Chapter 4

It hits Eve like a truck when he hears River saying that they aren't roommates. An overstimulated wave of shock hovered over his face, but his train of overwhelming emotions was halted by a sharp voice whose sole aim was to cuss River nonstop. 

"Oh shit!" River hurriedly left his chair and jogged towards the owner of the voice. "The angry bird is on fire again." 

"How dare you have the audacity to eat when I'm searching your ass for who knows how long?!" The angry boy pointed an accusing finger at River, causing his face to twist into an anxious expression. 

From the other side on the table Eve watched them with a confused face as River panicked while trying to calm the boy who spat. "How could you be fucking eating all the time?! one more minute and I would have started looking for your fossils instead of you." 

"Hey, you are the one who threw me out of the room, remember," River let out to the blond haired boy who was grumbling in rage. "So, you can't complain when I let out my anger on food."

Everyone's attention was drawn to their argument now. Some enjoyed their usual drama with interest, while others hurled insults at them, and some looked at them with bitter expressions of jealousy. 

But they all shut up when River glared at them. 

"What the hell are you all looking at?" he yelled and everyone hurriedly turned back to minding their own fucking business. 

Quitting his glare and putting up a sheepish expression as soon as his eyes met with the boy again, he took his hand and dragged him to their table where Eve was sitting without any much expression. "Come, I have to introduce you to someone."

"Meet Eve, this cute guy here. He's a newcomer," River beamed, one hand pointing at Eve, who shifted in his seat at the mention of his name, and the other hand around the boy's waist. 

River leaned in close and whispered into his ear. "You won't believe it, but soon he's about to take over as Luna, Ziggy."

"This is the third kid you have claimed as your Luna," the boy rolled his eyes and shoved River away. "Seriously, you need to get your head checked and stop finding your Luna in everyone. Otherwise, Alpha will not spare you this time."

"Oh, you don't know anything," River scoffed childishly and turned to a befuddled Eve. "Luna, meet my bestest friend S-"

"I can introduce myself," He took a seat and River shrugged, but also seated beside him. "Hello, I'm Sage," He extended his hand for Eve to shake. "But this idiot calls me Ziggy, though you are not allowed to call me that," Sage let out firmly with a bitter expression as his eyes narrowed into a glare. "No one is allowed to call me that besides him. 

Eve felt an uneasy feeling in his chest under Sage's not-so-friendly gaze. He could see that this boy is nothing like River. 

Sage doesn't have bulky body portions like River, rather he's small and petite around 5 '7. He has pale skin with numerous birthmarks on his face down to his neck. Thick blond curls with a jade deep set of eyes with dark circles under them, a small button nose with thin rosy lips and a double chin which does not match his skinny body. However, what drew Eve's attention was how gorgeously he carried himself. Despite the mean scowl on his face, or how he doesn't smile like River all the time, he looked like a cold beauty. 

Eve shakes the offered hand quickly, not wanting to come off as rude. 

"I'm Eve, nice to meet you," Eve let out a polite smile. "I hope we get along well."

"Yeah, River already told me your name," Sage deadpanned, causing Eve's smile to fade, he uncomfortable-ly lowered his head to his food, shuffling it with his spoon. The environment suddenly turned awkward. Sage turned to River, "I'm hungry."

"Wait, I'll go and bring your food," River didn't say anything about his behaviour but gave Sage the eye that said 'don't mess with the kid', Sage rolled his eyes and shrugged. 

After River left, Sage observed the kid in front of him silently, who was too afraid to make any sound. 

"Did you get your batch?" 

Eve flinched at the sudden question, he didn't expect the mean boy to even speak to him. He meekly shakes his head. 

"Do you know how things work here?" He asked and Eve shook his head again. 

"Since you're new, let me give you some advice," Sage locked his gaze with him. "There are not so many rules that you need to follow but just one. No matter what it takes you must survive. Simple, right?"

Eve didn't understand how to answer. Sage rests his hands on the table and places his chin on them. Eve silently watched the action, the fingers in front of him appeared to be long and slim, more beautiful than most of the girls and his nails were long and painted with white glitter. 

"You must survive and you should survive on your own. And the only thing that will help you in doing so, is to always stay away from the big dogs of this school," Sage explained seriously, making Eve gulp in discomfort. "Take it as a game. You never fight, rather you always defend yourself. See, one simple and sweet rule, follow this one and you will probably be able to get out of here."

Eve listened intently to him; for a brief moment, he felt grateful for Sage's cautious words, but his next words threw him into a pit of rage.

