There was pin-drop silence. There was a thick and heavy air surrounding all the individuals in the cramped storeroom. The tension curled in the air like invisible smoke.
Adrian had moved forward and now, stood between Delphini and the three boys.
His arms were slightly apart as if ready to intercept anything that came his way. His breathing was steady but his heart was hammering inside his chest.
Gregor furrowed his brows and clenched his fist as the veins on his arms showed like thin ropes beneath the skin.
Liam and Carter flanked him as Liam held a basketball and Carter was in a fighting posture. They kept holding it as if keeping the threat of any sudden action alive.
Gregor cracked his knuckles and muttered as he stepped closer, "You don't walk out of here unless I say so."
Adrian didn't back off and kept himself ready for any sort of movement.
He kept his eyes on Gregor but his mind moved fast as he was calculating how to deal with the situation. He knew considering Gregor's personality that they would not retreat now.
So, he thought considering the situation as if there would be a fight. He knew that Liam was taller but slow. Carter had a faster arm but always hesitated right before doing anything. Gregor was bigger and stronger than him but not faster.
He couldn't win in strength but he trusted his athletic ability.
He trusted his reflexes.
*Whoosh!*
Liam was the first to throw as his body moved out of instinct before his thoughts caught up.
Adrian ducked as the basketball went past his ear as it crashed into a pile of cones. He spun towards Carter whose arm was already mid-swing.
Adrian stepped forward fast and slammed his punch into Carter's solar plexus and sent the boy flying sideways before he could hit Adrian.
"Don't you get it?" Adrian said in a sharp tone.
"You're the ones acting like freaks."
Gregor roared and lunged towards Adrian.
Adrian braced for the impact and protected himself. He expected it but the punch came hard, however, due to Gregor not being trained, the punch didn't hit a place that could deliver a serious shock to Adrian.
It was a wild and messy punch.
The kind of punch an eight-year-old throws when they've never actually fought anyone before.
Adrian blocked it and used Gregor's inertia to push him aside.
Gregor being thrown off-balance stumbled into a crate.
Before he could recover, Adrian grabbed a dodgeball and flung it at Gregor's face.
*Thud!*
Carter tried to tackle him next having slightly recovered from that punch, trying to grab his arm, but Adrian ducked and twisted.
Then kicked the back of Carter's leg and sent him face-first into a pile of gym mats.
He took another dodge ball lying beside him and saw Liam charging at him. He then gave a feint which Liam tried to dodge and then Adrian sent the real throw at Liam's new position.
Liam was hit in the face and he collapsed backwards with a grunt landing against the wall with a thump.
This happened in just a couple of minutes and once again the storeroom regained its stillness.
Adrian looked at all three boys and checked their breathing. After he confirmed that, they were fine and had just fainted. He took a sigh of relief.
Their heads had lolled back with their mouths slightly open and their eyes closed shut.
His chest rose and fell quickly as he looked at them and tried to calm himself down from the adrenaline rush he had just had.
Then he turned towards Delphini and asked, "You okay?"
She nodded slowly but her facial expression wasn't calm at all.
Her hands were clenched as her eyes flickered with uneasiness.
She stepped toward him checking his arm where one of Gregor's punches had grazed and then looked back at the boys on the floor.
"They're not hurt," Adrian said softly. "I think they have only fainted."
Delphini nodded again as she looked at Adrian with an apologetic expression.
She said in a low but thankful tone, "I am sorry for causing you injury and trouble."
Adrian sat down on a low bench as he wiped his forehead. His arms were slightly trembling.
He looked at her, waved his hand and said off-handedly, "Oh, you don't have to feel bad about that at all. It wasn't your fault. I did this of my own volition."
"Though, I'm going to be in so much trouble."
Delphini looked at him.
"My mom and dad won't like this," he added. "Fighting in school? Even if I was trying to help... this won't go well."
There was a long pause.
Adrian looked at the three boys again.
And then, a thought entered his mind.
The hospital.
The wand.
The spell.
Obliviate.
He had seen how it worked. How it shimmered like violet shards. How it moved through the air.
His mouth felt dry at the possibility in front of him.
"Delphini," he said quietly. "You can't tell anyone."
