August Intruder- Chapter 204- Balaclava (Patreon)

It was the middle of the night. The lights were turned off in the hallways and there wasn’t much in the way of seeing unless you had sharp eyes. Or a class that specialized in increased perception.

With a hand on the wall, Pelumi frowned. This was definitely unlike her.

The very thought was contradictory in her head. Just because she did not do these types of things often did not mean that what she was doing was unlike her.

You tried to get everything you needed to know when Melmarc fell in the portal the other time, she reminded herself as she continued down the hallway.

Taking a left, she held the room number she was looking for in her head. She didn’t want to lose it since she really couldn’t afford to. As for the other apartments, she had their numbers memorized already. She’d visited often after all.

But she didn’t visit Melmarc as often. It almost made her feel bad. But Melmarc had never visited her so there was that.

Maybe it was because they’d fallen into a type of pattern where she was always the one visiting. Melmarc hated leaving his room too. His life was destination based, as her mother liked to call it. From his room to his classes and back to his room.

Ark was the outgoing one.

The thought put a smile on her face. Melmarc could probably die in his room and say that he went out the best way possible if not for Ark.

Pelumi chuckled.

And she’d thought she was introverted once upon a time. If she was introverted, then Melmarc certainly needed a new word to help describe his type of person.

The hallway was still dark, but she was getting accustomed to it. The apartments were for the rich children. Those whose parents had so much money that they didn’t mind spending the extra bucks for a special room for their children. For the other students, the ones who weren’t from very rich homes or whose parents were very fixated on discipline and suffering bringing character, they shard simpler apartments. Apartments that consisted of a shared room, a toilet, and a kitchen.

Pelumi couldn’t complain much, though. The rooms were spacious enough, and her roommate, while not being the most fun, was not a tool. Yes, she was always talking about which parties to go to and what boys to have sex with, but that was arguably teenage behavior.

She didn’t like it, but she wasn’t going to get hung up on it. Besides, her roommate had not said anything rude about her desire to not be promiscuous. Someone had called Pelumi a prude because of it once.

So, as far as roommates went, one with no mutual interests was not bad.

She could definitely have done worse.

Ah, she thought, coming to a stop in front of the apartment she was looking for. Let’s hope we’ve got some willingness to help.

Raising her hand, she moved to knock. It froze midair as the door opened on its own. A head came out, looked left, right, then settled on her.

Both of them paused, staring at each other.

Pelumi wasn’t sure what to say. She was the one that wasn’t supposed to be here so she was sure the burden of initiating a conversation fell to her.

With nothing in mind, she looked at the raised hand. She moved it from a knock to a wave.

“Hi?” she said.

The girl looked at her, narrowed her eyes. “Can I help you?”

Unable to help herself, Pelumi pointed at the girl’s face. “A shiesty?”

The girl blinked. “Balaclava,” she corrected.

Pelumi nodded, but was still confused. She tilted her head to the side, a gesture to let the girl know that the correction did not answer the implied question.

“Why are you wearing one?” she asked.

It covered the girl’s entire face so that only her eyes and the bridge of her nose showed through the diagonal space in front.

The girl checked left and right again, then stepped out of the room with a sigh. She closed her door, turned the lock and stood to her full height.

“How can I help you, Pelumi?” she asked, her tone of voice implying that she was already tired of the conversation that had not yet even happened.

Pelumi was more interested in the fact that the girl had pronounced her name correctly. That was not common here. Then again, they were in the same class. And the teachers did call her name a few times, even if they did a good job at bastardizing it.

“Uhm… I just thought that I could…” Pelumi pursed her lips. Now that she was here, she really couldn’t say much—she couldn’t get the words out.

The girl waited, eyes slowly growing annoyed.

“You know what?” The girl put both hands on Pelumi’s shoulders. “You must be new to this whole thing of sneaking up to people’s rooms in the middle of the night, so I’ll help you. If you have malicious intents, the moment their head pops out of the door, bash it in. Works like a charm. Just don’t put too much energy and kill them.” She patted her shoulder. “If you have good intentions, message them. Until then, I have things I need to do.”

Wow… the rumors about the girl were right. Pelumi wouldn’t say that she was cracked in the head, neither did the rumors. But they did say that she was a problem child. A real one.

But above all, she still couldn’t wrap her head around the balaclava. What exactly was the girl trying to do? And why was a piece of clothing named after something that sounded like a weapon?

That’s not why you’re here? she reminded herself.

“Are you going out to steal?” she asked, genuinely curious.

The girl paused in her exit, as if taken aback. Pelumi felt she like she was not being too rude. Theft was the least evil she could think of about someone sneaking out in the middle of the night with a balaclava on to conceal their face. Where she was from, there were worse things a person could be doing by hiding their face and sneaking out.

A deep sigh left the girl’s lips and she leaned forward to look into Pelumi’s eyes. She was taller than Pelumi, significantly so, so she had to bend a little. Pelumi fought against every instinct to back away from the girl. She would not be intimidated.

