Chapter Seventeen

Background color
Font
Font size
Line height

Ups 

No matter how many he opened, no matter how many he closed and reopened, no matter how many times he looked, each and every classroom was empty. With each classroom he found empty, Noah found more panic inside of himself. The more he looked for students, the less he found. There were hundreds if not thousands only a matter of hours ago, now they had all vanished, only remembered by the speaker systems that rattled off lectures incoherently as if they were still through another door.

With his heart in his chest, he hardly noticed his panting when he rounded the steps and avoided the bathroom where he still feared a run-in with the girl with no eyes before he went to a set of theater doors he had not returned to since he first spotted Hannil. The theater was empty, as he expected, no speaker system lied to him like the other rooms. It was quiet, eerily so.

All Noah could think of was how he needed to think, how he needed to figure out a plan. How he needed to calm down. He had to leave, but he knew Liam and Hannil were not what Hanna claimed. They had families, a place to return. He couldn't leave them behind. He skidded to a stop after he ran past some kind of director's office and saw a woman inside.

It wasn't just seeing another that made him rush into the office, it was who she was. The woman from the garden he had nearly forgotten all about. The teacher that still had on her hat and still held her briefcase, her eyes fixated on the desk in front of her. Noah knew he must have made noise, yet it took her a moment before she looked at him, her features still darkened by her hat.

"Do you speak English?" Noah panted as he held the doorframe.

"You are frightened," she commented.

"You do," he replied in such an out-of-breath way that he soon felt he was to collapse and the pain from running struck him violently. He forced himself to stay upright by holding the beam, there were no other teachers, no other adults than the Headmaster and Ms. Rae as far as he knew.

"Are you the drama teacher?" He asked her.

"No." She replied, "I am lost."

"Lost?"

She nodded, her accent was different than Hanna's, but still held a slavic-like way about her words. Her English didn't seem poor but it seemed to trouble her to speak at all.

"I need to find the library," she replied. Her voice sounded nearly desperate, her eyes even more so.

"The library," Noah replied with a nod, "That's a good idea."

Noah hadn't seen librarians before, but Liam had been in there often enough gathering books in brail for his classes. Noah made a note to ask him about any of his classes before he stepped out of the room and was surprised when the woman rushed to keep up with him.

"Are you taking me there?" She asked.

"I think my friend might be there," Noah replied, "Are you new here?"

"Yes."

"Oh, good," Noah thought that she couldn't be too influenced by the Headmaster if she was a new teacher. "I'm Noah Cooper."

"Nice to meet you," she replied. "I hear about you."

"About me?" Noah squeaked before he went back to his panting, the exert of the shock reminded him how exhausted he was.

"Yes," she replied. "I did not think it would be so easy for you to take me to the library."

"It's just this way," Noah said as he weakly held the door open for her and she slipped through.

"Where are you from?" Noah asked as he still avoided the bathroom and went slowly down the steps.

"Moldova," she replied.

"Oh," he paused, "I don't know where that is."

She stared at him for a moment and he gave an apologetic shrug. In their silence, Noah could hear voices down the hall and he quickly identified the first as Mi Na's, the Headmaster Berg's, then, to his surprise, Hannil's. They were talking lowly but it wasn't a whisper, only a private conversation between the three that Noah couldn't pick the words apart.

"You know them?" She asked, seemingly baffled by the expression on his face.

He nodded before beginning to slow down. He thought that Headmaster Berg would neither like Noah having his own ideas nor him being close with Hannil. To avoid them, Noah walked around the hallways and went back down the stairs, opening the lower part of the library.

"Library," Noah said to her.

She looked nervous before she stepped inside, Noah saw her shoulders drop after a moment.

"How quiet," she commented. "Where are the librarians?"

"I do not know," he shook his head.

Inside the library, Noah saw a few students that seemed to be the same students he always saw inside the library. His interest stayed on Hanna's words before his eyes narrowed in on Liam sat quietly with his hand on his book and several books piled around him. Noah walked by the woman despite that she still seemed to need help, the library was large but it wasn't that large. He assumed she could find what she was looking for without a librarian.

