"Technically, you tied," Wren deadpanned, her head appearing above me and blocking the bright lights.

I laid a hand on my forehead and stared up at her. "Yeah, I guess...but I won this round."

Wren turned her head to look over at Theo. "You did more than win."

My eyebrow twitched upward, and I sat up on my hands and knees to stare at Theo's still form. My eyes landed on the black freckle-like dots sprinkling the areas of exposed skin. I looked down at my own ripped sleeves and stared at the black marks. "How long are these things going to take to heal?" I questioned aloud.

"Since they were not real bullets, only a couple of months," Wren replied. "But if you apply this," she held out yet another amber bottle, "it should only take a few weeks."

"What is it?" I asked as I accepted it from her waiting hands.

"Altha oil."

"Do you use these oils for everything?" Turning the top and opening the bottle, I took a quick whiff. It hardly smelled like anything.

"It's different from what I gave you for the bruising."

"Yeah?"

Wren leaned over Theo and placed a similar bottle into his pocket, along with a small piece of paper. The crowd of people swarming around him hardly noticed. "We should be getting back to the dorm," she said, rising to her feet.

She didn't offer me a helping hand up, so I got to my feet on my own. They were shaky, but surprisingly they still managed to hold me up as I followed behind Wren's swift pace.

I made a beeline for my bed the moment we stepped through our dorm's doorway. I face planted, getting a mouthful of pink fluffy pillow. I turned my head and quickly wiped my tongue in disgust.

"You should apply the oil to your wounds," Wren said, walking over and sitting beside me. I was still trying to get rid of the fluff as I gagged over and over.

After I was finally able to rid myself of every last drop, I flopped onto my side, holding my head up with my hand. "They aren't real wounds. They can wait until I finish my nap that lasts a lifetime."

"Those black marks work just like real cuts. If you do not clean and treat them, they could get infected."

"And what does getting infected even do? They aren't real cuts so I don't think—"

"They could swell and cause aches and fever," she returned.

"But they're just marks—like scars. Why can't they just heal on their own?"

"Perhaps you will understand if I explained what exactly happens to create those black marks," Wren began, scooting further into the bed and straightening her back. "Each part of the weapon that comes in contact with the skin in a threatening way—the blade of the sword and the gun bullets—contains several layers of material. One of the substances is a poison called benoni. This substance stimulates pain receptors and then the chemicals they release contact the brain, just as in normal circumstances. Your father actually helped develop the idea."

"How does the blade cut through the cloth then? I don't get it."

"The blade is still sharp. Which is where the second scientifically engineered substance comes into play. It coats the outer layer of the blade or bullet, protecting the skin but not the cloth so that the benoni can be injected into the skin without the cloth getting in the way."

I paused, my brain flipping her words back and forth through my mind. "Wait—if it just triggers the pain receptors, then why do I have to treat it? And the black marks?"

"The black marks are quite simple to explain," she said. "It is the color of the poison staining the skin." She breathed in deeply before continuing. "Benoni is still a poison. If you do not rid your body of it, it will continue stimulating the pain receptors. It will also slowly spread and could get into your bloodstream. Now," she placed the bottle onto my stomach, "Go apply the oil so you do not die. I might not enjoy human interaction very much, but I would rather not be by myself in this dorm at night."

"Are you scared of the dark, Wren?"

Her face remained dead serious. "No," she replied. "You are the only one brave enough to kick Theo where it hurts."

My brain suddenly caught up with what she had said. "I could die from this?!"

She cocked her head.

"You said, 'go apply the oil so you do not die'," I explained.

She straightened her head and said, "I would not say it is impossible." Then she rose to her feet and went into the bathroom.

"I'm not sure if she's joking, serious, or just wants me to do it and would say that just to get me to do it," I murmured aloud. I grabbed the bottle from my stomach and forced myself to my feet.

