NIKHOLAS SYLVESTER

“HEY!!!” I shouted. Just as she collapsed into the water, the immense pain gripping my heart let me go. I rushed over to pull her body up before she potentially drowned in the water. I gently slapped her face, trying to wake her up, but nothing seemed to wake her. She was out cold. Just as I was about to call out for help, I felt a pair of eyes drilling into me. Looking up into the large window overseeing the courtyard, Lady Beatrice could be seen, giving me a look that I could not quite describe. Just as she walked out of sight, I heard Corrigan Dao, one of the head priests, shout at me.

“NIKHOLAS SYLVESTER!!! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!” Corrigan screeched. I cringed. His voice was so…prepubescent. He was 22 yet sounded like he belonged in the teenage choir. But hearing his voice elevated to such a pitch was an absolute nightmare. He sprinted over to me, snatching the nun out of my arms.

“Give me one good excuse as to why I shouldn’t report you to Lady Beatrice!!!” Now it was my turn to get upset.

“Number one, I didn’t do anything! Number two, I was trying to help her, and she collapses! And lastly, number three, I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING!!” I shouted back. Probably disgusted by my very existence, Corrigan simply stuck his nose up and whisked the nun’s limp body away in his arms, not even giving me the last word like he always did. Strange, but it was for the better. I didn’t have the mind to back and forth with what all just happened. Not to mention, I spent so much time engrossed in this drama that I didn’t realize it was finally six o’clock, which meant the dorms were finally open.

I expected to be the first person in the dorm, as I was every day. However, I was greeted at the door with a pizza party. A secret one since it was highly against the rules to bring food into the dorms. The perpetrators of the pizza party sat before me; Gael, Gael’s little brother Marco, and my elder sister, Milani. All looked pretty content with the amount of pizza they had somehow amassed. I closed the door and leaned on it, feigning disappointment. Gael chuckled loudly and slid a plate to me across the wooden floor.

“Don’t act like you don’t want a piece of this! I heard your stomach throughout the sermon today! Someone didn’t eat their lunch!” I scoffed taking a bite. Yeah, maybe I was hungry, and my god the pizza tasted heavenly compared to the cardboard and pond water they served at lunch. So much money for an academy and cathedral, but no money to buy better food. I turned to look at Milani, who was tinkering with her wheelchair on the floor. I moved over to her, offering her a hand.

Milani wasn’t always wheelchair-bound. She used to play with me a lot as a kid in the Ganrah district in Lower Margraave, but I vividly remember the day that she stopped playing with me. It wasn’t a sudden occurrence. It was a gradual thing. She would spend more and more hours, days, and months in bed before she could no longer move on her own. When I was a kid, she refused to tell me what was wrong, chalking it up to ‘being punished for eating the last cookie’, which at the time, scare the wits out of me. She eventually told me when I was 13.

It was a wasting disease. Bone deterioration. It had always been there in her body from the moment of birth, but it had never taken root until she was 8. I remember not quite understanding the gravity of the situation, and so on my fifth birthday, I was angry when she couldn’t come down to me and open my presents with me. If only I knew then…I’m now 19 and know so much more. She even attended the Kingsman Academy along with me, faking her age to stay with me for the entirety of my school days, just so she could make up for the lost time.

Regardless of the reason for her decision, she deserves to be here on her own merit. Since she spent so much time in her bed growing up, all she could do was read and draw, which led to the cultivation of her talent in mechanical engineering. Through her newfound skills, she was able to invent a way to move around despite the weak mobility in her legs. Granted, nothing was ever perfect, so it was prone to break down sometimes. At this moment, just as one of the gears snapped at my finger painfully, I was reminded of that fact.

“Soooo…I heard you got kicked out of class again today, Nikki.” Milani said, shooting me a sharp gaze. I knew how much she hated me getting kicked out of class, even if she hated the doctrine as well. “I don’t want you getting kicked out all because you can’t avoid trouble in one of the most crucial classes that this school has made mandatory!”

“Yeah, yeah…I know. I just…I don’t agree with what actually happened in history. I feel like there were so many details left out. But my curiosity seems to be the bane of everyone here.” Marco piped up next to me, his mouth full of pizza.

“Isn’t that going to be the case in a school that worships the very god you try to pull apart every day?”

