Freida didn't realise how cold the night was until she was somewhat far away from the bonfire that the others sat around. She wondered why he'd run off like that.
If anything, she wasn't supposed to be the one to run after him. It was Orion. She wasn't even sure why she ran after him herself. Freida had known Nyx most of her life, but they never had any direct affiliations.
"Nyx?" She called out to a figure sitting beneath a tree.
She walked closer and found him there. He wasn't crying, he wasn't doing anything. He just stared, not even at her, but at the sky. No, he was looking right at Xania.
"What're you doing here?" She asked as she sat beside him. "You okay?"
"What're you doing here?" Nyx questioned. There was some form of annoyance in his voice.
"I came after you as you can see," she curled her legs in and held them together mustering up enough body warmth.
"This is pathetic." He rose up. He walked away from her. He wasn't going back to the camp, he just really wanted to be alone.
She sensed this, but leaving him wasn't something she was sure she could do. At least not now.
Though these two had not much in common but there was certainly something there. Frieda began asking herself if it was really just because she'd known him all her life, or there was something else driving her actions.
She suddenly ran to him and hugged him from behind.
"What. The. Hell, are you doing?" Nyx stopped cold in his tracks.
"I'm not sure," she answered. "I know it's cringe, but I just...moved."
"Get off me."
She let go off him shyly and looked away. She expected him to continue his walk away from her, but he turned and just stared at her.
"Uhm..." She muttered. "Aren't you gonna go?"
He sat on the grass again. "Somehow... I've always told myself that some day, something miraculous would happen. I always believed in some magical ascension just waiting for me. That just maybe...maybe those powers I never had would bloom. I didn't dare admit it to anyone, but I wanted to hold on to that hope.
"To be honest, it may very well be the reason I kept going on and stomached all the hurtful words and abuses and prejudice. But that hope, it's never going to happen. The only thing that has ever happened to me that is miraculous is the way I didn't choose to just kill myself.
"What haven't I battled with? Depression, anxiety, I can't even list the half of it. It's never going to happen. And until I choose that fact, it'll keep hurting."
Freida looked at him. Short of words was an understatement for the way she was feeling in that monent.
"I'm not sure what to say, Nyx," she reluctantly replied. "I can't understand what it is you're feeling now...or what you've felt before."
"That's fine. I wasn't seeking for comfort."
Freida kept quiet. She thought of hugging him once more but just refrained from moving.
"So what're you saying?" She spoke up finally.
"What?"
"You're just going to stop?"
"There's no point in hoping, Freida. It'll just kill me before my useless life ends."
She was afraid to admit it, but he was right. She just wanted to offer him comfort of some sort.
"You're going to figure yourself out," Freida assured him. "When you do, you'd bend that fate you like so much."
"Oh my fucking God, you're so cringe," Nyx laughed.
"What? That's the best shit I got sorry!" She laughed as well.
The laughter died down and the two looked at each other once more.
"Did you talk to her?" Freida broke the silence.
"Petal?" He asked.
"Yeah."
"Hell no."
"What?! Why not?"
"What am I even going to say to her? I can't look her in the goddamn face."
Frieda scoffed. She was getting a bit frustrated at the way the two were so proud to the point of not even speaking to each other.
"Is it that bad?" She asked.
"You won't get it," he replied.
"Make me!"
"You're pushing it." Nyx got up.
"Nyx, just wait!" She ran after him. "I didn't mean it like that. It's just a bit annoying. What's going to happen if, well... You never get to—"
"Shut up."
Freida paused, a bit hurt at how the words came out of his mouth. But she realised he wasn't just trying to shut her up, but he was trying to listen to something else.
"What is it?" She asked, whispering.
"Do you hear that?" He asked, glancing a bit at her.
She singled out his voice and the supposed sound in the background.
"What does it sound like?" She asked as she closed her eyes to concentrate.
"Rustling of leaves—something's in the bushes," Nyx began to move towards it.
The sounds slowly drowned out in Freida's ears. She heard the rustling Nyx talked about. But that wasn't all. In fact, there was much more.
There were three sounds.
The first, was from the rustling in the bushes. She could hear the heart of an animal beat rapidly. Possibly, a dog, or some other animal. It was too fast to be a human's heartbeat.
The second however was steady and sound. She concentrated some more. She could hear the sound of breathing and unclear utterances.
It was a human. Or Nexus.
It wasn't Nyx, because they were hiding somewhere in the bushes, just like the animal.
The third was the most concerning sound of them all. Freida's ability gave her the power to drown out sounds, making her a very good intel personnel and support fighter. But this sound was different from any other she'd heard because of one simple reason:
The sound couldn't be drowned out.
It kept its presence even among the other sounds she selectively heard. Though in the background, it was still pretty much heard.
Now she has given all of her attention to this sound, it became even louder. As a matter of hearing, unbearably loud.
It was a long, hard, ringing, thumping sound.
DOOM! DOOM! DOOM!
She fell to her knees and winced in pain as she could feel the sound damage her eardrums. But the sound didn't stop.
She tried to listen to Nyx who was now distracted from the animal in the woods and the other sounds, but she couldn't. She couldn't hear anything but the thumping sound.
She watched Nyx run after the person in the bushes without hesitation. She tried to call out to him, but her pain was far too great to allow her to speak.
