With one wave of his hand to the ground, Kai extinguished the fire and all that was left between us is the ever-growing dark. 

                We both not dared to move from our spot. We held each other’s gaze like we’re scared of what the other might do. Funny, I should be the only one feeling that. I can’t even touch a single strand of his hair without him possibly burning me.

                “How long have you been watching?” Kai was the first to speak. He was eyeing me warily, like any second now, I might go running to the headmaster’s office.

                Without breaking eye contact, I answered in a quiet voice, “A while.”

                A gush of wind suddenly blew inside and I knew then that Kai had finally let go of his control of the wind in the clearing. Instinctively, I put my arms around my body as if it’ll be able to protect me. Not a minute had passed and my uncontrolled shivering betrayed me. Seeing all these, Kai removed his jacket which I’ve only noticed now and took a step forward. I was quite sure his intentions were good but I can’t help but to step back.

                “I won’t hurt you,” he said as he watched my face carefully as if he’d be able to read my thoughts if he does so.

                “How can I be sure of that?” I asked. I wasn’t challenging him, I just want to assure myself that he’s still the Kai I know even if he lied.

                “Because if I do…” Kai said slowly like he’s weighing his words well. “It will end everything.”

                As always, I didn’t understand what he meant, and at that moment, I couldn’t have possibly gotten anything out of him more because a white light suddenly appeared on the ground a meter away from my left foot. Footsteps cracking dried leaves were getting clearer and I just know that we’re definitely going to get busted. But then, Kai was suddenly beside me and he pulled me immediately away by the wrist. I was so shocked that I made a high-pitched sound from my throat which luckily was not let out completely due to Kai’s quick reflexes of putting his hand over my mouth. He led me to a small spot behind the trees and immediately made a boulder of rock appear in front of us, hiding us from complete view.

                Kai still had his hand over my mouth as he peek at a small hole in the boulder. I was also able to peek from the side. My suspicions were right, it was the guard, doing rounds for patrol. He must have heard noises from here. He was slowly encircling the area, and I held my breath hard as he stopped in front of our boulder. For one scary second, I thought he’d look around and find us, but then, the guard removed his hand on the boulder and stepped out of the clearing. Beside me, I felt Kai loosen his stiff position. I was so relieved myself, but then a black blur came past from behind Kai. Kai must have felt it too because he turned around on the grass and watched out for further movements. There was none, but both of us were sure that there’s something or someone who’s been watching us. I, for one, am sure that it was the same person I’ve seen on the veranda.

                Suddenly, it made me think that the silhouette from before actually led me to find Kai. It wants him to be discovered. It wants us to be in danger. It seemed real and probable. After all, Kai and I weren’t making too much of a noise for the guard to actually enter the clearing.

                Why?

                What does it want?

                “You should go back now,” Kai suddenly spoke, still looking around.

                “You saw it, haven’t you?” I asked him. “That black blur.”

                Kai turned to look at me and I continued.

                “It was standing on my veranda about an hour ago. And it jumped. That’s why I came looking here.”

                For a while, he seemed to process my words and I was sure that he came up with a conclusion. But then, as elusive as his personality is, he fixed the look on his eyes like it’s nothing of concern. He put his jacket around me an