After what felt like hours, the darkness that tried to swallow me vanished with a pop from a suction cup as it released me into what I barely registered as dimly lit alley before I fell to my knees, hands still wrapped around the bag as I sucked in as much air as I could.
It was a mistake.
The stench that I had left behind was everywhere, it clung to my throat as I heaved, it dripped from my hair and coated against my skin.
"What the hell?" I shrieked, the few words filling me with air so foul I could taste it, the wet sewage flavor making me gag. "What. The. Hell!"
If I had wanted to be suffocated by the damn Drains I would have stayed back there.
This was so much worse. What in the world were the Eternals playing at? This couldn’t be one of the tasks, this was a death sentence.
Jumping to my feet, I tried to pry the flavor and smell away, but I couldn't escape it. I couldn't even go back into the mob where the air had been clean compared to this fecking nightmare. One frantic turn revealed the entry to be gone, the train station was gone. Hell, even the crowd was gone. It was just me, trapped in a stone tunnel that extended forever in either direction. At least I would assume it stretched forever, the only light came from flickering lamps that were set into the stone every few feet. Yellow light shone in orbs around each one, illuminating the slime and filth that coated the dark stone bricks, that dripped from the ceiling into the puddles that lined the floor.
Forget the smell, whatever disease was here would do me in as easily.
A rat screeched and scuttled through the puddles and over my sneakers. I shrieked and jumped back, dropping the bag in the process. Water splashed over my leggings as the bag fell into a slow running stream that cut through the tunnel.
"What is this, some kind of joke?" I screeched toward the roof, and where I had assumed some Eternal was monitoring me. Instead of an answer, I got a drop of grey sewer water right between the eyes.
"Oh my god!" I jumped around, hissing through clenched teeth as I tried to block out the smell, wiping the water from my face with the back of my hand.
This wasn't funny. They shove me in here, without any warning, and expect what? Us to clean the place? This challenge used to be battling a cockatrice for its plume. This was nothing like that. I wasn’t laughing.
I sure hope that Drains weren't getting the same challenge, they would breeze through this without even batting an eye. Giving them an advantage was simply not fair, I would be telling my Father the moment I woke from my bite.
Bite. The Vilỳs. I had been standing here, breathing in this vile air for far too long. I needed to move.
Grabbing the now soaked bag from the ground, I took off into the tunnel, avoiding as many puddles as I could as I raced towards what I had hoped was the final destination. I couldn't see the end of the tunnel thanks to the low burning lamps, the massive tunnel having swallowed the light long before I reached it, but it had to be there.
Luckily, I had been running marathons since I turned ten. I could race down this all day if I had to. Well, I could if I could breathe properly. Air was laying in my lungs like a disease, the aroma clogging my nose and throat until I was sure I was having an allergic reaction. Everything was a puffy, painful, spinning kaleidoscope. It was hard to see through the fog that was filling my head thanks to foul air, it would be so easy to sit down in the doorway that was off to my left...
No. I needed to focus. Shorter breaths would get me through. I was sure the ending to this nightmarish tunnel was ahead, and sitting in a doorway would only cover me in more of their filth. Besides, nothing good ever lay behind locked doors.
"Move, Sia, don't let them take away your chance." I took in one absolutely disgusting breath before I broke out into a run, ignoring the way the walls were shaking and wobbling as though they were pudding.
After about five kilometers I started to work into a rhythm, dodging the ponds and puddles and keeping myself in the light as much as possible so as to avoid rats. There had to have been a reason they had given us a knife and I wasn't going to be dumb enough to think the first task was nothing more than a race to the finish.
Something had to be here, and it wasn’t the rats.
Step left, dodge right, run straight four steps by the light. Shift to the right, long jump, against the left wall, two big steps. Watch the boulder. Step left, dodge right, run straight four steps by the light. Shift to the right, long jump, against the left wall, two big steps. Watch the boulder. Step left, dodge right, run straight four steps by the light. Shift to the right, long jump, against the left wall, two big steps. Watch the boulder...
My steps slowed as I took another strangled breath, staring into the darkness that wasn't getting any closer. Staring at the boulder that was ahead. It was identical to the one I had just passed. The one that was fading into the shadows not far behind.
"Fecking hell!" I yelled, the words echoing in either direction, resonating in a circle back to me - just like the damn tunnel. I couldn't breathe, everything ached, and I had wasted time running through the same five hundred yards for the last twenty minutes. My throat stretched painfully as I screamed, the taste of blood coating my tongue as I ripped the knife out of my bag, clenching it in my fist as took three wide steps to the door I had been avoiding the whole time.
I sure as hell hoped there was some kind of angry beast behind there. After all of that, it wouldn't take me long to take the beast down.
Rage swallowed the fog in my head as I raced to the door, kicking it down in one swift motion. A huddle of twenty Drain's were right behind, the filthy people surrounding a fire and what looked like a line of rats on a skewer.
