The Curse ✔️

Chapter 49: Media Nocte Ostium Aperit

Armed with a knife, a phone, a half-working pen and a broken chalk, I marched through the hallways. This time, I didn't stop to draw circles on the walls, or to line them with salt. Magic blasted through me, sealing the doors shut and burning the ooze fighting to pass through the cracks.

The hallways the students passed through were full of protection symbols, and relatively easy to pass through. The building was eerily quiet, yet somehow alive. I could feel the demonic entities crawling through its very foundation.

They would never reclaim the building.

They would have to burn it all down.

Once I passed the library – its door sealed shut and guarded with dozens of spells – I stopped.

I took off my shoes and shook the pen I stole from Amma. It barely worked, but I managed to draw a few protection symbols on the soles of my shoes. Shaking it more, I drew the magic emphasizer on my palm and threw the pen away.

I wasn't afraid anymore.

I was angry.

Dozens of students died. Maybe even a hundred. Amma lost her arm.

I turned left from the library, down the hallway that led to the cafeteria, and the cafeteria was adjacent to the main hall. Things would get tricky there.

But I didn't care.

I would search every corner of this place.

I stopped in my tracks, sweat dripping down the back of my neck. The air changed, magic changed its course. Something was following me. Watching me from a distance. Its presence didn't worry me nearly as much as the question of why it hasn't attacked me yet.

There was a demon in this building, and it rather followed me than confronted me.

I breathed in, desperate for fresh air, but there just wasn't any. We were sealed within this building, unable to leave. The oxygen level must be dropping rapidly.

Wiping the sweat off my forehead, I continued to the cafeteria.

As soon I walked in, the ooze began crawling towards me.

I flinched, but quickly regained my composure and aimed my magic towards it.

It listened to me. I followed its commands and it gave me control over itself in return. My magic had a mind of its own; it was me, but wasn't. It was wild, and stubborn, and it followed its desires to the end of the world.

The ooze hissed and burned, shrinking into itself, until it turned to hard, metallic stone.

This part of the building had zero protection spells on it.

I walked inside the cafeteria, and gagged as soon I saw half-eaten human bodies rotting on the floor, turning into ash as the ooze devoured what was left of them. Students that tried to hide under the desks. The cook with a butcher knife still in hand. One teacher from the fourth year I've never had the opportunity to meet.

I swallowed the bile in my throat and moved past the bodies.

No one was alive.

The realisation made me stagger and grab the edge of the kitchen counter. I jumped as soon as I touched the cold surface. Tears choked me.

"Oh, come on." I cried, muscles in my face twitching. "Goddess, I'm begging you. Please, please, please-"

I wrapped my hand around my throat and breathed in.

"Alright." One shaky breath. "Alright. Let's go."

The need to talk to myself was strong.

Once I reached the door from the cafeteria to the main hall, I braced myself.