GadielMay 14, 2:26 pm, Canberra, Australia
The older man was watching him again.
Gadiel took a swing of his water, and wiped his forehead with a towel as he eyed the older man that had been checking him out. He looked to be in his forties, with deep, stormy blue eyes, and salt and pepper hair.
He also had a body just as impressive as Gadiel"s, shown off in a tight black tank top and adidas track pants.
But Gadiel didn"t notice any of that. He was too busy thinking.
He had seen this man before. He had been watching him before.
When?
Gadiel had one set on the dumbbells left. As he lifted, he kept half an eye on the older guy.
He kept watching as he lifted. Gadiel narrowed his eyes. Was this guy working for Ai? Was he some sort of spy, sent to watch him as she planned his-
Then Gadiel saw the older man grin.
Wait a second.
Half an hour and one refused invitation to a "wild night you will never forget" later, Gadiel left the gym, ears burning. He would have attacked that older man if he had let himself get out of control. Thank G.o.d he had stopped himself.
Then again, he mused as he walked slowly back to campus, maybe he would have attacked the man anyway. If he really thought about it, if the man hadn"t actually approached him before the showers, Gadiel might have just...
No. Best not to think about the roads not taken.
Coward.
As he brushed off his own thoughts, Gadiel"s phone vibrated. Immediately, he took it out, face full of hope. His face fell once he realized it was only a Facebook message from Medina. He sighed, and started to read once he reached the road crossing. In front of him was a girl texting like he was.
The two of them looked down at their phones in solidarity as they waited for the light to change.
Medina: New monster nest! Activating at Guzman y Gomez soon!
Gadiel frowned as he read the message. New monster nest?
It wasn"t that he was surprised that Medina knew when there would be a new nest; she had mentioned previously that she and her team had a way to track down nests. The weird thing was that Gadiel had just come from that way, and it seemed pretty packed full of people. Monster nests usually had no one near them.
Before Gadiel could type back, his phone vibrated again.
Medina: Me and Tarik will be there in 5. Be ready!
Gadiel"s heart skipped a beat.
He hadn"t spoken with Tarik since what happened a few nights ago. He had been messaging him, but Tarik had left him on seen. He had been trying to talk to him, to explain to him what he was going through, to make him understand.
But Tarik didn"t give him the chance. He just left him on read, and then after a while, stopped even opening the messages.
But if he was coming over with Medina right now...
As the light turned green, Gadiel turned back towards the city center, heading towards Guzman y Gomez.
He arrived about five minutes later, to find the place was full of people.
Guzman y Gomez was one of those fast food places that had seats open to anyone. Gadiel took a single seat by the window, watching as crowds of students ate together, laughing and chatting, while two lines waited to order. The kitchen behind looked busy as all h.e.l.l, despite the lunch hour winding down.
As the minutes ticked by, Gadiel was starting to feel uneasy. There were too many people here for it to be a monster nest. He checked his phone every couple of minutes, wondering when they would be here.
Ten minutes later, he sent his first message to Medina, asking where they were.
Then he sent another.
And another.
Twenty minutes after first arriving, Gadiel"s alarm bells were practically screaming into his ear. Something was very off. He bit his lip, people around him still laughing and chatting, as he called Tarik.
No answer. As it had been for the past couple of days.
He bit his lip, but didn"t call again. Instead, he opened up Medina"s Facebook page to see if he could find her phone number.
And found it completely empty.
He stared at his phone, a little weirded out. He hadn"t actually seen Medina"s Facebook page before; Tarik had been the one who contacted her. And even that time, she had contacted him through message, giving him her phone number through that.
But as Gadiel looked, he found that she had nothing on her page. Not even a profile picture. Not a single post.
He looked at the joined date, and found that it the account had been made barely three weeks ago.
Gadiel"s heart was beating like a drum as he stared at the account, barely believing his eyes. He remembered everything he knew about Medina; she was born and raised in Canberra, mixed-race, studied World Mythology at ANU...
