Blood Queen Reborn-Chapter 31: Bullied In Silence
After a long day of classes, Quinn went to his dorm room intending on studying the earth ability more. His initial plan was to hang out with Peter inside as he made a promise to do so, and also because his body was sore from yesterday’s work out.
However, Fex was pretty bored of just going to class and heading back to the dorms. He wanted to live a little.
After Fex said he was going to bring Peter along, Quinn was convinced. He actually wanted to know a bit more about his roommate properly, as he was friends with them both, but he didn’t really know his vampiric buddy all too well.
—
Fex, Quinn and Peter then headed into the town, and began exploring all of the stores around.
"We should get alcohol!" Fex said with a smile.
"Uh, Fex, I don’t think we’re old enough for that..." Peter mumbled, "... It’s not like any of us can even afford it."
Instead of buying alcohol, they decided to go to the local movie theater.
Movie theaters nowadays only had reruns of old movies as production on new films ceased when the first war came out.
As they were in the middle of watching a film, Fex became super engrossed in it. He kept interrupting, asking questions to both Quinn and Peter about human culture, which got a few people to give them nasty looks.
After the film, the group left the theater, and continued walking around the town. When they passed by a jewelry store, Fex gave the place a really long glance to the point of staring. It made sense, at least in Quinn’s eyes, that Fex would be interested in jewelry as he always wore a long black dangly earring, and a fancy ring.
"How’d you even afford your jewelry?" Peter asked, looking at Fex’s accessories, "There’s no way a level 1 like you would have the money."
Suddenly, Fex looked a little nervous, "Well you see I... I made it myself!"
"Wow, that’s really cool," Peter replied, looking a little excited.
"Actually, I bet you can use the earth ability on gems to make rings like mine," Fex thought up.
That gave Quinn an idea. An earth ring was pretty inconspicuous, but it wasn’t large enough to make a functional weapon. However, if he had a larger earth ring that was on his arms, then he could change its shape into gauntlets.
"Earth to Quinn?" Fex said, waving his hands in front of him.
"Fex, you’re smart!"
"I am, but why?"
Looking around, Quinn managed to find some mud and he shaped two clumps of mud into large rings. He put the rings on his wrists like bracelets, and pulled his sleeves over them. Focusing his ability, he managed to control the mud to wrap around his hands.
"There we go," Quinn said as he punched the air with his mud gauntlets.
"That’s amazing!" Peter clapped.
"You made a bracelet," Fex said.
"It’s not a bracelet, it’s a large ring on both of my arms," Quinn replied.
Since Quinn was only a level 1.1 earth user, the most he could shape was mud, and only if he was actively touching it. Making mud rings to gauntlets was the best usage of his ability that he could think of.
Fex glanced at his wrist, then at the setting sun, "We should head back. We’ve been out for a while, and besides, didn’t you want to practice your ability?"
The others agreed, and they headed back. However, before they entered the campus, Peter spotted a group of high levels. The moment they made eye contact, the higher levels gestured to him to come over.
"Hey guys, I just remembered I was going to meet up with a few people from school tonight," Peter said, "It was great hanging out with you guys, but I’ll see you back in the dorms."
Quinn looked to Fex, thinking it was suspicious. Fex, however, didn’t really know what the big deal was. Aside from Erin, a lot of high levels didn’t really hang out with low levels. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮
"Peter, you know you can ask me for help, right?" Quinn muttered to Peter.
"It’s nothing like that, don’t worry. They’re my friends," Peter replied, "I have to go now, bye guys."
Peter ran off to the high levels, leaving Fex’s and Quinn’s eyesight.
Quinn didn’t trust that these high levels were actually Peter’s friends, but he hadn’t been close enough in Peter’s life to know who they are. Maybe they were genuinely nice people, and were the exception like Erin was.
But it was just as likely that he hadn’t noticed Peter getting bullied right under his nose.
—
As Peter ran over to the group of high levels, he nervously gulped, and thought about what Quinn said.
’I’m sorry Quinn, but if I asked you to help me, then you’d get slaughtered. If Erin wasn’t safe, then neither would you,’ Peter thought.
Following the high levels past a corner, and into an alleyway, there were five first years patiently waiting. A group he had unfortunately grown accustomed to.
"Took you long enough," said a student in front of the group who had a scar on his chin. His name was Earl and the leader of the first year group under Mono’s gang.
Earl grabbed Peter’s head and slammed him against a wall.
"What the hell was that? Calling the teacher the other day," Earl said, "Now Mono is getting on my ass because of you."