"However, if you want to try your luck by sticking yourself to a big dog like River to get in his pants, I suggest you rather not. Everyone comes here alone, and they're meant to survive alone, so you're not special or unique. River can't see through your naive tactics, but your fake innocence won't fool me because there are so many other kids out there like you."

"I'm not gay!" Eve exclaimed in irritation because he had no business getting in anyone's pants.

"Every second kid here claimed that they are not gay, but if you ask them to fuck, they will gladly do it," Sage rolled his eyes, and Eve frowned in disbelief.

"Listen, I don't have anything against you, I don't even know you. But take my advice and stay away from River. He surely looks dangerous but he's a big softy so, if you are thinking of taking advantage of him. I suggest you quit that thought and don't leech onto him."

"I n-never leech onto him," Eve shuttered slightly but told him firmly. He felt humiliated, he doesn't like the way he was falsely accused. "It was him who dragged me here with him."

"You-"

"Here you go," River came with a tray full of food. He carefully settled down the tray in front of Sage. "Do you want anything else? I can go and get it for you."

River smiles broadly at Sage, as if he has forgotten everything else for a moment.

"No, that's enough, thank you." Sage let out with a change in his tone. River smiles and nods, his eyes darted to Eve who was looking down at his fidgeting fingers lost in his own thoughts. His expressions seemed to change with his every thought, sometimes confused, sometimes as if he'd been fed a really bitter medicine.

"How about you, Luna?" River extends his hand and shakes Eve's shoulder, causing him to flinch and respond with a 'huh'. River chuckled at his perplexity. "Would you like me to get you something?"

"I'm sure he's full by now, right?" Eve opened his mouth to say no, but Sage beats him on that. Eve nodded awkwardly, not liking the way Sage was staring at him. River rolled his eyes as he noticed the awkwardness between them. 

'This idiot threatened this poor kid too,' River sighs but did not confront Sage on this. 

"So, what were you both talking about?" 

Sage smiled sweetly as he leaned forward to River. "We were talking about how nice you are, always getting involved in other people's problems to help others, which leads to you being kicked out of your own dorm," He sarcastically said. 

River stared at his beaming smile for a while before he pulled back and rubbed his neck, a conspicuous redness creeping up his cheeks. "R-Really?" He asked hopefully. "You think I'm nice?" 

"You just heard the word nice from everything I said?" Sage asked in disbelief. 

Being caught he quickly turned to Eve. "I can hear whatever the hell I want, right Luna?" 

River inquired Eve who appeared lost in his own thoughts and didn't understand why he was still sitting there. Maybe because he didn't have anywhere else to go. So, he just nodded, without knowing the content they were talking about. 

After they had their dinner, where most of the conversation was going between River and Sage, and Eve just nodded and shakes his head from time to time they left the cafeteria. 

It was already around eight and students began to disperse into their rooms.

River excitedly told Eve that he'd take him to his room because it's dangerous to wander around alone in a place full of predators. 

However, Sage, on the other hand, groaned in annoyance and began to walk into the opposite side. River panicked as he watched his roommate leaving in anger.

"Hey, Ziggy, wait!" River looked between them. 

"It's alright, you can go to your dorm. I'll be fine on my own." Eve struggled to let out a reassuring smile and River felt bad for him. 

"No, I promised you. And I'll deal with him once I get my hands on him," River shook his head laughing before his voice slowed down. "It's also your first night here, and it's almost nine o'clock. I can't go to my room peacefully unless I know you're safely inside your room." 

"Why, what happened after nine?" 

"Huh? Nothing...much. Just the lights go out." 

"You should go though, you shouldn't upset your roommate because of me. I'll manage, don't worry. I'm not as weak as you think," Eve said, pulling his chin up, a weak attempt to look confident. 

"Thank you!" River smiled widely assuming that he's thinking too much and that Eve will be fine on his own. "You're the best Luna," He declared before running away. 

 ***

Eve strolled his way to his room with a tight feeling in his chest. The environment didn't help his nervousness either, the corridors that were filled with delinquents who were screaming and laughing the entire day, are filled with a menacing silence now. 

He clenched his shirt in tight grip as he walked with slow steps to not make any noise, he didn't dare to look up and kept his head down watching his shoes with every step while assaulting his lower lip profusely. He felt like if he dared to look up something would jump on him out from somewhere. 

When he made another cut in the corridor, his steady breaths became irregular and failed to get hold of his panic when his dread filled eyes fell on a shadow standing attached to the wall without making any movement at a couple of distance from where Eve was standing paralysed on the spot. 

