SALEM: The sequel Finished

Kaegen had been doing what he'd been doing based on what he thought would help his friends. He stood up and tried to scare or beat up that slytherin boy to protect his house. He had done it because it was the right thing to do. Someone had to stand up, take initiative.
After he had been cut, he had recognized what had happened, recognized the impossibility of a first year using that spell on him, come to the conclusion there was a threat in the school, and decided that he had to deal with it, no matter the cost.
Kaegen himself could have survived with the evil, he could have hidden, or escaped. He could have gone to live in the forbidden forest, but no. He put his own interests second and went on a hunt. A hunt to save this whole school, and everyone in it.
And this is what happens. This is what happens if you try and help.
You get tackled from behind by that one kid you know from somewhere.
And then people start going berserk, yelling about things! He could hear his name being shouted, someone grabbing him and pushing him back, someone screaming at him to calm down, someone screaming at the person screaming at him to calm down. He was starting to panic. Wild instincts that never should have been in the human body clawing for control over his mind. He was terrified, shocked, full of adrenaline and hurt. He was a wounded animal, surrounded by the one thing he could never hope to understand. His fellow students.
And then the boy came, staggered up. Said excuse me to the girl, and that's when Kaegen knew it was coming. He had seen enough fights in the wild. This was payback. And it was going to hurt, but there were too many people around him, too little room to dodge, he didn't have the strength to dodge. He was still bleeding, he wasn't feeling all too good and then the punch connected. It was a pretty good punch. Nothing especially powerful but it made a few spots flicker in front of Kaegens vision. It made him bite his tongue. The headache made it hard to think clearly, and now he was tasting blood, his blood.
No one could take all this. The instincts took over, and Kaegen was terrified. It showed on his eyes, if not his face. Deep hurt and terror. With superhuman effort, he ripped himself out of his robe and out from underneath the other students. He couldn't even tell who they were any more. The coppery taste of his own blood had coupled with the adrenaline, headache, wound and fear. He didn't think about it, his head was hurting, and his body was screaming that it was in mortal danger.
Kaegen would get out of this, and he would survive. He would survive and he would try his hardest to not ever come back. The thought flashed through his mind, he could fire off a rock at the enemy, kill him if he pulled back hard enough. But if he did that he couldn't run very fast, he would have to focus on pulling the rubber far enough to get a killing strike. Scrapping that idea, Kaegen rejoiced silently in the freedom that came with having your robe off. There was not even a sliver of a hope of any of them catching up and pulling that stupid stunt again.
Kaegen took off down the halls, now trying to escape everyone. Not caring if he headed towards the library or away from it. As long as he could find somewhere that was safe. Turning briefly, he fired off a rock at that boy. It wasn't especially hard, just hard enough to give a nasty bruise were it to hit. And Kaegen was pretty certain that it was going to hit. He had spent enough time hunting to know how to aim quickly.
Next to that boy were people, but Kaegen's mind was too panicked, too terrified. It registered them only as dark forms, terrifying things that would kill him if they got the chance. Looking down the corridors, Kaegen took off in a dead sprint, seeming to shoot along the floors, not making a sound as he went.

Hope you don't mind that I joined but Eri was leaving the Library and headed to the common room and accidently bumped into all of you. You can tell me to leave and I can delete the post.
Eri heard Kaegen running and she ducked behind the door of the Library as she heard him run by. Once he passed by she came out from behind the door and stood up with her back towards everyone. When she turned around her face turned red in embarrassment. Why did this have to happen. I just want to get somewhere I can be alone. She thought. She mentally cursed. She would have to walk past them to get to the common room.

She kept her gaze down and at the floor. She kept to the opposite side of the corridor and walked quickly by them hoping Adam or clary would not speak to her. She just wanted to get by as fast as she could. 

She frowned and wanted to draw no attention to herself. She kept her steps silent and hoped nobody would notice her walking by them.

She was directly at the group and she held her breath as she attempted to walk by them.

