Chapter 42 The Pack’s Silent Cry
"Okay! I got it!" Calista dropped the sheets of data on the table and tapped the clear glass in front of her.
Elena leaned forward, her steady hands dripping the last drops of reagent into the beaker. She called Gerald over for supervision. Elena was about to step out of the lab when Calista, smelling faintly of wine, staggered in her way.
"Elena, a video circulated today at Jamil’s new school." Calista's words spilled fast. "Jamil may not be able to handle it. He disappeared, but it’s confirmed he didn’t leave the school… Elena!"
Calista stopped mid sentence. The white coat Elena wore fluttered as she bolted out, not even sparing a second to peel it off. The sight left Calista frozen for a moment before she turned to Aria who had just entered.
"Aria! Go and see what is happening!" Calista's hands shook as she tore at her own lab coat. Her voice was cracking as she spoke.
Elena’s thoughts were blank. A bullying video at Jamil’s school. Her claws scratched at the inside of her palms. Had her pack brother's torment followed her to this city?
She ran harder, as her phone pressed against her ear, she called again and again, Jamil’s number ringing but no one picked it.
Jamil sat on the rooftop of the school building. Her thin frame curled tight, arms clutching her head. The humiliation of the video and the cruel laughter, echoed in her mind .
The bullying had begun long ago. He had hidden it from Elena. After their mother’s death, the torment had worsened. He patched himself up every time, before stepping into their home. He would never let his sister notice that he was facing all sorts of bullies from his school.
But the pack of jackals at her heels had not let go. Even in this city where she thought freedom awaited, hell had followed.
On that rooftop, Jamil's breath came shallow. He thought he had escaped and he could start over. But the cruel voices were everywhere. Friendly smiles in the morning turned into vile whispers in the afternoon. Boys he called brothers spat the word bitch into his face, mocking him with prices, asking how much a night with him would cost.
Jamil’s hands clawed at his scalp, burying his head against his knees. He wanted it to stop. But the hell never ended.
At last, with shaking fingers, he pulled out his phone. Through blurred vision, he typed a message to Elena.
Elena reached the school just as her claws scratched up her throat, heart roaring in her chest. She had not even made it through the doors when a bang split the air. Her body locked on the stairwell. For one suspended heartbeat, time itself bowed to stillness—then screams ripped through the atmosphere.
"Someone has jumped!"
"Behind the teaching building!"
The voices of the students hit Elena. She turned, racing toward the back of the building. Aria was right behind her. When the broken cry of a jumper echoed in her ears, Aria’s instincts kicked in. She stayed close, clawing for her phone to call an ambulance.
The rear of the building lay swallowed in darkness.The lone streetlight outside the fence spilled a frail glow. In a slick of blood, the crumpled form of a student sprawled on the ground.
Elena’s breath broke. The pair of shoes thrown to the side glimmered under the light. Shoes she had bought for Jamil only days before school began.
Elena bolted ahead, hitting the ground on her knees. Her hands reached for Jamil’s pulse.
She found out that he was still breathing.
Elena fumbled for her phone. "Hello, this is Elena calling from Dream Field Academy. A child has jumped from the building! Behind the lower secondary teaching block! He is bleeding, I don’t know if he is still alive. I cannot move him. Please, hurry!" Her words tumbled out in a desperate growl. She lowered her head close to Jamil’s head, whispering, "Jamil, hold on, please."
The commotion grew. Teachers rushed in. The Vice Chancellor and the director pushed through the students. Their scents were thick with fear. Calista broke through the circle, her hand clamped over her mouth at the sight of blood and broken flesh.
Aria stayed close to Elena, unable to say anything. She wanted to comfort her but no words could match this pain. She only placed her hand on Elena’s shoulder as the ambulance sirens wailed closer.
In minutes, flashing lights filled the yard. Police and medics stormed in. Jamil was lifted, her fragile body swallowed by stretcher and hands. The ambulance doors slammed shut and the vehicle sped off.
Elena stood only when she could no longer see the lights. Her knees buckled and she slumped onto the hospital bench minutes later. She stared at them as rage and grief coiled inside her.
Aria pressed Elena’s phone into her hand. "Elena, take your phone." Her voice was soft. She leaned closer, whispering. "Do not be afraid. There is still hope. Children have fallen from high places and survived. Even from the twenty eighth floor. Jamil still breathes. Do not lose hope.”
Elena trembled as she picked up her phone, the screen smeared with blood from her hands. She found out that she had an unread message from Jamil l. She opened it, and his broken words tore straight through her heart.
\[Jamil: Elena, I just can't hang on anymore! I feel like I'll never escape hell in this lifetime. I'm sorry sister, I want to go and find mom! I'm behind the academic building where no one will get hurt if I jump. Please have me and mom buried together. I'm sorry sister. I really can't forget those memories, it's too painful, sister. To me, death is a relief.\]
Her senses sharpened as the weight of the words hit her. The message had been sent only moments before Jamil leapt from the building. Elena’s howl ripped through the hospital.
The doctors tried to save Jamil, yet even their hands could not pull him back from death’s jaws. The doctor’s words were heavy. Jamil could not survive.
Elena’s knees gave out in the corridor outside the operating room. Her eyes stared ahead, while her tears fell endlessly. She had promised Lyra before her grave that Jamil would be safe, that she would protect him. But fate had clawed both of them away in less than two moons.
“No oooo!” The word escaped her throat.
“Elena!” Aria rushed forward, gripping her shoulders. His lips parted, then closed again. Words of comfort were useless against such grief. “Elena …” she whispered, helplessly.
Calista watched the cursed video on the glowing screen. Her whole body shook, her tears dripping freely. “We must hold those villains in the video accountable!” Her voice trembled. “They cannot be let off!”
The scenes in the recording were worse than any nightmare. Bullying, burning with cigarettes, savage beatings, forcing… acts only demons would commit. They were only monsters in human skin.
“At fourteen seasons old, they are old enough to face punishment!” Calista's body quivered.
Elena’s grief was now on fire. The pain of her brother’s death twisted into rage. She would not allow Jamil’s suffering to fade into silence.
At the police station, Elena stood tall despite the hollow ache in her chest. Her eyes burned with determination. “I want to pursue the legal punishment of every student who tormented Jamil. Every single one in that video.”
“And more than that, the one who gave the order was Lucian. He commanded them to hurt my brother.” She hissed the name like poison. “Here is the proof.”
From her bag, Elena drew the recording where Lucian’s voice slithered with threats during a dinner in Glendale. She laid down the multimedia message Jamil had received in the morning, and the screenshots of a Facebook chat dripping with cruelty.
The policewoman across the table reached out gently, “Don’t worry. The law will not let them escape. Justice will be served.”
Aria walked at her side as they left the station. She noticed her eyes were becoming dull.
“Elena,” she called softly, her hand brushing against her arm.
Then she collapsed into his arms, her head sprawling forward.
“Elena!” Aria shouted, her voice cracking through the night.
A sharp sound of tires screeched nearby. Drake leapt out of his car, his face pale at the sight of Elena’s lifeless body in Aria's grasp.
“Please, help!” Drake roared toward the officers rushing from inside the station like a wolf losing his mate.