Only A WishWritten by: Udon T.E. And Abigail K.T.

Chapter 49: Canis Alatus

Chapter Forty-Nine

[]Canis Alatus[]

Darkness.

Then, mountains, painting the horizon all different shades of red.

The seemingly depthless floor under me was black.

The darkest I've ever seen.

Only, it wasn't the ground.  It was a gaping chasm, and I was standing right above it.

Great beasts tore at each other, crawled all over each other below me, undoubtedly strangling their companions to their inevitable death.

Twitching, mangled, heads and gnashing, ragged teeth.

I shuddered.

The rift seemed to swallow the monsters, but they piled on top of each other, suffocating each other and grappling to reach me. I stayed, suspended in my golden orb above the rapidly approaching monsters.

I had seen these creatures before, I was trained to fight them.

But it was still horrifying to witness, and so close at that.

Like being used to something, but the shock of seeing it was still that of something completely new and utterly foreign.

A flash of deep red.

Blood. I thought.

It dripped from every inch of the mountains that I was suddenly transported to.

The crimson mountains loomed in front of me, a chasm of maroon liquid, absolutely stockpiled with gurgling, hissing, and clawing monsters.

Blinding light suddenly flashed to every corner of my vision, glittering as it hit my body.

The healing pod doors hissed open.

I stepped out, hit with an exhilarating rush of cold air.

I stumbled, into the nurse's arms, who was waiting to catch me in case I toppled.

She smiled at me, squinty eyed and tight lipped.

In return, I tried to force a smile, but just ended up issuing a weird, pained grimace.

I frowned, trying to recall what had happened.

Why did my throat hurt so much?

The memories came back to me.

'Zephyr.' I thought.

My shiny eyes slid to meet the nurse's cold, green ones.

I tugged my arm away from her and stood up on my own.

I stood easily a head taller than her, but she didn't seem intimidated.

"C-can I go?" I managed to rasp.

She nodded and handed me a bottle of nasty-looking liquid. "First drink." Her voice was bored, those emerald green eyes still bored into my odd-coloured ones.

Taking the fragile, ice-cold bottle, I drank the shimmering liquid inside.

I nearly choked on it, it tasted like a combination of rat poison and licking dust off the floor. At least, that's the best comparison.

The after-taste of the mystery liquid lingered in my mouth. I scowled and proceeded to walk out.

My body ached, through the steady, burning pain I yawned and rubbed my eyes.

I looked down at my wrist cuff, a notification sent to me notified me that the torrential blizzard was over.

I let out another sigh, then decided to head to my dorm, with nowhere else to go.

Couldn't help but wonder if Ira was there.

I looked around in the barren and completely bland snowy landscape.

It looked like something carbon-copied from a horror movie.

Completely white and so painfully desolate.

I picked up a sprint, rushing to the campus on the other side of the snowy and agonisingly long path.

My muscles still burned from earlier, but not as bad.

My steps echoed through the halls.

Nobody was there.

Entering the code burned into my mind, I turned the door handle and my eyes were met with an adorable, sleeping Ira.

Her dark hair was spread around her like a little halo.

I cooed quietly, bringing my hand up to my mouth to stop the affectionate noise.

I tore my gaze away from the haloed Ira, heading to the small closet to grab a fresh pair of clothes.

Groaning, I changed out of my tight uniform and into some softer pyjamas, ones I smuggled in from home. I winced, but had proceeded to step into the empty top bunk as quietly as I could.

My entire body protested as I turned, nestling further into the sheets as I began to lose consciousness. Against my -slowly fading- will, more nightmares than dreams filled my restless sleep.

The same creatures from my time in the healing pod.

The same gnashing teeth, unhinged and bleeding jaws combined with pallid skin and twisted bones.

The same nightmare I'd suffered from for years.

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