GadielMay 14, 4:00 pm, Canberra, Australia
She stood there in front of him, holding her books and laptop to her chest like some kind of schoolgirl. She had her gla.s.ses on, which would occasionally reflect Gadiel"s expression back at him.
It was all Gadiel could do to stop himself from grabbing Medina and shaking her. He forced himself to calm down.
"You alright?" asked Medina looking worried. "You seem kind of stressed."
Was that a jab at his mental state?
No. Calm down. Being amped up was not going to help anyone.
"Where were you?" he asked, putting his phone away, faking calm. His heart was in his throat as he spoke, and it came out as a little shakiness in his voice.
Medina seemed to notice, and frowned a little.
"Where was I?" she asked nonchalantly. "What do you mean?"
Gadiel grit his teeth as he stopped himself from punching the wall. Really? She was playing dumb with him now?
"I mean," said Gadiel, taking out his phone, "this!"
He opened his phone and showed Medina the flood of messages he had left her. He also made sure to scroll up to show the first message, where she told them to meet up at Guzman y Gomez.
He watched as Medina read through the messages confused.
"I never sent this," she said frowning. She took out her own phone, then opened the Facebook Messenger app.
Only to find that she had sent those messages.
Gadiel raised an eyebrow as Medina looked at her own phone as if it wasn"t even hers.
"But I..." she said, looking up, eyes wide. "I never sent these. I haven"t even seen Tarik today."
She was panicking slightly, which made Gadiel narrow his eyes. Why was she getting so fl.u.s.tered?
"Then why did you send it?" asked Gadiel.
That made Medina panic even more.
"I told you I didn"t!" she said. "All I"ve been doing is study all day!"
"Study for what?" Gadiel asked, folding his arms. "World Mythology?"
Media stepped back confused.
"What else would I study for?"
"A course that"s actually offered here," said Gadiel accusingly, stepping forward.
Median looked even more confused.
"W-what?" she stammered.
"I checked on the site, and World Mythology isn"t offered this term," said Gadiel. "In fact, it doesn"t even look like it"s a real course that was ever taught here."
"But I have textbooks," Medina murmured. "I did study...about Moon and Sun deities around the world..."
"Which deities?" Gadiel asked.
Medina looked up at him blankly.
"Which deities do they teach you about in your course?" he clarified.
Medina opened her mouth to answer, but nothing came out. Her eyes widened with horror as she realized she didn"t have an answer.
The most surprising thing to Gadiel, however, was how shocked Medina looked. Despite everything, Medina looked just as surprised as Gadiel had been, if not more. She seemed genuinely distressed over the fact that there was no World Mythology course.
No. Gadiel shook his head. He couldn"t let himself be tricked. He had to be calm, be clear.
There was no way she didn"t know what was happening. She had to be the one at fault. She sent the message, it was there on her phone. Who else could it have been?
The more he thought about it, the more Medina"s confused act annoyed him.
"But I love World Mythology," muttered Medina. "My professor is nice and calm...he teaches things in a way that"s easy to understand..."
"Then you should be able to tell me his name, right?" said Gadiel. "Or what your last a.s.signment was."
Once again, Medina couldn"t answer.
"So how about you tell me who you really are?" asked Gadiel, stepping closer to her.
"I-I"m Medina," she said, stepping back. "I haven"t been anyone els-"
"Where"s Tarik?" he interrupted, stepping further forward.
"I-I don"t know!"
Medina suddenly found herself against the wall.
"You do know," said Gadiel. "You know, and you"re not telling me!"
"I really don"t!"
"Stop lying!" Gadiel shouted, temper flaring. Medina jumped, looking up at Gadiel.
She was scared.
Scared of Gadiel.
She wasn"t faking that. She was honestly scared.
Instantly, Gadiel backed away, horrified. Medina seemed a little relieved, but still mostly scared as Gadiel backed off to the other wall.
"I..." Gadiel opened his mouth to say something, but the words were stuck in his throat. His face burned with shame, a knot tight in his stomach.
He did it again. He used his strength to intimidate someone again.
Gadiel wanted nothing more than to run away and bury his face in the dirt for a hundred years right now.
Instead, he forced himself to look directly at Medina in the eye.
"I"m sorry," he said, the words coming out thick and muddled. He didn"t say anything else; he simply looked Medina in the eye.
