Broken stones tumble down around you while dust stings your eyes and clogs your throat. Disoriented, you take a step backward, no follow-up action in mind. A half-destroyed brick launches toward your face, but before you can meet your doom you’re wrestled to the ground. You and Kittpey roll in the grass, and she keeps you both tumbling far longer than natural momentum would. By the time you reach a stop your head and vision are spinning. As though from far away, you hear her shouting, but you can’t make out the words. You try to speak, but cough instead, your body trying to expel the dust that’s been poisoning your lungs. Rolling over to your stomach, you lift yourself with shaky arms, hacking and wheezing violently. Nothing but spittle leaves your mouth.

Another crashing sound punctures your eardrums. You look up, following the line of carnage that’s torn a hole through the wall and two other buildings. At the end of the line something large comes to a skidding halt and turns back the way it came. The creature is some sort of titanic demonic boar, sleet black save for the flames erupting from its back, eyes and mouth. Its cloven hooves dig deep grooves into the ground, while its pointy head thrashes about wildly. The face of the thing is all horns, tusks, teeth and hatred, its mouth in particular a round vortex of shark teeth surrounding a furnace. Smoke gathers above the beast, darkening the sky.

It rears up, letting loose another rumbling, ear-piercing shriek. But the sound is cut off prematurely as something large slams into the side of the thing’s head. From this distance, it’s difficult to make out what… something big, but much smaller than the shadow beast. Is it that stone guard, Karvin?

Someone grabs your shoulder and twists you roughly onto your back. Mere centimeters from your face, Kittpey shouts, “Ruem! Talk to me!!”

Belatedly, you realize that Kittpey has been speaking this whole time. Your brain tuned her out to focus on the terrifying creature that nearly trampled you both to death. You open your mouth to respond, but someone else beats you to it.

“Ruem…? Kittpey, are you two… here?” says Radestro. His voice is nothing like you’re familiar with; every ounce of confidence and charisma it usually carries has drained away. The trembling sound comes from somewhere past the broken wall.

Your blonde friend has not moved away from you, however. Her head turns to look in the direction of Radestro’s voice, but then her eyes are back on you. Right, you still haven’t spoken.

“I—I’m okay, Kittpey.” Though you’d been maintaining eye contact, her intensity drives you to look away. “We should check on him.”

“Fine,” she says, getting to her feet. She helps you up, and the two of you race over to the hole in the wall. Peeking around the corner, you see Radestro sprawled on the ground, partially covered in debris and entirely covered in dust. Despite it all, you don’t want to watch the man die, so you hurry to his side and do your best to sweep the mess off of him. Kittpey joins you. What the two of you uncover nearly makes you vomit; a bone is sticking out of Radestro’s leg, a leg which is currently not bending the correct way.

“Oh. Shit,” are the only words Radestro says before he loses consciousness.

“Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck…” you mutter under your breath, anxiety grabbing your chest in a vice grip. A voice is speaking to you again, but it takes extreme effort for you to understand it.

“-em, breathe! Please breathe.”

Your eyes snap up and away from the horror in front of you to lock eyes with Kittpey. A string of faded gold juts out of her neck; her hand and fingers move quickly in the air. One last knot is tied in the complex pattern she’s weaving, then the whole thing glows bright. She hurls the end of the string at Radestro’s leg like a javelin. In seconds, the bone pushes its way back into him, the hole in his skin knits up, and the leg bends back into something closer to normal. It doesn’t actually reach normal, though.

“Y—you know healing magic?”

“Enough to patch him up temporarily. But it won’t hold, he needs an actual medic.”

That horrific screech sounds again from the other side of the wall. The knot in your gut pulls you to your feet and you scramble over to the hole in the wall, peering back into campus. You’re just in time to see Karvin finish crumbling to dust. Then, to your horror, the layers of teeth in the creature’s mouth start whirring like buzzsaws and it inhales, sucking air into itself like a vacuum. Only it’s not just air. Debris and plants are sucked in too, along with… people. Kicking, screaming people.

“Ruem!” Kittpey calls, voice sharp and desperate. “We have to run! I need your help carrying hi—”

The metaphorical hand on your chest squeezes tight enough to halt your breathing. “Umeso and Ruem,” you say in the faintest of whispers. Without a second thought, you run, and not in the direction Kittpey wants you to.

“What!? Ruem, no!!” she screams.

“I’ve got to find Umeso!” you shout back, not waiting for a reply. Kittpey’s amazing, she’ll be able to keep herself safe. Umeso is amazing too, but you have no idea where they are. And Ruem… well she’s with Umeso, surely. You have to find them, have to make sure they make it through this.

The campus is in tatters. Buildings lay crumbling and ruined, students run terrified and screaming, and anything close enough to the giant monstrosity is being sucked up into its horrifying maw. Ash begins to fall from the sky.

Shouting Umeso’s name, you immediately realize that your voice is impossible to hear over the surrounding cacophony. Pushing through throngs of panicked students, your eyes search desperately for your friend. But no, no, nonoNO! None of these people are Umeso! How can you possibly find them in time!? If only you had a phone, or had been taught some sort of spe—

Your foot catches on something, bringing you crashing to the ground. Face meets cobblestone in a violent clash, and you feel your nose crunch sickeningly. Pushing yourself up on your knees, you grasp your bleeding face, and look to see what tripped you. It’s someone’s leg. No, not just someone — it’s Umeso!

