Pendulum || TAENNIE FF

⚔Chapter 51: The Break of Dawn

A U T H O R

The students gathered in the main hall after unusual articles were suddenly found all over the school grounds. "The Break of Dawn," a student read. "The surfacing of light."

"What's going on here?!" Jadis hurriedly came and snatched an article from one of the students. "What's this? What is this foolishness?!"

"We found these papers scattered earlier this morning. However, no one saw a creature entering or leaving the school." Another student said.

"It talks about the gossips surrounding the school. I've heard some of these stories from my friends. I never thought someone would write a whole article, listing every single one of them." A girl said.

"Tell Flake to come to my office immediately. Ink Fictions is the only organization who is capable of doing this." Jadis ordered one of the teachers behind her and returned to her office.

Flake was summoned to her office without knowing what's going on. On his way there, the students he passed by stopped and looked at him with fear, some with confusion, and some with worry. He entered the office and greeted the school head. "You called for me?"

"Explain this right now." She handed him one of the articles. "Is your organization responsible for this mess? You know you can't spread rumors around the school! This is against one of my rules and I will not let it slide at least once."

Flake widened his eyes when he found his name and picture at the back of the page. 'Is the lost prince really a student in Stone Academia? Will he ever confess the truth or will he continue to live in comfort with the higher ups' favoritism?'

"Did you or did you not publish all these articles?" Jadis questioned.

"They are all gossips and assumptions. Ink Fictions only write stories, poems, and things alike. My team is not behind this. I assure you." He looked at the paper again and read the title. There's only one student who would name it like this-- something mysterious and enigmatic. I can't be wrong.  "I will leave if that's everything." Jadis nodded and gestured him to leave.

Flake quickly returned to their classroom to look for Heather. He ignored all their stares and focused on looking for her. Why is she not here yet? He left again and went to the dormitory. "She's still asleep. I can't wake her up." He heard Maya's voice echo and quickly went upstairs to their room.

"Well, she's late and we will be late too!" Chase said with his arms crossed. "You can't let her fail in class, can you?"

"Where is she?" Flake asked while walking towards them. "I need to talk to her right now."

"Even if we did let you in, she won't speak a word to you. She won't even say a word to me. I don't know why she's all exhausted all of a sudden." Maya answered.

This only means she stayed up all night. She must've sneaked in and brought the papers yesterday. "I'm coming in." He opened the door and walked towards her bed. Heather is indeed deep asleep. She had her pillows and Maya's pillows gathered around her body and her face buried on the one under her head. "Is this why you can't go back to Ink Fictions?"

Heather recognized his voice and immediately sat down. "Y-You can't be here! This is our personal space!"

"Maybe you shouldn't have meddled with others' personal spaces too." Heather furrowed her brows for not understanding what he meant by that. "The Break of Dawn," he seriously said. "You're the one who made it, aren't you?"

"What nonsense are you talking about in the early morning? I don't know what you're talking about so can you please step out of our room? You're being extremely rude and disrespectful," she said with an annoyed face.

"Don't do something like this again. Just focus on your private life and stop benefiting from others' issues. I won't stay still next time." He left the room and left the three of them in shock.

"Heather," Maya called and went inside. "What was that about?"

"I don't know. He's talking about something called The Break of Dawn. He's assuming I'm the one behind it when I already quit writing weeks ago. What does he take me for?" Heather said and massaged her temple. "How frustrating."

"Firo!" Wendy called and ran towards him. Firo was about to enter the library but he stopped when he heard her call his name. "About what we talked about--"

"I already gave you my answer twice, Wen. Your study group will only be annoyed if I tag along. I don't have plans on acing my tests so I don't have a strong motivation. I was never interested in academics anyway. Thanks though." He said and went inside the library.

Wendy sighed and looked down. I wonder if he would be interested if it was her who asked him.

Firo went in between the shelves and took out the book he wanted to read before class starts. After he did, he stood on his favorite spot near the window and began reading. He was in the middle of reading the paragraphs when he spotted a piece of paper under one shelf. "How did that get here?" He asked and picked it up. "Break of Dawn," He hastily scanned the words in the front then turned to the back. "He's gonna have to endure it again." He quietly said while reading what is written about Flake. He folded the paper and kept it inside his pocket.

--

An unidentified silhouette of someone approached Stone Academia's main door and panted. It had several papers in hand, with the words "The Break of Dawn" written in big, bold letters on the front pages. The creature came to the window and slid the papers through the window sill. "Now do your job and spread out." The creature said and returned safely to the dormitory without a single soul noticing its schemes. 

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Yeep I'm adding another (little) mystery because why not?🙈 "The Break of Dawn" will also be a big help to a certain someone in the following chapters so look forward to it too😊 I can't say if it's gonna bring clarity or trouble yet because I, myself, still don't know how the story will progress even if I had the scenes planned out already😬 

The chapter highlights the articles only so I couldn't sneak a lot of moments in between. I hope that one scene was enough hehe.. Thank you for reading everyone!! The next chapter will be the start of the "complicated things" I told you guys about🙉