Unmasked Misery (Ben Attack Squad) Closed

Brushing past Adam with a faint wince and a pat of her hand against his, before turning to smile weakly at Amadea, Eris looked a bit more calm and a bit more thoughtful. “To be honest, I’m not all that sure. I wanted to find other people who wanted to stand up to Ben, but I think..we might have to ask him questions first. This whole damn thing just gets more and more confusing, the more I think about it.”

While she might not have wanted to admit it, Adam’s words did hit somewhere beyond the shell of anger that had been Eris’s only defence for so long.

Truthfully, Eris almost felt guilty for wanting to rush straight into a battle with Ben. Adam’s words hit her hard, destroying the anger that had festered up, replaced by a freedom that only finally exploding and admitting the truth could provide to a tired, exhausted wreck of a small girl. Her thoughts felt less clustered, but everything still rushed through Eris’s head at a million miles per hour and her heart felt like a jackrabbit thumping in her chest. Yet, the clarity of being around other people made Eris feel calmer, in a sense. Having been alone for so much of the year, which had hardly just started, she found that thinking with a large group of people was soothing and helped reduce the pounding panic that Eris truly hadn’t realized was festering so deeply down inside of her.

The first year mentioned everyone being prefects, which lead to Eris noticing Kaegen in the corner. Giving him a faint frown and a wave, Eris couldn’t help but grimace at the pale withdrawn look on his face and couldn’t help but grimace even more when the first year’s words reminded her of the drama of last year, and Eris couldn’t help but bark out a laugh.

“Everyone’s a prefect but me. I got in a bit of a tussle with a girl last year, but it’s fine. I think I’d rather focus on quidditch--plus, it’s not like I did anything as a prefect. All my friends became prefect after I was one, or whatever. Don’t want the responsibility, it makes getting in trouble so much bloody worse.”


She frowned again, before sighing. “I don’t expect you lot to lose your prefect positions for this. I’m glad you all came here to listen or whatever, but you can go if you think you’ll get in too much trouble. I don’t want anyone else getting hurt or losing their positions, you see.”

Watching Kaegen move forward, Eris looked at Adam with a raised eyebrow and a silent plea to help deal with Keagan's strangeness. Turning back to Kaegen, Eris couldn’t help but study the pale lines of his face with a worried, hesitant look in her eyes. He was studying the first year, so Eris decided he was most likely busy with some kind of cootie thing with the first year.

Howie White spoke. Eris knew of him in passing from his relationship with Rosie Turner, and how it had sparked a lot of drama and giggling in the first year girls. Eris had heard too much about that from the first year hufflepuffs in her joint herbology class, who thought it was hopelessly romantic. And she had heard about it from Rosie Parker, who thought it was a crime that another Rosie had gotten a boyfriend before she did. At least, that was what Eris assumed Rosie was acting distant and glum about.

Crossing her arms again, Eris nodded along to Howie’s words. “So why don’t we start with finding Ben and asking him what happened? From there we can decide if he’s innocent or guilty, and if he’s innocent, we find whoever is really behind it.” Her lips pursed, but changed into a hesitant smile at the sight of an old friend.

“Puck?” Most of her friends from before Hogwarts had left Eris , but finding a friend who hadn’t left and turned evil like Amelia, aka Ami. Grinning at the memory of stealing a pocket watch together, even though it hadn’t been a good moment in Eris’s life. “Didn’t expect to see you around here, but you’re right.”

Turning to address the whole group, Eris’s smile dropped. “That’s the other thing, yeah. I don’t think Rosie knows what she’s doing, and I don’t think it’ll be a good idea to fight her. I made a promise not to hurt her last year, and I’d like to keep it. I think we can make her group realize the truth, but for now, just don’t get violent unless provoked. We’re better than Ben--or whoever was using him. Don’t go straight to violence, right? I don’t know, it’s up to you lot. Just trying to minimize the trouble all us might get into.”

Aurelia’s proposal made Eris’s eyebrows furrow. “Have you never read a comic book? Everytime someone wears a mask or something, it goes all wrong. Just think of the Redhood and er, Joker, yeah? It always goes wrong. Maybe something messed up Ben when he wore the mask. I don’t think we wanna try that. But it’s worth a look at, if you wanna go find it.”

“No, I don’t read comics.” Aurelia told Eris, shaking her head slightly. According to Professor Wright’s recent speech in the common room, she had mentioned that Ben was an innocent boy used as an object of evil. That was extremely vague, how could someone be used. She did quite understand, there was still a lot the Professors weren’t telling them.

