CHAPTER 40: CH 40: WARNING.

~BANG! BANG! BANG!~

Aegon roused awake from the banging on the door. He’d laid Claire down for a minute but seemed to have slept too.

"Shit. Shit. Shit." He muttered as he shuffled for his pants and fumbled around the buttons.

~BANG! BANG! BANG!~

"Just a goddamn minute!" He screamed to shut up the knock and give himself a minute to think before his eyes searched the room.

She wasn’t there. Claire was gone.

And worst of all? She left him sleeping in the bathroom alone like a creep.

He finally got his clothes somewhat decent just as he propped himself in front of the bathroom mirror.

Trying to style his hair or clean the lipgloss from his mouth— anything. Anything at all that would make this a little less embarrassing when he opened that door.

Before finally accepting his fate. There was nothing he could actually do to hide the fact that this was extremely weird.

With a weary sigh, he moved to open the door.

There stood a cluster of students who looked utterly petrified when the door swung open. They’d been knocking for minutes that felt like hours.

The only acceptable excuse at this point was that someone had either passed out or died in there, and even that would be very skeptical.

They froze in irritation. So did he.

His mouth opened. Then closed. Opened again— yet no words came out.

Feeling defeated, he slid past them and moved down the corridor. Luckily, the music was still loud enough to drown out his shame. Not completely but enough.

He slumped back onto the plush couch— shifting between two others as they made out. He couldn’t be less bothered.

’What time is it?’ He thought as he reached within his pockets for his phone. He retrieved it and instantly froze.

"..."

His eyes went wider than he ever thought possible. His brows practically kissed his hairline and his brain blinked twice.

His lock screen. It was changed. That wasn’t even the weird part, he never noticed the lock screen before but it was the picture that shocked him.

It was him and Claire. More appropriately? It was Claire kissing his cheek as he laid there asleep.

A chilling feeling ran throughout his body. To be sure he turned off the phone. Then back on. It was the same.

"Oh, hell no." He muttered as he tried to open the phone but his password failed him several times.

And something already told him what the password would be.

He facepalmed himself in annoyance before facing the phone to type in the password, "Claire."

It unlocked.

"Fuuuuuck." He exclaimed as he saw the home screen. At least the lock screen was them both.

The home screen was just Claire, wearing his jacket and unmistakably still in the same bathroom.

He checked his pictures to see about a thousand pictures of them— what? No. A thousand pictures of Claire and his unconscious body.

Aegon just turned off the phone with the eerie feeling of being watched by Claire. His eyes darted around the poorly lit room but he saw nothing.

’It just had to be a yandere,’ Aegon thought as he stood to get some space from the suffocating room.

It was warm. Humid. Somehow both poorly lit and annoyingly bright but out of everything else— it was painfully loud. Loud enough that thinking was impossible.

He squeezed between the students before finally making his way out the door. He shut the door behind and felt the throbbing pain in his ear soften.

He drew a long breath. Turned to the starry sky for a sliver of peace or maybe irrelevance.

Stars scattered like spilled diamonds, each one a tiny rebellion against the dark, whispering that even silence can shine. It’s the kind of view that makes you feel small in the best way, like the world’s chaos finally hit the mute button.

In the corner of his ear, he heard something— yelling. Even though the muffled but still loud party he could vividly make it out.

He proceeded to the back of the house. Crouched slightly so as not to attract attention before he saw her.

The familiar blue hair. The porcelain skin that was left open by the short black dress she wore. Accentuated with high black boots and a simple silver bracelet.

It was Mira. With a phone placed next to her ear as she and the caller argued.

Mira, "I don’t know how long I can keep this shit going. I fulfilled my part of the plan so when are you coming?"

Aegon’s mind raced but he remained silent.

"Soon isn’t a fucking answer! You have me out here pretending I’m a child and helpless." Her hands ruffled her hair in frustration. "I’m sick of this already."

"No. Something’s off about Micheal anyway, like he’s cracked or something..." Her tone relaxed. "His best friend is off."

Aegon felt his heart pound harder once his name was mentioned.

"Look, I don’t know what’s going on with him but I did what you said and got close to him..."

Still, he couldn’t make out what the person on line was saying.

"I’ll hold out for as long as I can but after that whatever happens is all on you."

Mira slid her phone into her dress pocket, smoothened the edges, plastered on a smile, that seemed too genuine to be fake, and headed back inside.

As she exited, Aegon stood fully. Ran his hands through his hair and screamed into his hands.

’What is even going on anymore?’ He faced the sky, ’Why? Why put me in a novel I didn’t even read?’ he pointed at where Mira was, "I mean how the fuck am I even supposed to get to bottom of that?"

"Come on, fucking answer me!" He screamed at the sky.

Before sprawling onto the trimmed lawn beneath him. Chest heaving in and out in exhaustion.

The next second made him regret ever speaking up.

[ SYSTEM WARNING — GLOBAL ADEPT TRIAL EVENT ]

[ 24:00:00 remaining until Adept Trial commences. ]

The system message flashed in his retina, as bright as lighting and more deadly than a death sentence.

[ All Novus candidates prepare accordingly... Survive and Ascend. Or Die and be Forgotten.

This is your last day. Good luck 😊

23:59:59... 23:59:58... 23:59:57... ]