Page 15 of Ava: Part Three

She’d felt something in her chest the moment Claire and her friends had walked in.

The first had been the brief joy when she had realised that she hadn’t killed them. She wasn’t a murderer. She didn’t have to hand herself in to the Council.

Then came the feeling of dread. The darkness she felt was coming to claim her had been coming from those students. She could sense it all over them.

She didn’t know how they were in the assembly, considering what she saw in her nightmares every night. What she heard. The screams, the blood, the sound of breaking bones. Was that just her overactive imagination, then? Had going into the cursed forest and in Isolation messed her up so much that her mind played tricks on her?

A voice in the back of her mind told her not to be stupid. Even if these students were no longer presumed dead, the Council was still coming for her. And that nagging voice also hammered in the fact that no one could have survived what she had seen that thing in her body do.

There was something seriously wrong with Claire and her friends. It was as if the darkness had claimed them completely.

Maybe like it was trying to do to her.

When they’d sat behind her, she could feel the sickly feeling from the forest as if she was still in it. She had remained frozen in her seat for the whole assembly, afraid to move. How could someone emit so much darkness and still walk around like this? It felt like they were creatures from the forest, like the violet-eyed things Zeke had fought twice to save her.

“Ava.”

She was about to enter the First-Year block when the timid voice called her attention.

She tensed when she saw Emily standing next to the door as if she had been waiting. And her guilt and shame threatened to swallow her up again.

Maybe she hadn’t killed Claire, but what had happened to them seemed worse than death. It was still her fault. And this Omega knew that.

Though Emily had been the one to beg and grovel for forgiveness, she felt like she was the one who needed to do that. But she couldn’t even look at Emily, let alone speak.

She looked away from Emily and opened the door, ready to ignore her, but the wolf pushed it closed. It was a bold move from someone who’d shit her pants every time she had seen her since that fateful Saturday. And she was still scared now. Emily was a trembling mess and was paler than she had been before.

“Please,” Emily whispered. “I know you don’t want to see me, and I know you won’t forgive me. But give me a chance to make it up to you. Let me try. Please. I can’t live like this anymore.”

“You don’t need my forgiveness, Emily,” she said, pulling the door open again.

“I do. Please,” Emily said again. “Claire and her friends...”

She looked at Emily and realised that the Omega had all the answers she needed. She knew what had happened that day.

Someone pushed the door open, pushing her to the side. It made her remember where she was. There were too many people around to talk about this so openly. Too many sensitive ears. The last thing she wanted was for people to know what she had done to Claire.

“I’ll find you later,” she said, opening the door again.

“Can I stay with you in the dorms?”

What?

She closed the door again and looked at Emily with a questioning frown. The Omega immediately lowered her gaze.

“I can stay in your dorm room and guard you,” Emily continued. “I know you don’t need it, and it’s not the same as having Alpha Ezekiel with you, but I can sense when there is danger. I can be useful. I can be brave.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The new rules,” Emily answered. “I can help you move if you want me to.”

She felt like she had been sucker punched. Was she being forced to move out of Zeke’s house now? Was that how the dean was going to punish her?

“I... I’ll speak to you later,” she repeated, this time not giving Emily a chance to stop her again.

She went straight to the Needlework class and ignored how everyone went quiet as she entered. Their Instructor was not there yet, so she found her seat and immediately pulled her tablet out of her bag.

There were two notices from the dean. One was to the whole school, the other was in her private messages. Both filled her with a sense of doom. If this was her last week at school, the dean had obviously found a way to ruin it.

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