Dark Academy

Chapter 26

A – what?

Offered from Phantasy.

"Do the honours for me, why not," he drawls into my ear, "You'll like the power –"

I take the sacrificial blade anyway and I do hold it up against her throat, whereby the girl finally snaps out of it at the last second.

As her adrenaline spikes, her eyes dart down to the weapon and her lips smack shut.

"This was for you just now, I just saved your ass, unless you wanted this kind of fucked up end to be your last breath," I warn her and the young woman finally leaps backward and sprints away into the crowd, looking for the exit.

I lower the blade and have a small smile on my mouth, happy she is free – when I notice a crowd congregating by the only exit.

Instead of escaping, the awaiting demons swallow her in a cloud of ashy fog and I can't see what happens, but I do notice the floor flooding with a metallic dew.

Shit. Are you kidding me?

Of course Phantasy ignited their hunger and evil nature to bloom and cut her off. He couldn't be stopped when he wanted to play. And his games were just fucking sick, full stop. Death of the innocent, of the naïve, of the mortals he so despised.

I spin to Phantasy, already my eyes are full of tears, ready to confront him with his blade.

Instead, there is no time for talk, I can barely see his chest before he's moved right around and behind me, pushing me dramatically over the bubbling cauldron. The blade is still in my palm, but now his hand is around my fist.

He shoves the blade against my throat and I can't match his power.

Phantasy isn't even trying yet.

I can see him in the blood, his reflection behind me, ready to slaughter me next without a second thought.

"Time to dance your way out of hell," Phantasy speaks coldly, without emotion, and no smile.

I whimper as I try to pull back, hoping to be saved at the last minute.

The blade starts to press – when he suddenly pushes me into the cauldron instead.

I expect to hit the bottom.

I expect to drown.

Except that's not what happens at all.

I just sink.

And I keep sinking.

Until I'm gargled up and spit out of a bubbling pit – in the middle of a grey forest.

Fog all around me is breathing in and out as I crawl through wet soil and dead leaves, slowly finding my feet again.

As I stand, there are girls all around me, looking just as confused as me.

They're in their ripped and scattered night club outfits, struck out of their trance in the Under, with no injuries – but painfully aware they are in big trouble.

We are not in Hell.

We're just in the Under. But that still wasn't good.

There's at least twenty of us.

My wings are dripping in the red blood, and I flare out of wings to shake off the droplets, wiping the mess out of my eyes and off my lips.

"You're an angel?" the girl closest to me, dressed in leather pants and a black tank top, with a cross necklace around her neck, asks me with hope, "Can you help us? Is that why you're here?"