Isla was stuck in detention and Abel was waiting outside of the school for his mother. He was sitting on a bench next to the same walkway, he was lost in thought as his mother approached him.

  “Hey, Abel.”

  He jolted as he heard his mother’s voice. He looked up towards her, although not being able to see her, he did it as a sign of respect. He got up from the bench. Abel was a 5’6 (168 cm) boy, with slightly tanned skin and faded blue hair, the blue getting a tad stronger near the ends of the strands of hair. Mary put her hand up to his hair, roughing it up some. He stood there, not saying anything. The silence worried Mary deeply.

  “Abel, what’s wrong?”

  “Uhm, some kids beat me up at school…”

  “THEY WHAT?”

  Mary asked with great concern, quickly examining Abel’s face to see if any injuries were there. She lifted up his shirt, but none were there either. Her eyebrows furrowed in anger.

  “Who beat you up?

  “Some kids named Friedrich and John.”

  “Those little shits…”

  “Apparently they’re some noble rich kids who fund the town and the school. I got suspended for three days because I defended myself.”

  She gritted her teeth, almost grinding them. Grabbing Abel’s hand and his backpack, she stormed off to the front office.

  She entered the front office and slammed her hand on the desk. Both of the staff members sitting at the desk jumped at it.

  “Where’s the principal?”

  She asked calmly, but very sternly.

  “Uh, he’s in th-there?”

  One of the staff members said, pointing at the same room that Abel got suspended in. She stormed into there, busting the door open.

  “Why did you suspend my son for defending himself!?”

  Mr. Santos looked up from a drawing he was making.

  “Well, your son viciously attacked two of our top students after they accidentally tripped him.”

  “That’s bullshit, and you know it.”

  “Well, he signed a form that said he’d take full responsibility for the incident.”

  She sighed, and turned to Abel.

  “Abel, is this true?”

  “I’m sorry, they said that they’d punish me worse if I didn’t sign it, I didn’t know what to do, I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay, it’s not your fault.”

  She looked back towards the principal, her face more calm. She locked eyes with him, staring at him. His face displayed confusion as she stared at him. Her eyes were harrowing, feeling like they were barging into his soul and lighting it aflame. All his bad deeds, he was wondering why this was the one where he was being punished. He’s done worse things in the past. He started sweating, trying to break eye contact, but he couldn’t. He bit his lip, starting to shake.

  “OKAY, OKAY! JUST STOP!”

  He closed his eyes and put his hands up defensively.

  “I’ll remove your son’s suspension, just go!”

  She smiled with joy at him.

  “Thank you very much!”

  She said gleefully as she took Abel’s hand and left the building. Mr. Santos was shaking, he was freaked out by that woman. Why was she staring at him like that? How was she able to do that? She wasn’t able to use any magic, they researched her before they let her son go into the school. He shivered and tried to erase her stare from his mind.

  After they left the building, Mary gave Abel his backpack back. As they headed home, she held Abel’s hand. Her hand was somewhat rough, from all the work she does during the day to make money for them. She made things out of cloth, it was usually rough and unrefined, she used tools and the like to smooth it out and make it softer, causing her hands to roughen.

  As they walked down the road, Friedrich and John were talking, John leaning on a wall and Friedrich yapping to John about some unknown topic. Abel heard them, and tried to ignore them, but Friedrich and John noticed them. They approached Abel and Mary, Friedrich smirking and John just staring as they got closer. “Looks like you got your mommy with you, huh, Abel?” Friedrich said to Abel. Abel sighed, “What do you want?”

  “Well, we were just seeing how our buddy was after his little accident.”

  “What was this ‘little accident,’ Abel?”

  Mary pulled Abel closer to her. She assumed these were the people who attacked Abel.

  “These were the guys that beat me up.”

  Mary let out a tsk. “Leave us alone, please.”

  Friedrich laughed at her. “Why would we leave you alone? I mean, Abel was easy-pickings at his school, what’s so different with his mother?”

  John jabbed Friedrich in the side and whispered something into his ear. They were whispering to each other for a while and Mary looked at Abel in confusion.

  “What are they talking about?”

  “I dunno.”

  John and Friedrich turned back to look at them. They both put their fingers in the air and started drawing sigils with their magic. Mary’s eyes widened and she picked up Abel and started running. Abel yelped loudly.

  “WHEN DID YOU GET SO STRONG?!”

  After they finished the sigils, they said unintelligible words and casted two massive flames, which shot at Abel and Mary. Mary jumped to the ground, causing Abel to fall as well. Flames flew over them and hit a house, leaving the wall charred.

