148 A problem

Outside the second-year building, out in the open field, Layla and Vorden were still patiently waiting. Peter had gone in a while ago, but now they started to wonder what was taking him Peter so long.

"Do you think something might have happened to him?" Layla asked, looking at the two second years that stood directly outside the building, like they were guard dogs.

"I'm not sure. He doesn't look like the type that's good at lying," Vorden replied to her question. "Then again, he did fool me and Quinn before, without us having a clue."

"Would you stop being so salty about that? It's getting annoying," Layla said, getting sick of the fact that Vorden seemed to be putting Peter down whenever they talked about him. "Right now, all of us are trying to help each other. That's how it should be. That's how this world should have been in the first place before the introduction of powers came and changed everything."

Vorden could tell that there seemed to be some sort of pain behind Layla's words. Then again, it was normal for people, who were of the lower class, to be unhappy with the current system. Before the war with the Dalki, everyone had a voice in some way. They had a right to vote and they had the chance to change things.

But after the war that all changed. Now, if you were of a lower class, the people in power don't care about what you think.

"It's not the powers themselves that are at fault," Vorden replied. "It's the people at the top who made the current system, who are at fault."

Eventually, the two of them felt they had waited for far too long. They came to the conclusion that it wasn't likely that Peter was going to come out anytime soon, they had a feeling something might have happened. With that in mind, the two of them decided to stop waiting out front, and started to head around the back. There was no entrance to get into the school from the back since the second-year building was up against the school walls which surrounded the entire military camp.

But perhaps, they could find some other entrance, either by climbing some walls, or through some other means.

The two of them needed to be careful that they weren't seen while they were sneaking around, so the two of them would be using Layla's abilities to make sure of that. When they got around to the back side of the building, they could see another student standing guard there. Using Layla's powers, they both lifted up a couple of stones, and threw them to distract the student.

"Are you ready?" Layla asked with a smile on her face. When she realised what kind of face she was making, she quickly stopped. She couldn't believe she was actually having fun sneaking around and causing trouble. And with Vorden of all people.

"As I thought, you do look a little cute when you are smiling," Vorden said as a response.

*****

Peter was patiently waiting outside the place where he had suggested. While waiting, Peter started to look around the place. Since there were no exits, there weren't many students moving about back here. There was also a plain wall, but it was nearly impossible for someone to scale unless they had some type of ability.

As Peter continued to look at the wall, he was wondering if he, in his current state, could do such a thing. But just as he was in the middle of this thought, he heard a voice from behind.

"Hey! Hey, Peter! It's been a while, hasn't it?" Earl said, as he walked closer before adding: "You know, lately, Duke has been blaming me for all of the failed attempts against Vorden, so I haven't been getting any rewards, how are you going to solve that for me?"

While walking closer towards Peter, Earl looked at what was in Peter's hands, which were the level 2, 3 and 4 earth ability books. Although Earl was already a level four earth user and had no need for the books himself, he could always sell them on the market to earn some money.

"Hand them over, you piece of crap," Earl said as he slapped Peter across the face, leaving a red mark.

The truth was, Earl didn't really care about the books. And if he asked for them, then Peter was likely to give them to him. All he wanted to do was vent out his pent-up frustrations on someone, and Peter was the perfect target.

Just a few moments ago, Duke did not give him any reward for his efforts, unlike what he had promised. 'Did he fail his task?' Earl pondered. Not at all. He managed to convince Peter to push his friend, just like they had asked.

With that in mind, why wasn't he being rewarded for it? On top of that, after everything he had gone through, he had been beaten up by Erin. Soon after that, his friends had abandoned him, saying they no longer wanted to help him.

To them, it was too dangerous and they didn't want to get hurt by Erin as well. Then, later on, he was further punished by Vorden. He still couldn't sleep right after what Vorden had done to him.

Peter looked at the mark on his face. Usually, in a situation like this, his hands would be shaking. In the past, he had been so mentally broken that even Earl raising his hands would make him flinch…but not today. Something felt different.

After the scenes of Earl's neck being ripped out had appeared in his head, strange thoughts started to appear in his mind. 'What if I could make that a reality?' Peter thought.

Earl then proceeded to kick Peter in the stomach before grabbing him by the collar and throwing him onto the ground.

Peter was now in a space between two buildings, namely the second-year building and one of the storage rooms. It was a place that was quite dark, and unless someone purposely went around the back to find them, no one would find out.

"Well then. Isn't this a quiet little place for the two of us to carry on our usual business?" Earl asked with a smile.

Peter then stood up and responded with a smile, "Indeed, it is."

*****

After distracting the students who were standing by the side of the building, using the floating stones, they were able to gradually make their way towards the back of the second-year building without being seen.

When they arrived they didn't see anything. It was totally empty, nothing was there, even the set of windows they saw was too high for them to climb up to.

"Come on. Let's keep looking," Layla said. "There must be some way to get into the school."

They looked around, but unfortunately they didn't find anything…until Vorden spotted a little alleyway just between the second-year building and the storage room. "Maybe there's a pipe or something we can us to climb up to the windows."

"You have been watching way too many martial arts movies," Layla said.

Still, they decided to check it out now that they were here anyway. They had already come this far, and the least they could do is try everything before giving up. As they made their way to the space between the two buildings, they started to hear strange sounds. Certain cracking and gobbling noises were made, as if some type of wild dog was wolfing down its meal.

Finally, they turned the corner, only to see Peter there. However, he wasn't alone. His hands and mouth were covered in blood while a dead body wearing a student's uniform laid in front of him.

The student's body had parts of its limbs torn off, also some bones with little bits of flesh still attached could be seen, and they looked as if someone had hungrily ripped the meat right off the bone.

"Peter?" Layla said. "What have you done?"