“The only reason I haven’t bashed your head in and deposited you in a public space is because I don’t hate you,” she said in a careful whisper. “Is because I left you in this conversation for too long.”

Well… that intimidated her.

“Also, You’re Marc’s friend. Now, if you don’t mind,” the girl resumed her departure, “I’ve got to go figure out what happened to my friend.”

Pelumi’s hand shot out and grabbed the girl’s wrist. “Patience… right?”

The girl’s brows furrowed. “You came to my room without knowing whose room it was?”

She sounded surprised at a person’s stupidity.

How was Melmarc friends with someone this… chaotic? Then again, it wasn’t like she was a peaceful girl. Her chaos was just less… this.

“I came looking for you,” she explained. “I need your help.”

The girl cocked her head to the side. “You can see that I’m a little preoccupied with my own thing, right?”

“Yes, but we’re trying to do the same thing,” Pelumi explained. “I hope.”

“And what’s that?”

“Find out what happened to Marc.”

…

Patience could not believe this was what she was doing with her night. The plan had been simple, go to the classroom, check on residues of portal activity, there was always one, then call her brother.

Every portal appearance left behind something of a signature mark. It didn’t last forever, though. It was usually gone in a day or two. And since the school was not forthcoming with what could’ve happened to Melmarc, she had been inclined to find out for herself when the school was asleep.

Then walked in Pelumi, the girl their class wasn’t sure was dating Melmarc or not. They weren’t always together, but sometimes they came to the education block together with Ark in tow. No one wondered if she was dating Ark because her treatment of Ark was like that of a younger sister to a younger brother. She was softer with Melmarc, more feminine. Sometimes she pulled him gently by the sleeve of his shirt whenever she wanted to lead him in a different direction or if she wanted to get his attention.

Patience wasn’t the only person who knew this. Everyone in their class knew it. She wasn’t a stalker. She wasn’t obsessed with why Melmarc was hanging out with a girl like her.

She frowned as she crossed the courtyard to the classrooms, not alone. Maybe he likes more feminine girls. Maybe he doesn’t like girls who ruined other people’s lives.

He had been kind enough to her at the party, though. Although there had been a touch of blandness in his expressions that night. Patience had chucked it up to parties not being his scene. His older brother was the party animal, not him. So maybe he had been out of his element.

“How did you get her to come?” someone whispered behind her. The girl’s voice would’ve been quiet if it wasn’t the middle of the fucking night and there was no sound around.

Patience groaned internally.

After talking to Pelumi, Pelumi had suggested that they brought Martha along. They weren’t necessarily close, but they were friends and both had the [Invoker] class, so they knew each other well enough.

Patience had been against it until Pelumi had explained that Martha had a skill that summoned a familiar that somehow knew a thing or two about portals. Apparently, she was the type of [Invoker] that summoned familiars that gave her knowledge.

With the class, Patience couldn’t be sure what was true or false. But, she really wanted to see if she could help Melmarc, so here she was.

“Doesn’t she like Marc?” Martha asked in a low voice. “Isn’t this like dealing with the competition?”

“Martha,” Pelumi replied quietly. “Can we talk about this when we are not sneaking around?”

Patience sighed. If she didn’t need all the help she could get, she wouldn’t be dealing with two girls so amateurish that they did not know they were supposed to hide their faces when they were breaking the rules as well as not gossip when sneaking around.

Also, why would she think that she liked Melmarc, she thought as they walked into the hallway, ignoring the lockers they flanked the walls. She had gone out with the boy Scottie a few times. Weren’t people supposed to be talking about that?

It was funny how no one even thought they were dating except the boy himself—not that they were dating.

Why would Martha think she liked Melmarc?

That made zero sense. The two of them had only spent like a handful of times together. And they never talked for long. Was there some silly rumors going around class about Melmarc? Did people think he was a womanizer?

That was definitely not who Melmarc was.

Arggghhh! She fought the urge to grab her hair. Why am I thinking about that at a time like this?

She rounded on Martha.

Martha froze.

Patience froze too.

Now what?

“Why do you think I like Marc?” she blurted out. To her embarrassment, Pelumi gave her a look that implied that now was not the time.

As for Martha, the girl looked at her as if she was some type of home wrecker. There was a lot of sass in her eyes.

“Everyone sees the way you stare at him,” she answered. “Even while leading poor Scottie on.”

Poor Scottie was the farthest thing from innocent. He played up his innocence when he was with her and was always trying to ‘cup a feel.’ It was disgusting. Not to mention the fact that he was trying to go out with other girls.

“I am not leading Scottie on,” she insisted.

Martha grinned as if she’d already won the argument. “But you have been staring at Marc, huh?”

Patience opened her mouth, closed it, frowned, opened it again, closed it. Yep, she hated Martha. If there was no other indication of it, her urge to bash the girl’s head into the locker next to them was definitely an indication.

