Seth sat in Principal Dean’s office for the second time in what was honestly not a very long. His hands were folded in his lap--one wrapped in bandages--and he was struggling to hold the wild-eyed stare of the Principal.

“Seth.” Principal Dean sighed. “Eric is in the hopsital. One week before the homecoming game.”

Seth nodded. Offering a defense here wouldn’t mean anything. Besides, he’d wanted to do all that. Them picking on that kid was an excuse, but Seth had slaked his bloodlust with their pain anyway.

“I should expel you. But you have one thing going for you, and that is that you were shot and on a break from school due to perfectly valid psychological reasons. But clearly you fall under the fight portion of the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn continuum.”

“Freeze or…”

“The full term, don’t think about it. What I’m saying is that this is your one hall pass.” He chuckled to himself for a moment, his eyes going horrifically wide as he did. “I can, this one time, very easily keep anything bad from happening to you. But you have to give me one thing.”

Seth shrugged, all he could feel was the knot in his stomach over what he’d done.

“You must meet with a psychiatrist. We have one on staff here. You’re going to meet with her once a week. Otherwise parents are going to worry you’re just a ticking time bomb.”

“I’m not going on meds.”

“If you need to, you will,” he said. “Last year you were a stupendous student, Seth. I don’t want you throwing that to your demons like a scraps to dogs.”

Seth sighed, finally failing to hold Principal Dean’s gaze. He looked at the clock on the wall, his first class was already almost over.

“How are your scholarships going?”

“Good. I think I missed the deadline for a few when… everything happened.”

“I can write a letter on your behalf to get you in past.”

Seth smiled with his lips but not his eyes. “Thanks. But I’ve still got a lot to submit for. I think I’ll be fine.”

“Seth.”

Seth looked back at him. Principal Dean was trying to soften his face. It wasn’t working.

“When I was your age, I got picked on a lot, and because of that I got in a lot of fights. I got in more trouble than I’ve ever seen you in. But life was better when I put it all behind me. People will talk and say things, but they’re just words. I implore you to ignore them and simply focus on being a better you.”

Seth looked away again. It wasn’t them he had to ignore. The gnawing demon in his soul begged to drink its’ fill. That was what Seth had to ignore, and he didn’t know if he had the power to. Especially with not having a training outlet at CFA. He missed the dojo. Badly. “I’ll try,” he managed. “Can I go?”

“Here.” Principal Dean slid him a business card. “This is the school psychiatrist. You’re meeting with her after school. Room 330.”

Seth nodded and stood up, leaving the office without another word.

***

Seth had not gone to class. He sat on the back edge of the roof, just far enough behind the lip so that prying eyes couldn’t see him. The countryside the school butted up against swept away to the east, rolling hills until they hit the small mountains that continued north to the much larger ones Seth had fought for his life in so recently.

Seth folded his legs and placed his hands gently on his knees. Martial arts could still give him one small gift, even if he couldn’t train. With a slow, deep breath, he closed his eyes and emptied his mind. Inhale, exhale. In and out. Slow and steady. Breathe. The wind tousled his hair and whipped the scent of freshly cut grass past his nose as the morning sun warmed his back. He felt a small pinpoint of peace starting to grow in his heart next to the hungry void.

He had an hour, and Seth intended to use it, keeping his mind empty, noting any small distraction that slid its’ way in and simply letting it pass like a car driving recklessly in the left lane. The intrusions were many at first, but they began to fade as he focused on the simple act of breathing. In. Out. As the minutes stretched, Seth’s mind and soul became more and more still, the demon falling into a slumber.

“What happened to you, Seth?”

Seth didn’t jump. He was too deep for that. But his eyes did flutter open and he twisted to see a figure framed against the sun. Emma. He swallowed and turned back to face the rolling hills before him. “A lot, Emma.”

She sat down beside--but an arms distance away--from him. She didn’t look over. She wore her usual t-shirt and jeans, but a new necklace hung above her chest. It looked like a spoked wheel inside of another wheel, with a silver orb at the center. “I told you we’d talk when you got back.”

“Yeah.”

“What was that? Just having fun?”

Seth shrugged, his hands clenching his knees. His right hand hurt from that. Suddenly, sitting cross-legged felt uncomfortable. “I didn’t think we were dating.”

“We weren’t, Seth, but just having fun? That sounds like what Madeline told you.”

Seth’s teeth ground together. “That’s-”

“Not fair? No, and neither is what she did to you, but I didn’t expect you to turn around and act the same way to me.”