When Eris asked her to look for the mask herself, Aurelia sighed. “I don’t know where he dropped it, Delilah didn’t say.” the name had just slipped out of her mouth, she had mentioned the ravenclaws name. She was after all, the person who Aurelia interviewed. Aurelia also didn’t want anything to do with the mask, if Professor Sorrel said it was an object of evil, Aurelia didn’t want to touch it even, in case it was under some sort of curse.

“What if we confront him and he turns out to be guilty, what are you going to do?” Aurelia asked but corrected herself.

“Or perhaps, what are we going to do? Professor Sorrel said that anyone who hurts him would be punished... I just remembered” She stated. It was truly interesting to know what Eris would do, she was short and didn’t seem to have much strength. Though she did give a Ravenclaw a bloody nose the previous year. It should have been just luck. If Eris was planning to attack Ben, it would definitely on gossips or even happenings if it actually happens.

“I’m glad you remember me Eris, I know it wasn’t the best memory but I did remember that I thought you were cool. It’s good to see you again, even if it’s not under the best circumstances.”

Elena thought for a second, “ If we don’t have a choice about violence, then nobody need ever know, clever people can make people disappear. There are clever people in this room. If we work together we should be able to save each other from whatever happens.”

“Ben’s mask? Bad idea, if it wasn’t him then that mask could be whatever took him over, or if he did it of his own volition it could be the way he communicated with some greater evil, and if it’s nothing then it’s just that, nothing. Either way, his mask is useless at best, and a destructively terrible idea at worst. I’d advice against it.” Elena pulled her switchblade from her pocket.

“Eris, take this. If you get in a sticky situation, and you’ve lost your wand, then there’s an artery here,” Elena gestured a line on her thigh, “slash it and he’s down. Probably dead, but he’s at least not trying to kill you.” She held it out.

"You can stay or go." That was what she had told him, and though he wavered in place as she left him behind, Adam had already made his decision. He had come here to convince her that she was making the wrong move, that she was starting a battle that she had no hope of ending, but others had gotten to her first. No hope of peace would take hold if the Gryffindor was surrounded by people like Elena Jones and Kaegen Deathmote. It was a brand new lynch mob for a brand new year, minus the invisible threat of Kaegen's "death witch". There was someone in real danger this time, with a real pursuit in play. He could hardly stand to be a witness to it.

Adam left quietly, without a goodbye speech on morals and rules or one last desperate attempt to halt the rampage. The room was crowded with people now, many of whom (unbeknownst to Adam) had come for the same purpose as he had. From the boy's twisted point of view, they were all on the hunt, insatiable until they got the bloodshed they had come for. Many of the faces he saw disappointed him, none more so than that of Amadea Campbell, a girl who he had thought was above all of this. How could this have happened so quickly on such a great scale? It was almost admirable, if not for the intention of the group itself.

Yes, as the brave huntress Fawley addressed her troops, Adam looked back one more time, counting the faces and matching as many as he could to names. Eris's battalion of students would inevitably clash with Rosie's before long, and if Adam was to do his job as prefect, then he'd have to remember just who had been involved. Many of the students deserved no blame, but yet here they were, and blame they would receive. That was just the way the school worked.

The best he could do, Adam realized, was give them a little head start. The angry atmosphere surrounding the "club" and the reason behind its initial formation had to break at least one of Hogwarts's rules, and he was sure that he could find it before they had gotten away with anything. Eris was Adam's best friend, though, no matter how much he disagreed with her, and you couldn't get your best friend in trouble. That was just something you couldn't do. So, as an act of -- not mercy, mercy sounded too high and mighty, what was another word -- final goodwill, he wouldn't take any action on what he had seen and what he expected the rest of the meeting would touch upon. He'd ignore the open threats scrawled on Eris's signs; the professors were likely already aware of those. He'd ignore the bad feeling that swelled in his chest whenever he looked at Kaegen, a boy who had already proved he had no qualms about hurting a classmate. He could even ignore the knife that Elena produced and held out to Eris, though he knew with absolute confidence that that was illegal here, not to mention the demonstration she was giving on how to use it. In the end, Adam could turn a blind eye to everything.

There was only so long he could pretend to be unaware, though. Letting the door to the study room close behind him, Adam could only imagine how the meeting would progress, and the pit in his stomach seemed to deepen into a ravine at the possibilities. He'd let his friend's strike team do whatever they wanted to for as long as possible. As soon as they hurt someone, it was all over. He wouldn't let them do to Ben what Ben had accidentally done to them. The battle lines were drawn.

