It took me three hours to finish detention.
Three hours of trying to fight my worst fears. Three hours spent cursing professor Bulock.
How could such a cruel thing be used as detention? How could such a cruel method be utilized?
I remembered his last words to me in class this morning, his last words that had sent a chill down my back.
‘No way for her to learn about our ways, for her to learn about respect and discipline in class if not through that.’
‘That’ meaning detention.
It would explain the reason why I had been the only one in detention. No one wanted their worst fears thrown at them. No wonder the sheer decorum in school.
The bullying had only continued because of who the bully was.
But I was sure that Rachel would repent if she was subjected to her fears. Three hours of living with them, and I knew that I wouldn’t disrespect Professor Bulock in his class again, so far as he let me be too.
You are still giving conditions? My mind taunted me and I shrugged my shoulders. I could never become a doormat because of some cruel rules.
I looked at my watch again, unbelief staggering my senses still.
Three hours. I had expected it to be more.
It had seemed like days in there, days I had spent hopelessly, fighting off creatures. I wasn’t sure if I had even overcome the fear, or if the octopus-like animal had mercy on me and had let me go.
Professor Bulock had mentioned one hour in detention, which meant that considering whatever it is he had heard about me, or he thought I was, he had believed that I would be done by one hour.
But then why did I stay three hours? Did the octopus forget what it had been sent to do?
I shrugged as I walked down the empty hallway. Everyone has gone home.
When I came out to the parking lot, everywhere was thick dark. I inhaled deeply, feeling a sort of panic at being alone.
My phone rang out, and I took it out from my bag and answered it.
“Hello…Miss Maya…”
I ended the call. I knew the voice. The shopkeeper who I was supposed to see today. I cursed loudly, wondering if my change of name hadn’t gotten to him. Not a problem. I will let him know tonight..
I started to run, hoping that Laura won’t worry much. I was just at the final gates of the school, when I saw a bike waiting for me behind a tree.
I paused, in shock. For a minute I thought that Naomi was here, but then I remembered who and where I was really and knew that it was impossible.
Then I saw the long black silky hair that had tangles on their tips, and sighed in relief. Levina.
Quickly I walked up to her. She straightened away from her reclining position on the tree when she saw me approaching. “What took you so long? I’ve been waiting for more than two hours. Wasn’t it supposed to be an hour?”
I furrowed my eyebrows, despite knowing that she couldn’t see me clearly or the confusion drawn on my face. “I wasn’t released until after three hours.”
“That sly old man. He must have gotten angry that you had thought you would escape the clutches of punishment because you had the prince by your side, and so he had increased the punishment to spite you both, and to tell the prince that he cared no more about his status, so long as they were still within the school’s premises. But still…that’s cruel.”
She cursed again.
So, Raul had only succeeded in increasing my punishment? Unbelief clothed my senses.
Yet, that wasn’t completely his fault.
That man. I gritted my teeth. What way would I pay him back? I wondered, feeling no small anger rise as a cloud over me, which only dispelled when Levina touched me.
“Come on, let’s go. The night patrol beasts would soon be let out.”
What again?
“What do you mean by night patrol beasts?”
My anger for the professor for letting me suffer near insanity whilst fighting my fears, waning completely.
“They are creatures that were created from magic, but so powerful. They were created by the first generation of the community leaders, and they are tasked with the duty of protecting the community at night. Their keys of control were passed to the queen by her predecessor. It goes down like that, one queen to the other.”
I nodded my head slowly, comprehending the passing down of the keys, but not what had caused the first queen to create the beasts in the first place.
“Do you have a picture of the beasts on your phone?”
Levina shook her head, passing me a helmet, as she threw her leg over the bike and mounted it expertly. “No one has ever seen the beast, and lived to tell the story. Only the Queen knows the identity of these beasts. Her family doesn’t. I heard that you can die just by looking at them.”
My eyes widened, before getting covered by the helmet. I climbed on the bike, and then threw my hands around her waist.
“A curfew was posed at nine pm at the last meeting. So, we have two hours to get to our respective homes, before the beasts are out.”
Good. Enough time to stop at the shopkeeper’s place. Thank the goddess it was an electronic bike.
Hopefully, the battery won’t run out from the speed that I would advise Levina to use, since I was about to ask her to drop me at the shopkeeper’s place first.
“Levina, could you drop by the biggest shop by Y axis…. It won’t take a lot of time, I promise. I just need to see the shopkeeper.”
“Not a problem, Dora. Thanks for today again. Thanks for being my friend. I will make sure to live up to your expectations.”