Levi... or Astahe turns his glare away from us for a moment, casually picks something from the wreckage of the window, inspecting it close in his hand. He clasps it inside his palm, focuses on us, retracts his arm like he's preparing a baseball pitch, and launches an object toward us that shines like silver as it approaches.
The projectile darts like an arrow of light past my right cheek, ripping open my flesh along the way. The mystery object, a shard of glass stained with blood, clinks to the floor behind me. Putting my hand up to my cheek, sure enough, the shard cut me, and a slow drip of blood stains my face.
"The first blood! A sign of my triumph!" Astahe sends an air of unease into my soul as he kneels for another piece.
Damn it this isn't good! "We've got to go!" I grab Carly's hand and look for anything we can use as cover. The closest thing to us, a thin oak tree that looks barely thick enough to cover the both of us. But it's better than nothing, so I pull the both of us behind it right as a glass shard nails the other side of it.
I can't see what he's doing on the other side, but volleys of glass spraying past our cover are enough evidence of what he's doing. But it doesn't look like he's aiming for us, because his deadly sprinkler is indiscriminately nailing anyone in his path with the dagger-like shards. They dig into our cover with haphazard precision and all we can do is watch and hide to protect ourselves.
When the sound of falling glass stops, I take the initiative and look behind the tree to see if Astahe has left. Grimaces are spread out on the walkway, all with at least one jagged piece of glass sticking from them. The lucky group of bystanders who look unharmed clear the area from fear of receiving the same treatment. Astahe is nowhere to be seen in the chaos, but his laugh echoes along the vacant streets, letting me know he's not gone.
"This is our chance. We can't wait until he finds us, we need to run and hide somewhere..."
Tears pour down Carly's face as she huddles it in her arms and knees. "I like, can't do this. I just wanted my shit back!" She cried.
Admittedly, I'm scared to death too. But if she can't stay calm, I'll have to do it for the both of us. "I'm not experienced with any of this either, but I know we can't sit and do nothing, now come on!"
She looks like her roots are planted, and I can't waste my time on this.
"Carly, if you don't move I'm not staying here with you. I'm not dying until I get back what was stolen from me." I take one step away before Carly grabs my arm, snot still sniveling from her nose, mascara running down her cheeks, but looking intent on following.
So we run. I run faster than I thought my legs could ever run, adrenaline pumping harder every second, and dragging Carly along with me the whole way. We pass building after building without sparing a moment to look back. The only place safe is away from here.
But we can't just wander around aimlessly or else we're done for. "Carly, what's the fastest way off campus?"
"Uh… like if we cut through Moreau Hall there's a bridge we can cross that will take us to the dorms. There I can take my car and we can drive away!"
That doesn't sound like a bad plan. We can get away from here, wait for The Phantom to deal with Levi, and since Ashyln's knocked out, we can come back for Catherine after everything's all said and done. "Where's Moreau Hall?"
"If we go down this hill to our left it will be right in front of us!"
We race down the concrete paved hill, pushing unaware students who haven't run away at this point out of our way until a large building made of wood glittering in the sun, circular windows, and a plaque on the side of it reading "Moreau Hall" stands in front of us. I lead the charge, bursting through the ornate wooden doors and into the hall.
Astahe's voice isn't reaching us inside. I know we aren't safe but this is better than being out in the open.
Inside, tile lines the floors of a long hallway with classroom doors spread along its length. At the very end of it is a set of shiny wooden doors not unlike the ones we went through to get inside, and two square windows on each side of the windows. A large formal painting of Carly in a pretentious dress is propped on a wall to our right, confirming that the Moreau in the Hall's name is related to her family.
"Where do we go from here?"
"We… just run straight from here." Carly falls to her knees, probably from the same exhaustion that's hitting me. "But can't we take a breather, I'm tired!"
"You can wait in here if you want, but I'm not taking the chance that Astahe finds us."
"Uuuuughh." Carly sighs before she stands up next to me. If we're getting out of here it looks like we're doing it together.
"But you might have a point." I start, "We'll need to conserve our energy in case Astahe finds us. Let's walk through the hall and make a break for your car when we get out." Carly's sigh of relief is enough of a cosign on the proposal, so we walk at a brisk pace through the empty hallway, the sound of classroom lectures filling the hall. We soon arrive at the doors at the hallway's end without an issue.
My lungs are recovering and Carly's looking more stable as well. If he finds us, we'll at least have more of a chance. Let's hope it doesn't get to that though...
I push the hall doors open expecting to see the outside, only to see another, identical hallway with another identical door at the end. "Carly, what's going on? Why are the halls repeating themselves?"
"The hall is split into three sections. After this and the next one, we'll be outside."
"Ok." That just means more time to recover, fine by me.
We push the door closed and move to the next section. But our leisurely walk through the second section barely even starts before a thunderous boom and falling stone behind us startles me.
No. He couldn't have found us. There's no way he got to us already.
Carly and I turn around simultaneously and look through the glass windows that stand beside the door we've just crossed. It's Astahe!
