Lily Clarkson's Story

"Don't be afraid to die."

That's what their homeroom teacher said, a week into the school year. The class had written words on little bits of paper, and the stationary crumpled as she spoke. Crumpled into nothing. Gone. Like magic. "As long as we wish it, you cannot leave."

Her eyes raked over her twenty-something students. Swirls of ink appeared on their skin, manifesting as strange symbols on the children's bodies. Good. It seemed the rite was proceeding safely. Not much more time left until the eclipse. She opened her mouth to continue her 'explanation'. A true explanation, of course, would be given to the students who survived.

Martin listened as the teacher spoke calmly of death. Of floating islands and curses and using words to fight said curses. God's Blight, she called it. This had to be a joke. A reality scare cam, or something. Right? Right??

Then the island blocked out the sun, just like she said it would. A shadow fell over the school campus.

'Oh, shit.' He almost puked from the immediate sensation of wrongness. Like reality had just flipped right over on it's fucking head. It was that feeling of stepping through a stair that was never there in the first place, that feeling when his parents told him his aunt had been diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer.

Martin's chest rose and fell, each panicked inhale serving as a cold dose of actuality. Was this even the same classroom?

All the desks, all his classmates still sat in the same spots. But the colors were off. Darker, and smearing at the edges like a still life painted by sad and angry artist. One that didn't like to pay a lot of attention to people. Martin's wide red eyes trailed to Annabelle sitting next to him, and her face was just a little harder to make out than usual. Blurry and pale.

The teacher sighed under her breath, coolly inspecting her nails. "First one is always monsters. No surprise there." She glanced up at the petrified classroom. "What? If you just sit there, you're going to die, you know. They'll be here soon."

---

That's what their homeroom teacher said, a week into the school year. That's also how Martin found himself sprinting towards the library like the little bitch seventeen year-old he was. Not like he was alone. As soon as she had spoken, basically the entire class made a fucking break for it. Monsters? Monsters!?

'Please be LSD, please be LSD,' he chanted in his mind. Martin ducked into a side hallway, away from the thundering mass of hysterical students. 'Or any hallucinogenic, really, I'm not picky. A bad cocaine trip would be--'

The soles of his school-standard leather oxfords caught on something wet and slippery. The blond teenager's feet skidded on the ground one moment, and in the next he found himself ass-backwards on the hardwood floor. Damn. What a stupid move. Martin pressed his hand to the wall to help haul himself up, shuddering at the distinct sensation of the liquid soaking into his pants.

A coppery, metallic stench filled his nose and mouth. His palms left red smears on the wall and... yeah. Martin looked down. Yeah. It was blood. He just fell in a puddle of blood. Another person's bodily fluids.

There was that urge to throw up, again.

Fucking... fucking gross!! His stomach seized. 'Oh my god.' Martin stiffened, glancing about in disgust before numbly wiping his trembling hands on the front of his shirt. 'So... I hope I'm not going to die today.' His mouth twisted into a tight, panicked sort of smile. Nope. Probably going to die. Whole school was a deathtrap from the very beginning.

Of course, blood must come from somewhere. The source of the ichor, sprawled a few feet away, made Martin's fixated eyes prick with horrified, unshed tears.

No. Oh fuck no.

The dude's face had been cut clean in half.

Sliced horizontally, right at the jaw. Distantly, Martin's ears detected screams of terror echoing down the hallways of the building, but by then his entire body had clamped up. The bodies of animals, smashed to paste, that he'd sometimes glimpsed on the asphalt of the highways did not compare to this.

His spine. You could see it, sticking bone white out of the gory stump of a neck. Worst of all, worst of fucking all, was the tongue. With the upper half of the jaw entirely severed, the whole tongue just flopped limply out of what was left of the corpse's mouth.

The shrieks nearest to Martin escalated into full-blown wailing before snuffing out altogether.

Wait... that wasn't right. He could still hear the screaming, but only faintly. Like someone had clapped hand over the person's mouth, or shoved their face into a pillow. The teenager's mind was silent. Completely devoid of an internal dialogue as his head turned to the right, to look further down the corridor.

