Bane Academy: To Run From Fear

Chapter 18

Shae

Dale and I are standing side by side with our arms outstretched in an arc looking up at Becca and Fade who are now falling towards us at an alarming rate.
  Time seems to slow down, the screeches of the grievers nearby are drowned out by the sound of my own breath and heartbeat pounding in my head. Skia whines in her dog form behind Dale and I helplessly, wanting to help but can't.
  I close my eyes and brace myself as Becca's body hits my arms and feel my knees click as they hit the concrete ground. The top of my body starts to crumple forward and over the edge of the platform with Becca in my arms. I search my mind for what I can do. What will help me.
  Skia barks from behind me, and that's where I shout. "Cerberus!"
  Becca slips out of my arms as we start to fall off the platform and onto the ground meters and meters below us. It'll kill us both if we fall.
   "BECCA!" I hear Fade yell from behind me.
  I reach and grab onto anything I can get a hold of. The hem of Becca's shirt rips from my grasp, panicked, I reach for her arm, it slips until I reach her wrist.
  Suddenly, I hear a crunch and what feels like a hundred knives stabbing into my ankle and let out a huge scream of pain.
   "Owchie." Becca giggles.
  We've stopped moving, both of us are dangling from over the cliff. Sweat beads build up on my forehead and drip, falling into the never ending abyss. Becca is looking up at me and I'm staring down at her, I noticed the drawing in her temples and fear attacks my heart, causing it to race. I don't know if she realises that we were seconds away from death or she just doesn't care. Either way, something's wrong.
   "SHAE!" I hear Dale scream from behind me.
  I look up and see Dale also dangling from the edge of the platform in his underwear, his pants twirled around his ankle and are in Skia's mouth, who is now a large, three headed dog, just as I commanded. Fade is hanging onto Dales arms as his life depended on it.
  Pain strikes my leg as I look up at my ankle to see one of Skia's heads holding onto it by her sharp, needle-like teeth. I cannot get mad at her though, it was the only way to save us.
   "Get us up! Get us up!" Dale yells at Skia, so she does what she is asked. She pulls us up and over onto the platform. "RUN!" Dale screams.
  The Griever that we heard earlier  has jumped down from the platform above. Skia growls at the beast with all three heads, Dale is screaming at the top of his lungs and Fade is trying to protect Becca who's laughing her head off at the killing machine. It's all a mess. I scramble through my bag frantically to find the one thing I need.
  The Griever crawls closer.
  Lets out a horrid screech.
  Finally, I found it.
   "Stupefy!" I shout, pointing at it with my wand. It lets out a screech, then growls. "Stupefy!" I yell with more force. It lets out another screech, now it sounds as if it is in pain. It limps away as fast as it can deeper into the maze.
   "Lumos." I say. A light appears from the tip of the wand and I shine it over my wound. Lots of dark blood seeps through the deep gashes in my ankle. "Nox." I say. The light goes out. "Vulnera Sanentur." I command, tracing the wand over the wounds and the quickly seal up and heal.
   "Why didn't you just use the killing curse?" Dale asks after he caught his breath and has calmed down. "And how did I not fall off the platform?"
   "It's part robot. It probably wouldn't of worked and I would've lost valuable time." I explain. "Besides, I wouldn't of been able to perform it-
  SNAP. Skia spits out my black wand which is now broken in half which used to have silver spirals starting from the handle to halfway down the wand, similar to Ginny Weasley's wand. Skia narrows all six green eyes at us and snarls.
   "Uh, Skia?" I ask, walking backwards nervously. "What are you doing?"
  Skia barks at us loudly, viciously and repetitively with all three heads. Fade quicks walks in front of us with his arms outstretched, making himself look big. He harshly shouts something in Greek, which makes Skia lower her head in fear and shame.
   "Don't leave her in a Cerberus form for too long. Turn her back into her tiger form." He tells me. And I do as he asks.
  I wonder for a second how Fade made Skia back down, but I remember that Cerberus's are Hades hell hounds, and Fade is a son of Hades.
   "Is she okay?" Fade asks, running over to Becca.
   "She's fine, she's fine." I guide her onto Fade, where she then plays with his hair and giggles.
  She tugs on it a bit too hard. "Ow, are you sorry?" She asks Fade.
   "What? You hurt me. You shouldn't say sorry or ask me to apologise for it." Fade laughs nervously. "Are you okay?"
   "Yep-a-roonie." She responds.
   "Shae, you know Mortal Instrument stuff. What's on her head?" Fade asks me. I take a look at her temples.
   "She'll be fine, it wears off eventually. By the patterns she drew, I think she just wanted to let go of her feelings. Relax for a little while maybe." I explain.
   "Aw, great! My pants are all ripped up." Dale complains, holding up his torn jeans that are almost unrecognisable.
   "Here, wear mine." I say as I reach into my bag and throw him my baggy, Pajama pants. "You've got longer legs than me, so they might be short."
   "Thanks." Dale says uneasy. "Um, why do you have pants in your bag?"
   "Well, I was collecting more clothes from my dorm then was on my way back to the secret garden, but that's where we all got caught and sent to the maze." I explain. Dale just nodded his head.
  The storm maybe have passed for tonight, but it's still overcast. The clouds are tinged with the orange lights coming from the academy. The sun wasn't about to rise for a while, I knew we were in for a long night. What kind of bunch are we? We have a spoilt, annoying Erudite kid, a demigod, a Maniae and two scholarship girls, and one can't even stop giggling.