Plaster and paint flaked off the walls everywhere we looked as we ventured further into the strange and twisted school. Chloe was still giving me the silent treatment, which I wasn't overly bothered by. Our attention was best fixed on the horror house we were inside anyway.
The hallway curved until we could no longer see the entrance foyer, then stopped at a set of double doors. At one point they probably had push signs on them, but whatever magic that'd warped this place had aged them to the point where any markings were gone.
Chloe approached them with tentative steps and tried to peer through the filthy glass windows. She sucked in a surprised breath after a second and shoved in through the door.
A hex bag was in the air before I could so much as move, and then all hell broke loose. Redcap screeching came from the opposite end of the room—a cafeteria. I rushed after her and… and the sight was so horrific that it felt like I'd just walked into a brick wall.
Until Chloe stepped in, the redcaps had two firefighters spread out on the tables and they were butchering and eating them. My stomach lurched… but I saw red. I hated these things. I hated them so much. The anger was raw, and it consumed me so fast I didn't have time to step in and stop it. I just wanted these awful creatures to die.
Almost on autopilot, I raised my left hand and screamed, "Burn!"
A redcap sizzled and popped under the heat, and I stepped over its still crying body to get to the next one. My axe fell, hacking an arm off another monster, and from that dire wound raced an infectious dark green ooze. The redcap scrabbled at the stump with its remaining hand desperately, but soon the corruption reached its head and it fell back, dead.
I moved to the next vile creature and as it tried to swing a sharpened stake at me, I reached forward and pressed my palm to its face. Its skin boiled under the relentless contact, and more dark power surged down my veins. I didn't wait to see it die. I moved to the next one.
This one had the forethought to bring a shield to the fight. It was crude and useless in the face of my axe. I hooked my axe over the top of the shield and pulled, while at the same time I kicked its legs with my boot. It fell towards me, until it met the flat metal top of my axe with the meat of its face.
"Come, vile creatures, so I may mete out fitting judgement for your crimes!" I called, rejoicing when the massed filth did as I urged and turned their attention unto me.
The sea rushed the righteous shores and it broke upon them. Shining pink blood and deep, pure infection spread across the cresting waves until at last, their number began to dwindle.
Unfortunately, my angelic wrath began to fade, and so did my mana. I fell to one knee, staring down at my hands as the veins slowly returned to their normal colour. Had they been dark green this whole time?
I don't know where the blow came from, but something blunt hit the side of my head so hard I lost consciousness. When the darkness cleared, I was on my back and a redcap was getting ready to finish me with a hideous bone knife.
I tried to move, to stop the awful implement from cutting my throat, but my limbs felt like they were made of jello. Was this it? Did I die here? Would my corpse be hacked apart and eaten like those poor firefighters?
A blur of movement dove into my field of vision, and Chloe's hand and forearm came between my neck and the jagged knife. Blood sprayed everywhere, hot and heavy where it landed on my face. I screamed and like a key had been turned, I was able to move again.
My fingers closed around the haft of my axe, and as fast as my still recovering body could manage, I rammed the pointy side of my axe into the redcap's skull. It wasn't the only one of its kin to live through my rampage, though. Another two were coming in with gleaming determination in their beady black eyes.
Using my much greater height, strength, and weapon, I killed them as quickly as I could. When I returned to Chloe, she was just sitting there on the worn linoleum floor, watching her life's blood pump out of her veins.
"What are you doing?!" I demanded, kneeling to help her.
Her voice was almost dreamy when she answered. "Wondering if I even want to be saved."
"Jesus Christ, Chloe," I swore, wrapping my hand around the ragged gash that ran from the palm of her hand all the way to the middle of her forearm. Fucking suicidal edgelord!
My heart was hammering in my chest when I activated my healing spell and the wound began to close. The skin stitched itself back together under my hand, and when it was done I began to gently wipe the blood away. What was going on with her? The way she'd been staring without any concern at the gaping wound in her arm… It was like she had a death wish or something.
Wrapping a hand around her upper arm, I settled my weight on my haunches and stared her in the eyes until she met my gaze. Gently, I asked, "Chloe?"
A quiver ran the full length of her body, and she let out a heart wrenching sob. "She's dead. She's actually dead and I wasn't even there to save her. I had to find out from that… that… asshole."
Who was dead? Who did she know that was dead, and which 'asshole' told her? Wait… last night Chloe came up to me… up to Kai, and asked about Estelle. I would definitely qualify as an 'asshole' in Chloe's books. Was she talking about that? Except why would Estelle's death upset Chloe so badly? They hated each other. This made no sense.
I almost asked about it, but then I realised that Silver wouldn't know who Estelle was. "Who died?"
