The Evaluation [site event]

The idea of having an evaluation within her first week of school scared the living crap out of Evelyn. She was glad for the opportunity to show what skills she had, however. The morning of the test found her in her dorm, already dressed, an hour before the start time. She had avoided breakfast, her stomach turning too much for her to believe she could keep it down. Finally, it was time to head to the classroom they had been directed to.

As she walked, Evelyn studied her fingers, concentrating hard on getting them to disappear. It had been difficult for her to produce any results on purpose, but in the few days she had been at the school, it became easier, and even as she watched, the tips of her fingers slowly began to disappear. The sensation was gentle, a slight tingling like the start of a foot falling asleep, and her racing heart was calmed slightly by the idea of being able to at least partially vanish.

There was the continuing fear of her inability to become completely invisible. She had only accomplished it a few times in her life, and they had been accidents. Desperately, she hoped that whatever this exam was, she wouldn't need to fully disappear.

Evelyn reached the door to the room a few minutes early, and she entered, surprised to see that rather than the usual desks, there were cushions scattered all over the floor. What kind of evaluation was this? Avoiding the people already there, the girl found a spot against a wall and sat. The room quickly filled. She recognized a few of the people, having seen them around the school. She hoped they wouldn't have to do something in front of everyone; she didn't have the capacity to make a fool of herself in front of everyone.

Just when she was beginning to think about leaving the room, the most beautiful singing voice came over the intercom. Evelyn could see everyone else beginning to drop off, slumping onto the cushions around them. Her own eyes started to droop, and before she knew it, she was drifting off into the darkness, her nerves eased slightly...

---

An evaluation. Owen couldn't believe this. He was brand new, and he already had to take some sort of test for his power. It was infuriating. Still, he had no other choice, and so he found himself standing outside the classroom door on the day, and he entered.

It was strange, seeing no desks and the floor covered in cushions, but Owen accepted it and found a place that wasn't occupied, sitting cross-legged. While he waited for the start time, he gazed about the room, curious about the other students this school held. He could see a couple of familiar faces, namely Madison and Nicola, but there were a few others that he had seen around the school and within the initiate dorms.

Owen heard the intercom turn on, and the room fell silent, listening attentively. He never heard a voice coming from it. Instead, he began to experience the most wonderful sensation. His body began to feel heavy. Before he knew it, he was lying on his side, his eyelids closing as well. It was with a smile on his face that he watched the room disappear, and he slid comfortably out of consciousness...

Louis sat next to Pepper, not knowing what to do. He looked around at the students. Some looked just as terrified, others not so much. Before he could say or do anything, the nurse started singing. Crap, her we go.... his head landing on the desk. Pepper... he was out cold.

Pepper looked over at Louis. Wow, looks like he just saw a ghost. Unlike her brother, Pepper was ready for anything. And wouldn't let a meer evaluation scare her. The nurse started to sing and she got suddenly tired. She place her head on the desk and watched Louis fall asleep. Good luck bro... her eyes closed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Uggg, what happened? He was lying on the ground. Staring up at the sky, he was actually under a canopy of forest trees. Getting up with a jolt, Louis looked around. Oh that's right, the evaluation. He got up, seeing a deer drinking from a pond. "Maybe he can help me! he ran over to the deer, "Hello! Can you help me? I am in this evaluation th..." Louis abruptly stopped in his tracks, horrified. The deer swung it's head up and turned around, revealing a horrific, deformed face. Oh my god.... he started to back up but tripped over a branch. Suddenly the deer crept towards him making a dreadful bellow. Louis heard some birds above him only to find out they were also just as ugly. "No! This can't be!" he sputtered out.

All at once it seemed like the forest was closing in on him, deadly creatures left and right. Louis panicked seeing a axe lying next to him. "Am I supposed to use this? On them? He didn't have much time to think before a rabid squirrel charged. "I'm sorry!" He yelled grabbing the axe. He swung... smash. He could feel the crack of bones and he squish of intestines under the axe. He dared not to look down but just the smell made him want to puke. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to think about it, the deformed/possessed animals looked like they were hungry. "Please forgive me!" he swung the axe, ready to aim....

Deformed Deer:

Pepper awoke to the sound of rain. Great, just what I needed. She thought to herself. She looked around. On one side was a vast open moor, the other enormous mountains and cave at the bottom. "Well what the hell am I..." she muttered to herself but was cut off by an ear splitting roar.

"What the?!" she covered her ears. After the roar died down she could see bright yellow eyes glaring at her from the cave. An enormous red dragon stepped out. "Who goes there?" it hissed, it's claws scrapping the earth. "Uh, I think I am supposed to fight you?" she wanted to run but held her ground. "Well then, come at me!" the dragon roared stomping the ground, spreading its wings and taking flight.

"Wait, it took that seriously?! Well, I guess this is an evaluation." She was about to change... What am I doing? What if I lose control? And besides, I have only ever changed when I am stressed out... But why am I not stressed out now?! No, there is no time for this. I need to hurry up and defeat him. she shook away all the thoughts. Pepper stood there for what seemed like forever and thought about stressful things, but tried to control her thoughts. Before she knew it she was her dragon.

Wow! I did it! she thought as she spread her wings and flew up towards the sun, seeing the outline of the red dragon. "Finally!" it hissed before roaring, then charged at her....

(Talk about cliff hangers!)

The light seemed to be playing tricks on her. Blurry and carefree, it danced for her, in circles, a pendulum of safety toying with her will to stay with it. Madison was stirring, on the floor, a floor which was musty and dripping with a repulsive cocktail of enigmatic substances. She blinked, clearing her eyes, but they could only go so far. Where was she? It was dark on all sides, and the dancing light was that of a bulb, connected to the ceiling by a rope, to which that was attached she did not know. She looked down at her feet, her bare feet, her clothes tattered and gray, loose-fitting and plain. It was prisoner garb. She was a prisoner. The girl rose, dizzy and a little nauseous, holding her head as it fought the air to rise. The ground was dirty and murky, and she quickly stepped back as her foot found a puddle. Yuck. The girl had to remind herself that this was all in her head, that there were bigger things to worry about than the ground.

Madison peered, squinting deeply into the darkness before her. A doorway was visible, yes, a doorway, but there was no barrier. She was free to leave. Free was a relative word, though, one that didn't apply to her as it would many others. Along with the doorway came figures, grotesque figures, squirming in the narrow spaces her eyes could pick up, purple-eyed and fisted. They moved erratically, moved in three hundred and sixty degrees, but their eyes always stayed on her. They were waiting for her to walk into the darkness.

If she did not have any training, she would be dead as soon as she stepped out. She would have run, she would have excited their lust for prey and would have been torn apart a few paces forward. If she didn't know her gift was conquerable, she would have cried and cried and braced for the pain. But instead, Madison gave a deep breath. She looked hard into the darkness. She had training. Those above her were watching. She would show them how strong she really was. So, face still set on intimidation, the girl brought herself away from the swinging lightbulb.

Step by step. Before long, Madison could not see a thing at all, feeling up the walls as she navigated through the narrow corridor that way before her. She couldn't see the hallucinations, but she kept a brave face, made no sound, even going to far as to grumble under her breath. She was the alpha. They were her's. She would occasionally brush against one down that lonely pathway, being greeted by the grumble of opposition. At one point she flinched. She could feel the hot breath on her neck, could hear the saliva against its teeth. Through all this, she stayed strong, and she stayed alive.

The hallway was getting long and repetitive, and she was inching further into the abysmal darkness. She was not used to being in darkness at all, let alone it being absolute. Her shoulder hit the wall over and over again, happening more and more often as the hallway progressed. She got more and more frustrated, it being harder and harder to look unaffected by the void she had been placed in. She was blind and they were not. It was then, suddenly, almost on a godsend, that she felt something brush her foot. Madison froze. Did she step on something? She had the fear of a spider, a rat or a snake, but it felt boxy, still and pathetic. No, it was an item. No, yes, no, that was definitely an item! Madison abandoned all tranquility, and even smiled, bending down to pick up whatever it was. Yes, of course, she could hallucinate items! Why didn't she think one up before!?

She found it quickly, toeing at the ground and clasping it in her hands upon discovery. It was a small box, cardboard and frail, but despite the damp floor, it was completely dry, almost untouched. She knew exactly what they were: matches! She reached inside, pulling one out and flicking it against the side. An orange flame burst from the wick, and she saw for the first time in what seemed to be ages. She saw a face directly in front of hers, an angler fish in personification, crystallized soullessness beating down at her from large black eyes. She jumped back as it rushed at her, knocking her down and biting at her. She fought to keep the matches unharmed, but her main focus was keeping herself unharmed. She landed in a puddle, and began to frantically kick at the air. It was leaning over her, and she could feel it getting closer in the darkness, reaching out at her to rip into her torso. She felt its teeth on her stomach, and immediately wacked at the source, punching hard at the head of the beast. It shattered, and she felt the pieces of its nonexistence fall and dissolve into the air.

Madison did not catch her breath long. The girl felt hot blood across her navel, but they were simple wounds, surface wounds. She spring up, spinning around and shouting. "You are mine!" They had born witness. She felt the matchbox after silence answered her, and was relieved to not be met by sogginess. Slowly, trembling, she reached for one, scared too see another face but eager to defend from the one that would be standing there. She flicked it to life, however, and there was nothing. The girl made sure to raise her hand to her face. It was grimy, but it was skin, human skin. She had to press on.

To the dissatisfaction of the girl, the air had gained a thickness. It seemed that the further she reached into the dungeon, the dingier the air became, and the harder she had to breath. It was almost as if the exit was the other way, like she was plunging into the depths of the chasm. It surely did not feel like the way out, and she began to panic. Did she miss a turn, a pathway branching from the other wall of the hallway?

No. She couldn't begin doubting herself. There had to be an exit down that way! They would not have made it if they didn't expect an outcome from it!

Suddenly, Madison's nose smashed into a wall, a hard surface. She looked up, and almost jumped back, her tired and tested mind expecting a monster at first, a ghoul or an enemy. She came to her senses, however. The girl smiled at her foolishness, but a distant wail reminded her of what was around her. She couldn't dwell. She couldn't laugh, or smile. They'd come for her if she did.

Madison frowned. Her mouth had become used to stressing itself downwards. She turned the corner, and it seemed like reaching this far rewarded her. A cool steel formed under her toes. She blinked. Was that a blade? She jumped off of it with an alarm, and grabbed at it. Her hand met an edge; dammit, she was being a fucking idiot. A cut came from the blunder, and she did her best to ignore, it, lighting another conserved match and going for the hilt. It was a small dagger, sharp as hell but light. It was perfect for her, a girl that was training her strength but could still barely lift a bag of cat food. She tested it in her palms, before taking it permanently in her right hand. In her left hand, the lit match and the small box. She now had a weapon. Madison could walk more freely.

This easiness of pace did not last for long, however. She blinked, almost smacking her face into what appeared to be...a door. The girl's heart welled. Had that been it? She'd spent close to an hour knocking into hallucinations, putting on a brave face and not succumbing to them. Had it all paid off? She grasped eagerly for the handle, and like a miner emerging from underground, was met with a light...

It was but another swaying lightbulb. This room was bigger, the space around the orbular lightspace dark and uninviting. She had lived in dark and uninviting for what seemed to be an eternity, however, and walked into the space with calm. Well, relative calm. She looked around desperately for a door, but could not find a wall. In fact, she could not find a hallucination. In a room that should have been teeming with squiggly characters, fidgety men with bullish faces or hunchback bipedal lions, tigers, and bears, there was nothing. She had been in a hall with them for what seemed to be an eternity, and now, she was alone. She smiled. She smiled and laughed, knowing that for the first time since she was six, she was in a dark room and alone.

She was not alone, though. A pair of eyes stared back at her, on either side of the lightbulb, tall as the ceiling itself and peeking out from the darkness. They shined with the glinted evil look of a spider, and lanky arms reached close to the foreground of the dark, slender fingers with yellowed nails. She got closer into the light, a light that still blinded her slightly, and saw the contorted face of the eight-foot fall woman, angrily clenching sharp teeth at her. Her body was shriveled, as if made to fit in a regular sized dress, a dress that her normal mother would have no problem wearing. This was not her normal mother. In a stopmotion split-second, its neutral frown twisted to a sharp-toothed smile, wicked and grotesque, and the lightbulb above her suddenly exploded. She yelped and jumped up, the matches tumbling from her hand. The absolute darkness poured into her vision, drowning her as the blinded girl dropped to the ground, desperately trying to regain this light source of hers. Madison's efforts were stopped as she felt the cold punch of something uncomfortable. Her back trickled from this discomfort, a stinging numbness. Madison's shaking hand stopped going for the matches, and switched its course of action to her lower back. The hilt of a blade stuck out. On that hilt, coiled liked barbed wire, was her new mother's hand.

She collapse on her belly with the force of the creature pulling it out, and before she could turn and slash with her dagger, she was spun over with the most violent of movements. She lay on her back, in the smearing infected pool of blood that had begun to form from her spine. She looked up at the darkness, grasping at what she could, finding the skeletal body of New Mother and pushing frantically at it. She moved like a spider, pinning her down with one erratic arm. Madison could not see her, but could feel her bony limbs, could hear her indistinguishable, hoarse whispering, the slim muscles in her undead neck cracking as her head moved almost entirely in circles. Her eyes were glass, and they glinted in the absence of light. Madison screamed in horror.

"Mother please!"

A sharp jab in her stomach alerted her that she was stabbed once more. Nails made incisions in her shoulder, and she felt the numb gravity of her death approaching. She looked up tearfully. "Stop it! Stop it, mother, I'm sorry!" She screamed with what she had.

It was then that the force of this beast seemed to be pushed off of her, a horde of different sounds filling the room, a deafening chorus of screams and hollers, roars and hisses, and New Mother's was the most prominent of them all. The crackling and splintering of bones breaking was all too real, but it was not Madison's. It was coming from the corner. From what the bleeding girl could make out, a flurry of bodies had convened violently in the corner. There were parts flying from the cluster, parts she could not identify. She did not care too much to stare. In this new adaptation to the darkness around her, Madison spotted something: a door. She held her intestines, eagerly limping to the goal, bleeding a lake that her saviors would remember her by.

She opened it, and all was quiet. New Mother's screams were vacant, dying out in a split second of stepping in. Madison was not gone, not yet. She was in one last silent room, one last figure standing before her.

It was Nicola.

She was not grotesque not warped or mortifying. She did not hiss, did not scurry towards her on levels of uncanny horror or even open her mouth. She just stared, stared at Madison with bored eyes, a sleepily frown, hat pulled down over her hair.

Madison had been through the depths of hell, and nothing was scarier than that last vision, a vision before everything faded.

She awoke in her desk with a start. The sky was black; she had been there all day. There was a taste in her mouth, a foul one, and she was shaking, a tremble she could not stop for the first minutes she was there. Despite it being evening, Madison did not move, did not speak or carry on with her day. She just sat there.

Madison Morse had completed the evaluation.

The rain was pounding down, hard. It was typical, seeing that it was September now, and the sunny skies had been driven away by gloomy clouds as the autumn breeze blew in with a chill that would run up her spine. It seemed like it was only yesterday that the cicadas were buzzing around, dive-bombing students and latching onto their shoulders like parasites. A small sigh escaped past her lips, blue eyes just as dull as the monotonous world outside. Everything seemed completely black and white, the mist that each drop brought, bending trees and the only colors that were around were the umbrellas that students held, clutching as they shied away from the weather.

A speck of lightning flashed past, and then there was the booming roar of thunder. Nicola couldn’t help but flinch back, her hands busying themselves with a half-solved gigaminx. Her fingers flicked each piece up and done, matching the colorful polyhedron on its sides, the only sound in the classroom supposedly being the crack and snap of her puzzle, some quiet gossip and chatter, but everything droned on and on.

One eye glanced up towards the clock on the wall, ticking with each every passing second, mouse-like scurries echoing throughout the room in its deathly still world, and the atmosphere seemed to gnaw at her very being to start a conversation. But she didn’t want to be thought of as the one idiot to break tension before an exam. It would break her concentration, and she’d fail.

An exam. Something she wouldn’t deny was her strongest point. Each one she would ace without question, and everything would be fine. But this was a school for gifted - not a normal, humanist-based education system. The academy never let the students catch a break, and you never knew when there would be an outbreak of one kid losing control of their power or if the next hallway you turned would have a monster trying to trample you before you reached the exit. It was like the school was a manifestation of a demon out to get every single one of them; not that it mattered in the end. They never went as far as getting another student killed.

… Or at least Nicola hoped so.

Out of the blue, the intercom crackled to life, an undulating voice echoing through the room, lulling every person present to sleep. It was slow and gradual, and a small yawn escaped her as she tried to sit back up or to blink the sudden rest out of her eyes. Nicola arched her back, stretching as everything became a blur, snapping to black as her eyelids closed. The moment she woke up, she would be somewhere else.

In the blink of an eye, everything changed.

One moment, she was in a barren, hollowed out classroom where the students might as well be zombies awaiting for their own demise wearing the obscure uniforms that the faculty provided. The next moment, she was standing in the middle of a blizzard, the world a lawn thick with frosted snow caking the surface, tucking the ground in a blanket of white.

It was night when she looked up, the sky a hazy monotone and not a single star lit the night sky, a kaleidoscope of nothing but black and white fragmenting one another. When she looked down at herself, she was wearing a large gray hoodie over a white shirt with black leggings, a brown satchel over her shoulder, and dark knit boots. Her blood red sword was grasped between her fingers, and blue eyes turned back towards the desolate sky, meteors thrusting in with a needle bill.

Everything was blazing red, burning the sky in an eternal hell as the oversized rocks began to plummet towards the earth, leaving craters on the surface as gravity did the work, fire trailing behind. It took Nicola a few moments to realize one was coming straight at her face as she stood in a daze until she could feel the heat pounding right onto her flesh, and bound up towards the roof of a building as she watched the damage.

The world had been thrown into hell pyre, the arid breeze blowing in as the blizzard continued to rage, vapor rising as snow melted into thin air, houses catching aflame. With shaky hands, Nicola took a deep breath, flinging a sword in the air and a sickening crackle sounded in the sky, a demon hacking up blood as it was impaled. Its wings crumpled uselessly in a heap in front of her, and as her sword drop back down and she caught it in her fist, green liquid splashing the ground as it pooled its way out of the hollow, nightmare-filled body.

The ground below her jammed itself, vibrations shaking the air as the earth began to quake, rumbling the foundations of this evaluation. A ’tch’ escaped her throat, Nicola shifting her leg as she began to sprint, the sound of her boots crunching through the snow and announcing her presence as she bound from roof to roof with the grace of an assassin well-trained in their field.

Snowflakes collected in her hair as she skidded to a halt, and her nose and cheeks turned a rosy red from the cold, her breath billowing out with frosty puffs as she brought her hands up, hoping to regain feeling from the numbness that the bitter winds carried with them. It was a vain attempt as it didn’t work at all. It was short-lived as circles from underneath her, black hole-like pits, brought with them the creatures of the underworld, servants of Hades.

Some had armor glistening from every part of them, their blackened bodies crawling out each crater like zombies reanimating themselves to life. Others were draped in midnight cloaks, and there were still more that burned like flames of hell itself. A handful of them had horns and claws protruding from their heads or limbs, buff and large against her tiny figure. There was only one thing they all had in common.

The same thing that sent an electric beat through her heart, sending it into a sizzling panic, trembling as she swallowed a lump in her throat.

Their hollowed out, screaming eyes of hatred, brimming with passion as they threatened to kill her with the world on their fingertips. Nicola couldn’t help but pale as the number only seemed to increase. They were starting to close in on her, and mustering up her own courage, she let go of a loose red feather, readying her sword.

It drifted slowly down in front of her, and each ticking second only seemed to make everything more suspenseful, demons threatening to leap in at any moment, their claws driving in as saliva begin to drip from their mouths, the overwhelming scent of human tempting them in.

And the sword went crashing into the harmless feather, splitting into the myriad of prismatic quills that filled the air, gathering at her back and plunging themselves into a rapid burst of colors. A shrill cry filled the air, and one demon began a mad dash towards her, a fog falling over the world around her.

