The Rogue World Of Dostira

The Exception

Kane felt his feet hitting the smooth stone pavement hard as he looked around for Charlie, his eyes darting left and right with his heartbeat rapidly rising. The last thing Kane wanted to see was Charlie's frail body laying on the cold floor of the hallway or in an empty room, and the thought of him painfully gasping for air stumbling around while students stared pathetically confused only made Kane more desperate. As he turned a corner and walked past one of the small gardens, he felt relief seeing Charlie slowly making his way into an archway entrance of another hallway. Kane ran to him and called out his name in a hushed manner, he watched as Charlie began to stop moving as he caught up to him.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Kane asked.

"I don't know anymore, I just need to sit down" Charlie began, his voice weak and raspy, "somewhere no one can see me".

Kane lifted his arm and placed it around his shoulder as he held his body up, they walked towards an empty room as Kane turned the door handle and helped him inside. The room was large, had clear white lines drawn on the wooden floor and grey thin mattresses in each secluded space. As they entered Kane realised this room was for Duel and Defence, he shut the door behind him and helped him lie down on a soft mattress that lay towards the back of the classroom.

"I remember Duel and Defence, we had it together in third year" Charlie chuckled in between a groan, as he lay his tired body down on the mattress and let out a sigh.

Kane rolled his eyes, "Yea I remember Mrs Swopple was not impressed when you hit that kid Henry right in the jaw". He laughed as Charlie let out a small chortle.

Kane looked around and admired the room. It's wooden floors, the cold stone walls that would ease your heated skin after practice, the dark brown desk in the front of the room that often had small candy for the first years who were sensitive to aggressive tactics during class. As he glanced over at Charlie he noticed his eyes were slowly drooping shut as he lay on the thin mattress, his chest rising and falling gently as he began to fall asleep.

"Don't worry Charlie, I'll be here when you wake up" He mumbled to himself as the large warm room kept them shielded from the eyes of other students wandering the halls.

⤜⤛

It had been almost two weeks since Kane had attacked Zach and everyone knew, people glanced away from him in fear as he walked throughout the hallways. Although this usually would make him feel powerful he felt nothing but constant worry, as his mind feared for the worse in regard to Charlie's condition. The students in almost every house were whispering about him, as being seen practically carrying around Charlie had made almost everyone curious. He could hear the hushed voices of students turn silent when he arrived, he felt like a lion trapped in a zoo as the whispers that seemed to never really fade made him more agitated than ever. He entered the refectory and kept his head down as he walked over to the table where Elios and Spiddle sat, they were scuffing down their food like pigs but Kane sat beside them unbothered. He knew that even they were curious about Charlie and why he had become so close with him but for the first time in his life, since fourth year, he was glad that his supposed friends feared him too much to get involved in his personal matters. Kane sat beside them and listened to their idiotic conversation, but even while he laughed at their vulgar jokes he couldn't get Charlie out of his mind as he sat silently trying to figure out what was happening to him.

Audrey didn't want to see Charlie or Kane, she was somewhat glad that for the past couple of weeks he had been like a wandering ghost. Having to carry an injured Zach with Bella's help to the medical centre, only to be told that he needed to self-heal on his own, was a horrible end to what seemed like such a lively day. She sat in the refectory, by Bella and Zach's side, feeling dismal as she played with her food. As Nora entered the refectory and walked towards them, she couldn't help but feel a slight surge of anger rise within her. Nora hadn't spoken to Kane about what he had done, she barely even talked to Zach and so Audrey struggled to hide her irritation towards her.