Chapter 51: Against the dark
Red, sketch-like strands of blood pooled out of the girl’s neck and around her collapsed form. A pair of shaky X’s appeared on her eyes.
Dead.
Another click sounded, and the blade was drawn again. A slash followed.
By the time Miles turned in its direction, he found Sarah collapsing, taking her friends down with her as they both lost her support. A large mirror piece lay below her.
None of the fights stopped because of the commotion.
With the pale girl gone, and his every action no longer interrupted by the mental spikes, Brandon sought to press the attack.
Dodging a hardened fist, bright blue flames ignited on his right hand as he sent it clawing for Maxwell’s face. His flames barely managed to singe him before the boy sent a hardened knee straight into his stomach, doubling him over.
Maxwell raised a fist to smash into his back, only to be interrupted by a can of milk hurtling towards him. He dodged with a slight shift of his head, letting it land harmlessly behind him.
He only bothered to glance once at Grimm’s collapsed form before turning back to Brandon. His raised hand came down.
Yet before it reached Brandon, another can flew towards him.
He didn’t bother dodging this time.
The moment it touched his face, the can exploded. The boom rang out in the enclosed room as a cloud of vaporized milk burst out from the contact point, sending iron shrapnel from the can’s body right into the side of Maxwell’s head.
He screamed as he fell down, sealing his fate, if the explosion itself hadn’t been enough to do so.
Meanwhile, his friend was in similarly dire straits. Even under his continuous rain of blows, Mia hadn’t fallen. She was wounded, coughing blood, yet somehow still remained on her feet. A terrifying amount of will burned in her eyes.
Now with her main distraction gone, her punches were finding their marks, landing with the same, if not more, force than his own punches.
Once the fighting from Maxwell’s side stopped, he instinctively turned to face it, committing a fatal error that was ruthlessly exploited.
Ryan, kneeling near them both, swung his bat into the boy’s knees, bringing him down to his level. The boy grunted, his eyes moving to Ryan, only to let Mia’s red, almost sunburned fist smash down into the side of his face.
The force sent him to the ground, cleanly knocking him out and making way for the principal to bring the hammer down, finishing the job.
In the end, falling unconscious was a violation of the no-sleeping rule.
With his death, the room fell under a tense, exhausted silence.
Chloe hadn’t opened her eyes at all, still kneeling in her initial position. With the high of the fight crashing down, the others quickly realized what was happening and shut their eyes as well.
Miles would’ve joined them too, if he hadn’t noticed the black, unreal scribbles rapidly covering the face of any mirror shard around him. With how many lay scattered across the room, the floor was soon mostly covered in an undulating mass of black scribbles.
Beyond that, the edges of his vision had started growing dark. Exhaustion crept ever closer like a predator, one he knew he wouldn’t be able to stop, not this time.
And once it took him, he would die. Just like Maxwell, just like Jayce.
In his clear, yet still muddled state of mind, an epiphany came to him.
Doubtlessly, he stared directly at the largest patch of scribbles. Right into the face of the largest mirror.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then, a click sounded. Plastic rattled against metal as the sound of a box cutter being drawn rang out less than a foot away from his lying form.
He waited tensely for the next few moments, but nothing truly happened in the end.
’I knew it.’
The numbness, in conjunction with the muddled state of his mind, prevented him from feeling much satisfaction at the discovery.
It was all in Chloe’s description after all. The entity would kill those who stared into mirrors. The actual story of Bloody Mary almost always ended with her victims seeing her before she killed them.
But what if he wasn’t truly seeing her? What if he wasn’t staring at a mirror? Could she kill a person who hadn’t even acknowledged her existence? A person that hadn’t broken any of her rules?
He’d gone about confirming it in a dangerous, reckless, and very stupid way. It was a test he was sure a more stable version of himself would’ve only done as a last resort.
But it worked. She was right behind him, yet she couldn’t do anything.
The clicks started again, the blade being drawn and withdrawn repeatedly in an almost annoyed manner. The source of the sound tried moving away from him, only to stop, then start clicking again.
’Is it...’
It tried moving in another direction before stopping as well. Two more attempts were all it needed before giving up, settling on drawing and withdrawing its blade.
’Is it stuck?’
If it was just one entity, one that was now chained with him under its warped rules, then a thought came to mind. One spurred on by the growing darkness in his vision.
He forced his bruised and broken lips open, letting out a low, hoarse voice.
"G-guys, we... we need to activate the pylon. Right now."
Chloe was the first to reply, even with her eyes tightly shut. She was the closest to him.
"What?"
"It’s the only way to get rid of the principal’s rules and to neutralize Bloody Mary."
"Ho..."
"Just trust me," he interrupted her. "Just trust me. We need to do it quickly."
The girl fell silent for a moment before tersely nodding.
He thought of telling her that it was safe to open her eyes, then thought better of it, keeping his mouth shut. There was no guarantee that it wouldn’t escape if another person glanced at a mirror.
It just wasn’t a risk worth taking.
"I’ll tell you what you need to do."
He guided her towards himself, warning her of obstacles and mirrors on her path. Soon she stood above him, though he could barely see her face in the growing darkness of his vision.
"How can you still see?"
"She can’t affect me."
The girl chose not to press any further beyond that.
"Give... give me your hand."
At the thought of wanting to transfer points, an almost instinctive sense told him that he had to shake her hand.
The girl extended it unquestioningly, likely feeling the same instinct as well.
Her hand stiffened as his only working hand, bandaged and bloodied, clasped around it. He only felt the cold, alienness of his own body through it.
Then a notification popped up.
[Do you wish to transfer points?]
[Y/N]
’Yes.’
He answered without hesitation, sending all seventy of his points to her. His balance showed immediately afterwards.
[Points: 0]
Things grew increasingly hazy afterwards.
He could tell the girl released his hand and that he was guiding her to the back, where the others were. He couldn’t hear what the girl told them, but presumably, she’d been able to convince them as she began walking back under his foggy guidance.
Somehow, he managed to guide her most of the way back to the pylon. Yet, just a few feet away from it, he lost the strength to continue speaking.
The sudden silence made her trip over a broken crate. Catching herself on a knee, she pushed herself up quickly, likely sensing something wrong with the silence.
Miles heard her fumble for the pylon, no longer able to see her as the darkness had wholly consumed his vision. The clicking behind him stopped with it too.
The world grew ever quieter in his mind. A quiet abyss drawing him ever closer to its inevitable peace.
Right as he was on the cusp of falling into that sweet oblivion, a notification pierced straight into his mind.
[Pylon Activated]
The darkness took him regardless.