The swirl of feathers concocted themselves into one, and immediately, the sword in front of her became white, filled with crystalline lattices and ordained materials drifting from the edge. Black begin to eat away at her hair, staining the pure white color of each lock and strand until there wasn’t a speck of ashen splotches on them. Blue eyes transfigured themselves to crimson red, and a white dress ripped away at her old clothes, layered with feathers and veiled in translucence, black boots boosting her height up. Behind her, the quills morphed themselves into bladed swords, red pearls encrusting their base as they formed a series of makeshift wings.

If she had to fight this many demons, she should become a demon.

The evil spirit thrusted itself at her, and Nicola took a step back, drifting into the air as a lance tried to drive a stake through her, its footsteps storming against the ground in a staccato beat, and as it drew the tip of the blade into the air, time halted and her arm went back.

The weapons flung themselves at one another, sparks flying and the weapons clanged together, hers only a whirling blur as she blocked and deflected each blow. Projectiles flew, and with waves of her sword, she reflected them back towards their respective owners, clouds of dust flying into the air as bodies fell to the ground in an explosion of heat and shrapnel. Shreds of limbs collapsed in front of her went flying faster than she could blink, whizzing past and exploding.

When the dust settled, her original opponent stood there, completely unharmed and unscathed. The claw pulled back on an invisible string, flinging the carcasses of its fallen comrades like arrows blazing in a trail of red. Corpses wrenched themselves into the air, shattering glass and exploding buildings to ash as they missed their target.

Nicola soared through the air, altering her line as she dodged the projectiles, ziplining through until she drew close, the sheer velocity sending the demon flying back. The fiend flopped onto the floor, rolling as it flashed a menacing glare back at her.

In the blink of an eye, Nicola drew forward like a rocket, slashing across its chest as it flipped back. With annoyance, her bladed wings lifted a nearby car up from the air, the metal vehicle crashing straight towards the demon.

Another cloud of dust shattered in the air, the car exploding in a flurry as the demon jumped back, darting at her with its lance, hoping to play with her like a broken doll. It didn’t work. She stood bored, the crafted wings shielding her from the devastating attacks as Nicola let loose another swing.

There was a sudden whirring as it flew past her, grazing her cheek and a red outline came from where it had hit. The corners of her mouth twitched upward into a tiny smile as another whoosh! missed her. Nicola dashed to the side, the wings flaring out like a barrier before she went forward again, grabbing one of the blades on her back and switching to a dual-wielding style.

The demon’s lance caught each of her blows and turned them back, and their blades rang out, spinning and cycling around. They weren’t getting anywhere with these pointless maelstroms of strikes. Without another word, both swords joined the crafted wings and her hands manipulated their movements like a puppet master, sending them flying one by one at the demon, dashing right over.

At first, her tactics seemed completely flawed as the demon blocked them, a series of clangs! signalling her failure. However, the force of the blows knocked the lance right out of its claws, and impaled it. Shooting her arm to one side, it was sent flying into a building, glass raining down onto the ground as a river of green blood spewed out from the hole in its chest.

Bringing the bladed wings back to her, Nicola buckled down, coughing and biting back any words that would waste her breath. Deep breaths… deep breaths… In. Out. In. Out. Fuck it. It wasn’t working at all. Crawling to her knees, she stumbled back up with a groan, sweat pouring down her face as she glanced back at the carnage.

A lake of green went up to her ankles, her body splattered with the vile color and colors staining the previously pure dress.

Just when she thought she was done with her Evaluation, more demons arose, gulping down the bodies of her previous opponents and their strength filled up, black swirls snaking the ground and weaving around like cobras and Nicola let out an exasperated sigh. She had to keep going, didn’t she? As the next wave of demons came close, she only saw that they might as well be empowered versions of the old.

With one wave of her hand, the blands shot out blasts of crimson like lasers trailing the ground, sending off explosives with a pip! sound just on the edge of hearing, the world detonating in as large beeping sounds monitored the ground, striking each with lines of red. The surface around her darkened, clouds of smog emerging upon the floor, reeking of the stained blood.

More bodies were crushed, crashing down in useless heaps like paper being crumpled and thrown into the trash. Nicola stood there, in a ring of soot, and she drew in a deep breath, endless waves of fiends plummeting onto her. Slowly, she took steps back without looking, and the ground started crumpling. She bit her lip, casting a glance over her shoulder as she realized how high everything was, cars below decimated and other buildings completely obliterated.

As the demons came closer and backed her into a corner, Nicola took a deep breath before jumping back into a flip, leveling herself in the air as she flew, the demons chasing after her in a frenzy as they went into mid-air combat.

Nicola swung her sword, slicing limbs off one by one, and if she got lucky enough, bodies. Everything went flying in the air, shredding, ripping, slicing, green liquid. The longer she looked, the more cuts and wounds began to fill each corpse, dampening the ground below in a dark, deep green. The wounds leaked onto the floor, spilling as they reached a lake. It was getting harder to breath, her chest clenching.

With a small hiss, something suddenly wound its way around her ankle and a gasp escaped her lips as she was dragged from the air, gravity doing the rest as she was tossed from side to side, slamming the ground and cracking places under her weight. Concrete slabs struck into her body, blood welling up and bruises becoming a common sight to see on her. A cough escaped her, red leaving her mouth.

She didn’t have any time to prepare for the next attack as she was flung into the lake like a rag doll, the impact sending a tingling sensation through her spine as she submerged, and the last thing she heard was a faint hissing sound, sizzling and breaking.

Crimson eyes flung open, black hair a muddled mess as she glanced around, bubbles escaping her mouth. A sudden flood of ink squirted its way past her eyes, and she immediately turned around, her bladed wings soaked as one hand grabbed for a hilt. There was a sudden surge and immediately, she was restrained, demonic octopi closing in on her as they wrapped around her body.

Nicola narrowed her gaze, shooting daggers as she tried to break free, swinging her swords, but the weight of water rendered each movement useless. She was not fucking failing like this. Not to a bunch of pathetic octopi who couldn’t get any stupid thing done. With a sharp intake of air, her fingers curled themselves into a gun-shape, and a shock wave of blood red passed through her nails.

Immediately, the grasp around her loosened, and she made a dart for the surface, using her wings as a platform to boost the process. Only to get pulled down again by another group, their tentacles wrapping around her legs, and her hands reached for the shore, clinging on as though it were her only lifeline.

Clenching on, she bit her lips, allowing sparks of red to emit from her body, blasting the demons back towards the abyss. As everything around her crackled like lightning, Nicola pulled herself up and let out a deep heave of a breath, her shoulders hunched forward as she crawled away from the area. The water flew into a geyser above, setting out a rain, and everything felt colder, the familiar chill of the blizzard nipping back against her skin.

The bodies littered the floor before bursting like bombs, ticking away before their remnants scattered and flopped around like a fish out of water. It was disgusting to see the tentacles still moving around, and Nicola backed off closer, lurching onto her feet and using her sword as a hold, the tip screeching like nails on chalkboard as she dragged herself back towards the city.

Was the Evaluation over yet? How many more demons did she have to fend off from trying to eat her - dead or alive? Did they think human flesh was that tasty? Or was it because they had something against her for slaying their kind alive?

Her hat was soggy, and Nicola tossed the battered cap to the ground, stamping her foot onto it as she let out another groan. Fuck all of this. This was stupid.

Just as she thought that everything would go back to normal, everything seemed to rewind and she was back in a non-destroyed city, the meteors flying across the sky in their orbits before they land on the world again. Except, this was different. As soon as she got back to the very same roof as before, demons lunged forward, and her bladed wings shot them all down, spreading out like the spikes of a porcupine and ejecting.
Dust clouds hazed over the world again, and Nicola glanced back up, her eyes bloodshot and her body battered. Another ’tch’ escaped past her lips, coughs escaping her as her heart constricted itself. Fuck you, asthma. Just, fuck you. She forced herself to keep running, her steps heavy against the floor as she deflected claws against blade, tails against sword, teeth against ragged edges.

Empty, hollow shells clustered on the floor in her wake, piling up one by one as they all attacked. Her movements were beginning to slow down in a staggering dance, and in an empty clearing, she took shelter in the parking lot. The effort to find a decent place to hide was painstaking, and she leaned back onto a column for support, trying to catch her breath before she wound up collapsing.

Black hair was matted with blood, and her eyelids felt heavy like weights of cement were falling upon them, trying to force her to sleep. There was a click! behind her, and immediately, Nicola got back onto her feet, looking around for the source. Nothing seemed around. But this wasn’t real. Nothing in this world was real.

Readying her bladed wings behind her, she held her hand up, swinging her arm forward and shooting everything around as red beams filled the ceiling, blasting everything around and sending dust and heat into the air.

Nothing emerged. Not a single shrill cry or shriek or hoarse roar. Did she miss? As she heard a whirring sound behind her, Nicola’s eyes widened and she twisted into the air, dodging a giant claw that had ripped its way into the parking lot. A maddening laugh filled the sky, ringing in her throbbing head, and she immediately began to run towards the exit, concrete falling from above her like hail as explosions beeped and detonated.

The bombs seemed to be exploding faster than she was sprinting, and the final wave knocked her forward off her feet and straight into the snow. Piles of snow filled her hair, and she let out a hacking fit, directing the bladed wings to lift herself off the ground. Nicola immediately darted to the rooftop of another building, landing with clumsy feet as she panted.

Why was this still going?

Taking a seat on the edge, she glanced back, rivers of green liquid filling the city’s empty streets, walls splattered and glass floating atop the surface. Snow was eaten away as the carnage drew closer like acid, corpses trashing the place like a garbage dump.

A snap sounded in front of her, and her head turned back, a shaky breath escaping her as she narrowly deflected a red arrow flying straight at her chest. Crimson eyes narrowed, and she readied her blades, the ground below trembling as the final demon emerged.

Bodies below flew into the air, being absorbed by the giant mass of black clouds gathering like a black hole, sucking everything dry clean like a vacuum. Craters below opened, more demons reemerging and coming to life from the underworld like the dead rising from their graves. Goddamn, this might as well be the strongest fucking demon in existence if it was going to swallow all of that energy.

Nicola gulped, and her stomach sank as the shadow finally came into detail, sucking the color out of everything, growing in size and power as it absorbed countless demons. Its body was inverted upside-down, hollow, and the maddening laugh filled the air again. A blue dress, white head, and gears of a clock for the lower torso. A kaleidoscope of a dimmed out, rainbow glyph shattered the sky from its position, hollow black eyes staring down at her as crimson lips were permanently stretched into a smile.

She groaned, her hands flying up to her ears as she tried to block out the noise, but it forever continued to ring through her mind. Shaking her head, she took a deep breath, her hands slowly moving away from her ears before they shot forward, directing her bladed wings towards the demon, starting explosions and waves of nuclear force, without a single dent.

Dust filled the air, and shrapnels blew back, her feet beginning to lose their firm grip on the ground. Without another thought, the blades disappeared, reemerging closer to the demon in portals with red glyphs surrounding them, slicing off at the dress and fabric, but no true damage.

As it continued to give its hysterical, psychotic laugh, slabs of concrete and destroyed buildings filled the air in shreds, bringing a complete shadow over the gray skies, street lamps and cars gravitating towards the demon. The first thing that struck Nicola was how quiet it suddenly was, and she was glad that the laughing had stopped so she could concentrate.

And it came back, tons of objects wrenching themselves from their pull and shooting straight at her. With an exhausted breath of air, Nicola quickly ziplined past everything, bringing her hands into a gun shape and sending bullets of red back at the demon.

Booming explosions filled the sky, waves of heat and dust collecting around, fire silhouetting her figure.

Before giving the demon another chance to get back up, Nicola flung her blades back, her hand swinging itself before they levitated forward, shooting like an arrow. The demon quickly used its gears as a barrier, the bladed wings clanging back and falling short onto the ground. As they kept themselves lunging forward, Nicola’s hands grasped thin air, a black blade appearing in front of her, lined with blood red.

Twisting it behind her, the demon dodging and more concentrated on the white wings that kept honing in on it like missiles, a bright light came, and suddenly, it was right in her face just as she tossed the black sword like a javelin spear out of her hands, a trail of black paint following after it as it splattered in, completely red, blotching like blood.

There was a sickening sound of liquid splashing, the pool of red on the demon spreading like a virus as it dug its way into the core, welling up as though it were a geyser and darkening itself before it began to burn, fires aflame.

Red smog emerged and while it kept laughing, the demon fell to the floor, knocking over buildings with its limp arms and gears as there was a crash, a sound wave exploding from impact.

Letting out a sigh of relief, a flash of light brought her white blades back to their winged form behind her, and one hand came up, wiping her forehead from sweat. Her eyes closed and she waited for the Evaluation to finally end. That had to be it, right? Of course it should be it. That was the strongest demon possible.

But that was way too easy.

Of course it wouldn’t end just like that.

Wedges of concrete flew right past her, and Nicola paled, her eyes widening as she looked behind to see glass shattering, a single bead of sweat falling down her forehead to the side of her cheek.

Her fingers curled into fists, and she turned around to hear that same sick, disgusting laugh and the demon reemerging from where she thought she had ended it. As if to spite her, clouds began to form, new demonic minions spawning from the gears, their bodies only an astral night sky as beams of stars and red spewed out of their wands, honing in like lasers on her.

Drawing her bladed wings, Nicola shielded herself and leaped into the air. She drifted where she was, her mind trying to fly past and formulate new ideas, only for another building to rip its way towards her, spinning through the air, crashing at her and sending her flying back like a line of parked cars, careening as it dug her through a building. Another slab of concrete exploded by her into shrapnels. Windows blew out, glass shattering and raining down on the sidewalks.

Nicola tried to shift herself back up, but her leg was completely crushed by stone, blood pooling out from the injury, and her head dripping and matted with red. Her bladed swords had been crushed, and her hair slowly faded towards white again, the demon right in front of her as it continued to laugh in that cackling manner. Like a witch.

Her eyes slowly began to get hazy, black spots appearing at the corners of her vision, and she took deep breaths, her hands curling into a gun form right in front of her. There was no fucking way she was losing now.

Not after everything that she went through to get to this point.

Fueling whatever energy she had left in her, a large blast of red shredded from the tips of her fingers, snaking around of her arms before it loosened itself, snapping with a crack in gunfire. The bullet struck right through the demon’s chest, leaving a dent through its heart, and finally everything became clear.

It wasn’t laughing.

It was crying.

Her eyes finally closed, and her body went limp, her head falling onto her chest as she blacked out. In almost an instant, she woke with a start, smacking her knee into the desk, and rattling the contents inside it. Wincing, Nicola coughed, glancing around with a hazy vision.

Rain was still pouring. Slowly, she turned her hands forward, one word ringing through her mind: Success. She did it. She beat the demon. She completed the Evaluation. Letting out a sigh of relief, Nicola’s eyes turned over to the other students. Was she the first one up? She couldn’t tell.

Blue eyes glanced towards the window, and she brought a hand up to readjust her hat, and she watched the rain fall down the glass panels, pattering it with tremendous force. She was only scarcely aware that her body was trembling, her skin white, and beads of sweat were running down her face like a river. The half-solved gigaminx stood upright on her table, and her hands reached for it, trying to distract herself from what happened.

Goddammit.

Do demons like that exist in real life? For all the hope and times she hadn’t doubted her capabilities, Nicola suddenly began to wonder if she had limits. If she could face a demon like that without dying. What would Madison think? Would she be able to? How much damage would she have to do? How many cities would be destroyed? What would happen?

At 9:24 AM, Nicola Kresnik completed the Evaluation.

Still crying, she ran away from the strange figure. How did I do that? Did I blind it?" She wondered, still running further. A breeze ruffled the trees, and sweet smells drifted up her sharp nose. "A calming sensation" as she called it. A calmed smile arose on her face.

After minutes of jogging her way through the forest, there was a gravel path. He's not following me still, right? Careless, she slowly walked down the path. Animals skipped towards a river, which seemed to by drying up by the second. The sun was shining brightly, and the animals looked so very thirsty! She took her water-bottle and poured its contents into the dried-up stream. The animals made cute noises, as if they were thanking her. She skipped away, heading into a brand new biome.

A dessert was all she was greeted by. Scorpions and lizards and snakes slithered in zig-zag patterns trying to avoid the many cacti plants dotted across the dessert. She screamed, sweat wetting the sand in which she was standing on. She started to run - more like a jog - through the hot land.

Several moments later, she was greeted by a beach-y area. "Hello, again!" Hissed a voice, "You killed my freaking eyes, so now I'm blind. I'm your friend, too..." Angela was simply frightened. Her screams became more wicked, until her voice seemed deep and... SCARY. "Hey, bitch. STOP IT RIGHT...NOW." She yelled, "Then...wo are you!" "Buttercup-star." Something clicked in her mind. Her old cat... Buttercup-star! Buttercup-star didn't have a very good relationship with Angela, due to his constant scratching and hissing, so it made sense for her to see him like this. "Go away, please." Apparently, he got very old and died from food-poisoning one day, a few days before she started school...

Buttercup-star sighed, his firey eyes slowly dying. The cat-like figure disappeared, allowing Angela to run through the sand.

Suddenly, she reached... a bar. These seem like memories...I remember this! No... Mom died before this! Sad clear tears madly trickled down her pale cheeks. Dad was getting achol to avoid the death of Buttercup-star and Mom... She thought. She watched her Dad drink shots, and wine, and many bottles of beer... "Daddy! No... please, no! NO! Don't do that!" She cried, a terrible feeling of grief, sadness and anger washing over her. She ran away, clueless of where she was running to.

She snapped awake, her desk wet. It was 9:59 AM when Angela Rebecca Robbinson finished her Evaluation.

OOC: I can always edit to add more and stuff... my posts were pretty crappy, though...

Brant tapped on the desk with a rhythmic pattern, still letting his eyes linger on the other students as he waited for this test to begin. Then, the bell rang though the room, causing him to lift his head as the room once more fell into silence other than the tapping of rain. He was half surprised when the intercom crackled to life and only the gentle sound of singing filled his ears and he felt his whole body - mostly his eyelids - grow heavy as he leaned back onto the chair. Within moments, he was out.

The next thing he knew, he was on the ground. The feeling of grass tickled him awake as the sound of a gentle wind whispered unknown words as it rustled the grass below him His eyes flickered open as he found trees surrounding him, going as far as he could see as he laid in the tiny clearing. Where was he? He gently pushed himself up, scanning the woods. Within moments, he realized that the woods was not as welcoming as he had thought upon awaking.

The forest was dark - dark grey storm clouds lurked above him - the gaps between them only revealing what seemed a pure black void as mountains spiked in the horizon, surrounding the forest and seemed to offer no escape. The wind did not carry gentle words, but instead seemed to foretell coming terror as the dead, naked trees crackled under the force of the wind. A chill ran down Brant’s spine as he recognized this forest yet...Didn’t. It reminded him of nightmares he had years ago, when he was just a young boy and his older brother found amusement in tormenting the young kid.

For all of his life before coming to Beata he had lived near a forest that always seemed scary for a young Brant, something that his brother Justin quickly took advantage of. He recalled his brother telling him stories of strange creatures that lurked in between the trees under the light of a full moon or horror-filled tales of dark, disturbing murders taking place in the shadows. While now he would simply scoff at his brother for coming up with such crazy tales, as a kid he easily ate up his brother’s words thinking he knew best and that led to him having nightmares of being trapped in a forest such as this.

While he had forgotten about such fears, what had happened in Alaska during the camping trip made him realize one thing - that even though his brother had made up the monsters to simply scare him - they did truly exist. Brant didn’t want to stay to find out what might lurk within this dark, rather creepy forest, so a simple goal formed in his mind; escape.

His green gaze flickered around the clearing, his eyes already adjusting to the little light that the forest held. A faint sliver of moonlight caused something to sparkle, catching his gaze as he blinked in surprise at what he saw. Leaning on the trunk of a thick tree was a simple silver sword with a round shield lying next to it. He recognized them easily even thought they were so plain looking as his own and quickly hurried over to them.

Picking the sword from where it was leaning, he turned to the side slightly to give it a few swings, making sure the balance of the blade was correct just in case. The way it cut the air was a natural feeling to Brant - it was something he had spent a good amount of time learning how to use a sword. His gift required close range to be effective in combat so it was important for him to know how to protect himself in such tight quarters if such a need to fight arises. Turning the blade in his hand, he quickly stabbed it into the ground before he leaned down to pick up the shield.

