Chapter 25 ~ Nightmare
"Are you sure you're okay?" Zexion asked for the third time.
"Yeah," I responded, a bit annoyed.
"You're fine for school today?" Zexion pressed on.
"Yes, sir," I said, saluting him.
He rolled his eyes at me.
"I'm fine, don't worry...sheesh," I repeated.
We continued silently on the rest of the walk to school.
To be honest, I was feeling okay; for the most part, I'd forgotten about what happened, so it was all good.
My first three classes went without incident, mostly because that mother hen kept his eye on me like a hawk. He'd confirm if I was okay every couple of minutes – stratch that, every two seconds more like it.
You still okay?
For the 342th time today, yes, dammit!
You counted?
Kind of hard not to when you're bothering me like this. You know, the more you remind me, the more think of it.
Sorry...
It's fine, sheesh. Just leave me alone for a while.
He obeyed, and remained silent.
I sighed.
Even though I'd said that, I was still feeling a bit insecure. Every so often when I blinked, I'd still see the blood all over my hands, but once I blinked once more, I'd be fine again. Even so, just that one second could make me go paranoid and shake violently for a while.
I tried to shake it off numerous times, but the image was always there; as far as I knew, it'd never fade away.
You...
I hate eavesdroppers.
But you know, there wasn't anything else for him to say. He just broke off right there.
I'd like to think that everything was absolutely fine...until 4th period, when it actually wasn't so nice in reality.
"Okay class, today we're going to watch the movie The DaVinci Code to study symbols and characters, and you're all going to have to write an essay on it," the teacher said.
Groans swept across the room, along with a couple of people complaining that they'd already seen it.
"I've seen it four times already...can't we watch something else?" one student complained on purpose.
"Then I'd suppose you wouldn't mind handing your essay in right now, would you, Eric?" the teacher asked with a sadistic expression on his face.
Eric looked uncomfortably, then fell silent.
"Now then, as I was saying, we're going to watch The DaVinci Code and write an essay on various symbols and characters," the teacher repeated.
I looked over at Zexion, who had a bit of a troubled expression on his face.
Are you okay?
He chuckled.
Oh the irony. You're asking me now, are you?
I deliberately stuck my tongue out at him; he responded with an indifferent look and a mischievous grin.
The teacher eyed us awkwardly.
Zexion turned back towards the teacher, wearing the smile of a perfect student. The teacher was immediately caught by it, nodding at us.
"Now that no one has any objections, I'll put it on," the teacher said, pressing play.
The lights went out.
Oh joy. This will be eventful. At least I've never seen it before.
Zexion didn't make any effort to respond. He merely sat there, looking a bit bored and a bit worried simultaneously.
Um...
What?
Never mind.
Okay...
The film started running. I watched carefully as a mysterious old man was pursued by this strange hooded character, asking him where the keystone was, shooting him in the stomach.
Blood.
I shuddered at the thought.
Don't watch if you don't want to. I can just write the thing for you.
I nodded.
I'm fine.
I mustered up the courage to look at the screen again. To be honest, I wish I hadn't.
Shortly, Robert Langdon arrived at the scene, along with Sophie Neveu. And that's when I cracked.
Someone sighed loudly.
All of a sudden, a large hole, blocked with various papers appeared in the middle of the wall, letting the sun shine through. The sound that the blast made was a bit dulled though, thankfully.
Someone flicked on the lights.
Everyone crouched away from the wall, staring at the giant hole. Luckily, it was one of the rooms that made up the corner of the school, so the hole led outside.
"What is that?" someone yelled, pointing at the hole and shaking furiously.
The pages fluttered slowly in the wind and one by one, they returned to their original place in the book of retribution.
"That's why I told you not to stress yourself," someone said.
The whole class searched for the source of the sound; consequently, they saw me, shuddering violently in my seat while clenching my head. I swear my eyes were about to pop out.
There was only one thing on my mind, no matter how much I tried to shake it off: blood. That night's events replayed themselves over and over again in my head.
Blood all over my hands. I was a killer.
Calm down.
I was going to go insane. I was seriously going to go insane.
"Ino, it's okay, we're all here together," Bianca said quietly, trying to calm me.
Zexion chuckled quietly.
"You're wrong," Zexion shot back. "She's the one who created this hole, you see...and the real problem is over there."
He pointed at the TV.
"Someone press stop," Zexion commanded.
No one moved.
"Or I'll kill you all," he added coldly.
Someone quickly ran up to press stop.
"Now don't move," he said. "Or I'll kill you."
He walked over to me slowly, wrapping his hands around my body.
Zexion...don't be so cold to them.
I grabbed his hands, and clutched them tightly.
Nothing else matters right now, just try to calm down.
"Calm down," he said again. "Calm down."
The rest of the class was just sitting there, too afraid to do anything.
"I'm okay now," I said, shaking myself out of it.
"Can you fix the wall?" he asked calmly.
"Yeah..." I said, nodding.
His relaxed his grip around me, allowing me to get up. I limped over to the wall, laying a hand on it.
The wall reformed instantaneously, making me gasp with exhaustion.
Zexion quickly ran over to support me.
"I'm okay," I repeated, my vision slowly blurring out.
He turned towards the class.
"Don't worry, you guys won't remember any of this. I'll just erase all of your memories," he said. "So calm down."
No one moved, no one said anything.
Zexion sat me down in a corner. One by one, he put them all to sleep, and started blurring their memories on the surface. He couldn't rearrange them like Namine could, but he could make them forget things that just happened.
"All done," he said, wiping the sweat off his face.
He lifted me off the ground casually.
"Let's go home," he said, "before they wake up."
I nodded.
"Thank you," I whispered quietly, lifting my hand up to touch his face.
He smiled.
"Your welcome," he responded.
"Don't give her any of those missions anymore," Zexion demanded.
Of course, Saix was a bit surpirsed, because it was the first time that the cloaked schemer had confronted him about something so openly. He turned around slowly, glaring at Zexion dangerously.
"Spare me the pathetic display of your useless infatuation with that girl. If I had a heart, I'd be dying of laughter right now," Saix said haughtily. "Do you really think you're in a position to order me around? Now stop your incessant whining and get back to your work. Even if you insist to accompany her on her missions, your work still needs to be done. Don't dawdle and get going."
Zexion stared at him coldly as he walked out the room.
"Axel, please, try to convice Saix for me," Zexion said, turning around.
Axel walked over to face the man.
"He's not the type of person who'll listen to what anyone has to say," Axel replied.
"I'm b-b-begging you here," Zexion half-cried.
Axel paused, shaking his head in disgust.
"Since when have you ever 'begged' for anything? Generally, when you want something, all you do is hide in the shadows and pull a few strings. A ruthless tactician is pleading for me to do something that he, himself knows is pointless. You really have become weak," Axel stated bluntly.
Axel stormed out of the room uncomfortably.
Alone, Zexion chuckled to himself.
"You're right, I definetly have become weak since meeting her, but I don't regret it at all. This is the first time since the beginning of my existence that there's ever been a meaning to life. I don't want to lose sight of it," he contemplated.
There was a short pause.
"But he's right, I can't be relying on anyone else. I'll protect her...with my own two hands," Zexion declared proudly.
Satisfied, he walked out of the room.