More was happening around her than she thought necessary. The boys were pulled apart, but an arguement and a solid face punch later and Kaegen was darting off again, still bleeding and probably in worse shape than he was originally. Krez could only wonder what was going on in his head that made him behave so strangely, but she didn't have a lot of time to think any deeper about it. Turning to Eris and the new girl, Krez gestured in the direction Kaegen ended up going in kind of a way to get their attention back on the main goal.

"Go!" Was all she was really able to say before grabbing the other Ravenclaw boy's arm harshly, with full intention on heading to the hospital wing. He was hurt, Kaegen was hurt, they were all going to get hurt at this rate. Nobody bothered to go grab a nurse to help, so Krez took it upon herself to do the honors since apparently no one else knew how. She figured might as well kill two birds with one stone by dragging the other kid along, even if she was internally surpressing the urge to beat him into the hall floors. She already had her experience with that, and knew Eris as a prefect would probably have to get her in trouble for doing so.

Eris felt rage building up in her head as she stared at the rude ravenclaw girl, forgetting she was a prefect. All the red-head wanted to do was sock the girl in the jaw. She really had no right to act like she knew what was going on. But Eris was a prefect after-all, and there were more pressing matters at hand than some girl. "Eri Windstone is a little b-" she opened her mouth to finish the sentence than heard a sickening sound. Abandoning any pretense of conversation, Eris turned to see Adam standing there, having punched Kaegen in the face.

She would of yelled or screamed in any other situation, but this was Adam and Kaegen. And Adam didn't look all that okay. He was muttering something, and Eris couldn't tell. She then looked at Kaegen, flinching back at the expression in his eyes. Feeling all her anger drain, Eris looked close to tears as she took a step closer to her two ravenclaw friends, only to see Kaegen bolt off.

Someone was talking, and Krez was grabbing Adam, but Eris wasn't able to process anything other than the fact her two best friends were both extremely hurt. Krez said something about going after Kaegen, but Eris took another step closer to Adam. "Adam, oh my god, are you okay?" Eris blinked back tears, staring at her friend, than frantically at Kaegen's retreating back.

"I have to go get Kaegen, but I'll be right back. Please be okay Adam. " She looked once more at her friend, terror clouding her vision before finally heeding Krez's words.

Eris took off after Kaegen, only to skid to a halt in front of Eri Windstone. Remembering what the blonde ravenclaw girl had said about Eri starting this whole thing, Eris stared at Eri with her rage bubbling over. Without thinking about the possible repercussions, Eris swung her fist into Eri's face as hard as she could. "That's for Kaegen and Adam." She spat, before pushing past Eri and continuing her chase after Kaegen.

Eri saw the red head coming towards her and didn't flinch when she punched her in the face. She held her now bleeding nose and mouth, She muttered quietly hoping nobody heard her. "I -I deserved that." She walked by quicker covering her now bruised and bleeding face. Tears started to fall off of her cheeks and some mixed with her blood on her face. All she wanted to was go home and forget everything that happened. 

She didn't care that she just got punched. She thought she deserved a lot more than just a punch to the face. Her brain told her to go to the hospital wing but her mind told her to avoid that place in fear of something worse from Eris. She whispered to herself "I didn't mean to hurt kaegen." She wished she never even went to the great hall that day. Maybe she could go somewhere and hide. 

She ran past the rest of the group and ditched her plans on going to the common room. She justed wanted to find a place that was deserted with nobody else there. 

She turned a corner and ran off towards the grounds where she would spend the night and hide from everyone.

 That day hadn't quite gone as Matilda had planned. She was supposed to sort through Professor Yornikavich.. Professor Yonkovoch? Something like that. She was going through his homework earlier and marking it, and somehow she had gotten distracted, and now she was wandering the halls of Hogwarts. Not many students were aware of who Matilda was, but she was more than alright with that. As long as they weren't in her classes, she didn't need to bother with them. That is, until she gets curious about something. 

 Matilda had never been one to support misconduct, even though she had plenty of it in her past herself. She had almost blown a fuse when she had seen a student, a prefect, hit another student. The girl who got hit seemed to be calm about the situation, despite her appearance. Well, really, she was bloody and crying, it was not a good mix. She should wash her face off in the Girls' Lavatory or something, but before the Divination professor gathered herself together well enough to say something about it, the girl ran off. 

