The Academy: Ensnared

26. The Mystery That He Is

A/N//: Hey everyone! This chapter is SUPER short, but I hope you enjoy it <3 More notes at the end.

Idea Man: no emojis, just pain. Y'all don't know how long this has been planned. 2-3 YEARS! Omg this is crazy.

Christopher

"I don't know why you bothered to come," Janette said, her tone icy and cold.

Christopher hadn't heard it that way in a long time, her voice. Hell, he might not have ever heard that sort of contempt coming from the woman.

"What do you mean?" he asked even though he knew. He knew exactly why.

"I've been dead for four years, Chris, and you haven't visited once."

He didn't know what to say to her. He just didn't know. He sat in the center of the cemetery, in front of the headstone he hadn't been to in many years. It stood in front of him, tall, proud, and erect. It was made of a dark granite that seemed so imposing. On it, her name was etched. Janette Kimathi. Beneath it was her death date. She sat on top of the stone, one leg crossed over the other. Her chin rested on her closed fist. Her dark eyes were trained on him.

He licked his cracked lips in order to wet them. He cleared his throat. Fuck, he even wiped his clammy hands on the legs of his jeans. But he just couldn't find the words. Her glare, dark and menacing, was suffocating.

"I-I... I'm sorry, I-I," he stammered, but words wouldn't form.

Her glare only intensified. "You have always been like this," she snapped. "Lazy. Inconsiderate. Inconsistent. A coward."

Christopher hung his head, his teeth worrying his lower lip. He could taste the faint metallic tang of blood across his tongue and could feel the sting of it, but he didn't care. If anything, he deserved it.

"B-But-" he stammered, but she cut him off with another harsh glare.

"No. I don't want to hear it. I want you to leave," she said.

Something inside of him chilled him all over, straight to the bone. She wanted him to leave. She wanted him to leave the cemetery. But suddenly, there was nowhere to go. The rest of the cemetery beyond a small circle of grass that he and her headstone sat upon had disappeared. There was six feet of space surrounding him, and the rest was white emptiness. He couldn't leave, even if she wanted him to. He had nowhere to go.

"How?" he asked, his eyes wide and frantic. A sense of foreboding washed over him.

"I don't care how. Just go," she seethed through barred teeth. "If you don't go, I'll make you."

"J-Janette!" he said, holding his hands up in a placating manner.

But she was already hopping down from her perch on the granite. She closed the gap between them quickly, and in return, he backed up to the edge of the grass. It was as far as he could go. The world suddenly dropped off right behind him. She closed the rest of that distance, too.

"I said GO!" she yelled, her hands flying out to push Christopher back.

He flailed, and suddenly he was falling down, down, down into the abyss, silent screams of horror following down after him.

Christopher said upright in bed, that same scream dying on his lips. He blinked rapidly to get his eyes to adjust to the darkness of his bedroom. Static roared in his ears. All he could hear was his own rapid breathing and the pounding of his heart. But he could feel things. He could feel the soft touch of hands on his face, attempting to shift his gaze in another direction. He could feel soft circles being rubbed onto his tear-streaked cheeks. He allowed his eyes to shift in the direction in which he was being pulled. He half expected to see her. He expected to see Janette, but it wasn't.