The Black Swan Behind (Beauty of Fire)

Chapter 46: The Dark Harvest Day

Seeing Emma sitting uneasily beside him, made him feel disturbed. The truth was Roger just didn’t like seeing other people have a hard time. The feeling was already running in his blood. He was a caring man. Unfortunately, he was also a loser.

“Thanks, Roger.” Emma smiled gently. Even though Roger didn’t answer.

“You are a very good guy, Roger. Something good will come to you. Life is not that cruel in treating someone.” Emma continued.

Roger stared at her for a few seconds, then looked back down at her with a mocking smile, “You’d better say that to someone who doesn’t have the same fate as mine. Because that would only make me think that life is very unfair just to me.”

Hearing Roger’s answer made Emma’s chest throb. She knew what he was going through was tough to the extent that there were no more positive thoughts left in his head.

When the problems you face are unbearable, you will feel the world is acting unfairly only to you alone.

“You have no idea how strong you are, Roger. You are the strongest guy I have ever met in my entire life.” Emma said.

.....

Roger looked back at her, “Thanks for your insult. I’m flattered.” He smiled. This was what he deserves. Humiliated, even by compliments.

“It’s up to you what you want to think. But do you know what?” Asked Emma. Then, she took one of the blue pens from the two that Roger had at his tableside.

“The strongest person is the one who can still spread kindness to others, even though he always gets evil deed.”

Roger’s eyes widened as he stared at Emma who was already busy with her notebook. Then, he glanced at his one-left pen on his desk. During this time, Emma always lost her writing tools, especially pens. Because of that, without realizing it, Roger always had an extra pen on his desk in case Emma needed it.

‘Strong?’ He said in his heart.

***

Her mouth kept chewing. While the others were busy packing their things to go home, Emma was still in her white ballet gown. The girl sat on the wooden floor of the classroom while leaning against the mirror wall. In her hand, she held a bar of chocolate with a mixture of caramel, nuts, and dried fruit.

“You’re not going home, Emma?” Kathy walked over to her. She had finished taking a shower with her hair pulled back messily.

“I have some business to attend to. You can go without me.” Emma Answered.

Kathy nodded, “Okay. Don’t hang around outside for too long. It’s been really cold lately. My fingers feel like they’re going to freeze outside.”

“Don’t worry about me, Kathy. Do you have any more online meetings with your community?” Asked Emma.

“Yeah. I’ll learn a lot tonight. Haha..”

Emma smiled as nodding.

“Hey Emma,” Kathy immediately crouched down and brought her face closer to Emma’s before glancing around to make sure it was safe enough to talk, “You have to remember what I said this afternoon. Never tell anyone about what we saw in my room. I know you’re friends with Roger. But don’t get yourself into trouble by meddling in his matters. It’s very dangerous. I’m serious.” She whispered.

“I know, Kathy,” Emma answered lightly.

“Good! Then I’ll go now,” She said before hugging Emma once and getting to her feet with her big gym bag which seemed she never change.

Emma waved back Kathy’s hand with a warm smile. Once the girl had turned to face the door, Emma mumbled, “I’m sorry Kathy. But there are some things I can’t let happen.”

Once Emma’s chocolate was finished, she wiped her hands with a wet tissue then stood up. She glanced at the clock on his cell phone which showed the number of 4:10 p.m.

The campus is pretty deserted. Even in the bathroom, only Emma was left. Since it was winter, all the girls preferred to return to their warm homes as soon as possible.

But Emma had a plan today. After showering, Emma returned to ballet class to store all her belongings in a special locker for ballet class members. Then, she took a rather large black leather jacket which she took out of her tote bag with a swan print on it. She also didn’t forget to replace her high heels with male-style sneakers.

Then, Emma took out her expensive black helmet which she had secretly kept in the locker since yesterday. She tucked the jacket into the helmet cavity and walked cautiously out of the large and empty room.

Seeing the condition of the campus was very quiet, Emma immediately put on the black jacket and tied her hair in a rolled ponytail. Then, she walked quickly to the campus park.

