Astra Chronicles

Chapter 7: Scarlett

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"Of all the things you choose in life, you don't get to choose what your nightmares are. You don't pick them; they pick you." ―John Irving

Year 2113. Academia Astra, A City.

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There were many things I found scary.

Flying cockroaches, spiders, and the old statue of a clown with a red balloon from the museum made my skin crawl.

Sometimes it's the shadows formed by leaves outside my window.

On other times, I thought I saw something move from the corner of the dark hallway.

While the more normal fears I had were the mutants outside The Walls.

In one of Scarlett's Biology topics, I had likened the flight reaction to a desperate struggle of life to survive. Like a primal instinct, self-preservation.

The way my hands trembled, legs buckled, the cold beads of sweat formed from the adrenaline rush, the ragged breaths which came too shallow and short or how my heart sank frozen and ran miles per second at the same time; these were shouts of being alive.

Like the last flickers of light from a used sparkler.

You see, that was exactly how it felt when I saw a nightmare in my real life.

From the darkness, I saw its disturbing blood-red orbs.

I could almost swear I heard its low growl. It was something in between the sound of an angry dog and a snarl from some raspy throat.

The creaking from the wooden flooring sent deathly shivers on my spine.

I had turned into a statue.

In that moment, I questioned my decisions in life yet again.

That maybe if I was not so stubborn I would have taken a safer offer than the Academia's or maybe if I agreed to fail one exam like Lizzie suggested then they would not have bothered with Lexi.

Then, maybe I wouldn't have to face this nightmare which had chosen to materialize before me.

Before I knew what was happening, I felt weightless.

It was like being literally swept off your feet. But without a prince.

My eyes were wide when I realized that I had stepped backwards in fright.

Unfortunately for me, the stone ledge wasn't wide enough to support my shock. That was why I was falling.

From the third floor of a building, would I live from a crash? Would the sudden pull on the rope and sway from the impact break my spine sooner than me hitting the ground?

I wasn't sure I would live to find out.

When everything came to a slow motion, I wondered if the other kids saw the glowing eyes from that room too or were they focused on me.

I had closed my eyes, trying to dull the sounds of scandalized screams from my classmates.

I could easily separate Lexi's voice from the rest of them as she shrieked my name in pure terror.

I should've told her that I was thankful I met her. I was grateful that she cared about me.

I took a deep breath to keep myself calm, pushing back the thoughts of an obscene bloody scenario my corpse would star in when Scarlett retrieves me later.