"My… my ex, or my girlfriend… I don't know. It was never really defined," she replied between sobs and wiping at her tears. "It doesn't matter. Everyone's had someone they love die since this all started. I'm not… it's not…"
Ah. Fuck. Estelle and Chloe were involved?! I didn't even know Estelle was interested in girls. Although with her ultra religious parents it wasn't surprising she hid it.
"I… I think that making it a contest is a bit silly, Chloe," I said, trying to think quickly and figure out how to navigate this situation. I'd never seen this side of her before. It was always anger and scowling and whatever.
She wiped away some tears and cocked her head. "What do you mean?"
"Like… just because someone else had their spouse or child die, doesn't mean you're not allowed to be wrecked by your girlfriend dying," I explained gently. "Plus… it sounds like you found this news out from someone you… um, don't like very much. That's pretty rough too."
Laughing bitterly, she shook her head. "I know, but try convincing my brain that. All I can think about is folks like the guy who died in the little riot, or these firefighters on the tables. My problems are insignificant compared to them."
"Yeah but they're like, extra significant to you," I said, motioning to her with my hand. "Nobody wins in the misery Olympics, Chloe."
To my surprise and hers, she laughed for real this time. "Misery Olympics? Where'd you get that from?"
I grinned. "I think I heard it from some old person… my aunt, I think? She's like 30."
"Old people wisdom hits different sometimes," she said, with a smaller little giggle.
We sat in silence for almost a minute together, her testing her hand with a thoughtful expression while I watched.
I nodded to it. "Is your arm feeling better?"
"I think so," she replied, opening and closing her grip. Then she frowned and looked up at me. "What the hell was up with you, by the way. Suddenly talking like an old testament character and melting redcaps… then you just stop? That was pretty fucking stupid."
Recoiling from the sudden criticism after it felt like we'd bonded, I just shrugged and stood up. "Don't ask me."
"Who the hell should I ask then?" She demanded lightly. "You almost died to one of those things."
Come on Chloe. We finally break the ice and you start busting my balls about the fight? Fucking typical.
"So? I got a little angry. You're the one who just rushed in." I said, crossing my arms.
"Oh, come the fuck on, Silver," she said, almost sneering… but then she stopped, took a deep breath, and continued, "First off, fuck you for deflecting. Second thing… yeah, it was kinda stupid of me to rush in. Whatever you did though… that was truly reckless."
"I just talked you off the metaphorical ledge and you decide right now is the perfect time to tactlessly critique my performance in the last fight?" I asked, throwing my hands in the air in frustration. "Chloe. Either you're as much of an asshole as people say, or you're utterly clueless when it comes to social interaction."
"You. Almost. Died," she responded, clapping her hands together between each word. "I'd rather you didn't, if it's all the same to you. We're stuck in this shithole together until we find a way out and if the last fight was anything to go by, we need to communicate way better or we're fucked."
I laughed in disbelief. "Chloe. Maybe we could communicate better if you'd stop swearing at me all the time."
"I don't swear at you all the time!" She exclaimed. "I just… swear a lot."
"Well… stop it," I said, trying not to roll my eyes. "It's rude."
"Okay, I'll stop using swears when I'm talking to you, since you're going to be such a— nevermind." She huffed, and stomped her foot. "Now will you please agree that we should be communicating in these fights? A few callouts from both of us could mean the difference between living or dying."
"Yes… I agree," I said, then glanced down at my feet and sighed. I guess if I wanted to work with her properly I needed to admit my own faults too. "And yeah… my anger just before with the dead firefighters and the redcaps… I lost it."
To be honest, it actually scared me how… angelic I sounded during that fight. It's like my angry words got shoved through an AI filter or something. It was also the second time it'd happened, except this time…
I needed to keep better control of my emotions when nasty shit was happening. The apocalypse was here, it was happening, and like it or not, a shitload of people were suffering and would keep suffering. Getting angry or upset every time I saw it would just get me killed, like it almost did here.
Chloe chuckled at my admission. “Same here. It’s why I rushed in through the door, I didn’t want them eating bodies. Dead bodies. Not the most intelligent thing I’ve ever done, and that bar is hella low.”
“Oh, mood,” I said, then gave her a side eye. “Say… now that we’re being honest and communicative and stuff… Why did you not like me from the moment you saw me?”
“I didn’t… you were just another random person from this shithole town,” she shrugged. “You seem okay now… but…” She groaned and stood up. “I don’t… there isn’t really a good reason. I just…”
Her faltering, confused speech ground to a halt, and she refused to meet my eyes. “Look. I don’t really want to talk about this shit, okay? Let’s just keep moving.”
“Okey dokey,” I said. “Topic sealed.”
That caused her to look at me with a bemused expression.
“What?” I asked.
She just shook her head and began moving. “Nothing.”
