The Royal Knight Academy

Chapter 36: Living in a Nightmare

Bright red. That was the color surrounding me when I slowly awoke. I was lying on the cold hard floor of an unfamiliar room. The ceiling, floor, and walls all seemed to be glowing red, but I couldn't see where the light was coming from. Confused about what was happening, I stood up.

"Where am I?" I asked myself in the silence, looking around.

There seemed to be nothing there, just the red light.

"Hello?" I called, my voice echoing. "Is anyone there?"

The only thing I could hear was my own words bouncing off the walls that seemed to never end.

"What is this place?"

I started to walk around, trying to see if there would be something that would help me figure out where I was. My footsteps echoed like the beating of my heart with every step I took. Suddenly I heard a noise coming from behind me and when I turned around, I felt reassured with what I saw.

There, standing far away in the distance, with smiles on their faces, were Elisia, Kathleen, Dusk and Dawn, Rany, Blake, Owen, Elijah, and Xavier. They were all there. I breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

"Xavier, you're okay! I am so happy to see you all," I said, moving quickly towards them. "I'd like to say I'm sorry for dragging you into this mess that I've created."

But when I got near Xavier, I heard a strong, "Rumble," from below us. When it stopped, there was a loud, "CRACK!" and another, and another, and another, with each one becoming louder and more intense than the last. I stopped and stared down at the ground. Below where we were standing, I could see giant cracks forming. "What is-?" My thought was interrupted by the deafening sound of all the cracks, joining into one, right under our feet. There was a short moment of silence before realizing that it wasn't going to end well. I swiftly made my way onto an area of solid ground.

"Come on!" I yelled to everyone. "We have to go!"

Just then, pieces of the floor started falling, my friends still on it. Piece by piece, the floor crumbled, falling into the deep darkness below, taking my friends with it. One by one they fell.

"No no no no no!" I screamed, staring at the large pit of darkness as I watched them all fall into the unknown.

Everyone was gone, except for one. Xavier was in front of me, gripping onto the rim of the hole for dear life with one hand, dangling above the pit.

"Help!" he cried, staring up at me.

I knelt down to him, reaching my hand out to his grasping the edge.

"Hold on! I've got you!"

But when I tried to grab his hand, my attempts were useless. I frantically tried over and over again to grab him, but it was no use. My hand kept going right through his, like I was trying to grasp the air in front of me.

"What was going on?" I asked myself, shaking uncontrollably.

I was running out of time and his hand was slipping. He was losing his grip. And then he let go, starting to fall.

"XAVIER!" I screamed, reaching my hand out to him as he plummeted into the darkness.

"LINDSAY!" he shouted, reaching his hand out to me as he fell.

He was falling until I could no longer see him.

I stood back up again, looking down into the giant hole, only seeing darkness, my body shaking with fear. "What is happening?" I wondered with tears streaming down my face. "Am I causing all of these bad things to happen?" I backed away further from the hole. "Why couldn't I grab him?" I had no idea where I was or why I was there.