He turned the shield around in his hands, finding the straps that would hold it to place on his arm. Brant wasted no time in equpting it, moving his left arm around once the shield was on, making sure it was comfortable for him to use. A soft grin flickered on his face as he reached down to pull his sword from where he had planted it, feeling very much prepared now that he had his weapons in hands. Swinging his sword once more for good measure, he stepped into the shadows of the trees and let them swallow him.

His gaze traveled the path he was walking, wondering how he had arrived to this location. But, he quickly pushed that question away as he would have plenty of time to figure that out once he was out of here. Never once did it cross his mind that this was a nightmare of sorts like those had those years ago. Instead, he tried to focus on where he was heading - something he had no idea about. There was no clear path for him to walk as he stepped over roots and avoided low hanging branches. It was an endless forest, and all he could do was hope that he was going the right way.

For what seemed like hours he kept walking forward with no clear goal to reach, every once in a while swinging his blade forward to take care of a branch in his way. They would always crack as they easily broke - dead and dry. He made a note to avoid breathing fire near any of these trees lest he want a forest fire to break out. Soon, he found himself walking what seemed like a clear path, his eyes remaining on the ground in front of him so he could step around anything that laid in his path.

The sound of something cracking suddenly echoed through the silent forest, causing Brant to come to a stop as he lifted his sword so he could slash at whatever came charging out of the thick forest, but nothing came. His eyes scanned around him, before a sickening feeling ran through him. The sound had come from above him. He barely had a time to dart his eyes upward to see a black shadow crouched on a tree branch before it gave away from the weight and came crashing down upon him.

In a quick, fluid motion, Brant rolled forward as the branch struck the place he had been moments earlier. He turned the moment he was back on his feet, his sword held outstretched, ready for a fight, but it wavered the moment he saw what crouched before him. The easier way to describe it was that it was a creature from a nightmare. It looked human, but it sure wasn’t. It was a dark gray color - or perhaps it was truly white and the shadows made it looked as it did - and it had pure black eyes as it stared at him with a feral growl. It was holding itself close to the ground, on all four but it limbs seemed to be all the wrong length - he was sure walking on all fours was the only way it could move. It was simply grotesque as it let out an inhuman roar, revealing razor sharp white teeth tipped in red - tipped in blood.

And with that roar - or perhaps it was a scream - it charged forward on skittering legs. Still in shock from what was charging at him, Brant barely reacted in time of raising his shield as the thing crashed into him, causing him to slide backwards from the sheer force of it. He braced himself as he pushed himself forward, shoving the shield back at the monster as it was forced back. Taking the moment, he lowered his shield as he swung with his sword. The sound of flesh being torn open - followed by another scream from the monster - filled the air as black blood poured from the wound and Brant danced away in a hope of staying out of the creature’s range.

The black, feral eyes of the creature glinted as it charged forward once more, this time leaning up somehow on its unbalanced back legs and gripped Brant’s shield when the boy tried to raise it again. A sudden wrenching pain flashed in his arm as the monster pulled back, trying to tear the shield away from Brant to reach him, but the straps kept it held on his arms. The pain grew as he attempted to pull himself from the monster’s grip, but he was unable to even attempt to undo the straps with no hands so he did what he could - he closed his eyes to block out the pain and stabbed his sword in hopes of striking the creature.

The pressure on his shield disappeared as his arm cried out in relief. His eyes flickered open to see the creature’s lifeless eyes staring into his own as his sword sat straight through the creature’s throat as black blood bubbled around the wound and down the length of his sword. No sounds left Brant’s throat as he quickly pushed the creature away with his shield in pure panic, causing it to fall free from his sword and onto the forest floor below. He stumbled backwards as a dark pool started to form below the creature’s throat, doing his best not to throw up as he turned and charged into the forest - wanting to escape whatever nightmare he had stumbled into.

Racing through the forest, he barely noticed cold breeze that rustled through the forest - the winds of an oncoming storm. The sky had turned almost pure black as the clouds grew dense, the whole forest seeming to quiver a light flashed in the distance, followed by sound of thunder within a matter of moments. The signs of a downpour soon became clear to Brant as he put a spring into his step, hoping to escape this place before the rain would start but the trees seemed to go on forever. Would he ever escape?

The storm grew closer and closer, but Brant was forced to come to a stop as he reached a clearing and the sound of thunder split the air as lightning lit up the area, revealing shapes hidden in the dead branches as they laid in wait for him. He even caught sight of a few in the trees just behind him - he was surrounded. He gritted his teeth as he raised his sword and readied his shield, watching as the lightning faded and the creatures stepped into the shadow. Looking around, he saw eight in total - some in the trees while others crouched on the ground.

There was one of the creatures that stood out, mainly because it looked more human-ish. It stood upright, its body covered in random pieces of armor caked with dry blood as if they were trophies from those who had fell to its claws. Speaking of claws, it raised one of its clawed hands at him, pointing before it hissed something. Whatever he had said, it caused the other seven to charge forward and leap from the trees.
Brant quickly fell into a fighting stance, spinning to face the closest one and lashed out with his shield, smashing it in the face to drive it back before he turned and slashed at the next two that drew to close. However, when he turned to face the next one, he found one leaping straight at his face. The creature bowled into him, knocking the both of them to the ground as his weapon slipped from his grasp and landed just out of reach as he hit the ground, all of the wind escaping from his lungs.

The creature pinned him down by the arms, letting out a scream as it bared its blood-stained teeth only to reveal that it had much, much more than a normal creature should have. Attempting to gathering his breath back, he felt his throat heat up in that moment and unleashed a billow of flames straight into the open maw of the creature, causing it to stumble back with a scream and release the weight on him. In a quick second of thinking, he kicked out with his feet, sending the creature to the ground as he rolled to the side.

His hands quickly wrapped around his sword as he forced himself to his knees. The whole thing had taken only a few seconds and barely managed to get his shield up in time to deflect the next monster as it came screaming at him before he pushed it back. Lightning flashed in the dark sky above, bathing the whole clearing in white light as the thunder echoed - almost deafening at how loud it was. Brant barely had time to hear the creaking of wood and to see the shadow falling over him as he dove forward as another resounding crash flared behind him.

The sound of a new crackling source filled his ears as Brant glanced over his shoulder to see a big tree lying the span of the clearing - the truck having snapped under the force of lightning. His breath caught in his throat as he saw fire quickly spread across the truck of it, happily eating the fuel the dead bark gave it. The flames cast a pale glow across the clearing, revealing that three of the strange creatures still lingered with him, but none was the armored leader. He was relieved at that, as he knew he had to escape the forest now before the fire consumed the whole place.

A scream filled the air as Brant spun his head around to see one of the creatures charging at him, the fire casting an eerie glow onto the white skin of the creature. Dropping to his knee, he raised his shield as a quick plan formed in his mind. As the creature struck the shield, Brant let out a huff as he pulled the shield over his head - carrying the monster with it before he pushed outwards and sent the creature tumbling into the burning log. The moment its body hit the flames, it let out another ear-shattering scream as the flames happily lapped at the new fuel source and within moments the creature was thrashing in pain before growing still.

He barely had time to even think of what he had done before the sound of more pounding footsteps filled the air. Turning, he found the other two coming toward him, spitting hisses and unknown words his way. Gripping his sword, he turned to the side and rolled, attempting to get out of their path but the one closest to him quickly caught on and lashed out with his unworldly long arm. Claws ripped past Brant’s ribs, causing pain to run up his body as he tumbled away from it.
While he was able to land on his feet, the pain that flared in his side caused him to stumble on his recovery as he gritted his teeth. He turned to face them as he quickly pushed the pain away, knowing that it would be the least of his worry if he was unable to fight these monsters off. He raised his shield as the other two rammed toward him but while one bumped into the shield, the one that had slashed him proved to be more clever and darted to the side as Brant held back the first one and leaped at him.

Claws dug into his shoulders as he crashed to the ground once more, this time his sword remaining in his grip. The creature hissed at him as Brant rolled onto his back - having landed on his side - and as he gritted his teeth, shoved his sword the best he could into the creature’s side. The creature screamed as Brant pulled his legs up toward his chest and kicked out at the pale monster, knocking it away as black blood spattered him and the grass around him as his sword was pulled out of the creature’s wound.

Rolling to his feet, he hurried to where the downed creature was and stabbed it in the stomach as it laid on its back. Its movement grew still as he pulled his sword away and took a few steps back to stare at the last remaining monster. It crouched as it stared at him as if deciding if he wanted to run forward but fear suddenly flashed in its feral eyes and it turned and fled. Brant raised an eyebrow in confusement, wondering why it had decided to suddenly flee. The hair on the back suddenly prickled as he realized why, hearing the sound of heavy breathing behind him.

He had started to turn but suddenly a heavy arm swung into his side, sending him rolling across the clearing as his sword flew from his grasp. Pain flared through his back as he stuck a tree that had luckily not had been set alight by the growing forest fire. Sticks rained from the branches above, having been shook though from the force of him striking the tree as he attempted to force himself to sit upright as he watched the shape of his attacker slowly move toward him.

Bathed in the light of the flames, he could make out the figure of the armored creature as it lumbered its way toward him. Thunder echoed above as lightning flashed behind the monster, followed by the sound of rain as a downpour started. The flames hissed as the rain attempted to snuff them out, but even against the heavy rain, they refused to go out. Steam and smoke rose from the undying flames, kindling with the fuel source that the dead trees so graciously gave them.

As the creature drew closer, Brant glanced around in a vain attempt to find his sword. Despite the downpour, smoke and stream making it harder and harder to see by every moment, he spotted his sword as it reflected the orange glow of the flames as they spread from tree to tree. With no weapon close to him, panic filled Brant as he grabbed the only thing he could and raised it out like a sword - a simple stick.

The armored being came to a halt not far from Brant, its black beady eyes lingering on the stick before a strange heaving, growling-like sound escaped from its throat. At first, he was unsure what to make out the noise before realizing it was simply laughing. Mocking him for thinking a stick would save him. Almost an angry blush flickered across his face as he felt his throat grow warm like always, quickly growing hotter as the creature kept going on with its wheezing laugh. Finally, the creature took another step forward as its raised its claw to slashed at Brant, and the boy opened his mouth and unleashed a torrent of hot, searing flames straight at the creature’s face.

It drew back with a scream of surprise, stumbling away as its claws flew up to protect its face. Taking the moment of opportunity, Brant rolled to the side before rising to his feet as he focused on his sword and charged forward. It seemed so far away, and the creature now brimming with rage, bounded after him with another scream - this one filled with anger and rage. The sound of the creature grew louder and louder, causing Brant to bit his lip as he glanced over his shoulder. His sword had simply slid too far away - he wasn’t going to make it before this creature overtook him.

So, in a quick motion he raised his shielded arm and grabbed the bindings that kept the shield to his arm with his other hand, quickly attempting to undo them as he ran toward his sword. Finally, the straps slipped loose and he gripped his shield before it could fall and threw it like a giant frisbee at the chasing creature. Spinning through the air, it nailed the creature in the chest, bringing him to a halt as the air left its lungs.

Finally reaching the sword, Brant dropped to his knees and gripped the sword with both hands as he turned face the creature. It was already almost on top of him - the shield having only stopped it for a few moments. Upon reaching him, it wasted on time in slashing at him with its claws only to be stopped as Brant titled the sword to block the blow. He pushed himself to his feet, causing the creature to stumble backwards as Brant slashed at the creature but it stepped out of the range of the sword before darting forward to slash at him only for Brant to block once more.

This soon became a dance of sorts as they repeated the cycle, rain pouring down on the battlefield as the inferno continued to grow, the downpour doing nothing to quell the intensity of it. Finally, Brant grew tired of this game so when he was about to slash at the creature, he instead decided to simply stab his blade forward, taking the monster by surprise as the blade buried itself into its chest. He pulled the sword out of the creature as it fell onto his knees, and took the moment to slash his sword toward the creature’s neck - taking off its head in one fell swoop.

Black blood burst from the creature’s neck as the head went rolling across the soaking field, Brant taking a step away as he attempted to catch his breath as the headless body slumped to the ground. He quickly turned his gaze away, attempting to keep the bile from rising in his throat as the rain soaked his whole body. As the rush from the battle faded, he slowly became aware of how much he truly hurt as he forced himself to walk around the corpse and toward where his shield had landed.

Gently picking up it up as he attempted to block out all the pain that he felt, he rebounded it onto his arm. Once it was on, he scanned the clearing to see that the forest fire was well out of control. This clearing was the only safe place from all of the flames, but once again the goal he had bubbled in his head; escape. More of those creatures were still out there, and remaining in an open spot like this was a bad idea as they could simply surround him. So, he raised his shield above his head as he took in a deep breath before charging into the burning forest.

Heat rolled into Brant like a steamroller, almost unbearable as he made his way through the smoke and steamed filled forest. Sweat quickly formed on his brow as he did his best to avoid whatever stood in his path with sometimes the sound of a burning twig landing on his shield before rolling off. Every once in awhile he would find a burning branch lying on his way which he would easily clear with a leap over it. This was how it was as he raced through the burning forest, coughing as the smoke grew thicker and thicker.

The sound of movement behind him caught Brant’s attention as he panted, stopping as sweat rolled down his face and arms. Glancing over his shoulder, he could make out many different figures in the smoke, only lit up by the flames that surrounded them all. A soft curse escaped him as he quickly turned and kept on running down the path he was on, tightening the grip on his sword.

The rain pounding on his shield along with the sound of his ragged breaths and thunder ringing in the distance made it hard to hear the sound of the creatures chasing after him, but he knew they were there as the forest continued to fall apart around him. Suddenly, the cracking sound of a branch tearing away from a tree filled the air as a burning branch landing in front of him. A gasp escaped Brant as he attempted to slide to a stop to avoid it, but the storm had turned the ground below him to mud and he easily slipped, barely missing the flaming branch.

Mud splashed around him as he hit the ground, closing his eyes to keep the mud from blinding him. The sound of the creatures became all the more louder, clearly growing excited by seeing their prey fall to the ground like that. Brant attempted to push himself up, getting to his knees when his eyes widen. He spun to see that one of the creatures had broke away from the pack, and was loping toward him with an excited screech. Bracing himself as he held out his shield to protect him, the creature clashed into him but Brant simply used the momentum of the pale being to throw him into a burning tree before rising to his feet and darting away from the every drawing closer mob.

However, he soon found himself sliding to a stop once more. He hadn’t realized how far he had gone, but he found himself at the edge of the forest, a mountain looming over him. But a wall of the pale creatures stood before him, their black eyes quickly locking onto them. Behind them was a cave, and his way out. Or at least he figured it was, as it was glowing a blindly white as if he was in fact in a tunnel and this was the way out to freedom.

He gasped, attempting to catch his breath as he grimaced as he shook the mud and black blood from his sword, trying to figure out how to get past the roadblock. He spared a glance at the group that had been chasing him, which had come to a stop as they attempted to spread out in the burning forest to circle him and give him no chance to escape. There was to many - he couldn’t fight all of them. They were like a pack of wild animals - they would use teamwork to take down their prey and would simply overwhelm him. Meaning that he needed to escape now before they decided to do so.

So, with a deep breath (only to cough because of all the smoke) he charged forward at the line, only for them to race up to meet him. He raised his shield as he drew close to them, before he jumped right before he was about to run into the group. His shield landed on the back of one of the creatures as Brant rolled over it, hitting the ground and stumbling on the landing. Before the monsters could turn to attack him, Brant pushed off and sprinted toward the blinding light, closing his eyes as he reached out toward it. He had to make it. He had to make it!

His eyes flickered open as the felt the cold kiss of metal touched his cheek. He blinked, half confused on where he was when he noticed that the weight of his shield was missing from his arm and the pain he had felt moments ago was suddenly gone. He forced himself up, groggily glancing around to see other students sleeping as they sat in their desks. Everything came rushing back to him, and he almost wanted to let out a laugh for forgetting that the whole thing had been a test. And he had been so worried about dying...The smile that he held for a second quickly faded as he glanced from student to student, some already awake.

Dreams were always such a strange thing - your subconscious linking random things as you drifted in unconsciousness for you to experience. It was so easy to forget that they were simply that - dreams, unable to hurt you. But what he had felt? It was not a dream, it had been a nightmare. He faintly recalled them explaining about them forming what they would experience, but he was sure his own childhood fears had played a big part in his test. But he had made it, hadn’t he? But he had to wonder if the others would fare just as well as him.

However, as he scanned the room never once did he even think about the time to see how long it had been since he had fallen asleep. But the clock read 10:13; it had been a little less then an hour (seven minutes less to be exact) since he had fallen asleep, but yet many students still remained lost in their evaluation.

As soon as Sophia heard the voice over the intercom, she placed her head down on her desk letting the music speak, which allowed her to fall asleep faster. Luckily there was a cushion for her to rest her head on, and not let her head sit against a hard desk. Her eyes closed, and her breathing steadied, and she fell asleep soon to awake to a not so real world.

When Sophie opened her eyes, she was laying in a bed, but it wasn't the one she knew at the school. She sat up, and looked around. She was back in her room at home. The walls were a light purple, her floors were still that same dark wood floor. Her bed was still that same canopy bed with the flower comforter. She looked at her door which was the same off white it had been for years. She turned and hung her legs off the edge of her bed. Across from her sat her dresser with that large ass mirror. Cute decorations cluttered the top of the dresser, ranging from small porcelain dolls she got every birthday, to small stuffed animals. Off to her left was french doors that lead to a small balcony. The semi-transparent curtains that usually covered it, were pulled off to each side of the doors. On her right was her door to go further into the house.

Sophie rubbed her eyes, and looked down at herself. She was wearing a a huge plain black t-shirt that probably be a small dress if she wanted it to be, and she was also wearing flower patterned pajama pants. Yep that was fitting for her. It was also something she normally wore when she went to sleep..

She pushed herself off her bed, and her feet touched the cold floor, but it didn't really bother her. She stretched for a moment, trying to shake her body of the drowsiness she felt, but it was in vain. Every morning it was in vain, but she did it anyway. She glanced over at her clock. It was 9:42 am on Saturday. Hmm.. Well she knew her parents weren't home at this point in time. Her little sister was probably at a day care at the moment, and her older brother.. well he was probably off doing drugs or hanging out with one of his many girlfriends.. She loved her brother.. but sometimes his actions weren't that great.

Anyway.. Sophia walked around her room for the moment before walked over to the french doors that lead to the balcony. She pulled open the doors, and flinched slightly at the bright light. Once her eyes adjusted she walked outside. Not really caring about how the cold concrete, that made up the balcony, would feel on her bare feet. Once she was out far enough the girl rested her elbows on the railing of the balcony. Yep this was Savannah alright.. The numerous amount of people, the different historic homes, the square she face each time she went onto her balcony. Yeah.. This was home alright..

When she went to look down at the street below, that's when she noticed that she had no gloves on her hands... Which was odd because she normally wore gloves.. With the new knowledge she had she lifted her arms off the balcony, and made her way back inside carefully. She didn't need to touch anything. She slowly walked over to her dresser and pulled open a bottom drawer with her foot, and shifted around the contents inside of it. Fear grew on her face.. Her gloves weren't were she normally put them? That was odd. She checked around in her other drawers but no luck.. It looked like she had to go gloveless.. Which was bad for her..

The spring girl gave off a sigh. So she needed to make it without gloves until she could get to the closest store.. Fantastic.. She would have to deal with some crappy gloves until her newest order of gloves arrived. She didn't bother with getting changed right now.. The girl walked over to her closed door. She took a deep breath and exhaled. She needed to focus if she wanted to get this door open without it turning to dust.  She focused as she quickly grabbed the door knob, and turned it, and pulled the door open. After the door was open, Sophie checked the knob for any cracks signifying that her door had begun to disintegrate but there was none! A smile made it's way onto her face at the fact. Ah! She had done it!

Carefully the girl walked out into the hall. All the bedrooms were upstairs. Even though the rooms were really small. Her house was pretty decent sized. Her family managed to fit everything neatly into the house. The her left was the door to her sister's room, to her right was a closet that held towels. Down a little ways was were the hallway diverted to the bathroom, and stairs. Straight ahead of her was her parent's bedroom, and across from the diversion in the hallway was her brother's bedroom.

