A New Leaf (Olesya)

[Mathew Amtrum]

It was a normal Tuesday morning for Mathew. Same routine as always, get up, shower, eat, brush his teeth, go to school, be awesome, ect. In his mind there was no difference from any other day. Oh sure there were slight variances, weather, temperature, the exact times of the fights he was in. But over all the days blended together. Currently for Mathew it was just after second period. He had spotted one senior trying to intimidate a Freshman for their lunch money. Knowing his job Mathew was in the process of breaking it up.

Still, the irony didn't escape him, there he stood acting as the Pillar, people he had opposed so long. It was like looking a year or two in the past. For a moment the kid's face seemed to look like his, his own features blurred to become any of the countless Pillars he had faced in the past. His eyes glazed over slightly as he spaced out. The kid took this as a chance to get the upper hand.

Mathew felt the blow connect against his face. It made him step back having not expected it, being off in his own mind. His hand went up to his face feeling a warm feeling around his nose. As he pulled his hand back he saw a small amount of blood on his fingers. The kid had hit him hard. Mathew's face contorted in to a snarl, his body rushing forward, his fist connecting against the boy's face. He heard a cracking sound as the boy's nose broke, blood spraying over Mathew as it did so. His knee shot outwards slamming in to the kid's stomach causing him to gasp for breath.

The boy was done for obviously, hunched over trying to catch his breath, blood dripping down his face on to the otherwise white tile of the floor. Mathew wasn't done yet, he was seeing red. He didn't know who he was fucking with. Grabbing the kid by the hair he yanked upwards roughly, the kid yelped with pain. Mathew then proceeded to slam his fist in to his face over and over, his fist getting covered with the kid's blood, his knuckles cut from the slamming against the teeth.

The kid was howling in pain now, tears, snot, and blood streaming down his face. Mathew still wasn't done with his brutal task. The senior was way past being able to fight back, he was at Mathew's mercy, which seemed to be in short supply today. Mathew grasped his hand and systematically broke every finger on the right hand before moving to the left. It was only then that he started to calm down, his white shirt and coat blood splattered. The trail of blood on his face, as well as the splatter starting to dry, and a few small drops dripped from his fist. His chest was heaving, his heart pounding.

He had lost it there for a few moments, but he was regaining his cool once again. He looked down at the kid, without so much as a pang of guilt. It was excessive, but he was sure the kid would never do it again, at least around Mathew. It was brutal, but if it made peace why not? He would be their monster, make them fear him so much that they won't dare to step out of line.

[Olesya]

Olesya's morning routine consisted of hitting the snooze three or four times before rolling out of bed, fighting her sister Gabri for the bathroom, grabbing a cup of orange juice and a granola bar for the walk to school. Hit up her locker, run by the music room and chill until her first class.

Today she only made it as far as her locker...

The sight taking place down the hall was disgusting to say the least. Some guy was beating on some poor sap in the hallway, a quivering freshman huddled a few feet away, watching the scene with doe eyes. What the hell was going on here..? Was...was that Mathew?!

She watched as he broke every finger on the boys hand, finally coming to a stop, both of them covered in blood. Les closed her locker with a little more force than usual, walking up to the scene as it was coming to a close.

"What have you done?"

Her tone was less demanding and more shocked. She had seen what he was able to do, what he had done to David, to Matrim, but he had seemed more pleasant back at the bar. But what in the world was this?

[Mathew Amtrum]

Mathew's breathing was still rapid, and sweat was gleaming on his forehead. He really hadn't meant to take it quite as far as he had, but in the end it didn't matter, he did his job and he did it efficiently. Hell now if the kid didn't learn his lesson he would be physically unable to harm another student for a good while, well unless he was a kick boxer, but Mathew would cross that bridge when he came to it.

He heard the locker slam behind him, followed the shocked or horrified question asking what he had done. Slowly Mathew turned to face the person, his expression unchanging when he saw the former pillar before him. His arm rose up to wipe under his nose, some of the dried blood coming off while the rest of it smeared against his arm and upper lip.

"My job." He said simply, slowly walking to her. Not in a threatening manner, he liked her, well tolerated her. Plus she was considering running for student council. He certainly wasn't about to attack her, even if he did look a bit like a monster now, though he felt it was justified, even if he would admit that he got carried away in the moment.

"A simple request to leave the Freshman be didn't work, so I ensured that he would be unable to harm him any further. Situation has been neutralized." He said it as if it was the most simple and natural thing in the world, as if the fact that a simple warning hadn't caused the kid to stop warranted him being beaten to the point he was now. Though for Mathew the ends almost always justified the means.

