"A normal day?
Like any other, it would be September 27th when all of this started."
It started like any normal day. I woke up to my usual routine, calm, rhythmic, shaped by the struggles and hard work I've put in to live life to the fullest. I got my daily protein intake, but sadly, I couldn't make it to the gym. I'd wasted too much time finishing an assignment though, to be honest, it wasn't all that important. But, well, what's done is done.
Truth be told, the day wasn't special at all. Same old classes, same indifferent attitude from Xu-er, same friendly conversations. But everything changed that evening. The sky twisted, morphing from its usual blue into a slithering grey that moved unnaturally. It was too much to even begin putting into words. The grey turned into a blankness like an empty sheet of paper.
After the assembly ended, with no useful information and just a lot of cussing, a heavy atmosphere filled the air. Faces were full of hopelessness, fear, and uncertainty. Some of us twitched, fidgeted, even bit our nails in nervous ticks everyone seemed overwhelmed. And then there was Yue, always the most spontaneous person I've ever known, with the brilliant idea of getting up close to the wall. Looking back, it was probably the dumbest thing to do in that situation, but once Yue decides she wants something, she'll get it even if it costs her sanity. Annoying twerp.
But, honestly, that excursion gave us a big clue about what was going on. Both Yue and I got something from the wall some kind of gift. A small sigil, a mark of unknown origins. It was nerve-wracking, and my unease only grew when I saw Xu-er rejected by the wall. What followed was... horrifying. Blood. A lot of it. I tried to help, but there was nothing I could do about a missing arm! The moment my fingers brushed against Xu-er's severed arm, my sigil pulsed a faint turquoise light seeping into his skin like veins of molten metal. For a second, nothing happened. Then, the flesh twitched. Muscle fibres unravelled and reformed, stretching like sinewy tendrils weaving themselves back together. Bone jutted out, smooth yet disturbingly raw, as new flesh knitted over it. It should have been miraculous. It should have been something out of a storybook.
But it wasn't.
His body rejected it.
A sickening squelch filled the air as the new arm sloughed off, the fresh tissue dissolving into a thick, red sludge, pooling on the floor in steaming clumps. The stench of iron hit me, sharp and nauseating, and I barely stopped myself from gagging. My hands trembled. My chest tightened. I had done this I had made this happen. And yet, I had no idea why.
I rushed him to the infirmary, trying to use my ability again. This time it worked, but it treated his severed arm like a small flesh wound, forming a scab to stop the bleeding.
Now, it's been a month since that day. On October 20th, Zixu woke up, looking panicked. His breaths were shallow, completely unlike him. His face was pale, more so than usual. He was scratching and grasping at something that wasn't there, like he was trying to tear the air itself away from him.
"Oi need a hand? Yeah"
His head turned towards me in a slow, almost eerie manner, although it would have been more creepy if not for the past month. His face had a dumbfounded expression, filled with a slight tinge of shock.
"Shit, joking, man… how you feeling? Bad dream?"
"…Could say that. What happened Eshan?" he mutters out, voice filled with innocent confusion, yet he seemed to still be on guard.
"Well, aside from being down a hand… a lot," I snickered.
Xu-er shot me a look, the kind that made it painfully clear he wanted to punch me. Guess humour wasn't the way to go.
"Ok, ok. Well, after that… we officially reported the incident to the teachers. They soon realized we ain't getting no help from the outside. If that thing wants us in, it will keep us in no matter what. Ah, and after a few days, they let us or should I say the science department experiment with the wall. And if you remember the weird characters engraved onto our hands… believe it or not, they give us superpowers! Wow, right? But yeah, we figured out a few things. But the gist of it is that we now got cool abilities. Well, not you, but yeah. And the wall is kind of a living thing, I think. Oh, and it's cracking."
"Cracking? So is it an exit, or is it just another part of the cage breaking down? And why?"
"Yeah, about that haven't clue . The cracks in the sky… it's not really a way out, but it's like a peephole into a painting of a violet, dreadful dream. A blood moon that follows the normal day-night cycle, but the opening only reveals it for an hour or so. But that hour is the most misfortunate event of our lives. Its light raises monstrosities. But we were able to keep 'em at bay."
"I'd assume they're not that dangerous? and how tf are they even formed? You know life doesn't just poof into reality "
"Well i mean neither does a cage made of nothingness . haaa. and they would if they moved freely. But luckily for us, the moon's rays mostly condense in the field, so they're trapped, and we can manage with makeshift spears from the engineering department."
"That's good, I guess. Moon, huh. Well, what about the abilities you were talking about?"
