Kingdoms United Academy [DRAFT ONE]

18. Criss-Cross Applesauce

Author's Note: Only one of you will truly get the chapter title. It's an inside joke. :)

TRIGGER WARNING: Gore, mentions of death, violence, psychological horror

The Same Day-

Kingdoms United Academy

     Criss had been doing fine. They swore. They were absolutely fine.

     They were fine without Cinder. They were fine on their own. They were fine sleeping in the usual dorm they always did, alone, without anyone else to scream out to in the case of a nighttime murder attempt.

     They just had to blockade the doors. Right now, they were in their dorm. Preparing for bed. No, they weren't up at an ungodly hour. Criss wasn't up at 12 AM. No.

     Each day had made it harder to sleep. Though Cinder had been responding to texts, something was off about it today. 

      Maybe it was the fact that Cinder was up at 11? No. She was always up very late, almost like she barely needed to sleep in the first place.

      Criss sat on their bed. They stared at the wall. The shadows grew longer, longer, and longer as their vision grew unfocused. Until they snapped out of it, they almost seemed to grow mouths and want to snap at Criss.

     "Bedtime," they told themself. "For real now."

     They laid down on their bed for a moment. The phone on their bedside table buzzed as the screen lit up with a text. 

ARSONIST

made a new friend today (???) 

idk lol, seems chill but cant be sure

      Criss sat up, glanced at the text, then got up to get ready for bed. They stared at their scar in the mirror after they peeled their eyepatch off. The glassy eye underneath wouldn't move anymore, and the scar tissue around it made their face far from anything like the "beautiful princess" Criss's parents had once called them with pride.

     Criss spent thirty minutes checking each lock. They ended up falling back onto their bed at one AM.

      They convinced themself to shut off the lights at two. They coaxed themself into shutting their eye at two-thirty. Criss finally drifted off, with only the ticking of the clock to remind them of the room around them.

     Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick...

     Suddenly, they were in their royal bedroom. The walls, though pale pink in the light, were awash in darkness. They screamed out in pain as their assailant slashed at them with a knife, but their jerk upward in an attempt to run away meant it had missed the neck. The guards had to be coming. The assassin leapt out the broken window. Rain poured into the room.

     They woke up again. It was four. Things were blurring. They had to stay focused. They looked up, about to get out of bed to turn on the lights.

     Standing above Criss was a masked man. He held a knife. It was the same knife he had used three years ago. The glass crunched under his feet as he drew close, exactly like three years ago. The wind whistled through the window, also like three years ago.

     Criss froze for a second. They chastised themself mentally. This was the moment they had trained for, the moment of their revenge. 

     The masked man cursed. He grabbed Criss's shoulder, but they wouldn't be defeated again. Criss kicked him hard in the groin. 

     The man screamed and let go. Criss punched him in the windpipe, just to be sure. They leapt out of bed and flipped on the lights. The masked man was doubled over. Criss had an opening. But they could also run. Then, they were reminded of the Ironforged anthem's refrain. 

     "Never retreat. Never surrender. Never let the enemy escape alive."

     Criss grabbed Cinder's favorite chair by the metal legs. They swore they would apologize later. They charged with a loud war cry that surely woke up the neighbors, but they knew none of the others could get in. As soon as they unlocked the door, however, the others could find the corpse and the blood of whoever lost this one.

     Criss supposed they would be exempt from murder charges as royalty. The Ironforged always had the best lawyers.

     The masked man croaked as Criss approached, "Even if you defeat me... he'll always find a way. He always does. More will come."

     Criss paused. "He?"

     The masked man shifted his mask. "Milord. The good doctor. The One Who Never Relents."

     Criss tried to hit the masked man with the chair, but they'd lost momentum. The masked man stabbed them and twisted the blade. 

     Criss was thankful they didn't feel much. They stayed on their feet. They swung the chair at the man's head and hit him with a solid ringing sound. The mask shattered.

     The man was unconscious, and his head was bleeding. The clock seemed to go silent.

     Criss tried to brush away the shards and look at his face, but it all went dark before they could tell who he really was.

     That was one way to fall asleep.