Water and Fire (BL)

Chapter 64: Wallclimbers

The wind on Eric's face felt so cool as he zoomed through the hallway, with that guy's figure meters ahead of him, running away for his life.

Both of their footsteps echoed through the marbly hallway, creating a dissonant melody of tak tak tak, tak tak tak...

"David!" Eric called out, but David did not look back.

The guy sped up even more, making it harder for Eric to catch up. David probably has the stamina of a horse.

Eric lagged behind, his legs feeling the impact as his feet crash against the ground, again and again.

By the time Eric used his remaining energy, and sped up to catch up with David, the latter was already out of the long hallway and turning left into the woody part of the school grounds.

When Eric exited the hallway, David was nowhere to be found. Looking to the left, and to the right, Eric couldn't see anything but the multitude of tree trunks, the waist-high grass, and the wall framing the school. He continued searching for David, but after several minutes, he gave up.

Chasing his breath, Eric rested his hands on his knees, wiping his sweat, which trickled down his face and flowed down to meet the ground below. The radiant sun above him didn't help his feeling of weariness.

Suddenly, he heard a sound of someone landing from a high place, coming from outside the wall. Eric looked up at the high wall and saw numerous recesses on the wall's surface, as if fitting for one's hands and feet to latch on to.

Eric wondered if those recesses were deliberately made when the wall was made, but he realized the recesses looked like they were eroded by rain, irregular and uneven in their shape.

Eric wasted no time and scaled the wall with his backpack on his back. Minutes later he was already 15 feet from the ground. He positioned himself on top of the wall and saw that the place outside was an alley behind buildings, where few people go. There were even several garbage bins in the alley, trash bags spilling out of them. He scanned the place some more and then saw, in the distant, David running away, to meet the main street outside.

With a rush of adrenaline, Eric jumped from the top of the wall and landed on the pavement, crashing on his feet, wincing in pain. He wasted no time and chased David with all his power.

"David!" He called out to him as he near him.

Just as David was about to exit the alley and meet the glorious light of the main street, Eric catched up to him and grabbed David from behind.

David, with tears, sweat, and snoot on his face, struggled in Eric's arms, but he suddenly felt as if all the weariness that he should have felt earlier this morning, suddenly crashed down on him, rendering him powerless. In the end he gave up, sorrow and resignation in his entire being.