Eternity by Laury Falter Page A

bell for the next class was about to ring, Eran stood and suggested that we get moving.
    By that point, the cafeteria crowd had thinned with most students preferring to carry their lunch break into the halls. Yet, it was still fairly crowded so when the incident happened a good sized audience was watching.
    One moment we were walking unassumingly towards the door and the next a chair came sliding across the tiled floor so rapidly that I didn’t see it until it was nearly at my side. Made of a wooden back and metal framework, anywhere it had hit would have hurt. As it was, Eran intervened, fluidly stopping the chair before it reached me.
    He asked tensely, “Are you all right?”
    I almost asked why when I saw his palm against the chair’s back, where he’d placed it to break its slide.
    “Yes, thanks.”
    “You’re welcome.” He hadn’t moved his eyes from the Kohler twins.
    It only took a second for me to realize the chair had come from them. They sat at the end of the open aisle where the chair had slid, each wearing a smirk.
    The cafeteria was now still. No one spoke. No one moved. The sound of the rain hitting the pavement outside seemed to have increased in decibels. All eyes were either on us or the twins. I was certain their surprised expression would have deepened if they knew they were viewing the extension of a conflict that had started five hundred years ago.
    From my position, I could make out Eran’s tightened lips and narrowed eyes. The message he sent was simple: That…was a mistake. He didn’t seem to acknowledge anyone else in the room but the twins.
    Then, with an almost undetectable jerk from Eran’s palm, the chair slid back towards its original direction, at a speed far greater than which it had come. The twins barely escaped its path, each throwing themselves in opposite directions just before the speeding projectile reached them. The chair slammed into the table where the twins had been sitting, shoving it and ejecting all remaining chairs around it several feet away.
    Gasps resounded throughout the cafeteria as all eyes turned on Eran. His retaliation had clearly sent a signal that he shouldn’t be provoked – by Fallen Ones or by humans.
    We left the Kohler twins picking themselves up off the ground and the rest of the crowd scrutinizing us as we walked out the door.
    From the corner of the room, Marco and his cohorts studied us too but didn’t make a move.
    Eran was shaking his head as we made our way toward my next class, his anger still riled, making me reconsider twice about asking my question. It wasn’t until his paced slowed some that I voiced it.
    “I thought they wouldn’t attack if others were present?”
    “That wasn’t an attack, Magdalene,” he explained almost inaudibly, bowing his head towards mine so others wouldn’t hear as we passed them in the hall. “They were playing with us.”
    We didn’t speak again until we were just inside the classroom door. What he then recommended I immediately rejected.
    “I feel it is necessary for you to leave the city.”
    “Eran,” I scoffed. “That…that…whatever you call it…playing around back there did not scare me.”
    We paused until two students passed by on their way to their seats.
    Before giving him a chance to respond, I continued, keeping my voice low, “And it wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t been there. We stayed because you were there to protect me, remember? If you hadn’t been there, the moment I sensed them I would have left the cafeteria, giving them no opportunity to…to play with me.” He and I both knew that wouldn’t have happened. I would have stayed, refusing to be run off. He opened his mouth to oppose me so I added, “This isn’t the time. I think you would agree.”
    The class was settled now and the teacher, Mr. Gomer, was approaching us by that point.
    “I’m safe here,” I whispered quickly.
    He shook his head again in frustration, this time at me, but he gave a courteous