It was built like a spider, with fleshy skin and many human arms in the place of arachnid legs. Long fingered hands pressed to the floor, walls, and ceiling to keep the creature suspended in place. More hands, still, pinned a student to the wall. It busily stitched up her lips with a needle and black thread; the girl's eyes were already sewn completely shut.

The giant, sick-looking set of scissors grasped by a set of fingers did not escape Martin's attention.

If the world was now a painting, then the thing had a face like a portrait. It didn't move. Only bored into the young man with penetrating eyes in the way that certain portraits do. Its hands continued to tie off the thread at the girl's mouth almost absently, as an unoccupied arm bent at the elbow. Her muffled cries choked and died down further.

The monster pressed a bony forefinger to its expressionless portrait mouth. 'Shhh.'

"Write one word. The word should match how you will fight in the upcoming battle. Only one word that you believe you will... need."

That is what their teacher had asked them. There was a piece of paper in front of every one of them. Everyone had picked their word and Daisy had picked hers.

Onomatophobia

Not really taking the request seriously Daisy picked a word which literally meant a fear of words. It was erudite yet contrarian, just the way she liked it. Little did she realize the gravity of her decision was far greater than initially perceived as the papers they wrote upon crumpled up before vanishing on their own accord. It was that which first brought to mind the concern that she might of been way in over her head.

Strange symbols formed on the skins of every student, herself included. She didn't notice of course since she was wearing clothes, obscuring what was going on on her body. She probably wasn't going to notice for a while unless someone pointed it out.


"Don't be afraid to die."

Okay?

"As long as we wish it, you cannot leave."

Okay?

As the teacher described the curse and that they were fight things called Blights with the words they chose Daisy's internal objections grew. Still, the disappearance of the paper they wrote on stuck with her. Her mind was quite open to mystery but she was being dropped in the deep end quite quickly for her liking.

Then the shadow descended. Like a cloak the darkness draped itself across the land, enveloping the school. The feeling swept over her no less than the shadow did, completely filling her with a supernatural dread. The colors seemed less lustrous, the people around her slightly out of focus like objects outside the center of a camera lens. Overall everything amounted to something Daisy would describe as Definitely like Silent Hill.

"First one is always monsters. No surprise there." The teacher seemed rather callous given the topic she spoke of.
"What? If you just sit there, you're going to die, you know. They'll be here soon."


Like so everyone began straight up panicking. While everyone else seemed to flee the classroom Daisy was one of the few who calmly stood up, quite unamused by the teacher's attitude, and walked out from the classroom.

She looked about the hall, everyone else having had a head start on her. The sounds of panic disseminated through the halls. Her tired eyes looked back and forth as she dwelt on what was going on.

"Words to fight the monsters... How the hell is Onomatophobia-" She was quietly talking to herself but was quickly cut off as a strange viscous feeling filled her mouth all of a sudden. She opened her mouth to cough from the sudden surprise of having something in her mouth and instead a black liquid escaped her lips, spilling out onto the front of her uniform and the floor. It looked like ink and while she didn't know what ink tasted like it certainly didn't taste like a carbonated beverage.

She coughed and hacked, the last dredges of the substance leaving her mouth. The amount she seemed to have spat up only amounted to a small puddle around her shoes and a number of ink black stains on her vest. Her eyes were wide with shock at the sudden intrusive element as she struggled to purge every last bit of this unknown fluid from her mouth.


What the hell!? Was the main thought to come across her mind as this happened. At this point the mild phenomena had escalated into a full blown paranormal eruption. She panted, regaining her breath after having it cut off by the sudden conjuring of fluids within her mouth. Bracing herself against the wall as her breath quickened she started coming to terms with what just happened.

I... I spoke the word and it just started coming out. Now with a moment she was able to start thinking. The word... A word is... A series of symbols etched in... In ink. It clicked in her head just what exactly the black substance was. I spoke the word and... It literally left my lips. Dear god what the fuck is happening!?