[Olesya]

"Well I should say so."

Her tone was disgusted, and her gaze was locked on him. She didn't flinch when he walked toward her, though she was quickly becoming aware that he could turn her into a pretzel and toss her to the curb without a second thought. He was powerful, and he was dangerous.

"How do you expect to win the trust of the student body when you go around pulling stunts like these? Do you like being feared? Being seen as a monster? Fear doesn't make a council, Mathew."

She had half a mind of punching him, knocking him around until his brain righted itself. He was the one that had just told her he wanted to be remembered for something good! This was not good, in fact, it wasn't good at all. Pillar or not, she wouldn't allow this sort of behavior to continue, not if he was aiming for democracy.

[Mathew Amtrum]

"I want peace, if this kid is afraid of me and won't hurt another kid because of it doesn't that make it worth it? If reason doesn't work then shouldn't you take action? What am I supposed to do, slap him and walk away? Leave him to do this to another student? If you have a better way please feel free to share."

He said, his eyes narrowing. He really had nothing against her, but he didn't like people getting all high and mighty with him. He knew he was strong, actually he took that for granted. It was rare to find someone that was a threat, and even then they were always taken care of. He was cocky, he always won, not always by fists, but one way or another he always won.

"The council isn't about this. The council has nothing to do with fights, that is so there is something that doesn't require blood to maintain. But you can't use words to stop bullets. You should remember this from your term as Pillar. Violence everywhere, I know nothing was ever done to stop me."

He knew he was one of the major problems at PHS #259, and he didn't care. He was a Pillar now, and he was doing his best to do his job. His methods were tough true, but he thought they worked at least. So far he hasn't had to deal with the same person twice.

[Olesya]

Stepping forward so she was nearly nose to nose with the pillar, staring him down, she tried her best not to raise her voice. Yelling wouldn't solve anything, when voices rose, ears closed.

"I do understand that some violence is needed in order to combat the corruption of the public school system. You, however, tend to go above and beyond what is necessary. He was done once he doubled over, there was no need to turn his face into ground beef."

Les didn't like bullying, she didn't like asshole, power hungry jerks, and she probably was a little bit softer on them than she should, but she didn't like causing more violence than was necessary. Maybe that was why she was no longer a pillar.

"You're strong, I know. But you need to understand what you do, and what you cause. Your fellow pillar, Matrim, can't use his arms. How is he supposed to do his job when you incapacitated him? Do you know what they say about you? What floats through the halls? I admit, I was curious, I did some searching, and I don't like what I found."

Her voice had dropped to a decibel where only he could hear what she was saying in all of the commotion of the hallway. The beat-up kid, still moaning, the gathering students muttering and talking to each other about what had just gone down.

"I'm not saying this to be a bitch, I'm saying it because you told me you wanted to make a difference, and I believed you. Please, don't prove me wrong."

[Mathew Amtrum]

"Olesya, I have never been anything but honest with you. Matrim is able to do his job style, he could have stopped the fight at any time, he was even the one that challenged me to it, you do not become strong by having people pull punches on you, he will not make the same mistake in a fight again, and it might save him, since next time he might not fight an ally." He said as he looked down at the girl.

He wouldn't so much as bat an eye when she got in to his face, instinctively he rose up to his full height of six feet and three inches. He was preparing himself for a fight. Not consciously, but since she was acting threateningly his body responded in kind.

"I told you before, I am not a good person, and I am sure I don't know half of what they say about me. I am sure a good deal of it is bad, and I am just as sure a lot of that is true. I have done a lot of bad things in my life." He said bluntly.

If she was hoping to intimidate him she was going to have a hard time of it. Mathew was used to being feared, he was used to being hated. It was nothing to bat an eye at anymore. He grew up with it, most kids at school hated him, his family sure as hell did. He was even disowned and emancipated. He was legally an adult since his parents wanted nothing to do with him, hadn't for years.

[Olesya]

Olesya tilted her head upward slightly as he looked down on her, she was tall for a girl her age but he was still a half head taller or so. It didn't bother her to be looked down on, unless of course she was actually being looked down...on. You know, the saying.

She narrowed her eyes as his body became defensive, as the tension between them grew. She wasn't going to fight him, she knew what she could do and she knew she would lose. Her ribs had finally healed from fighting Matrim, and she liked them that way. She didn't exactly know what she was out to accomplish right now by standing off with the dragon boy.