Plaster and paint flaked off the walls everywhere we looked as we ventured further into the strange and twisted school. Chloe was still giving me the silent treatment, which I wasn't overly bothered by. Our attention was best fixed on the horror house we were inside anyway.
The hallway curved until we could no longer see the entrance foyer, then stopped at a set of double doors. At one point they probably had push signs on them, but whatever magic that'd warped this place had aged them to the point where any markings were gone.
Chloe approached them with tentative steps and tried to peer through the filthy glass windows. She sucked in a surprised breath after a second and shoved in through the door.
A hex bag was in the air before I could so much as move, and then all hell broke loose. Redcap screeching came from the opposite end of the room—a cafeteria. I rushed after her and… and the sight was so horrific that it felt like I'd just walked into a brick wall.
Until Chloe stepped in, the redcaps had two firefighters spread out on the tables and they were butchering and eating them. My stomach lurched… but I saw red. I hated these things. I hated them so much. The anger was raw, and it consumed me so fast I didn't have time to step in and stop it. I just wanted these awful creatures to die.
Almost on autopilot, I raised my left hand and screamed, "Burn!"
A redcap sizzled and popped under the heat, and I stepped over its still crying body to get to the next one. My axe fell, hacking an arm off another monster, and from that dire wound raced an infectious dark green ooze. The redcap scrabbled at the stump with its remaining hand desperately, but soon the corruption reached its head and it fell back, dead.
I moved to the next vile creature and as it tried to swing a sharpened stake at me, I reached forward and pressed my palm to its face. Its skin boiled under the relentless contact, and more dark power surged down my veins. I didn't wait to see it die. I moved to the next one.
This one had the forethought to bring a shield to the fight. It was crude and useless in the face of my axe. I hooked my axe over the top of the shield and pulled, while at the same time I kicked its legs with my boot. It fell towards me, until it met the flat metal top of my axe with the meat of its face.
"Come, vile creatures, so I may mete out fitting judgement for your crimes!" I called, rejoicing when the massed filth did as I urged and turned their attention unto me.
The sea rushed the righteous shores and it broke upon them. Shining pink blood and deep, pure infection spread across the cresting waves until at last, their number began to dwindle.
Unfortunately, my angelic wrath began to fade, and so did my mana. I fell to one knee, staring down at my hands as the veins slowly returned to their normal colour. Had they been dark green this whole time?
I don't know where the blow came from, but something blunt hit the side of my head so hard I lost consciousness. When the darkness cleared, I was on my back and a redcap was getting ready to finish me with a hideous bone knife.
I tried to move, to stop the awful implement from cutting my throat, but my limbs felt like they were made of jello. Was this it? Did I die here? Would my corpse be hacked apart and eaten like those poor firefighters?
A blur of movement dove into my field of vision, and Chloe's hand and forearm came between my neck and the jagged knife. Blood sprayed everywhere, hot and heavy where it landed on my face. I screamed and like a key had been turned, I was able to move again.
My fingers closed around the haft of my axe, and as fast as my still recovering body could manage, I rammed the pointy side of my axe into the redcap's skull. It wasn't the only one of its kin to live through my rampage, though. Another two were coming in with gleaming determination in their beady black eyes.
Using my much greater height, strength, and weapon, I killed them as quickly as I could. When I returned to Chloe, she was just sitting there on the worn linoleum floor, watching her life's blood pump out of her veins.
"What are you doing?!" I demanded, kneeling to help her.
Her voice was almost dreamy when she answered. "Wondering if I even want to be saved."
"Jesus Christ, Chloe," I swore, wrapping my hand around the ragged gash that ran from the palm of her hand all the way to the middle of her forearm. Fucking suicidal edgelord!
My heart was hammering in my chest when I activated my healing spell and the wound began to close. The skin stitched itself back together under my hand, and when it was done I began to gently wipe the blood away. What was going on with her? The way she'd been staring without any concern at the gaping wound in her arm… It was like she had a death wish or something.
Wrapping a hand around her upper arm, I settled my weight on my haunches and stared her in the eyes until she met my gaze. Gently, I asked, "Chloe?"
A quiver ran the full length of her body, and she let out a heart wrenching sob. "She's dead. She's actually dead and I wasn't even there to save her. I had to find out from that… that… asshole."
Who was dead? Who did she know that was dead, and which 'asshole' told her? Wait… last night Chloe came up to me… up to Kai, and asked about Estelle. I would definitely qualify as an 'asshole' in Chloe's books. Was she talking about that? Except why would Estelle's death upset Chloe so badly? They hated each other. This made no sense.
I almost asked about it, but then I realised that Silver wouldn't know who Estelle was. "Who died?"