 "Miss Eclan," The brunette woman phrased, narrowing her eyes slightly at the redheaded girl in fron of her, "Just what, exactly is going on?" 

 To say she was angry was more of an overstatement. She was disappointed in the Gryffindor prefect to represent such conduct in such a public place. Had she not been thinking? The heaviness of Matilda's French accent thickened when she was angry, and she wouldn't be surprised if she came off as kind of.. intimidating? That wasn't her goal, being a typical Papillonlisse girl herself, but if the time called for it, so be it. This was unacceptable in every aspect, and she wouldn't have any of it.

Adam glared at the scarfed girl dragging him down the hallway. He was a bit tired of being ordered around by girls over a foot shorter than him. Especially this hostile Gryffindor -- he could tell she didn't like him much, and lucky for her, the feeling was mutual. Glaring at her as she pulled him along, he wondered why she cared so much about what was going on. Was she friends with Eris or Kaegen? He hadn't thought so. He supposed he didn't know all of their friends, but given that he had never even heard of this girl before, he didn't think it was likely.

"I can walk by myself, thanks," he snapped as he pulled away from her grasp. He kept up a steady pace forward, but not too quickly to get away from his "helper" in case she thought he was preparing to run away. "I'm completely fine, you know. You're wasting your time. What we really need to be doing is helping Er--" He stumbled a step, head burning, feeling for all the world like he might vomit. The sensation cleared in a minute, but it left Adam reeling and probably didn't help his case at all. "Okay, so that was really bad timing. Maybe I do need to get to the hospital wing. But I don't need an escort." Stopping, he turned and looked down at the new girl. Why did she wear that scarf around her face? Was she cold? Was she hideously disfigured? That's not important right now, Adam, he reminded himself, and crossed his arms, getting back to the matter at hand.

"Look, I'm not sure if you're friends with Eris or Kaegen or what, but I know you don't like me. Wouldn't you rather go help out someone you know, someone you like, than bring some random, rude Ravenclaw guy to the hospital? I know I would. This must be incredibly boring for you, not to mention humiliating. I can do this by myself. You don't care what happens to me. It's the perfect combination. So just let me take care of things my own way, and you go help out both of our friends, yeah?" Stalking away, Adam hoped she wasn't following. He was right, and he knew it, and she should know it. There was a clear right answer here.

Reaching the doors to the hospital wing, Adam didn't look back to check if the Gryffindor girl was behind him. He slipped inside, looking around the comfortable recovery room, and laughed internally when the nurses caught sight of him. He must have looked near-death; hands covered with Kaegen's blood, welts forming on his face, a bruised hand, and a missing robe. "I'm going to need some help..."

Eris felt a vindictive rush of pleasure after hitting the wicked ravenclaw girl in the face. It wasn't as dangerous as casting a spell that would almost kill somebody, but it was payback all the same. Eris stopped running, unable to keep up with Kaegen. She kept following the trail of blood, only to stop in front of Professor Barrows. Oh god. She was royally screwed. The pleasure of hitting a bully in the face faded, as Eris stared up at the professor and listened to the Professor's barely concealed rage.

Eris looked the professor in the eyes, straining her neck to look up. "That girl, Eri Windstone, cast diffindo on my friend Kaegen and he's bleeding out," She gestured at the trail of bloody footsteps and splatters of blood going in the opposite direction. Eris's eyes welled up with tears, as she no longer looked as fierce as she had when socking Eri in the face. "He's going to die Professor, and it's her fault!" She pointed again, at where Eri had stood seconds ago, before bursting into fresh tears.

She was going to get expelled, and Kaegen was going to die. And Adam was going to die too. The red-hot anger from seconds before fell away, and the little-red head could do nothing as an onslaught of tears fell from the 11 year old girl's eyes. The worse part was that she didn't feel bad for hitting Eri in the face. She was just worried about her friends being hurt, or losing her position as a prefect of the school. She hadn't even thought about the repercussions of hitting Eri, but this seemed drastic. Why had a professor found them? It wasn't fair that Eri was going to get away with hurting Kaegen, and that Eris was going to get expelled! Panicked, the red-head looked away from the professor, not wanting to see the woman's disappointment.