The entrance looks like it'd just been blown up with a grenade, the doors and parts of the wall are nothing but splinters, Carly's framed picture has fallen from the shock, and Astahe stands in the middle of the wreckage, grinning through the glass.
My muscles are shuddering and my breaths are growing shorter. He's found us.
"Carly we need to…" She didn't even wait for my instruction; she's already sprinting away from the situation. She has the right idea, but she could have waited for me!
I sprint down the tile floors after her when something crashes through one of the windows behind us. I don't even have time to turn around before I find out what it was. Two decently sized glass shards whiz past my legs and lodge directly into Carly's left calf and thigh.
"Aah!" She recoils, grabs her damaged limb, and falls to the ground, the glass shards still lodged in her leg and scarlet blood leaking from her wounds.
"Are you alright?" I say, stopping a little bit ahead of where she'd fallen.
"The glass is stuck in my leg!" Another glass shard flies through the window to the right of the door, thankfully it misses both of us. But looking through that same window, Astahe's getting closer to us! He's moving so slowly like he's taking a peaceful stroll, but if Carly doesn't get up it won't matter how slow he's going!
"I can see that, but you need to get up!"
"Like, what do mean get up? Look at me!" I dart my head from her to the window, and Astahe's halfway through the first hallway now!
"You need to at least try or we'll get caught!"
Carly rises to her hands and knees and pushes herself onto her right leg. She clearly can't get away from Astahe in the state she's in. But that's not my problem. I'm not responsible for what happens to her. If I stay and help she'll just slow me down and I won't get to see Catherine!
But then Carly, probably noticing the same danger that I did, hops forward on her one good leg, wobbles, and nearly falls over for a second time. Damn it, Catherine was a nurse her entire life. She wouldn't be able to look at me if I left Carly injured and alone. And what good is getting her back if she won't look me in the eye?
So I stand by her side, place her left arm over my left shoulder, and let her lean on me for support. "I can't carry you, so you have to move with me."
"'Kay." For every three steps I take, Carly moves one big hop to keep up. We run through the second hallway like we're running a three-legged race, and her awkward movements are probably hindering us more than if she wasn't moving at all. Before long, the sound of shattering glass and splintered wood explodes when we're about three-quarters of the way through.
"Aeter, there's no use hiding now! Your putrid scent could fill my nose from miles away!" Astahe's voice reverberates along the narrow hallway, making it feel like the walls are roaring around us.
"We don't know who you're like, talking about asshole!" Carly snaps. "Leave us alone!"
"Try and run as you might, you'll never escape me Aeter! You asked for this!" He's responding to Carly like she's this Aeter person. If she's the one Astahe is after, carrying her around like this is putting a target on my back.
A classroom door in between Astahe and I opens up and a scrawny man wearing a white dress shirt and pencils neatly tucked in his shirt pocket comes stomping through it.
"What's going on out here!?" He gets his answer the second he sees Carly's mangled leg and the gaping hole in the wall Astahe's standing in.
"Do not stand in my way when I'm so close to my long-awaited revenge." Astahe crouches down and picks up something off the ground. I can't see past the person that came out of the classroom, but I have to assume it's another piece of glass.
I bend down and put my left arm under her legs, careful to avoid touching the glass sticking from her left leg, and pick her up into a princess carry.
"You should like, ask before you do something like that to a girl." She scolds, "And you said you weren't going to carry me."
"Astahe's distracted so we have to take advantage of it. I'll carry you as far as I can, but the instant I get tired I'm setting you down and you'll have to go back to limping." Carly nods, probably just happy she doesn't have to hop for the time being.
So, against my splitting hangover, and my aching legs I carry Carly and run away as fast as I can. "Thank goodness you're light."
"Did you think I'd be heavy!? You think I look fat?"
"Calm down I just meant-."
"Stay away from me!" The man shouts behind me before he cried a "Gah!" sound behind us.
I look back for a split second, the teacher or student that walked out of the room is splayed on the ground, splinters lodged inside his chest and stomach like he'd been hit with a shotgun blast. He can launch wood pieces like that too?!
"Your futile efforts are amusing Aeter, please do continue trying!" Aeter taunts.
He doesn't seem bothered that we're getting away. Not a good sign. But what else can we do? We can't fight him, so getting to Carly's car is the only option.
Finally! I make it through the second wooden door and into the third identical hallway. But with him on our heels, I can't slow down! My feet fly over the tile floors, Carly bobbing up and down in my arms, every bounce making the glass in her move causing her face to wince and blood to drip more onto my jacket. Yet she isn't complaining like she usually does.
And without issue, I push open the third door to the morning sun and the freeing air outside. On both sides of me are lush green bushes trimmed to perfection dressing the sides of the building. The sidewalk is made of bright red brick as opposed to the normal gray concrete. To the left a little bit ahead of me, an elevated bridge hangs high above a busy road. "Is that what the bridge you were talking about Carly?"
Shoot. Carly's wounds don't look that bad but she's not taking it well. Her face is drenched in sweat and I can feel her stomach's heavy breaths. Maybe the glass hit something important! "Carly are you alright?"
