VII

Kimi held the shirt with the embroidery to his chest as he sat against the headboard, the rainstorm clouding his hearing. His thoughts were dangling from a hook, above a deep, rippled pool of tiredness.

I hate night times, he thought as he looked at his wall clock. Midnight.

An exhausted sigh escaped his parted, crisp lips and he worked to blink away tiredness. A tiny squeak caught his attention and he looked towards his window. A gecko crawled out of the shadows, an ant hot on its heels. Kimi watched the gecko shrink into itself, away from the taunting ant. It went on for a minute before the gecko suddenly latched the insect.

Kimi scoffed silently. What a dark horse.

*

Everyone bustled onto the field, their chattering slowly diminishing as they approached their teacher who stood in the middle of the field like a soldier, the sun highlighted against his dark skin. They silenced themselves as they stopped before the teacher.

“Today, midgets, is the day we have soccer tryouts.” A few excited exhales filled the field and the teacher glared at his students, the rays of the sun glistening against his grey, thick framed glasses. “Both boys and girls are participating in the tryouts. As you all know, tiredness is not an excuse.”

“But we have a zombie in our midst,” muttered Clover to her pack of followers, who snickered in response.

The teacher raised a daring eyebrow. “Miss Mikher, why don’t you open the field for us. Five shots. Redo it if you miss.”

Clover gritted her teeth, her face mirroring that of a pampered fiend. “Okay.”

The teacher nodded in affirmative and threw the ball at her, not caring if it smashed her face or buried her in the grass. “Orpheus and Homer you’re both benched, as usual.” He looked at the clipboard in his hand. “Can I talk to Kimi Mikaelis?”

Kimi raised his head, everyone turning back to look at him. “What?” he questioned with a stony glare.

Students piled away from him to file before the goalpost, his name on the tip of their tongue and centre of their gossip. Kimi walked to his teacher, stiffening when the brothers walked past him on either of his sides.

He looked up into his teacher’s dull, crosseyed amber eyes. “Yes Mr.—?”

“Just call me Coach Tobe,” the teacher said with a wave. “Let’s take a seat.” He motioned to the rolls of benches at the edge of the field.

Kimi nodded and followed his teacher to the benches, only to freeze as he watched his teacher sit beside the brothers.

“Come on. I haven’t got all day,” Tobe muttered as he patted down his mop of spongy afro.

Kimi locked his jaw and took a seat beside his teacher. “What do you want to talk about?”

Tobe looked down at the clipboard. “It says here that you aren’t fit for exhausting exercises. And you don’t do well with sports.” He sighed. “Let’s just say that, since you need to pass physical education in order to graduate, I’ve decided that you and the twins will assist me in the handling of tools and equipments.”

“What?!” the three students exclaimed in differed tones.

“Really?” questioned the smaller of the siblings in glee.

Tobe smiled faintly. “Yes Homer.”

Orpheus raised an eyebrow and glanced at his teacher coldly. “Does Dad know about this Uncle?”

Tobe glared at his student. “You can start by organizing the locker rooms and if I find one speck of dust out of place”—he leaned closer to his nephews—“I’ll chew you raw and then I’ll send your remains to your father’s feet.” He smirked tightly as the twins narrowed their eyes on him, finding truth in his words. He stood to his feet and walked towards the group of moaning students.

Kimi gulped and looked up at Tobe’s retreating form; he too felt threatened by his teacher’s words. A sigh to his left brought him out of his reverie and he was spooked out of his seat.

Homer looked up at Kimi as he walked away towards the school’s building. “He really does have interesting eyes.”

A slight smirk tugged at Orpheus’ lips as he also stood. “We better go before Uncle decides to carry out his century long plan.”

Homer grinned and stood to look into his eyes. “Someone is really going to get punished.” He cocked his head to the side and his eyes widened slightly. “And I know it’s neither I nor Kimi.”

Orpheus rolled his eyes and walked to the school’s building, his brother shrugging and following after him. When they got to the building, they went straight to the gym and found Kimi moving hysterically from one corner to another, moving things and rearranging them.

Homer looked questionably at Orpheus who answered him with a shake of his head. He moved forward—moving like a ghost—and placed a firm hand on an unsuspecting Kimi. This resulted in Kimi jerking out of his grip, tripped on his legs and stumbled to the floor. A ghastly look was on his face when he turned around and crouched to look up at the brothers.

“Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me,” he whispered slowly as he placed his head between his legs, shaking tremendously.

Orpheus shook his head, a warning look in his eyes as he watched his brother squat before the fidgeting boy. “Homer don’t—”

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Homer whispered, his voice a sickening sweet tone. He stretched forward and placed a hand on Kimi’s vibrating knee.

Kimi froze, his breath seizing as he looked at the pale hand on his knee. He shook his head as a scream crawled its way up his throat and he inhaled deeply. He readied the scream and—

“Breathe. Just breathe.” Homer’s voice was like balsamic honey—it was intoxicating, sliding against his ears like a hypnotizing tune.

