"Because the name attached to those impossible readings... was yours."
Hildred's voice was a low, jagged blade. Hearing those words, Aren's eyes widened in sheer, paralyzing shock. His breath hitched, trapped in his throat, and his hands began to tremble uncontrollably. In that heartbeat, it felt as though the very floor beneath his feet had dissolved into a void, leaving him plummeting.
Do they know? How could they know? The thoughts raced through his mind like panicked prey. His face was a mask of raw terror, the blood draining from his skin until he was as pale as a ghost.
"So, Aren Vox," Hildred continued, his voice rising, echoing off the cold walls of the staff room. He leaned in, his expression contorting into something truly predatory. "Could you perhaps explain to me how a 'Null' a boy with zero potential could generate power readings of this magnitude?"
Aren took two frantic steps back, his boots scuffing against the floor. The intimidation radiating from Hildred was a physical weight, a crushing pressure that made the air feel thick and unbreathable.
Seeing Aren's silence, a thin, cruel smile curled on Hildred's lips. He rose from his chair with a slow, deliberate grace, like a predator cornering its kill. He stepped into Aren's personal space, his voice dropping into a guttural, terrifying register.
"So, Aren Vox… will you give me the answer yourself? Or do I have to beat it out of you?"
Hildred's hand tightened into a massive fist. Aren's mind scrambled for an escape. He looked frantically toward the door, then to the corners of the room, but there was no one.
They were utterly alone in the bowels of the academy. I have to do something. I have to move. But how? Before the thought could finish, Hildred moved. It wasn't a punch not yet. He slammed a heavy hand onto Aren's shoulder and shoved him downward with catastrophic force. Aren, caught completely off-guard and lacking the physical conditioning to resist such power, crumbled.
He hit the floor hard, his knees cracking against the cold tile. Hildred's grip remained, a mountain of pressure pushing him further into the ground. A choked cry of agony escaped Aren's lips; he could feel the bones in his shoulder grinding, the joint screaming as if it were on the verge of snapping like a dry twig.
"Speak, Aren! SPEAK!" Hildred roared, his patience evaporating into pure, unadulterated rage. He began to dig his fingers into the soft tissue of Aren's shoulder. It wasn't just a grip anymore it was a literal piercing. The man's blunt fingernails began to sink into the skin.
Warm, metallic-smelling blood began to seep through Aren's shirt, staining the fabric a dark, grim color. Aren't head hung low, his hair shadowing his face, but beneath the fringe, something was changing. His pupils dilated, and a fierce, unnatural glow began to emanate from his eyes. They weren't brown anymore. They were burning with a vivid, crimson red light.
I have to stop this. Now! In a blur of motion fueled by instinct and a sudden surge of adrenaline, Aren reached up. He grabbed Hildred's wrist the very hand that was crushing his shoulder.
Hildred's eyes narrowed. He felt it first as a slight resistance, but then, the pressure changed. He realized his iron-clad grip was being forced open. Slowly, agonizingly, Aren was prying Hildred's hand off his shoulder.
Aren's head remained bowed toward the floor, his frame shaking with effort. Hildred's expression shifted from arrogance to genuine bewilderment. How? Where did this brat get this kind of strength? The confusion didn't last long. It was quickly replaced by a fresh wave of fury. Feeling his authority challenged by a student, Hildred snarled. He drove his fingers even deeper into Aren's bleeding wound.
Aren's eyes snapped shut in a wince of blinding pain, but he didn't let go. Instead, he tightened his own grip on Hildred's wrist. His fingers felt like steel bands, digging into the older man's flesh.
For the first time, Hildred felt a sting of genuine pain.
"That's enough!" Hildred exploded. He pulled his free hand back, curling it into a fist that shimmered with a dangerous, orange-red heat. A spark of fire ignited across his knuckles a lethal strike aimed directly at Aren's head.
But before the blow could land, the heavy oak door of the staff room swung open with a deafening bang.
Hildred froze mid-swing, the fire on his fist flickering out. Aren slowly lifted his head, the crimson glow in his eyes fading just as quickly as it had appeared. Standing in the doorway, framed by the light of the corridor, was Manu.
Hildred slowly retracted his hand, releasing Aren's mangled shoulder. The moment the pressure vanished, fresh blood welled up, dripping onto the floor. Aren instinctively clutched his wound, his breathing ragged, his eyes returning to their normal, dull hue.
"Manu," Hildred growled, his voice a low thunder. "May I ask what the meaning of this intrusion is?"
Manu didn't answer immediately. He looked at Hildred, then his gaze shifted to Aren, who was still trembling on the floor. The usual mysterious, playful smirk that Manu wore was gone. His face was a mask of cold, hard stone.