She had little time to dwell on the word she was given however. Her heart rate spiked as the adrenaline hit her bloodstream. Her eyes were noticeably dilated now as the fear started to sink in. She could fear a pulsating sense of dread coming from the hall to her left, this concern punctuated by a sharp high pitched cry as a female student was grabbed, the voice suddenly snuffed out as though buried. On that note she ran.

Cold sweat beaded down her forehead as she just picked a direction and kept running. On a number of junctions she'd stop briefly, that same creeping dread emanating from one of the halls. This sense of fear she held was unconsciously guiding her away from the dangers, spiking her feeling of danger whenever she was unknowingly going towards these unknown threats. The downside to this was that the fear was also driving her away from other students in possession of words. She was being guided away from words.


Of course she couldn't evade trouble forever. Just as she was nearing the library she felt a tremendous fear ahead of her. She turned to go off in the opposite direction but got a sense of danger from there too. The only other thing in the hall was a door to the janitor's closet.

She rushed inside before anything could see her, not even bothering to turn on the lights. She wanted it to be dark, she needed to hide. There were all sorts of supplies and janitorial tools in this closet as expected. Fumbling in the dark she managed to worm her way behind some boxes on the bottom shelf. She could almost feel their presence drawing near. Whatever it was she was definitely sure it was right outside the door.


Her breath caught in her chest for that very moment when the door handle turned.

“Don’t be afraid to die…?” The upbeat, bubbly strongwoman that was Lily seemed weirdly puzzled by the phrase. She would have burst out laughing at what may have been a silly joke, if not for the paper she had just written in crumpled into a smaller and smaller ball, only to vanish from the naked eye.

Nausea suddenly washed over her. Lily flinched as her muscles seized as if bracing for some kind of impact. She had never felt nausea before; she had a particularly strong stomach. This sudden, unfamiliar feeling was more than unfamiliar. It was unnatural.

As soon as she felt herself again, the uneasy feeling was all that remained. The teacher talked of “If you stay, you will die,” Lily was not exactly in the mindset to practice healthy skepticism. If this was anything like that shitty Titanic soap opera, then a strong, beautiful woman like herself would no-doubt get targeted rather quickly.

She then spotted Martin among the first students to run out on his own. Monsters… she pondered the word. Would they attack Martin? Would they overpower him?

Lily stood to her feet and stepped briskly toward the door. She lost Martin almost immediately, as the hallways suddenly seemed utterly alien. She swiftly, yet cautiously moved up and down corridors, only to suddenly hear the shrill shrieks of the damned, silenced or muffled… but eventually silenced.

Her strong stomach was getting one hell of a challenge at this point… All of a sudden, a bathroom door opened. It was being pushed open by the weight of an arm, smooth and youthful, but limp. It didn’t register to Lily for a second that the arm was not functioning anymore.

This was probably because of the… thing… that stepped out of the bathroom. Like a spider, it walked along legs with spindly hands on every end. One hand held a pair of scissors. Dark red liquid dripped gruesomely from the weapon it was carrying.

Lily hiccupped, and the creature fixed it’s eyes on her. With a rapid pitter-patter, it closed the distance and planted hands all around the walls and ceiling to stabilize itself. With other hands, it gripped at Lily’s legs and neck.

Lily’s adrenaline spiked, and her eyes popped wide as she began to register the outright perverted nature of this creature. It's fast! I gotta beat it's speed! Without even thinking, her still-free right hand clenched into a fist, and she swung it forward to try to get the creature off of her.

It was like a sonic boom, the sound that reverberated throughout the school. Before she could even register the movement, her fist was already out forward, and the creature’s head had splattered against the wall. The sheer force of the punch had ripped the creature’s head from it’s limbs, which hung for a second, and then flopped perfectly vertically. Some of the hands that did not have a strong death grip simply let go, and the disgusting, skinny arms dropped to the floor with a splat.

Lily’s entire right arm was burning in pain. Not just her arm, but her right shoulder muscled had seized in pain, filling her with an unsurmountable agony. Her eyes closed shut, and tears began to well up immediately.

The sonic boom was byfar the loudest sound to have emitted throughout the school, and the source was barely registering coherent thought beneath the searing pain.