Her eyes moved to Pelumi.

Pelumi shook her head at her. “Not the time, girls. We need to get to the classroom before anything goes wrong. Remember, some of the teachers are in the classes.”

“They are securing the areas around the portals,” Martha explained. “They won’t be in our class.”

“A portal appeared there,” Martha objected with all the sass. “I guess someone’s not up to date on school knowledge.”

It was Patience’s turn to grin back. “And if someone was, they would know that the portal was closed a few hours ago and the teachers have cleared out of the classroom.”

She saved the look of shock on Martha’s face, turned around and started walking again.

That felt good.

Better than it had any right to feel.

The rest of the sneaking around was done in silence. Patience could feel Martha fuming behind her the whole time and it gave her the energy she needed to go on.

They passed two classrooms with teachers in them. Patience’s heart had been beating heavily the entire time.

On one occasion, Martha had suggested throwing a rock to distract the teachers, which nobody obviously had. Then she’d suggested summoning a familiar to knock the teachers out. To that, Pelumi had kindly pointed out that the teachers were A and S ranks with experience in combat. Then she’d suggested using the familiar to simply distract them.

Patience had been forced to inform her that this was not some action or adventure movie. This was real life. Their job here was to get to their destination while leaving zero traces of their presence in any way.

Martha had been unhappy to hear that, but she had been kind enough to shut up until they’d got to their classroom.

Patience was more than relieved to discover that her intel was correct, and the teachers had completely cleared the classroom. If there had been any there for the sake of just making sure that everything was fine, she would’ve just died from embarrassment in front of Martha.

“Alright.” Patience fought the urge to take off the balaclava as she walked into the classroom. The thing was uncomfortable. “Let’s get your familiar going so we know what we can do about this?”

The classroom looked as if nothing had even happened. The desks were where they were supposed to be, completely arranged. Maybe the teachers had tidied up before leaving.

Martha moved over to one of the chairs. “Is this where he was?”

Patience kept a sudden outburst from coming out. They had all been in the same class when the whole thing had happened. How the hell did she not know?

“It was here.” Patience pointed out Melmarc’s seat.

Martha smirked, walking over to it. “Of course you don’t watch him,” she muttered sarcastically under her breath.

Patience suppressed her facial expression of rage into lips pressed in a thin line. Maybe a punch would be acceptable. What were the chances that a single punch would kill the girl?

Very slim… right?

It wouldn’t hurt too much.

“No,” Pelumi said, standing next to her. “We don’t hit people just because they are annoying us.”

Patience’s eyes moved to her as Martha raised her hands up like some voodoo priestess about to summon her gods.

“And she’s not annoying you?” she asked Pelumi.

Pelumi tilted her head. “Not really. But I can understand you a little. Martha is something of an acquired taste. But—”

Something moved, then the class shook. The tables and chairs trembled as if students were getting up, their legs scraping against the ground. It was loud. If anyone was listening, they would have heard it. In fact, even if they weren’t listening, they would have heard it.

Then everything stopped, fell quiet.

She and Pelumi looked at Martha. She had stopped her voodoo priestess pose.

She blinked. “That wasn’t me.”

“Then what was—”

A portal appeared in the middle of the class and disappeared in the blink of an eye. It interrupted nothing, disrupted nothing.

Patience and Pelumi exchanged a look. The portal that had taken Melmarc had moved in the same level of suddenness.

Carefully, they walked over to where the portal had appeared.

They got there and every fiber of Patience’s being froze.

Martha screamed like a terrified child, jumping back.

She stopped and put a hand over her mouth. "I think I'm going to throw up."

Turning, she leaned over a chair and threw up.

Pelumi’s hands reached out hesitantly, trembling. Tears streamed from her eyes.

The smell of metal was too strong in the air, but Patience wasn’t paying attention to it. There was so much blood, so much pain. Her stomach threatened to expel everything in it.

Melmarc’s body lay there, battered and bruised, ruined. There were too many cut marks. Some of them were black, as if the injuries had been infected by something putrid.

But the deepest injury, the one pooling so much blood that it was reaching out and covering too much ground, was the one in his shoulder.

Someone or something had ripped out a massive chunk of his shoulder.

Please God, no, she found herself praying as she took slow, shaky steps towards his body.

Pelumi had already dropped to her knees in his puddle of blood, hands reaching out to cradle his head. She was crying, tears flowing terribly, but she made no sound. She looked like she was in shock.

I’ll go to church every Sunday, Patience negotiated with God as her steps carried her closer. Just please let him be alive.

Please.

Her foot stepped on his blood but she ignored it.

Please.

She got to reaching distance. In the distance somewhere, she could hear someone vomiting. She didn’t care. The person was unimportant.

Please.

She dropped to her knees.

Please.

Pelumi cradled his head to her chest.

Then she wept.