"Then what I heard is true..." She said softly, almost to herself, her gaze falling for a moment before rising to meet his again. Her voice was no longer full of indignation, it was calmer, disappointed almost.

"How is someone who is not good supposed to do good things for this school?"

She asked simply, frowning.

[Mathew Amtrum]

"Because one doesn't need to be a good person to do something good. Peace has many roads to it, none of them are pretty. Well none of them are pretty if you are realistic." He said with a small laugh, even in this situation he couldn't help but crack jokes.

What he meant was that unless you were one of the fools who actually believed peace could be achieved without bloodshed then you knew that not everyone would see eye to eye with words. People would be forced to yield. That is what Mathew had always believed, it is what he had seen, what he grew up with. His Father was an FBI agent, drug dealers, slave ring leaders, pimps, child molesters, none of them would stop because you said pretty please. Mathew had learned that first hand from his Father. They had to be dealt with and put away, taken care of so they can not disrupt society again. And since Mathew couldn't arrest a student for beating up another kid, he could make him fearful. Afraid to hurt anyone again.

"Couldn't tell you if it is true or not unless you tell me what you heard. Though like I said I have been nothing but honest with you, and I will tell you straight up, right now if it is true or not." He said, his tone serious, no hint of sarcasm in his voice. He fully intended to tell her if she asked. He had nothing to hide.

[Olesya]

"Someone who isn't good doesn't care for the livelihood of others, doesn't care what they have to say or what happens to them. Someone who is not good doesn't care about peace, at least not peace for others. Only for themself."

She hesitated when he asked her to tell her what she had found out. It had taken her a bit to do so, some of the same information kept popping up about when he was back in New York, but one thing surfaced that thoroughly shocked her, and she had passed it off as exaggeration. Now she wasn't quite so sure.

"I heard..you killed someone."

She said softly, her gaze stuck to his for any hint of reaction. Surely he would laugh at her, tell her she was stupid for thinking such a thing. That yeah, he was a jerk, but surely the rumors got stretched having been through the mill and back.

[Mathew Amtrum]

He had nothing to hide, but he did have something to be ashamed of. The only thing he ever truly regretted in his life. And that was saying a lot, he had tortured, kidnapped, and caused countless amounts of pain and suffering. But it was true he had killed someone before, not with the casualness of Linda when she fought Emily, throwing the phone book at the kid and snapping his neck. Not in a burst of rage or anger. Not even a calculated kill that was meant to give him closer to his goals. No, the only time he had killed had been in self defense.

His confident smile and attitude melted from his face, something that would be called pain and sadness replaced it, that is if it wasn't Mathew. After all Mathew didn't feel pain or sadness right? It wasn't like he was human?

It still haunted his dreams at night, not every night, but often enough. The scene playing back over and over. Mathew's body, beaten and bruised having survived a riot targeting members of the Reign of Blood. His body sore and weak walking home after being shot three times in the chest. The only thing that saved him was the coat he wore to this day. The bullet proof wonder known as the Earth Dragon Coat. It was funny how fate worked, he had it less then a week, before getting shot. Almost like it was fate, that he had kidnapped Irisis just to gain that coat, while his goal had been to dismantle Equilibrium. But it wasn't the lack of an enemy gang that saved his life, but the trophy he had taken from Tiel as a sign of dominance.

He remembered the feeling of something hitting the back of his head before darkness overtook him. Waking up in the park, the kid telling him to get up, kicking him in the ribs as Mathew climbed up on to his knees, his head still throbbing from the blow, his vision blurry. The feeling of the gun barrel pressing against his head, hearing the boy tell him he wanted Mathew to beg for his life.

He clearly remembered the fear he felt. Having a gun pressed against his head, the knowledge that he was going to die. He didn't know how he was able to move past such crippling fear, he remembered wanting to cry, the feeling of being so helpless. Only he wasn't, he couldn't remember telling his body to do it, or even thinking about it. It just happened, his hands shot upward grabbing the gun and twisting it. The kid panicked and pulled the trigger as the barrel turned to face the shooter.

The last look on that kid's face, the mix of shock and pain as he realized he had shot himself. That small moment where he realized he was going to die. Mathew may as well have pulled the trigger himself. It was kind of a blur after that. He remembered vomiting and entering his apartment. Though he couldn't remember the walk to his apartment.

Snapping out of it he shook his head slightly shaking the memory from his mind as he looked down at the girl in front of him. No longer feeling confident or anything other then a deep sickness and self loathing he answered her, his voice dull and cold. Almost like he was already dead.