Thunderous footsteps. Racing down the halls and through corridors Anatole had never explored. Blood running down on the people like it was an eerie bodysuit, the crimson hugging their every feature. Screaming, shouting, ripping people away.

Anatole just stood there, his eyes wide with a mix of fear and excitement. The spectacle was like nothing he had ever seen before so far at Hogwarts, students and gore combining into a strange mashup that he clearly didn't like. At the head of it all was a figure Anatole couldn't pick out at first. He was too shocked to think, too shocked to say a word at the moment. However, he let his small mind focus, trying to pick out, seeing if it was one of those guys. The type of guy to purposely make drama.

As he was thinking, another figure whizzed by, this one wearing a blue cloak. Anatole recognized the faces, but could not conjure up the names. They were two people he had negative connotations connected with them in his mind. Two of “those guys”. As he thought harder, the names hit him:

Adam and Kae.

Without considering the consequences, Anatole ran after them, sweat gracing his brow like glaze on top of a donut. He followed the figures on foot for a while, his lips sealed, unable to say a word due to the fear. If he said something, he might have had the same feeling of when Claryssa hit him with a snowball, but with a fist, or worse. God, this was stupid.

Then, he realized the man in the front, Kae, had lost his cloak. It was frightening, his face twisted in agony, anxiety, and rage. Anatole choked back a scream. He had never imagined such a sight at a quiet, secluded school for wizards. It seemed too out of hand...too out of the ordinary.

Idiotically, his mouth finally let loose, screaming one word he might just regret.

”KAE!”

Either the boy didn't hear him or didn't care. Thankfully.

The two boys were ripped apart by a noble Gryffindor girl he tipped his imaginary hat at. She did the right thing, and he saluted her.

The crack of a whip sounded behind him, and Anatole flinched, falling to the ground, almost trembling. Maybe it was a professor, here to discipline all the disorderly students. Quite possibly, it could have been an actual whip sound, a belt trying to lash out at him for something he had never done, but as Anatole looked back, he saw a rage-fueled slap between two girls, one's face red and close to being as miserable as Kae's was. That was what he was afraid of.

As Anatole scrambled to his feet, he heard an accent he had never heard before, and a face he had never witnessed. Certainly, she was older than all of the students, a Professor perhaps. A brunette, angry woman. Here to bring justice and dignity upon this situation, or so he hoped.

With a gulp, Anatole looked ahead. He had lost Kae, and Adam, and everyone but the three females here.

Flabbergasted, Anatole ran away.

Farther down the corridors, at a fork, the blood simply stopped. No more clear trail to follow, no more signs leading to the terrified, injured ravenclaw boy.
There was blood spray in both directions, probably some kind of ruse Kaegen pulled to throw off his followers. There was no need, however. Most of them were off doing something else, Kaegen gone from their minds. He had stopped at the fork, taking the time to do a passable job at bandaging the wound as he ran. The wrapping fulfilled their purpose. They soaked up the blood, instead of letting it fall to the floor. Scraping as much of the blood as possible out of his boots, he flung it in both directions, to mislead the terrifying forms that he thought were right behind him. Putting the boots back on, he wiped them off, and flared the edges out to catch whatever blood managed to drip down. Then he vanished off into the vast labyrinth that was Hogwarts. He would find somewhere, and hide. Survive. He came to this accuses place to learn how to survive. If his life was in danger here, too, he would leave. He could leave. He would find a way to sneak out to the forest, he would live there until he either recovered or died.
If he recovered, he would find a ship, go to america, that land grandfather talked about. There was another magical school there, he could try again. But this time without friends, this time without his stupid plans. What was he even thinking? Why had he tried to defend his table? It wouldn't matter. None of this would matter.
Kaegen's thoughts gradually grew less coherent. His muscle memory more than anything keeping his breathing soft, his motions quiet. He hadn't left a trail behind him. Good.
His mind started to shut off, instinct and determination scraping what little strength he had left to try and make it to a hiding place. It probably didn't take very long, but it felt like hours. Eventually, he found a place, curled up in a ball, and fell asleep. His mind full of fear and worries for what the future held in store.