She was a complete dork, loved anime and BL in particular, was a complete sap and wrote fanfiction on her spare time. She had a dad who took her hunting in Tasmania. She was an excellent shot, and loved her friends dearly.
The more he thought about her, the more uncertain he became. From the account, it looked like Medina wasn"t a real person. If anything, she seemed like a plant created by Ai to get between the boys.
But from what he knew of the real person he saw, Medina was genuine. There was no way for anyone to fake all that dorkiness. She felt like a real person to Gadiel, with real dreams and aspirations.
But what were they?
What did Medina actually want?
Why had she joined the group in the first place?
When had she joined?
Why was she helping them now, after defeating the labyrinth?
Gadiel"s mind raced with crazy possibilities as he got up. He walked out of the restaurant, then started pacing in front of it.
"No, I need calm down, just...calm down," Gadiel muttered. He forced himself to take a deep breath and cool off a little. All these thoughts in his head were making him fee lightheaded.
He looked up at the restaurant, then back at his phone.
Medina said that she and Tarik would be here soon. She said that this place was a monster nest.
Both of those things were blatantly untrue.
So first things first...he needed to confront Medina to know why she lied about this.
He headed towards campus once more, texting Medina the entire way. She didn"t answer the whole time.
However, once he reached campus, he realized that he had no idea where World Mythology was taught. After a moment"s hesitation however, he walked over to the Baldessin-Precinct building. To the lecture room where they had first met.
He arrived at the building in a huff, just as a batch of students were leaving the building. He didn"t notice how they all pointedly avoided him as he strolled into the building.
Ignoring the few stares he was getting from the pa.s.sing students, he walked up the hallway, and opened the door to the lecture room.
To reveal a group of students all about to sit down, the lecturer setting up the Powerpoint.
Gadiel hesitated for a moment as the students all quickly looked over at him them went back to their own thing, then strolled up to the professor.
"Yes?" the professor asked, not taking his eyes off the computer.
"Sorry, what cla.s.s is this?" Gadiel asked.
The professor glanced at him, eyebrow raised.
"Intermediate j.a.panese," he said. "I don"t remember you being in my cla.s.s."
"Do they teach World Mythology in this cla.s.s?"
The professor looked at him once more, this time frowning.
"World Mythology?" he asked. "That"s not a course we offer here."
Silence. Then:
"I"m sorry, what?"
Gadiel felt like he was going deaf. Or having a stroke. The professor repeated what he said, but Gadiel couldn"t make sense of the words.
No World Mythology?
That wasn"t a course offered at ANU?
"You can check for yourself on Wattle," said the professor, looking back at his computer. "Now, if you don"t mind, I have an exam to give."
Gadiel quickly left the lecture room, and sat down on one of the seats outside. He took out his laptop, and immediately searched up a list of courses offered this term at ANU.
Sure enough, World Mythology wasn"t anywhere to be found. Not in History, Anthropology, English...
The course simply wasn"t offered here at the university.
Gadiel checked his phone; Medina still hadn"t answered. Neither had Tarik. He called Tarik once more, desperate. He stood up, pacing as the phone rang.
"Come on, come on, come on, pick up, pick up, pick up..."
He felt like everything he knew was a lie. Like everything he had been told was unraveling to reveal something dark and sinister. Something he didn"t want to see.
All his suspicions and paranoia were building up with every second that he didn"t speak with Medina or Tarik. He felt like his stomach was unwinding into a large mess of anxiety and fear. If what he was thinking was true...if what he was suspecting was correct...
"Hey, this is Tarik, why are you calling me you old...person," said Tarik"s recording in French, and then in English.
"F***!"
Gadiel swore and turned around, almost throwing his phone at the wall.
Then stopped, eyes wide.
Medina looked up at him, also surprised. She broke out into a grin.
"Oh, hey Gadiel," she said smiling.
Was it Gadiel"s imagination, or was there something sinister in that smile?
"What"s up?"
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