Freaks - an MCYT high school AU fanfiction

Chapter 19: Scar

The shopping district is as busy as expected. Me, Grian, BigB, LittleB-dubs and Mumbo (who we met on the way) enter the almost parallel universe of the monopolising, money making  room. I quickly excuse myself upon seeing Cub waving at me, barely visible around the crowds of students buying newspaper, slipping through them and jumping over the fence.

'Business is booming, I see.' 

'Exactly. You want your weekly free copy?'

'Definitely!' It's handed over, and I flick through the pages before he adds. 

'Page 5, the interview about MCC. Another meeting tonight.'

'Great, I'll tell Grian.' With a wave back, I disappear again, making sure to grab my profits Cub's already gathered for me as I go. 

'Page 5.' Is all I say to let Grian know when I catch up with him and the others. 

'Tonight?'

A nod. 

'Good. We needed to have another one.' 

'What's this?' Bdubs frowns.

'Meeting of...' Understanding, he nods. Mumbo still doesn't get it, but Grian quickly distracts all of us with what's happening outside the slime shop. 

'Impulse.' He points, I don't see him, only noticing the guy all but pinning him to the wall, wearing a green hoodie with brown hair and the hints of a beard visible from behind. He's yelling, I think. Yelling at Impulse.

 'Iskall.' I recognise the name, but not the person. 

'What's he got against Impulse?'

'Ren and Stress were his friends. He must've heard the rumours...' Grian strides closer, still keeping enough distance, and I jog after. 

'Someone needs to do something...' BigB mutters.

'Help Impulse, no way.' I reply, instantly feeling a twinge of guilt. 'He's caused this for himself...' 

'Why did you kill them?' I hear Iskall growl, his Scandinavian accent clear. 

'I... I didn't...'

'Don't LIE. Why did you choose them?!' 

'It was the first name I thought of! Let me go! Please!' Impulse sobs back, unable to escape. Others are watching too. No one helps. 

'You're going to pay.' Swears Iskall. 'Omega punishment of doom.'

'Please...'

'Should we do something?' I can't watch. Grian doesn't reply.

'Iskall, stop.' Mumbo finally builds up the confidence to say. For a moment, it seems like Iskall's going to obey, but then he narrows his eyes and looks back at Impulse.

'Tell me why you did it.'

'Because he made me do it! The Principal! He... He forced me to do it.' Impulse looks around for a friendly face, eyes wide. I try not to make eyecontact.

'Come on, let's go.' I tug at Grian's sleeve, but he doesn't move.

'Go off on your own. I'm watching the show.'

'Fine.' I go, pretending I can't hear Impulse's pleas for help behind me as I look for something I could buy, or any of my shops I can collect diamonds from... nothing. I sigh, just walking around, and find myself back by the situation, where I can see Skizz notice everything.

'GET AWAY FROM HIM!' He shoves through the crowd, running over to Iskall and attempting to drag him away from Impulse, who slides to the ground. 

'He deserves it!' Snaps back Iskall. 'For what he's done.' But he doesn't continue fighting, glaring at Impulese with a final comment of. 'Murderer.' before slinking off. 

Skizz helps Impulse to his feet, whispering some question that Impulse nods back to. After one last look of disgust towards the slowly dissipating audience, he helps his friend away, out of the entire area. Trying not to get seem, I follow, watching them separate as Skizz heads back towards the dormitories, and Impulse goes the opposite direction, right down to the end of the corridor.

And into the Principal's office.

Bdubs was first one in the kitchen waiting to go to the meeting, but it didn't take long for Grian and BigB to arrive as well, and we all head off towards the redstone department. The journey's shorter that it is when me and Grian try to break our personal bests for how long can we take to walk there without getting properly told off, and we arrive. Grian counts down the doors, finding the right one, giving the signal, and entering. 

The first thing we all notice is the five chairs broken in the corner and Doc standing mid-throw, glaring at me and my dorm-mates as we enter, before hurling that in the corner too with a loud clatter.

'Ren.' Jevin sighs in explanation. Bdubs and BigB look at each other, concerned, before turning back to Doc.

'Why are they here?' He growls. 

'We have magic. All four of us figured out we all had magic this morning.' Bdubs states weakly. 

'Right now, we're mid-tantrum and all annoyed at Impulse... Welcome to hell.' Introduces Cleo with a sigh, pulling a lock of her hair behind their ear.

'Was anyone else there this afternoon where Iskall attacked Impulse?' Grian changes the subject. 'It... didn't feel good.'

'Good for Iskall. Someone's finally doing something to stop him.'

'It's not Impulse's fault!' Tango bursts out. 'Seriously! He's been forced into this, and we're giving him a hard time.'

'My best friend's DEAD because of him.' Doc snarls back, ready to throw a chair at Tango. 'What do you mean it's not his fault.'

'I mean, he didn't want to be tortured and threatened with death for information he didn't ask to get told about!'

'He still spied on us, he's still a coward who decided that snitching and murder was better than e little bit of pain.'

'Tango's right.' Etho agrees quietly. 'Impulse didn't want to be part of this.'

'I knew we should've killed him when we had the chance...'

'Is this normal?' Interrupts BigB sheepishly. 'Because this doesn't seem normal.'

'For this group, or for outside? Neither. We don't normally have someone defending a murderer, someone who can only think of revealing everything as a good option to help a person they don't even know that well, someone so socially awkward they can't share small suspicions of magic, or a raging idiot in a constant state of temper tantrum.' Cleo shoots back, receiving a chair thrown close enough to her to be a warning. 

'Oh, F***ING HELL, Doc. CALM DOWN!' She snaps back.

'Look, we don't need to blame anyone! It's not going to help!' I finally manage to say. 'BigB and Bdubs are new here, they're scared, I have some information for us, Cleo's traumatized, and no one's happy. So stop throwing chairs and listen.'

'Information? On what?'

'Impulse went to the Principal's office immediately after the incident with Iskall. I followed and saw...'

'Oh, great. Impulse gets to kill more of us... any other bad news?' 

'I'm still here?' My hands flash with blue fire for a moment. 'You're still here? Everything going on right now?' 

'Scar, calm down.' Cub speaks, stepping over to me. I try to, sighing.

'Sorry, Doc.' 

'Look, maybe meeting isn't a good idea. We just end up getting stressed and worried about everything even more instead of relaxing.' Pearl tries to calm the room down. Doc sinks against the wall, seemingly exhausted.

'There's too much going on to relax.'

'Well... does anyone have anything that can cheer us all up?'

'Like what?'

'Good memories, funny stories...' Pearl trails off at the sight of everyone's apathetic looks back. 'I'm trying to help here!'

'Good for you, it's not working.' Snaps back Jevin. 

It's then that I realise someone isn't here. 

'Where's Hypno?'