As if abruptly sensing the presence of the other coward, the shadow lets go of the wall and stands at its full height. Fear crept over Eve's senses and he took a step backward ready to make a run if needed. When the shadow started to walk towards him, all he could hear were his thundering heartbeats in his ears, blocking every other sound. 

However, he breathed out the air he was sucking in for so long when the shadow came into the light and he saw the face clearly. He narrowed his eyes and what came in his view was a brutally bruised face, no more recognisable. 

But Eve recognised it within a second and in the dim light at that. It was the same boy he had seen getting hit just moments before. Eve observed his broken self, the first thing he noticed was that the boy was clutching something tightly against his chest, he must be around 5'4 or shorter than that, he sniffs every two seconds, and limps when he starts to walk, a result of the beatings. He comes across as vulnerable and on the verge of collapsing at any moment.

Eve felt bad for him, his eyes softened and he wanted to ask whether the boy was alright but he couldn't ask the obvious. 

When the weak boy was about to pass Eve, he sped up his steps, causing him to trip over his own feet. He stumbled, and the items he was hiding in his chest shattered on the floor, making both boys gasp. Eve dashed towards him without a second thought; the boy was already gathering his belongings. 

When Eve approached, he scowled at him, causing Eve to stop in his tracks. The boy resembled a feral cat who perceives everyone around him as a threat. Eve watched as the boy quickly scooped up what appeared to be frozen food or snacks and rose with difficulty.

"Are you alright?" Eve asked in a hushed voice to not scare him, he didn't get any more close to him, because let's face it, he was scared too. He just wanted to get to his room as soon as possible but he's a human with a kind heart and humans should help other humans. 

But what came to his question was silence. A calm and composed silence, that the awkwardness was louder than it. 

The boy looked up at Eve with his half-closed swollen eyes and kept on staring at the weird creature in front of him. He couldn't comprehend whether Eve was asking genuinely, probably mocking him or maybe looking for a fight since he's the easy target. He darted his eyes down but he didn't find any batch there which confused him more. 

Giving a last creepy look he started to leave. Eve felt lost, maybe he shouldn't have said anything. Of course, anyone would snarl if they asked them the most ironic thing. He sighed, feeling stupid, just when he was about to leave too his eyes landed on a snack on the floor. He quickly picked it up and turned back to call the boy to give him. 

However, he felt the immense goosebumps which stopped his heart, freezing every muscle in his body when he did not find the boy there anymore. The corridors were long so he couldn't just get through them in a few seconds and there weren't many rooms on this floor. But maybe he went into one of these rooms, he reasoned. 

He forced his frozen legs and endangering fear to put aside and began to walk again. 

When he was a few steps away from reaching his dorm, he swore he felt a vivid presence behind him, the hairs on the back of his neck stood and he felt a cold shiver. He felt like someone or something was keeping an eye on him. 

He didn't waste any time on turning around and finding out what it was, instead he sprinted towards his dorm and got inside, locking it quickly. 

Eve sighed out a long exhausted breath and began counting to calm down his impending panic attack, it was dark inside the room. And he swears the lights were on when he left with River. 

When he couldn't calm himself down he jogged towards his bed, throwing his shoes off and hiding under the blanket bringing his knees to his chest. Moments later, when his heartbeats steady slightly, he felt at ease, his cocooned body exhausted from the entire day's bullshit relaxed and he melted into the comfort of the blanket, snuggling and embracing around it. 

However, just when he was about to drift into a slumber, he was startled by the clicked sound of doorknob. 

Eve tried not to breathe and stay as still as he could, but it was impossible not to breathe and not to move because his body was trembling intensely. He felt his heartbeat increasing, flooding him with adrenaline when he heard the faint sounds of footsteps which seemed to be getting nearer. And then, they stopped, a malicious silence following the rhythm. 

Eve stiffened and squeezed his eyes. No one could tell that there was a person hiding under the thick blanket in this dark. His horror ten folds when he heard a loud groan and digging off a mattress like someone sat on the bed opposite of him. 

Eve swears the groan left him crippled and if he was standing his legs probably had given up. He heard some rustling noises and he just couldn't fathom the information that someone was in the room besides him. 

"Urgh! That fucking idiot messed up my things again." 

Eve stiffened even more, he shuddered at the voice to death, he swallowed the thick lump of terror in his throat. And then it was silent again for a few minutes which filled him with more dread. Eve felt a bitter taste in the back of his mouth as if he'd throw up the little food he had at dinner. 

However, before he could comprehend anything, the blanket was torn away from him and he was pinned into the mattress. 

"Ahhh!!!" He let out a blood-curdling scream. 

"Who the fuck are you?"