Patience

Patience

                You five have been chosen. You represent virtue and the light; and you must fight the darkness. Keep your vows; Charity, Celibacy, Temperance, Patience, and Humility.

                “Don’t worry, I’ll wait,” said Patience to the school secretary. Despite her name – and her vow to a mysterious spirit – she wasn’t really very patient at all. She tried her best, but sometimes she just gave up on waiting (as opting to leave and come back later was, in a way, a form of patience).

                Today, however, she had no choice. She took a seat again. Her teacher – unfortunately also the principal of the school – had demanded to see her after school, and if she disappeared she’d get at least one detention session. Explaining how she got it to her parents would be worse than the waiting, no matter how torturous it got.

                And it had gotten pretty bad already. The principal had been busy when she first arrived, and when she went to the bathroom fifteen minutes later someone else had snuck in. That was half an hour ago – whoever it was, they either had a lot to talk about, or were really good at wasting time.

                Patience didn’t know why she had such a hard time waiting idly. Her sister, Charity, was very patient – something they used to joke about when they were younger, especially as Charity had been very greedy back then. But Charity had changed after taking her vow. Patience acted changed, but hadn’t really. She still felt as frustrated as she ever had when her time was wasted – she just kept herself under control. People had commented positively and she felt good for succeeding in keeping her cool, but Charity – she’d told Patience that giving actually felt better than keeping things all to herself.

                It’s not a competition, but I wish I could be like her, thought Patience, tapping her feet. And I’m not going to cheat and do what Secrecy suggested, keeping myself occupied while I wait in my head or something stupid. Or getting one of those DS Portables or whatever they are and playing that.

                I’ll do it the hard way. The RIGHT way. Patience smiled happily. Her happiness at her own strength of will kept her going for another five minutes. You know what, I’ll find out who it is. I’m sure they have a good reason for being in there, she thought to herself.

                Patience stood and went up to the principal’s door, peering through the window. Inside she saw the principal, looking incredibly bored, listening to a student. A student she recognised immediately from the faint whispers of his droning voice. His name was Drew. He and Patience didn’t get along at all – she’d been forced to listen to forty minute speeches (given instead of four minute presentations) that the teacher somehow thought were fine. Entirely given in monotone, droning, droning… Patience had forced herself to listen to it all just so she could berate Drew afterwards.

                THAT FUCKING UGH, thought Patience angrily. She forced herself to listen in on what Drew was saying; it seemed to be some kind of detailed discussion of food in the cafeteria. He’s… He’s proposing twenty alterations to the menu, with full evi- oh my god, I can’t listen to this shit, thought Patience, backing away from the door.

                She sat back down, fuming, and resolved to wait the bastard out. She managed to get herself mostly calmed down over the course of the next twenty minutes. All was well until she looked at the clock. Oh shit! I’m meant to meet everyone before we go see Beautiful Creatures in ten minutes! Patience thought to herself, panicked.

                She stood up and made her way to the door. A quick look inside and a listen allowed her to figure out that Drew had made barely any progress on his request – she was pretty sure he was still talking about the same menu item.

                Patience pushed the door open, and said, “Excuse me,” politely.

                “Ah yes, Patience, I-“ started the principal.

                “What is it?” asked Drew, in his ‘annoyed’ voice. It was twice as fast as his ordinary voice, but still completely monotone.

                “The principal asked to see me after school, Drew,” said Patience, doing her best to keep her voice calm. It was hard – although fresh memory of how Drew always spoke was a good guide to speaking without emotion.

                “Can it wait?” asked Drew, not even waiting for the principal to respond.

                I hate this bastard. Not only is he incredibly boring, but he’s incredibly rude! thought Patience to herself. “No Drew. I’m sure this will take a lot less time than whatever boring proposal you’re currently detailing,” she said.

                The principal smiled, but dropped it as Drew turned around. “She’s right Drew. I only need a moment,” the principal said.

                “But I-“ began Drew.

                “Shutup Drew! Principal Donovan, what did you want to see me about?” asked Patience, cutting Drew off with a yell. Drew fumed (the most emotion Patience had ever seen him display, in fact), but remained silent.

                “Nothing big, Patience. I’m surprised you haven’t headed home already. I was just going to give you this,” the principal said, grabbing a certificate from his desk. “It turns out that you did very well in that Maths standards test; this is your certificate. I thought it might be better to hand it to you outside of class.”

                “Thank you, Principal Donovan,” said Patience, taking the certificate. With a smile and a short nod of her head to both the principal and Drew, she took her leave.

                A few minutes later she was stepping through the school gates, with just enough time to make it to the cinema before the movie began. To her surprise, Drew was standing just outside them.

                “What? You were actually nearly finished?” said Patience, chuckling. “Listen, I’m sorry that I snapped at you. I have a movie to get to.”

                “Oh, don’t be sorry,” said Drew. His voice sounded weird – it took Patience a moment, but she realised that he wasn’t speaking in his usual droning monotone. At all.

“I’m betting you didn’t hear the little noise your necklace made when you broke your vow. You were pretty loud!” continued Drew, finishing with something else Patience had never seen him do – a smile.

                “W-wait,” said Patience, Drew’s words sinking in. She slapped her hand to where her necklace hung, and her hands confirmed what he said – half of the vowstone was missing.

                Drew smiled incredibly broadly as Patience began glancing around while stepping backwards. Quick as lightning he pulled a knife from his blazer and moved beside her, grabbing her shoulder and quickly getting her into a headlock.

                “You’re going to regret disrespecting me, you bitch,” he said viciously.

                Her body was discovered a couple of hours later by the gardener, underneath a bush near the front of the school. PATIENCE had been carved into her forehead, and all evidence implied that she’d died there, slowly, from blood loss; her tongue cut out, her throat slit, and her body bound.