Reborn Heart of Steel

The next morning there was only blue sky and sunshine, which was quite the opposite to what I felt within my soul. Then it was time for school when they were not in class, we would devise the best course of action to discover The Raven’s plots. Yet always, underlying every single cerebral process, every single physical movement, the ever-present undertone of fear. Chase arrived to pick me up as he has always done, and he seemed to be putting on an act, forcing smiles and laughter to cover the nervousness that emanated from his demeanor. During our way to school, we did not talk much, but rather were both immersed in our own concerns. We were out of the parking lot, and there waited Alessandro, not looking jovial but rather serious and determined. ‘Are you ready for this?’ he greeted us as we neared him. ‘Well, as ready as we’ll ever be. ‘ We had decided that in school we were to conduct ourselves in the most natural way possible. This we had not wanted any suspicions raised. Nevertheless, as we moved through the main front doors of the building, there was only one thing that came into my mind: everything had altered. Walkways that had been walked through countless times felt strange, and even every corner could be a possible danger zone. The morning elapsed mainly between large and small lecture rooms and hushed chats. Sometimes, we would sneak a glance at each other in other classes, and give looks that said so much. To everybody else, it probably appeared as typical adolescent melodrama. If only these individuals knew how accurate the information available to them actually was. Thus, with the time for lunch looming, I was getting more nervous. We were to have used the break to fine tune details of our after-school surveillance early in the following week. But as I was walking to the cafeteria, I heard someone shout at my back, ‘Brianne’ “Brianne! Wait up!” I half turned to see who was approaching me and found the new guy, Aiden, running at a pace with me, though, to be perfectly honest, we had not been on the best of terms before. Was it only the day before when he had joined all of us at lunch and seemed so utterly ignorant of the hate that was festering in Westbrook’s heart? ‘Hi,’ I greeted him as I tried to smile. “What’s up?” I glanced down at him and sighed in relief before turning back toward the school, Aiden falling into step beside me but with his eyebrows pulled together slightly. “Hey, just figured I needed to talk to someone this morning. You looked a little stressed out yesterday after the meeting with the principal. Is everything alright?” For a flash of seconds, I nearly disclosed it to him. For some reason, the youth, and the complete lack of pretense in Aiden’s features made me believe in what he had to say. But I couldn’t afford to do that. Did not want to bring an innocent person into this experience. “Everything is good”, I said, knowing that it was far from the truth. I figured maybe if I said so for a long time maybe I would convince myself that I was fine, or was it a lie? This is one conversation that they had: ‘It’s just some family issues I had,’ Finally I responded; ‘nothing big that you need to concern yourself with’. Aiden looked as if he wanted to prove deeper, but as you would expect, we arrived at the cafeteria doors at that time. I saw myself noticing Chase and Alessandro at our regular booth, their faces close to each other while talking. “I should go,” I said, waving in the general direction of my friends. “But thank you for calling. I do feel grateful for it. ” Aiden looked at him, his own gaze slightly concerned. “Yeah, I got that,” he said softly. “Anytime. ” He said, knowing that I could always get him when I needed someone to talk to. Managing to refrain from thoughts of Aiden, as I approached our table. We certainly had other issues to attend to. “Any issues?” Chase inquired softly as soon as I joined her. I shook my head. >”Everything is OK in this end. You three?” Alessandro moved closer to me and I could hardly hear him. I heard some of the office staff discussing the situation as I walked by; they said there had been more youngsters absent from work this week. I scowled and shivered at the same time. “You think it’s connected?” ‘Chase only took off his cool gaze, but he looked like he wanted to kill someone. ”Could be nothing,” he says, ”But given everything else…. ” We proceeded to discuss the new information given to us for the rest of lunch break as we attempted to fit the pieces that they presented to us. When the bell went off after lunch, students and teachers felt more pressured to take action. That basically sums up a large part of recent year, and knowing that we needed to move quickly, it was 11:19 AM.

The hours in classes in the afternoon seemed to be the longest, and one could not afford to even blink. Each second, each minute was a torture: I tensed every time I heard something that was not part of my nightmare. I could have hardly stood the tension, all my nerves being strained to the utmost by the time the final bell clanged. Since I had to go to my locker, I attempted to slow down the fast beating of my heart. Five more minutes and I would be out. So, for the first time, we’d begin substantiating our allegations and presumably begin to act against The Raven’s schemes.

In fact, I was daydreaming so much that I nearly did not catch it. And just doing it with a raise of curtains, with a hint of something that, looking sidelong, I wouldn’t recognize as being part of my environment. I looked around, and immediately my blood chilled at the sight that I saw. Three middle-aged men dressed in dark clothes were single-mindedly navigating a crowded hallway. All the others seemed to be normal, healthy students, among whom these two strange men were looking too tense and their eyes were scanning the area very nervously and suspiciously making all the signals in my head ring. Then I noticed a lump under the jacket of one of the men. The undeniable form of a concealed weapon. Strangely, time rubber-stamped slowly, as though it wanted to give us a first, second and third chance at looking at the object. My heartbeat was loud in my ears, as if in a countdown, as if in a moment all would be over. My gaze met Chase’s across the hall, and saw the minute he realized what that meant. We broke down momentarily in shock. Then instinct kicked in. “Everyone down!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, instantly silencing all the talking that was going on as students would be released from school. “They have guns!” Chaos erupted. One rolled on the floor, or others ran towards the end of the class in protest, screaming. The armed men, now exposed, relieved themselves of their weapons. I hurried behind a row of lockers trying to understand exactly what was going on in my head. Our main goal was to get as many of the people out as possible to reduce the number of losses. But how? I felt a hand on my arm, and I was almost ready to swift at him before I knew that it was Alessandro. “Fire alarm,” he said, struggling to catch his breath, there was a red box on the wall, close to the door. An understanding flashed between us. I nodded, and Alessandro ran off, dodging through people who were clearly in a hurry to get to the alarm. This is what the sound of gunshots sounds like in the movies. I cringed and threw myself more tightly on the lockers. This can’t be happening. Not here, not now. Trying to get a better look at my enemies, I slowly leaned around the edge of the lockers. Some of the armed men began to peel off, their unpleasant gazes turned now to the students gathered before them. Looking for someone. Looking for me. The fact suddenly dawned on me, physically. That was my fault. They were here because of me, because of my tie with the Phoenix Organization.Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.