A small building with white paint that looked like it would blend in with the snow that had covered most of the withered grass around it. Emma narrowed her eyes as she occasionally glanced around. It was completely deserted there with no one at all.

Emma walked around through the line of trees that grew behind the warehouse where the garden tools were stored. She stood behind a large tree that grew behind the warehouse. Steam billowed in front of her mouth as she breathed.

Even though she hadn’t done anything yet, Emma’s heart was already pounding hard. To be honest, she was very afraid of being caught and having her identity exposed. Surely, the entire campus would be in an uproar if news spread that she had attacked the delinquents.

‘Don’t back down, Emma. You’re already here.’ She said to strengthen herself.

Dimly, she could hear the sound of several guys chattering while laughing. Emma immediately corrected her standing position so that it was completely covered by the tree. Then she peeked.

She saw three men walking leisurely towards the warehouse. One of them had a face that Emma recognized. The face that Emma saw through the profile photo on the university student account. It was Carter Barewood.

Behind them, another cool looking man in a luxurious coat walked in.

“All right. Time to show off, Emma.” The girl put on her helmet and closed the dark black glass.

***

Emma’s words this morning sent chills down Roger’s body.

All this time, Roger hated the kindness of his heart that he could not control. It was even that kindness that made him a very weak loser now.

The sadness that the world presented to Roger during his life, made him learn one thing. It’s better to oppress than to be oppressed. Bad people have better lives than good people.

That ideology had been embedded in Roger’s heart. But unfortunately, even though he tried to be evil, he kept failing. Basically, God cursed him with a feeling of care so great that he could not resist.

And that trauma.. The trauma of the events that had ruined his life. The trauma that made him a true loser to this day. The trauma that always made his knees tremble and paralyzed all his muscles.

As usual, Roger would be in the toilet or the outskirts of the campus park during outside class hours. Only in those secluded places, he would feel safe. Now, the clock showed four in the afternoon.

Roger’s heart was beating wildly. He was very afraid. Because he knew the blackmail this time was no ordinary blackmail. For some reason, extortion these days was no longer carried out with the joking interlude by the delinquents. They looked like they were being pushed by something and so needed more money than usual.

Roger, who busied with the internet only as his daily activities at home, received information from a special group site of anonymous accounts. It said that today is the Dark Harvest Day.

So, The Dark Harvest Day was a new term whose name was coined by a big gang of gangsters. When The Dark Harvest Day came, the higher-ups of the gangster group would conduct a member performance review.

It said the members were divided into several groups to carry out extortion. And one boss would come along with a group to see if the member’s way of working was optimal or not.

With the Dark Harvest Day, of course, the extortion would be more severe than usual. If in the previous days, Roger could still save some of his money in pocket to survive for the next few days, but now he could no longer fool the delinquents. And what’s worse, from the information that was spread, they would also take the victim’s valuables.

The clock showed twenty to five in the afternoon. It was hard for Roger to leave the toilet cubicle he had been in for an hour and a half. He was very afraid. But if he didn’t go, he would die later. Only this time, Roger wanted to come late to somewhere.

Roger couldn’t believe that he was already standing in front of the garden tool warehouse. He heard a noise from inside. Terrible sounds that could make his knees shake violently.

“Roger!” The guy turned his head at a voice calling out to him from behind.

“You..”

The guy stepped stiffly with both hands squeezing the straps of his backpack, “You.. were also extorted?”

Roger nodded, “Yes ..” then looked down. It was Ferb Gardin. One of the losers on campus like himself. He was also a regular victim of bullying and extortion by thugs inside.

“I don’t feel well. I’m so scared.” Complained the guy with thick glasses. His white hands were turning red from the cold weather, “Come get in together.”

Roger nodded weakly.

“Oh! That’s them!” A man shouted, as soon as the wooden warehouse door opened and revealed two stupid losers from behind.

Inside, there were already two more losers who were kneeling on the floor with their hands held up high like an elementary school student being punished.

“Don’t you see what time it is?! You shits want to play with us?!”

Roger glanced at his watch, it was ten to five. The appointment was five o’clock. They were not late. Yes, it was the hoodlums who just looking for an excuse to bully the two losers more.

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