Sixteen-year-old June Bae may very well be your typical high school student, but the Rose Cross Academy is not your typical high school. Instead of history assignments and English papers, June trudges through Alchemy mixes and Demonology homework.
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Chapter 13
Under Glass
By Rissa Renae
Back when the meagre rays of the sun still shone, the forest sounded much like a normal forest, with crickets chirping and even an owl hooting. Now that the sun had fallen beyond the trees, the forest had changed into something different—into someplace different. Soft breezes kicked up through the underbrush, sending bushes swaying gently, but the breeze never touched the skeleton-like trees. Leaves stopped rustling, trunks stopped groaning and creaking. Everything was just pure and eerie silence broken horribly by the things that stalked the night.
Something big sent the forest scurrying in every direction not too far in the west, a sound like a Jeep rumbling through the underbrush for only a few seconds. Around June, the trees came alive for that instant—small creatures startled from their nests and perches and took to flight as a single mind. Just as quickly as the movement began, everything settled again into unnerving, still quiet. Once more, the thing rumbled and once more, the forest came alive only to die moments later. The only solace in those events was that whatever the thing was, it was moving farther and farther away from the Barrier.
The forest settled once more into deathly quiet. Things moved here or there, or far off in the distance. Nothing approached the Barrier save for a single white-yellow snake. June watched it slither after a small demon that looked like a pheasant with ridiculous plumage. Its life ended in a squawk and a brilliant poof of feathers behind a bush among the faint glow of the white-barked tree trunks.
As the minutes dragged into hours, the trees began to loom over the two Crosses. June swore each time he looked, the trees had grown closer, as if leaning in to watch what he was doing. Branches of heart-shaped, saw-toothed leaves pierced the red-pink surface to hang over their heads, and more and more leaves were hanging inside the small confines whenever he looked. Here they were, Below and far away from civilization, watched and studied like frightened little animals, caged in their glowing prison. He was a spectacle on display to entertain the forest.
Dew began to form on the blades of grass and the leaves of the bushes, giving the night a cold and uncomfortable damp chill. The smell of musty earth, like old and worn leather, made his nose tingle. June fought down a sneeze more than once—he didn't want to draw any unneeded attention.
The fact that nothing had come out of the forest to bother him and Jackson brought mixed feelings of relief and uneasiness. This ominous forest made June feel like a helpless rabbit being stalked by wolves Demons were often quietest right before they struck. If such a thing could be described as deafening, this forest was deafeningly quiet. The lack of nose made his ears ring.
He felt alone; very alone, and very vulnerable.
Absently, he glanced down to the eerie green miasma that encompassed Jackson's mangled leg. The soft light pulsed calmly with the upperclassman's beating heart. Some of the holes made from the bones that once pierced his skin were starting to close, and the bleeding had long since stopped. June wanted the healing to go faster, but opening another mote on the injury could cause Jackson more harm than good.