“The same way? How could I cheat if we’re not dating?”

“You slept with someone else?”

“No!”

Emma looked over at him and Seth met her intense gaze. She was angry, but he could see confusion under the surface of her eyes. “I’m going to go, Seth. I’m glad you’re okay, but with what happened this morning… I can’t be around someone who acts like that. You seriously injured several people in a stupid fight. I know you can fight, Seth, the whole school knows it. You have nothing to prove. You’re just a bully if you keep hurting people like this.” She stood up and started walking off.

“Emma.”

“Yes?” She stopped, but didn’t turn.

“I’m sorry.”

“Sorry doesn’t cut it, Seth. Figure out what you need to figure out before we talk again.” Emma walked back inside and closed the door behind her. Seth twisted back to face the hills and settled his hands on his knees again. He let out a shaky breath and closed his eyes, hoping the void would be asleep and he could continue meditating.

No. It was awake. Seth sighed began working to lull it as the demon continued to rage within him. It wasn’t going back to sleep anytime soon.

Seth struggled for another few minutes, the point of the exercise gone now. He wanted to latch onto the thoughts and subdue them, not let them pass by and fade. He stood to his feet and left the roof, heading down the off-limits but ill supervised staircase back to the second floor of the school with half an hour to spare before class.

“Seth!”

Seth turned to see Andrew jogging down the hallway. “Andrew!” The two met and hugged for a moment, before they separated.

“It’s good to finally see you again, bro.”

“Yeah.”

“Free period?”

“No, just clearing my head.” Seth jerked his bandaged hand toward the door to the roof.

Andrew nodded. “So, spill. I haven’t seen you since before your accident. You okay? What happened? Only thing I know is that some people from the FBI were going around asking questions and that everyone else thinks you were in a coma after being shot.”

“I was shot. Three times.”

“Holy shit! You got scars?”

Seth pulled his collar aside to reveal the last evidence that anything remotely injurious had happened to him—at least above the knee. The faintest of scars stood out, just behind his collarbone, and it seemed to fade more and more every day.

“That’s it? Damn, you’re lucky. Don’t bullet wounds usually scar up pretty bad?”

“I don’t know,” said Seth. “I guess mine don’t.”

“What happened after the shooting?”

Seth looked up and down the hallway, his mind immediately going to the pages of non-disclosure agreements Hunter-33 had made him sign when they dropped him off just a few weeks ago. “I can’t talk about it.” To be honest, Seth didn’t know whether Hunter-33 was benevolent or not. The way they’d behaved in the cave and after did not jive with other events. They’d told him the ‘Hunters’ at the party had been a rogue group—vigilante hunters, almost—and he supposed that could be true, but none of it sat right with him and only further served to make his skin crawl from the feeling of being watched.

“What do you mean?” Andrew’s face darkened. “I’m your best friend… You can trust me with anything.”

Seth pressed his lips together. “I mean I’m not ready to talk about it.”

“Oh.” Andrew’s face fell and he cleared his throat. “Well, I’m here, man. When you’re ready to talk.”

“I don’t know when that will be.” Seth hoped Andrew would buy it. The thought of keeping secrets from his best friend already twisted his stomach into further knots from his conversation with Emma.

“We training this weekend?”

Seth winced. “I can’t. I’m not clear to.”

“Dude, everyone’s already seen the beating you put on the football team. You’re tougher than you were before the shooting, it’s like you were away at a training camp for five weeks.”

“I guess I kind of was.” Seth shrugged. Andrew looked heartbroken to be held out on. “Look. We can train together, just you and me. I just.” Seth struggled, trying to figure out the exact boundaries of what he could say. Hunter-33 had forbidden him from talking about the augment or where he had gotten it from. Amazingly the thing didn’t interfere with the MRIs. Seth got the impression it was technology that Hunter-33 didn’t have themselves and they didn’t want anyone else getting their hands on it either.

“Look, today’s been rough already, and they’re forcing me to meet with the school shrink.”

“Bullshit.”

“No, really-”

“No, I mean it’s bullshit they’re making you do that.”

“Yeah.” Seth glanced at a clock on the wall. Fifteen minutes until the end of the period. “You want to go for a run with me after?”

“You know I would.”

“Okay, meet me at my house at five then.”

“Yeah. I’ll see you there, bro.” Andrew slapped him on the shoulder and walked off down the empty hallway. Seth leaned back against a locker and let out the long sigh that seemed to escape his lips every fifteen minutes or whenever the weight of it all crushed him. Whichever came first.