Adam prayed he was on the right side.

Delilah knew about the mask? A smarter girl would have made note of that, but Eris’s heart was thundering in her chest. Loudly enough that she could hardly focus on the moment on hand. Adam, Adam, oh god what had she done to Adam? Eris Fawley was a girl of unwavering loyalty and turning away from Adam made her feel guilty, especially after he had taken her in over the holidays and had came to her home, with no reason even to do so. Hands starting to shake at her sides, which was a long forgotten habit Eris hadn’t picked up since the first few meetings with her friends early last year.

Was she one for vengeance? Eris had never thought it over, but her stubbornness had lead to this terrifying moment in front of her. The two paths to take were murky and faded with fog, but the subconscious of Eris’s mind knew the right thing to do would be to stop this plan. The people in front of her did not understand, and Eris had been worried to not have friends, but there was Adam. Adam trying to stop her, Adam trying to plead with her.

Her friend through so many struggles. Was she willing to fight with him just over a- oh god. Kaegen was here. How must Adam feel? The boy who attacked Adam last year, he was here and looked insane. Slowly, etching backwards into the wall, the words of Aurelia came through her head.

“I’ll...I’ll get him out of the school and make sure he gets the punishment he deserves.” Eris blinked, as Adam left and the twin pathways of choices became even less blurry. She couldn’t fight Ben with these people. Not with Kaegen, who was insane and willing to KILL people. Not with Aurelia, who spread gossip and rumors like a fly. Especially not with Elena, whose very existence was reminding Eris of a pained existence, easily forgotten but far harder to admit to.

Folding her arms across her chest, wand sticking out of the right pocket at a tilt, Eris watched Elena step forward with a knife in her hand. Sharply, Eris took another step back, staring at the knife with distaste. When she turned to see Adam’s blonde hair leaving the room, the child realized that she was in over her head for real.

A knife was for bad guys. Bad guys stabbed people and Eris didn’t want to be a bad guy. No, a superhero wouldn’t have gone to a group full of people who wanted to stab people and kill them! She just wanted to talk to Ben, and maybe she would have to do it alone. These people seemed too bloodthirsty, and Adam was gone. If Adam left, that was never a good sign.

Shoving the knife away, Eris felt a bit breathless, her nativity conflicting with the conversation she could hardly understand. “No thank you, I don’t want to kill him. I think I’m going to go find him, and uh ask him what’s up. I will tell you all when I find out what he really is.”

With that, she hurried out of the room.

Eris Fawley has left the thread.

And just like that, the anger was gone. He wasn’t stupid, he knew what she had just done. What was he, anyway. He was her friend. He had promised. But as the boy watched his friend walk hurriedly away from him, all he really wanted to do was cry. There had been nothing in the girl’s gaze when she looked at him, nothing he wanted to see. Where was the joy, where was the relief when she realized he was there for her, again. It was like she had looked on a stranger and then left without saying a word to him.

A boy raised in the fens, a boy removed from civilization and morality. A boy who had managed to make a friend, and lose her. And somehow get her back. A boy who treasured that friendship more than his own life. And now he didn’t see any of it. He had done something wrong, messed something up. It had been obvious, whatever it had been. If it hadn’t, she would have told him, she would have let him know what he had done wrong unless she thought he knew.

He was twelve, and far too tired. He would have craved a mother but he didn’t know what one of those felt like. So he craved Eris, Eris and her hugs and her warmth and her calm assurances. Eris who he spent hours training for, just so that he could be her equal. He knew he would never be better than someone like her but was equal too much to ask for? Apparently so. She had followed appy out.

His mind travelled back to that day, last year. She had chosen him there, too. But what he didn’t know was why. After all, hadn’t he been there for her? He had been willing to happily kill her enemies, and appy had just made her sad and walked away. How was that fair, how was that justified?

He knew he lost, he knew Eris was mad at him. And he knew there was nothing he could do about it. As he followed the girl out of the room by force of habit, and started to follow her down the halls he stopped. It was pointless. Feeling a tear begin to fall, he slowly turned, and walked away in the opposite direction. He was going to find a corner to cry, and then try to gather his strength tomorrow. He wasn’t going to give up on his friend, even if she didn’t know who he was.

And he was certainly still going to try and kill the boy with the mask. He didn’t know what the mask looked like, but he assumed it had to be obvious. He’d know it when he saw it.

Kaegen has left the thread