Chapter 32 Eyes on the wrong hero

Chapter 32 Eyes on the wrong hero
Hazel’s POV
One second I was in Kael’s arms－ awkward, uncomfortable, humiliatingly close and then the next second I hit the ground with a sound that definitely shortened my lifespan. Pain exploded through my hip like someone had taken a hammer to it. A strangled sound tore out of me before I could stop it. I sucked in a breath. “You absolute－”
He dropped me. That lunatic dropped me. 

I lay there for a second, staring at the sky, too shocked to even scream. I hissed through clenched teeth. “I let a deranged shovel enthusiast carry me and this is how it ends.” 

I gritted my teeth and tried to roll onto my stomach so I could crawl away with whatever dignity I had left.
I dragged myself forward an inch. Another. “I swear,” I breathed, “when I find Zerran, I’m going to－”
I paused, panting. “I don’t know what I’m going to do, but it’ll be dramatic and legally questionable.” 
I was still mentally plotting his downfall when something felt… wrong. Too quiet. I glanced back. Kael was still on the ground. Not sitting. Not swearing. Not threatening me with his beloved shovel. Just still. At first I told myself he was just resting. The man had walked half the school while bleeding out, carrying me like I weighed nothing.
“Hey,” I called weakly. “Shovel boy. You good?”
No answer. My irritation faltered. I shifted, wincing, and crawled closer. My knee brushed something wet. I froze, looked down. Blood. A lot of it. My stomach dropped.  “No. No, no, no.”

I shuffled closer to him. Kael lay on his side, eyes closed, chest barely－ barely－ moving. The blood soaking through his shirt was darker now, thicker. “Kael,” I said again, sharper. “This isn’t funny.” 
I reached him and nudged him gently. “Hey. Don’t do this dramatic silent thing. Get up.”
Nothing. 
I shook him again.
He didn’t even flinch.
“Oh my God,” I whispered. “Oh my God, you’re actually dying.” Panic slammed into me full force.

“I don’t hate you that much,” I said shakily. “You can’t just, no. You don’t get to die because you decided to be noble for five minutes.”
Pain screamed through my hip as I forced myself onto all fours and crawled the rest of the way to him. My hands shook as I pressed them to his shoulder. “Kael,” I said louder. “Hey. Wake up.”
Nothing.

My throat burned.
I swallowed hard.
“I did not come to this school just to accidentally manslaughter a delinquent.” I grabbed him and, tried to roll him onto his back. It took way too much effort for someone as thin as him, and by the time I managed it, my arms were shaking. I pressed my ear to his chest.
Thump….thump
Weak. Slow.
“Okay,” I breathed, tears stinging my eyes. “Okay. That’s… something. You’re dead yet.” 
I shook him again. “Kael. You hear me? This is not the time to nap.”
Still nothing.

My hands trembled as I hovered over his chest. CPR. Right. I had seen it before. On TV. Somewhere. Probably. “Okay,” I muttered, positioning my hands. “If you die, I swear I’ll haunt you.”
I pressed down. “One, two, three”
I lost count almost immediately. I pressed harder, panic climbing higher with every second he didn’t respond. “Wake up,” I snapped, tears burning my eyes despite my best efforts.
“You don’t get to save me and then collapse. That’s a cheap plot device.”

My chest tightened painfully. Tears spilled over as I kept pushing, my arms burning, my hip screaming in protest. “Please,” I choked. “Don’t die. I’m sorry I laughed. I’m sorry about the shovel. I won’t insult it anymore, okay maybe a little, but please－”
Nothing. 
My breath hitched violently. “Think, Hazel. Think.” I stared at his face, pale and slack, blood drying at his temple. “I hate this,” I muttered, voice shaking. “I really, really hate this.”
I pinched his nose, leaned down, and pressed my mouth to his. Warm. Too still. I blew air into his lungs, pulled back, and did it again.
And again. My vision blurred with tears as I kept going, kneeling in blood, ignoring my hip, my pride, everything. “Don’t you dare,” I whispered fiercely against his mouth. “You hear me? You stubborn idiot, You don’t get to leave after all this.”

Suddenly, he sucked in a sharp breath. Sharp. Ragged.
I froze. 
His fingers twitched against the concrete. “Oh,” I gasped, relief crashing into me so hard it almost knocked me over. “Oh my God－ you’re alive.” I grabbed his hand, rubbing it frantically. “Okay. Okay. Stay with me. Please stay with me.”
His skin felt cold. Too cold. I kept giving him air, rubbing his arms, talking nonstop because silence felt dangerous. “I don’t know what I’m doing,” I admitted breathlessly, “but you’re not allowed to die. I forbid it.” My voice cracked. “I need help,” I whispered, looking around desperately. “Someone, anyone, please…”
The courtyard stayed empty. And the blood kept spreading. For the first time since I arrived at this school, I was genuinely terrified



Ilyas POV
The bell rang, and that was it. I didn’t wait for the teacher to finish speaking. I didn’t grab my books. I didn’t even look back. All I could think about was Kael. 
I’d left him bleeding behind Building C. I told myself he’d be fine. I always did. He’d been worse before. Broken ribs. Knife wounds. Burns. Kael didn’t die. Kael survived. 
But my chest felt wrong. Heavy. I didn’t run at first. Running meant admitting something was wrong. I crossed the yard fast, jaw clenched, fingers flexing like I needed something to break.

