The Blight Chronicles: Odalia & Alador

Ultimatum Part 2

Alador 

Alador had come to school by himself for the first time in years. Odalia had not come to his house that morning and she wasn't answering any of his messages or calls. He was afraid maybe she was angry at him but he could not figure out why. He had hoped to fix things once he saw her at school but she wasn't there.

Odalia had never missed a day of school before and now he was really starting to worry. He didn't know what to do. He wanted to leave school to go find her but what if she was just running late? Maybe her parents had needed extra help with their stall at the market? If that was the case she would get mad at him for skipping school. 

He decided to wait in school and kept hoping that she would burst through the classroom door at any moment. Or jump out of nowhere to surprise him but she didn't. He had spent the entire school day just waiting for her to appear and coming up with possible scenarios as to why she hadn't come or why she hadn't messaged him. Nothing made sense and it just made him get more and more frustrated. 

What made things worse was the people around him gossiping. Seeing him alone without Odalia was apparently a big interest for people. Normally he wouldn't even notice people talking about them but today it was incredibly difficult to ignore. He couldn't help but perk up every time someone mentioned Odalia's name and look around to see if she was there. It was exhausting. Thankfully nobody made an attempt to approach him directly to ask him about Odalia. He wasn't sure how he would have reacted to that.

Once the final bell rang he quickly dashed out of class. He wanted to waste no time getting home. Part of him hoped that Odalia was there waiting for him with a perfectly reasonable explanation of why she hadn't come to school. Unfortunately that was not the case. Once he got home the only one waiting for him was his abomibuttler who was holding a letter addressed to him. 

He took the letter from the creature feeling numb. There was nothing written on the outside, it was just a folded up piece of paper and yet a feeling of dread washed over him. His mind began to race at lightning speed trying to understand what was going on. Was this from Odalia? Was she leaving him? Why a letter? Had he done something wrong?

"Breath Alador you won't get any answers if you don't calm down," he mumbled to himself before opening the letter.

To Alador,

I am breaking up with you. I no longer wish to see you therefore I will be transferring to Glandus High where I will finish my last year of school. Don't come looking for me.

Goodbye, Odalia

Alador scrunched up the letter and threw it on the floor. He had never felt so much rage before in his life and he didn't know how to handle it. Someone had Odalia and they wanted to keep her from him. To make things worse he had wasted the entire day in school when he could have been out there looking for her. Even more, the letter felt like it was a personal insult to him. The penmanship couldn't even be compared to Odalia's yet they had expected him to believe the letter was from her. Whoever wrote it must have thought that he was an absolute idiot. Without a second thought, he turned around and ran out of the house. He was going to find her and bring her home.

Odalia 

"It's so dark here." thought Odalia into the void. 

She stayed huddled in one of the corners of the room, unable to tell how much time has passed since her mother locked her in there. She could feel the bruise on her face throbbing from where her mother had slapped her. It was the only sensation she could distinguish in the room devoid of sound and light. The room was small; it was mainly used as a storage closet for her parents' apple blood. It had no windows, no source of light, and a heavy metal door that could only be opened from the outside. She recalled how her mother had mentioned once that they had the heavy door installed when she was a toddler after an apple blood shortage caused an increase in break-ins. They did not live in the most secure area and it was a well-known fact that they always kept an ample supply at all times. Rather than focusing on securing the entire house, they went all out on a single room where their most prized possession was held.