Like Lily, Kirby felt that wash of nausea, only instead of his muscles seizing, his head spiked in pain. His mind began to race as he dropped to the floor. Through tear-blurred eyes, he saw Daisy- who had been sitting two seats ahead of him- began to head out of the door, along with many others.

“wai-“ Kirby wheezed, only to be interrupted by a shriek coming from the next classroom. The shock made him forget the pain, and Kirby scrambled to his feet.

Between the distant screaming and the rumble of many feet tearing down the hallways, Kirby imagined that no one would really hear his relatively calm and chill voice. He needed to meet up with Daisy, or at least anyone who was part of his class.

He stepped outside, and followed the first student he could get his eyes on. The other student rounded many corners, and a few seconds later, so did he. There's too many unknown variables, he grimaced, I need intel... I need knowledge. What the hell's happening here?

Eventually, he was close to what he remembered was the Library. He knew it was the library because… glowing yellow words told him it was. Kirby slowed to a stop outside of a door he had spotted and moved towards. He was puzzled by this strange sight, floating letters and symbols that he recognized immediately. If he had been paying attention, he’d have noticed the symbols appeared four seconds after he first sighted the door.

“Come on, we gotta get to the library!” a distant student called to another as they ran across the hallway… in the opposite direction of the library.

“But-“ Too late, they were gone. Kirby glanced behind him to find he was in an empty hallway. He flinched as a loud bang reverberated throughout the corridors… What was that, a sonic boom? Indoors?

Kirby noted the source of the sound. It was actually rather close by. He jogged cautiously closer, and found Lily. She was a well of tears as she grasped at her right arm. In front of her, splattered against the wall, was the twisted remains of some kind of face. As he did, he suddenly saw a word appear on the thing’s twisted forehead. A single word, “Quiet”.

His mind then started flooding with information he had never read before. Within seconds, the twisted, unfamiliar thing that lay before Kirby was all of a sudden like common knowledge.

“Here, I gotcha,” Kirby wrapped Lily’s right arm over his shoulder and lifted her up. This proved a difficult process, as Kirby was not exactly fit. However, he managed to wrap his arm under Lily’s left and got her back on her feet. “Can you hear me?” Kirby whispered as he suspiciously eyed the remains. It was then that he noticed the arm laying limp, holding the nearby bathroom door open.

He began to move towards the arm, but Lily’s left hand slapped hard against Kirby’s skinny chest. “No,” she spoke weakly as she winced, “Got to… keep moving…”

But… they need to find people… who haven’t fallen victim to these… Kirby’s sudden burst in knowledge began to sink in. The owner of the arm was gone, and that sonic boom… It had to have been from Lily. That meant…

Kirby nodded, adjusted his grip, and began to move at a walking pace down the hallway. Lily eventually found enough strength to get her legs moving to help. At the very least, they needed to get away from that bathroom… now.

The woman that had been introducing them to the school and it's rules was rather.... Boring? Lenox had already received a few sideways glares from the woman for his general aloofness. But he'd caught every word of what she was saying. Today however was decidedly different. "Don't be afraid to die." <Ok? Random.> He didn't think much of it. Little to his knowledge, as she spoke the word 'surprise' was beginning to form on the back of his right forearm. No real way for him to notice it unless he looked down and even then it was below the sleeve of his uniform shirt.

"As long as we wish it, you cannot leave." Now that was an important detail. Lenox lifted his head up, wanting to protest. He had to go back and grab something from his home. When the class room got suddenly darker. Being right by the window, Lenox looked out to see that yes in fact the island above the school was blocking out the son. <Well son of a bitch.... She wasn't kidding.> He could feel the energy in the room suddenly drop, students were getting nervous. Hell, he couldn't deny the small knot in his chest right about now but he mentally shrugged it off. <No reason to fear the unknown.> "First one is always monsters. No surprise there." Hearing that phase, Lenox turned to look at the teacher as if she just monsters were real. "You're shitting me right?" He spoke loudly, ignoring the look the teacher gave him before she addressed the class. "What? If you just sit there, you're going to die, you know. They'll be here soon."

