The Curse (H. Academy Series #1)

I didn’t sleep that night.

The clear night sky turned cloudy during night, and lighting flashed outside, each thunder strike shaking me awake. My mind was cloudy, too, and nothing made sense anymore.

Why now?

Why would he evacuate us now? Why not right after the attack that killed eleven students? Why now that Winston Academy students arrived? Something was missing. A titbit of information. A piece of the puzzle. There was something I wasn’t seeing.

When morning came, my father called for an emergency meeting in the main hall and said the school was to be evacuated by nightfall. As expected, no one decided to stay. Well, only a few lunatics such as myself. My father seemed satisfied.

After the emergency meeting, Amma and Morta went straight to their rooms to pack. I lingered, trying to catch Thar and ask him if he knew anything more.

When he exited the main hall, I ran after him, “Wait a second. Wait. We need to talk.”

“Not now, Jade.” He said under his breath without slowing down. “Your father requested to see all of us.”

“Teachers?” I kept running after him. “Why?”

“I think he wants us to stay here.” Thar turned the corner, and I realised we were in one of the narrow hallways leading to the bathrooms, where no one could see us. “Come up with a plan.”

“To fight demons?” My voice sounded just a bit jaded. “Or summon them?”

Thar faced me, expression hard, “Don’t. We have no idea what’s going on.”

“But you’re staying, right?”

“Yes.” He met my gaze. “And you are leaving.”

I raised my eyebrow, “Fat chance.”

“Jade.” Thar’s shoulders slumped. “We’ve got what we wanted. The students are being evacuated.”

“Actually, it’s voluntary.” I put my hand on my hip. “And I volunteer to stay.”

“Don’t be an idiot.”

“Hey!”

“I’m serious.” Something sparked in his eyes. “If I’m going to stay in a demon-infested school, I don’t need to worry about your safety on top of all.”

While I appreciated his concern, maybe even revelled in it, he was not going to dissuade me.

“I’ll stay in my room. It’s shielded.”

“Jade...”

“Don’t.” I took a step back. “I don’t trust my father and I’m not going to do as he says, even if it seems like he’s concerned about us.”

Thar’s shoulders slumped, and he pursed his lips. He was trying to think of ways to convince me to stay, but he realised soon enough there weren’t any. I had made my decision. I was going to get to the bottom of this.

“I’ll meet you after the meeting.” He said. “And then we’ll discuss it.”

I nodded, satisfied with the outcome.

The rest of the day passed by in a blur of second-guessing. Morta avoided me for the most part, but Amma kept glancing my way whenever we’d meet in the bathroom. Morta was stubborn; she was pissed off for her own reasons and she let it spill into everything else. But Amma was smart, and she knew there were too many unanswered questions. Despite it, she kept her course, and by the late afternoon, she was ready to leave.

As the clock ticked 8PM, my unease grew.

And despite my resolve, I packed my stuff, too. Just in case.

Just an hour to go. I couldn’t sit still anymore.

I knocked on Amma’s door, but walked in before she said I could.

“Don’t go.” I burst in, heart beating against my chest.

She raised her glance from her suitcase, “Jade...”

“Don’t go.” I pushed. “Something is wrong. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I can feel it. Fuck, I always second-guess my father’s requests, as a rule of the thumb.”

Amma sucked her lower lip in.

“Don’t tell her what to do.” Morta showed up behind me. “She can make her own decisions.”

“Of course, she can.” I turned around. “I’m not commanding you to do anything, I’m asking you to trust me. One more time.”

When no one said anything, I looked back at Amma, “Think about it. Why now? Why fucking now?”

Amma looked down, her gaze jumping across the floor.

“I want to leave, Jade.” She looked up. “I’ll- I’ll go to the main hall and see what’s going on. And if something suspicious is happening, I’ll consider your words.”

My shoulders slumped.

“Fuck.” I cursed, not knowing what else to do. “Fine. Fine.”

I turned towards the door.

“Where are you going?”

“To try to convince someone else I’m right.”

There was only one person I could convince to do anything. Even stay in a demon-infested school. Someone reckless enough to accept such an insane suggestion.

I didn’t knock on Leon’s door, but simply walked in, catching him packing his suitcase. He met my gaze, his expression hard to decipher. I closed the door behind me and leaned against it. My heartbeat quickened for reasons unknown, and my worries about demons suddenly relocated to the back of my mind.

Leon glanced at his watch, “Well, since I’m done packing, I guess I can spare half an hour.”

“Are you sleeping with someone else?”

Surprise flickered in his eyes and he pulled himself off the floor, “No.”

“I don’t believe you.”

I was suddenly very hot, which heavily contrasted the chill I’ve felt since yesterday evening.

