CHAPTER 131: A FALSE NORMALCY

Silence, an uncomfortable heavy blanket, enveloped the hospital room, a stark contrast to the lively chaos of Eirin’s dreamscape. The three of them sat in a tense stillness, the weight of everything that had happened hanging in the air. Coleen, still hugging Eirin, her body a comforting anchor, noticed the silence, a sudden, oppressive shift in the atmosphere that she was all too familiar with. She turned to Trixtan, a silent, pleading look in her eyes.

’Say something! Anything that could get rid of this awkward silence,’ Coleen thought.

Trixtan, however, a boy whose social graces were as refined as a thunder strike, didn’t get the memo. He broke the silence, his voice a clumsy, well-meaning cannonball.

"But you know, Shade didn’t get hurt after that. He got off easy. Ms. Hockenbury’s not allowed to torture him after all. I mean, he spent a whole week searching for you without rest or even sleep, so being detained in a room with a bed and three square meals a day is far better than what he was doing before, right?" Trixtan trailed off, his words hitting the room like tiny, painful stones, each one a fresh reminder of the sacrifice a friend made for her.

The atmosphere in the room, which had been gently healing, started turning grim, the cold, hard reality of the situation settling in.

Coleen, with a sudden, furious motion, smacked Trixtan right in the stomach, a sharp, stinging blow that cut him off. "Shut up, you buffoon!" she hissed, her voice a furious whisper. "He didn’t mean anything by that, Ei. He’s just... him." She turned back to Eirin, her eyes filled with concern.

"C-Coco, you should spend less time with Shade and Cali. You’re turning into a mixture of—"

Coleen slapped Trixtan’s mouth, cutting him off before he could even complete his sentence, causing the young man to groan in pain. "Don’t feel guilty, Ei. It was Shade’s decision to do all of that anyway. He’s a big guy, he can take care of himself. It’s not your fault he’s a reckless idiot." Coleen tried to make Eirin feel better, her words a frantic, desperate attempt to smooth over the jagged edges of Trixtan’s clumsiness and it worked.

Eirin’s lips, which had been a thin, pale line, turned into a soft, tired smile. The simple, fierce loyalty of her friends, a pure devotion, was a balm to her soul.

The three of them spent the next few hours catching up, their conversation a gentle, flowing river of mundane, comforting normalcy. Eirin learned that it was already the 19th of September, and the preparation for the school festival, a grand, yearly tradition, would begin soon.

The news felt so foreign, so far removed from the miasma, the Iphans, and the silent, terrifying secrets Eirin now carried within her.

"School festival? What kind of things do we have to prepare for that?" Eirin asked, her voice a quiet, curious sound, a small flicker of her old self returning.

Coleen’s face lit up, her eyes sparkling with an unbridled, joyous excitement. "We’re preparing to have fun for a whole week!" she said, her voice filled with an unburdened glee as she stood, her vibrant, purple hair fluttering around her like a living flame. "All classes will build booths, and there’ll be games, food, and everything just to have fun and release some stress from the semester," Coleen added, her hands gesturing wildly, her excitement a contagious bubbling energy.

"Oh, and some schools from other countries also tend to visit. It’s like a mini-olympics of fun!"

Eirin realized it was another normal school event, a mundane, human tradition that had nothing to do with her new, terrifying reality. The thought, so simple, made her smile as she watched Coleen be all excited for it, her energy a bright, shining star in the quiet room.

The idea of a normal, fun event, a week of peace and laughter, felt like a distant, impossible dream, but the thought of it was enough to bring a measure of comfort to her weary soul. That was until the old wall clock on the far wall started chiming, its sound a loud, abrupt interruption to their peaceful moment. The clock’s chimes caused Trixtan to look at his watch, his face falling as he saw the time.

"Shit, we need to go, Coco! We’re going to be late for the curfew," Trixtan said, his voice laced with sudden urgency. He stood up, his body a tight line of tension.

