Chapter 42 – An Unexpected Encounter

Titus sat eating his breakfast with his two friends. The past few days had gone by in no time at all, and the three had made the most of their time without question. They'd attended at least a handful of each of the classes they had available and had even returned to the pits in every moment they could spare. All in all, the result of their hard work and dedication to bettering themselves was a good education, a good understanding of how this place was going to work for them in the future, and Titus was now happily sitting at a grand total of twenty-five experience points.

Of course this meant that he still had a whopping seventy-five to go until he reached level two, but he was now sure that his next level would happen for him in a matter of weeks, rather than months or years. All in all, with the combination of nothing bad happening to him and Henderson still locked away out of reach, it meant that he definitely had good reason to be happy.

But that, of course, was all about to come crashing down. Because with everything that had been going so well, he'd forgotten that Henderson was due to be released at some point soon. Or to be more accurate, had already been released and the boy had just walked into the long dining hall.

The atmosphere turned cold in a wave as everyone in the breakfast hall slowly realised that the boy who'd decided to try to cheat his way to the top and had spent a week in the dungeons was back amongst them, and nobody quite knew what to do with that.

Henderson walked slowly, his purposeful footsteps echoing throughout the hall against the hard stone floor. Titus could see that he looked very much like he'd just spent a week in a dungeon, his skin pale and his hair matted. There was, for some reason, even the remnants of blood around his nose and top lip, like he'd had a nosebleed at some point but was yet to wash it off.

To get to where he had sat before though, Henderson had to pass by the place where Titus, Jordan, and Petra were. Slowly he walked, not looking up and keeping his eyes fixed on the ground.

Henderson passed by Titus and his friends without so much as a sideways glance.

And then Petra had to open her big mouth.

"I hope you learnt your lesson," she said. "Cheaters never prosper."

Henderson stopped, and the hall seemed to thicken with anticipation. Titus gritted his teeth and prepared himself for a fight. He could see that Jordan, too, was subtly angling his body so that he could launch himself between Henderson and his target if he needed to.

Henderson turned his head slightly to make sure that Petra could see the side of his face as he replied. And Titus' blood ran cold. Because as he saw Henderson's face, he saw the definite, distinct flash of red in his eyes before he replied in a low, gruff tone.

"You'll soon see exactly what I've learnt. And what I'm capable of."

And with that, he resumed his slow pace, Petra stunned into silence and both Titus and Jordan on edge. But where they had been expecting a fight or an outburst at the very least, Henderson had done next to nothing.

Henderson finished his long walk back to his usual seat, and after he sat down in silence, the rest of the hall returned to its usual low hum of general conversation.

"Well that was something," Titus said. "It really does look like that week down there did him some good."

"Or he's just that mad that he can't talk yet," Petra said. "Like he's plotting something so bad that he's just entirely broken."

"Nah," Jordan said. "He's just shaken up. I got trapped in a cellar for two days once, and I didn't speak for a week afterwards."

"How the hell did you get trapped in a cellar?" Petra replied with a snort. "Go down there looking for apples, and the doors locked themselves behind you?"

"It was a cherry pie actually," Jordan replied sheepishly.

"Ha!" Petra cried with glee. "You're just too predictable. If you weren't such a good fighter, you'd make an excellent clown."

"Thanks," Jordan replied, not catching up with the sarcasm. "But I was never really good at making people laugh intentionally."

"Don't worry, Jordan, I'm sure you'll figure it out," Titus joined in with a wide smile of his own.

It had only taken a moment but the group had already forgotten about Henderson. His return hadn't been as dire as they'd been expecting, and that at least was something that they were eternally grateful for.

Eventually, the breakfast hall began filtering out as Contestants of all ranks and levels left to go to where they needed to be for the rest of the day. But Titus had seen something that had disturbed him not long before he was actually planning to leave himself. Henderson had been slowly eating a single bowl of porridge, and all the while the boy had been staring at him from not ten meters away.

At first, Titus thought he had been imagining it, given that Henderson had been absent for what felt like forever, but after checking back on the large Warrior on a number of occasions, he found Henderson definitely staring intently at him each time.

The look on Henderson's face was odd too. It wasn't one of malice or hatred, something that Titus could understand given their previous interactions, but on this occasion, Henderson looked like he was a mixture of confused and intrigued.

As the hall continued to empty, Titus could already see that Henderson had finished his food, but still just sat there staring at him. An act that Titus decided was likely a challenge, and this time it was one that he wasn't going to back down from.

Subtly, Titus alerted Jordan and Petra to the situation, though he told them to do nothing and just to wait and see what was going to happen. So they spoke merrily of what they planned to do for the day and also of what the Arena had in store for them next, all the way up to the point where the entire breakfast hall had been emptied, and the only people left were the three friends and Henderson, who still stared at Titus in his peculiar way.

And then Henderson stood up.

Titus felt his blood beginning to rise as his body began its fight-or-flight response, and seeing the large Warrior walking towards him and his friends, he pushed down on his body's attempts to convince him to remove himself from the situation. He simply stared at Henderson until the boy came to within touching distance.