She blinked with a confused expression.
"What I'm about to do. Don't tell anyone. Please."
She asked softly, "What are you going to do?"
Adrian stood up slowly. His legs were still shaking. He looked at the three boys.
"I don't have a wand," he muttered. "But I saw what it looked like. I remember what it felt like."
Delphini watched in silence as Adrian raised his hand.
He took a slow breath and focused his thoughts.
He tried to remember the shape of those shards. The way it had formed in the air. The path it followed.
Those violet shards.
There feeling of something blooming in his chest.
The hospital hallway. The wand rising. The fragments glowing.
He held that image in his head like it was etched into his bones.
His hands trembled as he exerted himself and then something glowed.
Violet shards faintly appeared around his fingers.
Almost invisible.
But present.
Adrian's eyes widened on watching that.
He motioned them towards Liam's head and whispered under his breath, "Obliviate."
As he did that, his intent was for his Target to forget what they recently witnessed.
Shards floated gently from his hand toward Liam's forehead.
They curled, twisted, and sank in.
Liam twitched a bit and then went still again.
Adrian stumbled to Carter next.
It was harder this time. He had to concentrate more.
He closed his eyes.
He whispered the same thing.
Those shards entered Carter's head.
Adrian's hand was shuddering now as he dropped to his knees beside Gregor.
His vision blurred slightly and once again, he forced the image back into his mind.
The last wave of shards flickered from his palm as he muttered, "Obliviate."
Like a chant.
They vanished into Gregor's temple.
And then, due to huge exertion, Adrian's legs gave out.
He slumped backwards and was almost going to hit the floor but just before his head could hit the floor, a pair of arms caught him.
Delphini's.
"Hey," she said, voice tight. "Hey, stay awake."
As she tried to pay his cheeks trying to see if he had fainted or not.
Adrian groaned. His limbs felt like stone and his breath came out in short gasps.
"You did it. I didn't know someone could control that power." Delphini said quietly. "I don't know how but you did it."
He leaned into her shoulder with eyes still half-closed.
"They won't remember," he whispered. "But… I think I… went too far."
Delphini steadied him as her fingers brushed the side of his face to keep him conscious.
"Come on," she said. "We should get you to the medical room."
---
Adrian sat on a bed in the medical room sipping water slowly from a paper cup.
He had a throbbing headache but at least the world had stopped spinning.
Delphini sat by him with her arms folded with a concerned look on her face.
The nurse had told her said he was just tired. It was just exhaustion.
Nothing more.
He looked towards Delphini and asked, "How are they?"
"They woke up," she said. "They don't remember anything."
"All of it?"
She nodded slowly and said, "Not just the fight. Not the last couple of days either. They think they've been sick or something."
Adrian blinked slowly, getting a feel of what he did, "I didn't mean to erase that much."
Delphini replied assuring him, "You didn't know what you were doing and there won't be any lasting effects."
"But it worked."
There was a long pause.
She finally turned to face him fully and asked hesitantly, "Why did you help me?"
Adrian looked at her for a second and then down at the cup in his hands.
"Because I couldn't stand watching something bad happen to someone who didn't deserve it."
Delphini tilted her head slightly.
"My mom always tells me," Adrian added, "that if my heart tells me to do something… I should do it. And afterwards. I should accept whatever consequences that might occur."
Delphini didn't say anything as if she couldn't find any words to reply to him.
He looked at her again and said reassuringly, "So... if I get in trouble for this, I will. But I won't regret doing it."
There was a flicker in her eyes as her gaze softened.
Then she looked away again.
Adrian leaned back on the bed
"You've heard what people are saying about me," she said after a moment.
He nodded.
"That I'm cursed and creepy. That my parents didn't want me."
He nodded again.
"You still helped me."
Adrian smiled faintly.
"I don't believe anything until I hear it from the person it's about."
Then he added with a lopsided grin, "So… are you cursed?"
Delphini stared at him.
Then, for the first time since she arrived at school
She smiled. It was a weak smile, barely considered a smile but it was a start.
A quiet, ghost-like curve of her lips.
"No," she said softly. "Not cursed."
"Good," Adrian said, leaning his head back.
"Because cursed people don't catch others when they fall."
---
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