Bab 10: Chapter 10: Enough
A mere ten minutes tick by at an agonizingly slow rate while we are waiting down below for a signal that the Lycan threat has been taken care of. There are chirps on the security officers’ radios from time to time, but nothing I can hear clearly. Besides, the muttering and general chatter have returned to the students around me.
There is a moment where I wonder what they’re doing above ground and whether the Lycan is actually okay and how they subdued him. I wonder why he went on a tirade, or whether it was a flare up that was uncontrollable.
There is a more important matter taking my attention though – Felix, the other Lycan. I am standing near some of the other students while keeping an eye on the Lycan students. I swear they have a sixth sense because each time my eyes linger for more than three seconds, they look over and almost make eye contact with me.
They are keeping to themselves and, oddly enough, seem to be taking watch, each turning their eyes in a different direction. Do they know they are doing it? Each time someone’s eyes linger for more than a few seconds on them, the Lycan purposefully makes eye contact or looks in their direction. Perhaps it is a challenge?
Whatever the case, I can’t help but keep glancing at Felix and wondering what is going on in his head. Is he afraid? Worried? Angry? Did he know the other Lycan who is currently rampaging and who we are currently hiding from?
My heart aches in my chest as I see them all together. To an outside eye, they might look like they are scoping out the other students, preparing to spring into action at any moment. They look threatening with their arms crossed and their eyes narrowed.
To me, they look uneasy and mistrusting. They look scared. They look like they are the ones being prosecuted instead of the Lycan above ground.
I wish I could do something to make it better and to put them at ease. I glance over my shoulder again and instantly lock eyes with the pale blue eyes of Felix. A shiver rolls down my spine, making me both excited and nervous at the same time.
He recognizes me instantly, and I can’t help but smile at him. His expression is neutral for a moment, just as I see a ghost of a smile curl part of his lip upward. We hold our eyes on one another for several seconds, my heart leaping in my chest and encouraging me to go forward and talk to him, when I see the other Lycan shift beside Felix.
Their eyes are on something else. I break eye contact with Felix and see a group of eight individuals approaching the Lycan. I grit my teeth and look toward the crowd, noticing that the guards are elsewhere reassuring the crowds of students that everything is being taken care of and that we are going to be out of here in no time.
Clever.
They waited for the guards to leave the area before approaching the Lycan. I recognize some of the approaching students as the jocks who were actively tormenting Felix. Did they put together that Felix was standing near another Lycan? I slowly gravitate toward the group to listen to what they are saying.
“Hey, mutts,” one of them says, just loud enough for everyone nearby to hear, but not loud enough for the security officers to pick up on. I feel my body tighten when they address the Lycan like this. “You forget your alpha above ground? Why don’t you call off your boy?”
This comment is followed by one of the other guys giving a soft, mock howl. The Lycans tense, Felix included, as they bare their teeth.
“Leave us alone,” growls the guy who bumped into me earlier.
“Oh? Tough one. Is this your alpha, lucky boy?” asks another guy, one of the guys who tripped Felix when I was in the café the first time. “Tell you what. We’ll leave your little pack alone if you come with us.”
The other Lycans are obviously tense. Nearby students begin vacating the area, shifting away from the confrontation. Felix, obviously uncomfortable, looks away before stepping forward and tapping the curly haired guy on the shoulder. I can barely make out what he says from where I am.
“Come on, we know how this goes. Don’t get involved. I’ll take the hit,” mutters Felix. Take the hit? Did he mean literally? Panic makes my heart rate double. Is he going to go with these guys?
“Not this time,” says another, stepping up beside Felix and the burly, curly-haired student with steely eyes.
This time? Now I know this isn’t the first time has happened.
“Aww, how cute that your pack mates are stepping up for you. Careful though. Wouldn’t want to cause a scene. We’ve got campus security here,” says one of the cockier guys, a cheesy smirk plastered on his face.
The groups are starting to form ranks, the Lycans standing slightly staggered but side by side and the jocks on the other side. There’s a tangible tension in the air, and it only escalates when one of the jocks steps forward and reaches up to grab Felix by the collar of his shirt.
He almost makes it too before one of the other Lycan steps forward.
“Don’t you dare touch him. Why can’t you just leave us alone? What did we do to you?”
“It’s freaky mutts like you that are the real problem. We wouldn’t be down here or need places like these if you could control yourselves like the untamed dogs you are,” spits one of the jocks in the back.
“What did you call us?” one of the Lycan almost shouts. Both groups start to rush each other. Some of them get a chance to grab each other’s shirts. It will come to blows.
The whole time, I listen to what they say to one another, rage boiling inside me. How could people be so cruel like this? I look around at the familiar scene of people nearby watching the scene unfold and doing nothing.
Bystanders.
It is fear. They are afraid, and this is the result.
These two groups are about to exchange blows and they’re afraid to stand up and stop them.
And I’m one of them. Once again, I am a bystander letting this happen to someone I care about.
Enough.
I force myself forward, stepping quickly and decisively, until I’m standing between the two groups. I can feel the tension in the air the moment I step between them, like a tangible electricity threatening to strike anyone who got between them.
I hear an audible gasp from the crowd as they undoubtedly recognize me and see that I step in between the two groups. Like during a performance, I take a breath and put it in the back of my mind. I keep my back to the Lycans and face off with the obnoxious jocks in front of me.
“What are you doing?” I hear one of the Lycan hiss from behind me.
“Hey, sweetheart. Why don’t you move out of the way so we can take care of this pest problem for you,” asks the lead guy, a student with a head like a brick – featureless and generic with dull brown eyes. I can hear my mother’s voice in the back of my head scolding me for being careless again, but I don’t care. I can sense the media posts already and the trending topics with those black lens eyes.
“Look,” I say the first thing that comes to mind. “Are they the ones bothering you? Are they why we’re down here? No. Because, if they were, they would be up top and not down here with us.”
There is a brief silence before I continue.
“You’re trying to prove something by coming over here, but the only thing you’re doing is making a fool of yourselves. Are you afraid? Scared? Pathetic. I get that everyone deals with insecurities in their special ways. In my experience, a person trying to bring others down is basically admitting they’re the weaker ones.”
There is fury and frustration in the faces of the jocks, but we’re interrupted when the guards start making their way back to the disturbance.
The Lycans behind me take a few steps back and the jocks start to disperse. I glance over and feel like kicking myself, seeing several phone cameras pointed in my direction.
I already know this will be in the news or social media at some point or another, but I instantly know it is worth it when I turn around and see Felix standing behind me, a look of admiration on his face. I flash a smile and he, bashfully, flashes a small smile in return.
That smile alone is worth the lecture and backlash to come.
Hadiah
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