The man was walking down the streets of the city he had lived in for his whole life. He had always liked this city. He had liked it long before it was a city. Even when he had reached the age where he had seen and done everything, he had liked it. He had been here for a long time, longer than even most of his kind. He had been here when everyone still lived in caves and wore furs on their backs. He had seen the change of religion and princes time and time again, but despite the tediousness of these cycles he felt that it would be hard to leave it behind. Even with the claims he had made to his kind, he wondered if he could leave it. This was after all his home. And then he thought of what the person he had called bratr would soon do to him and what he had already done to the women he had called láska. Ne, he could not stay, but this would not be the last they had heard of him. He swore that even if they took his body and destroyed it, as they wished, his soul would return.
Seth woke up and tried to sit up, but found that it was too painful. He then laid down and closed his eyes because it hurt too much to keep them open too. For a moment he wondered why that was, and then the memories came flooding back. He then wanted to know how he had survived. He was sure that the Kane guy was going to kill him, but when he tried to think past the moment when he had figured out that his opponent could commit murder, he felt a throbbing in his head. Seth then decided that he should be grateful that someone like him, with no fighting experience, was able to survive a confrontation with someone who not only had much more experience in that field, but also took great pleasure from causing others harm.
"Hey, Sleeping Beauty, I know your awake so rise and shine," said an irritatingly familiar voice. Seth cracked his good eye open and said, "Do you always insult injured people who try to save your life or is it just me?" She smiled and said, "As a matter of fact, I only insult out of one of two reasons. One is your pissing me off so out of principle I have to mock you and the other is 'cause I like you. Ask my brother. I do it all the time." Seth asked which one he was, to which she replied that he was a little of both. Seth asked,"Why?" She said, "Easy. After the stunt you just pulled, I now know that you are most definitely not a coward so you have a tiny bit of my respect and don't think that this means anything because you're only at the same level of respect that I give to my cat. Now as to why you piss me off, I'd have to say that's because your you. During brunch, my brother found out some of the rumors about you. You want to know what they say about you?" "Not really, but you're gonna tell me anyway and it's not like I can leave," replied Seth.
She smiled and said, "See, there was a reason I liked you. You're quick to figure things out. Well anyways, they say you're a genius, but you go completely out of your way to blend in. You've got the top grades, but that's all you're good for." Seth said, "Huh...and here I was thinking that I had managed to stay out of the rumor mill." Seth would have to ask James what else they said about him. She looked surprised. It was much more different than her usual expressions. Seth got the feeling that this didn't happen often to her and felt proud of himself for causing that look on her face. Before she was about to say something, he said, "Hey, I jut realized something." she asked him what and he replied, "I don't know your name."
She then laughed. It was a pretty sound and Seth found that he preferred it to her usual smirk. When she calmed down she said, "What's up with that? Out of all the things you could have said, that's the last thing I could have saw coming... OK, I've decided." Now Seth felt something like apprehension as he watched her stand up. He then asked what exactly she had decided. She then said, "I am going to take you out of you're shell. After today, it's pretty obvious that you could be something other than the genius kid who only knows how to study so I've decided that I'm gong to help you."
Seth was pretty sure that he had a dumbfounded expression on his face because she said, "What? You think I can't do it?" he then shook his head and said, "I've only known you for hours, but from that time I'm sure that you seem like the type of person who would attempt to do something like this, but to be honest I'm not really all that interested." She smiled and said, "Really, well I'm afraid that that's too bad because I've been known to be an extremely determined person."
"And by that she means stubborn," said her twin as he walked in. He took the seat that his sister had vacated moments before. After he sat, James walked in. James said, "Oh good you're up. Wait, not good. Christ, man, what the hell happened back there? One minute we were both standing there at a safe distance with the rest of the crowd and then the next, you're gone and actually in the middle of all the action. Seth, I'm asking this because I'm your friend and I've known you for almost seven years... Have you completely lost it?!" Seth said, "I don't know, but it's a possibility." James said, "That was a freaking rhetorical question! Do you have any idea who you were fighting-and speaking of the fight, what the hell was up with that explosion?" Seth said, "No, I am not sure who exactly I was fighting other than he was part of Katrina's group and his name is Kane and what explosion are you talking about."