The closer I got to our hideout, the louder the pounding in my ears became. Then I saw it. Blood. Not a splash. Not a smear. Drops. Leading away. My stomach dropped. “No,” I muttered, already moving faster. “No, no－”
I rounded the corner where he’d been sitting that morning. Empty. Kael was gone. The wall was streaked dark red. The ground was soaked. My breath hitched. I stood there for half a second too long, staring at the space where Kael should’ve been, where he’d joked, smoked, complained about hunger.
“Don’t do this,” I whispered. “Don’t you dare.” Then I saw it. A trail. Uneven. Dragged. Like someone had been pulled away. My hands were shaking now. I didn’t care who saw me anymore. I followed it. 
Each step made the knot in my chest tighter. I recognized the path. I’d taken it a hundred times. Past the courtyard. Past the blind corridor no one used unless they wanted to disappear. And then－
Two figures. On the ground. One slumped. Motionless. The other hunched over him. Blood everywhere. 
My vision tunneled. Blond hair. Short blond hair….Kael. My vision went red. I didn’t see details. I didn’t see faces. I saw Kael on the ground and a girl on top of him. My scars burned－ hot, angry, like they always did when something snapped inside me. I didn’t think. Thinking would’ve slowed me down. I charged.   “GET AWAY FROM HIM!”

My voice tore out of my throat, raw and feral. I didn’t recognize it. I didn’t recognize myself. I didn’t hear her words. Didn’t care what she was doing with her hands on his chest, her mouth near his face. All I saw was Kael bleeding out while someone hovered over him and was touching him.
I－.



Hazel’s POV
I was in the middle of breathing air into Kael’s lungs when the bell rang. The sound sliced through the courtyard. 
I froze mid-breath, my lips hovering just above his. Lunch time. My hands trembled as I pulled back, chest heaving.

For half a second, I just knelt there, staring down at him, silently begging his chest to keep rising on its own. It did. Barely. Relief nearly knocked the wind out of me. Then I noticed them. Four silhouettes stood a few feet away, near the edge of the courtyard. Backlit by the sun, their faces were shadows, their bodies still. Watching. Help. 
My heart leapt.
“Hey!” I waved frantically, one hand slick with blood. “Help please! He’s bleeding－ he’s dying!”

My voice cracked, but I didn’t care. I must have looked unhinged, kneeling in blood, skirt ruined, hair a mess, hovering over an unconscious boy like some kind of lunatic, but pride meant nothing anymore. I waved harder. “Someone get the nurse－ call an ambulance－ something!”
They didn’t move. One of them tilted their head. Two of them turned around. And then they walked away. My stomach sank. They heard me. I knew they did. The courtyard echoed, my voice had bounced right off the walls. “Wait－!” I tried again, weaker now. Nothing. Confusion settled in, thick and cold. That was when I felt it. A presence. Heavy. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. 
I turned.
He stood behind me, a scarf covered the lower half of his face, dark fabric pulled high. Long black leather coat. Jet-black hair tipped in silver, catching the light like blades. 

Something about him pressed down on my chest. It wasn’t fear exactly. It was worse. “I－” I started, scrambling for words. “He collapsed, I was helping－”
He didn’t slow down. Didn’t hesitate. Didn’t listen. He charged. Instinct kicked in. I threw my arms up just as his foot slammed into my side. 
The impact ripped the air straight out of my lungs. Pain exploded through me, white, blinding, violent and I was airborne for half a second before I crashed into the ground. Hard. A scream tore out of me before I could stop it.

My body spasmed, every muscle locking at once.
The pain in my hip detonated, sharper than before, like glass grinding into bone. My ribs screamed in protest, my side throbbing where his boot had connected. I couldn’t breathe. 
I tried and nothing happened. 
My chest burned. My vision tunneled. When air finally rushed back in, it came with a broken, humiliating sob. “Oh God－” I curled instinctively, which was a mistake. The movement sent another wave of agony through my hip, down my spine, into my legs.

It felt like my body had turned against me, every nerve lighting up at once, screaming. I tasted blood. I blinked, tears blurring everything. That was when I noticed the crowd. 

Students had gathered around the courtyard, forming a loose circle. Faces loomed above me, curious and entertained. Whispers rippled through them like static. Some of them were smiling.
A few had their phones out. Recording. My stomach twisted violently. I wanted to disappear. I wanted the ground to crack open and swallow me whole, because lying there, bloodied, crying, kicked like a stray dog, while people watched. It was worse than the pain. 
So much worse.