"Sick." I think I would have rather faced the damn cockatrice.
I clenched the knife, raising it above my head, ready to put them all of their misery and move on to the next task, maybe I could catch up on some time if I hurried. I had been trained to kill more than a few monsters, and even my own parents in the old tasks. What difference would it be to end a few disgusting Drains and their spawn?
They screamed, pushing the children back as I rushed them, knife still above my head and ready to slice them like that one in the hall before the Gauntlet.
The ones the guard had saved, and the Eternals had made sure to bring so as to make things equal. Dagnabit! They didn't want me to kill them.
They wanted me to save them.
"What a waste," I sighed, hand falling to my side as I threw the knife back in the bag and kicked the fire.
Sparks flew into the air, scattering burning wood and embers over the damp floor and toward the still huddling Drains. Awesome, now I was supposed to not only not kill them, but gain their trust enough to get them out of here.
Good thing I had the skills required for that one.
"Oh my god, I thought you were someone else!" I squealed, pushing as much false concern into my voice as I could. A few of them recoiled from their tangle of limbs but most still stayed huddled, watching me with frightened wary eyes. Damn, they looked like a dog my brother and I had used to practice on a few years ago. Terrified, cornered, inches from life.
"I won't hurt you," I continued calmly, "I'm here to help, but we need to hurry."
I nodded toward the door, taking a step back and hoping they would follow, but none of them moved. Not until a shout echoed through the tunnel behind me, the grinding of metal and buzz of a speakerphone echoing over the stone in a sound that was almost like home to me.
"Attention Drains.” The squeal of the megaphone made my mother’s normally stern voice sound even more haunting. Drains were looking like they were about to shit their pants.
"You are no longer welcome to dwell here. On the authority of the Chosen Council for Community we have come to collect you and repurpose you for use in the community in a way that will benefit all Chosen. CCC officers are at hand to collect you. Sur
render yourself peacefully and we promise you will not be harmed."
I could have breathed a sigh of relief. Would have too if the air wasn't still laced with the rot and filth of this underground dungeon. This was going to be easier than I thought.
"Let's go," I said, gesturing to the open door. "They are here to take us to a better life. If we hurry they will put us in the best positions. Let's go!"
I took two quick steps toward the door, ready for all of them to take off after me like the sheep they were. Still, no one moved. They huddled back, eyes scanning the grungy walls for any other hope of escape.
"Are you mad?" One of the Drains said, backing them further into the corner as the sound of boots rang over everything. "They will kill us. That's all they ever do."
"No, they are here to help us." I didn't understand why they didn't believe me. They still weren't moving, they cowered like the useless Drains they were. Perhaps it would be better if they did die. These ones couldn't be repurposed into anything.
"You said you would save us," one of the kids said, their voice muffled as their mother tried to push them back. "But you want to give us to them. Help us!"
Really? They were going to play the whole 'tug at your heartstrings' card. Ugh. I audibly groaned as I peeked around the doorframe, toward my mother and her army, each one of the armored soldiers holding guns.
Weird. This must be the Tarn battalion she had told me about. Since they never received their magic, they had to track down some old weapons from before the war. I wondered if they even worked.
"Save us." The kid said again, pulling me back into the room. "Please."
"Good lord, whatever," I grumbled. I really was wasting too much time. Father had warned me about this. I needed to play by their rules. Something I had already forgotten.
"Come with me. I'll get you out of here." Only one or two moved, well, until the wall behind them exploded. Rock, dirt, and filth flew over everything, my ears ringing as a wall of soldiers burst their way into the room.
Screams, commands, and the bang of guns broke through the painful ringing that was rattling my skull, twisting in my jaw until I wasn't sure anyone could understand me, even though I was yelling.
"Follow me!" That time I didn't wait to see who was behind me. I rushed back through the door and into the larger tunnel, the once never-ending space now capped with an army on one side and an exit on the other.
"Fecking hell, now they give us a way out." I could make that, and I would take at least one Drain with me. Something would be required to get into stage two, and I had a feeling that would be it.
"Halt!" My mom’s voice boomed. A burning hatred gleamed from her eyes, the look the same I had seen every time she spoke of the festering rodents that infected these tunnels.
"Mother!" I practically yelled for her, waiting for recognition to set in.
"Drains," she snarled, clearly not seeing me. "Kill them all."
"Well, crap." I snapped, grabbing the smallest Drain and taking off to the door. A few hundred yards and all this would be gone. Next task coming up.
"Halt, you filth!" My own mother screamed from behind me, the blood-stained edge of her blade inches from my back. "You must surrender!"
Holy-- I had grown up with this woman, but there was something in her eyes that I had never seen before, something that was downright terrifying.
Something that I was sure wasn’t real.
"Mom! It's me!" I screamed, trying to push the others out of the way, trying to get to the end of the tunnel and to the next task. The tasks may be different, but I knew what happened before. If the cockatrice killed you, you failed.
