Knight in Sneakers

Chapter 49 'Love is worth the risk.'

Entry 43

21st October, 2016.
Friday.
10:30 a.m

Clarke Augustan

My eyes landed on a slightly pink Aaron who looked like he was struggling to say something. He looked so worked up with the possible internal debate that he could be having. For the past one week, he's been very distracted and away from all the people around. Hence the confusion kicked in when I noticed he had approached me.

"I couldn't wait, uh, wait to tell you this." He took a deep breath and continued. "I've been by thinking a lot lately and I feel-" And suddenly I got this strong bad feeling like I could smell the disaster being cooked. A strong bad feeling like something terrible was going to happen. I quickly asked Aaron to hold his thought and looked around to find something suspicious. The chemistry lab was pretty huge and long, with all the gas and chemicals inside at the back, it was a dangerous place if misused and that scared me even more. If something was to go wrong here, it would be ten times worse than the usual wrong turns. Everything around me seemed normal but the unsettling feeling could only rise within me. While some people were chattering away, others were doing something related to their experiments. The professor was going on rounds checking the experiments and helping the students out. Everything seemed completely normal but yet, I knew it wasn't.

"Clarke, are you alright?" Aaron's concerned voice pulled me back to him. There was a small frown etched on his face with worry filled his eyes. I shrugged and returned his frown,

"When I get a strong feeling that something bad is going to happen, it normally does." I quietly whispered back after taking a deep breath.

"Maybe you're overthinking." Aaron replied failing to calm me down. He looked around at the oblivious crowd and shrugged his shoulders.

"No, Aaron, I've only got this feeling twice in my life now. First time, I saw my mother die and then the second time, I never saw my best friend again. So trust me." I replied back as I looked outside the window. The windows were of fibre glass, thick and hard, with no railings or grills. They gave a clear view of the outside and with what I could see, everything was still pretty normal.

Just then I smelt something very disturbing. It was very slight and almost unnoticeable, but I could feel it slowly increase causing irritation in its process. I quickly turned around to examine my surroundings. My table was at the end of the classroom, so it made it easy for me to search for the source without looking suspicious. The smell was so light nobody would have even realised it. Even if they did, it'd be too late by then. I asked Aaron to check all the cylinders from left while I started from right.

Just as I passed the corner I found something small which caught my eye. The sound was so soft, it almost made it impossible to hear it with all the noise around. The little gas cylinder, which was about one foot, camouflaging with the rest of the rest of the cylinders, was leaking. But with just one look, I could tell the leaking was intentional and not an accident.

It didn't even look like our school's cylinder first of all.

The smell grew stronger as I walked closer to it. Lightest shade of yellow gas was neatly blending in with the atmosphere. As I got closer, the odour became too strong abruptly, hitting me straight in the chest as I took an unexpected whiff of it. The harsh odour caused irritation in the path the gas travelled through my nasal making me coughing harshly. Tears burned my eyes as I tried searching for some fresh air. Aaron was behind me in a second, rubbing my back in comfort.