What the Floor Says [Morning / Classroom]

Chalk scraped across the board.

Screeeech—

Hara clamped his hands over his ears.

Everything was too loud.

Then another bully sat in front of him and began drumming on the desk.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

(Second Bully) : “Heard you dodge stuff when you hear it coming.”

Other students began banging on their desks like it was a joke.

For Hara, it wasn’t.

The sound exploded inside his skull.

Blood dripped from his nose.

(Koharu) : “Stop it. He actually looks sick.”

(Second Bully) : “He’s just scared.”

The bully lunged.

Hara couldn’t separate the sounds anymore.

So he felt the vibrations under his feet instead.

Left foot.

Right foot.

Weight shifting forward.

Eyes closed, Hara stepped half a pace aside.

He redirected the bully’s arm and pinned him over the desk.

(Second Bully) : “Agh!”

Hara raised his fist.

One punch.

That was all it would take.

The thought came so naturally that it frightened him.

(Koharu) : “Hara.”

A low voice.

That one word stopped him.

Slowly, Hara opened his fist.

(Hara) : “Don’t come at me like this again.”

The bully backed away.

Koharu approached.

(Koharu) : “We’re going to the nurse.”

(Hara) : “I’m fine.”

(Koharu) : “Your ear is bleeding.”

Hara stiffened.

Koharu didn’t ask about his strange abilities.

Instead, she looked him straight in the eye.

(Koharu) : “I don’t know what you’re hiding. But don’t hide it when something’s wrong with your body.”

Hara couldn’t bring himself to nod.

That night, alone in his room, he pressed a hand to the floor.

The vibration of a chair moving upstairs.

Someone walking in the hallway.

Water pipes trembling inside the wall.

(Hara) : “This is insane.”

The world was no longer something he heard.

He could feel it through vibrations, too.