A harsh, chilling sound echoed in the corridor, sharp enough to pierce through the laughter of Charles’s group.
The boy who had thrown the punch—taller, broader, with dark hair cut short against his scalp—let out a bloodcurdling scream.
His knees buckled as his entire body jolted violently backward, pain flooding through him in waves.
"AAAAAGHHHHHHHHH!"
The sound tore through the hall, startling even those who had been watching from afar.
He clutched desperately at his hand, but Riley’s grip remained iron, unmoving, relentless.
Almost all the bones in the boy’s hand had been crushed in that single instant, broken like fragile twigs beneath the sheer pressure of Riley’s hold.
His face twisted with agony, his veins bulging as his scream echoed again.
Riley’s breath hitched, his own eyes wide with shock. His body froze, unable to comprehend what he had just done.
Riley quickly freed the boy’s hand from his grip, his eyes trembling as he muttered under his breath, "I’m sorry... I didn’t an to do that."
The words ca out shaky, almost panicked, but there was no answer from the boy in front of him.
Instead, the boy dropped down to his knees, clutching at his broken hand like it was the only thing keeping him grounded.
His scream still lingered faintly in the air, raw and sharp, but what followed was worse.
A strained groan tore from his throat as he rocked slightly on the ground, his expression twisted in pure agony.
Riley’s eyes lingered on the sight against his will.
The boy’s fingers were bent at awkward angles, his knuckles swollen, purple already blooming across his skin as if the bones themselves had given up holding their shape.
It was the kind of break that didn’t just scream pain—it scread months of recovery, if recovery was even possible.
Anyone looking could easily tell how badly the hand was ruined.
Behind the boy, Charles was frozen stiff, his usual smug grin wiped clean off his face.
His spiky blonde hair caught the sunlight, but his narrowed eyes didn’t hide the shock swimming inside them.
The three who stood at his side wore matching looks of disbelief, their mocking laughter dying in their throats.
For the first ti, they weren’t pointing fingers or smirking down at Riley. They just stared, their mouths parted, their confidence slowly peeling away.
But the one most shocked wasn’t them. It wasn’t Charles, and it wasn’t even the boy whose hand was ruined.
It was Riley.
He couldn’t stop staring at his own hands, his chest rising and falling in uneven patterns.
His palms were trembling slightly, not from fear, but from sothing else entirely—sothing he didn’t understand.
He could feel it, coursing through his veins like wildfire, pulsing against his skin with every heartbeat. It was strange, unnerving, yet undeniable.
Energy.
A strange energy had wrapped itself around him, and he couldn’t explain it.
It wasn’t sothing he had ever felt before, not in his weakest monts, not in his most desperate, not even in those monts where he thought his life might crumble in his past life. It was wild, alien, and yet it made him feel... alive.
And as if that wasn’t enough, sothing else began to shift.
His vision.
Slowly, gradually, the blur that had consud his world for as long as he could rember began to fade.
His eyes widened further as the edges of his palms sharpened into clarity. The faint lines etched across his skin, the faint tremor in his fingers—they weren’t blurry anymore.
Riley gasped quietly, his voice trembling as he whispered, "No way..."
He jerked his gaze toward the boy in front of him, half in disbelief, half in fear that what he was seeing was just an illusion, a trick of his unstable mind. But it wasn’t.
The boy wasn’t blurry either.
For the first ti in years, Riley could see him—his actual face, his distinct features, everything crystal clear.
His broad, round cheeks, his thick eyebrows twitching in pain, his lips pulled into a snarl... and most noticeably, his fat nose, bent slightly to the left as though it had been broken once before.
Riley almost staggered back in shock.
The boy’s eyes blazed with pain and fury, tears threatening to spill but swallowed back by pride.
He gnashed his teeth so hard that Riley could hear the faint grind, before forcing out words between his sharp breaths.
"How could you... do you know what you’ve just done?!" His voice shook, not just with agony but with venom, as though he wanted his words to bite as hard as the pain in his hand.
Riley froze. His lips parted slightly, but no words ca out.
By now, the commotion had drawn attention. The sound of the scream, the faint crunch that had followed, and the boy’s furious roar had beco too loud to ignore.
More people began walking their way, so stopping mid-step, others whispering as they tilted their heads curiously.
Their gazes locked on the boy’s mangled hand, and a murmur rippled through the small crowd forming around them.
The boy noticed it too. His breathing quickened, his face twitching between agony and humiliation.
He stared at his broken arm, the unnatural bends of his fingers, then looked back up at Riley, his eyes ignited with hate.
His teeth gnashed again before he finally spat out words like venom.
"I’ll make you pay for this... cheap, dumbass motherfucker!"
His voice rang sharp, loud enough for everyone around to hear.
The insult stung, but before Riley could even register it fully, the boy pushed himself up off his knees, fury overpowering his pain.
He stumbled, his good hand clenched into a fist, his legs driving him forward with raw rage.
Without hesitation, he charged straight at Riley.
Riley simply stared at him, his eyes widened, his body frozen in place though his mind was racing.
The boy ca at him with all the rage boiling inside him, charging forward like a wild beast that had been wounded and wanted nothing but vengeance.
His footsteps pounded against the ground, his teeth clenched, his fat nose flaring with every breath.
The crowd that had started to gather widened their eyes as well, anticipating a brutal collision, so even gasping in excitent as if a fight in front of the faculty building was entertainnt they had been waiting for all morning.
And yet, to Riley, everything was different.
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