Academy of Legends

Chapter 13: Unknown (Stress)

The girl is crying. I can hear her sobs echo through the dungeons I've locked her in. Little does she know that her beloved is locked down here in the other side of the dungeons. "Little Snow White," I whisper, my voice failing to carry anywhere. "Bait." The word tastes good on my tongue.

The tension and stress of what I plan to do tonight fails to bother me. I have killed so many already that I no longer care. My mission to cleanse the Academy remains the same; unchanged, untouched by other people's taint.

Slowly, I walk down the hall to the cell. Peering through the window, I can see Snow White, curled up in the corner. As if she hears me, she looks up, but I am hidden from sight. However, she speaks, like she knows I'm out there. "I know you're there, you vile monster!" she cries. "What have you done to Henry? What do you plan to do to the two of us?"

I laugh, pitching my voice differently so she doesn't recognize it. "Suffice to say, Ms. White, that you will not be leaving this cell. Ever."

"Please!" Her voice cracks. If the stress no longer bothers me, I can see that it bothers her. Perhaps even frightens her, though I don't really know the meaning of the word any longer. "You can't do this! Why would you torture people so?"

"I'm not torturing." The very thought appalls me, for some reason. "I am cleansing. This school has filth, Snow White. I must cleanse it."

"Why would killing me, Harold, and Henry have to be cleansed?" she demands.

"That is for me to know and you ... to not find out." I turn from her cell and start to walk down the hall. Again, her shrill voice stops me in my tracks.

"This is wrong! You're a cruel and vicious person! Murder for any cause is still murder, and it's still wrong. I don't care why you think this school needs cleansing, but the people you've killed ... Theseus, Marian, Harold, Hermes ... they didn't deserve it!"

"Harold was an accident. Your deaths are necessity." The confession falls from my lips before I even know what I'm saying.

Snow frowns, and I can see her beginning to put the pieces together. Quietly, I curse my foolishness. Without warning, she hurls herself at the bars, held back only by the chains around her wrists. "Why would you kill them?" she screams. "There are many good people among them!"

"The Academy belongs only to fairy tales," I snap. "You shouldn't have looked into things that don't concern you. Goodbye, Ms. White." I turn away, ignoring her protests even as I walk down the corridor once more.

For some reason, though, my concerns and stress seem to have grown after my conversation with the girl. Fear of failure is foremost in my minds.