Chapter 10: A Threat

Umar’s face distorted into a grimace as the sight of the boy in the brawl with Uthman filled him with contempt. This child, by the name of Yunus, had joined only last year, and had immediately made an enemy of himself amongst half the boys in this section of the school, by attempting to stand out as some sort of bully - which never was a good idea when InfernoOaisis was built upon foundations of unity and solidarity. Yunus had begun his journey of antagonising with a brutal pelting of insults at Umar and his circle of friends, who had been assigned to watch out for him during his first week. Yunus had ruthlessly insulted almost the entirety of section m (about half of the school) with a single comment: “you guys are just chickens, hiding away in your coop [InfernoOaisis] to try and make yourselves feel better about getting your parents sent up in flames - if only you all had gone with them”. Most of the full-time boarding students were orphans, and all those in section m were ones who had been/were likely to soon be targeted by the ones who killed and burned, so Yunus’ statement was highly uncalled for, especially considering that he himself was of section m and thus could also be targeted someday. Yunus just happened to be prideful, or perhaps masking a damaged self-esteem, and thus he bragged the fact that his parents were still alive and he was fortunate enough to go home every other weekend, which very promptly made him an enemy of the vast majority of section mb, and even a few of mg knew of his antics.

After restraining himself for precisely 2 minutes (he counted the seconds), Umar had launched himself into the fray, fists aimed at Yunus’ smug little face, only to find himself suddenly unable to move. As Umar struggled to free himself, he suddenly realised that the crowd had gone quiet. He glanced behind him at his captor’s face, and instantly stilled: a mask covered the lower half of her face, and the hood of her jacket shaded the other half; her eyes were dark, as if to convey the severity of her resolve - that she was not one to be trifled with; but most importantly of all, she was not attired in the regular black uniform of students, nor the grey of teachers or pale pink of caretakers - she was wearing navy blue, the colour of the elites. Everyone knew that the six (or The Elites as people liked to call them), were too busy to talk with regular students, giving them an air of seeming untouchable, and yet here was one of those very people, clasping his hands forcefully together behind his back, rendering him unable to move for risk of dislocating a shoulder. He spat on the ground with disgust, as his attention reverted back to Yunus, and could not hold back a retort from spilling out his mouth: “you may have parents, but they sure wish they didn't have you”.

Aisha looked down at the 11mb she was restraining, and then back into the centre of the gathering at the 10mb and 8mb. What the kid in her hands just said complicated things - this situation was no longer just about a fist fight amongst schoolboys, but had the potential to be detrimental to InfernoOaisis as a whole. Her expression turned grim at the remembrance of Humerah’s lost key, and suddenly she felt tired: tired of always having to be the one to tie up everyone else’s loose ends, keeping the safety of the school intact. If only she could share some of her troubles with one of the others, but as the one who consistently got the highest scores in whatever measure of testing Uncle Sulayman put them through, she knew she could rely on no one but herself, because surely no one else’s results would be as satisfactory…