———————

As I lay in bed that night, my limbs stiff and sore, my skin itchy and slimy from the oil, and my body feeling heavier than an elephant, the final fight flashed through my mind on repeat. It was like a movie that I couldn't look away from. And like watching a bright screen in the dark, it kept me up for hours, just twisting and turning, back and forth, back and forth—

I squeezed my eyes shut as though my eyelids could disappear into my head until it was painful. My eyes shot open and I stared into the darkness, my mind finally completely empty.

Wait, never mind.

Dumb brain.

Dumb fight.

Dumb tie.

What was even going to happen tomorrow? Were we just going to forget all about the fight? Was Theo going to go back to silently glaring at me from afar?

Or maybe tying with him would help him learn to respect me instead of just listening to rumors and coming to the conclusion that I was the worst person on planet earth.

To some—or most—people, I guess I was.

In my eyes, I was being the best person I could be. If that doesn't make me popular or get me a bucket load of friends, then who cares? I wasn't going to be shallow just for something I didn't need. I had Wren anyways.

"Wren?" I called.

"Yes?" I heard her quiet voice say through the darkness.

I wasn't surprised she had replied. She was a light sleeper. "Are you always going to be my friend? Or are you going to eventually pretend you have no idea who or what I am?"

"You are a human."

"You don't know that. What if I'm an alien?"

"You are not."

"But...what if I am?"

"You are not."

I sighed and spread my arms and legs into a starfish position. "Sometimes I feel like one—Wait! You didn't answer my question!"

"Please repeat your question."

"Are you always going to be my friend? Or are you going to eventually—"

"Yes."

"'Yes' you're always going to be my friend? Or 'yes' you're going to eventually pretend you have no idea—"

"Yes."

Silence drifted in the air and I let it fly around the room for a while.

"Gotcha," I finally said, although I had 'got' nothing.

As usual, Wren just made my brain hurt.

I woke up the next morning, my first thought being, 'When in the world did I fall asleep?'.

But then I realized that I asked myself that every morning, and every morning, I had no answer.

I zombied my way through my morning routine with my eyes half closed. I somehow still managed to get to homeroom early again. Theo was there, of course, but there were quite a few other students that had already arrived, scattered about the room.

I longed for my seat to be on the other side of the room.

But no, it was still right next to Theo.

My eyes shifted in his direction. He was focused somewhere in the distance, nothing in particular. The dark circles under his eyes made him look like he was sixteen going on eighty-seven.

I stared for a while, but if he felt my eyes on him, he ignored it. His eyes began to flutter closed and his head sunk deeper into the hand holding him up.

"PICKLES!" I screamed in his ear.

He jumped and fell out of his chair, his shoe flying into the air in the process. It landed on my desk with a thump.

He stayed there for a minute before his head popped up to look at me from his awkward position. I hid my laugh behind my hand, but my shoulders still shook aggressively. He didn't glare, instead, his face went pink with embarrassment. He turned his head and mumbled something under his breath.

I reached a hand forward to help him up, but he ignored it, rising into a standing position and brushing himself off.

"Sorry," I said, unable to hide the smile—a leftover from my laugh attack. "I didn't expect you to fall out of your chair like that."

"When I was about to drift into the sleep land, I didn't either," he returned curtly. He slid back into his chair and slipped his shoe back on.

I patted his head. "Just wanted to remind you of my presence in case you forgot," I said.

"That's what I was trying to do," he replied, his face twisted as far as it went away from me.

"Are you embarrassed that you tied with a girl?" I questioned. I rested an elbow on his desk and grinned up at him.

He looked into my eyes for the first time that day. A shiver went down my spine, numbing my fingers and toes and leaving me completely frozen.

His glare was like ice. Instead of their color being like the warm gentle ocean, they were the color of a snowy wasteland.

After a minute, he looked away and it took all of my energy to focus on the front of the class as the teacher walked into the room to start the morning announcements.

After homeroom, I followed the flow of people out the door. Once I had escaped, I found Wren and dragged her into an empty classroom.

