Bane Academy: To Run From Fear

Chapter 10

Shae

"Okay girls, you know the drill." Tobias says seriously.
Tobias opens the door and inside are mirrored walls, coloured serum, a computer and two chairs.
"Why are there only two?" Becca asks straight away.
"I've been watching you two over the past few weeks. I want to see how much you've improved." Tobias answers.
"You didn't tell us this." I protest.
"Think of this as a suprise mid-term test." Tobias smiles.
"That isn't fair." Becca mutters.
"Take a seat." Tobias says.
Becca and I reluctantly take a seat next to each other and lie back. Tobias hands us both the serum and I scull it back.
It's kind of an unspoken rule between Becca and I to help each other out through our fears. It's like we're friends again in the fear landscape, but enemies as soon as we stop out of this room.
"You'll both do well." He says putting wires into my temple, then Becca's. "Be brave." He says simply and the world around me goes blurry.

Becca and I are in an empty room, the ceiling, the walls and the floor is black. The only light source is a dim glow of a single light bulb hanging from above our heads.
"Okay, who's first?" I ask.
"I think it's you." Becca whispers.
Our shadow hunting class walks out from the darkness, all wearing black hoods so we can only see part of their faces.
"You killed him." They chant softly.
"Yep, me first." I say to Becca. "Okay, look, I killed no one." I say aloud.
"You killed him." They chant again, raising their voices. "You killed him. You killed him. You killed him. You killed him. You killed him!"
"You killed me." A weak voice says on its lonesome.
"Who said that?" I ask the crowd.
A slim figure emerges from within the shadowhunters.
"You killed me." He says again, a familiar voice. He takes off his hood and all his features are there. The dirty blonde hair, the freckles every single one. He's wearing his rectangular glasses and his geeky clothes under his hood, but what he's not wearing is his contagious smile on his face.
"It's not real, it's not real, it's not real." I mutter.
"Liam?" Becca gasps, taking a step back.
I can feel my eyes watering up and my heart start to race. I can feel the shadowhunters eye me up and the guilt slashed across my face.
I start to walk forward to Liam when the crowd shouts. "No!"
"Liam, I'm so sorry." My voice cracks.
"This doesn't make any sense." Becca says to me. "I thought you already faced your fear, when you stood up to Andrew."
"You've been living in denial." The crowd chants again.
"How have I been living in denial?" I ask frustrated. "How?!"
The crowd with covered faces, including Liam, disappear into thin air as soon as I raise my voice. That's when the room bulks and shifts. It's getting ready to close in.
"Okay, okay, okay." I mutter to myself. "Nothing here is real. Nothing here is real."
The room moves inwards fast, which is unusual because usually it's slow and gradual. I begin to panic and my legs give out and I fall to the ground, I haul myself over the corner. Becca's sitting next to me, I can only just see her face in the dim white light. Her green eyes are staring into mine and are wide and full of fear, not for her but for me. But she stays quiet, she says nothing.
I can feel the oxygen being stolen out of my lungs, so I hyperventilate to get it back. I can feel the sharp pain in my chest and the tightening muscles all over my body. I cover my ears with my palms, pull at my hair with my fingers, let out a piercing scream and shut my eyes tightly.

Thankfully, the concrete floor and wall I'm leaning on has disappeared. I open my eyes and see that Becca and I are on a steel beam running between two buildings. We're in the city of New York, I can see Central Park a kilometre or two away and the night sky is starless from pollution. The ground below us is congested of two colours only; white and red from the headlights and tail lights of cars. It all seems so incredibly real. While I'm taking in all the new sights and smells, Becca's on all fours, clinging to the beam for her life.
"The sooner we get off this, the faster we can get out of the landscape." I say to Becca.
"Nope." Becca says.
"Don't look down." I say. "It'll only make it worse." I offer my hand to Becca.
"Okay, I can do this." I hear Becca mutter. She grasps my hand tightly.
"One.." I start. "Two.." Becca grips my hand tighter. "Three!" Both of us jump and we let gravity do its thing. Becca's screaming and I'm closing my eyes, waiting to fall into the next landscape.
When I open my eyes again, we're not in water. We've landed safely on the (now empty) highway, still in New York. Street lights flicker on and off and not one pedestrian walks by. In front of us is a large wooden door right in the middle of the road.
"This has never happened before." Becca mutters.
She heaves the heavy door open which leads to water rapids in the middle of a forest in broad daylight. Becca looks at me with big eyes.
"We'll be stuck here until you jump in." I say. "Tobias would've done this on purpose, he wants to see if you'll step into your fear instead of being pushed into it."
"Okay." She says. "Let's just get the hell out of here." Becca sighs. She takes a few deep breaths, closes her eyes and jumps into the water, and I follow shortly after.
It takes a few seconds for my eyes to adjust, but when they do, I can see Becca's head bobbing in and out of the water and her flaying arms above her head, hitting the surface trying desperately to float in the water.
"Shae!" Becca shouts. She spots a large, fallen tree half on land and half in the water a few meters in front of her and grabs onto it just in time. "Swim over here!"
I free-stroke to my left aiming for the tree log but miss. I look back at Becca who's struggling to hold on. I turn back around and see in the distance in front of me is a tree log in the rapids quite a bit ahead of me. The back of the log lifted up in the air, vertically straight then sunk into the horizon.
Great.
I look back to Becca who's back to trying to keep her head from bobbing up and down in the water. I shout. "Waterfall ahead!"
Her eyes widen and she screams. She panics, kicking and punching the water. I look back in front of me and see the waterfall is just getting closer. I try my hardest to swim to the edge of the river, but the rapids are too strong. Eventually, I get to the land and drag my body out. I look around for a stick or something for Becca to grab onto. Right next to my feet, there's a long, thick bit of rope.
Thanks Tobias.
I run over to the edge of the river and shout. "Becca! Grab onto this!" I throw in one end while having a firm grip on the other end of the rope.
She pants and huffs over to the floating rope and grabs it. She looks exhausted, tired, worn out. "I've got it!" She shouts. "Pull me in!"
As I do so, I have a flashback. I remember the shadowhunters kicking me to the ground. I remember my screaming. I remember Becca running off.
"What are you doing??" Becca shouts. "Pull me in!"
Why am I helping her? She never helped me. I narrow my eyes at hers and let go of the rope, letting it fall to the ground and being dragged in the water.