"Liam," Noah said as he grabbed onto his shoulders.

Liam jumped slightly at the contact but sighed soon back int his relaxed state.

"There should be an idiom in your language about not sneaking up on the blind," he said as he turned his page.

"Sorry," Noah whispered as he sat down beside him.

He opened his mouth to let when Hanna had told him spill out, but paused as he remembered his coming-to after six months. Liam hadn't believed him about the girl in the hallway, somehow he had convinced him not to talk to Hannil, not to believe the incident to be real. In reality, Noah hadn't told Liam what he had told Hannil; within a moment, Noah was convinced Liam wouldn't believe him once again. He remembered how Hanna said that Mi Na convinced her, he wondered if Liam convinced him in the same way.

"Have you seen Hannil?" Noah said when it was obvious Liam was waiting for him to say something.

"And here I thought you had gotten used to the fact that I have seen nothing—ever."

Noah took in a deep breath.

"Is something bothering you?" Liam asked, he seemed pleased with his jokes.

"No," Noah replied as he put his elbow on the table.

"You sound like you've been running around again."

"Looking for Hannil," he explained.

"If the Headmaster catches you with him, he'll be angry."

"The Headmaster can't control who I do and don't be friends with."

"He'll be angry," Liam repeated.

"What's he going to do if he sees me talking to him?"

"Talking to whom?" Hannil's voice came in like a sledgehammer to the peaceful scene.

It was clear he had only started to hear their conversation, his fingers were preoccupied as he tied his tie and he looked genuinely curious at them and about their conversation.

"No one," Noah scratched his scalp nervously, his eyes jutted away from Hannil.

"Salut, Sinclair," Liam greeted him softly.

"Salut," Hannil replied, his voice changed a bit before his eyes went back to Noah and he gestured his head back before he stepped around the bookshelf behind him and waited.

Noah slowly got up and followed him back into the library, the lights were dimmer and the books were more, stacks Noah thought, truly stacks.

"Find anything?" Hannil asked as he folded down his collar before his fingers moved onto his sleeve.

He hesitated for a moment, thinking that Hannil had just talked to two of the people Hanna outed privately.

"Did you?" Noah asked.

"I asked you first," Hannil replied with a chuckle.

"Yeah, a lot," Noah said as he tried to think of why Hannil was talking with them.

Hannil looked back from his sleeve to Noah, "You sound hostile all of a sudden." He paused, "Don't tell me you've flipped back to the out-of-body you." He reached out and grabbed onto Noah's hair, as if to inspect his face.

"No!" Noah hissed as he bashfully moved his hand from his head. "I'm fine!"

"Whatever you say," Hannil replied with a small chuckle.

He watched him for a moment longer, only until Hannil had his cuffs buttoned once again and put his hands back into his pockets and looked at Noah. Hannil seemed normal, Noah thought, if anything he was far beyond average. He wasn't Noah's roommate and had expressed his family and his love for them repeatedly. Hanna not knowing Hannil's name had surprised him; maybe, Noah thought, she had never tested him

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Hannil replied, his answer was so drawn-out it was like he didn't want to answer at all.

"You said you had siblings, how many?"

"Younger or older?"

"Younger," Noah replied.

"Three."

"What are their names?"

"Why is that suddenly important?"

Noah swallowed thickly, "Just—I want to know." He shrugged.

"Evie, Miguel, and Selena. That's the order of which we come, too," Hannil removed his right hand to make three motions in the air as if to separate his siblings.

"Sorry, who is the youngest?"

"Selena."

"The oldest?"

"Me."

"Then why did you make me clarify between younger and older siblings if you only have younger siblings?"

Hannil shifted his weight, "Well, that's kind of a personal question."

"It's all kind of personal."

He sighed before he quickly stated: "My older sister is dead."

Noah was struck by the answer, so much that it quieted him.

"Before I was born," Hannil clarified with a wave of his hand, "It just gets people confused because I'm the oldest alive but not the firstborn."

"What was her name?"

"Avae."

"And your brother's?"

"Miguel—why are you asking so much about my siblings?"

Noah took in a deep breath, "Why do you have such a weird name when all your siblings have pretty normal names?"