Eirin tilted her head, her smile fading into a look of confusion. "Curfew?"

Coleen sighed, her body slumping back onto the bed with an unhappy thud. "Yes, the academy made a curfew. But it’s only applicable when you’re going outside the academy grounds. We’re only allowed to be out till 7 pm." Her face looked as if she really didn’t want to leave, her gaze fixed on Eirin with a deep, sorrowful affection. "I’ll be back tomorrow, Ei. I promise. I’ll bring you some flowers."

Coleen and Trixtan left the room, their footsteps fading down the long, sterile hall, leaving Eirin all in full silence. The teenage girl sighed as she lay back in bed, staring at the empty ceiling, the white, sterile surface a blank canvas for her whirling thoughts. ’It was too fast,’ she thought, a sense of loneliness washing over her.

"I couldn’t say goodbye to Leva. I couldn’t even thank her for everything," she muttered, her voice a soft, pained whisper as she glanced at the window near her bed, the moon a bright, silent guardian in the sky. "Until when am I going to stay here, anyway?"

The questions lingering in her head halted after one of the nurses, a kind-faced, matronly woman, brought her dinner. The food was bland an uninteresting, a generic, healthy meal that was contrasting with the lively, flavorful meals she was used to, but it was nourishing, and she ate it without complaint. Eirin thought that the food tasted... healthy.

After eating, Eirin sat on the bed, her legs crossed, staring at nothing, the emptiness of the room a cold, suffocating weight. It’s been a long time since she spent the night alone in a room, without the comforting presence of her grandmother or her friends. Somehow, it was lonely.

A loud rumble outside caused Eirin to flinch. It seems like it’ll rain soon. "I hope there’s no thunderstorm," Eirin said. She decided to sleep it off before the rain starts, to escape into the blissful oblivion of her consciousness. She doesn’t have anything better to do anyway. As she closed her eyes, she could hear the old clock’s continued clicking, the loud, rhythmic ticking a persistent reminder of the passage of time. It was the only thing she could hear in complete silence, inside a dark room, a small, lonely sound in the vast emptiness.

’I can’t sleep,’ Eirin thought, her eyes still closed, a frustrating restlessness filling her.

Of course, she couldn’t. She has been asleep for five whole days, her body’s wide awake right now, filled with a restless, humming energy from her new, terrifying power. The teenage girl waited like that, with her eyes closed, pretending to be asleep, a small, silent act of defiance against her own body.

Another rumbling sound from the outside caused Eirin to immediately pull her blanket to cover her whole body. "Please, no thunderstorms," she kept repeating with her body trembling in fear. She has been used to staying alone in the house as a child, and one thing she always fear was thunderstorms.

The loud booming sound of thunder kept Eirin wide awake as a child, and even now. Her breathing grew heavier as she tried to imagine happy thoughts. She even tried thinking of Trixtan, imagining that all the sound outside was merely made by the young man’s flair.

’I thought I was over this now,’ Eirin thought as she kept her eyes shut. Her grip on the blanket tightened as she curled her body. Fear crept into her whole body, that was until she heard the sound of the window opening, a soft, almost imperceptible creak that, in the silence of the room, sounded like a thunderclap.

Eirin’s eyes went wide open. ’Someone’s trying to get inside my room,’ she thought as her heart started pounding so loud she began to forget about her fear of thunder. She slowly removed her blanket, a flash of her amber irises in the darkness.

Eirin took a deep breath before immediately standing from her bed, her body a blur of motion, as she floated in the air with her hands ready, a sharp, powerful wind blade forming in her palms.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded, her voice a low, furious hiss, her body a taut line of tension. Then, a familiar voice, a low, smooth sound, filled the room.

"Relax, it’s just me, Luxfield."

Eirin squinted, trying to figure out who it was, but she soon grimaced. Shade stepped out of the shadow, a faint, dark silhouette against the moonlit window, and Eirin, upon seeing his familiar face, released a heavy sigh.