Shuffling on your knees, trying hard not to be knocked down by the panicked crowd, you make it over to your petrified friend. Sitting on their butt, legs splayed and hands against the ground, Umeso stares up at the towering creature. Their mouth is agape and tears stream down their cheeks.

“U—Umeso?” you say, shaking a hand in front of their face.

They don’t turn to look at you, but they do speak. “Ruem… she… so many souls, devoured. Even…”

Your heart plummets. Trembling, you take hold of Umeso’s shoulders and shake like a ragdoll. You understand what it is they’re not quite saying, but you can’t— you can’t—! Emotion clutches your throat, threatening to overwhelm, but you force its icy fingers off and away. You can’t think about what Umeso said right now. You have to save as many of your friends as possible, even if… even if it’s not all of them. Your breathing is ragged.

Burning eyes rake across the ruined campus, coming to a stop when they reach your shivering form. You look up, the fiery stare piercing through you like a lance. With dread, you realize that the screaming masses around you are gone. It’s just you and Umeso. The demon takes one thundering, earth-shattering step forward, and you realize you’re about to die. This knowledge spreads through you like water but settles like concrete. You want to scream, to run, to do something to avoid your demise, but you’re rooted to the spot. All you can do is hug Umeso tight as the end comes for you both.

A piece of a nearby rooftop hurtles upwards and into the beast’s side. Green threads are visible for one short moment before they disappear, their mission complete.

“Get in the Setzel Center NOW!” shouts a magically-enhanced voice, coming from your left. A woman in red and black stomps in your direction, fury on her face. Past her, you see multiple figures, perhaps school faculty, magically hurling chunks of whatever they can find at the devil boar, capturing its attention. Struck with the tiniest hint of awareness, you stare at the approaching woman and cast the Identify spell.

Headmistress Onpertet | she/her

The name is familiar, but your brain does not have the wherewithal to place it.

“Get on your feet already!” she shouts again, about a meter away and stomping her boot. Pulling a strand of bright green magic from her neck, she does a quick pattern then hurls the magic at your face, just like Kittpey did to Radestro. The pain in your nose disappears.

Obeying the irate authority figure, you stand and do your best to haul Umeso up too. They’re dead weight at first, but after a moment they accept the help. “Where are we going?” you say, hands still gripping Umeso’s underarms.

“The Setzel Center.” You stare. “Student Center.” You keep staring. “The big fucking pointy building in the middle of campus,” she says, throwing her hands up. A second later, she moves a finger from her neck to her eyes. You barely see a twinkle as the magic disappears. The sharp glare she’s been wearing is momentarily disrupted by surprise, but she recovers quickly. “Haul ass, kid, we can’t keep you safe out here.”

Glancing in the direction of the Center, you see a gigantic blue bubble of shimmering magic surrounding the building. The monster rams its gargantuan body into that bubble, bounces off, and roars.

“Umeso, you head for safety, okay?” you say directly into their ear. They nod, and you add, “Good. I’ve got to go get Kittpey and Radestro.” Umeso nods again, but as you start to dash away, they turn, holding a hand out and screaming your name. The Headmistress also yells. It doesn’t matter. You know what you’re doing is dangerous, but you have to save as many friends as you can. No one can be lost. No one… else.

A wave of anguish and nausea washes over you, nearly knocking you back to the ground. No, you can’t, not right now. You can’t think about her. You can’t think about how she’s gone. You can’t think about how you’ve already lost another person, weeks after realizing you’d lost everyone you’d ever known. You can’t think about how you were starting to warm up to her, to enjoy her company every now and again. You can’t think about… you can’t— 

The roar of the demon breaks through your spiral. The awful pointed head of the thing points toward the sky. Objects begin to launch out of it, shooting up into the sky and falling back down like rain. With horror, you realize the monster is spitting back up what it devoured, and that includes things like bricks, one of which careens into the ground about a meter from your face, kicking dirt up into the air. If it had hit you, you would be dead.

More bits and pieces of buildings, all big enough to cave your skull in, crash down around you as you sprint and weave, desperately trying to avoid them. An ankle-high chunk of roof hits the ground in front of you, nearly taking you out. But you manage to just barely leap over it, your heart hammering in your chest. Balance unstable, you tip toward the ground, but your arms reach out to meet it before your face can. Another item slams into the ground nearby: a skull. Your vision narrows to only this broken, cracked thing, and for a moment, you think of it as your own, a portent of your imminent future. Panic ignites your bones. Tearing your gaze away, you scramble like a frenzied dog, skittering on all fours until you manage to push yourself back into an upright position.

“Ruem!!” shouts a voice, drawing your gaze. “Bless Yllna, you’re still in one piece!” Kittpey stands a few steps away from the hole and a few meters away from you. She’s barely managing to keep ahold of a still-unconscious Radestro with one hand while her other holds a magic bubble shield above their heads. You stare at the bubble; is it enough to save her from the larger bits of falling debris? You’re terrified that it’s not. “Wait, what happened to your face!?”

