It was a perfectly ordinary morning. Autumn winds danced through fallen leaves, tossing them across the pavement, and the usual crowded streets buzzed with their typical rhythm.
Everyone hurried along, busy with their errands, their eyes deliberately avoiding the girl who moved among them with a chilling calm.
Enor might have felt like a ghost wandering through nothingness, if not for the way people seemed to part before her, clustering to the sides of the street just to stay out of her path.
''Heh. Keep doing that. Makes my life easier."
She smirked and continued walking, quietly enjoying how the suffocating crowd melted away wherever she passed.
Her life had always been like this: cold, quiet, and utterly alone. But she'd stopped caring. In her eyes, these people were just a bunch of cowards or brainwashed sheep, not worth her time.
"Fools. You claim to trust the Academy, yet still act like headless chickens around me. Despite them announcing that I was harmless now... what a joke."
She took her usual seat, isolated and untouched, and silently watched her classmates.
Two full years had passed since they'd started school together. In that time, the others had grown closer, formed bonds, shared laughs. But Enor? She hadn't exchanged a single kind word with any of them.
Maybe it was her fault for not trying harder. But deep down, she knew it would've ended the same. Hadn't she already tried, once?
Now, all she could do was keep her head down and live quietly. Her life wasn't so bad. She'd rather be a powerless outcast than one of the marked, locked behind the Academy's walls, hunted through the streets like fugitives.
The morning classes passed in their usual dullness. Now she sat in the cafeteria, poking at her food with a sigh.
She turned her gaze to the window.
The handball team was still out on the field...
"Looks like someone's looking for me."
And there he was... Ar.
"You're late."
"Barely survived extra practice," he replied with a crooked grin. Then, looking at her more closely, added, "You look pale."
"My headache's getting worse. And this miserable school is giving me nausea."
"Still don't know what's keeping you up at night?"
"How would I know..." she muttered, looking away in annoyance.
Ar sighed and sat beside her, eating in silence before speaking again.
"You usually act like a black swan, but today your mood's even worse than usual. You need to be careful."
"A black swan? That doesn't sound like a compliment."
"When I first met you, I thought you were a crow. Believe me, a swan's a step up."
"Oh, wow! I'm honored mr crow-friend! "
"Just... stop being so bitter about it." He gave her a crooked smile. "I couldn't help being curious about the marked, even if they're crows. That's why I'm still here, your friend, despite all these years... though you still tell me nothing."
"What's there to tell? If I were any different from you, would I even be here? Living this stupid life among the so-called 'normal'?"
"But you had powers once. You lived inside the Academy. Why won't you talk about it?"
"I told you it was hell."
"That's not enough."
"Ugh, not now, my head's splitting thanks to you."
Ar finally gave up and stood, sighing. "You should probably go home. You really don't look okay... and just... be careful."
"What—?"
"I gotta run before the coach murders me. Later!"
And just like that, lunch break ended, and everyone went their separate ways.
Enor could no longer ignore the heavy exhaustion pressing on her. Maybe she would take Ar's advice and head home.
Though... Ar had been acting strange too.
She closed her eyes for a moment. His voice still echoed in her mind. Was he worried? Or trying not to worry her? And then—
"Hey! Watch where you're going! You just stepped on my shoe!"
Enor snapped out of her thoughts, scowling.
Ugh... Ruby. The last person she needed right now. But... wait. Her locker was open?
"What are you doing at my locker? How did you even open it?!"
She instinctively reached for her pockets.
"Looking for this?" Ruby held up Enor's key with a cold smile. "I wonder how i got it."
Enor glanced from her to the two girls beside her: Julia with her arrogant sneer, always looking for a fight, and another girl Enor didn't recognize. Judging by her tense body language, she'd been dragged into this.
"Ruby, what do you want? I don't have the patience for your stupidity today."
Ruby's grin widened. "So the powerless freak has a little bite after all. Look, I don't have time to waste on you. Here's the deal, our new friend here, Rina, needs a locker. Say hi, Rina."
The girl looked up briefly, then back down. "Hi..."
Enor barely registered her before turning back to Ruby. Her head throbbed. "So what? That's not my problem."
"It is now," Julia cut in coolly. "The principal said there are no lockers left. So Ruby and I decided you're giving yours up."
"Do you hear how dumb that sounds?"
"You're the dumb one if you still don't get it. You're marked!"
"Cursed, more like," Ruby added with a laugh. "This school isn't for freaks. Rina deserves better. So take your junk and leave, or do whatever pathetic thing you do."
Before Enor could even react, the girls began pulling everything from her locker and tossing it on the floor, laughing all the while.
She moved forward, but a sudden, piercing pain shot through her skull. Her knees buckled. She let out a muffled gasp as her heart pounded and her breath caught in her throat.
She looked around.
No one stopped to help. The students passed by like nothing was happening. If she could see clearly, maybe she'd have caught their looks of disgust.
"Oh, not even going to try to stop us? Guess I was wrong. You really are a powerless and spinel-"
"RUBY YOU B-"
And then... everything slowed.
She saw it. The light erupting from her clenched fist.
Their faces... those eyes wide in horror.
Their expressions twisting from mockery to panic....
Their final gasps...
Before Enor even realized it, she was covered in blood from head to toe.
The silence was suffocating. Too complete. Too heavy. and looking around her felt like a deadly option...
Her eyes were locked on the floor. On the bodies. The blood. The cracked asphalt.
What... what had she done!?
In that moment, one thing became clear to her:
Her life would never be the same.
She would never be the same.
And the gates of hell had opened again, ready to drag her down.
"Looks like you weren't grateful enough for your life, Enor."