Chapter 68
WARNINGS: MENTIONS OF PANIC ATTACKS, ASSULT AND MURDER
They say time heals all wounds. But sometimes, time just lets the wounds fester, grow deeper, and weigh you down until you can barely breathe. Weeks had passed since… since everything. On the surface, life in Class 2-A had returned to some semblance of normalcy. The villain attack, the chaos, the destruction – it was all being repaired, both physically and emotionally. Even Dad's hero agency was slowly rebuilding, thanks to some quick-thinking students from Class 2-B with restoration quirks.
But beneath my carefully constructed facade of normalcy, I was crumbling.
The panic attacks were relentless, ambushing me at the most inconvenient times. The nightmares… God, the nightmares were the worst. Rosaline's face, twisted in hateful glee, her voice echoing in my ears as she tortured Akira… It replayed every single night. The memory of what I did, of how I ended it, haunted me. A monster. That's what I felt like.
Only Diamond, Tristian (my therapist), and Akira knew the full story. The story of Rosaline. I couldn't bring myself to tell Momo. The words just choked in my throat. It was too raw, too ugly to share, even with the woman I loved.
The midterm exams were looming, followed by the chance to finally intern at hero agencies. I had studied, I was prepared, but my anxiety was a raging inferno. Everything felt wrong, like a glitch in the Matrix that only I could see.
The morning of the first exam, I stood in the hallway with Eliza, Hannah, Diamond, Katsume, and Alex. Eliza was animatedly explaining something, but my mind was a million miles away, lost in the swirling vortex of my fears.
Suddenly, Eliza tapped my arm. I didn't even register it at first. She shook me gently. The unexpected touch jolted me back to reality, and I flinched, recoiling as if burned.
Silence descended upon the group. The air crackled with unspoken concern. I never flinched. I was practically impervious to pain. To see me react like that… it was unsettling.
"Anos, are you alright?" Alex asked, his voice laced with worry.
"Oh, yeah, all good," I forced a smile, trying to play it off. "Just a bit… in shock, that's all." A pathetic lie.
The bell rang, signaling the start of the exam. Students began filing into their respective classrooms. But Diamond grabbed my arm, stopping me.
"Are you going to be okay for this test?" Her blue eyes searched mine, filled with genuine concern.
"Yeah, I'll be fine," I replied, trying to sound confident, and flashed her a reassuring grin.
She nodded, but her expression still held a hint of doubt. We walked to the testing site together, the silence stretching between us like a taut wire.