Intent of a Fool

~°°~

Lethe blankly watched the water trickle down as it was puked out by the roof. The swish and dance of water were strangely entrancing and calming; atleast, there was no longer the ticking of the clock nor the grim, vacant eyes of the Professors that Lethe imagined would gleam crimson as they commanded the demons from her memories.

Lethe Walth knew what she bloody saw. She saw demons. She saw the way their rotten flesh dripped down the tiles and how they corroded the smell of pastry and home. But if all was a delusion and insanity, then good. It's better for a lone student to be an insane maniac instead of the Professors.

And so, here she sat, looking for chocolates on her best friend's dirty clothes.

If she found nothing, then so be it atleast she could peacefully sleep tonight. If she did find something— she looked at Dome, at the sturdy walls and roofs that loomed like a cage— then they're fucked.

The brunette stopped and gritted her teeth, her chest burned as her fingers were tightly wrapped on Eris' hood, feeling something mushy in the depths of its pockets.

~••~

Eris felt sweat drip down their skin, tiredness aching their bones. So, perhaps the whole 'trying to master your Peculiar' wasn't working. The sprain in their knees stung painfully. Their Peculiar snuggled on their arm and they debated whether to burn it or not. Grunting, they stood up and leaned on the chair. "Lead me to the Healing Lodge."

It did what they had told, hauling them away. And soon enough, there they were, on the lodge of wood and green, the scorch of their limp and strains almost unbearable. Dazed, they barely felt the warm voice of the nurse, the soft pressure of the Healing Glyphs on their skin nor tasted the deadly sweetness of Thalamide. Despite the nurse's unapproving gaze, she had agreed to give Eris another dose. They had to suffer a week without it though.

They needed it now. To find the arsonist.

Soul energies were, of course, used to activate glyphs and Peculiars—and each person had different soul energies; some had high, some had low, sometimes it's warm, others cold. Eris broke down pieces of the burned door. They usually left out traces; they just had to recognize whose.

The professor said that they suspected it to be one of their friends, which they doubted considering they were close only to Boreas—who wouldn't even steal an ounce of a cookie—and Lethe—who would endlessly boast about it that even the outer galaxies would know it as well.

They felt an odd stinging feeling behind.

They looked behind, meeting the nurse's. Her eyes like gouged out buttons. She smiled as shadows crept. Eris smiled back unsurely, and went back to their work. Perhaps she was worried about the effects of Thalamide, they thought.

The nurse went to her office and began arranging the medicines in the cabinet.

Sighing, Eris let off some of their energy to the pieces of the door in their hand, hoping that a trace would be let out.

They frowned.

Nothing.

Well, it had been hours after all. They studied the door, ardently. There was nothing else they could do, anyways.

Eyes widened slightly as they noticed small splattered dried blood on the door. Unease and alarms were set off on their head.

There was a small dent on the tiles. Something sharp fell and bounced off the tiles. Eris stood up straighter.

Eris searched the Healing Lodge, kneeling as they peeked their head under the beds and felt the floor with their hands. They felt a small string in their palm.

Taking it out, a hefty necklace of nails was in their hands.

"Isn't this.." They frowned. This was Lethe's. They felt eyes on them as they clasped it.

They looked around. There was no one else in this room. The nurse was still in her office, fixing the medicine cabinet.

Eris Heindell was not a snitch especially not to their friends. Sincerely, they wanted Lethe not to be punished of course, but, the numbers in her neck weighed like bricks and it burned like the fire. The voices were screaming again; it demanded Eris to say so that they'd stay, and become an Elderstire or atleast a Graduate. It's not like Lethe would get hurt — she'd just get detention, their inner voice said.

Eris clenched their hand into a fist. No, replied the other. We should talk to Lethe first. Don't you think this is weird?

Quite frankly, it is weird. Lethe broke the rules as if it was a claim to a crown; the constant detention, pranking others and, spiting Boreas was embedded in it as its rubies. It made no sense for her to suddenly curl up because she burned down the Healing Lodge.

Eris felt their feet walk out of the Healing Lodge. They were blocked, their silhouette covered by a shadow.

The sound of keys and papers and the smell of old mahogany, this was the Professor they made the deal with.

~°°~

Lethe numbly stared at the gooey packet, mouth strangely dry. She heard Helen Sevhe snicker in the background as she drew water from the wells and splattered it all around.

But what if it's just a bar of normal chocolate? Desperation had an iron grip, denial, even more so. And so Lethe opened up the package, carefully tore the chocolate and there it was. A yellowish paper encased in plastic.

Water and sweat clung to her brown locks and skin like some cold paste. Oddly detached, she watched some boy with scarred skin and a cane halt the water, curbing it into a ball and shot it straight to Helen's forehead. The peals of laughter rang, echoing like a broken record. The light that gleamed from the Tower was suddenly too bright — dizzyingly bright.

Three things: one, what she saw was real, two, someone was messing with their memories, and three, they were seriously and unceremoniously fucked.

