Chapter 3 LYRA

My eyes flickered, opening slowly. Everything was so blur, but I could recognise the red coloured stretcher and the medic symbol. I watched those hazy figures lift Lionel's cousin onto the stretcher. A grin tugged on my lips. That ought to teach her a lesson.

The paramedic guy came to me, lifting me to my feet. I quivered a little, my legs wobbled but eventually I regained my balance. I shook him off dismissively.

"Hey, kid we are trying to help you." One of them snapped.

"Don't touch me." I muttered, staggering away. I wasn't running from them. I was running from those paramedic symbols. My gut tightened and I felt like I was going to be sick.

Everything about those paramedics made me nostalgic. I swayed down the hallway, my heart thumping harder and harder against my chest. Suddenly the whole place began to disappear, my memories floating past my mind. The images I thought I hide so well came up before me. It was like that day all over again.

The eerie feeling that damped the room, Jason's cold dead gaze fixed on me, the metallic smell in the air, blood on my trembling hands; I shut my eyes immediately, falling against the wall.

I tried to catch my breath, but I couldn't it.

"Oh god. Damn it." I muttered, crumbling to the ground. Tears weld up in my eyes. I winced them back. I had to be strong, to be strong for Jason.

"Lyra Mason?"

I looked up immediately. There was a lanky fair boy with wavy black hair standing over me. He wore a very blank expression. Clearly someone put him up for whatever he was doing.

"They are calling you in the disciplinarian's office." He said dryly.

"Where?" I asked, sighing exhaustively while I stood up to my feet.

"Down this hallway; last door on your left. Good luck." He said unenthusiastically. He was gone seconds later.

I walked down the hallway and stopped in front of the door. I sucked in a breath and exhaled. 'Here we go.'

I knocked.

"Come in." A baritone voice spoke from behind the door. I raised a brow. That voice.

'No way, it can't be him. He can't be here'.

"Come on in, young lady." The man spoke again. My eyes grew wider. In the past, he could always tell it was me.

'Shit.'

I turned around, shutting my eyes a bit. My expression made it clear that was so no ready for this. I licked my lip and stroked my chin. Damn it, I can't go in there. I can't face him. Not looking like this and certainly after what I just did.

'Fuck he always had the worst timing in the world.'

"Come in, Lyra."

My heart skipped a beat. I froze, breathless.

'He still remembers. Oh. No.'

I rubbed my chest a little. Maybe I don't have anything to worry about, it's been years. I couldn't be able to feel that way again.

I sucked in a breath and let it out through my open mouth. I cleared my throat, huffed and muttered a word of encouragement to myself then I pushed the door open and stepped in slowly; foot first them my body. I kept my head down.

"Shut the door, chin up and look at me, Lyra."

I obeyed. I shut the door; I chinned up, held my breath and looked at him. Our eyes met.

My heart stopped, cold.

He smiled. "Hello Lyra. Long tine no see."

I gulped. My heart thumped faster and faster, perspiration gathering on my forehead. His eyes, his perfectly curved lips, his chiselled jaws, his thick muscles and his unnaturally long canine teeth which made him unnaturally handsome when he smiled; everything was still there. Better that I remember they were.

Just like back then, my heart fluttered and my face flustered. He quietly gestured to a seat opposite him. I took the one that didn't face him directly. He watched me with those devil eyes. They made my body behave naughty. And I hated that so much.

"To be honest, I was very surprised to hear you were here. I didn't expect you to come back here." He started off firm and professional but half way through, his voice softened and shifted to personal. Well everything we had was personal.

"I should be saying those words not you." I murmured.

"What happened back there? You were never the type to be aggressive." He remarked. I scoffed.

"You know nothing about me. Not anymore."

He just stared at me for god knows how long. His eyes were burrowing into my soul and it made me uncomfortable. He sighed and looked away for a second, picking up a file and some forms.

"As the school disciplinarian protocol imposes on me the job of asking you some questions and recording your reply."

"Then get on with it already. I have punishment to serve." I leaned back on the seat and puffed up the strand of hair that kept falling on my face.

He looked down on the paper he was holding. It was only for a split second but the way he looked, completely stolen by the words etched on that report, his glasses falling to the tip of his Greek nose and his shirt losing two buttons; it was almost ecstatic.

He looked like something AI images created. I pouted; I always wondered how someone could be so handsome.

He raised his face, I threw my eyes elsewhere. I didn't want him to know that I was staring.

"Alright," He started slowly. "Let's start with something simple. What is your name?" he pressed a recorder on and placed it in the middle of his table.

"I'm Lyra. Lyra mason." I said.

"Lyra, why did you enrol into Graham College?"

"I'm not answering that." I turned away immediately.

"Lyra, this is protocol."

"Fuck protocol, I AM NOT ANSWERING THAT." I spelled it out for him, angrily.

He sighed. "Let's try this again."

"Are you here to study and become successful?" he rephrased the question. I tilted my head slowly, my eyes fixed on his.

"Everything isn't an interrogatory question, Lyra."

My eyes fell to my hands. I was slightly embarrassed. It was a simple question, why did I think the school wanted to know about Jason? Of course they didn't. They probably don't even renumber.

"Yes I am."

"Alright. Now tell me why did you attack Miss Kathy?"

"Self defence. She tried to crack my skull open with a water bottle."

"Isn't that a little exaggerative?"

"I don't know; let's hit you with a water-packed bottle and see."

He looked away, wrote something down and then returned his gaze to me. "You should have reported. Fighting or retaliation isn't allowed. You are suspended for a day. I suggest you use-"

I pushed the chair back, stood up and walked towards the door.

"Little Lyra."

I halted my hand on the door handle. That nickname, how dare he call me that?

"When I was still your step father, you weren't like this. What happened to you?"

I let out a deep exhale.

"Nothing you could ever imagine."