"Did you notice anything weird about Theo this morning?" I asked her in a hushed tone, not wanting someone to hear us and investigate.

"I suppose—although you are the one with the seat beside him, so really...I would not know," she replied, before turning and heading for the door.

I grabbed her shoulder and whipped her around to face me. "Maybe we should find him a therapist."

"I highly doubt his appreciation for such an action."

"You're right..." My voice trailed off and my hands fell to my sides as she escaped my grasp and left the classroom. "I just feel bad," I murmured to the now empty room.

Back in the hall, I caught up with Wren and fell into step with her. Just as I was about to ask her what she brought for lunch—she was the best cook—something slammed into my stomach and sent me flying onto my back. I gasped as the breath was knocked out of me. "What's the big idea?" I murmured as I coughed vigorously. I looked up and saw a blond-haired boy my age glaring down at me. After making sure I had seen that he had been the one to push me to the floor, he turned on his heel and stalked off.

"What's his deal?" I questioned. I used the wall to pull myself to my feet, only to be yanked back by my hair. I landed on my arm and cried out in pain as the floor rubbed against the black marks still lining my skin.

I didn't have a chance to see who it was this time. A foot rammed into the back of my head and a piercing headache racked my skull. Then another hit my stomach and then the area between my eyes. The blows completely disoriented me and kept me from standing to defend myself. It felt like they were coming from everywhere all at once.

"Stop," I whispered. "Please...stop..."

Then they were gone.

It made the entire event feel like a dream.

But the voice that called my name through my closed eyelids felt real...so real...

Hands gripped my shoulders and shook them gently. "Snap out of it, Lumi!" a rough British accent yelled in my ear.

I screamed and my eyes shot open. I stood up suddenly, just to clash my forehead against another. I stared into bright blue eyes flashing with unknown emotions.

"Theo?" my own voice questioned hoarsely.

Suddenly his arms wrapped around my arms and pulled me to his chest. I let out a strangled gasp and immediately began squirming and struggling against his hold, but it was futile. My arms fell limply to my sides as my panic turned to confusion.

He seemed to realize what he had just done and jumped back as though I had turned into a hot stove. He cleared his throat and rose to his feet.

Wren was standing a few feet away in a daze. Her eyes were wide, her lips small, her hands shook ever so slightly. "I'm sorry..." she was mumbling. "I'm so sorry...I..." Her gaze was focused nowhere in particular. She fell to her knees as though her thoughts were suddenly too much for her body to hold up.

My right hand crawled up the side of my face, brushing against the tender areas where I had been hit repeatedly. "What happened?" I asked the air in a whisper.

Theo's face turned dark. My eyes trailed to his hand clenching into a fist. He didn't say anything, so I turned to Wren. She hadn't moved a centimeter. I followed her gaze to the floor to my right and finally saw what her focus was on.

Blood streaked across the floor where I had laid. A few drops rested beside it. My hand shot to my nose and my eyes slowly widened as it traced the blood past my nose and to the sides of my mouth. It trickled down my chin and neck and collected in my collarbone. I stood frozen for a minute, not quite sure what to do.

"What happened?" I repeated. The pain hadn't settled in yet, it was still being held at bay by the shock. "One minute...they were hitting me and then...what happened?" I repeated the question once again and Theo finally opened his mouth to reply. But then he closed it again.

"They all pounced..." Wren began, her voice barely audible, and her eyes still focused on the floor. "It felt like we were in the jungle, and you were being attacked by tigers...and I...I did not know what to do..." A shiver racked her small frame. "I could see their teeth, sharp and pointed, coated in saliva as though they were out for blood..." Her voice faded into nothing and no more words flowed from her mouth.

I tried to crawl over to her, but then the walls closed in on my temples, squeezing them until it felt like I would pop. The pain pressed in around my eyes and blurred my vision. My hand and leg paused in the air as my body began to shake. 

 Then the world twirled and faded away, leaving me trapped inside myself, unclear of how to find my way back to reality.