RAGNA POV...
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I watched it all unfold from within my mother's trembling embrace, my ears ringing as the man's furious voice thundered through the space, declaring that from this moment onward Talen was forbidden from ever associating with that devilish boy called Gustav again, forbidden from even breathing the same air as me.
And then came the harsher order—no, the outright command—that the little piece of filth offer a sincere apology not just to my parents but to me, the so-called innocent child, and almost immediately the rest followed one after another.
Each of the four boys testifying in shaky voices to everything Talen had confessed, until one idiot tried to pin the blame on his parents only to be silenced by a sharp slap that echoed like a gunshot and glued his mouth shut.
'What a moron,'
I thought, a faint, cold smirk blooming in my chest as I buried my face deeper into Mother's clothes.