Earl then punched Peter in the stomach causing him to drop to his knees, and fall to the ground.
"Damn snitch, why’d we have to be the ones punished?" Earl ran up and kicked Peter once again in the stomach.
Peter was thankful he didn’t eat much that day as the kick caused his body to shake. It felt like at any second he was going to throw up.
Earl lifted Peter’s head by the hair and was about to slam him into a wall again, until he paused and dropped him.
"You know what? How about I go a little easy on you," Earl slowly spoke, "Maybe you didn’t know what our plan was. We never did tell you, and you can make it up to us if you just do this one thing..."
Peter gulped. He had a feeling that Earl’s request was not going to be so simple.
"We have a job for you, Peter, and you better not get anyone else involved. Consider yourself on good footing if you just nod and agree to it."
Peter began sweating, his fingers nervously fidgeted with the hems of his uniform. He was worried about what they would have him do, but he had hung around them long enough to have some sort of guess. Even if he did agree and told his friends what their plans were, surely Mono and his gang would find out somehow, increasing his punishment tenfold.
However, when thinking about Quinn, he couldn’t help but feel like he was betraying him if he said yes. Sure he had been hurt badly before but if he did agree to their demands, Peter felt like he was going to do something he was going to regret.
Peter was thinking hard, trying to figure out the best answer, but he eventually shook his head.
This frustrated Earl.
"Is that a no?" Earl threatened.
That was it, even if Peter took it back now, he was going to be hurt.
Earl grew furious and punched Peter in the face, knocking him down.
"...N-no...!" Peter cried, covering his head.
"What was that?" Earl shot back, "it sounds like you’re going against us. Mind repeating what it is you said?"
Everyone was silent for a split second, which felt hot and uncomfortable for Peter. He didn’t have the guts to say no again.
Earl ran up and kicked Peter. He tried to block his repeated kicks, and was being hit everywhere, in the face, his chest, his legs, and more.
Peter didn’t know why Quinn even tried to fight them off at the assembly. He was just a level 1 earth ability user, and Quinn got hurt badly going against them. Peter wasn’t trying to fight back, and he still was getting hurt. It was a lose lose scenario no matter what any of them did.
He was littered in bruises. Peter wanted it to end, the torture, the suffering, the agony. Not a second was given to breathe. Until suddenly—
It stopped.
Peeking between his fingers, Peter saw Earl looking down at him with disgust.
"You first years are getting ballsy. If a regular beating won’t make you submit..." Earl looked over to another member of his gang with a sinister smile, "Then how about we try something different?"
Suddenly, Peter was slammed into the wall and held in place. He wasn’t able to move at all. Then, Peter’s sleeves were rolled up and they stabbed into his arms multiple times, including an artery. Blood began pouring onto the ground.
"If you don’t comply, then we’re just gonna have to bleed you dry."
Soon, Peter could feel himself getting light headed and cold. The air smelled of iron, and the floor grew covered in red.
’They’re... They’re going to kill me!?’ Peter thought, ’they’re going to kill me just like—!"
He felt his vision fade, his consciousness clouding and his mind falling asleep.
That was when Earl looked over to a shorter member of his gang, "Jerry, do your thing."
Jerry nodded and began to heal Peter’s wounds. His cuts closed up, and he didn’t feel as cold.
"W-what—?" Peter said before he got stabbed again in his arms with jagged blades and pulled out taking flesh with them. The wounds were cut even deeper than before. It didn’t take a genius to tell that they were targeting his veins.
The pain stung, and yet again, he was losing consciousness. Through his blurred vision, he saw a figure using a water ability to clean up the floor.
"We don’t exactly have anywhere to be, and there might be a time when my buddy Jerry here might be too late to save you. Or he could just run out of MC cells."
Peter knew what Earl was getting at. As he tried to hold off on complying, every time he lost enough blood to need healing, he was risking death.
They continued to do this for an hour straight, and it really did seem like they would do this until he actually died. There was no way out of this.
Through a heavy and weakened voice, Peter muttered, "fine... I’ll do it..."
Earl smiled, "Good. Next time, you better answer us sooner. I’d rather you not waste everyone’s time."
Jerry healed him again, but he ran out of MC, leaving Peter’s hands visibly shaken, and pale. He healed his wounds but not his blood loss. He barely had enough energy to think straight, and they let go of the boy, dropping Peter to the floor.
He held his head as it was light headed, but despite his pain, there was something far more concerning bothering him.
’What did I agree to?’ Peter thought.
