"You're disgusting."
Ms Reprics' voice above me sounded damp and hollow. I closed my eyes as I placed my fingers on my temples. My head hurt.
I breathed out deeply and tasted blood; I had bitten my tongue and spat. Coughing I tried to get back into an upright position.
"Theta! Koschei! You're coming with me!"
Ms Reprics' cane struck me at the back and on the neck before I would start moving; I had lowered my head in order not to be forced to meet the stares of those who would glare at me in disbelief. I sobbed unintentionally and followed Ms Reprics slowly.
Out of the corner of my eyes I could see Koschei's mad grin becoming broader.
He walked silently beside me while I hung my head in shame.
Koschei tried to grab my right hand once or twice while I dug my nails into my side.
"I don't like it when you're hurting yourself Theta" he whispered and wrapped his fingers around my knuckles, pulling them away from my thigh.
"Because you think it's your privilege to hurt me, instead" I hissed back and gave him a death-glare.
Koschei chuckled.
"Keep up!" commanded Ms Reprics in a very high pitched voice; her whole body seemed to be trembling with anger "And keep your mouths shut!"
"Yes Miss" I mumbled quietly and lowered my head again.
"You ARE a disgrace, Theta" Koschei smiled and wouldn't stop chuckling.
Koschei didn't fear Ms Reprics neither did he fear her cane.
Koschei didn't know fear. He'd never experienced fear. He feared nothing. That's what he used to say. He feared nothing.
As a child I had envied him. He had never been scared. He had never been frightened. He hadn't known anxiety. He didn't know what it was like fearing that something bad might happen to your parents; or fearing that your parents ARE the bad thing that might happen to you.
He didn't know what it was like worrying about disappointing others.
He'd never feared that he'd let someone down.
He didn't know what it felt like to cry quietly in a darkened room because you were so afraid of your father for reasons you wouldn't even understand because you were still an ignorant and naive child.
I snorted and narrowed my eyes while staring down at my feet.
Koschei didn't know. He simply didn't know what it was like.
But there was no stopping Koschei.
"You're a disgrace, Theta" he repeated and tried to settle his firm grip on my wrists. I pushed his hands aside as soon as I felt them reaching for mine.
"Some of us don't want their spines broken" I replied quietly and clenched my fists. Ms Reprics had stopped in front of us. I didn't dare to raise my head; she pressed the handle of her cane against my chest and nudged me in the ribs.
"I'm used to Koschei not obeying the rules" she explained and pushed the cane harder against my sternum "but you used to be an obedient little child. You'd always try to bow and duck and comply. You were such a well behaved child, Theta. And I taught you obedience. And I taught you manners." "Yes Ms Reprics" I replied quietly. Beside me Koschei chuckled.
Ms Reprics raised her cane and Koschei didn't even flinch as she struck him in the chest while hissing despicable and nasty curses. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw that Koschei wouldn't stop smiling.
Ms Reprics pushed the cane back into my ribcage and increased her force until, I assumed, I would respond to it in any way.
I gritted my teeth and winced as tears welled up in my eyes.
Ms Reprics lowered her cane and snorted.
"You two are equally useless" she fulminated and continued her journey towards her bureau.
I started walking again but closed my eyes after feeling Koschei's firm grip on my hand. He pulled me along. As always. Even now he wouldn't stop pushing and pulling me around as he pleased.
I sniffed quietly and wiped the tears out of my eyes.
I though this to be my worst day on the academy.
And yet there was worse to come.
Ms Reprics had no bureau. In fact, like most of the staff of the educational establishment, she lived at work. Well, every academic had a small room in the academy which they could call their own. But Ms Reprics LIVED in the library. She wouldn't leave her workspace, or as some called it her 'post', in need for privacy. The secrets library was her resort. It belonged to her. And students had claimed before that she actually was part of the library, like a demon from another age who'd managed to survive hidden behind innumerable old books.
Ms Reprics had been allocated a room, too, but she entered it very seldom. At night she locked the library and would stay in there. Some claimed that she slept on her writing desk, her head resting on it while her upper part of the body would slowly bend forward. Others argued that she slept in the bookcases and swore that the bookcases were double-walled with at least enough room for one being in it. But most of the students assumed that she didn't sleep at all; in fact they believed that she didn't need to sleep because she wasn't even alive. And though it seemed strange at first, I guess I had to agree with them in the end; something as bad as Ms Reprics couldn't possibly be alive.
Her room was known as the "Torture Chamber". It was either a joke or a deterrence; either way I wouldn't want to find out.
Ms Reprics ordered us to stand in front of her writing desk, side by side, and eyed us up carefully.
My attempts to free my hand from Koschei's grip failed miserably but I wouldn't look up to meet either Koschei's inexpressive eyes or Ms Reprics death-glare.
There was a sigh from the other side of the desk and Ms Reprics' cane whizzed through the air to strike at our entwined fingers in order to separate them by force.
I flinched and stroked my fingers carefully after experiencing the burning pain on the back of my hand.
Koschei was smiling and faced Ms Reprics motionless.
Ms Reprics breathed silently and I felt her eyes scanning my body in disgust.
I caught a covered glance of her face. Ms Reprics examined me in silence.
"What is it?"
I nearly jumped at her sudden question and held my breath.
"Nothing Miss" I replied quietly and stared at my feet.
"What is it?" repeated Ms Reprics. She rose from her seat and walked slowly around the desk, her cane thudding the floor between every two steps.
I looked up nervously and stared a furious grey faced woman in the face whose anger seemed to be pent-up from over several centuries.
I breathed hastily and searched for the right words.
"I'm afraid I don't quite understand, Miss" I whispered nervously; I had pressed one hand absent-mindedly on my swollen abdomen, my arm covered my stomach in order to shield it from her fierce stare.
The cane's handle poked my belly beside my hand; I pulled myself together in order not to try to snatch it from Ms Reprics hand.
"What is IT?" she asked stony-faced, her greyish-green eyes glistening with rage "What do you have to say for yourself?"
Her stare reflected her disgust. She stared down at my body as if I had been some kind of deformed creature.
If only I had known back then how appropriately worded it had been.
Deformed creature...
Well, deformed in fact, due to the increase on my abdominal girth.
"It's nothing, Miss" I replied quietly while pressing both hands on my abdomen "Really. I don't think..."
"Well, very well said, I'm sure that you don't THINK!" She spat on the floor next to my feet and snorted. Slowly she moved back to her writing desk and collapsed onto the stool.
"Who wants to defend himself first?" she asked, looking back and forth between Koschei and me.
I turned my head towards Koschei who shrugged.
"As counsel of the prosecution I'd prefer it if Theta-Sigma would speak up first" explained Ms Reprics and rummaged around in her desk's drawers. "...though you're nearly as guilty as Koschei. But we can say that you're only an accomplice and therefore don't deserve the same harsh punishment as he does." She excruciated herself in order to produce something remotely resembling a smile.
"So, what do you have to say for yourself?" she asked again and leaned forward on her desk after pressing a pile of sheets down onto her writing desk.
"I didn't mean to steal it!" I blurted out and covered my mouth in terror by hiding it behind my hand.
Sorry for the late update. The journey home took longer than expected. Anyway it was a beautiful wedding.
And I'll focus on updating daily again.