"R-Ryan…" He heard as soon as he picked up the phone. "******?" he replied, but the next thing he heard was crying.
"Sighs. What do you want?" he asked quietly. Her voice came again, barely above a whisper. "Sky Tower… Come pick up my body there." Then the call cut.
"Wait! *******! DON'T FUCKING DO IT!" he screamed, even though he already knew the line was dead.
"FUCK!" He slammed his fist against the wall before rushing toward the door, grabbing his scarf and jacket on the way out since it was freezing outside.
"TAXI!" he screamed, and a yellow cab pulled over. He threw himself inside. "Sky Tower, go now!" The driver took one look at his face and floored it.
"Please… don't do it," he muttered under his breath, knowing exactly how far she'd go just to make him pay for what he'd done to her.
...
...
"HAAAAAAAA!" The blue-haired young man gasped, sitting bolt upright as sweat soaked through his shirt. His mind was all over the place.
[A nightmare?]
"Yeah, something like that," he replied, steadying his breathing.
[You've been having a lot of those lately. Doesn't that mean something to you?]
"What's it supposed to mean?" he asked, getting to his feet.
[Maybe… she's close.]
His eyes widened slightly before he pulled himself together and reached for the stair railing.
"How long was I out?" he asked, deciding to ignore what it had just said.
[An hour until dusk.]
"Great," he muttered, then rushed down the stairs.
It was honestly a miracle no one had caught him sleeping up there. If someone had, he'd probably lose half his point allocation for the month, or face something even worse.
[Why?]
"Why what?"
[Why do you keep refusing to merge with your own blessing? I don't get it.]
"I just need more time to think it through," the blue-haired young man said, running down the stairs and ducking around patrolling guards at every turn.
[More time for what, exactly?]
"More time to get my head straight. Everything's a mess right now, so stop making it worse," he snapped, his eyes narrowing.
[It's genuinely painful to watch you act like this when you know how powerful you could be.]
"It's the corruption. It'll happen eventually," he said with a sigh, pressing himself behind a pillar and checking that the path was clear.
[This is about her again, isn't it.]
"Don't bring her up. I don't want to talk about her."
[Why not?]
"Just don't, okay?" he said firmly.
[The human heart never stops being confusing. You don't even know what you want.]
"Just stop trying to convince me," he muttered.
[Hah.]
He ducked around another corner, slipping past a Reno-cam without triggering it, then carefully avoided the motion sensors lining the next stretch of corridor.
[So you're afraid of losing touch with how you feel. You're afraid of losing the reason you're doing any of this. You're afraid of what the corruption will do once it sets in.]
"…"
[It's your choice. Either you take control of your fate, or your fate takes control of you.]
"Just leave me alone," he said, and the voice went quiet.
...
...
...
The door handle turned, and the door swung open with a creak.
'It's unlocked?'
He slipped inside. He could already hear students showering in the rooms nearby, which meant classes weren't far off.
The moment he pulled the door shut behind him, a voice broke the silence.
"Took you long enough," it said.
He glanced up. The room was dark, lights off, but he could make out a silhouette on the top bunk.
"Who are you?" he asked, not particularly interested, already pulling off his shirt and getting ready to take a long, hot shower.
"You can call me Eric," the person said, and then the lights came on.
He looked up again, and his eyes went wide. "You."
"Long time no see, banished prince," the man on the top bunk said with a grin. He had deep golden-blond hair and sharp green eyes.
'Great.'