“I’m not sleeping with anyone else.” He said, cocking his head to the side slightly.

“But you are flirting with other girls.” I stated, remembering Amma’s words.

Leon took a step closer and let out a laugh, “I’m keeping my options open. You know, since you’re in love with your Black Magic teacher.”

I swallowed my heartbeat, “I’m not in love with him.”

“I don’t believe you.”

An hour wasn’t enough to figure it all out. Whether I was in love with Thar, whether I minded the idea that Leon might have other options waiting in line once he was done with me. But the last ten days meant something. Something that mattered in times like these.

“Don’t leave.” I said, voice cracking. “Please. Something is wrong. I can feel it.”

Leon chuckled, “I wanted to leave days ago, Jade. Figured I’d fuck you a few times before, though.”

Pain spread through my chest. Harsh and sharp.

“Don’t do that.” I pushed, determined to ignore his crassness. “I’m asking you to stay. I’m begging you. Don’t- don’t push me away now.”

“You can’t push away someone who’s not even close to you.”

It was a defence mechanism. It had to be. He wasn’t heartless.

Once again, I swallowed the lump of pain in my throat and decided to risk it all.

“Leon.” I spoke. “I’m concerned. I want you to stay here with me.”

“Don’t act like you care about me, Jade.” He shook his head. “That wasn’t the arrangement.”

“Well, maybe I do.” I stomped with my feet. “Maybe I’m ignoring all the red flags like a goddamn idiot, and maybe I recklessly, stupidly care about you.”

“You don’t even know my last name!”

I took a step back, his words slamming into me. Oh, Goddess. My mind scrambled, searching through its pockets for the information, but I found none. He was right. He was fucking right.

“Don’t pretend-” He grabbed his suitcase, and I noticed his throat bobbing. “Don’t pretend this is anything other than what it is. You wanted a distraction, and I wanted to fuck something that belonged to Thar Adara.”

My shoulders slumped. Something inside me flipped upside down. It wasn’t the realisation that I cared about him, that much I could have guessed. It was the realisation that he didn’t care about me. At all.

He walked past me. I heard the door handle turn and squeezed my fists.

“You’re an Elemental.” I said and the door handle stopped turning. I turned around. “You have fire magic, and we’ve seen what fire magic did to the black ooze. It destroyed it. You can help this school more than you think. Fuck, it’s your duty-”

“No.” Leon faced me. “It’s not my duty. I don’t have a duty to do anything.”

“That’s not true.”

“Force me.” He dropped the suitcase. “If I don’t get to define whether something is my duty or not, then force me to help.”

“I can’t do that.”

“That’s right.” He nodded. “I’m leaving.”

“You’re a coward.”

Leon laughed, “Okay, sure. But you’re only doing this because you desperately want to prove you’re right.”

“Doesn’t mean I’m not.” I pushed through the lump in my throat.

“Doesn’t mean I’ll be here to see it.”

“This was such a fucking mistake.” I managed a bitter laugh despite the pain burning in my throat.

“As I’ve been telling you since the start.” Leon grabbed his suitcase and turned the door handle.

“Only thinking of yourself can only get you so far.” I said, tears now stinging my eyes. “Being a coward is not an admirable trait.”

“Yeah, well, I’ll be a living, breathing coward.” He opened the door and glanced at me once more before he left. “You can be the dead hero.”

He carried his suitcase down the stairs, and the moment he couldn’t see me anymore, tears spilled from my eyes. I couldn’t keep the pain down anymore. I shook my head in disbelief, tears ending on my shirt. Morta was right. Of course she was.

I felt like an idiot.

Why? Why would I think he’d want to stay because of me? Why did I think he felt he had some sort of duty towards me? To keep me safe? To help me?

Like he said, he just wanted to fuck something that belonged to Thar Adara.

I felt disgusting. I felt disgusted.

Wiping my tears, I tried to pull myself together, but realised I left my phone in my room. And the clock ticked 10 to 9. They were meeting in the main hall in ten minutes.

In one last desperate need of comfort, I left the male dorms and headed for the teachers’ quarters. While passing through the backyards, I saw buses gathering in front of the school. The only place alive tonight was the main building, and clamour and anxiety rolled from it in waves.

But I did not go there. Once again, I didn’t listen to common sense. Instead, feeling destructive and lonely, I headed straight for the teachers’ quarters.

No one noticed me as I walked through the dim-lit hallways. No one was here. And if they were, they were in their chambers. I found Thar’s room and knocked.

He opened, dressed in sweatpants and a black undershirt. The moment he looked at me, tears began stinging my eyes again.

“What happened?” His eyes were so deep, so dark. “Jade?”

I blubbered, “I thought he couldn’t hurt me.”