"May I ask," Manu replied, his voice chillingly calm, "what exactly you are doing with a student in the middle of the night?"
There was a hidden edge in Manu's tone a quiet anger that felt more dangerous than Hildred's shouting. Hildred simply reached over and grabbed the digital report, thrusting it toward Manu's face.
"This boy lied to the Academy! Look at these readings! How can a Null produce this much energy?" Hildred yelled, his frustration boiling over.
Manu barely glanced at the screen. He set it aside on a nearby desk and looked Hildred dead in the eye. "And what is your proof that these readings belong to Aren?"
Hildred's mouth snapped shut. He stammered for a second, his confidence faltering.
"Tell me," Manu stepped forward, his presence filling the room. "Did you actually see him use a power? Did you witness a manifestation?"
Hildred remained silent, his face reddening with a mix of embarrassment and lingering rage.
"If you have no proof," Manu said, his voice dropping to a final, authoritative whisper, "then you have no right to interrogate him. Especially not like this."
Without another word, Manu reached down, grabbed Aren by his good arm, and hoisted him up. He led the boy out of the room, leaving Hildred standing alone in the silence.
The moment the door clicked shut, Hildred let out a guttural scream of rage. He whirled around and slammed his fist into a heavy mahogany table. The impact didn't just break the wood the table disintegrated in a violent, fiery blast, as if a localized bomb had been detonated inside it.
The corridor was a tomb of silence as Manu and Aren walked. The only sound was the rhythmic tapping of their shoes and Aren's heavy, labored breathing.
"I know you're innocent," Manu said suddenly, breaking the quiet.
Aren didn't respond. He looked up at Manu, his eyes still clouded with a mixture of pain and lingering fear.
Manu sighed, his gaze fixed on the path ahead. "The Academy has always been like this. Whenever they need a scapegoat, whenever something goes wrong that they can't explain, they look for the Nulls. They are the easiest to discard."
Aren's mind whirled. Scapegoat? Is that all he was to them? They eventually reached the doors of the infirmary.
"Aren, I saved you today," Manu said, turning to face him. His expression was grave. "But Mr. Hildred isn't the type to let things go. He will come for you again. You need to be careful."
Manu turned to leave, his coat swishing behind him. He had only taken a few steps when Aren's voice cracked through the air.
"Manu… wait! There has to be a way to stop this. A way to get him off my back."
Aren knew he couldn't survive another encounter like the one tonight. He needed a shield.
Manu stopped. He looked back over his shoulder, appearing to think deeply. "There is one way. But I'm not sure you'll like it."
Aren stood tall, clutching his blood-stained shoulder. He noticed that the searing pain was already beginning to dull, the wound closing faster than it should have. "Tell me," he said firmly.
Manu took a slow breath. "Join the Null Training Program. Once you're in, you become an official 'asset' of the Academy. You'll be under special jurisdiction. Not even Hildred can touch you without a direct order from the board."
Aren hesitated. He didn't fully trust Manu there was something too calculated about the man's timing. But looking at the blood on his hands, he realized he had no choice.
"Fine," Aren said, his voice steady. "I'm in."
A faint, almost imperceptible smile touched Manu's lips. He pulled out his tablet, swiping through a few screens. "Sign here."
Aren pressed his thumb to the scanner.
"Report to the Main Hall tomorrow after classes," Manu said, his voice returning to its usual smooth tone. Then, he turned and vanished into the shadows of the hallway.
Across the campus, in the private training gym reserved for faculty, Hildred stood before a massive, reinforced strength-testing wall.
BOOM.
Every time his fist connected, the air exploded. The wall groaned under the force of a dozen detonations. Finally, he stopped, his chest heaving. He looked down at his wrist the spot where Aren had grabbed him.
The memory of that grip, the raw, unrefined strength of a boy who was supposed to be nothing, made his blood boil all over again.
"Plan successful?" a voice called out from the darkness behind him.
Hildred stiffened, then slowly turned. Standing there, leaning against a weight rack with a tablet in his hand, was Manu.
The cold, serious expression Manu had worn in the staff room was gone. In its place was a sharp, predatory smirk the look of a man who had just won a high-stakes game of chess.
"He agreed to the program," Manu said, his voice dripping with satisfaction.
Hildred looked at him, a bitter, dark grin spreading across his own face. "I honestly didn't think your little performance would work. You played the 'savior' quite well."
Manu chuckled, tapping a few commands into his tablet. "My plans are inevitable, Hildred. The boy thinks I'm the only person he can trust." He paused, the glow of the tablet reflecting in his eyes as a countdown timer hit zero.
"Project: Beyond the Safe Zone... starts now."