Fire & Ice

ch. 4

DANIEL

It was finally "Obstacle Course Wednesday", my favorite day of the week at ELITE Academy. Obstacle course training was always the most fun, and today's course was supposed to be the most challenging one we'd faced all semester.

So far, it had been a breeze.

There were generally five to six stages in every course. Today's course had five, and I'd already completed the first four.

The first two stages weren't a problem--just simple Holo battles. In the third, I nicked my leg pretty good on some spikes that jutted out of the wall, and the fourth had some pretty bulky Holos, but I made it through.

Now I approached the final stage. It was completely dark.

It was quiet when I entered. There was supposed to be one stage without Holos in every obstacle course, but I had already surpassed my one Holo-free room, so I knew they'd be appearing somewhere in here.

I walked inside after adjusting the bandage on my leg, immediately feeling naked without a gun. As a Level Three, you mostly learn ways to enhance sparring and hand-to-hand techniques, so most of our obstacle courses this year didn't allow guns.  

It was too quiet. I couldn't even hear my own footsteps. 

I bumped into something with my right shoulder and a shiver ran down my spine as I felt it move away.

I froze, trying my best to see through the dark. My instincts were telling me to move, but I didn't know where I could go. But then I was distracted by light in my peripheral.

I looked down, and my the stone on my ring was...glowing.

What the hell?

Since our parents had given us these rings, I'd been skeptical from the moment I'd begun wearing it, especially since our parents had just randomly handed them over. Mom had said they were powerful...but I wasn't convinced. I assumed she meant that figuratively, like wearing them made us more united, but Jamie still hated me, and we would never work as a team.

But now, I wondered what was about to happen.

Another shiver ran down my spine, and I felt goosebumps rising all over my body. I used the ring light to illuminate the thing I'd bumped into...and a dark shadow lunged at me. 

I threw up my hands, anticipating the blow. 

But nothing happened except for a rush of cool air.

The ring light had gone out, and it was dark again. I kept shivering, almost certain that the temperature had gone down in the room. 

I started forward again, still unsettled. As I continued, the ring light flickered on two more times, glowing right before a Holo jumped at me from above and again right before I walked into a wall. I felt more alert when it was glowing, but once the danger was gone, the light would go out. 

The ring glowed once more after a long stretch of walking in the darkness. Another shiver ran down my spine. 

There was a loud rumbling sound, and the floor began to shake. I kept walking. My ring grew ice cold on my skin. I picked up my pace, heart racing. Then, I heard a low growl. It was an animal, and it was close, maybe a few feet behind me. 

I broke into a run, teeth chattering. I heard something pursuing, getting faster and faster. 

I realized then what the rumble was. The walls were closing in from above and from both sides. I only had one way to go--forward.

I started running full speed, feeling the room getting smaller and smaller and growing more paranoid about the thing pursuing me. The end had to be close...where was the end?