Sophia didn't have a need for the bathroom for the moment so she walked down the hallway, turned and headed down the stairs. She was careful not to touch anything. She really needed to get a better control of that... Down once she reached the bottom of her stairs, to her left was the living room with her family's giant tv, and then to her right was the foyer. Straight ahead lead to the kitchen to which she was headed on this fine breezy Saturday morning. The girl continued walking straight ahead, and arrived into the kitchen. The kitchen was pretty open. With a large doorway that lead to the dining room, which was next to the foyer, and then there was a small bar that connected the kitchen and living room. Her house was pretty nice.

It was time for her to focus again.. The girl walked over to a cabinet, taking a few deep breaths really concentrating on controlling her gift, she opened the cabinet, and pulled out a bowl. But she wasn't done yet. Keeping her concentration, she walked over to another cabinet, opened it, and pulled down a box of fruity pebbles cereal. She carefully, and very painstakingly slow, made herself a bowl of cereal. After that she moved to the bar, and sat down an ate it slowly making sure she didn't destroy anything that she touched. Man this was going to be a pain.

After eating she got up and went and change clothes. She was getting ready to leave the house for she really needed to find some gloves, or else things would be bad.. After putting in some earrings, and grabbed her bag off the table the girl went out the door. So far she had been able to not disintegrate anything, but it was mentally exhausting. Her focusing was probably going to fail her soon, or she might pass out.. whichever was first..

As Sophia walked down the street, she kept her hands tucked in her Jacket pockets.. It was kind of an older jacket of her so she wasn't too worried about it turning to dust. Honestly it was the safest place for her hands at the moment. The spring noted that the city was filled with it's usual daytime noises. Sounds of cars, people walking, and talking. Yeah it was just another typical day, or so she thought..

Sophie finally reached the store near her house. It was a small simple clothing store. They usually carried gloves of some kind.. She hoped she still had some luck on her side. She really needed those gloves.. She pushed open the door with her arm, and body weight behind it instead of pushing it open with her hand. It was too risky. She didn't even bother to stop and look at anything else in the store. She went straight for the area where they usually had there gloves but to her surprise there wasn't any.. Fear grew inside her once more. Where were they? She needed them!

Quickly she found the nearest store attended she could and asked about gloves, and the lady just said they didn't have any in stock at the moment, and weren't expecting another shipment until Tuesday.. Just her luck... Sophie walked out of the store with a sigh... The best thing to do now would be to go home and hole herself up so she wouldn't touch anything. Once she reached her house she discovered that she didn't have her house key.. So she couldn't get back inside.. Her luck was just fucking shit today.. so instead she sat on the steps to her house waiting for either her parents to  get home or her brother.. but it was going to be a while.. and being alone in this city wasn't a good idea..

Amber eyes kind of watched the people as they passed by. None of them acknowledged the girl who sat on the steps to a house with her hands stuffed into her pockets. Nope not even one of them.. Sophie was board out of her mind.. Then she remembered that there was an ice cream shop near by. Well it was within walking distance. It was Leopold's Ice cream shop. It had amazing ice cream.. A lot of people always lined up to get some. But seeing how it was a cold day, and it was early in the morning there shouldn't be that many people. So it sounded like a good idea.. it beat sitting here for a couple hours.. The girl stood from her spot, and started the long walk towards the ice cream shop.

The ice cream was so good! It had been a while since she had been to this small little shop. Oh how she missed it. She sat at one of the numerous tables with a fancy cup of ice cream in front of her. She wasn't paying attention to anything around her, that was until she heard her name. Once she heard her name she perked up a little bit, and looked behind her slightly, to see a group of girls that she had known a while ago. The ones that had betrayed her. From what she could see they were laughing.. and making sneers at her.. Sophia's amber eyes went back to her ice cream.. great just what she needed today.. A group of girls she hated making fun of her at an ice cream shop.. This was just fantastic.. She slumped down into her chair slightly, but not really making it evident that she had heard them.. She carefully held her spoon in her hand, and drug it across the top of the ice cream she was eating.. running into those girls really killed her mood... and appetite..

Sophie tried focusing on her ice cream but it was kind of hard to with those girls nearby.. She didn't want to be here anymore but she needed to finish her ice cream or it would have been a waste of money. She let out a small sigh.. All of the sudden she heard her name once again. "Is that Sophia? She has gotten a lot uglier since the last time I saw her.. I bet she is still making up lies too.." One of the girls said loud enough for practically the whole shop to her..

Sophia didn't make a move to do anything.. "Just ignore her.. you have nothing to prove to her.. don't get worked up about it.. don't show weakness.." Sophia said to herself.. She picked up a small spoonful of ice cream, and ate it.. It was starting to taste worse now that those girls were here... Sophie let out another sigh, but once again it was quite.

The girl spoke up once again. "Her hair color looks good.. Well it looks good for being fake." Sophia clenched her teeth. Her hair color was real.. Didn't these girls have anything else better to do than to pick on some other girl? "I bet you she has become a whore too, like Ryan said she would. He is usually right about those kind of things." Another one of the girls said, then the same girl spoke up once again. "Hey Sophia, how are you enjoying your whorish ways?" The girl asked.

Sophia didn't bother to respond, or look at them. People in the shop just watched it happen without doing anything.. They all listened, but none of them cared.. No one cared.. Tears threatened to escape her amber eyes, but another voice spoke up. An adult male voice. "Ladies, I'm gonna have to ask you to leave. You are disturbing other guests." Sophia looked over to the table behind her to see that the Manager of the shop was talking to the girls.

The head girl stood from the table, her fancy purse hanging off her shoulder. "I don't see why we should leave. She was disturbing us first, with her ugliness." She said pointing at Sophia.

The manager gave off a sigh. "Leave now, before I call the cops."

Sophia felt slightly relieved as she saw the girls standing up and grabbing their things. They were grumbling slightly in response to the manager's order, but Sophia didn't care she was glad they were gone.

Once the girls left the manager walked past Sophia's table, and slipped a card onto it, and walked back to behind the counter to yell at some workers or something. Sophia blinked, and placed her spoon down.. She picked up the card and looked at it. It was a free ice cream card for her to use anytime she wanted.. Well that was certainly nice of him. Now that the girls were gone, Sophia felt a little better and resumed eating her ice cream, which was banana flavored.

After she finished her ice cream, she got up and thanked the Manager for helping her, and left the little shop only to be met with the group of four girls outside. Two of them managed to grab her arms, and the other stood behind her to make sure she didn't get away or break free as their leader addressed her. "Say Whore Sophia, how have you been since you left our school?" The main girl asked.

Sophia didn't answer.. She cast her eyes to the ground, focusing really hard to make sure the girls that were holding onto her didn't loose a shirt or anything like that, though the risk was really great. She was getting mentally exhausted from limiting her power so much. "Answer me!"

Sophia shook her head, her amber eyes still avoiding looking at the girl. "Let me go.."

"What was that? You want to be slapped? I can fulfill that want for you." The girl stepped forward her right hand drawn back ready to slap Sophie at a moments notice.

Sophia looked up at the girl as she moved closer.. No.. don't do that.. They were all in danger here! Well The other girls were not Sophie herself. She needed to get away.. She really needed to get away. She watched as the main girl drew back her hand some more, and then let it fly attempting to slap Sophia, but she quickly ducked a good amount making it hit the girl who was holding her left. Due to the force the girl on her left let go of her, and held her face instead. Sophia took this chance to pull her arm free from the other girl, and make a mad dash down the side walk, dodging people she went by.

It didn't take long for the other girls to be right behind her. Fear was the main emotion Sophia was feeling at the moment. She didn't want to use her gift, but she probably had to if she wanted to escape these girls.. Sophia kept running swiftly dodging everyone making sure she didn't run into anyone so that way she wouldn't slow down. The girls however were shoving everyone out of their way, which was slowing them down..  Sophia took the chance, and turned down an alley way, only to be met by a rather large fence.. Shit.. she didn't have a way she could climb over it. She glanced at her hands, then strongly willed her gift to get rid of the fence quickly. She touched the fence, and watched it crack faster than she had expected. It was worth the exhaustion.

The spring glanced behind her just in time to see the girls turn the corner. She looked back to the fence was almost gone, but she couldn't wait any longer. There was a big enough hole for her to get through. She quickly pushed herself through the hole, and out the other side. Instead of running straight down the  alley way, she climbed up a fire escape from an intersecting alleyway. This should work as a hiding spot.. People rarely looked up, and she didn't expect the girls to climb or have the strength to climb..

She tensed up as she saw the girls come into her field of view, they said a couple things before splitting up, and going down different parts of the alley way.. but they didn't notice her.. Which was good. Sophia sat down against the railing, her breathing heavy. Man she was tired. Both physically, and mentally.. It was a lot of strain for her to use her gift on command like that. She looked at her hands noticing the cracks that ran up her arm slightly.. Well that's what she got for using her gift faster than it was intended.

The spring took stayed up in the fire escape for a while. She didn't want to be caught by the girls again. Once she decided it was safe, Sophia got down from her perch. She didn't realize how tired she was until she had reached the ground. Her legs were stiff, and a little bit sore from the running. Her head hurt from using her gift, and now she had an obvious crack on her arm. She pulled her sleeve from her jacket down to cover her arms, and put her hood on. If the girls saw her again they wouldn't recognize her possibly. Sophia shook her head, and rubbed her temples a little bit before starting her slow walk back to her house.

She didn't run into anyone or anything on her way back, but when she had returned she had noticed a light on inside her house. A small amount of joy filled her to see that. All she wanted to do now was rest.. And someone being how signified that she could do that. The girl walked up the steps to her front door. She put her hand on the knob and opened it kind of fast still fearing if her power would possible destroy it, but it didn't. Well she willed it not too.. Which in turn hurt her head. Good.. This really hurt.. She walked inside, and closed the door behind her. Her brother looked behind him for he was sitting on the couch in the living room. He have her a smile and a wave, and she responded with a wave.

After her small interaction with her mute brother, she moved up sitars and back to her room. She didn't have to worry about opening her door again. Once she walked in she closed the door behind her with her foot. She stared at her bed, then looked at her bed side table. There was a nice neat pair of gloves sitting right there... How did she not notice those? Wait no.. those weren't there before hand. She would have noticed in her search for some gloves. Maybe her brother got them for her.. Ah whatever she didn't care. She quickly grabbed them putting them on feeling a lot safer than before. After doing so she threw off her jacket, changed into more comfortable clothes.

After getting back in comfortable clothes, she flopped down on her bed and curled up a little bit. She looked out the her glass french doors to the world outside, noting the sun was setting. She must have spent a long time at the ice cream parlor, on the run, and walking back.. Man she was tired..

Sophia stared at her ceiling for a little bit before her eyelids grew heavy. Soon her eyes closed and her amber colored eyes could not long be seen, and she let sleep claim her, even though she hadn't eaten dinner yet. She would probably wake up after and hour nap. Yeah.. that is most likely what would happen..

As soon as she felt like she was drifting off to sleep in her simulation, she woke up back in the classroom. Amber eyes drifted around the room trying to make sense of what had happened.. Though she wasn't too sure.. She looked at the boy who sat beside her.. He was still out.. She couldn't help but wonder what he was going through as she let out a yawn.. She was still tired.. but the good news was, she didn't disintegrate her desk during that.

She looked at the other students in the room. Some of them were awake.. Some of them weren't.. She couldn't help but wonder what the rest of them were going through. She wondered if what they were experiencing was stranger than hers, or basically just about as normal as hers? Sophia lifted her left hand and covered her mouth as she let out another yawn. She kind of wanted to stay awake a little longer. She wanted to see who else would wake up in the next few minutes.. but she was so tired.. it was going to be hard too..

Another yawn escaped her. She took one last look around the room, before placing her head back onto the cushion, and closed her eyes again. She was really tired.. sort of seemed like the effects of her dream came with her..Another yawn.. And the girl soon fell back asleep. Her chest rising and falling with even breaths.

At 9:32AM Sophia Nohr completed her Evaluation

Owen first became aware of his surroundings by the sound. There was a siren somewhere, echoing around him, filling the air with its high-pitched wailing noise. It was grating, pounding into his ears, stabbing at his temples. He furrowed his brow, listening to it for a moment. When he could determine there was no other immediate danger, he opened his eyes.

It was difficult for a moment to realize that he had indeed opened his eyes. He could barely tell if he was standing or lying on his back. Darkness pressed against his eyes as he stared into it, trying desperately to see anything. He shifted, turning his head to the side, and he could feel concrete against the back of his head, loose gravel shifting with his head. He blinked, determined to see, but couldn’t. It was several moments before he remembered the reason he was here.

Sitting up, Owen held out a hand and watched as a light filled the center of it, causing the air around him to glow dimly. Slowly, carefully, he stood up, using his free hand to help him. He discovered that he wore thick boots, laced halfway up his shins, and a thin jacket over a tight shirt made of some sort of athletic material. A backpack was hanging off of one of his shoulders. Curious, he pulled this down, setting it on the ground so he could reach it easier.

Owen opened the pouch, still holding his right hand aloft to give himself some light. As he dug through the backpack, he realized the one thing he was hoping was in there would not be. Even as he thought it, he reached the bottom of the supplies, and his heart sank slightly, disappointed that he had not found a flashlight. Instead, there was a length of rope, a box of band-aids, a small pack of gauze, the smallest tarp he had ever seen, and some long metal instrument. Aware that he could be attacked at any moment, Owen tucked everything back inside the bag and stood up, pulling it over both of his shoulders.

Looking around, Owen could tell that his own light wasn’t reaching very far. Exerting a small effort, he got the ball of light to grow larger, and it encompassed his hand. It did very little. Taking a deep breath, Owen willed the light to extend to his entire body. If anyone had been near him, they would have been blinded by the light that consumed his figure. However, it seemed to do even less than enlarging the ball in his hand had done. The light only extended to within a two foot radius, limiting his vision. It worried him. His light was usually his saving grace, but he didn’t even have it here.

He couldn’t stand here forever, despite desperately wanting to. He looked around him again, but he could only see vague, blurred shapes, slightly darker than the air surrounding him. He wished he hadn’t come to take this stupid evaluation. Owen took a deep breath and, with a foreboding sense of finality, took his first step forward.
While he walked, he listened desperately to everything around him. The siren continued to wail. Try as he might, Owen couldn’t see the source of the sound; instead, it came to him from all directions, almost as if there was a siren every few feet. It was infuriating. He already felt a headache coming, his temples throbbing gently, very little pain coming through at the moment. He gazed around him, attempting desperately to hear something, anything, from the darkness around him. He felt helpless, and he hated it, being unable to see anything better. In a normal room, his entire body being lit would have caused everything else around him to be bathed in a slight glow.

The first interesting thing to happen came after what felt like five minutes of walking. Owen had barely any warning as a sudden object appeared in the small circle of light he was allowed. He managed to avoid kicking it, although he nearly fell over it in his surprised. He had thought he was alone in what he now thought of as an empty airplane hangar.

The object that lay on the ground in front of him looked strange. It was a petite dome, seemingly made of thick, frosted glass, and it was bolted into the ground by large steel rivets. Owen walked a half circle around it, staring down, brow furrowed, assessing whether it was any threat to him and his health. Tentatively, he extended a foot and nudged it reluctantly, every nerve in his body prepared to leap back should it attack. However, all it did was begin to glow faintly.

Curiosity drove him closer. Owen knelt on the ground beside the dome, looking at the faded light that seemed to come from the middle of it. His eyes moved back and forth rapidly, looking for what, he didn’t know, but he knew there had to be some way to get it to glow more brightly. An idea struck him like a lightning bolt, and he stretched a hand forward, holding his breath in terrified but excited anticipation. Hesitating only a moment, Owen touched the top of the dome with his glowing hand.

The results were immediate. In one motion, the dome lit up, glowing in all directions like a spotlight, illuminating everything in the general area. At the same time, Owen was blasted backwards, lifted off his feet, and crash landing ten feet away from the lit dome. He landed hard on the pavement. The wind was knocked out of him, and his head smacked the ground, disorienting him for several moments.

He lay there, focusing on his breathing and eyesight, praying nothing too bad had happened. When he felt it was safe, he sat up gingerly, avoiding looking at the brightness of the dome, testing his body. His chest ached slightly, but not enough to prevent movement. The place where his head had hit the ground throbbed, causing his headache to increase in pain, the dull ache now growing to a near-stabbing pain. Hand shaking, he brought it up to where his head had hit the pavement. He pulled it back and could see a bright scarlet substance on his fingers. He was bleeding.

Pain was temporarily driven from his mind as he gazed at the blood, his mind going numb. Owen had always hated the sight of blood. It was gross, and it was never meant to be seen outside of the body. It took him a few tries to focus his eyes. He forced himself to grab his backpack, his hands shaking violently, and open it, digging for the gauze. It took him a couple of minutes to open the paper packaging and draw out the bandaging. He took it and pressed it to his head, holding it there for a while, unsure of how exactly to stick the white fluff to the injured spot due to the amount of hair that was there.

Owen didn’t move for a few minutes. His head was aching worse from the siren and from the injury he had sustained. Wetness leaked onto his fingers, and he pulled them away with the gauze pad, which was almost soaked with his blood. Somehow, the thought that he wouldn’t have enough gauze strengthened his resolve, and he reached into the backpack again, looking for something he could use. There was nothing else in the bag aside from a bit of rope.

A sudden idea came to his mind. Owen tugged his jacket off of him and set it to the side, grabbing the bottom of his shirt and pulling it over his head, baring his chest. He found that it wasn’t as cold as he had assumed it was. As he fumbled with the shirt and the rope, he realized that he wasn’t glowing anymore, something that he had to push aside in his mind as he folded up his shirt. With a sharp inhale, he pressed it to the side of his head where he was now bleeding freely, and, with the rope, he bound the shirt in place, knotting the rope around his head like a strange bandana.

It took Owen a few minutes after this to relax enough that he could put his jacket on without shaking too badly. His arms still feeling weak and his head screaming in pain, he pushed himself to his feet, shrugging the backpack on again. The dome shone brightly ahead of him and, finally, he could see his surroundings.
Buildings lined the street he stood on, which was littered with fallen debris and a couple of overturned cars. Owen was shocked he hadn’t run into any of them yet. It seemed he had been traveling in a straight line without any problems so far, but the siren that continued to echo in the distance had grown louder, almost as if it were alerting someone or something to his presence in the area. Looking to his left, Owen could see that the street continued for quite a way. To his right, there seemed to be some sort of wall near the place he assumed he had started his walk. The place was eerie and held a post-apocalyptic feel. All he could do now, however, was continue walking forward.

He continued on to his left, keeping an eye out for whatever the siren was wailing for, hoping that he could accomplish his goal without too much of a problem. The spot on his head throbbed worse than ever as he moved. Owen desperately tried to ignore it; it was preventing him from thinking straight. With a determination he hadn’t felt since he was a young boy, he pressed onward, hands holding tight to the straps of his backpack, stepping carefully around the now-visible debris that surrounded him.

Every few feet, something appeared to move in the corner of his vision, and he nearly got a crick in his neck from the amount of times he whipped his head to catch whatever it was. Shadows moved inside of the buildings, crossing the shattered and fragmented windows, disappearing again within the depths of the natural shadows cast by the brilliantly glowing dome. Owen was on edge, distracted from the pain in his head only out of fear of the unknown around him. Many times, he felt he was being followed, and glanced over his shoulders as frequently as he looked sideways. At one point, he thought he wouldn’t mind being an owl.

After what felt like a full day of walking, Owen reached the other end of the street. What faced him was another wall, only this time, there was a small door directly in front of him, and a creepy sign in sickening red letters spelling ENTER placed perfectly in the center of it. Butterflies filled his gut. He placed a hand there, as if it might calm the sudden feeling of apprehension, and stared at the door, brown eyes wide, wondering if it was safe in any way.

He considered, for a moment, that nothing had come to attack him thus far. His chest ached from breathing in the dusty air and the fall he experienced earlier, and the wound on the back of his head pounded ominously. Each wound acted as reminders that while he hadn’t been attacked outright, he had still experienced injuries that he hoped wouldn’t find their way back to school with him.

