Liam

Everything feels weird. As if I was struck with a wave of shock. Maybe more than a shock. My legs started to tremble, feeling weak as I held the wall for support. My lungs stopped as my body craved for air. This was too much for me to handle. I can’t-

“Liam.” I turned behind as I saw Yuna looking at me with his calm eyes.

Calm.

There is something about his eyes that were often hidden from sight. If you looked closely, or had the guts to look closely, his eyes had another story to tell. People often tagged Yuna as a ‘cold-hearted person capable of scoring amazing marks.’ But what they failed to notice makes a huge difference. But right now, my mind was clouded with thoughts to make a proper judgment of his eyes.

Right now, his calm eyes are taunting me. As if, my current state isn’t his doing. I felt my blood boiling in anger as I caught Yuna by his collar, catching him by surprise.

They all knew about it. Yet they made me believe a beautiful lie. A lie so deadly that it pushes you to the edge and you think that you have found your paradise. When in fact- you were stuck in this paradise.

“What’s wrong-” Yuna stopped mid-sentence as he looked into my eyes.

“You knew about it, didn’t you?” His widened eyes returned back to their calm state as he released his collar from my grip. “You knew about it all along. Right?”

“Liam...”

“No, answer me, Yuna. You guys knew about it, while I was kept in the dark. What were you guys thinking?!”

“Later, Liam.” Yuna walked by me, unbothered. “We’ll talk about it after our class.”

“You-” I was cut off as I saw a teacher coming in our direction. With one last glare at Yuna, I went to the Club Room to sign in for Poetry Club.

The forms for the clubs were supposed to be given at the last day of the second year or on the first day of school of third year. But since I was in the hospital at that time, I had to submit the form on the first day of school. I had already taken the empty club form with me to get it filled and signed by the Club In-charge. The Poetry Club was located at the top floor since it was formed few years back.

Most of the students are mostly into studies or sports. Some join other clubs just to hang out with their friends and not feel lonely. It’s a human’s nature to go to a place where it can get most of the attention.

I walked past few abandoned classroom to finally reach the Poetry Club. A wooden plank with the club’s name was hung on the door. Surprisingly, the plank had aged a lot, contradicting the fact that it was formed few years ago. I brought my hands to knock on the door before I stopped myself. The sound of chimes rung as I slide open the door. A rush of wind blew by as I covered my face. The pages of a book fluttered as I slowly kept my hand down.

Everything went slow.

The light of the sun was blocked by a figure standing near the window. Guessing by the uniform, it was a girl. Her hair flew in her face as she continued to look at my way. Her delicate fingers tucked the hair behind her ear as her face came into my view. Her face held no emotions as she continued to stare into my eyes.

Her eyes. Her brown eyes, they are different.

“I see you have come to sign up for the Poetry Club.” The girl spoke as she picked a pen from her supposed desk. She walked towards me as she took the form from my hand.

“Classes will end soon today since the teachers are going to held a meeting regarding the Clubs. Currently we are having the last period, after which everyone will held back home.”

She kept talking as she swiftly took out a register and started to enter the required details. “I am informing you about this since it looks like you didn’t hear your homeroom teacher’s announcement.” The tone of her voice remained soft but cold as ice.

“What’s your name?” She looked up at me as I cleared my throat.

“Liam Abiko.” She wrote it down as I simply watched her.

“Liam Abiko.” She closed the register, keeping it in the drawer of teacher’s table and signed my form. “I’ll submit your Club form for you since I have some work with the Club teacher. Please wait for me to come back and explain all the things to you regarding our club.”

She went back to her desk to pick a notebook with her. She kept the form between the notebook as she came back to me.

“You can check out the club room in the meantime.”

She slides open door as I finally spoke up.

“Wait- What’s your name?”

Usually, a Club In-charge wears a name badge to help new club members recognise them since many students would join a particular club. Other clubs have other positions which are taken by the students, like assistant, president, vice-president, etc. But it looks like a different case for this club.

“Usually, Club In-charge wear name badges, but you don’t wear one.”

She turned towards me, no light in her eyes. “The Poetry Club doesn’t have many members. There is total five members including you and me for now. Oliver Abiko has also joined the club, but won’t be able to attend all the club classes since she has special after school classes. So, there isn’t a need for many positions. A Club In-charge is enough for this club.”

She turned to leave but I held her arm. “Your name. What is it?”

“It isn’t that important. You’ll find out later anyway.” She removed my hand as she closed the door.

That was ice cold.

A sigh left my mouth as I examined the club room. Even though it was introduced a few years ago, the décor gives a feeling of it being years old. The desks were few, lined perfectly in rows and columns. Other clubs would usually be filled with chatters and laughs. It would become pretty noisy.

But the absence of human beings feels nice in here.

My eyes fell on the lockers lying in a line at the end of the room. A bunch of sticky notes were stuck on the lockers as I took one of the notes to get a closer look.

