It was sparring day. Team CTNE was up. Evan was pretty excited. He would finally get to use Merciless on the field! He waited to see who he would spar with this time. Nothing could ruin this day for him, nothing at all -

Evan watched, with dawning horror, as the roulette landed upon Patrick. Evan tried not to show how afraid he was as the well-dressed man strode over with almost infernal elegance. "Nice to see you again, Evan," Patrick greeted.

"To be honest, I've been waiting to see how you fight. If you fight as well as you look, Evan dear, I'm in for one hell of a show." he continued.

Evan didn't react. He wasn't going to let his nightmares get in the way of this match. He took a deep breath in and flicked his wrist, unsheathing his steel claws.

Patrick's wickedly blood-red fire-axe gleamed in his hands. Immediately he rushed into battle, his axe cleaving the air. He swung at Evan with frightening speed. His grin was frenzied and filled with unmatched bloodlust.

But it was the sadistic gleam in his eye that truly terrified Evan.

Their blades locked. Patrick leaned in, insane grin on full display.

"I know you have nightmares about me," Patrick purred darkly. Evan's heart seemed to beat in reverse. He could feel something stir in the back of his head. "You.. shouldn't know that.." Evan breathed.

Patrick broke through the lock and the match continued. The two matched each other's blows.

But Patrick was ultimately the better fighter. He had Evan cornered. He pinned Evan to the wall. Evan looked down at the floor. The last thing he wanted to look into right now was Patrick's eyes. "Look up, Evan." Patrick hissed coldly.

Evan did not look up.

Patrick tilted Evan's chin up with two fingers.

A grin of satisfaction grew across his face. "That's better." Patrick mused, staring into Evan's eyes with more than malicious intentions.

"ENOUGH!" Glynda roared. She pulled Patrick off of Evan. Evan sighed in relief. "I know that Sanctuary students are not taught to act this way! Behave yourself, Mr. Andersen!" she barked.

Patrick's grin had hardened to the falsely innocent grin he usually wore around Beacon faculty and students. "But, of course, Ms. Goodwytch. I won't misbehave. After all, I don't want to bother you with my troubles." he apologized.

What happened next was something that Evan never forgot. Patrick's eyes flashed red as blood, just for a moment. Glynda's expression softened and her eyes grew tired.

"I'll leave you to it, then, Mr. Andersen," she said in a sleepy monotone.

Patrick turned to Evan, still smiling. Patrick's eyes flashed red again. And Evan heard Patrick's voice in his head. "I could do this to you as easily as I could with Ms. Glynda. After all, as my friend says, we are all creatures of habit.." Patrick's voice hissed with malicious glee.

Evan was horrified.

So he, entirely of his own volition, got up and ran like hell back to his dorm. Patrick's dark laughter echoed in his head as he ran.

Without hesitation, the rest of Team CTNE took off after him.

Patrick's grin was genuine and bloodthirsty now. He knew it was going to be so much fun, breaking little Evan.

Evan got to his dorm, curled up into a little ball on his bunk, and began to take deep breaths. "He's not going to hurt me, he's not going to hurt me.." Evan repeated, over and over again. The pain in his head was getting so much worse. And then he realized exactly why his head hurt so much. In one, painful realization his mental health drained.

Caught, Tim, and Noah stormed in to find Evan sobbing. They immediately rushed to his side.

"What did he say to you? What did the little fucker say?" Noah asked.

So Evan told them everything.

When it was done, the others were livid.

"If he tries to lay a finger on you, we will beat the shit out of him. You do realize that, right?" Caught reassured.

Evan nodded, mutely.

Noah was slightly in shock, though.

Because when Evan explained, Firebrand said one thing: "I warned you."

Author's Note: Reviews get me fired-up in a damn good way!

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