"My… my ex, or my girlfriend… I don't know. It was never really defined," she replied between sobs and wiping at her tears. "It doesn't matter. Everyone's had someone they love die since this all started. I'm not… it's not…"
Ah. Fuck. Estelle and Chloe were involved?! I didn't even know Estelle was interested in girls. Although with her ultra religious parents it wasn't surprising she hid it.
"I… I think that making it a contest is a bit silly, Chloe," I said, trying to think quickly and figure out how to navigate this situation. I'd never seen this side of her before. It was always anger and scowling and whatever.
She wiped away some tears and cocked her head. "What do you mean?"
"Like… just because someone else had their spouse or child die, doesn't mean you're not allowed to be wrecked by your girlfriend dying," I explained gently. "Plus… it sounds like you found this news out from someone you… um, don't like very much. That's pretty rough too."
Laughing bitterly, she shook her head. "I know, but try convincing my brain that. All I can think about is folks like the guy who died in the little riot, or these firefighters on the tables. My problems are insignificant compared to them."
"Yeah but they're like, extra significant to you," I said, motioning to her with my hand. "Nobody wins in the misery Olympics, Chloe."
To my surprise and hers, she laughed for real this time. "Misery Olympics? Where'd you get that from?"
I grinned. "I think I heard it from some old person… my aunt, I think? She's like 30."
"Old people wisdom hits different sometimes," she said, with a smaller little giggle.
We sat in silence for almost a minute together, her testing her hand with a thoughtful expression while I watched.
I nodded to it. "Is your arm feeling better?"
"I think so," she replied, opening and closing her grip. Then she frowned and looked up at me. "What the hell was up with you, by the way. Suddenly talking like an old testament character and melting redcaps… then you just stop? That was pretty fucking stupid."
Recoiling from the sudden criticism after it felt like we'd bonded, I just shrugged and stood up. "Don't ask me."
"Who the hell should I ask then?" She demanded lightly. "You almost died to one of those things."
Come on Chloe. We finally break the ice and you start busting my balls about the fight? Fucking typical.
"So? I got a little angry. You're the one who just rushed in." I said, crossing my arms.
"Oh, come the fuck on, Silver," she said, almost sneering… but then she stopped, took a deep breath, and continued, "First off, fuck you for deflecting. Second thing… yeah, it was kinda stupid of me to rush in. Whatever you did though… that was truly reckless."
"I just talked you off the metaphorical ledge and you decide right now is the perfect time to tactlessly critique my performance in the last fight?" I asked, throwing my hands in the air in frustration. "Chloe. Either you're as much of an asshole as people say, or you're utterly clueless when it comes to social interaction."
"You. Almost. Died," she responded, clapping her hands together between each word. "I'd rather you didn't, if it's all the same to you. We're stuck in this shithole together until we find a way out and if the last fight was anything to go by, we need to communicate way better or we're fucked."
I laughed in disbelief. "Chloe. Maybe we could communicate better if you'd stop swearing at me all the time."
"I don't swear at you all the time!" She exclaimed. "I just… swear a lot."
"Well… stop it," I said, trying not to roll my eyes. "It's rude."
"Okay, I'll stop using swears when I'm talking to you, since you're going to be such a— nevermind." She huffed, and stomped her foot. "Now will you please agree that we should be communicating in these fights? A few callouts from both of us could mean the difference between living or dying."
"Yes… I agree," I said, then glanced down at my feet and sighed. I guess if I wanted to work with her properly I needed to admit my own faults too. "And yeah… my anger just before with the dead firefighters and the redcaps… I lost it."
To be honest, it actually scared me how… angelic I sounded during that fight. It's like my angry words got shoved through an AI filter or something. It was also the second time it'd happened, except this time…
I needed to keep better control of my emotions when nasty shit was happening. The apocalypse was here, it was happening, and like it or not, a shitload of people were suffering and would keep suffering. Getting angry or upset every time I saw it would just get me killed, like it almost did here.
Chloe chuckled at my admission. “Same here. It’s why I rushed in through the door, I didn’t want them eating bodies. Dead bodies. Not the most intelligent thing I’ve ever done, and that bar is hella low.”
“Oh, mood,” I said, then gave her a side eye. “Say… now that we’re being honest and communicative and stuff… Why did you not like me from the moment you saw me?”
“I didn’t… you were just another random person from this shithole town,” she shrugged. “You seem okay now… but…” She groaned and stood up. “I don’t… there isn’t really a good reason. I just…”
Her faltering, confused speech ground to a halt, and she refused to meet my eyes. “Look. I don’t really want to talk about this shit, okay? Let’s just keep moving.”
“Okey dokey,” I said. “Topic sealed.”
That caused her to look at me with a bemused expression.
“What?” I asked.
She just shook her head and began moving. “Nothing.”