And the mad scramble happened. Lenox watched as damn near everyone took off and booked it out of the class. He just stood there dumbfounded. Glancing outside, he had a general uneasy feeling about all this. He wasn't a lie detector but enough of his meddling had an inclination that she was telling the truth. There was a certain conviction people held when they told the truth and knew every fact behind that truth. So he left. He picked up his bag and walked out of the classroom staring at his teacher. "There isn't going to be a quiz on this tomorrow, right?" Regardless if she answered or not he would leave and walk down the hall, listening. And unfortunately for Lenox, the sounds he was hearing put all the facts into concrete truths. There really were monsters in this school. "Well fuck me...."

He picked up the pace as he walked, deciding to remain as quiet as possible. There was a lot happening he could tell, but nothing that sounded monster like. Just screams, the sounds of crashing items and.... A shockwave? It sounded like a shotgun had gone off in the school. <I'm pretty sure guns are banned here....> He thought as he approached an intersection and paused deciding to wait and think. From what he heard so far, these 'monsters' were silent. Which wasn't good at all, so everyone else was making noise for them. He was going to avoid the source of that shockwave noise. He gazed out the window to see a few students running for their dear lives through the school.

He rounded the corner and immediately felt his stomach contort into a tiny ball. A swath of deep red blood covered the center of the hallway. Up against the wall was the body of a former student, dissected and neatly separated into a cadaver on full display. He approached to the edge of the pool of now coagulating blood looking at the body. He tried to stomach it, but after a few moments he couldn't handle it and walked away. Lenox was beginning to feel sick spitting on the floor as his mouth produced more spit while his body began to prepare for him to vomit. Lenox took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "This is real..... This is real.... This is not a dream. Don't fuck this up." The gravity of the situation had no suddenly sunk in to the thick headed teen. "Now how am I supposed to surprise someth-" It was then that Lenox did vomit on the floor. He felt two distinct feelings. His entire body tensed up and began to shiver uncontrollably. <What- the fuck?> It was then his vision flashed white as a pulse spiked through his brain. The pulses continued, in rhythm with his heart beat. Lenox took deep breaths trying to control himself, when his vision cleared and he saw two orbs floating in front of him. The one on the left seemed to glow a dull pale green and vibrate in place, while the other was yellow and pulse into a brighter light. Lenox reached out towards the yellow orb and felt his pulses become stronger, so he pulled away. He was legitimately terrified to touch either one of these. The sound of a door bursting open stole his attention seeing a figure (Elle) sprinting down the hall from him. "God damnit." Lenox dashed around the corner making the two orbs disappear since he didn't choose. The sensations he was feeling had gone away.... Mostly. Every now and again his hands would touch, and what felt like a blood vein twitched in his head.

"I need to get my shit together and get moving." He moved, softly jogging through the halls focusing on being quiet and paying attention to all of his surroundings. He did his best to avoid stepping in blood, he was not a fan of leaving tracks behind him. <Think... Numbers are probably best. But I don't trust that anyone here will make a smart decision.> That was his key point, doing something stupid. Just as he thought that, he turned a corner to see a student running down a hall and dashed into a door. Only for him to scream and sprint back out as a monster pursuid. The boy rand back the way he came, only to run smack dab into the monster that was originally chasing him. He was no trapped between two monsters, slowly closing in grasping the walls and ceiling as they encroached. <Fucking dumb ass.> Lenox made it a point to briskly walk away as the creatures began to attack their prey. The screams. They were hard to ignore. You would never think the sounds of a trapped human could be that unnerving, but hearing the final breaths of agony of a living person was..... Disturbing. Lenox made his next turn and pressed against the wall not realizing how heavy he was breathing. He covered his own mouth and shut his eyes, trying to push out the screams. It seemed they wanted to keep him alive. <Calm down. You'll be fine. Just think, you'll get out of this. Think. Think.> He had to stand there and reassure himself for about a minute before he could move again, tempted to look down the hall only hearing muffled screams and groans. But fortunately for himself, he didn't and made his way through again stepping around more gore that littered the campus.

