Tamquam Alter Idem

The Darkness Before the Dawn

"Parrish."

"Parrish?"

"Adam!"

Adam dropped to the floor right before Riah's eyes. It was bound to happen someday, Riah knew. Adam couldn't have lived on like he was without ever facing the repercussions of it. He barely ate and never took food from any of his friends, studied to the point of exhaustion, and got up only a few hours later to work himself to death before he did it all over again. It was bound to catch up with him. There was something admirable about his unwavering determination and ambition to get out of this life, but Riah had always secretly mused that it was going to be the death of him one day. But that day seemed to arrive sooner than Riah could have ever predicted.

The moment Adam hit the floor, all sound in the crowded prep school hallway vanished. It wasn't so simple as tripping. That, Riah might've been able to process. Riah was not able to process the way Adam had stopped walking, then the way Adam's eyes had rolled back into his skull, then the way he'd collapsed like a house of cards.

There is truly no sound quite like a limp body hitting the ground. It is impossible to mimic or replicate. And, in the aftermath of that terrible noise, Riah could only hear his own frantic heartbeat and the steady pulse of his feet hitting the ground as he ran back to where Adam had fallen. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he sensed Gansey was following him, but he couldn't pay attention to his best friend's frantic yelling right now. The only thing on his mind was the unconscious boy in front of him.

Adam was frighteningly pale, his cinnamon-coloured freckles standing out in stark contrast against his skin.

Riah thought he had never found a better moment to pray.

Please, not him.

Please.

Riah checked Adam's pulse the instant that he was close enough to reach, the even thrum of it making him feel just a bit steadier. Then Riah gently rolled Adam over onto his side and tried to position his arms and legs in a way that made the slender body look less wrong. Riah tried to remember what else a person had to do when someone fainted, but he didn't get much further than:

Make sure he doesn't bite his tongue off.

Make sure he doesn't choke on his tongue, or something like that. Was that even possible?

He could be unconscious for fifteen minutes before there was a need to raise the alarm.

Fifteen unbearable minutes.

"He needs water and something to eat," Riah said, addressing Gansey. "Something with a shitload of sugar."

Gansey demonstrated his peculiar ageless quality as he slipped from a frightened boy into his presidential role, looking nothing like a boy anymore. "Should I get the nurse?"

"Get the stuff first," Riah replied thoughtfully. He gently brushed a strand of hair away from Adam's fine-boned face. "In case he wakes up."

Gansey nodded and briskly strode down the hallway. It was then that Riah realised there was a crowd forming around the two of them. All eager eyes looking at the delicate boy on the floor.

"Show's over," Riah snarled menacingly.

He had to protect Adam as best as he could. Adam would hate the commotion centered around him if he was awake, and these assholes didn't care about him anyway. They only cared about whatever they could get the best gossip out of.

People quickly scattered at Riah's tone, knowing it was a bad idea to mess with what was probably the most dangerous person at Aglionby Academy. Though, he supposed they couldn't really be blamed for their curiosity; they had probably never seen him treat someone so gently as he had treated Adam just now.