“Maybe,” I shrugged. “I guess when you are so devoted to an idea, you fail to see the discrepancy of it all.” My thoughts brought me back to that nun.

 I can’t understand exactly what happened back there. The inexplicable pain, why we both felt it, it was all so strange, but I had no way of getting answers. I never learned that girl’s name, and it seems like she was unable to speak in the first place. I placed my hand on my chest. The pain seemed to have subsided for now, though it still felt a little sore. Looking out the window of my dorm, I noticed the full moon. The white light was serene in the dark sky, the little stars surrounding it. Somehow, the moon reminded me of that girl. I hoped Corrigan brought her back safely. It’s not something I had to worry about, though.

Despite Corrigan’s obnoxious attitude and grating voice, he certainly tried his hardest to be a good person. He helped a lot of the students out, aided in the homeless missions, and led the choir. He had a lot on his plate, so I wouldn’t be too surprised if the stress of his many jobs was the cause of his neurotic behavior.

“Earth to Nicholas! We’re in big trouble!!” Gael Shouted, bringing me out of my thoughts. His face was full of worry as his eyes gazed at something behind me.

“ALL OF YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN DETENTION FOR THE NEXT FIVE DAYS!!” The voice bellowed.

Crap. I forgot that all the priests had master keys to the male dorm rooms. I recognized the voice. It was Tristan Logan, the head of the dorms and head preacher. I almost didn’t want to turn around to see him. His heavy hand gripped my shoulder, sending a shiver of fear down my spine. He never failed to hide just how strong he was.

“And you, Mr. Sylvestar. Lady Beatrice would like to speak to you.” I saw Milani and Gael’s faces grow pale.

“Bro…What did you do…” Gael asked quietly. I couldn’t do anything but sigh. I could only assume it was about one thing- that girl. As Tristan hoisted me onto my feet, I could only wonder just how much trouble I was in this time.

Little did I know…this situation would go farther than just suspension…

❃ ❃ ❃

EVERTIA

I opened my eyes to a blurry ceiling…My head hurt so much…Did I hit something when I fell?

But…Why did I fall? I don’t remember much except that strange guy…He tried to help me…No one had done that before…

“Evertia.” I heard my mother’s voice from afar. I struggled to turn my head to see her. It would have been very disrespectful to not look at her as she was speaking to me. From behind her, I saw my brother Timothy poke out.

“The pig awakens!” He stuck his tongue out at me before laughing and running away. He says words like that all the time, but I don’t know why it makes me feel the way I feel. It’s a strange feeling…

“Get up, Evertia.” Mother’s stern voice called out to me. I did what she said to avoid making her more upset, but my legs were still weak, and I landed back on the floor. I heard mother’s disappointed sigh.

“You embarrass me more and more every day, Eve.” She roughly grabbed my arm and held me to her level. It hurt a lot, but I couldn’t say a word.

“Who was that boy, Evertia?!” She snarled, grabbing my chin. I couldn’t answer her question though…I truly didn’t know who he was…I tried my hardest to speak, but I couldn’t even make a sound.

She only got angrier.

“Did I give you permission to go out at any point???!!!” She screamed. I wanted to cover my ears, but it was impossible to do so. Mother dropped me back onto the floor, my head hitting the tile.

“If I find you out of the confines of the cathedral, you will suffer. It also seems…you are more broken than I thought. We need to work on your speech.” With that, she left my room. I continued to lay on the floor, staring at the ceiling once again.

That strange feeling bubbled in my chest once again, and water seemed to come out of my eyes. I could never say what this feeling was, but it seems that letting the water out of my eyes for a long time made me feel better.

However, I was confused…Why was mother so angry about that man?

And…Why did my chest hurt so bad after touching him? Would I ever get an answer?

I pulled myself up to the window with what little strength I had. Looking outside, I realized it was a full moon tonight. The moon made me happy. It reminded me of a vanilla cake. Something I never got to taste. But I think they taste good. Timothy eats a lot of them. There were movements in the courtyard. peeking at who it was, my chest began to hurt again.

It was that man…That man that tried to help me before…Our eyes made contact, and suddenly, I didn’t have the strength to hold onto the window. I slid to the floor, breathing hard. His gaze was as strong as mother’s angry hand. It left me breathless and confused.

Just who was he?

                                                                                  FINIS DOCTRINA DUO