At this comment, Seth could have sworn that he saw the twins share a look, but it was over so quickly, he thought that he must have imagined it. The male twin then changed the subject by saying, "Thank you for what you did back there. My name is Nicolai Alecard and although my sister will never admit it, you did help, and for that I will always be grateful." Seth asked Nicolai how he would know that if he was gone before Seth had intervened. Nicolai shrugged off the question by saying that he had his sources. Seth thought, "Great, another guy who mastered the art of avoiding questions."
After that the school nurse walked in. She said, "Mr. Drak, good to see you awake. You're very lucky. Although I'm not sure where that blast came from or how it got started, you seemed to have come away with only minor injuries. I tried to phone your parents, but they weren't home so I had you stay here. Ms. Alecard and Ms. Lupe were far enough that they didn't get hurt, but I wonder how Mr. Lupe got so heavily injured when the both of you got caught up in it. That said, you appear to have some cracked ribs and a black eye, but that's all so you are free to go whenever you feel like it." Seth was tired and in pain, but he was no fool. He was almost positive that the school nurse was trying to accuse him of bringing some sort of firearms onto campus with the intent of harming that Kane guy.
As he was about to say something, James said, "All of us have had a long day and Seth has to meet up with his teacher since he couldn't attend his final class-" "Wait, did you just say I missed my last class? How long have I been out for," panicked Seth. Weird day or not, he had never missed a single day of class and couldn't afford to slack off this year with his SATs coming up. The girl said, "Two hours. Class let up about thirty minutes ago." Seth tried to bolt, but then felt a painful throbbing from his rib cage at the sudden movement. Right, he had already tried this tactic before. Seth couldn't help but think that this whole being too injured to get up thing was getting old, even though he hadn't been injured for that long. He made a mental note never to go charging into fights that could leave him like this again and then chuckled at the fact that someone like him had even gotten into a fight in the first place.
The nurse angrily asked,"And just what is it that you find so funny, Mr. Drak?" Seth thought that this would be a good moment to shut up and was given that chance when Nicolai said, "It must be his nerves. Surely, you understand that the events of today must have taken their tole on him, mentally." To Seth's surprise, the nurse actually agreed with Nicolai. For the second time,in less than twenty minutes, Seth found himself unnerved with Nicolai. After this the nurse made her exit. Nicolai then exited, but not before securing a promise from his sister that she would make it home safely without him. James then checked the time and said that he had to meet with his parents. He promised to call Seth later to see how he was doing and then he also promptly left.
The talk of parents reminded him that the nurse had called home and that if Seth's mom caught him looking like how he did, he would never hear the end of it. He looked at the only other person in the room and weighed his options.
-Option 1: Go home and face his mom's wrath. Grounding is a definite with a high chance that he would lose his motorcycle.
-Option 2: Wander around New York City until it gets darker. He's already injured and is young so there would be a high possibility of his mugging, plus he would get more hurt. The chance that he'd run into one of Kane's friends by accident and said friend would then seek revenge for Kane was also considered.
-Option 3: He swallows his pride and asks the girl who still hasn't given him her name if he could head wherever she was heading and stay their until nightfall. After which, he would drive back home and sneak into his home after his mom had left for work. He would then set his alarm clock extremely early and leave before anyone in his house had woken up.
Seth decided that option one and option two were more trouble than they were worth so decided on option three. He was about to ask her, but then he looked at her face. She had this annoying smirk on her face as if she knew that he would be royally screwed if he didn't ask for her help. Seth kept on telling himself to calm down enough to get the words out, but he ended up barking them out through gritted teeth so that it came out sounding like,"Would you....be all...right if...I were...to-" At this her smirk got bigger, if that was even possible. He glared daggers at her and she said, "Okay, I've given you enough pain for one day. Get up, get your stuff, and let's go." Seth relaxed and asked, "Where to?" She smirked again, and said, "Well it wouldn't be much of a surprise if I told you....Oh, and the name's Josephine, Josephine Alecard." And with that Seth carefully got up and did as she asked, but even so Seth felt a strange wave of uneasiness as he followed her out the door and couldn't help wondering where the hell she was taking him.
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