  “This feels very illegal!” Mary shouted at them.

  Friedrich laughed and John put his hand on the ground, causing the cobblestone to shift beneath them and for the stone to capture Abel and Mary. The stone surrounded them, making them unable to move.

  “Seems like we’ve got you captured!”

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  Friedrich chuckled to himself. John just looked at them with disappointment.

  “Thankfully since we’re not in school anymore we can do all we want.”

  Friedrich said as they approached Abel and Mary. John followed closely behind him. Abel squirmed in his entrapment while Mary stood still. Abel could hear his brain pounding in his head. He started sweating, holding his breath. Friedrich approached Mary, grabbing her face. She winced.

  “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Abel shouted, hearing his mother shift uncomfortably.

  “Just checking out the merchandise.”

  Mary spat on his face. “Get your filthy hands off of me, you child.”

  He wiped the spit off of his face and he showed a look of disgust. He slapped Mary across the face, causing Abel to react again.

  “YOU BASTARDS! GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY MOTHER!”

  He struggled against the stone around him, causing it to crack slightly. Friedrich laughed at him.

  “What are you gonna do about it? Cry some more?”

  Abel grunted loudly, “I’ll kill you!”

  “Abel! Calm down!”

  “I can’t let them do that to you!”

  “It doesn’t matter Abel, they’re children of nobles, you’ll only get in more trouble.”

  Friedrich laughed at them, and John continued to watch the scuffle. Abel grunted more, the stone around him chipping as he squirmed around. John’s eyes widened at the realization, and tried to reinforce the stone, but Abel slipped out of it, the damage enough for him to do so, leaving no time for John to reconstruct it. Mary saw Abel escape, and prepared to attack Friedrich.

  “ABEL, NO!”

  But it was too late. Abel was already going for a swing at Friedrich, and punched him in the jaw. A large crack could be heard, and Friedrich suddenly on the ground, grabbing his loose jaw in pain. Abel glared at John. Even though Abel’s eyes were empty, and he knew he couldn’t see him, it sent a chill down his spine. John quickly encased Friedrich in stone to prevent him from being injured more. Abel swung at him, he quickly dodged it, avoiding the onslaught of his attempts at hitting him.

  Mary watched in horror as she saw her son try to beat him up, worried about the consequences he’ll have.

  “Abel, stop!”

  Abel’s fury faltered, distracted by his mother. He was hit by John on the ear, falling to the floor. He hit his head on the ground, and his ears started ringing. He clutched his head and started screaming in pain. John removed the stone from around Friedrich, who was crying on the ground, his face showing rage. He got up and went to kick Abel, but John grabbed his shoulder.

  “He’s already down dude, don’t push it.”

  “I don’t care!” Friedrich’s voice was barely intelligible as he spoke.

  “I said don’t push it.” John’s voice was calm, but rigid.

  “Whatever, you’ve alwaysh been sho shoft.” Friedrich’s adrenaline faded away and he clutched his jaw again, groaning in pain.

  “Let’s just get you to a hospital, bro.”

  John put Friedrich around his shoulder and scurried away with him. Abel was still groaning on the ground, his ears ringing.

  “Abel, are you okay?”

  His mother spoke, but he could barely hear her. She struggled to get out of the stone, trying to get to her child. The magic creating the stone must have been released, so she broke out of it in seconds. She went on her knees and tried pulling away his hand from his ear so she could look at it.

  “Abel, please stop squirming…”

  Her eyes were tearing up, and she was worried about him. He realized who was holding him, and he let her take his hand away. She looked in his ear, and saw a stone embedded into his inner ear. She gasped in shock, and hugged him before picking him up. She put his arm over her shoulder, helping him stand. She rushed him to a hospital.

  They eventually reached it, and Mary ran up to the front desk with Abel over her shoulder.

  “My son got a stone torn into his ear, and it might have damaged his eardrum!”

  The worker looked up from their desk, chewing gum nonchalantly. They pulled out a piece of paper and a pen.

  “Fill out this form, please.”

  Mary quickly picked up the pen and wrote down all the required information as fast as possible. She put the pen down and shakily gave the worker the paper back. She went behind a wall, and came back a couple of seconds later.

  “Please take a seat somewhere.”

  “But-”

  “Please take a seat somewhere.”

  Mary sighed reluctantly and sat Abel down in a chair, and he groaned softly. She sat down next to him, holding his hand. His ear was bleeding, and she saw it, worried and confused by its color and glow. When he’s bled in the past, it hasn’t looked like this. She thought it may have been because the stone was imbued with magic.