“Everything was messed up. But I don’t regret a thing.”

The note read the following as I took a look at it. Why would someone write something like this? How strange-

“I see you have found the sticky notes section interesting.”

I flinched as I saw the Club In-charge standing right behind me. She took the note from my hand as she stood in front of the lockers. “If you are curious about something, you just don’t jump right into it without thinking twice. Especially if it belongs to or is written by someone.”

“About that-”

“Since I have some personal work to do, I’ll make this quick. Our club’s main goal is to decipher old poems and literacy works. We work together and discuss, trying to find the hidden messages imbedded in them. The other things that we focus on is poetry itself. You’ll know about it during our first class.”

“When will the class be-”

“During the clubs period. Please try to attend the class on time.”

She stuck the sticky note back to its place as she turned towards me.

“Please leave the room.”

“I-”

The bell echoed, a sign for all the students that it was time to leave the school.

“I have the permission of the Club Teacher to stay after school.” She pulled out the supposed permission form. “Kindly leave this room.”

I slowly nodded my head, turning my back to leave the room.

Staying in this club is going to have some troubles. Especially with the Club In-charge. I have never met someone as difficult to understand as her. Well, I can’t say much just by her outer appearance. She might be a different person with others.

“Liam!” I looked at Cecilia as she ran towards me. She stopped in front of me as she was breathing heavily.

“Take your time.” Cecilia took a deep breath as she looked up at me.

“Yuna told us about what had happened.” Her eyes met mine as I looked away. Until my questions are answered, I don’t think I can look at them in the eye.

“Liam, it was for your own good.” The space inside of me, trying to control my outburst exploded. My head snapped towards her as I held her by her shoulders.

“For my own good?! You think that hiding something so vital from me would result in something good!”

“Liam.” Her tender voice spoke out, but instead it infuriated me even more.

“What?!”

She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before speaking up. “It was your mother’s idea. She made us swear not to tell you about what had happened.” She opened her eyes.

“We wanted to tell you, we are truly sorry, Liam.” My hands dropped from her shoulders.

Great, now I can’t even trust my own mother. I took a step away from her as her expressions showed hurt. “Liam.” She called out to me again, increasing the gap between us.

“Liam.”

I turned behind as I saw Oliver and Yuna. Oliver came near me as she patted my shoulder.

“Don’t take too much stress. You’ll age pretty quickly then.” Her face glowed in pure happiness as she winked at me. “And as for the truth, I’ll tell you about it.”

Yuna’s eyes widened as he held Oliver’s arm, pulling her towards him. “Oliver, not now. You heard Dr. Rhein, sharing information regarding the accident might cloud his judgement-”

“We all had heard about the accident at the hospital. It was pretty clear.”

“But still-”

“Just say it.” I said in a tired tone as Oliver came towards me.

Clouding my judgement? As if they even care.

“A student was suspected of pushing you from the first floor of our house.” Oliver’s expressions were relaxed. Her eyes suddenly empty as they stared into mine. “We know this, because we know who pushed you, Liam.”

Her eyes moved towards our school building, particularly at a window on one of the top floors. I followed her eyes as I spotted a familiar looking figure staring at us from there. It was the Poetry Club In-charge. She had a tired expression as she just stood near the window, gazing at us.

“Leah Gardenia. Club In-charge of Poetry Club and the culprit.”

My eyes moved in a flash at Oliver as her index finger slowly rose. I felt sweat forming on my forehead as I felt my heart beat increasing. I almost felt as if I could anytime throw up. My vision felt a little hazy as Oliver’s finger stopped at Club In-charge.

I gulped the lump and the nausea feeling in my neck down as I felt my breath stopping.

The blank canvas. The emptiness. The vague feeling of nothingness. The desire to break into my empty mind to find from truth. It happened to me. Why? Did I do something so bad that I had to get punished like this? The blank canvas was now dripping in red and black. The inner voice screamed in hatred and loathing as it teared everything in its path.

Everything.

The two colours blended with each other- going hand in hand with each other as they drew the poisonous vines surrounding me. The vines crushed my body as blood flooded from my open wounds. Pain. A simple word used to describe uncomfortable sensations in the body. I felt it almost on most of my body.

My eyes stared into the dark, as if calling out for help- not bothering to think about the most crucial fact. I was alone. And nobody had the light to reach to me. Suddenly, a feminine silhouette approached me. The light reached her face as I recognised her at an instant. It was the Club In-charge. Her blank dull eyes stared into mine as her lips curved upwards to form an unpleasant smirk. While her eyes were telling a different story, my gaze went to her lips.

Her taunting smirk igniting my inner fire as she continued to torture with agony and pain.

“She is responsible for your accident, six months of coma and” She stopped to look at me. Maybe it was Oliver’s eyes that added more fuel to my inner fire as I felt my skin burning.

“Your memories. She is the one.”