"Avae isn't really a normal name," he replied, "I'm named after my grandfather."

"Your mother's father?"

"Father's father." He paused, "Is this some weird way to ask me what race I am or?"

"What? No!" Noah shook his head.

Hannil reached into his pockets and fished out a small booklet and opened it, he pulled out a photograph and offered it to Noah. Before he even took it, Noah could see it was a family portrait. It showed a tall man that looked very much like Hannil and a small woman with a head of curly, dark hair that was free in the wind. She had her hands on a much younger Hannil, she nearly toppled over him in laughter; Hannil had the hand of a young girl who was holding the hand of an even younger boy, in the older man's arms was a baby despite that Noah could see nothing more than a pale blue blanket. They were standing in front of the ocean in a well-trimmed garden, dressed in suits and dresses. 

"You look like your dad," Noah commented softly. They looked similar, Noah could tell by the photograph alone. Not just in height, but their features were similar, only Hannil's nose was broad, his eyes rounder than his father's. 

"Everyone says that," Hannil replied as he leaned over the picture to look at it. "Especially if they've met him. The green eyes throws everyone off." 

"They look happy," Noah said absently as he stared at the photo. He had seen many, many family portraits both of his family and of others. He had never seen one where their eyes weren't full of dread and impatience, just a glimpse away from capturing what truly went on beyond the camera and name-brand clothing.

Noah offered the photo back to him and Hannil look at the photo himself.

"I'm about thirteen in that one," he said as he looked at it. "Since we aren't allowed our phones, I keep this one and a few others in my room." He put it back in his booklet and it returned to his pocket, "Now, can you tell me why you asked me all those weirdly repetitive questions? You found something good, didn't you?"

"Mi Na," Noah nearly cut him off.

"You found Mi Na?" Hannil asked as he leaned against one of the bookshelves, "Odd, I was just talking to her."

"No, no," Noah shook his head, "You know her, don't you? Like, outside of this place?"

"Well," Hannil shrugged, "Our families know each other."

"The Headmaster, what does she think of him?"

"That he's alright, I suppose," he replied. "Just about the same thing that any girl thinks of her stepfather."

Noah paused in his questions and stared at Hannil for a long minute.

"You didn't know the were related, did you?" Hannil said.

"No," Noah replied, able to hear his own disbelief, yet it didn't last, he grabbed onto the bookshelf Hannil leaned onto for support.

"Oh, but it makes sense." Noah replied, "Kind of, not really. Why they get along but don't get along makes sense now."

"What did you find?" Hannil asked. "Sounds amazing, I should have gone with you! All I got was a lecture about the importance of education and how I needed to come inside at some point in time and read." He scoffed a laugh. 

Exhaustedly, Noah found what Hanna said and what he had seen spilling from him to Hannil. He had planned on telling Liam too, another thing that made Hannil scoff. As he had the night before, Hannil only listened as he spoke, soaking in each and every word he used until he stopped and leaned against the bookcase opposite Hannil and stared at the window.

"Sundown?" Hannil replied.

Noah nodded.

"Doesn't leave a lot of time for error," he said.

Noah closed his eyes, "I'm not going into that state again."

"Mate, I won't let you. I'll shake some sense into you," Hannil replied mockingly doing a shaking motion with his hands and whispering a scream until Noah laughed.

"There you go," he said.

Noah looked back at him. "What?"

"You laughed!"

"Not really a time for laughing, Hannil."

"All dark times need laughing," Hannil said.

"You're," Noah paused, "not really freaking out."

"Oh, I am!" Hannil replied as he held his chest. "You should feel my heart right now. I am freaking out just," Hannil made a sweeping motion, "burying it all in poor comedy and my good looks."

Noah chuckled again when Hannil put his hand to his heart.

"What if it bursts out of my chest?" He asked.

"If hearts could do that, mine would be in Australia by now," he replied.

Hannil reached across the narrow space and put his hand flatly on Noah's chest. It froze Noah and he became aware solely of how his heart began to seize in his chest and how his lungs malfunctioned. His hand was warmer than he expected, filled with heat and spread widely over Noah's chest. 