At the end of the hall, Lenox recognized a head of silver with two other people behind it heading in a certain direction (Natasha). He didn't quite recognize the other two (Martin and Anna) but it was the first good thing he'd seen all day. Lenox would pursue, but not directly. He kept his distance from the group, being the type to look out for himself not necessarily trusting numbers but also not too proud or dumb to refuse that numbers could help. He would watch from a distance, glancing behind him to see two more people moving in a different direction (Lily and Kirby). He glanced back and forth between both groups not entirely sure on what to do. That was when the sensations of shaking in his body and those painful pulses in his skull came back. The two orbs came back into his view, floating directly in front of him. <Is it.... Do I have to choose? Is this how surprise works?> He looked back and forth between the orbs knowing that he was at a crossroads, in two different senses. Which orb and which group?

KIRBY

Information danced before his eyes like code on a screen. He read the code like he would for a game as Lily hung from his shoulder. However, the sheer amount of information he was thinking through had taken away some of his focus off of his current objective: Getting the hell away from the source of the sonic boom.

“They… prioritize,” Kirby panted. “They’re… strong. And…” Lily’s musculature was a lot denser than a kid as scrawny and spindly as Kirby could dare to dream.

“We need something… with range,” Kirby finally wheezed as he checked up and down the next corridor, “They excel… at close combat… and they prioritize… louder targets.” Kirby suddenly ran a scenario through his head. It was like a boss fight. One could create a loud noise as a decoy, leaving these creatures open from the sides and the back for attack by others. This plan would only be able to work if he got a team together, a team that had strong long-ranged abilities. “Can you still move your arm?”

“Mm-mm,” Lily cringed as she at least attempted. The pain began to subside, but her arm felt like it had fallen asleep, with only the eerie feeling of blood pumping through her veins registering in her mind.

“Whatever you did,” Kirby noted, “You can probably only do another one or two times.”

“I thought about the word they told us to write,” Lily said, “It’s like… I said it and it happened.”

The word…? “Knowledge,” Kirby muttered. He thought for a moment, but then a word appeared over Lily. “Speed” was shortly followed by lines upon lines of knowledge. “I see,” Kirby nodded. “Your power aside, it’s not a good idea to stay here. We gotta get outside.”

Lily pointed with her still-useful left arm. Another creature had emerged into the hallway. Kirby and Lily shut their mouths and inched backward. As Kirby watched the creature investigate noises in other classrooms, Lily prodded his chest, and pointed out the nearby stairwell. Kirby recognized it as the one that led up to the rooftop hangout Lenox had set up.

The two of them lifted themselves up the stairs, careful not to make too much noise. However, the pitter-patter of multiple palms clapping the floor began to move towards them at an accelerated rate.

They arrived at the doors when the creature. Lily readied her left hand, in case the creature decided to get close, only for a second and a third creature to arrive.

Kirby’s eyes widened at the sight of the creatures. He recalled that the door leading to the roof was especially loud, and echoed really easily down the stairwell. For the moment, they were stuck.

Come on… think…

LILY

Three of the spider-like creeps hovered at the bottom of the stairwell, searching their immediate environment with sunken pits for eyes. They hadn’t spotted the two of them yet, but any movement on their part would compromise their relative safety in a heartbeat.

If she had the opportunity, she would take off her hoodie and form it into a makeshift sling for her currently useless right arm. Then she can move effectively again despite the pain, and not have to rely on this stick of a boy, with his weak twig arms that looked like they held nothing heavier than a dinner plate.

She knew why three of them converged on their position. They heard the sonic boom of her first punch, and likely heard their conversation in the hallway.

Damnit, she thought of her useless arm. The word did save her from certain death before, but now she was rendered about as helpless as most students here. There had to be something to do in order to control it. Would she have time to figure out how to control it? Is there even a way to do so?

In any case, she still had her left arm. If these creatures at the bottom of the stairwell were to give chase, she could take out one of them at least. Or maybe she could use her… No… Speed-boosted kicks are out of the question entirely. Plus the sonic booms in general would reveal their position to even more of those freaks.

