Nythe (4)

“I’ve been looking for you.”

The sliding door to the art classroom opened and standing on the other side was the smirking, partially acne-d face of Evan.

He was dressed in their uniform, a handsome looking navy blue blazer with a crisp white shirt underneath accompanied by simple grey slacks. All of the items had been neatly pressed for the special day, and he gently tapped the degree he had received against the side of his neck.

“Well, here I am.” Midori said looking away. Despite the joyous celebrations outside her expression was dour.

“Why the long face?” He settled in almost directly next to her, and either did not notice or did not care when she shifted a few inches away.

“It’s just a lot. I’m going to be going to university soon, and this is kind of the last time I’ll be able to be in this room. Probably the last time I’ll pick up a paintbrush.”

She let the words hang in the air, but Evan refused to allow a silence.

“But why?”

Midori let out an almost sarcastic chuckle, it was frustrating to the point of hilarity the level Evan did not understand the pressure she was under.

“It’s just not in the cards for me…my parents won’t allow it.”

“Well who cares what they want?”

He said it so earnestly that she smiled slightly. If only it were that simple.

Silence followed and hung in the air for several long minutes broken only by the cawing of distance crows.

And then.

“…ve you” Evan muttered, his face turned away making it near impossible to hear.

“What?” She asked, a knot of anxiety slowly beginning to form just below the middle of her ribs. Her mouth felt dry.

He took a deep breath before looking at her with wide, serious eyes that had been looking at her ever since they met first year of high school.

“Midori…I love you!”

He half-shouted the declaration before continuing, “and I know that you love me too, I’ve been too afraid because I thought that I wasn’t good enough. But today I’m going to be brave. I love you Midori.”

It felt like time had stopped.

Her breath caught in her throat.

He loved her?

He thought she loved him? Why?

Her breath came back to her in shallow but rapid gulps of air.

“Midori?” He asked, but his voice was muffled.

He shifted closer, and she moved away instinctively. And he looked at her with a mixture of hurt and anger.

“…I…I don’t,” was all she could manage to say in the moment.

Silence again. But the cawing of the crows sounded louder this time.

“D-don’t what?” He asked, his tone cracking from already knowing the answer.

Swallowing the lump in her throat her mouth felt so dry, she could barely respond.

“I…I don’t love you, Evan. I’m sorry I don't know what I did to make you think that but...I don't...”

She stood then and moved to create distance between them. Her water bottle was sitting just on the next desk and she needed it, her mouth was so dry.

But he seized her wrist in a vice-like grip. It hurt but she did not wince, somehow that felt almost like giving him what he wanted.

“You lied…”

“What?” She looked at him while trying to yank her hand free, but he held her fast before grabbing the forearm of her other arm. He was holding her so tightly she knew the skin would bruise.

“You…you led me on…for three years you toyed with my emotions!”

He stood as he was speaking and it was then she truly felt the four inch difference in their heights as her heart began to pound in her chest.

“All those times hanging out together, what was that?”

“Evan, please,” she pleaded while still trying to tug herself free. Her eyes darting around looking for anything or anyone that might help her.

“No, seriously what was that!?”

“It was just friends hanging out! You liked the anime I liked, that’s all it ever was Evan!”

“You’re just like Sara,” he said it with such venom.

“What?”

“You’re just a whore like she is, leading people on. At least she slept with-”

Her hand moved instinctively, slapping him across the face as hard as she could.

He looked at her with such hatred.

Midori felt herself falling then and didn’t realize until she was halfway down by the stinging on her cheek that Evan had slapped her.

The ground knocked the wind from her, and she felt her head collide hard with the ground.

A pair of nearby easels clattered to the ground. Somewhere in her mind she found it almost funny they made more noise than she did.

Then she felt something warm pooling at against her scalp.

Evan was on top of her, and although she wanted to stay awake, to scream and beg for him to stop, she could not fight it as darkness claimed her.

-----

The caw of crows woke her, and the sun had almost entirely gone down.

Midori was laying on something soft with something warm covering her.

Reaching her hand up through the warm thing she realized it was a blanket as it fell away, the sharp fluorescent light of the nurse’s office stabbing into her eyes.

“Ah!” She said as her head was wracked with pain and her body lurched as if it were about to be sick.

“Midori!”

The gentle, worried voice of Sara was the first she heard before her face came into view blocking out the shine of the office light.

“Oh my god I was so worried!” Her eyes were red from tears with small remnants still lingering in the corners.

“What happened?” Was all she could manage while trying, and failing, to sit up.

“You fell in the art room, slipped on your diploma.” Sara said while filling up a cup with water and a straw and bringing it to Midori’s lips.

Her mouth was so dry.

Coughing slightly after draining the glass she breathed slowly and looked around. That didn’t sound right, but she couldn’t remember what else had happened.

“I fell?”

“Yeah, you’re lucky Evan was walking by.”

A shadow loomed in her vision and suddenly Evan was at her other side. He was giving her such a worried smile, but in his eyes she could see a glimmer of guilt.

“Evan?”

“I’m here, Midori,” he said, voice cracking as he spoke.

It was strange, she felt like she should be thankful he saved her and yet she could not help the feeling of fear that swelled in her stomach.

“Um…thank you,” she forced herself to say.

She wasn’t sure why but the words made her throw up.

-----

The air crackled with power as the whirlpool surrounding Midori slowly faded, leaving behind something else.

Midori’s body had been changed, and was now covered with glittering azure scales. Her legs had merged together into a long, powerful tail that she sat back on almost like she were kneeling down. Gills protruded from her neck, a pale blue light visible with each intake of air, it was the same light that shone in her eyes and mouth. And still her hair floated around her head like she were underwater.

She stared up at the sky with a slightly dazed expression, letting out a slow breath before reaching toward the clouds with slender webbed fingers. As she did the clouds slowly gathered heavier and moments later rain began to fall.

It pattered against her scales and she smiled, a wide and crazed smile.

Then her eyes fell to Evan, who was staring at her in shock.

She remembered everything now, and the shriek she made was one born from years of repression and rage.

Midori was going to kill him.