  After multiple minutes of waiting, someone stepped out and called for Abel.

  “Abel Castes?”

  “That’s us.”

  Mary walked with Abel into the hallway, following the doctor. Mary saw John and Friedrich walking out as well, Friedrich’s jaw fixed and his attempt to intimidate them as they walked by. John laughed at Friedrich’s face, and he patted him on the back.

  Eventually, they reached a room, and the doctor started questioning them.

  “What happened?” The doctor asked as he pulled out a magical device, which he put into Abel’s ear to see the damage better.

  “Abel got into a fight and a kid stuck a stone he created into his ear, and it started bleeding, so I came here.”

  “I see. I can’t see the damage too well, so we’ll have to scan him to see what’s wrong.”

  The doctor left the room, and they waited. Abel let out a groan every couple of minutes, and Mary was almost on the verge of tears. Abel was the only family she had, not knowing her own parents, siblings, or anything of the like, she was an orphan. Whilst Mary was in deep thought, the doctor came back in, and she flinched at his entrance.

  “We’ve got permission to scan him more precisely with a device than the regular human eye can see with magic enhancement.”

  Mary nodded, and they took Abel into a room with a large machine. Abel was put inside of it, and the doctor placed his hand on a panel, dumping magic into it. A screen popped up on the panel, showing a scan of Abel’s head. He zoomed in near Abel’s ear, showing a 360 view of his ear, nerves, and the like. He looked around Abel’s ear, the stone was slightly into Abel’s eardrum. The doctor sighed.

  “Okay, so, we can probably remove it, and clear out the bleeding, but he may need surgery if the eardrum doesn’t properly heal and close up. He’ll probably have difficulty hearing out of that ear for a while.”

  The doctor pulled his hand away from the machine, it winding off. He went up to abel with a pair of tweezers he pulled out of his pocket, taking the rock out. Abel yelped in pain, clutching his ear again.

  “Please remove your hand.”

  Abel reluctantly did it, and the doctor took a bottle of alcohol and a q-tip, lightly disinfecting the area, careful into to touch his eardrum. He put his hand up to his ear, healing the wounds lightly.

  “His eardrum will have to heal on its own, healing magic is weird with stuff sometimes. It may just round out the hole in his eardrum and not fully connect it back, leaving it damaged and sub-optimal.”

  Mary sighed, “alright, thank you for your time, sir.”

  “Don’t let Abel get any moisture in his left ear, it’ll make his eardrum not heal fully or at all. I think that’s about it.”

  “Okay, I understand.”

  Before Mary left, the doctor handed her some medication.

  “Here, this will help with any pain in the ear, and reduce infection chances.”

  Mary took the medication and left, heading back to the front desk. The person from before handed her a bill. Her eyes practically bulged out of her head.

  “FORTY-FIVE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED NINETY SEVEN DRAVINS?!”

  They shrugged, shooing her out of the line, leaving Mary flabbergasted at the price. She could probably afford it, but it would just have to come out of their emergency fund.

  Abel’s ear finally stopped ringing, and he started talking again as they walked out of the hospital.

  “What happened? The ringing in my ear was so loud and it hurt so bad I could barely tell what anyone was saying.”

  “I took you to the hospital after whatever his name hit you in the ear with a stone.”

  “Oh, that’s probably why it hurt so bad. I thought he just, like, ruptured my eardrum or something.”

  “He did, the stone pierced it and it got torn.”

  “That makes sense. Sorry if I worried you.”

  They had already left the hospital when Mary hugged Abel, kissing him on the top of his head.

  “It’s okay. Just, please listen to me next time. I know you can hear me. You can hear me better than anyone else can. That’s why it kind of confuses me as to why you don’t listen, but I understand, even if I feel confused. You’re still just a kid. My kid. My child.”

  She started tearing up, thinking about all they’ve been through. How fast he was growing up, all the time they’ve spent, even if it’s only been a short while in the grand scheme of things. Her voice cracked as she spoke.

  “So just please, listen to me as best as you can. We don’t have anyone else but each other right now.”

  “I understand, I’m sorry, I’ll try to listen to you more.”

  Mary let go of Abel, and they headed back to their new home, Mary’s face stained with tears, her makeup runny from it. Abel’s face was that of remorse for his actions, sorry about worrying his mother so much. It really was just them, but maybe he can make more friends than that of just his mother or Isla. People getting past his blindness and to be seen for who he truly is.