"It true...."

[Olesya]

He wasn't laughing. He wasn't laughing. 'No, don't be stupid, Olesya..you think I would actually do that? I am astonished, really.' The way it was playing out in her head was not the way it was happening before her eyes.

It was like she'd hit a switch somewhere in him, pushed a button not meant to be pushed. Because just like that, he changed, his cocky confident expression literally melted, leaving an expression that unnerved the former pillar. An emotion she had never seen from him before, and she was sure he hadn't shown in a very long time, if at all.

And suddenly she regretted opening her mouth.

Olesya stood in a mixture of stunned and embarrassed silence, her mouth slightly open as she regarded the pillar. Closing her mouth into a frown, she honestly didn't know what to do. 'Yeah so you totally killed someone, lol. Lets go to class.' wouldn't work. She wanted to talk to him, but standing in the middle of the hall with him covered in someone else's blood probably wasn't the best.

"Get cleaned up, let's talk. Meet me outside in ten."

Yeah that's right folks, Olesya was going to skip school, walk right out before first bell. Her tone was soft, but firm, like she wasn't giving him a choice in the matter. She felt bad for bringing it up, mostly because she believed it wasn't true. You don't just say something like that and then let it lie. They weren't friends, but they were acquaintances, and she owed it to him to settle this. Leaving her things in her locker, she made for the front door, and would be sitting on the steps waiting for him to come out.

[Mathew Amtrum]

It had been two years since anyone had mentioned it to Mathew, he had been a kid when it happened. Not even able to legally drive. Some people believed that hell was not fire and brimstone, but personalized for each person. Every nightmare was his own hell, and if there was a God or a Devil, he knew what would await him in the afterlife. Normally he would have told her to go fuck herself or to suck it and die. He normally didn't take orders well, but his heart wouldn't be in it. He couldn't get over the feeling of a giant boulder in his stomach. He honestly wanted to crawl up in to a hole and die. So instead of insulting her he would nod and turn away heading to his locker. He had a clean shirt in there, and then to the bathroom to wash off the blood from his face and hands.

When he walked outside he was in a new shirt, black T shirt, his Earth Dragon coat had most of the blood off of it, but he didn't want to wear it fight now. It was stuffed in his locker. Other then that he was cleaned up, and if it wasn't for the lack of cockiness Mathew would look completely normal.

He didn't really know what to say to her, what do do. He assumed she wanted to rip in to him more. Maybe beat him up for it. If that was the case he would let her. Lord knew he deserved it and much more, it was one of the reasons he didn't bring his coat. Part of him hoped she was going to pull out a gun and shoot him right there. Call him a monster, tell him what a horrible person he was. Anything to confirm the hell he was in.

[Olesya]

Olesya sat on the steps waiting, leaning back so her elbows her propped on a few steps up from her bottom, her right leg bent, foot resting two steps down from that, her left leg out straight. She sighed deeply, trying to make sense of what had just happened. It was a hard fact to swallow, surreal almost. She couldn't imagine him actually killing someone, ending a life. It would be a lie to say she wasn't freaked out a little, and scared. But she didn't know the whole story, only that tidbit.

She would try and get the whole story before passing judgment.

A shadow cast itself over her sitting figure, and she looked up to find Mathew cleaned up. Good, it was a step in the right direction. What better way to talk about morbid memories than to be covered in blood, huh? Right. Climbing to her feet, she shoved her hands into the pockets of her cargos, she was wearing a light blue shirt today, her pants riding low on her hips so that a little bit of skin showed on her midriff when she moved. Only a little, not a lot like some of the girls that walked around here. And of course her boots, the boots he gave her.

"Let's go."

She skipped down the steps to the sidewalk, heading away from the school.

[Mathew Amtrum]

Mathew was in no mood to skip, frolic, saunter, or anything of the sort. Instead Mathew silently followed her, his hands shoved deeply in to his pockets, his back hunched. He was only half aware of everything around him. The scenes of that day replaying in his mind over and over. About how he should have turned the gun to the side or something, not to the kid. About how it would have been better if he had been the one shot.

There was definitely a dark shadow that was following Mathew, his own personal raincloud. He would follow her wherever she lead him. He didn't really care if she lead him in to traffic to be hit by a bus. Right now he would welcome it. He didn't like this emotion, he didn't like feeling guilty. And he certainly didn't like being depressed.

A few times he wanted to speak, but every time he opened his mouth he decided against it and just shut it, following her in silence.