Despite this, Owen felt positive that he had to go through the door. He stood, paralyzed. This was the only way he would get out of this place. Taking several deep breaths, Owen turned to look behind him one more time, merely to make sure there was no other way out. The street was blocked off at either end, and lined with broken buildings. Unless he climbed into one of the buildings and entered some secret Narnia-like closet portal, there was nowhere else for him to go. He made to turn back to the door, but another shadow caused him to freeze, staring at the space it had appeared and silently praying it was just a part of his imagination. When it didn’t return, he turned back to the door, immediately reaching for the door handle. Whatever was through here, he hoped he was safe from whatever was lurking in the street behind him.

Owen entered what appeared to be a maze. There was another wall in front of him, and the only direction he could go was right. There were walls all around, stretching high above his head, blocking any view he had into the outside world. The light was shut out behind him. Weak light from far overhead provided just enough for Owen to be able to see the tops of the walls. Breath held, he held out a hand, willing it to light once again. A tugging sensation pulled at his mind momentarily before his fingertips lit up.

The light acted as it was supposed to, unlike it had when he first entered this strange place. The immediate area was lit, and the beams extended to the end of the corridor to his right, guiding him through the maze. It was with trepidation that Owen followed it, walking several feet to the right.

For several minutes, he followed the direction the maze took him. He wasn’t faced with any decisions until he came to a flat wall that extended both to the left and the right. There were no indications of which way he should go. Owen stood, looking left and right and back again, wondering how much energy he would waste if he went the wrong way. In an effort to see better, he lifted his hand above his head, looking around again hopefully for some sort of instructions.

Without warning, the light shot from his fingers and formed a ball in the air ten feet above Owen’s head, hovering for a brief second before drifting to the left. He didn’t hesitate before following the ball, his gaze directed upward, focusing on the orb. It picked up speed, and he could hardly spare any glances downward to see that he wasn’t running into walls. Excitement coursed through him, spurring him on with a new adrenaline that he hadn’t felt yet. His legs began to tighten in protest to the exhilarated movements as he carried on, his breathing coming fast and ragged as the light sped on.

By the time it began to slow, Owen was sure he had been running for an hour. His lungs burned and his throat was raw from the dust he had kicked up around him. The ball of light had slowly been shrinking as well, as if it was surviving off of Owen’s own energy, and it was as weak as him at the moment. He slowed to a walk once he was sure the light wouldn’t be able to get too far ahead of him.

The jacket now stuck to the perspiration that covered his skin. His headache was near unbearable, forcing him to blink slowly and carefully, as if every flutter would worsen the pain. Chest heaving, Owen set his hands on his hips in an attempt to open up his lungs, his legs moving forward out of habit rather than by any of his will. He watched the orb hover to a stop twenty feet ahead of him. It was with a sigh of relief that he paused in his walking and took a moment to rest where he stood.

Owen wasn’t alone. As the ball of light fizzled out, he saw something move in the shadows, something that was huge and dark and moved with an ominous hissing sound. Frightened, he took a few steps back, focusing slightly on lighting his two hands. They glowed and shed light on the creature.

The beast was large and wolf-like. It had massive paws that scratched at the ground, gouging lines into the concrete in front of Owen. Its eyes were composed entirely of two small balls of light, similar to the light Owen produced. The thick gray fur that covered its body was caked in blood and mud, and the smell that came off of it was overwhelming, causing the teenage boy to fight down vomit.

There was only a split second of indecision between the two before the beast lunged forward, clearly intending to crush Owen instantly under its massive paws. He barely had time to throw himself to the side, landing in a messy roll that threw off his sense of direction. It was enough for the beast to turn and catch him in the side with its front paw, tossing him aside like a rag doll. Owen cried out as he landed, hard, on his ankle. Something inside of it popped with a terrible sound that cut through the creature’s growling.

Blinded by pain, gasping for air, Owen was almost ready to give up and let the beast take him. It seemed to realize this as it backed off momentarily, circling around him, waiting for the perfect opportunity to pounce, this time going in for the kill. Staring into its glowing eyes, Owen was suddenly struck with a crazy idea. He never would have tried it if he wasn’t about to die, but he was so involved in staying alive, he was willing to do anything.

Sitting back on one foot to avoid causing pain to the other, Owen stretched his hand forward, concentrating on the wolf’s eyes. It froze in its confusion, watching its prey. Heart beating wildly, Owen made a motion as if he was pulling something out of the wolf. The motion had the desired effect. With an odd sound like an electric spark, the two eyeballs popped out of the wolf’s head and combined, racing together to rest in Owen’s hand. The wolf let out a terrible sound, something between a scream of agony and a war cry, stumbling backwards and away from where it had last seen Owen.

Holding the new ball of light out, Owen forced himself to stand on one foot, watching the wolf carefully. It was still clearly angry, but now it wanted nothing to do with him, instead listening carefully to where he was moving. Owen couldn’t keep himself entirely silent, his right foot dragging almost uselessly behind him, and he kept his front facing the beast, afraid it might still try to attack in its injured state. He only stopped when he could feel the handle of this door pressing against his back.

Slowly, careful not to make any sudden moves, he reached behind himself and grabbed onto the handle. He turned it, just as slowly. It made a clicking sound, and in one fell swoop, the wolf leapt forward again, locating the sound precisely.

Time seemed to slow. Owen wrenched the door open and he fell backwards through it. He watched as the wolf flew through the air, its paws landing squarely on his chest, pushing him through the doorframe. The last thing he felt was claws burying themselves inside of his ribcage, breaking bones and tearing holes through his lungs, his heart, everything inside of him. . .

---

Owen awoke with a start on the same cushion he had fallen asleep on. His heart continued racing as he waited for the pain to catch up with him, but it never did. Afraid of what he might feel, Owen gingerly pressed his long fingers against his chest, expecting to find massive claw marks and blood. He found that he wasn’t even wearing the same jacket.

Sitting up, Owen began taking stock of every other part of himself. His ankle wasn’t broken and there was no injury on the back of his head, although he was sure he felt a gentle throb as he probed the area with his fingers. Only when he was absolutely sure that nothing had actually happened to him did his breathing begin to slow down.

Owen glanced at the clock and was surprised to see that it had only been a couple of hours since he had passed out in the classroom. He completed the evaluation at 10:45 AM.

Time was slipping away a lot faster than Grace's nerves, which seemed to only heighten as the hands of the clock ticked rhythmically towards 8:20, and the beginning of their examination. Trying to look anywhere but the clock, her eyes settled on the window, where the rain was beginning to pound the glass and the ground below. It certainly gave off a downcast atmosphere for their test, which may have been appropriate enough. She couldn't keep her eyes off the clock though, and so she watched with a nervous expression and a rapidly-beating heart as time trickled away, 57… 58… 59… 8:20. Suddenly, a sweet-sounding voice came over the intercom, singing a serenading lullaby. Grace felt her eyes growing heavy as her head fell against the desk, and she lost consciousness.

Even though she knew her eyes were open, it wasn't immediately apparent that they were. The entire room was pitch black, enough to where she couldn't see her hands in front of her face. Panic immediately set in, and she took a wild step forward, but quickly jerking backwards when she kicked something in the dark. Hoping no one had night vision around, she dropped to her knees and began groping around the ground until her hand hit something: a lantern. Eagerly grabbing it, she fumbled around the base until she could find a way to turn it on, breathing a shaky sigh of relief when a dull, yellow light bathed the floor around her.

It seemed like she was still in the school, as crisp white tiles laid beneath her feet, but all the desks were gone, and as she walked, nothing seemed to break the monotony of it all. Though when she saw a pale blue light spark in the distance, she nearly dropped the lantern in surprise. Her feet began to move on their own as she found herself running, running towards the mysterious blue light. It was when a blue bolt was heading straight for her head did she realize that maybe, just maybe, the light belonged to someone hostile. Her legs went slack as she dropped like a stone, watching the bolt breeze over her head as she crumbled to the ground, but she quickly had to roll to the left to dodge a second one, the lantern falling from her hands and rolling twenty feet away. With the light now casting across a new plane, she could see in the dimmed beams someone who she really, really did not want to see right now. Someone who she thought should have been a bit too busy to bothering her.

"Kayla…" She breathed in shock, a sick feeling settling in the pit of her stomach. Why in the world was she here? She couldn't even escape this torture in her own examination. Without a response, Kayla only grinned and held out her palm, a sphere of blue lightning forming within it, which she moved to better illuminate a person behind her. His arms were behind his back, and he was staring at Grace with a dull, almost lifelike look in his eyes. Grace's breath caught in her throat, and her mind kicked into overdrive, refusing to allow her to focus enough to keep any of her thoughts in place. Unable to think, she pushed herself up and ran towards Kayla, only to be sent careening back down in pain when that ball of lightning struck her dead in the leg.

It hurt, and her leg felt paralyzed, refusing to move no matter how much effort she put into getting it to. The light played with shadows dancing across the floor, and she could feel darkness begin to form on her hand. 'Wait…' Keeping herself in a near-frozen state, she concentrated as hard as she could, until the darkness was completely coating her entire arm. As Kayla took a step forward, she reared back and threw her arm forward, the darkness leaving it like a spear directly at her chest. Grabbing the lantern, she began to run, hoping that her opponent would be distracted enough to allow her time to recover.

With the lantern slapping uncomfortably against her hip, it was her leg that still gave her the most problems. It was still uncooperative, and Grace basically had to drag it beneath her as she went. She didn't notice darkness encapsulating the offending appendage, and barely registered that she was suddenly able to move at near-running speeds. Of course, she had forgotten that she was a bit easier to track with a light source illuminating her every move. She could hear the bolt heading her way, and when she dodged out of the way, it struck the lantern, shattering it and casting everything into total darkness. Whipping around, all she could hear was the heavy pounding of her heart, all she could feel was small shards of glass digging into her skin, and all she could see was the telltale illumination of blue moving closer and closer...

Sam got in the room looking for a seat. She thought she had nowhere to go when she heard about the evaluation. If it was a test, her parents would want her to take it because they didn't stop talking about where they sent her. Beata was a perfect school for teenagers like her and tests were the only thing which would show her parents if she learnt something. And they wanted to be sure sure if she could control her powers. That was the only ticket that was going to send her back home and the first step was: pass the exams, pass every exam and you'll be home pretending that makes you happy. At least you'll be a little happier than you are now.

She sat down and the only thing she could think about was what the test was going to be like. She had a lot of problems and that test could turn into one of those problems. The only thing she could do and she had to, was to relax. Seconds later she heard a strange song and felt so tired that she couldn't do anything but fall asleep.

"Do you want to die?" A deep and loud voice made her jump not knowing where she was or how she got there. The first thing she saw was a tall wall and she stood up. She realised the wall was part of a building and yet she could make out some of the windows were broken. Where was she? Her hands were itching and she could swear she saw blood on them when she looked down. It was so dark that she wasn't sure if she was looking at her legs next or at the street and she turned around towards the person who said that thing. There was a lamp in the end of the dark street, a light that was pulling her like a magnet. The thing was that before she could reach it, she had to go right through some guys who were looking at her like they wanted to eat her for dinner. She was sure of that the moment she heard the voice again.

"Do you want to die?!" Now the voice sounded even scarier and she didn't know what to do. Three strong men were standing in front of her saying they were going to kill her and she had no chance of beating them.

"Why would I want to? If I did, I would have already died." A creepy laugh reached her ears and she stepped back immediately. She felt a cold wall behind her and when she turned back, she saw that this time it really was a wall, not a building. She had nowhere to run except the two buildings that surrounded them. But running into unfamiliar ones in this time of the night was like a sucidal act. To use her power, however, seemed to be the perfect choice. She didn't wait to hear one more word and quickly moved back in time. Back 10 minutes ago. She knew if she jumped into a day that had happened three days ago, it would probably drain her energy and make her lose control over everything, over the time she was going into. Especially when she didn't know how much power she'd used before she'd woken up.

She wasn't happy to see that she'd teleported in the building she was standing next to seconds ago. She was squeezing the curtains and caught herself looking right out the window. What was she doing? What had happened to make her break the window if it was her who'd done it and jump on the street where the guys were? Were the guys the ones she was running from? She looked at her hand that wouldn't let the curtains and understood she was in trouble. Although she had no memories, she was sure she was trying to escape from someone. The second she teleported in time, she could sense Samantha in the past was really tense.

Despite the darkness in the room, probably in the whole building, she ran to the door and opened it slowly. Sam was sure what the Samantha she took place of wanted to do. She wanted to escape and she was going to do it. When Sam didn't see anyone in the hall, she ran down to the other door in the end and opened it, her hands shaking. She got into a dark room and thanks to the lamps outside she could make out what things were in the room. She had to run down the stairs to have a better look but she wasn't wrong. There was a huge table and a sofa was standing next to it. There was a big fireplace and that was enough to make Sam sure she didn't live here. She'd broken into that building to hide but to go back in time again and see who she was running from was too dangerous. She didn't know if she was prepared and if she was going to suceed in escaping for the second time.

Her heart was pounding when she squeezed the doorknob of the door that was leading outside. She had no choice and taking a deep breath she burst out through the door ready to see anything. But when she saw an empty and huge street she froze. Was something wrong? There was nothing she could possibly be afraid of and yet she was sure something conserned the Samantha she took place of. But what?

The answer came six seconds later when she heard a buzzer. When she saw the red lamp and a moment later the car she understood what she was running from. The police.

Sam ran for the door and closed it fast. She knew what problems she had with the police, she knew she'd been in prison once, she knew she was capable of doing something that would put her back there. And obviously she'd done. Whatever it was, she was sure the police was after her. The car stopped loudly in front of the door and without thinking, Sam ran up the stairs back to the second floor. As fast as she could, she went into the room where she'd been looking out the window. She squeezed the curtains and pulled them down violently. Then she took the only chair in the room and let it fly towards the window. She heard a BANG and the window was gone.

Sam looked out the window again and saw what was waiting for her. She was planning to jump from the second floor and it was possible to hurt herself. But there was no time for rethinking so she did exactly what she was thinking. She jumped the wind touching her skin. She screamed and then fell hard on the ground. There was nothing under her but a ground. That explained the pain she felt when she'd woken up and the bruises on her hands. But she had no time to check if she was really hurt and if she could walk because she heard a familiar voice.

"Do you want to die?"

The was silence, and then the slight flood of screaming, getting louder, louder, louder, until he was smacked into the simulation. He woke up on a towel, directly on the floor, looking upwards. The ceiling was hollow, dappled with the occasional fan, high in the sky. He was in some kind of warehouse, or empty department store, the floor hard under his head as he whipped upwards. There was agonized wailing, people, maybe a dozen. Even louder than them, however, was the screech of industrial equipment, saws or whatnot. Logan looked to his right.

People were lined up like him, on towels and in three rows of 6. 17 people lay before him, twisted in pain, grotesque injuries in many forms. The girl next to him had her arm gashed open, to the point where it was almost distached, muscle peeking out from the inside. In the distance, he saw what the metallic sounds were. Saw blades, huge ones, inched closer to where the people lay. He looked to the other side. A single door was on the other wall.

He had to save these people. Logan jumped up in panic, immediately going to the girl beside him. Fingers trembling, he looked into her pain-filled eyes. "I-It's okay..." The usually chipper boy was a little dumbstruck. He touched the innards of the wound, causing the girl to shriek in pain, and he panicked and began to stroke her hair. It didn't really help too much with the sounds she was making. The wound was hefty, taking a while to close up, so he amplified what he was dosing her, the green blobs that sunk into her skin. The arm began to come together, in an unnatural crackling sound, like plastic being brought together from a torn-apart package. Soon, the arm joined entirely, and Logan took a second to pant, to regain his energy. The girl, as if on cue, eerily grew quiet, and ran to the door, no longer screaming or holding much emotion. The boy watched her open the door, and walk out into darkness.

So the door was unlocked. He knew he had no time to waste, and went on to the next one. He flinched as he recognized him. He'd seen him around school a few times, and at Jane's party. Yes, this was the Headmaster's son. His stomach was gashed open, pink guts half-out. He looked up at Logan expectantly, mouth agape, but no sounds came out. Logan calmly, or as calmly as he possible could, stuck his innards back in. A wince, a low growl of pain, sounded from the boy as he tried to keep strong during the procedure. This one wasn't as hard as the arm, and mended itself with his intestines inside. Like the girl, Jace suddenly became devoid of emotion. He got up and ran off.

The next few were people he did not know, one a middle-aged man with his leg completely distached. Logan wiped the sweat from his head, wondering what he was going to do here. He had never healed an amputee, never dealt with something that wasn't on the body. Nevertheless, he took the leg, and decided to jam it as close to the stump as possible, discharging his healing power. Though it seemed like it wouldn't work, and the man's agonizing screams were more than distracting, the leg miraculously attached itself. As he ran off, Logan dealt with the next patient, a slash wound across the eye, the easiest he had seen so far. A quick heal, and the patient was off, a boy that he swore he'd seen around school, but he didn't know for sure.

The first row was over. He massaged his hand, which had begun to get a dull pain, like he had just handwritten a 3-page essay. He looked up, though, and his mouth became dry. The sawblades had moved forward ridiculously quickly. They were about twice as close as they were before. He still had 12 patients! He needed to get moving!

Logan went to the second row, running and skidding on his knees to the sixth patient. It burned, but he didn't care, looking over the wound with panic. This was a girl, and he recognized the blue eyes, the blackish hair. This was Lamia. He looked into her pleading gaze, and down at her wound. It seemed a gash had cut her down the middle, from breast to navel. It was a hefty healing, but he had to do it. He pressed a hand to the large wound, quieting Lamia with a delicate "Sssh..." as he slowly mended the wound as she cried out. He felt relief when her eyes grew dark, when her mouth became a horizon and she got up, walking away and through the door. On to the next one...

He healed 5 more strangers, all the while his power getting weaker and weaker. By patient 12, it was hard to get any globules out, his fingers dry. It felt like he was squeezing them, wringing them of their power. The thirteenth patient was the last one he healed. It was Jane.

She wasn't supposed to die, right? He had to skip her, right? She looked in terrible pain, bearing a twisted face that was the opposite of what he'd ever expect on her. The wound she had was across the head, and he could faintly see her brain through the hard crack in her skull. He gave her a hard look, she pleading at him with her eyes. And like that, he skipped her. He moved on to the next person, and ignored her cries. Logan wiped his eye. Beside her was a little boy, not even appearing to be 8 yet. He squeezed all his energy into him, a complete slice of the leg. The boy ran out, and Logan stood.

He could not heal anyone else. Trying to made him shiver, the feeling in his fingers odd and uncomfortable. He looked over the remaining patients, Jane and 4 others. The sawblades were almost to them. He ran over to the closest one.

A middle aged woman looked up at him, cheeks slashed, her mouth extending past what it should have. The wretched look she gave him was awful. He ignored it, reaching under her and trying to haul her up. He couldn't, though. It was as if she was bolted to the floor, or weighed 3 tons. There was no way he'd be able to move these patients. They were stuck there, with sawblades waiting to finish them off.

Logan looked up desperately. It was then that he had an idea. These sawblades were artificial, synthesized, fake in the fact that this was a test, all in his head. Another reality. To fail the test would be to get a patient killed. Would the test keep going if a patient had already died? He looked down at his shirt, covered with other peoples' blood, and gritted his teeth. Maybe it needed blood. Maybe it stopped if it had blood.

He'd lose if one of the patients died. He maybe wouldn't lose if he died.

The boy stepped up, in front of the closest patient, and outspread his arms to the sawblades. It was worth a shot. He looked back at the patients, staring over at him but eerily unmoving, a final glance until he looked boldly into the spinning blades. There was a familiar crackle in his lungs, the kind that snuck up on him when he breathed too hard. And when death came inches away, the thin cutters invisible to his eyes, he breathed in, and closed his eyes.

The cut through his face hurt the most.

Logan Welsh woke up with a wide-eyed start.

Logan Welsh finished his evaluation at 10:25 am.

