He had the strong urge to rip his clothes and turned.

"Nooo," he growled under his breath when he felt his wolf form, pawing inside his core, screaming to be let out.