Semua Bab We Were Never Meant to Stay: Bab 1 - Bab 8

After the evening study hall, I slipped out of the academic building. The night air was cool against my skin as I made my way toward the dorms. Then, out of nowhere, my first boyfriend, Julian Cross, came sprinting across the courtyard. Before I could react, he grabbed my hand and took off, dragging me with him in front of a crowd of stunned students. His grip was ironclad, and his face twisted into an expression I'd never seen before: wild, unhinged, and teetering on the edge of desperation. Around us, students erupted in shouts of disbelief. "Holy crap, is he serious?" At our school, any inappropriate contact between boys and girls was strictly forbidden. If one got caught, the best case was that their parents were called. Worst case, they were expelled immediately, yet Julian acted as if none of it mattered. He even knocked aside the homeroom teacher who tried to block his path. Screams exploded around us, echoing through the halls. Julian never looked back. He jus

Tears blurred my vision as I stared at Julian. My voice came out almost as a whisper. "Why didn't you warn anyone? If you knew something was coming… they might still be alive." For a long moment, he said nothing. He looked away, his jaw tight, as though the truth was too painful to face. At last, he broke the silence. "Autumn, I couldn't save them." The words hit with brutal finality. "If I had tried to warn anyone or told them what was coming, it wouldn't have changed anything. We would've died there too." His voice fell lower. "Or maybe worse." His hand tightened around mine. "I couldn't risk our only chance to survive. I couldn't save them. I could only save you. Nothing matters more to me than keeping you alive." I didn't know what to say. He looked exhausted, worn down by something deeper than fear. There was still something boyish in his face, but now it was buried beneath strain, grief, and sleepless dread. And the more he revealed, the less anything made sense

The air between us seemed to freeze. Julian stayed silent for what felt like forever. At last, he let out a long, tired breath and gave me a smile that held more bitterness than warmth. "Autumn," he said quietly, "you figured it out sooner than I expected." His voice carried no relief, only a tone of resignation. "They aren't human. They're farmers." His eyes met mine, and the sorrow in them was so deep it made it hard to breathe. "And we… we're the livestock they've been raising for slaughter." For a moment, I could only stare at him. My body went rigid, caught somewhere between shock and disbelief. "Farmers? Livestock?" I echoed. The words twisted through my mind, grotesque and impossible. Part of me had already suspected the truth, but hearing it spoken aloud still made my stomach lurch. Julian's gaze shifted past me, toward the dark edge of the forest beyond the road. "Have you ever wondered why our school cares so much about rankings? Why is every year filled wit

I squeezed my eyes shut in despair. Then, without warning, a blinding beam of light tore through the darkness and struck us full in the face. I threw up an arm to shield my eyes. The light wavered for a moment, then slowly lowered. In that reflected glare, I finally saw who was standing there. For a second, I froze. The shock was so overwhelming that, for a moment, it nearly smothered my fear. The figures standing before us were not monsters, but two people I knew all too well. "How are you here?" The ones who had found us were our homeroom teacher and the dean. Both of them were splattered with mud, and neither carried any gear. Seeing them there in the middle of that wilderness, looking pale and utterly out of place, only made them seem more unnatural. Our homeroom teacher spoke first. "You two little idiots, what do you think you’re doing out here?" he snapped. "Do you have any idea how long the school has been looking for you? How worried your families are?"