Broken Barriers: A Mystic Academy Short Story

Broken Barriers

The bad feeling I had been having was getting worse. Every night I felt like something major was coming, something that would change the fabric of reality as even those of us in the supernatural community knew it. And just two days before Samhain, known to mortals as Halloween, it finally happened.

I was running through the woods, frantically trying to avoid the fire demon that was chasing me, trying to burn me alive. On some level, I knew that if I could wake myself, everything would be just fine. But everywhere I went to try to get away from this demon, it appeared, knowing my subconscious thoughts while I was in his domain, the dream realm.

Somehow, I struggled and finally woke myself up. I was drenched in sweat from the chase with the demon in my dream. My heart was still racing. Magickal or not, I didn't like being chased by pyromaniacs looking to fry me in my sleep.

Getting out of bed, I started walking towards the bathroom I shared with my roommate, Shaun. Just before I got to the bathroom, I realized something was seriously wrong. I looked to my left, to Shaun's bed, and found that he was engulfed in flames, but he wasn't waking up. On top of him was Pyralis, the demon of my dreams.

"Get the hell off of him!" I shouted as I threw a spell that would engulf Pyralis in water.

Pyralis moved, the spell hit Shaun, but there were no air bubbles coming from the water. Shaun was dead. Was I still asleep? I thought to myself.

"That was good, but not good enough, Little Sorcerer," Pyralis taunted me. "You've given me a new playground to run through, I should thank you."

I wasn't asleep. He was really here.

"How has nobody else in this place realized you were here?"

"Sleeping spells. They are all in a deep sleep. You, however, being from one of the ancient lines of sorcery, were much harder to put under."

With that, Pyralis turned and ran from my dorm room... And I realized we were all in a lot of trouble. Running to my closet, I grabbed my ritual supplies, giving everything in me to prevent Pyralis from getting to anyone in my dorm. It was the best I could do at the time, having never been in the other dorms before and not even being sure where some of them were. I pulled the water spell off of Shaun, offering up a prayer for his soul as he traveled to the Summerland, and grabbed what supplies I could carry as I left my dorm room.

~*~

Outside Enchantment Hall, I pulled out my cell phone. After the spells I had worked to protect those in my dorm, I knew my phone wouldn't work inside of the building. I dialed the only person I could think of to talk to at the moment, my older brother Terrence, the only other Masterson sorcerer left on this planet.

"This better be good, Silas," Terrence snapped into the phone. "It's two thirty in the morning and you should be in bed."

Brothers, I thought to myself.

"I need to know what is wrong in the dream realm, Terrence."

"What makes you think..."

"Cut the crap, Terrence. I just somehow pulled Pyralis out of my nightmares when I woke myself. He killed my roommate and is loose on campus," I snapped at my older brother. "Now what the hell is going on?"

Terrence didn't answer me at first. That worried me a little. It wasn't like him. He always had a comeback, some kind of answer to any question, even if it didn't make any sense to anyone but him. His silence was worse than him running his mouth.

"Get yourself caught out of bed. You need help, Silas. You can't do this alone."

"I know I can't do this alone. That's why I called you, Terrence, but what the hell is this?"