Kimi’s shoulders instantly relaxed and he looked into Homer’s eyes. Homer’s smile seemed like the very morning sun after a rainy night: bright, warm and comforting. His pale blue eyes looked deep into Kimi’s, like they were piercing his very soul and existence.

Homer lifted his hands to touch Kimi’s face but it was stopped by his brother’s firm grip around his wrist. He looked up, only to be stared at by his brother’s eyes that mirrored deep anger.

Orpheus shook his head. “Don’t.”

Suddenly, Kimi gasped and scurried backwards like he was broken from a deep trance that had trapped him in hell. His gaze alternated between the twins and he froze as the door to the gym was thrown open; a very angry looking Tobe walked in.

The teacher glared at the twins and motioned to his office with a tilt of his head. Orpheus complied and dragged his brother with him and they both retreated to the office. Tobe sighed and shook his head, only to stop as he spotted a statuesque Kimi crouching on the floor. He groaned and walked fully into the gym.

He cleared his throat, catching Kimi’s attention. “Why don’t you just finish up alone.” He didn’t wait for a reply and walked to his office, his glare working its way back onto his face.

Kimi sat idly on the floor and rocked himself back and forth, his teeth sinking deeply into his bottom lip.

What was that feeling? I hate it.

*

Tear after tear ran down Kimi’s face as he emptied his stomach of its contents. He coughed and retched, the vile smell of the vomit reeking into his nostrils and contaminated his sense of smell. His whole body was gnawed by sizzling fear and he shook with every retch.

After several minutes of vomiting, Kimi wiped his mouth with a toilet paper, flushed the toilet and leaned back against the door; his eyes drooped and his breathing was dishevelled. Fear had seeped into his very core like ink against immaculate paper. What was it that had made him loose a bit of his consciousness while Homer talked to him? Kimi pondered and searched his mind where he had seen those brothers but all that filled his mind was their eyes. Those eyes that had haunted his dreams. What was it?!

A loud thud shook the restroom and the sound of shuffling sliced through the thin silence.

“Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!”

The sound of the doors to each water closet busted open and shut with a forceful bang that worsened the pounding in Kimi’s head, along with his emotions as he recognized the voice of the person—it was the voice of the boy that had mocked him when he had panicked the other day.

The door he was resting on suddenly started rattling and his body shook with it. Soon, the person started banging on the door harshly; the sound pounded his ears and he groaned.

“Dude! Dude open the fucking door!” The banging continued and it became harsher with each passing second. “Fuck this!”

“Raj have you found what you’re looking for?” came the hysteric voice of Duan and Kimi panicked.

“No! This fucking ass is giving birth to who knows what!” The banging got louder and Kimi stood. More footsteps filled the restroom.

“Dude just forget about it,” came another voice.

The banging seized abruptly. “Forget about it? If I fucking return home without that thing I can kiss my life goodbye when my sister fucking finds out! And—”

Kimi unlocked the door and pulled it open; he squinted against the piercing bright light.  He was pushed out of the way and he stumbled to the floor as Raja rushed into the water closet.

“Ew. Dude did you fucking consume every known herb in the world?” A rattling sound filled the air and the boy walked out of the water closet, stuffing what looked like a yo-yo in his pocket. He sighed and held a hand out to Kimi—which Kimi didn’t accept—and he retracted his hand. “Sorry ’bout that. Habit.” He shrugged nonchalantly and watched as Kimi stood.

Kimi just rubbed his eyes with a frown before looking up and was met with mysterious dun-coloured eyes; the left one was darker than the right one that looked glassy.

“Raja we better leave for practice before Coach decides to give us one of his political threats,” voiced another familiar person as he stared at Raja.

Raja raised an eyebrow and looked at his friends. “Isn’t he the guy that Qharis’ friend keeps fucking calling a zombie.” Raja looked back at Kimi. “He just needs fucking rest. Right Rin?”

The boy, Rin, shrugged and spread his arms wide. “Do I look like I’m clairvoyant?”

Raja scoffed. “Right.” He stared  one last time at Kimi before smirking at his friends. “Yep, we better fucking leave before coach decides to visualize death.”

His friends chuckled before exiting the restroom; all except Duan, who was staring intently at Kimi.

“I’ll meet you guys in a sec. Gotta use the bathroom.”

Raja waved his hands nonchalantly as he exited the restroom. “Like I fucking care.”

When they were finally alone, Kimi felt worked up and suffocated; he decided to leave but his path was blocked by Duan.

He looked up at the taller boy. “Let me fucking pass.”

Duan observed his red-rimmed eyes and sighed. “I wanna apologize.”

Author’s Note: Hello dear readers! (#^.^#) How was the chapter? Find anything new? Please vote, comment and share and treat each other with kin love. Have a nice day. See you in the next chapter.