You had to be the one to kill the cockatrice.
“Fine. Have it your way," I gasped, warm wet drops covering me as blood splattered around me from all directions, the Drains I had been trying to save falling like dominos. Feck, this better not be a failure.
Pushing the thought out of my mind, I dropped the kid, grabbing the blade out of the bag and turned, ready to end this.
To end her.
I would. For my magic. Anything was worth it for magic.
“You always said the only way to succeed was to take down everyone in your way,” I hissed as she reached me, as I lunged forward, and I pressed the point of the knife into her.
She didn’t even scream, she smiled, coughed once, and faded away, leaving me standing in the dark until the same horrifying pressure sucked all the air out of my lungs.
3
Sia
If this didn’t take me to the next task, I would probably end up killing all the Drain’s just to vent some frustrations. Not that I really approved of senseless killing, but it would be worth it.
Instead, I was zapped into the middle of a cathedral so broken and tattered that it took me a minute to recognize it. If it wasn’t for the massive stained-glass window, I may not have.
St. Vitas, in the middle of the royal city of Prague.
It had been renovated since it was nearly destroyed in the war, but that was two hundred years ago. Which seemed to be exactly where I was. The building had no roof, most of the windows were blown out and the pews were burnt, broken, and scattered everywhere.
The place was a war zone.
An eerily quiet war zone.
I didn’t know what I expected, but at this point I would beg, borrow, or torture in order to know what to do next. I had wasted far too much time as it was. The clock was ticking.
Foolishly, I spun around, sneakers grinding against the rubble coated tile floor in my search for a door, or a sign, or anything at all.
There was only me, covered in quickly drying blood, clutching an equally as red-speckled bag.
The bag.
The laminated card. Damn it all.
I pulled out the tattered laminated sheet of instructions I had forgotten about. After all, I didn’t need them until those damn Eternals had changed everything. No, not damn Eternals. The Eternals. My future family.
I needed to slow down and think like they would.
The card was tattered, stained, and dog eared, but the words were clearly legible.
Okay, so I hadn’t messed that one up as much as I would have thought.
That told me nothing. Well, I guess it told me that this is what everything had looked like during the war. Which was useless considering I was supposed to run to some unknown destination. Or from something. I had no idea.
Useless piece of junk. The last task was even worse.
That’s it.
"This is bullshit," I said with a scowl, shoving the card back into the bag, and fishing around the black rock for the knife. I may not have any clue what I am supposed to be doing, but I had a feeling the knife was going to be a necessity.
Run from that which you want most.
“Well, what do I want most in Prague from two hundred years ago? And how am I supposed to be running away from something I don’t even know?” I mused aloud, climbing over a burnt pew and toward the only door I saw in the place.
I had barely moved more than a few steps when stone shifted behind me, the clatter echoing over the vaulted ceilings, rattling the cracked glass before it was joined by a sound that snapped through the air in a pitched squeal that wasn’t human, wasn’t animal. It might as well have come from hell itself.
My skull ached under the screams, my bones straightening as they twisted in a fear that clenched in the pit of my stomach. Fear. I hadn’t felt the emotion in so long that it scared me more than the sound, more than the sliding rock that echoed alongside the wail.
The cockatrice. It had to be. After training for so long, they had to have one thing that was normal in this godforsaken maze.
I turned, gripping the knife in preparation to put my skills to actual use.
There was nothing there.
Only a scream, only sliding rock as something small and brown and snarling emerged from below the rubble.
I recognized it at once. I had seen one years before, when my father had taken me to his work and we had gone to what he referred to as ‘the zoo’. It was actually a massive enclosed forest, filled with hundreds of the little monsters that had terrorized the world until two hundred years ago, when they were all caught.
A Vilỳ.
In ‘the zoo’ the tiny winged things, with faces like humans and bodies like dogs, had lain in hammocks and munched on leaves like someone’s spoiled pet. The creatures that would bite me and give me magic someday.
Tangles of blackened limbs were emerging from the rock, nothing like what I had seen before. This thing screamed as its long claws pulled it out of the stone, bloodshot eyes trained on me as snarling fangs as long as my pinky finger dripped with poison.
If this thing reached me, if it bit me, I doubted I would have any sort of magic running through my veins. I would be lucky if I was left with blood still pumping through them.
“The thing that I want most,” I mumbled. I took a step back as more claws, more screeching gnashing heads pulled through stone to stare at me.
This was it, the thing I was supposed to run from.
But I couldn’t push myself back a step. This damn Gauntlet was nothing like I had trained for. I was behind, I had no way of knowing if I was going to make it through the last task in time, and my magic was right before me. Yes, it was attached to the most frightening things I had seen, but it was there.
I was sure it wouldn’t take as much to slice their tiny little heads off and push that dripping venom into me.
Paranormal Academy Page 24