“I fell,” you say, wiping dried blood from beneath your nose. “But I’m alive! And so is—” Your breath catches and you nearly break down right then and there. You can’t. YOU CAN’T. You have to save Kittpey first. With great strain, you push the feelings deep inside. “S—so is Umeso. We need to get to the Setzel center, it’s safe.”

Kittpey nods her head. You pick up Radestro’s feet, and the three of you move as fast as the two of you can manage. A brick hits the ground nearby, and Kittpey shouts in alarm. “Ruem, put up a damn shield!!”

There’s no room left in your brain for excuses. “I can’t.”

“What the fuck do you mean you—”

“I can’t, Kittpey! I don’t know how!”

She balks at you. “Of course you do!! I’ve seen you do it!! This isn’t the time to be a jackass, just shield yourself alread—”

Again the terror that’s assaulting the school shrieks, nearly forcing the both of you to drop the unconscious man you’re carrying so you can shield your ears. The dark beast is facing the protective bubble around the Setzel Center now, using its hideous vacuum mouth as though it can suck the magic away. Which it can’t, right? For a moment, nothing happens, but your heart stops as you realize the bubble is growing smaller, a thin stream of blue magic flying through the air and into the monster’s inferno maw. Kittpey gasps, and you turn to look. She’s noticed the same thing. The ‘safety’ you thought you were running toward might be gone before you can reach it. Yet what else can you do but keep running forward?

Something catches your foot, and again you are sent careening toward the ground. Your hands release Radestro far too late; they can’t save you. Kittpey screams, the side of your head smashes against a loose brick, and your world goes dark.

~~~

It takes time for you to understand where you are. You’re floating, and down below you is a familiar face. Or the top of the face’s head, anyway. Your heart throbs, and you shout out, but as usual there is no sound. Shaking your head, you slap your cheeks again and again, willing yourself to wake up. You can’t be here now, people are depending on you!! Twisting, screaming, crying, you try desperately to do something, anything, to end this, to make yourself wake up. But you cannot. You’re trapped.

Despair overwhelms, but halts when you realize that Ellemenie is looking right at you. Not directly, of course, but she knows you’re there now, clearly. And she ‘s signing frantically, the same thing over and over.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

You try your hardest to think of a response, but can think of nothing. No signs are in your head right now, just the look on Umeso’s face. And Kittpey’s scream. And Ruem… Tears dribble down your face. Your body shakes. Ruem, she’s—

Ellemenie is signing again, her eyes wide. “Biat, talk to me!! Please!”

Your head is rattling from side to side before you’re even aware of it. You want to sign, but you can’t!! Staring at her, tears streaming, you desperately wish you could just speak out loud. Or be closer, at least! She’s close enough that her face is visible, but she’s not close enough to touch. You’re so alone right now, and there’s nothing she can do to comfort you. A shiver courses through your body. The world is darkness and death and it is closing in around you, your vision going dark. Ellemenie is signing again but at this point you can’t remember enough to know what it means. Does it matter? Nothing here matters, it’s just a nightmare, and you can’t remember how to tell her to end it. You’re trapped, and your friends are out there, out in the real world. Is Kittpey still alive? Is Umeso? Did the magic bubble break? Is everyone dead? What will happen to you if your body is crushed into a bloody paste while you’re here in this dream? Will you even be able to tell?

Ellemenie tosses her arms out toward you, her mouth opening wide as she shouts words you cannot hear. If only you could. If only those arms were close enough to touch. If only you could… You reach a shaky arm out.

Suddenly she’s there. Or you’re there? Her arms are on either side of you, her face centimeters from yours. Her arms drop. You think she gasps, though you can’t hear it. Her eyes are on you, wide as saucers. Finally!!

As you start to dissolve, a smile appears on your tear-stained face. You’re free! Also, Ellemenie is right there, and she’s so beautiful. Shoulder-length black hair frames her perfect face, and you see specks of gold in the red of her pupils. You may be returning to the waking world only to die, but at least you were able to see the literal girl of your dreams up close before you go. The tears keep rolling down your cheeks.

Your flesh strips away and your vision blurs. Her arms shoot back out, surrounding you. Though your body no longer exists, you feel soft fingers press into your skin, feel her pull you close against her. Your face presses against her shoulder, even as that very face ceases to be. And then…

~~~

You wake up.

We wake up.

Exceedingly

Hi, everyone, thank you for reading!! If you'd like to read more and to support me as a writer, please consider joining my Patreon! There you'll be able to read the next chapter, and on the highest tier you can read the rough draft of the one after that! I'm hoping to turn that rough draft into a final one tomorrow, so if you want to get two chapters ahead by the end of the weekend, Patreon's the way to do it!

I really, really want to make a living off my creative works someday, but I struggle with things like self-promotion and writing consistently. I've been doing pretty well with the latter lately, but I'm still awful at the former, so please, tell you friends about this story and please consider that Patreon, I would really appreciate it! Every bit of support I get motivates me to keep things going and to move that much closer toward my dream. Thank you so much!!