No matter how justified he felt, no matter how angry he was, Gadiel didn"t want to be a person that intimidated and bullied others. Not even if the other person deserved it.
He had been that bully before, and it made him feel terrible.
Medina looked away, and Gadiel hung his head in shame. He turned to leave.
"I don"t know where Tarik is," she said suddenly. "But if you talked to him like you did to me just now..."
Gadiel opened his mouth to respond, but found that he couldn"t say anything.
"But he hasn"t been talking to me either these past few days..." she went on. She seemed to be mulling something over as she bit her lip and held tight to her books.
"I guess I can go over to Johns" with you and see what"s going on," she said begrudgingly.
Gadiel blinked as she started walking away. She was almost out of the door before Gadiel realized that she was heading towards Johns" XIII Dormitory, where Tarik was staying. He quickly followed after her, running up to stand beside her.
However, as soon as Gadiel got close, Medina made some s.p.a.ce between them. It wasn"t much, but it was enough to make it awkward if they tried to talk to each other.
Gadiel kept his mouth shut. He knew that he was in the wrong here. Yes, he had been worried, and he still was. But that didn"t give him the right to be an a.s.s to someone who had genuinely helped him.
Even if that person was incredibly suspicious right now.
"I don"t remember my dad"s name," said Medina suddenly.
Gadiel blinked, surprised that she was talking to him. They were walking over a bridge, crossing a river in order to get to the dormitory. They still had a bit of a ways to go, but the dorm building was in sight now.
"I don"t remember my mum"s name either," she said, still walking. Gadiel looked over to her, to find she was biting her thumb nail, frowning.
"That"s...not normal," said Gadiel.
"Jeez, thanks for you contribution," said Medina sarcastically. "I don"t know what we do without you Gadiel."
Gadiel decided maybe he shouldn"t say anything. Then, Medina sighed.
���Sorry, I"m just...a little on edge," she said. "It just...despite everything...you"re kinda right."
"...about what?" Gadiel asked cautiously.
"About my courses," said Medina. "My professor. The messages."
She looked over to him, eyes hard.
"I don"t remember sending those messages," she said softly. "I don"t know what I do in my cla.s.ses. And I can"t even remember my parents" names. Even thought I know we used to spend time together in Tasmania on the farm."
"Where in Tasmania," Gadiel asked. "You always say Tasmania like it"s not a huge island."
Medina went silent again.
"G.o.d, freaking-" Medina swore. "I don"t even know the name of the freaking farm."
Gadiel raised an eyebrow. For a moment, they caught each others" gazes. Medina slowly grinned, and so did Gadiel.
That said, the distance between them stayed there the entire way, until they reached Tarik"s door.
Medina knocked on it a couple of times but no one answered. She looked back at Gadiel, helpless. Gadiel silently pushed her aside, and knocked once on the door.
Slowly, the door feel forward with a BANG!
Gadiel looked over at a shocked Medina.
"It...must"ve still been broken from last time," he said a little sheepishly.
"Last time? What do you mean last-" Medina shook her head halfway through. "Nevermind. Let"s just...go in."
Shrugging, Gadiel followed Medina into the room.
It was largely unchanged since the last time he was here. The place was still messy, clothes about everywhere. But no sign of Tarik anywhere.
That said, there were still signs of Tarik being around. A half-filled cup of cold coffee, an open laptop with no charge...Gadiel"s eyes narrowed as he eyed all these things.
It looked like Tarik had gone somewhere and just...hadn"t come back in a timely manner.
"Something feels off..." he said, turning to Medina, only to find her standing still as a board, paper in her hand.
"What is that?" he asked. Medina made no indication that she heard him, her eyes wide as she read what was on the paper.
Gadiel walked over to her and read the paper.
A cold s.h.i.+ver went up his spine.
"TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH TO NOTICE HE"S GONE :P HE"S MINE NOW u003c3"
"Ai," Gadiel muttered. "Ai took him."
He balled his fists in anger, turning away. How could he have been so stupid? Tarik was just ignoring him? Yeah right. The real reason he hadn"t answered was because he had been kidnapped by Ai, who knows how long ago.
"I wrote this," Medina muttered.