Louis swung the axe, slaughtering demonic animals everywhere. The smell of rotting corpses surrounded him and stung his nose. How many are there?! he thought to himself turning around and running through the trees. After what seemed like ages of running he finally came to a stop. Looking in front of him he realized he was at the edge of the forest. About 120 yards in front of him was a cliff. He leaned against a tree. Why did it get so quiet? And where are the animals? He looked behind him, the farthest parts of the forest was pure darkness. Unfortunately, the silence didn't last very long when out of nowhere, Louis heard the sound of hundreds of flapping wings. Louis looked up to see a massive flock of crows, diving towards him. What the...! he picked up the axe, he had 2 choices. Go back into the forest towards the demonic animals AND have to fight off the crows or into the open. Louis didn't have any time to think so he ran.

Ran into the open, covered his eyes with his arm and fought the birds. He couldn't tell what he was hitting but knew he was hitting something. He could hear their cries of pain as wings and limbs were torn off, but Louis dared open his eyes. Crows pecked and scratched his skin, ripping his clothes, the pain unbearable. "If I'm going to die, there has to be an easier way than this!" he yelled. There is... He dropped the axe, and ran. His long legs carrying him far, he ran faster than ever before, not wanting a moment to think about it. Louis closed his eyes and jumped off the cliff, leaving the animals and crows behind him.

Falling down, he didn't look below, not really caring what he hit. Why am I not scared? Is this what it feels like to be at peace with the world? He gave one last look at the sky and closed his eyes. After what felt like ages, Louis hit water. He opened his eyes, not knowing if he was alive or dead until he started to sinking and ran out of air. The blood stained blonde frantically swam to the surface. Gasping for air he bobbed along the top of the water, the salt stinging his wounds; making it hard to swim. He spotted a rocky shore nearby and swam to it, climbing onto a smaller rock. Louis laid on his back looking up near the top of the cliff. He could see small black dots swarming the top of the cliff looking confused. "Ha. Suckers." he mumbled. Feeling exhausted, the student closed his eyes to rest.

Louis woke to silence. The evaluation! he sat up with a jolt, calming down when he saw he was still in the class room. He looked over at Pepper, who was still in her evaluation. Geez, that was a nightmare. Louis Ashina had finished his evaluation at 10:30.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pepper gave a terrifying roar flying to her opponent, dodging his claws. "I'll try to make your death quick and painful." she sneered. "Then lets get started." the red dragon growled. Both in the air, the dragons bared their teeth. Pepper was the first to make a move. She dove under the red dragon, clawing its belly and snapping her jaws on its tail. As Red (just gonna call the red dragon red XD) screeched in pain, Pepper dragged him by the tail down towards the earth. With a tight grasp on his tail, she flung him down to the ground, sending him crashing against the hard dirt. As dust was covering the air, she dove in after Red, not giving him a minute to think about what just happened she landing on top of him clawing his face.

While Pepper was thinking about her tactics, she got cocky and didn't think about the Red's tactics. After she clawed his face he used his long hind legs to push her scaly stomach away. Pepper regained her balance but Red was faster. He jumped on top of her ad clawed her wings. "At least now you can't fly away." Red hissed in Pepper's face as she roared with anger. Pinned on the ground, Pepper looked at her wings, ripped and bleeding. "Agg!" was all she could say with Red's claws digging into her neck. What do I do! she started to panic, gasping for air.

Pepper tried what she knew and hoped it would work. Laying on the ground with Red about to make the kill, she waited till his face got close to hers and then....bamb! She blew he poisoned gas fire into his eyes. This defiantly caught him off guard and hurt his eyes, for he stumbled back giving a roar of anger "You little..." But this time, Pepper would finish it. The white dragon swung her claws, slashing him left and right. By now, the ground was covered in blood and it was almost over. Pepper grabbed the red dragon's neck with her jaws and shook him like a dog and its toy. Biting down hard with her sharp teeth, she gave one last shake before he went limp. She made sure not to let go, just in case he had any tricks planned.

Her rival's blood oozed into her mouth and she felt some bones crack. Pepper laid him down on the ground, looking down at the beaten beast. After a moment, his eyes turned misty white She should have been static that she killed him, but couldn't help but feel somewhat guilty. She closed her eyes, replaying the battle his her head...

Pepper woke up somewhat startled. Looking around she realized she finished her evaluation. I hope I never have to do that again. Pepper thought to herself as she turned towards her brother who was already awake. She gave him a nod but kept silent, looking down at her desk. Pepper Ashina had finished her evaluation at 10:35.

(sorry if it's a piece of shortness/crap, I lost the good, long version and had to retype it, so ya....)

Magic's head started hurting as soon as he heard the melody. It was like his head was trying to decode it's effect but it wasn't working out to well.. His eyelids grew heavy, and the boy struggled slightly to stay awake, but soon gave into it, not wanting to deal with a splitting headache anymore. His head fell to the side, and leaned against his arm which was sort of giving support to the rest of his body.

When Magic was able to open his eyes again he found himself laying face down on gravel. He closed his eyes in the instant he saw rocks, and what not. He placed his hands beside him, and pushed against the ground, sweeping his legs under him to sit up. The boy sat with his legs crossed as he looked around. There was nothing in sight besides blue.. Infinite blue... He looked up and saw clouds. Where was he? He looked around a bit more and noticed a door. It looked like the one that lead to the roof of the school.. Was he on top of a building?

Magic stood from his spot, and walked over to the edge of the building, and looked down. Surely enough below there was a busy street down below. There were other buildings but, they were too small to see from where he was sitting a moment ago.. What was he supposed to do jump off? Mason wasn't too fond of that idea. It would probably be better if he tried the door first... Yeah that would be smart instead of assuming you had to jump off...

Shoving his hands into his pockets, Magic walked over to the door. He pulled his right hand out of his jacket pocket, and tried the door only to find it was locked.. There was no way in hell that he was jumping off this building. There was a chance he could save himself with his gift but he didn't want to risk it, and fail. Mason shifted back slightly. He changed his position, to something else preparing to kick down the door. He brought his back leg forward putting all of his body weight behind his kick, successfully knocking the door open revealing a set of stairs, that gradually faded into the darkness below.

Strange.. Why would a large building like this get darker as it went down? It wasn't quitting time yet.. The sun was still high in the sky... As Magic looked up to see where the sun was he realized it wasn't there. What the fuck? He blinked and then all of the sudden it was there. He instantly turned away to not be blinding by the sudden thing that wasn't there before. What the fuck was going on?

The winter prefect shook his head. He looked over to the corner of the building and watched it as it slowly warped and went out of place for it to only return a second later. What was wrong with this place he was in? Where in the world was he? He wasn't too sure.. This must have been some big city.. But he wasn't too sure on what city only had one skyscraper.. This was very strange indeed.

Magic shrugged off the strange happenings and decided to head down the stairs.. The darkness he saw on the way down, soon faded into light as he approached the floor below the roof. He pushed open the door only to see three guys standing among office cubicles, and what not. So this was an office building? Magic froze when he realized the three men were staring at him. And they didn't look friendly at all...

Magic brought his hands together, as he stared back at the three aggressive looking men who decided to start approaching him. It didn't look like they would let him slip by on his way down... and it looked they were rather mad that he was here.. Though he didn't know how he got here... Magic ducked when one of them threw a punch.. Yep they didn't want him here.. Magic placed his hands on the floor, and swung on of his legs around sweeping the guy off his feet. He still had sometime before the other two got close.. Once the guy hit the floor with a thud, Magic kicked him in his head knocking him out. Mason had two more to deal with. They were both approaching him at the same time.. There wasn't a way he could deal with them both with out using his gift.. Maybe he had too..

Magic opened his mouth took a deep breath then let out a scream, which sent the other two flying backwards and slamming into a wall somehow avoiding being slammed into one of the cubicles. Did he have that good of aim? Or was he just that lucky. Magic assumed lucky. He flinched when a loud noise filled the room. What was that? He looked around frantically, and noticed a door on the other side of the room that wasn't there before.. Maybe that was his way out. Magic walked over to the door, and pushed it open. It was another dark set of stairs.. It was his only way down safely so he head to deal with it..

The next floor was basically the same. The darkness faded, and an office like area soon replaced it. It was exactly like the last floor, but it had five guys instead of three.. Was it going to be like this his whole way down?
This time he didn't hesitate in attacking. He knew these guys were going to attack him. They looked basically the same as the last three.. except their clothes were slightly different.. They wouldn't be able to do much to avoid sound.. This time he attacked a little differently. Magic opened his mouth, but instead of amplifying his own voice to push them back, he emitted a low frequency sound waves causing the guys to go blind, and eventually pass out from having issues breathing. This was going to be simple... A loud noise echoed out in the room signifying the door was open. Magic didn't even hesitate this time to go through it.

This time instead of the darkness fading, and turning into another office like room, the room was completely pitch black. He knew he was in a room, but he couldn't see anything. He let out a small noise allowing his voice to echo around the room. The room soon became clear to him even though he wasn't able to see. This room was like a maze.. It was filled with various walls. It was hard to tell what was on the other side because of all the walls.

Magic released another sound again making the room apparent to him once again. So he had to go forward? As Magic walked along with his hand out inf front of him making sure he didn't run into anything, even though he was constantly emitting a sound to see were things were. He couldn't help but think of that shop keeper, and how this would most likely be so much easier for her. Next.. another sound.. Head to the right... Magic kept walking. Man this was difficult.. Another sound... Left this time.. The process repeated for a while til Magic found the door.

He pushed open the door, and headed down the stairs relieved to see light again. Hopefully he didn't have to go through that again. When he opened the door to the next floor, there was nothing but mic in the room. What was that supposed to do? He walked over to it and there was a piece of paper next to it with some information on it. It read, To proceed down, a sound must be heard. For the stairs to open, one must recreate the sound of a bird. Magic blinked. This whole place seemed like on giant puzzle. First some dudes to beat up then a maze now this? It was like this place was meant to test his gift. All of this that he had down was manipulating his gift.. basically..

Magic pursed his lips and made a whistle sound. Yeah he could do this.. He could manipulate his whistle to be like that of a bird.. He whistled again manipulating his whistle to make it seem like that of a mocking bird. It was pretty simple seeing how he heard them every day. A bar on the side of the mic slowly filled up, and another loud noise was heard echoing through the room. He had done it! He breathed a sigh of slight relief. He moved away from the mic, and continued on to the door. But before he pushed the door open, he realized that there were no windows at all.. None what so ever in the past floors he had been in.. There was no way he would be able to tell if he was getting close to the bottom... Man this was going to take a while..

Magic let out a sigh as he pushed the door open to the stairs. It was the same thing for all of the stair cases.. There was initial darkness which soon faded into light. He brushed his hand along the wall, out of slight boredom, but yet there was some excitement. What did the next floor hold for him? This whole thing was like a giant puzzle and he enjoyed it slightly. He approached the door that would lead him to the next floor down. He studied it for a moment.. Then watched as it glitched slightly.. Magic stepped back a little bit.. What was going on with this place? Why did it do that, then return to normal... Maybe it was just him? Was it his eye sight? Magic closed his eyes for a second then opened them. He stared at the door, and it 'glitched' again. Maybe it had something to do with him? He wouldn't be able to find out until he got out of this building. The winter pushed the door open and proceeded to the next challenge.

The next room was all covered in sound absorbing foam things..  and in the middle sat a mic. Which had that same bar as the last one but this one was full. But no instructions came with it. He would have to figure this one out on his own.. Maybe he was supposed to make a loud sound? Mason opened his mouth, releasing a loud sound, but the bar on the mic didn't change.. Making a loud sound wasn't the answer.. The boy let out a huff, as he looked at the mic on the floor. After his huff disappeared the bar on the mic dropped a bit but returned to normal. So he needed to be silent? Well he was being silent now but nothing was happening.. Hmm.. He looked around.. The foam was there for a reason.. Maybe it was a hint? Maybe he was supposed to stop all sounds from entering the room? He decided to try it..

Magic focused on all of the sound waves in the room granted if they could be heard or not.. He focused on trying to stop them from moving to eliminate all sound being created.. He opened his eyes to check the bar on the mic.. It was slowly dropping. So this was the thing he was supposed to do.. Magic clenched his teeth as he kept the sound waves from moving. The number of sound waves he had to stop kept growing because new ones were always being created.. Finally a loud noise started then stopped from Magic's gift. But once he heard that he released all of the sound waves allowing them to go on with their business. The boy was panting now.. Silence or stopping sound waves was harder than changing them along their path.. Stopping sound waves was something he didn't really practice too often. Maybe he should now that he had to do something like that.. Never knew when it might have been handy...

Magic rested in the room for a moment catching his breath, before continuing on. The next three floors were like the first two with varying opponents that needed to be taken out. It wasn't til that next floor that things got changed up. When he got to this floor he noticed the the room was clear, and void of any object except two people who wore like raiding gear.. Except it was more enclosed. Was this to have him use his power? What if the two were immune to his gift? or something.. Nah.. They had gear but it wasn't impervious to sound.. He would just have to try a little harder to get rid of these two.. or knock them out.

Magic opened his mouth and released a sound to knock the two back a little bit. Granted it would do much against them for the armor they wore, but it was would get him some more space. After the two were pushed across the room, Magic then changed his voice amplifying it to be so loud it would cause physical pain to the two.. The two were dazed after the sound. Magic ran over to the two, removed their helmets, and knocked them both out with a sound amplified punch. A buzz echoed through the room signifying the room was cleared, and he could move on..

As he moved down the stairs Magic could feel it.. He was getting a bit weaker every time he used his gift. Some of it he was used to, but stopping those sound waves really took a toll on him. Not too mention the buzzer was starting to give him a headache from how loud it was. He really wished there was some way to find out much longer he had to go for, or how many more floors there were.. but there was no way to tell.. unless he wanted to collapse the building.. but then there was a chance he would die from the fall alone.. It wasn't worth the risk..

Mason shook his head to clear it before entering the next floor. It was the same thing as the last on except there was one more armored person.. What surprised him though was the fact they didn't have any weapons.. It just seemed like they were bait to him.. He cleared through the floor with ease and moved onto the next one.. So far the floors had been relatively easy.. but they were slowly getting harder the further he went down.

As he opened the door to the next floor he was met with gunfire. He slammed the door closed as he saw that. "Holy shit.. How in the hell am I supposed to deal with that?" Magic slumped back against the wall. He needed to think of a plan.. This was going to be tough.. He had a split second to react before they started firing their weapons.. Maybe he could open the door slightly, and emit a sound into the room without them noticing? It seemed like the only option.. Magic kept himself close to the floor.. He pushed the door open slightly making sure it was slow so it would be harder to notice by the guards. Once he was satisfied, and knew he could get enough sound in there, he let the sound fill the room. He made sure it was enough to blind the guards.

After some time had passed, he kept up with the sound, and pushed his way into the room. Making sure to stay silent so they didn't randomly fire. Once he was close enough, he disarmed both of them by striking a nerve area on their hands once they were disarmed he knocked both of them out.

As he moved to the door something told him that something bad was going to happen next floor.. But he was also getting close to the end.. Maybe two or three more floors to go.. Truth be told it was two.. But those last two floors were going to present a great challenge for Magic. Magic rested at the bottom of the stairs just before the next door. A good many minutes passed and Magic was still feeling tired.. but not nearly as much as before.

Magic stood, and proceeded to open the door. He walked into the vast open room, and was met with a stone faced Warren. At the sight of him Magic felt very agitated.. The one of the only guys that could rival him physically. Laine was the only other one.. Magic stiffened he didn't quite know what to do about this situation.. He watched as Warren got into a fighting stance without saying anything.. Magic responded by getting into a stance himself but knowing Warren he wouldn't attack.. He would mostly just counter. It was up to Magic to strike first but he didn't know what to do..

Magic raced forward, he acted like he was going to throw a punch but then shifted at the last moment for it to be a kick. But it seemed like Warren saw it coming, and stepped forward throwing a punch into Magic's gut. The air in Magic's lungs left him, and he couched, and wheezed, while backing up to force air into his lungs.. Man this was going to be a tough fight if he stuck to physical stuff.. but his gift was weak at the moment and would only do certain things.. Also he couldn't let himself get too frustrated or else the building would collapse.. maybe..

He needed to get close.. and emit sound waves into him like he had done that one time.. It was the best option to deal with him.. Maybe Warren would be stupid enough to fall for it again. Probably not, but he had to bet on that chance.. or rather just get enough hits in to interrupt his internal system with sound.. This time Magic would not let him get away.

Magic raced forward again. Faking wasn't going to work so he was going to have to tank a hit, it was his best option at the moment. He aimed a punch at Warren's gut. Only to take a punch to his chest. He knew something like that would happen. Instead of back off, Magic quickly grabbed Warren's arm, and emitted sound waves into his body. This action earned a gasp from the stone faced person.

Warren shook his arm free, and back away from Magic a little. He brought hand to his mouth and coughed up some blood. Instead of looking at it, and wiped it away, and resumed his stance and fight with Magic. Warren probably knew what Magic's tactic was now. He knew how to avoid it now.. Mason had to come up with another plan.. Magic watched as Warren pulled out the same knife he had that day at the water park, and he threw it at Magic. Magic just moved the the side, the knife cutting the edge of his face.

Magic clenched his teeth in response. It stung but it was better than having it lodged in his leg.. He turned his back on his opponent and went and picked up the knife. If Warren was going to make a move now would be the best time to do it.. Instead of moving rather fast Magic moved sort of slow, but his movements still looked a bit urgent. Once he had picked up the knife Magic spun to see Warren right there, and sent a fist flying into Magic's gut once again.  Magic doubled over, and coughed up some blood. Man this was painful. Warren using his other hand did an uppercut to Magic's jaw sending him to the ground. Blood came out of Magic's mouth, and ran down his face a little bit.. Magic didn't bother with it, and stood up with the knife in his hand. Warren was out of range now.

Magic decided to take the chance on blinding Warren, even though it would wind up using the rest of his energy for his gift. Magic opened his mouth, emitting the 19hrtz sound, and waited for a moment. When he was confident Warren could see Magic raced forward, and lodged the knife into Warren's gut. Warren let out a few weird noises in response, Magic then turned the knife making sure to cause more damage, then pulled it out. Warren stumbled back a bit, but Magic wasn't done with him yet. Magic grabbed Warren to keep him from falling over. Using the knife Magic slashed across the bottom of Warren's stomach area causing some stuff to spill out. Magic let go of the man and stepped back allowing the man to fall to the ground then rest in a growing pool of blood.

Magic didn't even pay attention to the buzzer that went off signifying he could move on. He stared at Warren's body for a moment, making sure he was actually dead. Once he was satisfied that Warren wouldn't get up, he stuck the bloody knife into Warren's back and moved on to the door. Boy he was tired.. not to mention to the blood kind of dripping out of his mouth..

Mason pushed the door open and went down the the second to last flight of stairs. Once he reached the door a big sign on it indicated the floor he was about to be on. In big bolded letters the sign read, 1st FLOOR. A sigh of relief left Magic he was almost done.. He just hoped this next floor was going to be a breeze.. He wiped the blood off his chin, and let himself calm down from his last fight.

Magic pushed open the door, and flinched from the bright light. The first thing he noticed was that there was windows here.. Magic's eyes moved around the room until he caught sight of a figure standing in the middle of the furnished room. Gray-green eyes focused on the figure until he recognized who it was. "L-laine?" No, no! He couldn't fight his best friend and second in command.

Laine turned around to face Magic, anger was hidden in his blue eyes. Laine got into a fighting stance, and lunged after Magic with a punch. Magic swiftly dodged, and backed away from the older boy.. All he had to do was knock him out right? There wouldn't be any hard feelings right? They used to spare all the time.. Why was this any different?

Magic dodged another punch that was head his way. He looked at Laine, and studied him for a moment. He seemed like a puppet in this.. His blue eyes were dull. His movements were a bit jerky.. Magic didn't know what to do.. No.. He knew what he had to do.. but he didn't want to do it.. But he had to get out of here.. and if it meant knocking out his best friend then he would do it..

Instead of dodging Laine's next attack, Magic blocked it, and punched Laine in the chest, sending the older boy backwards. The winter waited for the boy to get up. "I'm sorry.." He uttered.. Laine came for him again, but Magic ducked to the side, sending a swift kick to Laine's gut. The boy staggered back a little bit, but before he could counter Magic closed in with a swift punch to Laine's head successfully knocking him out.. But the buzzer didn't sound.. This floor wasn't complete.. Magic's eyes widen.. He had to kill him..