She fell to the ground, rolling and covering her ears with hope that the sound would stop. Her hands, covered in blood from her ears, she reached out and grabbed a stick from the ground.
She forced the stick into her ear and screamed loudly in pain. The sound stopped.
She exhaled deeply and laid on her back. Her breathing slowed down as she realised she couldn't hear anything.
She had lost her selective hearing.
Realising this, she got up and looked around herself. Her senses had been reduced by 25%, leaving her with taste, sight, touch and smell.
Something didn't feel right about where she stood. She knew the she had possibly lost her powers but she could swear she could hear something still thumping.
No, it wasn't sound.
It was her body feeling the ground tremble. The ground beneath her feet shook terribly, in the same rhythmic pattern as the sound did. Her mind was simply tricking her deaf ears to belief she was still hearing the sound just by feeling it.
But this meant something.
Whatever was making that sound, was very close to her. It must've had an incredible size too because of the magnitude of the shakes.
She had wondered where Nyx had gone, but there was no way she could do anything about it. Right now, all that mattered was herself.
She wasn't sure what direction to run to, but the camp was her best bet. And so she ran, as fast as she could.
She looked back and saw a huge figure chase right after her, still keeping its appearance hidden in the bushes. She was a lot more concerned.
Her anxiety was understandable. Whatever was chasing her seemed like it could run a lot faster than she was running.
The question was why wasn't it doing that?
Is it a creature that loves the flare of the hunt? Or something more..? She barely thought as it remained at a fixed distance from her.
Her line of sight met the huge bonfire and her eyes glimmered. There was hope she could escape.
She ran right to the bonfire and screamed:
"Something is coming!! You all need to run!!"
Everyone looked at her. They were no longer eating around the bonfire and they were preparing to go to bed.
Orion, on like everyone else, rushed to her. He stopped when he saw the amount of blood beside her head and on her hands. Seeing his reaction, everyone gathered her as she shouted unintentionally.
Claudius came and was given way by the students. He stood in front of Freida as his eyes roamed her face.
"I can't hear anything or anyone!" She shouted. "Nyx! He needs help...no, we all need to run! Something's coming—"
She turned around and saw nothing.
The huge figure in the bushes was gone.
"No..." She said in disbelief. "It was right there! It was following me, I swear it!"
Claudius tapped her shoulder. "What happened to your hearing?" He signed to her.
"The thumping! The thumping! It was so loud and unbearable." She paused. "I think I lost my powers. My selective hearing is gone."
Claudius glanced at the class instructor.
"Where is Nyxander?" He signed again.
"He ran after the person in the woods," she answered.
"What person?"
"I don't know. But there were three sounds I could hear: A rabbit, a boy and...the thumping."
Claudius looked round. The teenagers were scared to their core. He closed his eyes trying to understand what might have happened.
"We have to find Nyx!" Orion walked to him.
"You don't think I know that, kid?" Claudius scoffed.
"Then what're you waiting for?!"
Claudius walked passed Orion, their shoulders colliding. "Alright, listen up! Everyone stays here in the camp, is that understood? No one leaves for any reason. I'm going to have to find Nyxander out there."
"I'm coming with you!" Orion spoke up again.
"Oh for god's sake, shut the fuck up kid!" Claudius yelled, now visibly pissed.
"He's right," Petal spoke out from the crowd. "What if you might need some help?"
"For all I know, Nyx must've chased a local. There's a village close by here. Nothing is going to happen that requires any of you to do anything. I'll handle this myself."
"Sir," Kerith moved out of the crowd. "You told me something. That secret you talked about." Kerith stared right at Claudius. "You said, the secret to being a Legionnaire was not in power. It's in number. Statistics do a lot more than a single handed effort. You said it's not about being the MVP, it's winning the match in all. You don't know what it is you're going to meet out there. Just what if Frieda is right about there being some kind of creature out there? Numbers are needed, you know this."
Claudius knew those were his exact words. Remarkable that Kerith remembered them all. However, what Kerith didn't know was that the essence of that secret was for most in the number to give something of themselves in other for the others to come out victorious.
Sacrifice.
Claudius knew he couldn't change their minds. If he refuted them, they'd still go either way, especially Orion.
"Fine. But not all of you are coming. Kerith, Petal and..." He looked at Orion, "...and you. Everyone else stays here."
"What's that to mean?! I'm a lot more useful than Orion!" A boy spoke up from among the students. He was tall and a lot muscular than the rest. His name was Alto.
Alto was one of the strongest Nexuses in this class of students. He had a simple yet effective ability: Power.
His ability gave him extraordinary physical capabilities. They spanned from physical strength to pain reduction.
But then, there was something that made it seem off. He was Petal's boyfriend and he hated Nyx.
Orion's eyes refused to stray off him. He realised that if things run wild, Alto was the first one to look at.
Claudius didn't stop him from joining them. He began walking in the path that lead further into the woods.
The five Nexuses left the camp with the murmurs of the others heard behind them.
"Wait!" Freida ran after them.
"Freida, you're injured. You have to stay—" Orion tried to stop her.
"No, let her come. Let anyone who wants to, come," Claudius said.
Orion's sweat became cold. Anything but reassuring was how Claudius voice sounded. He didnt like that.
Orion took Freida's hand and they all disappeared under the purple sky into the woods.