In Bloom (Twisted Wonderland x OC)

57: Midnight Hunt

One of the ghosts shook me awake in the middle of the night, "Grim's gone."

"What?!" I immediately sat up, "Where did he go?"

He pointed towards the window, "I saw him head towards the school, just a couple of minutes ago."

My stomach twisted into a knot. What business he had at school at this hour was beyond me. What I knew for certain was I needed to find him and fast.

Still in my pajamas, I hurriedly put on my shoes and grabbed my broom before I sped towards the main campus. Darkness was all I saw from a bird's eye view, until I caught sight of flickering blues flame inside the coliseum.

Grim was in the center of the VDC stage, sniffing different spots on the stage floor. I carefully landed and quietly walked towards him, ensuring I didn't scare him.

With his back turned to me, he eagerly scratched the stage, as if he was digging for buried treasure.

"There....there it is..." I heard him say before he loudly crunched on something, "Mhmm...delicious..."

I called out to him, "Grim?"

"Who's there?!" he snarled.

He turned to face me and shivers traveled throughout my whole body. An immense amount of dark energy radiated from him. The glimmer in his eyes was no longer visible. He bared his teeth and growled at me.

This was not Grim.

He hissed, "This rock is mine!"

I took a step back.

Wrong move.

I barely had time to react when Grim pounced on me. I quickly shielded myself with my arm, but it did not stop Grim from leaving behind a mark as he slashed on my arm. I was about to use my magic to entrap him, but he already bolted out of the coliseum.

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After I bandaged up my arm, I called the Headmage over. If Grim was still on his rampage, he could potentially harm someone else.

"Has he shown any kind of strange behavior prior?" he inquired.

"He's been eating these black rocks, but that's all I can think of."

"Black rocks?"

I recalled, "After every time someone overblotted, Grim ate a black rock off the ground, but he never acted strangely or violently. He kept insisting he was fine, but it still bothered me and..." I notice the color leave Crowley's face, "Headmage, you know what those black rocks are?"

"I wasn't there to see it personally, but those rocks may be blot crystals."

I knew when an individual went into overblot, the blot would manifest itself into an incarnation of a monster representing the negative emotion impacting the individual. The monsters I saw from the incidents at school so far were horrifying enough to give me nightmares. By bringing the overblotted individual back to their senses, their connection to that monster is severed and the monster disappears.

Crowley added, "From past cases, there have been instances when the incarnation vanishes, any remaining blot crystallizes."

Since blot was a toxic substance and a surplus of negative energy, it meant it had been building up inside Grim for months.

My fingers found their way to my crystal, "Headmage, I'm worried Grim might attack someone."

Tomorrow, the second and final day of the joint school festival was supposed to be held. If Grim was still on the loose, the safety of the students and visitors was at risk.