"What the hell happened?" Elfric breathed out, taking in the ruined state that his friend's face was in.
His pupils were darting back and forth between the cut on Christopher's thin lips and the bruise that covered the left side of his cheeks.
Chris avoided holding his gaze, dropping his head to stare at his white sneakers instead, completely aware of Elfric's stare that was unfolding all his secrets.
He felt his cheeks warm up at the reminder of what happened the night before, and the cause of these wounds, his hands brushed over them lightly. The stinging pain made the memory so vivid in my mind.
The cane sliced through the air to land on his face.
Elfric remained silent. Watching his friend closely as he reached his desk and placed his bag on top of it.
"I-it's nothing," Chris finally made up his answer—a useless attempt to fool his friend.
"You can't possibly think that I am going to buy that, are you?" Elfric growled, raising an eyebrow at how naïve Chris was.
"I would've believed you if you said you fell down the stairs. I might have let it slide if you told me that you walked straight into a wall, but…to say that it's nothing, I wonder if your brain is even working at this point."
Chris gulped as he heard the anger in his tone, sending chills down his spine. His desperate desire to avoid embarrassment in front of his friend, the only friend, has made him look like an idiot instead.
Elfric stood quietly for a moment, allowing Chris a moment to make up his mind. At this point, he knew that Chris wouldn't help but spill out the truth.
Though Elfric could sense where this was going beforehand, it wasn't the first time that this happened, and the cause was always the same…his family.
"You know that we should be way past the point where you are embarrassed to tell me something, Chris," Elfric sighed as he sat at his own desk.
The others gave Christopher of pity as they passed by, and he tried his best not to pay attention to them.
"I-I just…I can't get used to this," Christopher finally confessed as he allowed his head to fall to rest against the balm of his hand.
"I don't know what I did wrong!? Why do they always insist on being my cause of pain?"
Elfric sighed, placing a helping hand on the other boy's shoulder. He couldn't help but feel sorry for him.
Elfric worshiped his family; they were his only source of comfort, his only way of escaping…the reason for his life.
For Christopher, it was the complete opposite. Not that they were related by blood, but the ones that he calls mother and father are the closest things he has to a family.
Christopher was raised in his early years in an orphanage; he spent them in somewhat relative peace…and then he was adopted by Nobles.
He couldn't contain his happiness back then at the thought, the thought that he was going to have a family, that there was no more pain.
His nightmare started that night when he set foot in the Tepes manor.
The moment that he was given the name Christopher Tepes, it was the same day that he had gotten himself tied down to infinite doom.
It was long after that he realized that it wasn't an act of kindness towards him…
"It was a political thing," Christopher once told Elfric.
"They wanted to show just how humane the Nobles are and adopt commoners. But, deep down, they never accepted them, they never accepted me. I wasn't sent to the same Noble wing in the school because their offspring hated the fact that they were in the same place as me."
"I…"
Elfric placed his hands on Christopher's shoulder, bringing him to a stop.
"There is no need to say anything," he said.
Christopher was lost for words; he couldn't be more thankful for the friend he had. He hated that he looked this way in front of him and clearly saw that Elfric was well aware of that.
"Just know that I'm here," Elfric added.
Something inside him was now stronger. He left home this morning with his mind finally set, but this…this only added to the reasons that this can't keep on.
Some things need to change, and now he has the power to do so.
'I bring out of that shit hole, Chris…' Elfric promised himself as he engraved the state of Chris in his mind, marking it as a reason for what he was doing.
A checkpoint that he would return to in case he forgot his cause.
Now, the only thing that's left is to figure out how to bring the devil out again.
~~~~
The bell echoed throughout the school, and with it students started flooding out of it into the street, catching the last rays of the sun before night coats everything with its darkness.
"Do you want to come over tonight?" Elfric asked, adjusting the strap of his bag over his shoulder.
"Thanks for the offer, but I would appreciate being in my bed right now," Chris grinned. "And besides, you are off to your part-time, right?"
"Shit…"
"You forgot,"
"Completely,"
Elfric ran a hand through his hair before he pulled up his hood. "Alright then, I will see you later."
And with that, they parted ways, each off to their own kind of hell. But Elfric's hell was a little different, as he was summoning hell itself to him.
It was now only a question of how.
In the back of his mind, he found himself replaying all the things that he had gone through during these couple of days.
He found himself being too calm that it shook even him; even those dead bodies that were engraved in his memory no longer bothered him.
As if he was fine with the deaths that came to them by his hands, not exactly, but that was easier to say than saying that the devil made me do it.
His feet moved soundlessly on the ground with his head held low, appreciating the half-empty streets as he headed to work. He found himself wishing that at least tonight would be quiet without any interruptions or death or devils or…
Red-headed men.
"I see that you have made a bad habit out of blocking my path," Elfric hissed, whatever hopes of a quiet night were destroyed.
"It's your fault for refusing me every time," Zeph stated as he crossed his arms over his chest. "You just need to stop being so stubborn, and everything will be fine."
Eflric raised his head. "I see that this time you are alone," said Elfric.
"I thought that this time you would show up with half a dozen men by your side." He mocked as he furrowed his brows.
"Oh, that was my bad," Zeph stated, bringing a hand over his chest apologetically. "I've underestimated your skills; not even half a dozen of my men can land even a scratch on your fair skin."
"Happy that you figured that out," Elfric chuckled humorlessly.
"There is no way in hell that I could lay a hand on you either, that's why…" he paused.
The silence caught Elfric's attention to Zeph, who looked as if he was thinking his whole life over; he was nervous. The sweat beads were rolling heavily down his brow.
"That's why, for one last time, I would like to ask you to rethink your decision," added Zeph. Elfric saw a plea in his eyes, the ones that are warning you against fated doom.
"I have a feeling that Crane or whatever his name was, doesn't know of your negotiations," Eflric's eyebrow flinched as he narrowed his eyes.
"Believe it's better for everyone that you take this last chance that I'm giving you," said Zeph.
"Go back to Lord Crane, say that you have changed your mind, and he will take you in. He isn't in a spot where he can decline such an offer."
Elfric inhaled sharply, feeling the cool air wash the inside of his lungs.
"He is in a tight spot…yet," said Elfric.
" I don't believe that you have anything that could harm me or be of use to me." Elfric scanned Zeph from head to toe. In him, he saw all the possibilities that he could get from working with them.
'With their power, my goal will be easier,' Elfric thought, but then again, he would be the one working for them.
There was no reason for them to help him do what he wants, especially when what he wants it their complete obliteration.
For a second there, Elfric thought that he saw sadness on his face. Before he could question him or wonder. He felt the air hiss around them as two figures miraculously appeared a step behind Zeph.
Elfric snorted.
"And here I was almost getting fooled that you came here on your own. But you brought what…Elves this time?" Elfric took a closer look at the two men that towered over the 5'9 Zeph.