Academy of Legends

Chapter 24: Will (Birthday)

I found myself just staring at the gun, unable to fully wrap my head around what was happening. Finally, my brain could only come up with one response to Rapunzel. "How is this not your fault?"

Rapunzel frowned. "I mean ... it's not. Somehow it's not."

Unconvinced, I looked back at the man trying to hold us up, who looked utterly confused. Frowning in the dim light, I noticed something familiar about him. "What a minute—Hamelin?"

"I—I—" The Pied Piper seemed to just be completely bemused by our reactions and could barely come up with a coherent response. He looked at me, his mouth opening and closing like some kind of a fish out of water.

Rapunzel chose that moment to act. She swung with her frying pan, slamming it against the side of the Piper's head. He dropped without a sound; she chose that moment to grab my hand. "Come on!" she said. "Let's go!"

We sprinted for the end of the hallway, but luck was not on our side. Two men blocked our way, and one of them met Rapunzel with a punch to the face. I grabbed her, pushing her behind me as she clutched her bleeding nose. The girl of my dreams proceeded to curse out the man who had punched her with words that would've made my uncle wash her mouth out with soap if he'd heard them.

Unfortunately, she dropped her frying pan when she got punched, and neither of us could put up a fight as the men menaced us with guns and tied us up, back-to-back. Then they manhandled us into the room that Ariel had gone into, and closed the door behind us. I couldn't help but feel like I was being sealed into my own tomb.

The room beyond was brightly lit, however, very much unlike a tomb. It was huge, probably about the size of the grand dining room. People dashed about as if preparing for something important, looking panicked. Dumped in a corner with Rapunzel, gagged because of her constant curses, I couldn't help but recognize some of the people running. Gothel, Rapunzel's own mother, was one of the ones I saw.

We both wriggled, trying to escape from our bindings, but we had no luck. The ropes were too tight, and we were bound too securely together. Rapunzel kept making frustrated grunting sounds through her gag.

Then a man knelt in front of me. I stared at him, trying to connect him to someone I knew, but I didn't know him. Rapunzel craned her neck to look at him over her shoulder. Suspicion darkened her eyes, but the gag prevented her from saying anything.

The gun pressed against my forehead made her scream, the sound muted by the cloth over her mouth. "William Scarlet," he said to me, ignoring Rapunzel. "Do you know what today is? The birthday, of the new Academy. An academy cleansed of your scum. And you ... you shall be the last victim on this day. The last unclean member of the Academy to die. And then my triumph shall be ... complete."

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