Magic walked backwards away from his unconscious friend. "No.. No.. I can't do this.." But there was nothing he could do besides that at this point.. It was his only way out.. He couldn't go backwards.. For the door has no handles once he crossed into the room.. Tears threatened to slip out of Magic's eyes.. He couldn't do this.. But he had too.. He had to do it if he wanted to escape.. Why..  Magic didn't notice the glitches, and the warps that were happening around him.. He didn't realize he was sinking into his madness. Even Laine's body was starting to warp.

Magic's breathing was heavy and a bit warped.. He had to do it.. He had to.. He needed to get out.. He had to get out.. Magic didn't realize that Warren was actually supposed to be his last fight.. but the madness in him generated a whole new floor.. Magic walked over to his friend and knelt down beside him.. He placed a shaky hand on Warren's shoulder.. "I- I-... I'm s-so.. s-sorry.. La-aine.." He said with shaky breaths.. Magic closed his eyes, and used the last of his energy to emit sound waves into Laine's body successfully killing him. The buzzer echoed across the room. Magic didn't bother to look at Laine's body as he got up, and walked away from him.  Sniffles left Magic as he walked out the door to the road outside.

Magic jumped a bit as he woke from his slumber.. He looked around the room to see a few students were still asleep, and dealing with whatever shit. That the supervisor put them through.. Magic clenched his teeth.. This whole thing pissed him off. He looked over at the girl next to him who was already awake. She gave him a small smile, and he returned it slightly. He looked around the room and noticed that he was sitting next to the window. Using his gift he muffled the sounds of his movement. He stood up, and walked over to the window. Which he opened. He took one last glance at the class then proceeded to jump out of the window.

Magic Stein completed his Evaluation at 10:41 AM.

Everything went dark. It lingered, no telltale blue sparks bringing the dull illumination of death to her eyes. And then the darkness was lifted, and the sight made her eyes widen in surprise: it was a hospital. Specifically the hospital she had stayed in for two years of her life. She did not want to be here, but maybe that was the point. Biting her lip nervously, she looked around, but it was just a simple, sterile room: no occupants, nor any indication that there had ever been someone there. Grace slowly exited the room and looked up and down the empty halls, lights flickering on and off intermittently. She stepped forward into the hallway and immediately her eyes fell upon words written across the wall in what looked to be solid darkness: 'ROOM 306A'. The memory tugged unhappily on her mind as she forced her legs to move, towards the elevators.

The elevator ride seemed to take an eternity, and Grace found herself tapping her foot almost impatiently, watching the light crawl ever-so-slowly from floor one to two and finally to three, with the doors opening silently. This hall was just as empty as the one below, and no more hints adorned the walls, but she knew exactly where to go. She'd been here enough to know where she was meant to be. Approaching 306A, a doctor suddenly exited the room, clothed in scrubs with a mask obscuring their face. They turned towards Grace and they locked eyes, the contact making her legs shake. When she forced her eyes away, she noticed the clipboard in the doctor's hand, and saw subtle blue sparks running across it. 'Oh no...'

Grace dived beneath the third floor registration desk as a blue ball of electricity whizzed by her, slamming into the wall that she had a moment ago been standing in front of. It was silent now, but that didn't comfort her in the slightest, as she crawled towards the other side. An unpleasant sight greeted her then, as the 'doctor' moved into view and leered down at her. Without giving herself a moment to think things through, Grace grabbed their leg and forced - begged - her power to move through her arm, the darkness encasing their leg and numbing it of all senses. With their leg bucking beneath them, they kicked out with their other leg, catching Grace on the shoulder and knocking her loose. She took the slight reprieve to haul herself over the desk and to the other side, nearly falling over as she ran towards the door. Whisking the door open, she slammed it shut just as another ball of electricity smacked the wood. Breathing heavily, she was suddenly breathless when she saw him lying on the bed.

Tentatively she made her way there, looking at him laying there so weak, though that smile was still on his face, like always, like it used to be. He seemed somewhat surprised to see her there, but that was nothing on how she felt. Tears stung her eyes as she clutched his hand, a light warmth there, and it felt... normal. Was this what she was supposed to do? Was her test to complete her innermost desire? To turn things back to the way they were? Conjuring up a memory she'd never forget, the darkness started spreading along her arms and to her fingertips, working as hard as she ever did to control the power that did not belong to her. She would never forget just how he had saved her, and now she would make things right.

He seemed to want to say something, perhaps to stop her, but she just closed her eyes and let the darkness start to cover his body. The sound of the door opening, and the crackling of electricity behind her, reminded her that she had forgotten to lock the door, but that wasn't important. She was so close. All noise faded from her mind as she could feel the darkness leave her, yet at the same time it overtook her completely. A warm yet empty feeling greeted her as it left, as something electric ran up and down her back. Then there was nothing. Was it over?

The steady pattering against the windows, and a flash of lightning filled the sky outside. It was a show, really. The way the lightning struck, and the wind pushed the rain in certain angles to make it seem like it was coming in sideways. The thunder as a sound effect, then even the sun that peaked through the clouds. A spotlight on the land. Most of those times too, one could see a rainbow within the open patch of sky. While the rain seemed dreary and tiring, there was also the excitement of seeing a rainbow. Or splashing a friend while you were in a puddle. Being from a place that gets quite a lot of rain, Leo knew the upsides to it as well as the downsides.

Such as getting your shoes wet. That was the worst. You’d have to walk around the entire day with soggy shoes, and by the end, your feet are freezing cold. Or if you are trying not to get wet, but you left your umbrella at home. You run through the rain with a backpack over your head, then come home with a soaking wet backpack, and homework you’d have to leave out to dry. He knew this from experience, sadly. However, that’s what he got from living in Michigan.

Blue eyes slowly looked away from the grey sky, and to the black and white wall clock. The ticks could easily be heard. The only sound was the clicks of someone idly playing with a gigaminx, the rain beating against the window and quiet mutterings of the students in the classroom. So the ticks added to the sound.  However, to Leo most of these faded to the background for him. Who knew how long five minutes could seem?

They were all waiting for this exam. Well, a evaluation of the student’s powers to know and understand where the student is at with their abilities. At last, that was what he was told. They would also be placed in some random place based on the student’s memories and other such things. So basically their own minds would be making the Evaluation. A dream in a sense. A dream where the faculty would be able to watch his development since Leo had arrived in Beata. Which as Leo knew had been quite a lot. First the ability to fly, then the ability to use his holy powers. All of which he was able to master quickly, thanks to his advanced training part of his power. However, he knew there was more he could do with his powers. Leo just needed train some more. He had only been working out physically, not with his powers. Not since the Alaska trip. He had barely seen Devin since then. A frown crossed his face as he thought about his friend.

Pausing the train of thought, he shook his head as if trying to clear that from his mind. Leo knew that he couldn’t go to his friend. Devin would have to come to him when he was ready. Something like this could not be forced. Leo knew that without a doubt. He was good at this kind of stuff. Maybe it was his forgiving nature, or just the fact that he’d hate to be in a disagreement, or an uncomfortable relationship with a friend. It hurt.

The sound of the intercom broke the blond out of his thoughts, announcing it was time to begin their evaluation. A spike of nervousness ran through the blond. It was normal to feel a bit nervous about this, right? He knew nothing was going to happen, but he still felt a bit worried about what he was going to face inside his ‘danger zone’ As he rested his head against the pillow on the desk, Leo heard a lady began to sing a soft melody. His eyelids felt like led, and while he tried to keep them open, the resistance was futile. The Autumn prefect fell asleep, arms sprawled across the top of the desk, face turned towards the windows.

When Leo was next aware, the first thing he knew, was that he was in a tight space. A very tight space. His breath bounced back against himself, so something was in fact in front of his face. His arms were pinned to his sides, and he was not able to move them besides rotating them. So he was very much stuck in this place. This ‘place’ was humid to say the least, it’s smooth walls, and echo as a drop was heard. A...cave? Of all situations, why a cave? At the thought, he let out a shout of frustration, trying to wiggle his hands out from his sides. His efforts earned him a small drop down the crevice, effectively increasing his inability to move.

His heart began pounding against his ribs, as if trying to break out of his chest. Sweat dripped along his brow, causing his bangs to cling to his forehead. Unable to shake the bangs out of his eyes, Leo began to struggle again. Even though last time it made him fall deeper into the hole. And again, he slipped.

’What is down there?’ Actually. He’d rather not find out. Especially if it was some kind of stalagmites. He hated not being able to do anything. He couldn’t do anything for himself in this position, the sides of the cave squeezing Leo’s arms to his sides. If possible, his heart began beating faster, body beginning to shake. A drop of sweat fell into his eye, forcing Leo to close it shut, unwilling to let any more into his eyes. It wasn’t like he could see anything anyways, or rather, need to.

Leo knew he was in a bad position. It didn’t take a genius to know that. His head began to feel light and dizzy. The air was musty with dirt and humidity, and the cave had a real earthy smell to it. And while normally he would feel okay with the scent, this time, it made him feel like vomiting. Leo’ position reminded him of being buried alive. The thought made him hyperventilate. He needed to be in the sky, to fly in the open air, just barely brushing the treetops with his fingertips…

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

It wasn’t working.

A feeling of panic swept over the Autumn student. ’I have to get out of here!’ Anything. Anything to get out of this hell. Break the rock! Break his bones. Whatever it took. Leo needed out. He wanted to get this rock away from him. ”Ugh!” The blond rotated his arm to grasp at a rather pointy part of the tunnel at arm level. Forcing a blast of Holy light, the rock shattered with a surprising glass like crash. Before Leo could understand what was happening, light flooded his vision, and his body fell to the floor with a thud.

The first time he took a breath, it was like he was in a whole new world. The air was fresh, something like the purest form of air he had ever had the chance to breathe. Either that or he was just really excited to get out of the stuffy hole. Oh! And his arms felt way better, as he was able to move now. Enthusiastic, the blond leaped to his feet and wiped away the sweat lining his forehead. Taking his time, Leo also peeled off his jacket, discarding it on the floor. He was too overheated for a jacket anyways.

When he had finally gotten the sweat out of his eyes, the prefect was greeted to the sight of what would be the limbo if he had to imagine what limbo looked like. The floor was a white marble tiling that seemed to go on forever in all directions. Meeting the flooring at the horizon line was plain darkness. Like the night except there were no stars to fill the dark void that was the sky. What was weird about this..plane was that the light came up from the stark white marble. Like it was reflecting some other light from an unknown source.

Curiously, Leo did a 360 degree spin, taking in his surroundings. Everything looked the same until he spotted two other figures not too far away. Blue eyes squinted, trying to make out the people who were in the distance. The first was Aleta. Without a doubt. His sister’s pink dress stood out against the white ground on which she was laying on. She looked like she had gotten into a fight with someone. Aleta’s hair was out of her usual pigtails, a tear in her dress revealed a cut, and a bruise covered the right side of her face. Standing over her was a man in black. He was harder to make out compared to his sister. He was dressed in a tuxedo like outfit, and his face held an unwavering smirk. In the man’s hand was a pistol, which was pointed at Aleta’s head.

It took Leo a full two seconds to process what was happening. This man was going to kill Aleta. Face slipping into a frown, the blond clenched his fists at his sides and tensed his muscles. There was no time to lose. He couldn’t allow Aleta to die in the hands of this man. He’d protect her to the death. She was his sister after all. It was his job to take care of her.

Without a second thought, Leo leaped towards the man, wings appearing in a bright flash of light white light. At that moment, all seemed to slow down. The man turned his silver pistol away from Aleta, and toward Leo, who was unable to react to the two rounds shot his way. The first buried itself in his wing, sending the blond off track. The second bullet went through his left side, just below his ribcage. With a grunt he collided on the man, and they both went skidding a fair distance away from Aleta. Taking the advantage, the blond held the man down one hand on his chest, the other held up threateningly.

Leo knew he had been shot, however, it was numb. So he didn’t pay much mind to it at the time. Instead Leo brought a fist back and sent it colliding with the man’s nose with a satisfying crunch. As Leo shattered the man’s nose, he noticed his reaction. Which was nothing. Despite the now crooked nose, the smirk was still in place. Anger increasing, he punched at the man’s face again, blood trickling down his nose and mouth.

It was only after the man stopped moving, did Leo halt his assault. His skin on his knuckles was raw, and pain had begun to set in on his side. His wings disappeared, as he wouldn’t be able to use them anyways. Standing up was a great battle. His side now blossomed with agony, spreading throughout his side. Staggering away from the man, Leo hurried to his sister as fast as he could with an injured torso.He slowed to a stop next to her, kneeling down to check up on her.

There were more cuts than he had originally seen. Most of them being thin razor like cuts. Thin and shallow. In further inspection, it looked like she had gotten in a fight with someone. Maybe the man he had taken down? Slowly, the brother turned back to look at where he left the man laying. Instead of what he expected to see; the unmoving body of the smirking man, he saw two of the smirking man standing in the same place he saw the man’s body.

Clearly alarmed, the student leapt to his feet, taking a defensive stance against the two men. Leo’s face scrunched in an unpleasant way as a jolt of pain laced through his side. He had gotten very lucy that it hadn’t hit something vial. It just barely went through his side. That being said, he was still in pain. Weary of another gunshot, Leo hastily cast a glance towards the two’s hands. Neither of them were holding a gun.

Thank god.

That, however, left him with a question. Were they going to attack Aleta again? A frown appeared on his face at the thought. Last time he had the weapon of surprise and now he had nothing but his powers. While normally, he knew that he’d be fine, this encounter seemed different than the first one. If anything, their smirks were taunting. Trying to get him to make the first move.

At least, Leo thought they were. Either way, he didn’t want to attack until he knew what their powers where. It didn’t take a genius to know that if they didn’t have physical weapons on them, that their power must be deadly. Biting his lip, the blond watched their movements.

It seemed like for the longest time no one moved. Each one waiting for the other to make the first attack. Each of them holding the strategy of not attacking first, especially if you didn’t know their powers. Leo paused. Wait. That meant that they didn’t know his abilities either. He relaxed a small fraction.Maybe he still had a bit of surprise left. He was facing two people, Leo would take any help he could get.

A prang of worry passed through him, and the brother looked down at his sister. If only she had been awake, they both could escape with their wings. At that moment an idea struck him. If he could pick Aleta up, then he could fly away with her in his arms. Bending down, he went to do so, but froze when he heard footsteps.

Jolting upright, Leo barely blocked a punch to his face. His hand gripping the man’s own hand. The other man stood stock still in the same place. Again, both of their smirks on their faces. Another fist came down on Leo’s head. The blond flinched, head spinning. Before he could react, another punch collided with the side of his face. Losing his grip on the man’s hand, he fell onto his back leaving his stomach exposed.

The man in black took advantage of this and stomped on Leo’s chest. The air left his lungs, and he gasped for breath, lungs in agony. The man continued his assault with a kick to Leo’s injured side. Pain blossomed from his side, leaving the blond withering on the ground. Everything hurt and his head spun as if he had just gotten off of the teacups in Disney World.

While Leo was attempting to regain his composure and balance, the man turned away. His dark eyes landing on the other version of himself. The other nodded and approached Aleta, his footsteps echoing throughout the empty world. His hands rubbed together, as would a evil villain watching his scheme come together. However, when the man parted his hands from each other, and what was reviled was sharp looking senbon like objects. They shone like glitter from the light reflected off of the tile.

Leo’s eyes watched the man dizzily as he strolled over to his sister. He could not lay here and do nothing! That man was going to do something with those thin objects. ’...and by the looks of it, they are what caused those small cuts on Aleta.’ The blond frowned, and began to renew his effort to get up. He couldn’t let the man hurt her even more, not while he was here. With a growl, he climbed to his feet, pushing away the agony that his torso felt.

Both of the men turned to face him and again their smirks seemed all the more taunting. The one man with the senbons turned to face him, hand drawn back in the position to throw the weapons. Anticipating the attack, Leo put up a shield just in time to deflect the metal objects. The yellowish transparent like circular shield repelled them easily, but leaving the caster’s heart beating rapidly. Biting his lips, Leo took a deep breath. Now he had to attack back.

Not giving them the time to throw some more, Leo charged forward with his shield out in front of him. Effectively shoving the offending men onto their backs and away from his sister. They landed not too far away, and immediately stood up. Eyes narrowed, he continued his attack ruthlessly. Leo knew his sister was safe behind him so he didn’t have to worry about her safety as much.

Switching from a shield to a beam of holy energy, Leo sent it at the man who had thrown the senbons. Of one had blinked, they would have missed the beam of energy colliding with the man; square in the chest. He went skidding a good distance away, to the point that Leo wouldn’t have to worry about him for a good few minutes.

While Leo had been watching the man he attacked, the other began his assault, a knife appearing out of nowhere in their hands. At the thought of weapons, quickly patted down his sides in hopes of finding his trench knives there. Blue eyes widened in shock. They weren’t there. Thinking quickly, Leo dashed toward the man, narrowly avoiding the swipe that as taken at his face.

The prefect placed his hand on the man’s wrist which held the knife, holding it away from the two of them. Thus leaving one hand each for fighting. The ever-smirking man sent a punch for Leo’s torso. The blond swiped down with his arm, deflecting the punch. Unhesitatingly, Leo pushed holy energy into his fist, and launched it into the man’s chest.

Multiple crunches were heard as the man’s ribs snapped at the force of the teen’s punch. For one moment, Leo was sure the smirk flattered, but didn’t have much time to reflect and see if it actually did. The man gave a last ditch effort, and broke Leo’s grasp of his wrist, and pulled the blond to the ground. Blood dribbled out of his mouth dripping into his chin, and onto the teen’s clothes. The knife held high, ready to sab down for a final attack. Leo’s eyes watched the knife with cautiousness, his own hand reaching out to grasp the wrist again.
The man let out a gurgle which seemed like it was supposed to be a growl, but the blood in his throat produced the disgusting noise that the man made. They were once again in the same position as they were when they were standing. Except Leo held the wrist with the knife, and the man held Leo’s other hand to the ground. It was now a stand off.

However, Leo knew that he had the advantage. The man above him was bleeding out. If Leo had broken the man’s ribs like he thought he did, he should be drowning in his own blood. As if answering Leo hypnosis, the man spluttered into a cough, blood raining down on the prefect’s face. The ruby droplets splattered across his face and clothes, leaving the blond to flinch away. His head turned to look at his hand that was held to the ground. Leo wasn’t sure what he was supposed to feel when the blood fell onto his face. Guilt? Disgust? A mixture of the two perhaps.

He could feel the grip getting weaker. If only he could just twist it...Leo froze. The sound of footsteps came closer. Had the man gotten up already? Leo was sure that he could have knocked the man further away. Or had he been in the fight with the man longer than he thought? The footsteps seemed calm and collected. A stark contrast to the other identical man, who was breathing heavily and coughing up blood.

The taps soon passed Leo once more, telling the blond that the man was going after Aleta once again. Again, his wounds, the blood that covered his face was on the back of his mind. He had to save his sister. Thought thinking, the blond pushed off with his hips, throwing the man off of him, and onto the white tiled floor. Scrambling to his feet, Leo tried to get the blood off his face, only succeeding in smearing it. The streaks of blood seemed uncharacteristic for him, infact, maybe even downright creepy.

With the added look of killing intent that Leo felt for the other man as of then, he looked like a different person than the smiley, goodie two-shoes that many people knew him as. This man continued to threaten his sister. The smirk would be wiped off his face for good. Slowly, his blue eyes opened to the man hovering over his sister, knife in hand. The chips of ice what were Leo’s eyes went from the knife to Aleta’s head. Then quickly, they moved to the man who lay on the ground. He had stopped moving.

Leo bent down and pried the knife from the man’s dying hands. Giving him a cold glare the blond turned away, eyes back to the other man. He was kneeling next to his sister, knife held high. Much like what the other man was doing with Leo beforehand. Leo had two options, aim for the man’s torso and risk him continuing to stab Aleta, or aim for the man’s hand, but risk missing and the man continuing to stab Aleta.