A small tug pulled her out of her thoughts. And so she tilted her head to look, a slight throb prickling her neck. Boreas stood near as water dripped down his skin, unconscious tears sprinkling down his face. Of course, it wasn't just Eris and Lethe. There it was, a similar package in his hands. There was just something about it, the way his innocent face scrunched up as he wiped those tears down or perhaps, it was the sudden, strange golden gleam on his baby blue eyes and the way he looked at her with abashed shock. Or perhaps, it was the way his voice cracked as he said; "Lethe? I don't understand—"

Whatever it was, Lethe stood up with an urge to scream and to run.

She grabbed his wrist and sprinted off. To somewhere safe and somewhere unseen. Faces passed by like foregone memories and hallways of paintings, heroes and ivories blurred.

Their shoes pressed against the bluish tiles of the bathroom, leaving muddy footsteps on their trail.

The boy was blue on his face. Standing straight suddenly, he rushed and vomited in the sink. Golden liquid spewed out of his mouth and Lethe looked down as if the tiles were an intricate puzzle to solve, nose scrunched in disgust. The groans were soon over—the faucet was opened and water rushed down. Seconds passed like hours. Boreas sighed and the faucet was twisted off.

The brunette finally lifted her eyes off the ground and faced her friend, at his confused, narrowed eyes, the jet-black hair framing his face and the vein throbbing on the side of his head. Water dripped down. The clock ticked on. Silence.

"Kai—" Boreas began but Lethe clamped his mouth shut with her hands.

Carefully, she looked around and closed the door behind them. Lethe then snatched the chocolate from Boreas' hands and tore them open, ignoring the boy's yelp. Hopefully, it worked like her chocolate. With a wish to grow taller, Lethe bit on it and felt herself rise in several inches.

Okay, so this chocolate also depended on the eater's want. She chewed a small part of it once again, this time with a wish to see anything invisible or something possibly hearing them. Perhaps, she's getting too paranoid and anxious. But, what if? She couldn't risk it. Not now. Not when she finally found someone who also remembered.

The chocolate was as sweet as she remembered; the familiar cocoa meshed with nuts and caramel. She gulped it down, let her eyes open and her blood froze.

And there it was. A demon looming on the bathroom walls, watching them, looking as if a picture from yesterday. Lethe did not look at it; forced herself to breathe, to relax and just look at Boreas' round blue irises. But still, there it dangled with its disembowelled eyes and skin of carcasses, gnawed by worms and fungus, sneering at her in the corner of her eyes.

"Lethe—"

"You stink, Puketraz," she immediately interrupted, forcing a smirk on her face. Don't say anything. Not now.

Usually, at mere teases, blood would have rushed on the boy's cheeks, reddening them till they looked like freshly picked tomatoes. But, not today. "Stop interrupting," he uttered. "Our—"

"C'mon, we should go back," she said hurriedly, grabbing his hands and led them outside. There were more demons around the hallways and corridors, unseen and unheard by the chattering passersby. They swarmed and hovered, monitoring the students. Avidly watching and watching. Great, she thought sarcastically. Just great.

An idea struck her. Lethe began to meticulously pat the side of his hand with her thumb. The three of them learned morse code when they were kids mostly because it sounded cool and because they could tell each other the answers in tests. Eris promptly forgot it after two days despite needing it the most, Boreas could do it even if half-asleep and Lethe had forgotten half of it.

S-O-M-T-H-N A-R-E W-A-T-C-H-N D-A-N-G-E-R. Notice it, Boreas. Notice it. She repeated them again and again until her thumb ached. Then—

He tapped back. O-K-A-Y.

"By the way," Boreas said, squeezing her hand gently. "Your essay had some grammatical errors. Some words are missing and it's supposed to be 'something is not 'something are'."

Lethe blinked. She snorted out a laugh. A genuine one. Of all the things in her code he could worry about, it was the grammatical mistakes? She laughed till tears were built on her eyelids. For the first time, she looked at a demon squarely in the eyes, unflinching.

The chocolate's effects soon faded away and Lethe wasn't sad to see it go.

For a little bit, everything was okay.

~••~

"What a coincidence to see you here." Something in his voice told Eris that it wasn't. Professor Noirin rested a hand on their shoulder, pinching it gently. "I suppose you found the arsonist?"

"I haven't yet," Eris lied through gritted teeth. They clenched their fists, gripping Lethe's necklace in their palms.

His grip tightened as he said in a sing-song voice, "I know you're lying."

"Well, I'm not. You said I have three days to find them, anyway."

"The Principal wanted it now," he said, toying with the innumerable keys in his left hand. The sound of its jingling painfully pierced Eris' ears.

They repeated, a furrow formed in the between of their eyebrows, "You said I have three days to find them."

"You knew who, kiddo. It's easy to know who." Then, why didn't you just do it yourself, Eris angrily thought. "Yet here you are lying." His hand stopped the ringing of the keys. The other one had tightened into even more so; his nails dug the skin of their shoulder blades. "Color me disappointed. I thought you wanted to be an Elderstire."

Then, to their relief, he lets go. "I'll ask someone else then." He grumbled as he fixed up his suit, "Go to your dorm and pack."

A girl with red hair and green eyes flashed into their eyes, making their jaw clench and teeth grind against each other as they count for each silent breath. They must stay. Lethe would understand and it's not like they're gonna do something bad to her.

"Fine." Eris let out a shaky sigh. "It's Lethe Walth who burned the Healing Lodge."

~°°~