I can't Hurt You - Marcus Lopez Arguello

62

A week had gone by since we had told our friends about Chester. I thought we had it bad when Marcus and I were on edge, now it was worse. None of us felt safe. None of us felt normal. We were all on high alert all the time. It may not mean much for normal people to be on high alert all the time, it just means they're extra jumpy; but we're not exactly normal people, we're assassins. We don't get jumpy, we get deadly. The other day Maria almost chopped someone's head off at the comic book store. It was scary to say the least. More for people around us than anyone else, but I guess even a blind man could see how scary it was.

Marcus and I made our way to AP Black Arts late. We spent half the morning asking ourselves and each other if we even wanted to show up. Going to class with my parents's murderer as my teacher wasn't exactly at the top of my list. However I'd been skipping enough, a couple more times and I'd have to retake the year.

"You're sure you wanna go in?" Marcus asked as we made our way to the door at the end of the hallway.

"I'll be fine." I assured him.

"You found out a week ago that Lin murdered your parents and now you wanna murder him. That's not exactly a good definition of fine." He reminded me of my words when I got drunk one night on the roof.

"It's either this or fail the year. I'll pick and choose my battles." I said.

We made it to the door at the end of the empty hallway and I swung it open without hesitation, interrupting Lin's class. He looked up at Marcus and I with a death stare.

"Thought you two would skip... again." Lin said passive aggressively.

"Yeah I definitely thought about it." I replied in the same tone.

"There are two empty seats over there. Sit down and be quiet. You've already interrupted my class once." He said pointing to the two empty seats in the middle of the class, one in front and one right behind it.

I rolled my eyes and made my way to the empty seat. Marcus followed and sat in the one in front of me. Then, Lin continued to walk up and down the rows lecturing like he always does.

"As an assassin, you must not love." Lin started.

I'll love who I want asshat.

"You must not marry." He continued.

Why? Was no one dumb enough to marry you?

"You must discard your friends and ideals." He said as he walked closer to the row Marcus and I were in.

Please, what a shit-show.

I realized that I was soon going to get bored of this lecture so I took my knife out of my boot, fiddling with it in my fingers.

"Violations of these edicts is the most common downfall of our kind." Lin said as I noticed Saya pass a folded up note to Marcus.

He opened it quietly as I kept my eyes on Lin. He broke Brandy's nose on Marcus's first day here for passing notes, but there was no way I'd let him touch Marcus.

"To achieve true commitment to the life, we must drown these frail needs." Lin said.

Suddenly, like a switch went off in his head, Lin swung his staff at Marcus's face. Before the staff could hit him, I put my knife out in front of Marcus's face, stopping the staff a couple inches away from his nose.

I didn't need to see Marcus's face to know that he was probably wide-eyed and terrified right now.

Without removing his staff, Lin spoke again.

"Emotions are a chemical mirage that will betray you. Leave you exposed." He said before he tapped my back with a knife he had in the other had which I hadn't even realized was there.

He removed his staff and knife and began to walk down the rows again.

"To care for another human is to create your own greatest weakness. If you love someone enough to die for them... then you surely will." He said as he made it to the front of the class and stood there, facing away from the students.

With that the bell rang and everyone stood up, picking up their books and bags leaving the classroom. Lin stayed standing at the front of the class unfazed, not noticing that everyone had left the classroom except for Marcus and I since he was turned away.

"Some speech. Really got me thinking." Marcus said as we both stood up and made our way to Lin, making our presence known.

Lin turned around slowly, mentally asking himself why in the world we were still here.

"If you're not fighting for an ideal, then you're just fighting for  yourself. If that's what you think, then that means everything you said when I came here was all garbage, wasn't it?" Marcus said rudely.

Lin looked at him like he wanted to kill him, like he could kill him. Good luck trying to lay a hand on him if I'm still here asshole.

"That pre-rehearsed sermon? 'Give the peasants the power to overthrow their corrupt masters. Give my- my rage a voice loud enough to be heard around the world.'" Marcus quoted all of Lin's lies.

Lin turned back around, not facing us. He was a coward. A bastard who had gotten too good at lying. He was such a pussy he couldn't even face the lies he created.

"Jurgen was right. Carrot on a stick you pretend that you empower the poor outcasts like us, but you don't care about that." I finally spoke up.

"The kids who had nothing are offered the key to change the world. Instead of trying, they killed the man that gave it to them." Lin played the victim in this situation yet again.

"Or another old man exploits the frustrations of the next generation to his own ends." Marcus said sternly as we both stepped closer to Lin who was still facing away from us.

"It's all bullshit Lin. The shit you feed worthless teenagers who come here looking for a purpose. You tell them they won't have to feel that way anymore. You're a fucking liar. Most of us feel more useless here than we ever did out on our own." I said angrily.

Lin finally turned around to look at us. He was fuming at our statements. I doubt anyone had ever spoken to him like that before.

"The young always tell themselves that when they get their chance they'll do things differently. Burn it all down. And yet, all these millennia later, the world remains the same. Humans remain the same. You either accept it, navigate it, or allow yourself to be suffocated by it." Lin said as he stepped closer to us with each sentence, making us back up.

"From where we're standing, you're the one who's suffocating. We confessed. We broke all your rules and we're still alive. You know what I think? I think once upon a time, you were on the other side of this conversation." Marcus said.

"I think you let us live because we're who you used to be. We're who you suffocated." I finished off the conversation before the bell rang again, indicating that we should be in our next period but of course we're not.

Without another word Marcus and I stepped away and towards the door, making our way out of this horrid classroom

"Are the kids leaving?" Lin asked, metaphorically asking if we were leaving King's.

Marcus and I didn't turn around to look at him, instead took a quick look at each other knowing exactly how to answer this question.

"No." Marcus said simply.

"Everything they're willing to die for is right here. Even if this is a hell-hole." I said.

Then we walked out the door and made our way through the empty halls to Poison Lab.

"Think he deserved it?" I asked referring to Lin and our speech.

"No one does if it's not him." Marcus said emotionlessly.

"What was that note about?" I asked changing the subject.

"What note?" He asked.

"The one Saya gave you." I clarified.

"Oh. Meeting outside of King's. I'm guessing it's about Chester." He replied.

"Always is." I sighed.