"I will be… when you get me to my car!"
"If you bleed out before you get there it won't matter." I slide along a small opening between the brush and the building and hide her and myself behind it.
"What are you doing?"
"I have to take the glass out of you."
"No, you aren't! Taking it out is going to hurt!"
"The glass being inside you is going to hurt more the longer you leave it in! So just stay still and let me-." Her hand stings my cheek the second my hand moves to take out the glass. "Did you just slap me!? I'm trying to save your life!"
"Then I'll like, just have my life saved with glass in my leg! And if you don't listen, I'll take the glass and stick it up your-!"
"Fine have it your way!" If she bleeds out it can't be blamed on me. She wanted this!
Carly grunts as I pick her up and cross the brick walkway to the bridge between me and freedom from Astahe.
"Would you ease up, you're hurting me!"
"Don't blame me, that's your own fault! Suck it up!" The car's roars below the bridge, hopefully masking the shouting match me and Carly are having above them.
"What… even happened… to Levi?" The pain is stifling her speech. She has to stop and grit her teeth in between each word.
"No clue. He tried to warn us before he did this… And whatever is happening to him is probably Antique related." The lack of sleep is starting to get to me. Every time I close my eyes to blink it's a struggle to open them back up, and when I do everything looks blurry for a second.
But I'll make it. I have to. Levi, Carly, and Catherine are depending on me.
Despite my mind fading in and out of the world, we make it to the end of the bridge. There are no roads in sight, just buildings stretched out in long lines, dividing the wide-open space around us into separate streets, almost forming a hand or web of some kind. Restaurants and bars take up the most space, while food stands sit in the middle of the streets. All of them are equally as vacant as the entire street around us is. A few coffee shops and chain restaurants have their lights on, but absolutely nobody is inside.
"Where is everyone?" I ask.
"I don't know. Like, I have to wait hours to get coffee every morning. But it's empty now."
This is all too eerie. Did he get here before us? There's no way Astahe cleared everyone out right? He's been chasing us, where would he find the time?
Either way, I can't dwell on it. It doesn't change the plan. We just have to get to the car and wait for The Phantom to get here. "Where is your car?"
"If you go down the rightmost street my dorm is at the end of it."
I take a deep breath in, demand my focus to remain with me for a few more steps, scrounge together the drops of energy sitting in my chest, and hurry her through the street.
And then I hear it. Astahe's laughter fills the silent air around us crowding the street with a suffocating bloodlust.
Damn it, really!? We're so close!
The bellowing laughter gradually crescendos. "I think he like, found us!" Carly fears.
"Yeah I get that, but where is he?" It feels like he was everywhere all at once. He's everything and nowhere at the same time.
"Enjoy your final moments Aeter!" Astahe's voice focuses above us. "You have no escape!" Turning my head upward to Astahe's voice I find he's somehow made his way at least thirty feet above us!
"What the..?" Gravity propels him straight down like a meteorite, crashing right in front of us. His landing sends the stones and rocks on the ground skyward, and the vibrations weaken my balance, turning my legs into noodles that make me drop Carly.
"Ack!" The fall jostles her leg and more tears well up. But that's not the worst of it, because I dropped her at the feet of Astahe, who scrunches his forehead looking at her.
"Please don't hurt me!" Carly shrieks, through chattering teeth and a flushed face.
"I'm not here for you woman! I only want Aeter, everything else is inconsequential!"
He must think I'm whoever Aeter is- because after addressing her, Astahe walks past Carly granting her the same attention you'd give a bug on the ground, and focuses the remainder of it on me.
"Look I don't know who Aeter is, but my name is Ren! I'm not and have never been named Aeter, so just let me go!" I bring myself back to my feet and wipe the dust off my face.
"Ha! HAHAHAHA!" I don't think he believes me… "And now you resort to trickery and deceit to survive! Oh, how the mighty fall!"
If reason won't work and fighting him definitely won't work, I've only got one option. Slowly, I take a step back, then another, then I break into a full sprint in the opposite direction.
"What is this weak form you bear Aeter? Where is the power you used to defeat me!? Your spear, your strength!? What has become of you?" He laughs.
I get a full five feet away before I hear an explosive sound behind me. Looking back, Astahe's foot had cratered the ground, producing a shockwave that runs along the ground like a mini earthquake. My knees buckle against the shaking ground as Astahe laughs the entire time.
"Thank you Aeter! I was prepared for the greatest battle of my lifetime, concerned even, about your immeasurable strength! But I couldn't have thought of a better gift than to watch the once immovable warrior cower and flee like a dog! Now allow me to put you down!"
Astahe becomes a part of the morning sky. His ocean hair muffles the sun behind his head, creating an aurora around me as if I'm looking at the sky from underwater. His torso twists midair, and his fist cocks back like he's loading a cannonball. Every fiber of his and whatever was left of Levi's being looks like it's being put into this singular hit. All of it for me.
I can't run. I can't fight. I'm out of options.
I'm going to die.
I'm sorry Catherine.