Waltz of Intellects

Chapter 5

Date: 21st January, 2016
Time: 14 : 08 hrs

Nicholas thought his head was going to explode. It felt as if someone had placed a big rock over his head. He tried to roll around, but he couldn't move. His limbs were restrained. He consciously tried tugging on the restrains. But, nothing happened. Slowly, his peered his eyes open.

Everything seemed concrete grey. He blinked his eyes. Once. Twice. His vision was blurred. The blur added up to his head ache.

He groaned.

After a minute or two he opened his eyes again. His vision seemed clearer now. The wall in front of him was dark grey. There was a table in the center, with a chair behind it. A man was sitting there, his face grim and serious. He looked young. His golden hair gleamed under the only source of light. Half of his face was distorted, probably burnt, he thought. He was curious about how that must've had happened, but he decided to ignore the man for now. There were much more important matters he had to focus on now. Like, why were his limbs restrained?

Nicholas coughed. Blood came out of his mouth. His body had still not healed completely.

"Good morning Nicholas. How are you feeling?"

Nicholas continued to ignore him. His focus was over his restrains.

He gave them a tight tug. But nothing happen. Next he tried using his teeth to cut the restraints on his arms, which was equally ineffective.

"You might want to consider changing your tactics. Physical strength will not break it. That material has tensile strength, greater than that of Nylon." The man prompted. His tone made it seem as if that man was amused,

Nicholas was no brawn, though he seriously wished he was that right now. His mana level was low. It was as if the restraints were sucking it out of him.

Giving up on trying to break the restraints, he laid down still and asked. "What am I doing here?"

"You've been charged of let's see... " The man trailed. He heard the sound of turning of pages. "...of killing a man, assaulting a student and spoiling the roses of the rose garden."

"Wait what? When did I do those? Kill a man? When? How? Why? Where?" Nicholas asked, bursting out. He felt wrongly charged.

His memory was fuzzy, he didn't remember what happened after he saw that girl. Grrrr! A growl escaped his mouth as he recalled her. But, he remembered nothing of what happened after that. It was a dark haze. It was as if someone had blindfolded him.

"The claw measurements will be coming soon. If your size matches, you'll be going to the pit. " The man said in a diplomatic tone, answering no questions made by him. "Till that time, there's mashed potato and water besides your head. Eat up. You'll need the energy for the trial."

"Wait what claws!?!" Nicholas asked shocked.

"Yeah. Claws." The man spoke, as monotonously as ever.

Nicholas had no idea what was going on. He gave a defeated sigh. He wanted to escape this, but he knew there was no way he could provide an alibi. At least not with the spaces in his memories. "At least tell me who did I kill?" He sighed in defeat.

"Jordan Kylewood. The key keeper." The man said, going back to read his papers.

Nicholas sighed and turned his attention to the food in front of him. It was only now that he realised, he was hungry. Quickly he gobbled down the sandwich and lapped the water.

His head still hurt.

-x-x-