"God, you really are panicking," Hannil said as he took a small step toward him, "It's alright, Noah!" He whispered a playful shout, "Lizard people won't eat you," he paused and tilted his head, "maybe they will—maybe that's what's going on here."

Noah laughed again and Hannil gently patted his chest.

"Do I even want to know?" Mi Na said distantly.

Hannil looked around the turn of the bookshelves and down the darkened hall.

"Secret meeting, you're not invited," he said to her.

"Bullshit," Mi Na said before she walked into view of them.

Noah looked beyond her at Hanna who clutched a book nervously as she looked at him before she looked away. In an attempt to hide what had happened earlier, Noah looked from her to Mi Na to see her eying them suspiciously.

"If the two of you are dating, you have to tell me," Mi Na said.

"What?" Noah felt his ears turn hot before he shoved Hannil away, who laughed and began to argue with her as if nothing was wrong.

Only a moment later did a new panic set in; if Mi Na was the stepdaughter of the Headmaster, every time she saw Noah she could tell Headmaster Berg, Noah thought; every time she saw him and Hannil together, she could tell him. If they were together any more than she saw, if she saw them at all, she might drive a wedge between them. Especially, Noah thought as his eyes went back to Hanna, if she was participating in doing something to the students as Hanna claimed.

Yet, his panic couldn't last as Hannil managed to get her to leave. She took ahold of Hanna's shoulder and Hanna looked back at them one last, nervous time before she disappeared back into the main part of the library. They were quiet for a long minute, staring first the way Mi Na and Hanna disappeared before Noah stared out of the window in thought.

"Mi Na isn't going to outright attack you," Hannil whispered to him, "Her family is military, but I don't think she's any more of a threat than," he scoffed, "a bumblebee?"

"She's not who I'm worried about," Noah replied as he tried to think.

"Who are you worried about?"

"Headmaster Berg, I'd imagine." It was Liam this time that walked onto them. "In fact, he was looking for you, Sinclair."

"That's great, I just talked to him so he's fine." Hannil replied strictly to him.

Noah held his head as it felt like it were soon to burst at the feeling of getting Hannil in trouble. Hannil's family looked happy but Noah knew he wasn't the best at telling such things. He knew that Hannil's family lived in a castle, not just one or two of his family members, but most of them. They were rich and beautiful, Noah could only imagine what kind of pain would tear into Hannil's world if Noah somehow strayed him from the path Headmaster Berg had spoken of.

"Are you alright?" Hannil asked, he leaned down to get into Noah's line of sight but Noah only retreated from his eyes.

"Headmaster Berg told him to stay away from you," Liam said.

It brought their attention back to Liam, who held his cane in one hand and held onto a bookshelf in the other, talking to them across the narrow hall between the stacks.

"Sorry?" Hannil asked.

"Nothing!" Noah yipped.

"The Headmaster said that you're too much like your father and that Noah was somehow feeding it," Liam replied. It took Noah a moment to realize Liam was completely oblivious to his angry staring and eyes that pleaded with him to stop.

But his attention did not stay on Liam for long, Hannil had straightened his back at the comment and turned his attention from Liam entirely. His jaw was open a bit and Noah saw him move his tongue sharply against the bottoms' of his teeth. There was a look about him that made Noah quiet, even Liam to an extent seemed to be aware of how the air in the room changed quickly to one of anger.

"Alright, then," Hannil said before he stepped out of the stacks and sharply turned.

"Hannil?" Noah called after him, anxiously glanced back at Liam, and ran after him.

Hannil was as quick as ever, his long legs carried him far enough that Noah was nearly jogging to keep up. He was quietly angry, Noah could feel his radiating off of him as he called after him. Panic boiling in his throat. He didn't know what Hannil was going to do or even if Noah could keep up with him, let alone catch him. But he was already thinking of how it would effect him.

His mother certainly knew who Hannil and the Sinclair family was, beyond them being rich. She likely knew what his parents did, why they owned so many castles, who his grandparents were and many other things that would allow her to climb the social ladder. The idea of Noah somehow destroying Hannil's future, somehow causing the event would certainly damn Noah as much as

You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net