“I’m right here, ya dingbat.” Trish steps on Aron’s leg and picks him up. “And what’d I say about calling me Headmaster?”

“You’re alive.” Aron looks at her with happiness and hugs her.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m alive. He’s not though, yeesh.” She says, looking at the corpse of the former teacher. Aron looks at it as well and gags again. He runs over to the trash can once again and throws up in it.

He sports a sickly look on his face and Trish hugs him tightly once again.

“It’ll be okay Aron. Don’t worry. Thanks for saving me, but never jump into danger like that again.” 

“Okay. Can we take a break from learning for a bit?” Aron asks, tired.

“Sure thing. What do you want to do?” Trish smiles.

“I wanna walk around the city.” Aron says somewhat excitedly, still reeling.

“Okay, sure thing. But first, I have to wake up the students.” She goes over to the students and chants something. A white circle with two squares interlocking in the middle appears above all of the students. White particles flow down from it and the students slowly wake up. 

“Wait… I thought the sleep spell was too powerful for you to break. What happened?” Aron asks confused.

“I didn’t want the students to see me fight the teacher because that would have been a whole lot of explaining. Besides, if a six-year-old can beat him, any magic is useless from him.”

“I suppose that’s true…” Aron says, still slightly trembling at the mention of killing. 

“Ms. Headmaster? What happened to Mr. Traytor?” Every student in the room looks horrified at the sight of their teacher on the business end of an ice spike.

“Oh, well Mr. Traytor turned out to be a traitor and so, this young man,” She pushes Aron in front of the classroom. “Dealt with him.” She smiles. The students murmur to each other a little too loudly, some trusting him, some ridiculing him in secret.

‘You hired someone with the last name Traytor? Big mistake.’ Aron thinks.

“Uh… Ms.? I don’t want to take the credit.”

“But you did it, so you’re taking it.” Trish says to him, gritting her teeth.

“Okay…” Aron tilts his head down. “She was getting hurt real bad, so I tried to help, but… it kinda got out of control.” 

The students murmur still about what to do, trying to decide whether to trust Aron or not. Aron looks at the Headmaster worriedly.

“Kids, I don’t think you understand. He saved me, so at least give him a chance.”

“We’re fifteen. We’re adults.” One student perks up.

“Adults or not, he still saved me, so I don’t know why you’re complaining.” Trish explains, trying to get them to understand everything.

“He’s just a child. How could he possibly have saved you?”

The Headmaster just points to the ice spike, and the corpse on it, without saying anything. A student scoffs.

“I bet any one of us could do something like that.” He gets up and gets ready to cast something. The Headmaster gives the student a mean look before he can and he stops and sits down. Aron pulls on Trish’s cloak.

“I need to go to my room.” Aron looks at Trish, almost about to cry. His hands tremble as he fights back tears.

“Go on, I’ll handle it.” Trish smiles warmly at him.

Aron goes across the hallway and into his room. He faceplants into the bed and begins to cry into a pillow. ‘Why don’t they trust me. I saved the Headmaster’s life, it shouldn’t be that hard, right? And why am I crying right now?’ Aron turns onto his back and sighs, his tears still slowly streaming down his face. He gets up from the soft bed and goes over to the bathroom in the hallway. He overhears the conversation between the students and the Headmaster. 

“If he’s so great then why teach us? We’re apparently too incompetent compared to him, so just leave.” The same male student is standing on the desk while the Headmaster is trying to get everyone to calm down. 

“That’s not what I’m saying,” She sighs, frustrated. “Every one of you are great, and you’ll be excellent mages yourselves one day, but he’s a kid. You seriously can’t be nice to a kid for a tiny bit? I didn’t expect that coming from my students.” She sits down in her chair and sighs, exhausted. “Get your work done, all of you. We’ll discuss this later.” She gets up, exits the room, and slams the door behind her. It reverberates across the halls and makes Aron jump. She sees him standing close to the door. Some students murmur about whether or not they were in the right.

“Oh, I didn’t see you there, Aron.” Her face gets a bit red. “Listen, you’re not the only one who needs a break right now. See you tomorrow for walking around the city.” She smiles at him warmly.

“Yeah, see you.” He quickly walks away to the bathroom before she can ask if he was eavesdropping. Aron closes the door to the bathroom and hears slight scraping on the wall outside.

‘That was close. I need to be more careful. I wasn’t really expecting her to leave the classroom that soon. I need to learn more magic so that I can protect people… and maybe fight that Voice that brought me here. He’s pretty annoying. Who is he anyway?’ 