"Officer, officer, I demand a lawyer. This feels like an interrogation, ay? Well, it's a bit complex, but so far, it seems me and Yue gained a unique ability. Mine lets me kind of heal most injuries. Apparently not a severed arm, though. But yeah, we have a theory that these effects are possible because of something called AER, Aetherion. I named it. Cool, right?"
Xu-er's face had twisted into a mixture of scrutinizing pitying look as if he was looking at a simpleton.
"Light doesn't have enough mass for you to feel it, and I'm guessing AER isn't something we can measure with school equipment. So why 'Aetherion'?"
"Alright. No fun. But yeah, Mr. Weber had theorized that it acts like a photon idk how he came to that conclusion i think yue's ability is a lot more observable , and well, since I helped develop the theory, I got to name it. But yeah, when we activate the sigil, it causes small packets of energy to flow into it. I haven't a clue how we came up with it since it should basically seem like a continuous flow to me but like its namesake light its a 1 to 1 interaction or something idk i don't do physics i only helped with the biological side of it . But yeah."
"How long was I asleep for? My body feels so stiff." seemingly accepting my half assed response
"A month. You've basically been in a coma-like state. Honestly, everyone was worried… you didn't even move a single muscle. Would've thought you died from the blood loss, but you kept breathing, thankfully."
"Hmph, as if. Done with your insincere concern? Shall we get going and check things out for myself?"
Hearing his words, it did hurt having my concerns so cold-heartedly shut down and dismissed, but it's not so unlike Xu-er.
"Get off your ass then. I'll show you around, though it's mostly just makeshift housing and shit like that."
Walking through the halls of the main building its former English, Philosophy, Sociology, Psychology, and similar essay-based subject classes now turned into sleeping areas though Yue and I had been given a personal room in the science department, previously used as offices for some teachers.
As we continued our way from the infirmary to Mr. Otto's room, Davies Otto, a middle-aged English teacher of German origin, carried a bored and fairly stern demeanour, masking his kind essence. He single-handedly took charge of organizing the living conditions, managing the limited space to provide humane housing for students and teachers.
Most teachers and senior students had been situated in the housing facility attached to the school sports hall, originally used to house foreign teams who occasionally came to play against the academy.
Xu-er most likely would not have an individual room due to limited space.
After a few minutes of walking in awkward silence, I could not muster a conversation any attempts went unnoticed.
Xu-er was seemingly too busy observing the current state of affairs, lost in his own head, his face erratically switching between inquisitive looks and a distant, detached expression, deep in thought. However, this soon ended as we reached Mr. Otto's office at the end of the right wing of the main building, leaving him to enter.
Taking my leave, I headed to my own sleeping quarters in the science facility, pondering a way to deepen my understanding of this scripture or sigil whatever you wanna call it . I was eager to put it into practice. Even after a month, I still felt guilty. Maybe I shouldn't have tried healing him in the first place. But if I hesitated now, I'd never understand this power. ignorance was death. Understanding wasn't just power it was survival, the only thread keeping us from plunging into the abyss.
AER could possibly be manipulated without the use of the sigil. I could tell I knew I wasn't wrong. The way I first used it felt as though I was doing something incorrect. Something functional, but wrong.
The flow was there, but it felt unnatural if there even was a "natural" for something so supernatural.
Once I found myself in a familiar yet still odd room, filled with the scent of newness, the smell of it being untouched, unfamiliar, I walked into the small space and plopped onto the comfortable bed, sitting in an upright meditative position.
I focused on the sigil as it drained AER from the air, pushing it into my own body, more specifically my hand, putting my whole self into moving the Aetherion.
Drip. Drip.
Hours passed.
Moving the AER had become substantially It was like ice burning against my skin, a sensation both numbing and searing. heat, paradoxical as it may be, moved through my arm, reaching up to my shoulder. I pushed the energy further, but it was like shoving through wet sand—the more I forced it, the harder it resisted. I pushed it as far as I could, from my rotator cuff toward my heart, trying my best to not let it interact with my vital organs.
But my loose grip on Aetherion let it disperse slowly.
To my surprise, a faint wisp lingered along the path the AER travelled, leaving behind a lingering burning sensation like getting salt in an open wound. Mild, but significant enough.
Then, realization struck.
This wasn't just power. This wasn't just survival.
It was something deeper.
It was proof.
Proof that I wasn't powerless. That I wasn't bound to ignorance. That I could control this.
A grin stretched across my face. A part of me should've been terrified. This wasn't normal. This wasn't human.
But all I felt was exhilaration.
A real, tangible path forward.
I exhaled a sharp breath, my pulse steady even as the burn lingered beneath my skin.
I couldn't help but laugh.
Today was definitely a fortunate day.