"EVERYONE SHUT UP AND SIT THE FUCK DOWN!" commanded a dark and loud voice. "The LAST person to sit down is gonna be DEAD!"
The four boys scrambled to their feet and rushed to their table. Kento was still there, thankfully. Then they finally figured out who was the commander...
"Nic," Kento cursed under his breath,"What a fucking dumbass!"
Ryo shushed him by kicking his leg. "Shut-up!"
"What the hell does he want?" Kento rasped.
Nic held his gun to close to his chest as he walked around the cafeteria, eyeing everyone with hatred. He picked up a boy, looking freshman if not sophomore. "You..." he growled, "were the last one to sit, am I right?"
The boy just froze, "D-Don't..."
"Don't what?" Nic screamed, "Kill you!?"
The boy swallowed hard and gazed around the cafeteria, looking for any help, any escape.
"This just isn't your day, isn't it?" Nic laughed grimly. He pulled a butcher knife from his back and put it up to the boy's throat. Then with one flick his wrist, the boy crumpled to the floor, blood flowing everywhere.
Cye's faced paled, and Ryo closed his eyes. Kento's eyes got smaller by the second as his glare intensified. Sage was biting his lip so hard that it began to bleed and Rowen's swallow could've been heard from across the room.
Nic kicked the boy out of his way and kept walking, "Let THAT... be a lesson to all you." He continued to walk until he got to the Ronin's table. He stopped and stared them down. Then, quicker than liquid lighting, he grabbed Kento by the arm and held him up to his face.
'God, Kento... PLEASE don't do anything, PLEASE!' Cye prayed to himself.
Rowen gritted his teeth and looked upon them with worry.
Nic gazed over Kento for the longest time, tension growing and growing that waves were practically flowing off of them. But just when everyone thought that Nic was going to kiss him, he growled and spat in his face. Kento screamed in his rush to grab Nic by the throat, but Nic pushed him with such a force that Kento landed on the table and broke it in half.
Ryo and Sage rushed to keep Kento down, and keep him from attacking Nic. But it was no use. Kento was stronger than both of them put together.
He threw Ryo and Sage off of him and stood up, "Nic the Dick..." he started, chuckling as he wiped the spit from his cheek. "Those narcotics finally getting to you?"
Nic licked his lips and cracked his neck. "What's that? All I heard was the wind..."
Kento jumped to a defensive position, "You have a problem with me? 'Cause there is definitely no problem here."
Nic stared hard into his eyes, "Yes, Faun. There is a problem. You." With that, Nic grabbed the dagger from the floor and threw it.
Rowen clamped his jaw down and shut his eyes as he heard the knife break through bone. The kind of sharp cracking noise that you never forget.
Kento fell to the ground, stunned. The dagger was nailed into his right shoulder, nothing of the blade was even visible for how far it was in him. Cye and Sage immediately started to help him, but feared to remove the blade because Kento could bleed to death.
Nic walked away, chuckling to himself. He raised his left arm and made some sort of hand signal and whistled. Or so it sounded like a whistle. It was almost like a dog cry. But what really shocked everyone was that Evelyn rose from her seat and walked to Nic. Twister and Jenesis followed her.
"What the hell?!" Ryo asked to himself more than anyone else.
Nic started to walk in a circle, "NOW... I want EVERYONE to stay in the school unless notified. No one is to leave unless you are asking for death. I have people guarding every entrance and exit to this place." Nic paused to crack his knuckles. "I promise all of you, if you stay here, there will be no problem. And to make sure that everyone stays here, I will do an hourly attendance, here in the cafeteria. If I find that ONE of you is missing, then FIVE of you will be killed. If two... then TEN will die." Nic clamped his hands together and watched as Twister counted the students.
"There is 96... but 97 if that one," he pointed to Kento, "lives."
Ryo glared at him in the hardest way he knew how.
Nic glanced at his watch. "Alright... exactly 58 minutes remain!"
The cafeteria emptied within minutes. Sage and Ryo and Cye all picked up Kento and carried him behind the lunch line, deep into the kitchen.
Ryo looked Kento up and down, nervously, "Sage..."
"I'm already on it," Sage replied quickly. He ripped the blade out of Kento, making a horrid face in the process and placed his hands over the blood drenched wound. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Kento's wound started to heal itself. The blood was drying up, and Kento's face faded from stark white, to a pale pink.
Ryo watched Sage. His eyelids flickered and his face grew pale. Then his lips when from lively pink, to dark violet, then to blue. But it wasn't until Sage started to sway back and forth that Ryo stopped him.
Ryo shoved Sage away, "Sage! Dammit, you're not supposed to kill yourself!" He shouted.
But he got no reply. Sage laid motionless on the floor.
"Rowen!" Ryo yelled. "Help him!"
