CHAPTER 2: A Night's Journey

{They say losers are forgotten}

{And I just might hit rock bottom}

{Don't push me, I already took a leap}

Feeling a little sad and annoyed, Ashan turned the unlocked door to his room, closing it behind him with a heavy slam, not even particularly surprised at the sight of his own side of the room, seeing another "LOSER" scribbled quickly and boldly in red paint had been written on his white wallpaper adding to the many colourful words that had been scribbled on it in the past, 

"Well the penmanship looks different," Ashan murmured under his breath as he looked towards the right side of the room belonging to Grut his roommate whom he rarely ever spoke to, noticing the few scribbles that decorated his walls compared to his own side of the room, which were the few perks of not being at the bottom of their class since he was " number B49 along with Zahan who was A49,

"Anything is better than being number 50 in any class," thought Ashan thinking back to his first year and how it had been even worse than his second year, moving his feet towards his bed, throwing himself on it with a sigh as he buried his head underneath the pillows, feeling a sudden urge to scream as loud as he could, still, he didn't, feeling the tears pooling at the base of his eyes quietly soak into his sheets, 

A couple of seconds had barely passed when he raised his head up, wiping off the streaks of tears on his face with the sleeves of his shirt before sliding off the bed, until he was down on all four of his limbs, raising his blanket and peeking under his bed until he saw the small box he was looking for, 

"Finally!!!" He breathed out, looking at the box with shiny eyes and a sense of relief, opening the heavy clasp with a smile the moment he noticed that the contents seemed to be untouched, going ahead to dig into his pant pocket for the cafeteria money they were given every day for food.

Without any hesitation whatsoever, Ashan dropped the three silver coins he held in his hands adding them to the pile of coins he had stashed in the metal box to the brim, 

"Well it's worth a whole month of eating only breakfast," he whispered staring at the box he held in his hand, while thinking back to how early he had woken up just to make it to the cafeteria earlier than most people in the academy, sometimes, meeting others who also held the last position in their classes regardless of the year they were in, since most of the torment is usually dished out in the cafeteria where every student of the Light academy went to eat, 

"Well it's nice to know that after today and in the coming tests, I would never again take the last position," Ashan said whispering to himself in a low tone, before closing the box and hugging it closer to his chest,

After putting it right back under his bed where he had picked it from, and arranging his bedsheet until it covered the bed and the floor, in the exact manner he had laid it, he climbed back up on his bed with the sole purpose of ignoring the groanings of his stomach, 

Lying on his back with closed eyes and arms folded together on his chest, a few minutes had barely gone by when he naturally dozed off, having woken up as early as he could, regardless of the fact that he rarely got a good night's sleep the night before, 

Three, was the magic word, as the huge "food bell" was still ringing the third time when it startled Ashen awake.

And a long ago, a rumour had gone around that the "food bell" had more than one purpose and the second was that it had the power to wake up the dead, since the first headmaster of the school had magically created every single part of the bell clapper, 

Ashen, was still in the middle of a yawn, when he scrambled off his bed, with a sense of urgency akin to someone chasing him off it, 

Looking around his room, he noticed that not only was his roommate Grut not around but it seemed like more words had been added to his own wallpaper as "unwanted decoration" while again, Grut's own had been left untouched, 

Out of fear, with his heart in his mouth, as the beating of his heart was loud enough for anyone standing even a step away from him to hear,

Terrified, Ashen dived under his bed to retrieve the box, stretching his hand out to touch it and pull it over to himself only for him to reach in as his fingers grabbed the thin air while also touching the bare floor, 

More horrified than he had ever been, Ashen lifted up his head from the dark space under his bed, raising and pushing the bedsheets as far away as he could, diving back underneath his bed with both hands, with crazed eyes like a man looking for stolen treasure, 

"Aaaaah…," he half yelled with relief as his hands finally touched what seemed like the metal box he had been looking for, which to Ashen was his final hope of doing well on the next test and might even be his last chance of staying in the academy, 

Quickly, and as fast as he could he pulled it out in one breath, slipping off the clasp and opening it without so much as blinking for fear that a little detail relating to the box might elude him, 

"Aaaaah….," he breathed in relief as he saw all the coins he had put there exactly as they were, immediately getting on his feet and placing the box on his bed with no intention of taking his eye from it, 

Opening the top drawer at the desk beside his bed, Ashen pulled out his "magic wand" inlaid with silver with tip painted in rose-red which was the standard given to all second year's, with the colours changing the further you went in the academy, 

"Well, looks like you're coming with me," Ashan whispered directly to his wand as he held it closer to his lips wandering if that was the last time he would ever get to hold it and at the same time, he was thankful that he was allowed to take it outside with him and he at least had a bit of protection with him since his destination was the "black market".