Fwap. Frap. The steady, rhythmic beat of the paper bag inflating and deflating was mildly comforting, but also terrifying as it filtered throughout the cafeteria. Long ago had the screams and sounds of panic died down, limited now to the controlled noises of combat, pain, and occasionally, collateral damage. The scores of students had been considerably thinned by now, leaving the halls filled with nothing but eerie silence, and the stench of death. It was in this desolation wasteland, that Elle found herself venturing into once more.

Fwap. Frap. By now, she’d gotten most all her composure back, her breathing returned to normal. Still, she was holding onto the bag for comfort, as it seemed to be the only friend she had in these lonely hallways. At least inside the smell wasn’t so bad. Slowly, cautiously, Elle worked her way around the pools of blood and other organs, doing her best not to step in anything untoward. Tentatively, she’d poke her head around corners, scouting for danger, and yet, each time there was nothing. Slowly but steadily, she was making her way higher and closer to the school library, noting any loud sources of noise that she heard and making the distinct choice not to head towards them. From what she could briefly gather, the creatures didn’t seem too fond of sound.

One of the loud noises that she heard was something she wasn’t quite familiar with. It rattled her brain a little, kind of like a shriek. It was certainly caused a little ringing, but thankfully, it was in the opposite direction of where she was heading. No doubt where most of the creatures would be going too. Cautiously advancing, she realised her safest bet would be to head up a floor to avoid any of the monsters heading to the scream from the floor they were on, then get near the staircase over the library side of the school. At least that was she’d be able to pass by the roof as well, and see if there was anyone else there.

As Elle made her way up the stairs, she immediately came to notice a precarious predicament. Three of the things were slowly creeping down the hall, getting closer and closer to the nook that she’d caught sight of Lily and Kirby ducking into. Lily seemed to be injured, and at this rate, the two would be discovered once those things got close enough. Grimacing, Elle continued to watch silently, too scared and too cowardly to do anything to help the duo. Slowly but surely, she managed to get her feet to work, and the girl inched her way to the next corridor, remaining out of the creatures sight. All the while, guilt wracked every fibre of her being as she did nothing to help two of the only people that had been nice to her. The voice in her head laughed at her, scoffed at her craven nature. She was worthless. So worthless in fact, that she couldn’t sacrifice her useless hide to save those who actually mattered. Pathetic.

Mad at herself, Elle clenched her fists tightly. Crackle. Instantly, the three turned to look at the source of noise slipping down the corridor, Elle having crumpled the paper bag she’d been absentmindedly holding on to. Turning white with fear as the creatures rapidly began closing in on her, she turned and fled, sprinting as hard as she could, unintentionally luring them away from Kirby and Lily. The sound of her feet beating hard and fast on the ground flooded her ears, along with the rapid pounding of her heart. Only this time, she wasn’t getting away. In fact, the creatures were rapidly gaining on her. “No, stay away!” Elle squealed out in fear, which did nothing to help the situation. In fact, it only seemed to spur them on faster. Come on, think you idiot! Why was that other one so easy to run away from? Was it adrenaline that made your legs move so fast? In her panicked and terrified state, it was safe to say that Elle wasn’t thinking rationally. Finally however, she managed to briefly pass her mind over that one thought that could save her. Just how was it that she seemed to almost take flight?

Just as one of the creatures snatched at her leg, she was off. A blur of speed, Elle’s feet barely touched the ground as she ran, streaking down through the halls in a seamless glide. In no time at all, she found herself rapidly approaching the library. Way too fast! She’d been so focused on running away; she had no idea how to stop! Placing her legs out in front of her, it did little to stop the massive skid she made across the tiles, yelping out as she fell forward. Poor little Daisy didn’t stand a chance of avoiding the bowling ball that was Elle, and any hesitation she had opening up the library would be ruined as she tackled the two of them straight through the door and sprawling hard onto the ground.

Groaning, Elle weakly tried to push herself to stand up, inadvertently shoving Daisy’s face to the floorboards. “S-sorry… I didn’t…-” Another girly shriek as she realised that she was sitting on top of Daisy. With a near instant jump, she climbed to her feet, backing up and, after a quick glance down the corridor for anyone or anything else, shut the door behind her. “Daisy!” she exclaimed in a hushed whisper, but with quite the urgency. “Are you alright?” At that point, Elle noticed that her breathing was getting out of control again as her anxiety skyrocketed. Embarrassing as it was, she shoved her face into the paper bag. Fwapfrapfwapfrap-fwap-frap fwap frap. Fwap. Frap.