Rowen knelt over his friend and checked his pulse. He could barely pick it up, but it was there, steady and solid. Rowen nodded, "He's fine, just passed out, probably."
Cye ripped off the bottom part of his pants and tied them tightly around Kento's shoulder. "That'll hold him for awhile," he whispered.
Ryo sighed and collapsed against the wall, "This is f-u-c-k-ed up..." he mumbled.
Cye swallowed and pulled his legs into his chest. "What are we going to do?"
Rowen bit his tongue as he continued to run his hand through Sage's hair, keeping him comforted, "I don't know, but whatever we do we gotta do it fast."
Ryo agreed, "And what's up with Evelyn and Jen? They all looked hypnotized or something!"
"Somebody's gotta know something."
Cye stood up, "Should I go try and find out?"
Rowen shook his head, "No, that'll take to long. I say we do what we're best at."
Ryo tried not to smile, "Let's armor up guys!"
Cye nodded, "Let's do it and take out this bastard!"
"But we shouldn't armor up completely. I think the best way to attack would be to sneak up on him. And we all know that would be impossible with our heavy armor."
Cye and Ryo nodded, "But that will be a completely different story when Kento wakes up."
"That's why we have to do it now!" Rowen stood up and grabbed the blue ball out of his back pocket. With a quick flash a light, he was in his sub-armor. Ryo and Cye followed.
"But what should we do with Kento and Sage?" Cye asked, following a little behind Ryo and Rowen as the headed out of the cafeteria. "And we have to be back here in an hour if all else fails, remember?"
Rowen sighed, "Well, they're Ronin's. Obviously they can tell when we're in our armor. So they will be able to figure something out."
"But what about the hour thing?" Ryo asked.
Rowen looked around and bit his lip, "Honestly, let's just all plan to meet back here in 45 minutes. Even if we do beat him, at least we can all re-group."
Cye and Ryo nodded.
Rowen looked at the vent above him, "Someone help me up."
~*~
Sage awoke with a long miserable groan. He brought his hands up to his eyes and rubbed them, trying to clear his blurry vision. But nothing seeming to work, he tried to stand up, slamming his hand on the floor next to him. The floor was wet. He looked at what his hand was sitting it but only jerked it away with a nervous yelp. It was blood. A huge puddle of blood. His vision was finally coming around and he noticed that Kento was no longer with him. And neither were any of the guys.
'Shit!' he thought, 'What the hell happened?!' Then a flash of blue, light blue, and red fazed through his mind. 'Ryo, Ro and Cye... but Kento?' Sage paused again to scan his surrounding. Still, nothing but that same puddle. 'My gods... did something happen to Kento?!' Sage's thoughts raced with every worse case scenario. He only got nervous and more worried. He stood up and took to his sub-armor then looked towards the door, ready to head out. But something stopped him.
Two beady, bright red eyes stared at him in the darkness of the doorway. But they sat no higher than 3 feet off the ground.
"H-hello?" Sage stuttered.
A low growl returned.
Sage nervously got into defensive position and kept his eyes on the ones that were glowing back at him. But then something clattered behind him. Sage jumped and whipped around, looking everywhere in the dimly lit kitchen. But there was nothing. And when he turned back to look in the doorway, the eyes were gone. Sage took a deep breath and cautiously started to walk towards the door again.
A wind started to pick from nowhere, its whistles sending chills up and down Sage's spine. The door started to sway, making noises that sounded like a woman's shrill scream. Then the door slammed shut.
Sage filled his lungs with fear and exhaled. Dark scarlet handprints gouged the door, so fresh that Sage could taste the metallic stench. Then the two eyes appeared in the door window which was almost at the top of the door.
Sage's breath was quick and his heart was beating faster than it ever had before. 'What the hell is that?!' he asked himself, sweat started to form on his brow.
The thing behind the door suddenly screamed and pounded into the door, leaving a huge dent.
Sage suddenly noticed the vent in the ceiling. He jumped for it just as soon as the thing screamed again, pounding the door in. Sage grabbed the vent and quickly heaved himself inside. As he laid in the vent, taking huge gasps of air, he managed to relieve himself a little. He listened for a moment or two hearing nothing. Curious, he looked down the vent into the kitchen.
A little girl, no older than 5, stared up at him from the kitchen floor. She had short blond hair and a dark blue dress on.
Sage was flabbergasted. "What?"
The girl closed her eyes and screamed, the exact same scream as the thing behind the door. Then she melted into the floor, like something was inhaling her from underneath. The only thing that was left was a tiny dot of blood.
Sage exhaled and blinked a couple times, not believing what he just saw. But it only made him wonder what else was going on in the school. He sighed and started to crawl down the vent, heading for the stronger signals of Rowen, Ryo and Cye.