It was all her fault. Yeah, it was all Ai"s fault. If she just wasn"t here, then Gadiel would never have-
Wait, what?
"This is my handwriting," Medina went on. "And this is a page from my notebook. I recognize the paper. And I noticed a torn page earlier today."
Gadiel stared at Medina, his anger turning into confusion, then concern as he watched her trembling in fear. She looked up at him, eyes wide with terror.
"Who am I?" she asked.
As Gadiel opened his mouth to answer, another voice spoke:
"Oh, maybe it"s time for me to come out then!"
Gadiel"s eyes widened to match his open mouth. He could barely believe his eyes.
Medina seemed to be in shock as well. She slapped herself, hard. So hard that it left a mark on her face.
But once she turned to face Gadiel again, her expression was twisted into one he was very familiar with.
"I see you"re still as hot as ever," sighed Medina in Ai"s voice. "You really should look into purging or something. You could get skinnier! Skinny and ugly like a skeleton! Become a twink or whatever."
"What...who..." Gadiel stepped back, confused.
MedinAi grinned.
"Oh, don"t you recognize me?" she giggled. "I suppose you haven"t ever seen me in this puppet body before, so I guess that"s understandable."
"But Medina..."
"Oh this girl?" Ai waved the question away. "It"s funny how she thinks she"s real. She"s just a puppet I made up so she could get close to you and Tarik. Neat, huh?"
Gadiel felt like the world was being pulled out from underneath him.
Medina was...fake?
She...wasn"t real?
"And it worked pretty well too, didn"t it?" Ai gloated, spinning around in Medina"s body and falling onto the bed.
"I was so worried when you faced off against the mirror beings. I thought you might realize how empty inside she was, and figure out she wasn"t a real person. Thank the Demon Lord you"re dumber than rocks."
Ai"s casual moving about in Medina"s body was...wrong. It was just so completely wrong that it forced Gadiel to remember his priorities.
"What have you done with Tarik?" he growled.
MedinAi grinned at Gadiel. The smile made his stomach turn; that smile was not supposed to be on that face.
"I mean, I could tell you," she said. "But he"s not ready to meet people yet. Especially not you."
MedinAi got up and twirled around once more, then immediately ducked as Gadiel threw an ice spear at her. The spear shattered against the dorm wall.
"Watch it! You"ll take someone eye ou-"
Gadiel wasted no time and swung at her again, creating an ice sword as he did so. This time, MedinAi simply smiled at Gadiel, not moving.
He stopped his swing just in time, right at Medina"s neck.
Because this was Medina"s body. If he hurt her...
Ai scoffed.
"You"re so boring," she said. "So just wait here like a good, boring little boy until Tarik is ready to play, mmkay?"
Gadiel grit his teeth and glowered at her.
"I"ll even leave you with the puppet," she said with faux magnanimity. "I take care of all my toys properly."
"I"m going to kill you," said Gadiel softly.
MedinAi looked at him pityingly.
"If you did, then that would be the first interesting thing you"ve done the entire time I"ve met you," she said, all trace of playfulness gone.
Then, with a snap of her fingers, she was gone.
Medina"s body slumped forward. Gadiel caught her as she fell, unconscious. He put her on Tarik"s bed gently, careful not to wake her.
Inside, rage churned in his stomach, threatening to burst out and freeze this entire building. He was angry at Ai, angry at Medina, angry at the world for throwing all of this at him.
But most of all, he was angry at his own powerlessness.
What was he supposed to do now?
Ai had Tarik, and was probably torturing him. Or brainwas.h.i.+ng him, to make him into her little "toy." The mere thought of Tarik with lifeless eyes, following orders robotically made Gadiel"s skin crawl. The best part about Tarik was his will, his personality, his freedom.
But then again, didn"t Gadiel try to do the same thing?
Didn"t he try to keep Tarik all to himself, when he tried to stop him from going out?
Sure, there were other extenuating circ.u.mstances but...
Gadiel sighed. He was tired. He needed a distraction.
He looked around at the room. It was all still a mess, but his eye caught something on Tarik"s desk. Gadiel went over, and found a pile of books.
All about monsters. And the story of the Sun and Moon.
Gadiel looked back at Medina.
Well. It wasn"t like he had anything better to do right now.
Gadiel picked up a book, sat down, and started to read.
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