 A whisper is heard at the window. “Psst. Anyone home? Three, two, one. Didn’t respond, I’m comin’ in.” A girl with purple hair and ragged clothes comes in through the small window. She looks to be about seven or eight years old. Aron looks in horror at the girl and gasps. She covers his mouth and whispers to him. 

“Shh. Shut up. I’m just here to have a place to sleep for the night, okay?”

Aron nods.

“You’re being too loud.” She shouts and slaps Aron’s face as hard as she can. Aron internalizes his scream of pain and whispers, still reeling.

“The heck was that for? You just shouted and I’m pretty sure everyone just heard you. How’d you even get up here? The bathroom’s like five stories up.”

“Like monster stories?” The girl asks, scared.

“No. It’s like 50 [feet] up or something. How’d you get up here?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I climbed.” She says, smiling.

“How did you climb up that high?” Aron looks at her horrified.

“I guess I’m just really talented or something.” She smiles and goes over to the door. 

“You comin’ whatever your name is?” She taps her foot impatiently.

“Y…yeah I guess. It’s Aron by the way. What’s your name?” He stands up from the wall of the tub he was sitting on.

“Cierra Loto.” She smiles. “Now come on.” She waves Aron over to the door. 

“You said you need a place to sleep tonight, right Cierra?”

“Ci Ci’s fine, and yeah I do. Really bad.” She looks at Aron. 

“Well… my room’s open I guess.” Aron sighs.

“You mean it?” Cierra’s emerald green eyes light up.

“Yeah, it’ll be like a sleep-over.” Aron smiles.

“Sorry, I can’t. Boys have the Perc Touch.” Cierra sighs.

‘Is that like the cheese touch back on Earth or something?’

“What’s an Earth?” Cierra perks up and smiles. 

Aron freezes.

“Uhh… n-nothing. Forget I said anything. Let’s just… go to my room.” He laughs a bit too fast and awkwardly.

“Like I said, I can’t.” She seems adamantly horrified of the Perc Touch.

“What if I sleep on the floor and you can have the bed?” Aron says, trying to get this over with.

“Hey, that might work! Let’s try it.” She smiles. Aron lets Cierra follow him to the room and immediately gets on the ground. It’s cold and hard but the wood makes the texture somewhat fun to lay on. 

“That looks fun.” Cierra says excitedly as she goes onto the ground with Aron, making floor angels. She laughs for a bit and then stops. “Not as fun as I thought it would be.” She turns to her side and sees Aron’s face trembling.

“What’s wrong, Aron? You okay?”

“I will be, but I’m just tired from today.” Aron sighs.

“Wanna talk about it?” Cierra smiles softly and Aron shakes his head. “Okay, okay. Is it ‘cause of me?”

“No, I don’t even know you.” Aron smiles slightly. Cierra pokes his cheek to try to make him feel better.

“What was that for?” Aron laughs.
“Nothin’.” They both laugh together.

“Get to sleep Ci Ci.” Aron smiles and turns to his side toward her.

“Okay, okay. Night Aron.” As soon as she says those words, she’s out and already snoring. Aron thinks about some things for a while and goes to sleep.

In his sleep, Aron is transported to a familiar white void. Filled with all sorts of familiar things. Cold, empty darkness that is also somehow completely blinding.

“Oh. My hell awaits me once again. Hey Voice, how we doin’ today?” Aron asks, accepting that he can’t escape.

“Pretty good. Have you figured anything out yet?”

“I thought you’d be omniscient or somethin’ if you could pull me in here.” Aron crosses his arms.

“I’m gonna take that as a no then.” The Astral Voice sounds frustrated.

“Ding ding ding. So smart, let’s give it up for our ol’ friend here everybody. No, I haven’t, but I can feel myself getting closer to the truth.” Aron smirks. The Voice makes giant googly eyes in one of the walls of the void and makes them roll. 

“I’m trying to help you kid, I really am. I just thought that you didn’t belong in your old world-” The Voice gets cut off by Aron.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t belong? You’re the one who gets to pick and choose which people come into each world or planet, right? Besides, I won the presidency in a landslide. How are you gonna claim that I didn’t belong?” Aron breathes heavily.

“Listen, I felt like it just didn’t fit you, so I plucked you out.” The Voice says in a sort of almost happy manner.

“Plucked me out? You killed me?” Aron collapses onto the ground.

“Well… no, there are more things to i-”

“You killed me when I was about to have the fourth best moment of my life. You killed me and made me leave my wife and two children behind.” 

“Wait.” The Voice says, worried.

Aron stands up, angrier than ever. 

“You’re going to pay for this. I swear on everything I stand for.” Aron rips a hole in the wall of the white void and makes it into a door. He steps through and floats back into his body. He wakes up tired, shortly before falling back asleep, ready for anything that will happen next.