"Think about what you're about to do," Petra said before Henderson had the chance to. "Because next time it might not just be a week. Next time it might even be somewhere worse than I bet you've been."

"Shut your mouth," Henderson grumbled, but the words seemed less venomous than he usually managed. Somehow they seemed to be said as an automatic response rather than an actual intended insult. "I want to talk to your friend here." He gestured to Titus.

"Then you can say what you have to say to all of us," Jordan interrupted. "Because if you want us to leave, you're going to have to force us."

"No, not today," Henderson said. Then he stared at the three friends each in turn, finally announcing: "Fine, if it has to be this way." He looked directly at Titus. "I know there's something different about you. Do they know?"

Titus could only blink. It was like the person standing before him was so much more human than he'd ever been before. Like the Henderson that he thought he knew and had been expecting was simply gone, and this version actually wanted to have a conversation with him. Like what he had to say mattered.

Titus eventually nodded once, not opening his mouth to speak.

"What do you see when you look at me?" Henderson asked.

"He sees exactly what everyone else sees," Petra chimed in. "A complete and utter assho…"

Henderson raised a hand to silence her without taking his eyes off Titus.

"I… I don't know," Titus stuttered. "I see… I see…" but then he thought about what Henderson was asking him. He wasn't asking what he saw physically, but rather what he 'saw'. And then Titus looked. Really looked at Henderson for the very first time.

At first, there was nothing much to note, but as he stared at Henderson he could detect something. Something different, something that shouldn't have been there and something that wasn't in anyone else he could remember.

"You see it, don't you," Henderson grumbled. "You see something different. I see it in you too."

"Oh please, what is this?" Petra asked. "First you try to threaten us, then you release a monster into our room and then you beat Titus to a bloody pulp? What are you trying to do next, pretend you're his best friend? Because we aren't falling for it this time, pal."

"Monster?" Henderson asked.

"Oh, and I suppose you're going to deny that now too, right?" Petra asked. "You released that Spectral Harbinger into our dorm the other week, didn't you? Or are we supposed to believe that was just some huge coincidence?"

Henderson stared at Petra for a moment, and then back at Titus.

"I had nothing to do with that," he said flatly. In fact, he said it so flatly that Titus actually believed him. "I don't like this either, believe me. But I want to go back down to that place. I want to understand more. And... and I think you do too."

"Are you insane?" Petra asked in shock. "So you lead him down into the dungeons and beat him with your hired help, and now you expect him to willingly go back down with you? Well, let me tell you that he won't be going and if you ever lay another finger on him, then I'm going to run you through with my stiletto so fast…"

"Will you just shut up for one second?" Henderson asked. Though again it lacked his usual level of anger and annoyance – like he knew the words to say but he was somehow majorly distracted away from their intent.

"This isn't something we can talk about here," Henderson said. "But like I said I want to know more, and I think there's only one person who can tell us more." He peered at Titus expectantly, waiting for some sign that he knew what he was talking about.

Titus figured out that Henderson was looking for a response, but in truth he had no idea what the Warrior was talking about. And he had no idea who this person was that could tell them more. Presumably Henderson was alluding to Titus' secret Class – it being the only secret he actually had that was worth keeping, but the rest? That was a mystery.

Titus nodded assuredly. "I want to know more too," he agreed. It was the only acceptable response he could come up with.

"Well," Petra practically shouted as she threw her hands up in the air. "It seems that I may as well go and talk to that wall over there. Perhaps it'll make more sense than whatever's happening here! Hey Jordan," she added. "You want to go see if we can hit something really, really hard? Maybe if there's two things to hit, we can imagine they're these two idiots!"

"I, uh…" Jordan replied, not quite sure of himself. "I don't want Titus to go anywhere alone with him."

"Fine!" Henderson finally snapped. "You three can rot and die here for all I care. I don't need your help to figure any of this out; I just thought… well, never mind."

Titus could see that Henderson's fists were balled so hard that his knuckles had turned white. If he would've been asked to bet on what was about to happen, he would've put money on getting a fist in the face.

But then Henderson took a deep breath and stormed away from the three without another word spoken. Out the doors and away down the hallway beyond until his footsteps disappeared into nothing but silence.

"What the hell was that about?" Petra asked. "One minute he's doing everything he can to make our lives miserable, and now he expects us to just trust him and be on his side about what, some silly revelation he'd had whilst locked away in the dungeons? Seriously, that's messed up! Maybe he really did lose his mind down there..."

"I… I think he's talking about my Class," Titus said thoughtfully. "I mean, what else could there be?"

But Titus was already thinking about what else. Because not only had he seen something off in Henderson, something that he didn't quite understand yet, Henderson had seen something in him too, and that was worrying.

But more than that, Titus was still absolutely sure that he'd heard the voice down in the darkness when he was fighting for his life, struggling to survive. And he could only assume that Henderson had heard that very same voice.