The Sound of Night

Many questions remain unanswered

Back in class, Mrs Partridge was introducing a boy named Leonardo Ribeiro. He raised his eyebrows slightly as he analysed his new classroom, and even more when he looked at the two seats that looked unoccupied and the person who was sitting beside one of them. 

"You can take a seat right beside Desmond." She told him, her eyes looking at the seat beside him. "Desmond, do you mind not occupying the seat with your bag, please?" The teacher asked, her eyes holding a slight fear that if Desmond refused, she would have no alternative other than to put Leo beside Blaze.Surprisingly enough, he complied, but not before giving her a cold gaze. His hand made a show of grabbing his bag and slightly lifting it, before placing it beside himself. His grey eyes did not wander from his teacher, who had to turn her face away and go back to her position behind the desk located in the front of the classroom, before looking out the window.

 Desmond gave a slight smirk at the exchange.Leo looked at his teacher, then at his classmates.

 A quarter of them were looking at him with amused expressions, lazy grins showing up on their faces, while the rest were looking at Desmond, their eyes straying from his face to his book that was placed on the table, the cover completely hidden from view. 

He finally started moving towards Desmond, who tilted his head slightly to the right before straightening it. And, that was all Leo got, before he seated himself, and the teacher looked at him to see if he was uncomfortable, before giving a tight-lipped smile and opening her geography book. 

"What are you reading?" Leo asked him as his eyes traced the two open pages, and on the top, slightly smaller than the text of the book, in a way that seemed cursive, was written: "The Picture of Dorian Gray". 

"How do you read it so quickly?" Leo couldn't help asking, his eyes wandering to his long, slender hands, which were flipping through the pages with such rapidity, yet so delicately, that it seemed as though he were caressing a lover. 

"Well, you learn how to when there are threats all around you and all you want to do is to finish the book," Desmond turned another page, even as Leo looked at him with fascination. 

He was about to say something else, but was cut off, as the teacher instructed them to open the book to page 817. The sudden silence, therefore, allowed them to clearly hear two people whispering to each other, who still hadn't got the memo that there was supposed to be pin drop silence. 

"Damn...did you look at the new guy? He's handsome as fuck, but his aura...there's something about it." 

"What do you mean?" 

"Can't you feel it?" The girl whispered, her head resting on her arm, as the other followed her actions, and whispered back, their voices going so low that Leo couldn't hear them any more.Leo stopped taking his books out of his bag for a second and failed to notice that Desmond's eyes were stuck on a single word in the book. 

Leo's eyes drifted to the two again, but they were now gazing at the board in front of them, as the teacher created a perfect circle and some little marks on it. The earth. 

"You good?" Desmond asked as he closed the book, and put it inside his bag, his face turning towards Leo slightly. 

"Do you want an honest answer or a..." Leo slightly snorted, as he turned his head away from Desmond, who looked at him with a look of boredom. Although a hint of concern was present in his eyes, it was so very minute that Leo couldn't help but squirm under it.His fingers lazily traced the outline of the desk, and Leo gazed intently as he brought his fingers to the middle of the desk, tapping silently, an irregular pattern, which Leo quickly realized was Morse Code.

"What does that mean?" he asked softly, the bottom half of his face hidden, as he dropped his face low to prevent being seen talking on the very first day of school. Oh, how his mother would feel if he were to be complained about.