Chapter 97 – The Hidden Rage
The rest of the day passed without major incidents.
Classes continued with an almost uncomfortable normality, as if someone had decided that after so much tension, the best thing to do was pretend nothing had happened.
The teachers spoke. The students took notes. The usual murmur of the hallways followed its daily rhythm: doors opening, hurried footsteps, laughter that erupted in some corner and faded as quickly as it had begun.
To anyone looking from the outside, everything seemed like a normal day at school.
But it wasn't.
---
In the cafeteria, far from Titus's group, several students were gathered around an isolated table.
They were the same ones who had been humiliated days earlier. The same ones who had ended up on the floor, surrounded by stares, their faces burning with shame and their knuckles still sore from punches they couldn't even remember throwing.
The atmosphere among them was thick with rage. A dense rage, the kind that finds no outlet and rots inside.
One of them kept touching the back of his neck with discomfort, massaging a spot that still seemed to hurt.
"It still hurts," he muttered irritably.
"Me too," another replied, his voice rougher than he intended. "We didn't even see who it was. They came out of nowhere and swept us away like we were trash."
A third slammed his fist on the table. The silverware jumped. A water bottle wobbled before regaining its balance.
"That's the worst part."
He leaned forward, lowering his voice, even though no one was really watching them anymore.
"They made us look like idiots in front of everyone. Like we were clowns in a circus. And the worst part is, we don't even know who to blame."
The silence that followed was heavy.
An uncomfortable silence, full of things no one wanted to say out loud but everyone was thinking.
Someone has to pay for this.
One of them finally spoke. His voice was lower than the others, as if he knew that what he was about to say shouldn't be heard too far away.
"We can fix this."
The others looked at him.
"How?"
The boy shrugged, but a cold smile formed on his lips. The kind that has nothing to do with humor.
"Money."
The word changed the tone of the conversation immediately.
Because all of them came from families with more money than they knew how to spend. Money that bought clothes, cars, trips, superficial respect. Money that had never served them for what really mattered.
Until now.
"I know some guys," he continued, his voice dropping even more confidentially. "They don't ask questions. They just take the job and disappear when it's done."
"Thugs?"
"Exactly."
Another leaned back in his chair, letting the idea settle. A slow smile began to form on his face.
"Have them find them."
"Have them beat them up."
"Make them learn not to mess with us."
The one who had proposed the idea nodded slowly.
"Make them hurt."
The looks they exchanged sealed the deal.
No more words were needed. No handshakes, no oaths.
The decision was made.
---
When the final bell rang, the hallways began to fill like a river overflowing after a storm.
Students streamed out, talking, laughing, making plans for the rest of the afternoon. Backpacks bumping against knees. Phones in hand. Promises to meet up somewhere.
Titus walked among them, but his mind was far away.
Very far.
Too many things were spinning in his head, like a Ferris wheel that wouldn't stop.
Walter.
Cristal.
Sofía.
Sarah.
Diana.
It was as if each of those people were pulling him in different directions. As if his own heart had become a battlefield where everyone was fighting for a piece of ground.
As he made his way toward the exit, someone fell into step beside him.
He knew it before looking.
That way of moving. That elegant silence.
Cristal.
She walked beside him with her usual calm, as if the world had to adjust to her rhythm and not the other way around.
For a few seconds, she said nothing.
They just walked.
Two bodies moving in the same direction, separated by centimeters and by everything neither of them dared to say.
Then, without looking away from ahead, she spoke quietly.
"I need to talk to you."
Titus turned his head slightly.
"Now?"
Cristal shook her head gently. Barely a movement, but enough.
"After school."
Her eyes met his.
And in that instant, Titus felt something he couldn't name.
There was something different in her expression. Something she rarely let show.
More serious. More calculating.
As if she were weighing every word before releasing them.
"Alone," she added.
Titus felt a small tension in his chest. Not fear. Something more like the certainty that what was coming wouldn't be simple.
"Okay," he finally replied.
Cristal nodded.
She said nothing more.
But the way she looked at him for one second — a fraction of a second, barely a heartbeat — made clear something words couldn't express.
That conversation…
was going to change more than Titus could imagine.
And he knew it.
---
Hook: But something in the darkness was already moving, ready to change everything…