The Aftermath

Finally every threat had been neutralized and things could go back to normal, well, as close to normal as they could get. A few buildings were either very badly damaged or destroyed so they demanded to be rebuit and repaired but all in all no one was hurt, at least not too badly. As for their mental health, even if some would not like to admit it all the people present looked to their heroes for a sense of security and normality,after all they had succeded where trained professionals had failed. The Dean took charge of matters post crisis; initializing reconstruction, therapy for the students as well as keeping the media out of the current occurrences. This was because matters would get troublesome of the falling moon was traced to the island or the worse, the six students, they would be in danger as this occurrence resulted in the deaths of dozens of people. Some lunatics might even want to experiment on them which was an unacceptable outcome for people who risked their lives to save the entire island añd even the world, twice. That mustn't happen at all cost, thought the dean. He issued an internal holiday of two months in order to focus fully on the most important issues in order not to make even the slightest mistake or overlook the most minute detail. As for the six who saved the day, well, they had become the most famous people in all of the school. They were constantly swarmed by large crowds of people who were fawning over them, asking about their abilities and abilities and a whole lot of other things. Most of the time the group was split up and the distance only widened further day by day. Other than that Casimir spent most of his time with Merlin, reading him children's books, telling him funny personal stories and playing ridiculous games. They would also go into the woods outside of the school and Casimir would fly Merlin all around the place. Also, when he helped him study he made sure that even that was fun for Merlin. Sometimes he would summon a few bees and colourful beetles which he said were poisonous but weren't and threatened to let them crawl all over him if he couldn't answer his questions corectly. Luckily he was only kidding and Merlin managed to answer all those questions correctly. Merlin's mother Agatha was more than happy to see her son so happy, genuinely laughing without a care in the world. Finally he let himself experience the miracle of childhood that every kid deserved. Her heart was warm, her mood was cheery amd she teared up every time she watched them play together. Truly this Casimir boy was a gift from above. Things weren't so grimm and heavy now and her heart could once again feel joy, the joy she felt was gone along woth Merlin's father who left them without so much as a goodbye note. Casimir would often times see her watching them teary eyed and although he was shy, after a while he sked her to join them play. Perhaps seeeing mother and son so happy dulled his senses to the growing burden on his own shoulders. He was so happy that all that mattered was the little brother he had now.

In sharp contrast to Casimir's merry days, Neo was feeling immense trauma which had taken on the form of self destructive voices that grew in his head day and night. It wasn't the little flirtations or the online romances that haunted him but rather their effect. How could something that was so casually done in this day and age cause so much devastation and cost so many lives? Perhaps it wasn't what he did but the fact that it was him that did them. Maybe it was the darkness within himself, the curse of hos existence that drove these ladies into madness resulting in the death of dozens of innocent souls that had nothing to do with his escapades. Now that he had been rescued the thoughts and feelings of self blame were eating at him. What he hadn't told sam was why he had brought that potted plant. When he was taken to the underground cavern he couldn't use his powers as they caused him immense pain when he tried. Unlike the rest of his friends he was not taken to the hospital, neither was he allowed him to rest for tthree days but rather he was tortured. Erica would use her mist to force him into using rusted pieces of metal they broke from the old metal objects to cut himself all over. They would collect his blood into the potted plant and only stopped when it was filled to the brim with his blood. Because the metal he was handed was so blunt it required a bit of strength to cut through his flesh but it was nothing compared to the pain accidentally activating his powers when he screamed form the pain. Luna when it was her turn would fire a concentrated beam of moonlight at him that burned his skin and caused grest internal injury but just enough so as not to kill him. Kamira on the other hand opted for more emotional turmoil as she would show him images of everyone he loved dying over and over again amd a voice screaming that it was his fault. Other times she would make her illusory self battle Neo and when he defeated it the illusion would turn into the image of someone he cared about. These were but the tip of the iceberg of te things he suffered at their hands. The reason Sam didn't see all the bruises, scorch marks and blood was because of an illusion which kamira cast on him to look unharmed which fell apart when he almost killed her but before anyone could see it the strange phenomenon occurred which healed him. As he sat by the window in the dead of night he pulled out a small, sharp knife which he used to slice his wrist and let the blood flow into the little potted plant. As his blood flowed out the voices quitened as he deemed it warranted for his mistakes. He would use his own blood to appease all who died because of him.

