The World I Knew Isn't The Same Anymore

Chapter 33 Check Mate

In a game of chess, all of the 'good guys' pieces have been backed into a corner. It's as if the 'bad guys' can visually see their win. Tears have inhabited Chase's emerald eyes and have stained both his cheeks. Ryder is holding onto his younger brother's body for the first time since they were kids. And Bree still hasn't stopped bleeding nor has noticed the tiny black hole - the same portal that took Izabel - expanding behind her.

Chase hasn't taken his glossed eyes off Bree until the black hole appears, the size of a needle stick. Immediately his whole entire body is filled with adrenaline that he barely notices that he pushes off Ryder. Both his older brother and petite girl stare at him as he's staring at the hole expanding. His fists clench up once again and it's as if the tears have stopped falling mid stream.

Ryder is quick to catch onto Chase's stare and the hole is expanding tremendously. He doesn't hesitate to use his speed to grab Bree and race her back behind Chase. Bree's body fills with dark energy, and Chase's skull ring continues to tighten around her thumb. Danger is in the form of intoxicating air causing each of their lungs to stop breathing for the moment.

The three of them watch as the black hole expands to the size of a portal. But it's different, this hole is completely still and mimics a dark abyss, almost like Sebastian's eyes. The same pale and frail hands reach out first, but when they don't grab anything a body walks forward. A body each of them knows too well, one that has porcelain skin and a slender frame. One that has platinum blonde hair down in waves below her breasts, and oceanic blue eyes that look as if the sun is always shinning on them.

"Students," Francine Smith finally makes her appearance. Her demeanor is nothing of her usual business one, and even her clothes are loose and bland compared to her typical business attire. She rolls her shoulders backward and instantly her angel wings sprout; they're glorious and stretch five feet in wing span and each white feather is fluttering and alive.

For months they've feared - and didn't want to believe - that Francine was a pawn in Sebastian's game. Their fear is very much manifested now. None of them can take their shock filled eyes off the angel. Chase's body is filling with rage faster than Ryder can run, and he feels his power coursing through every single atom that makes up his physique.

"Why are you doing this?" To all their surprise, it's Bree who speaks. Blood trials down the side of her mouth and her voice comes out weak and whimpering. If she had enough energy in her, she'd burst out crying. But all she can feel is the physical pain she's in that she forgets she has all these new emotions coursing through her. Helplessness, guilt, and petrifying fear.

"I have a dream, a vision. We all must work to acquire what we want, we're not just blessed with something we do not work for," Francine continues to spout lectures even in the midst of betraying her own students.

Chase and Ryder both grew up at a very young age and lost their parental figures. When they were still children Francine took them both into the academy just as a mother would. She nurtured them and watched them grow up, she provided food and a roof over their heads like a mother would to her children. And the wound that Sarafine left in Chase's heart is being reopened and re-wounded once again, like twisting a blade in an already bleeding spot.

"I'm going to kill you," Chase hisses beneath his breath. Instead of allowing himself to feel anymore sorrow, he channels it all into rage, boiling rage. He's never been keen on tapping into a softer side, and all he's known his entire life was to turn his pain into power.

Francine is very well aware of this habit that Chase has. And she wastes no time in flapping her wings back and sending a rush of wind in their direction. The angel has always been strategic and purposefully misses aiming at Bree, but even with the incredible force of her wings wind she still stumbles backward and her entire head of hair is blown back. Ryder's body completely lifts off the ground and gets thrown back in the direction of the wind. Bree's heart sinks when she looks forward as she anticipates that the same was probably done to Chase.