The Black Pawn • The first book of the Black Academy Series

14. Stage Four

"THE FOURTH STAGE IS TORTURE." Victoria stood in front of them with her hands behind her back, "To ensure that all of our assassins will not reveal any information to any of our enemies, we will be testing you through this."

Victoria motioned around them, the dungeons had been changed. Magically, no doubt. There were multiple contraptions they had knowledge of, all of them were torture devices. Electric chairs. Whips. A large inflatable pool of water. And then a witch. Mental torture, Azalea rubbed her hands together, nice touch.

"You will all be going in a given pattern." Victoria said, "Five rounds of torture, four hours in total. You will all experience five levels. The first level is electricity, the second is fire, third come the whips, fourth is water. And the last level is mental torture."

"The levels do not have any gradation to them," She said, "Every level is as painful as the last. And, there is no given schedule. You will all start the stage at the same time, you will all be assigned the first level. You have a choice in the first stage, we have allowed that much. After the first level, it is continuous, no choices. No breaks."

No one moved. No one said anything. Victoria's hands unclasped. They were in front of her, she clapped them once. The teachers stepped forwards. They held a flag in their hands, raising it in the air.

"Choose your first level." Victoria said, "Ms. Avaria will lead you to the whips, Mademoiselle Faith will lead you to the electricity chair, Mr. Porter will lead you to the fire stage and Mr. Lavel will take you to the water."

"Those who want to do the mental torture first may remain where they are."

Chatter echoed off the walls of the dungeon. They all moved to whatever torture method tickled their fancy. She glanced at Anna and Elizabeth, they had made their choices. She gave them a nod, "See you guys later?"

"Yeah." Anna nodded, "See you."

Elizabeth gave her a quick squeeze on the shoulder. They parted from her. Anna went to stand behind Mr. Porter and Elizabeth stood behind Mademoiselle Faith. Azalea shook her hands out, she had made her choice too.

She stayed where she was. Mental torture.

People stood in lines behind the four teachers. Some were scattered. But everyone had made their choice. Victoria clapped again, "I wish you all luck."

Pain filled her when the last syllable was out of Victoria's mouth. It had started already. The witch was probably working her magic. Her eyes rolled back into her head. She felt herself lose control of her body. She knew she was falling. But then she wasn't.

Her body was suspended. The witch had caught her. All the students who had chosen mental torture were floating in the air. The others who had chosen bodily harm first, watched them float upwards.

The first one to scream was a blonde boy, followed by a brunette girl. Then they all started screaming. The others were led away by the teachers. Only Victoria remained where she was. Watching the floating children.

Moments later blue electricity lit up a part of the dungeon. Then red fire. The screams were paired with the sound of flesh ripping and the sound of water sloshing around.

She smiled slowly, "It's a good start."

•

"She's doing good."

Victoria nodded, "We expected this. We needed this, Avaria."

Avaria nodded, "Our witch friend just let me know of some interesting information about Ms. Selene's nightmares."

"What?"

"She's dreamt of me.", Avaria said, "She's dreamt of the day I killed Aiza."

Victoria smiled. Everything was going well. She nodded, "She's growing into her powers already. She might be ready for everything by the end of the Selection."

"She better be.", Avaria said, "I don't think that Mr. Lavel would be happy with anything that doesn't fit with his plans."

Victoria hummed. Screams interrupted them. The teachers were spread out around the dungeons. The fourth stage was far from being over. Avaria cleared her throat, "Why have you not told Ms. Selene of her supernatural heritage?"

"If I would've told her, she would've rushed.", Victoria said, folding her arms to her chest, "And, she would've started thinking. It would've been deadly to any plans we've made."

"Her thinking can also help us with any of our plans."

"I hardly think that her heroic thinking would be open to my plans.", Victoria said, her tone was sharp, "She would start developing her ideals and her thoughts about my spirit friends. An outcome that's not desirable to us, at all."

Avaria nodded, "It seems that there is a part of her worried about her heritage. It can be deadly for a student to not belong, especially in the times we live in."

"She will have to survive.", Victoria said, "Otherwise I will kill her myself."

•

It was cold. And she felt alone. But she wasn't. The cold water wrapped around her. A deadly embrace that she hated. The water was not normal, its consistency was off. And it tasted sourer than it should have. It could've been the blood in the water. Or it could've been her imagination. She didn't know the difference anymore.

She was losing her breath. But she would have to stay in the water no matter what. She knew what thing was coming at her, but she had to keep away from the surface no matter what.

The water shifted around her. The monster was here. It could not have fitted into the inflatable pool she had seen earlier. It didn't make sense. They must've mixed something into the water. She turned around, her hands cutting through the water.

A shriek of the monster. And then it was right in front of her. It was like a shark, but not quite. All she knew was that it shouldn't have existed on Earth. It's jaws were wide open, snapping through the water. Whatever was in the water made the time blur. She felt as though she had been in there for days.

The monster did not bite her. It snapped near her and then swam away.

Whatever was in the water made the water seem deep and endless, even though she was in an inflatable pool. Whatever was in the water made her forget that she had met the monster head-on 4 times already, and every time it had passed through her like a mirage.

But in her distorted mind, she was not aware of it.

The water shifted again. The monster. this time it would not bite near her. It would bite her. The monster appeared, sure enough. Closer than ever before. Jaws snapping powerfully. She tried to move away from it, flapping her hands through the water furiously.

She had her back to the monster, trying to get away from it. But its jaws surrounded her. She was inside its mouth. Its jaws had not yet closed. She could see the free water outside. But she could not move fast enough to get out. Then its jaws snapped close, and everything went dark.