But then if Leo hit the man in the hand, he would effectively disarm him. High risk, high reward one would say. Decided, the student grasped the knife’s cold blade, much like had had seen Keirsta do before, Leo channeled some holy energy in hopes of blessing it for accuracy. He slung it at the man’s exposed hand, watching it impale his hand, causing him to let go of the other knife with a cry of pain. Blue eyes watched the lone knife slip out of the man’s grasp and fall toward Aleta’s stomach.

Even though he knew that he could do nothing for that, the blond still dove forward in an effort to stop the knife from injuring his sister. Only to skid to a stop as the handle bounced off of her and clattered to the floor. Not giving himself time to be relieved, Leo turned to the man and sent a fist flying to his back.

A grunt escaped the man, and he rounded on Leo, pulling the knife out of his own hand in a morbid fashion, blood oozing from the wound. However, by the looks of the amount of blood falling, Leo had not hit any arteries. Thus making his job harder. Eyes watching the knife carefully, the blond hand the darkly dressed man stood for a long moment. Neither daring to move. A lone drop of blood fell from his hand, dropping on the floor with an eerie ping.

A signal for each of them to move. Leo scooped for the knife that was next to his sister, holding it in revered fashion as the other man prepared to throw the weapon at him. At the last moment, Leo held his other hand up to create a shield to repel the object. It clattered to the ground, leaving the man weaponless. The blond didn’t allow himself to feel victorious. He knew there could be something else that he would have to face. As in taking this man down. While he was weaponless, it didn’t mean anything. Nothing other than Leo having the advantage. That advantage being he had two weapons.

The blond slowly bent down and picked up the bloody knife by the handle. His grip returning to reverse handling. Recalling all his time practicing, Leo leaped forward, dual wielding the two blades. For the longest time, the man seemed competent enough to evade Leo’s myriad of attacks. Ducking, rolling, and side stepping. But Leo kept going, his eyes watching the man’s movements, as if trying to figure out a pattern in his evations.

Sidestep, roll, roll, duck, sidestep, roll, roll, duck.

Ah. He saw now.

Leo changed up his attack pattern suddenly, catching the man off guard. ”Got you!” One knife cut through the man’s shirt and into his chest, while the other was stabbed into the man’s clavicle. Removing the knives in a flash, the blond attacked again, continuing his ruthless fury swipes, the cuts lacing the man’s chest. The unrelenting attack leaving the man unable to react. He fell to the ground and Leo stood above him, face blank. The smirk was gone from the man’s face. Instead there was a grimace which slipped into a scowl as he noticed Leo looking down at him.

”Finish me off already.”

The blond complied without a hint of remorse. In a glint of silver, a knife was buried into the man’s chest with a dull thud. Cobalt blue eyes didn’t dare look at the man’s face. His cold exterior that he had put up for the majority of the fight was gone. Instead it was the worried brother again. Leo made his way over to his sister, adrenaline gone, and pain making its way back into his consciousness.

Slowly, the blond sank to his knees, eyes never leaving his sister’s face. Was she alright? Would she wake up? His bottom lip jutted out at the thought of her not awaking. What would he do with himself? Tears clouded his eyes, and Leo reached down to bring Aleta into his arms. It took a bit of effort and pain, but he soon was cradling her small body close to his chest. His teeth digging into his bottom lip as he tried to hold back a sob.

”Come on. Wake up!” He whispered, breath ridged.

”I know you are lazy sometimes, but you have to try this time…”

The blond fell silent after that, bouncing her gently in his arms, much like he had seen his own parents do when she was only an infant. He did it in hopes of waking her up, however after the long minutes, it seemed like it was for his own comfort.

A shifting in his arms broke Leo out of his stupor, making him aware of Aleta’s wakefulness. Obviously relieved, Leo stared down at her face. An utmost happy look was plastered on his bloodstained face. While he didn’t think about it, his face was not the most pleasant to be seen at the moment. Blood smeared and splattered across his face, bit’s of his hair was clumped together due to the blood. However, Leo didn’t pay any attention to his appearance. His thoughts only on his sister who he worked so hard to protect.

Her dark eyes slowly opened at first only looking at the sky above. Devoid of any such stars or moon that one would know from such a sky. They then turned to the second most prominent thing in her vision. Her brother’s face. He was covered in blood, mostly in the face, but also there was a spot in his side that she could see. A solid stain of dark red covered that side of the shirt.

Worriedly, her gaze snapped back to Leo’s face observing it in search of any wounds on his head. While there were some bruising here and there, it didn’t seem like Leo had gotten any cuts there. Thankful, she then switched to open her mouth to ask a question.
Why was he all bloody? Perhaps even bigger than that, why did she feel like she had gone through a shedding machine? Papercuts everywhere! Neither of them said a word. It was quiet for the longest time. Yet, they both felt comfortable the way they were. Leo holding his sister close to his chest, looking out into the nothingness in front of him. The ambient noise being nothing but both of their breaths.

Leo knew he was protective of his sister. Hell, he was protective of everyone, but his sister more so. However, he was never sure of the limits he would go to protect the people he loved. Leo always thought that had there been a situation where he may have to kill someone in order to protect people he cared about, that he would find a way to not kill them, but find a way around it. He was always against killing. Except, with this, Leo realized that he couldn’t always go about his ways without ending someone’s life.

Sure if it was possible, he would do it. Without a doubt. The prefect believed that every life was important. On the other hand, if things came down to what had happened here, Leo would end up having to take someone’s life. And while it wasn’t something he wanted to do, it was something had had to do. Leo would kill to protect the people her cared most about. Mom, Dad, Aleta, Keirsta, Devin...Hell. He’d protect the entirety of Beata if it came to that. The students there were like his family, flawed as they all are.

Slowly, Aleta faded from his arms, and the wounds from before mended. The only thing telling Leo what had just happened was real, was his jacket that was wadded up a small distance away from him. Rising to his feet, he worriedly glanced around the area.

A roar shook the ground. Startled, Leo spun around. There stood a ginormous being. A single eye could be seen. However, the eye was closed. It’s skin was an ugly shade of red, and a beard which was matted to the point of a single dreadlock. It’s black hair, which was surprisingly not in multiple dreadlocks, flowed in the breeze. Well, if there was a breeze. It’s body on the other hand, was very pudgy. Like a evil, demonic, toddler...But with one leg. It wore very little armor. A large helmet with Celtic engravings and long straight horns were pointed down, and just barely curved. In it’s hand was a shield, which also held the same kind of engravings and was around the size of the armpits down. Besides that, the only thing the demonic creature wore, was a very disturbing piece of clothing that covered his unmentionables.

The most disturbing fact about this, was that the creature’s choice of clothing was adored by pure white wings. Wings of angels he had slain before most likely. A multitude of pairs were sewn on. So many that it began to look like fur. Heart skipping a beat, Leo took a hesitant step backward.  How was he supposed to fight this? It was almost five stories tall! The creature took a step forward as if to prove its strength. The single step rocked the ground, splinters of tile shot up like spikes. The spiderweb cracks reached all the way to where Leo was standing, but fortunately, didn’t displace like the ground by the creature’s foot.

Not wanting to stay where he was, Leo began to sprint in the opposite direction from the monster. If he was going to fight it, he would have to put some kind of distance between them. Another step was taken, causing the blond to trip. As he fell, Leo’s forehead smacked against the tile, his hands spread out in a remnant of his effort to catch himself before he fell on the tile.

Slowly, he pushed himself off the ground, hand at his head. A bump was already forming. Another step sent Leo off balance again, the demonic creature let out a throaty laugh.

”Well, Well. Another angel who thinks they are stronger than the others.” The tall figure scoffed, pointing a long spear down at Leo. Who just barely obtained his balance once again and spun around to face the enormous creature. The demonic creature’s mouth was lined with fang like teeth, and while they might be to hard to see in the dim light, Leo swore he saw skeletons stuck between the crevices in his mouth. Disgusted, Leo slowly backed away.

There was no way he could take this...this...demonic god down. Even if he had his arrows, or even trench knives. The angel doubted if he even had the capacity to even take down the god like creature. Leo felt so small compared to how tall it was. An arrow would be nothing more than a splinter. Something that they could just pluck away from it’s skin without a second thought. Or, even if it got stuck on the skin. It looked tough and dry. Like the skin of an elephant.

”Know your place, angel.” It’s voice rumbled, taking a step, and leaning down to where its face was a good few meters from Leo. ”Your place is on my trophy belt.” Saliva spluttered out of the god’s mouth as it spoke, the breath smelled like death itself. It only had one way to describe it, that would be it. Death. Scared stiff, Leo was unable to move as the giant being reached down and plucked Leo into the air by his wings.

Eyes widening, Leo scrambled to fight against the oppressive force. His white wings were held together like one would carry a butterfly. Between two fingers, an index finger, and a thumb. For once in Leo’s life. He felt helpless. Left to the whim of this god like creature.  For the longest time Leo thrashed in the demon’s grasp, in hope of weakening it to the point where he could at least turn around and see the hand. Growing tired, Leo fell limp, suspended by only his wings.

”Are you done now?” The creature scoffed, bringing Leo closer to his flattened nose. The flare of the nostrils and nodd told Leo that it had just confirmed something. And whatever it was, must not be good for Leo.

”You see, I can’t have you be alive when I eat you. Trust me, I had some terrible indigestion for a while. I hope you don’t mind.” Leo gave the demonic creature a weird look. If he was going to kill Leo, one would think that they’d say something more threatening for their last words.

Suddenly, it began shaking Leo like a dog would a chew toy. An attempt to give him whiplash and break his spine. The large creature spun slung Leo back and forth. On instinct, Leo pulled himself into a fetal position, and send waves of holy energy to prevent damage. His head began to ache. He couldn’t stand too long of this. Despite his position, it still hurt his back, where the wings met his skin.

It continued for a long excruciating time, his head throbbing at the abuse it was receiving. What was the creature waiting for? His wings to pop off? His back to snap? Leo let out a cry of pain, as a particular snap of the creature’s wrist caused enough whiplash to where Leo was forced to let go of his legs. It hurt. It was the kind of agony that went on forever. The worst part is, that he couldn’t do anything about it.

Wings pop off...wings off...turn his wings off...take is wings off. Oh God damn it. If his head didn’t hurt as much as it did then, he would have hit it. ’I can make my wings disappear.’ At that moment, Leo hated himself. Why’d he have to be so dumb sometimes? It was part of his power after all! Happy that he could escape the hell that was the pudgy giant’s hand, Leo let his wings disappear, and the blond plummeted toward the bright ground, obviously unworried about the fact that the ground was quickly heading his way. While he fell, the blond gracefully adjusted his positioning, so he would be able to pull out of his dive easily when the time came. The creature let out a yell and stabbed at the air with his celtic spear, angry that his meal had not given up like a lot of the others had.

Once a safe distance from the grasp of the pudgy one legged giant, wings appeared in a flash of light pulling Leo out of his dive, and into a glide that carried him a good distance away. Just enough distance to where he could consider his options before being overrun again. Careening, Leo slid into place behind a large upturned spike, letting his wings disappear in order to hide himself better.

Now, from what Leo knew, the god like creature had to be Celtic. He had been up around the Massachusetts, Maine, and Connecticut area thanks to some family friends they they visited when he was a child. One of the people he visited told stories of the many mythological beings of their culture.

The blond fliched at the loud sound of the footstep coming closer.

”You can’t hide from me, angel.” It growled threateningly, taking it’s time walking towards the rock where Leo hid.

He remembered something along this description. One legged, disgusting looking creature. A spear and a shield.

”Don’t make me use my eye!”

Blue eyes lit up in recognition. Now he remembered it. The Celtic demon who held control over death. The blond paled considerably. If the demon used his eye, Leo wouldn’t have a shot at making it out alive. The one evil eye could kill anyone just by peering at them. In a moment of helplessness, Leo looked at his hands forlornly. What else could he remember from his childhood? A pout appearing, the blond stared at his hands as he dug into the depths of his mind. A needle in a haystack.

The pads along his hands, the middle and pointer finger on both hands have become calloused, thanks to the effort he put into his workouts. However, the more he looked at his hands, the more unreal they felt. As a child, he would look at his hands in excitement and say; Wow! A kid like me took down an evil person. However, after a while, it left him confused. Leo had lost the story behind his excitement about becoming strong. While he still felt it, he couldn’t remember where it originated from. He didn’t even know who the evil person was any more. All the Celtic stories he was told as a kid. What was it?

The ground shook, and tile was sent flying in Leo’s direction due to the sheer force of the stomp. Flinching behind the spike, Leo took refuge from the barrage of debris that was sent his way, dust closely following the rocks. Waving the dust away from his face, the blond let out a cough before quickly putting a hand over his own mouth in realization. The blond had just confirmed where he was hiding for the demon.

”I am going to count to ten, and if you don’t come from behind that rock, I will kill you on the spot.” The death demon declared his ultimatum, another footstep almost deafening the Autumn Prefect.

A rock tumbled and stopped next to where Leo sat. Nervous eyes looked over to stare at it, and at that moment everything came together.

”One...”

---

It was a warm summer night. Lights shone throughout the town, and children laughed as they played their games of tag or hide and seek. Behind a particular house, was a fire pit, and a group of chairs around it. The fire was lit ablaze, and the occasional snap of the twigs filled the air. The parents called their children over, and the rather large group of children gathered around. Each at their respective parent’s sides.

”Alright kids,” An elderly voice drawled, stretching from his seat across the fire from a certain blond haired child. Next to him sat a dark haired child, who held a bored expression, but didn’t seem to care enough to argue against stories. So instead the child leaned up against her father’s lap, thumb slipping into her mouth as she went in for a nap. Her sibling on the other hand, was attentive, listening to every word that the elderly man said. He loved coming here to listen to the stories. And this year, the old man promised Leo that it would be a good one. ”...story time.”

And so began the story.

There once was a race of gigantic warriors who liked nothing better than to invade somewhere, pillage it, and then gloat terribly about their accomplishments. Balor was the evilest of them all. He had one large eye that could kill just by peering at them. But he usually left it closed so he didn’t trip over dead bodies all the time.

Hearing the prophecy that he would be killed by his own grandson, Balor locked his daughter Etheline in a transparent tower. Yet, he had not reckoned the craftiness of Cian. Who disguised himself as an old crone and wangled his way inside the tower. No one was the wiser until Cian and Etheline had a child. Who was named Lugh.

Balor was furious that she had a child, and threw Lugh into the sea.

But the sea god was mad at the demons for polluting his waters and came to the boy’s rescue, taking care of him until he was old enough to live with his uncle, who taught Lugh crafts. Eventually, he became very skilled, a major points for being a god back then. Soon, he became one. Slaying dozens upon dozens of bad guys. Even…

”A boy just your age,” The man looked across at Leo, who was staring back in anticipation, awestruck with the story. ”took a sling, and a rock about this size-” The old man held up his fist for an example, chuckling to himself as he thought about it. ”All it took was this small rock to take down the demon of death.” His voice was much quieter adding that in, before looking back up at the blond, who stared up at the man’s fist. ”- and Lugh shot the rock into his grandfather’s eye, and killed him.”

---

”Two”

The teen reached out with his hand, and plucked the rock from the ground. The mixture of granite and stone glinted in the light reflecting off of the tile. Leo rolled the stone over in his hands, feeling each pointy edge he encountered. This had to be it.

All it took was a simple stone.

”Three”

Determined to do this, Leo began gathering the stones around them. This criteria only being that they had to be around the size of his fist. And with the demon’s footsteps, it was not too hard to complete. The steps shattered the ground he stood on. There was easily peices to be taken. Ignoring the dizziness his head still felt, Leo slowly stood up. At his feet was a pile of rocks which were placed haphazardly together. His face looked determined.

”Four”

The blond’s attention was focused on his hand, slowly but surely a sling began to appear. It was a holy energy construct, so Leo was hopeful that it would automatically grace the object to land a hit.

”Five”

He would only get one shot making his first surprise attack. He would have to make it count. Hastily, the blond shoved as many rocks as he could fit into his pants. While he was thankful that men had large pockets, it didn’t seem like he could fit any more than four. Meaning if he missed any more than four times, Leo would have to risk going down and restocking on his ammo.

”Six”

Now or never.

Snatching one rock from the pile, the blond loaded it into the sling and began to twirl it behind him. Blue eyes locked on the eyelid of the demon. If he missed this, he would have to move. Especially if he opened his eye. Leo released the stone, the kinetic energy sending it flying with an impressive speed into the lid of the deadly eye.

”Sev- UUGH!”

It most definitely did not kill him. Heart pounding, Leo knew to move. Snatching a stone from his mini pile, the blond haired teen took off into the sky, wings appearing once again in a brilliant light. Leo circled overhead, watching the demon’s face carefully. He had to be sure that if he opens his eyes, that he could escape his line of sight.

Loading the rock he grabbed, the blond launched another stone at the demon’s eye. His brows knit together in concentration. It was hard to launch stones from up here. Pressing his lips together, Leo flew off in another direction, not wanting to be there when the stone hit the demon of death.

”Ugh! You son of a bitch!”

Another hit.

Leo’s face stayed serious despite the ire at the demon’s insult. He knew better than to let it control his actions. He needed a calm mind to do this correctly.

”I am going to kill you!”

’He’s going to use his eye.’ Leo thought, eyes wide. He would have only one shot to hit the real eye. And that is when it was opening, because after that, the demon would be able to see where the rock came from. It would be better if he was at an angle to where he wasn’t the first thing that it saw upon opening it’s eye.

Landing to the side of the demon, Leo loaded another rock in the sling, preparing to launch it in the air. However, the demon’s arm holding the spear lashed out to the side, sending the spear hurtling right towards Leo. The blond pushed himself into the air, narrowly avoiding the sharp edges of the spear. But the blast of air following it, sent Leo tumbling haphazardly after it.

Grunting, the blond rolled to a stop, shattered pieces of tile dug into his back, and the stomping of the demon moving closer rattled his head. Leo struggled to stand up. A rather large peice of shattered tile dug deeply into his left shoulder, another in the back of his thigh.

The demon stood still for a long moment, before it’s eyelid slowly began to open. It was a slow process, as if Balor hadn’t opened his eye in a millennium. It truly looked like a hard task. Blue eyes stared up at the slit of a red one. The eye was looking forward, and Leo was obviously out of eyesight. However, there was something that he noticed. A trail of blood lined the rim of the lower eyelid. Was it the result of Leo’s efforts?

The blond certainly hoped so, and began to swing the sling behind him, building the momentum that he would need to get it up into the air, and actually cause damage. The whirling that filled the air was thankfully covered by Balor’s heavy breathing. By no means did Leo think he had hurt the demon to the point that he was breathing heavily. Leo would attribute the heavy breathing to the sheer size that Balor was.

Is this what Lugh had to go through to kill his grandfather? Or did he do it in one shot like David and Goliath? Because if he got Balor in one shot, Leo would call bull on that. Even if Lugh was a god, it would still be a hard shot.

Leo tensed himself for a moment, before taking a step forward and launching it into the air. The sharp rock embedded itself in the demon’s eye like a knife into skin with a sickening splat. A roar of pain filled the air, the god stumbled back, and fell to the floor, shaking the ground like an earthquake.

Leo let out a sigh as the rock hit it’s mark, his arms slumping to his sides.Frowning, the prefect took one last look at Bealor before he faded from his dream. This was some kind of experience.

The first thing Leo recalled feeling when he woke up was the soft pillow his head rested on. The next was the constant drumming of rain on the windows. It hadn’t seemed to have let up while he was asleep. Infact, perhaps even increased. Despite his back hurting from being in an odd position, Leo didn’t feel like raising his head up from the cushion.

It was funny how your childhood comes back to you sometimes. His being in the form of a Celtic death demon who he had to fight in his dreams. It was even more interesting how dreams change your perspective on things. Leo believed in sparing people’s lives, yet this taught him that sometimes lives cannot be spared in order to protect those he loved.

With a humm, Leo sat up, popping his back, and stretching his arms to get rid of the soreness. The blond removed the pillow from his desktop and replaced it with the Connect Four game. He knew the pieces had the tendency to be loud so Leo was sure to do it slowly in order not to abruptly awake anyone from their evaluation.

”Anyone want to play a game?” He asked in a hushed tone to the students around him. A pleasant smile on his face, despite what he had just faced in his evaluation.