Chapter 67 - The Dare

Avan rubbed his forehead from the awful dare that his friends had asked him to do. They expect him to kiss a total stranger on the lips, ridiculous. They all stood at the rooftop waiting for him to make up his mind about the dare.

"Listen Avan, all you have to do is close your eyes. We will spin you around and have you point randomly at the ground and whoever your hand lands on, you have to approach them and kiss them," Javian said to him.

Lacie gave him a weak smile and a pat on the back to comfort him. He sighed and closed his eyes. He stretched his right hand and pointed at the ground. Lacie spins him around six times before pulling him to a stop.

"Now let's see who the lucky girl or guy is," she said and followed the line of Avan's hand and stopped. The other students too took a pick and froze, none of them could bring themselves to say who it was that his hand had landed on.

"Well?" he inquired opening his eyes. He glanced at Lacie with questioning eyes to find out from her the person he would have the unfortunate luck of kissing.

She looked at him with pity in her eyes and pointed her finger to the ground. Avan followed the train of her hand, his eyes widening with shock from seeing Ander. He seemed to be arguing with the invincible person whose company he preferred more than all else. It had been a week since school started and not once did he ever see him talk to anyone or try to make friends.

Most of the time that they were in their dorm he was always busy lost in his thoughts. They never talked much except for days that he would refuse to sleep on his bed and ask to share his bed. He braced himself unable to back away from the dare and walked out of the roof.

His friends watched carefully down from the roof not to miss a single moment of his dare.

He made his way to the ground and walked towards Ander. He was nervous about having to kiss him for many reasons. One being that Ander was a boy. Two, he was a person with a very unpredictable personality and they didn't get along well as the male was yet to forgive him for losing his bracelet. He was also afraid of what Ander would do to him if he dared to kiss him.

"Greeting my prince," he greeted drawing Ander's attention to himself.

"Did you come to give me my bracelet?" Ander asked him.

"No, I.."

"Then leave. I am not in the mood for company," he stated and went back to pacing up and down underneath the tree. Avan looked back to his friends on the roof, they all had their eyes on him. He knew that he couldn't back down, he had to kiss the prince of Arimelari.

"Can we talk?" he asked.

"I don't believe there is anything that you and I can discuss with each other. So please jus..."

Avan in one swift movement got close to the prince and pulled him by his hand into his embrace and licked his lips with his. He kissed him on the lips catching him off guard, the prince gasped in surprise giving him the chance he needed to deepen the kiss. He kissed the prince's lips roughly making him release a soft moan.

The prince found himself clutching Avan's shoulders to keep himself from falling. This move brought their bodies closer, Avan lifted him by his waist. The prince's mind became hazy, he was clouded with a flame that was new to him. The heat from Avan's body made him feel warmth in his abdomen.

Avan broke the kiss and they both panted for breath. The prince took deep breaths to get his breathing back to normal and to calm his racing heart.

"As wood, I command you to break," Ander muttered. Before Avan to grasp his words he screamed in pain when the bone in his leg broke into two pieces.

"An..ander, liste.." he tried to say but Ander was in no mood to listen to him.

"Ashes of hell burn like fire," he said and a flame appeared in the ground and started burning the ground heading for him. Ander kept chanting making the fire grow stronger and bigger. Avan's eyes widened with shock as fear hit him like ice-cold water. He tried to move to get away from hellfire which was known to burn everything in its path without mercy, it was also impossible to extinguish and could only be sent back to hell by the one who summons it. But he doubted Ander would be willing to do that by how angry he looked at him.

Avan's friends and other students saw the fire and ran into the school. His friends went to call the principal to go and rescue Avan from Ander. Avan's efforts to get away from the fire were in vain as his leg was broken hence he couldn't move. He fell to the ground each time he tried to stand up and the worse part was that the fire just kept getting bigger.

"Ander, please," he pleaded but the fire in Ander's eyes was out to kill him and not to spare him.

"Ander, what are you doing? Let him go," Malia pleaded with him as Mordecai had gone to the palace leaving her in charge of the school. Her words fell on deaf ears as Ander refused to listen to her.

"Ander, I'm sorry," Avan said to him but the make ignored him and just built the fire. The fire traveled fast and it soon reached Avan's position. The boy felt his body go numb from staring his death right in the face.

Francis who was in the dorm room felt strange. He felt as though someone very close to his heart was in danger, he got up from his bed and walked out of the room. He heard the whispers among the students about Ander and Avan and vanished into thin air before reappearing right next to Ander.

He saw his angry state and wondered if their fight was the reason he was so angry. He felt bad for arguing with him and endangering someone's life in the process. He glanced over at the fire and the boy who was about to be consumed by the fire, he saw a glowing mark behind his neck. The glow was small like it was being suppressed but he was still able to see it. If he didn't know any better he would say he just met his child with Silvia.

He went to Avan and possessed his body and stared at Ander in the eye. "Ander, stop," he said to him speaking in his voice, not Avan's. Ander's movements halted and he stopped chanting the spell for the hellfire. " Francis," he called out to him his heart best increasing. "Hel fire stop," he commanded and the fire stopped. He ordered it to return to hell and moved closer to Avan.

"Why do you always do this when you are angry?" he asked him.

"You have no idea what the boy has done to me Francis," he said in his defense.

"Are you sure he did anything worth you killing hi?. No, he didn't. You just have a problem valuing people's lives so for every small mistake you think death is the solution," he said his tone sounding disappointed.

"But he.."

"But nothing. You can't just go around trying to kill everyone in your path Ander. Look, I care for you and I really want to understand you but lately, you are starting to change in ways that scare me. Why?" he asked him.

"I haven't changed but maybe you don't understand me. I am trying to tell you what happened but you aren't listening. When you have the whole story figured out then why do you bother asking me anything," he said angrily.

"What I understand is that you tried to kill this boy and there is no reason that can justify that," Francis said feeling protective of his son. His sudden show of concern for the boy didn't escape Ander's eyes. He saw everything and folded his hands into a fist in anger.

He was the one who had been wronged when all he was doing was minding his business but he is the one being branded as the culprit for fighting back.

"Why do you care if I kill this boy or not. He is not important to you at all but I.." he started to say but stopped when Francis spoke.

"He is important to me. He means the world to me," Francis said thinking that the boy in question was his son who he never got to know because of what Ander did to him.

He felt like it was his duty to shield him from Ander but he had no idea why Ander's eyes were suddenly filled with tears. It pained him to see him stare at him with the hurt look as though he had wronged him.