Sam, Neo's roommate wasn't ovver the rainnbow either. Now that impending doom no longer loomed over them the things he wished to forget resurfaced in his mind. Though it was wrong he wished that the recent threats would never end so that his mind was always occupied, depriving him of such immense pain. He always made sure to smile despite being broken up inside and busied himself with studies, his ever growing fan club and practising his control over his abilities. He even used his powers to help the construction workers with the rebuilding which increased their speed tremendously, earning him another round of admiring gazes from the students. After all who doesn't like a man of the poeple. This carried on for some time till he could no longer take it and left the school. He flew over the river and through the woods and further into the forests that surround the school. He landed in an area where no one could hear him even if he screamed at the top of his lungs. The memories of Allison's betrayal came to his mind with unsolicited, vivid detail awakening a rage deep within him that he didn't know was there. All his life he'd been looking for the perfect person for him, the bone of his bone and the flesh of his flesh as the saying went. He was very handsome amd could get any girl he wanted but he chose to keep himself for his true love,how funny it sounded to him now. He thought it was allison but honestly he had some doubts that was why his relationship with her had been respectful and not too intimate but now that he had no doubt whatsoever, she had gone and slept with someone else on a whim. Even after that she dared to still kiss him, and it was his very first one to boot. Had it been someone else it probably wouldn't hurt as much as it did but it just had to be Kevin. Kevin was infact the first friend he made in that school and for some time they were inseparable as he made Sam feel at home there. Kevin suddenly became entitled and arrogant, treating everyone else as lesser than himself and that was something Sam couldn't tolere so he distanced himself, even then he still cared for him.

He punched his chest repeatedly, " stop hurting!!"

" she doesn't deserve it. She's nothing more than a whore posing as a sweet little angel. She played with me, got me to love her and slept with that bastard that pretended to care about me. I'll kill her! Wring every drop of blood from her lying corpse and raze that bastard's kingdom to the ground."

He was so enraged that he did not hear the irregularity in his sentence. Images of them together, kissing, caressing each other forced it's way into his mind and he exploded with rage. Hos fists were clenched so hard it could shatter. Tree after tree was uprooted from the ground, rocks floated into the air but more shocking was the illusory man made of strands of red light that stood behind him. The more Sam thought about the situation the angrier he got but so did the image which grew larger and larger. It had massive horns just above his pointed ears, a massive tail and sharp claws. The objects which were just floating in the air started swirling around Sam with increasing speed showing that he'd reached the pinacle of his anger but before he exploded everything stopped and fell back to the ground. He took continuous deep breaths to dispel his anger which soon disappeared and so did the illusory man. Sam made his way back and continued with his daily routine while vehemently avoiding Allison.

Jake was a prince and so he was not carried away with the crowds. He also knew how to keep them entertained but also making time for himself which he spent mostly in the science labs. It wasn't long before their illusions diasppeared from the castle but lucky enough for them the dean had called and insisted for a long time before Jake's parent's agreed to let him stay in the school. After Neo's return he couldn't help but think back to what Casimir had said about erica's mist. He recalled one of his earlier classes where they learnt about love chemicals. These chemicals or hormones were specifically related to happiness, intoxication, affection and ultimately love so he set out to create a psychedelic gas that could make a person completely susceptible to someone else's control. He had been trying and though he made progress he still was a long way from being done.

Daniel amd Sebastian however just let themselves enjoy the attention and the peace of the moment, submerging themselves in the adoration of the majority while it lasted because people had very short attention spans. If only life could be like this everyday, they thought. This carried on till the first month of their stay cation was gone. It was also the first time the six boys actually had time for each other to really talk about the incidents and just have a casual conversation. They met in an open area in their school with a few trees littering the space. They sat under the shade of one such massive tree, cross legged, in a circular pattern facing each other.

Sam: i would like to apologise to all of you especially sebastian for saying that Neo's situation was your fault. I didn't mean that at all and there's no excuse i can say to make it right except to say I'm sorry."

Sebastian: Don't worry about it. Since I'm famous now and everyone adores me i guess it's only fair to be benevolent. I can't have my adoring fans think I'm petty now."

His response made Sam, as well as the rest of the boys smile.

Jake: we understand why you didn't want us to come with you and honestly speaking i would do the same thing. Just don't do it again.

Sam heaved a sigh of relief. Finally this matter was put behind them but a more important one remained