KIRBY

Miraculously, the creatures stirred as a harsh crumpling sound echoed up the stairwell. Kirby watched as the creatures began to move away. Holy shit they were actually moving away! The programmer-in-the-making waited for a minute in utter silence as the creatures vanished from sight and then some. Then he pushed the door open with Lily in tow.

The rooftop was dark, despite it being daytime. Like a solar eclipse, the island floating above the school had completely blotted out the sun, sending the school area into an unusual, eerie “twilight”

They made it to the hangout spot on the roof, which had been put together by Kirby’s roommate. Kirby brought Lily to the loveseat and set her down before turning to check the blind spots on the roof. After picking up a chair, Kirby stepped slowly and kept his distance from the corners of structures atop the roof as he rounded them.

Thankfully, there were no creatures on the roof whatsoever. The sonic boom from Lily’s first punch must have attracted all the ones outside to the interior of the school. Kirby was somewhat thankful, but then he thought maybe attracting them inside where most students were was… not a good idea…

She must have had her reasons for causing the booming noise… or maybe she didn’t know about this word-power thing. Not even Kirby knew about it, why would a relative meathead?

Relieved that there was nothing threatening, Kirby brought the chair towards the double-doors they had entered from, and peeked from around the side into the window. He kept an eye on any movement, either from a student, or from one of those things.

LILY

She rested her arm on the arm of the loveseat. At this point, the pain had given way to an uncomfortable numbness, like her muscles had reverted to wet noodles. She felt gross, and wondered if she would ever move her arm again.

She willed herself to move her fingers. They moved slowly, and a slight stinging sensation returned to her hand, like sand began to wash over her hand. As soon as she stopped, however, the sand faded into numbness. She had stopped in the first place because the sandpaper feeling was astonishingly uncomfortable.

Using her free hand, Lily took off her hoodie, and attempted to fashion a makeshift sling. Kirby saw this, and moved to help her. After taking the hoodie silently, Kirby used both hands to tie a knot into the sleeves. He then looped the hoodie around Lily’s neck and helped her get her right arm into the sling.

Lily nodded her thanks. The two of them waited silently, with Kirby waiting outside the door with a chair in his hands.

XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XXXX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX

They all knew it was going to happen.

Some sat ramrod straight at their desks, others pressed their faces into the windows in anticipation. The teacher of class 2A, of course, supervised the students with a face of stone. Everyone watched on as the floating island ate up the sun, plunging the cursed grounds into darkness.

Pitch black darkness, actually.

Threads of reality bent and snapped around the word-bearing individuals. The floor dropped out from under their feet, all sound and sensation stripped from the students' eyes and skin. That gut-twisting sickness returned. Martin hadn't felt that deep sense of wrongness since the first Blight.

When his sight returned, the blond found himself in an... arena? It was small, about the size of a room. Stone piled around outside of the clearing, higher than he could see. It was he was in the bottom of some deep feeding pit. But, if this was a feeding pit... then what was being fed?

Martin's head ached and throbbed, his arms and shoulders itching and burning. Damnit. He looked up, finally noticing that he was not, in fact, alone. Two other students from his class stood with him in the stone clearing.

T H E.. S C E N E

There is an unreadable symbol on the floor of the stone clearing.

Three circular stone platforms, a decent distance from one another, all have symbols written on them as well. These symbols are readable. Two of the platforms read 'WITNESS', and the last reads 'MURDERER'. These stones are weighted. If someone stands on one, it will sink to the floor level.

An abstract tattoo can be found across the arms and shoulders of each student. If all three students in a group were to hold hands, the tattoo would form a complete centipede. As time passes, segments of the centipede tattoo will disappear from their skin. Blown up, enlarged versions of the vanished centipede segments will appear carved in the stone around them.

For the purposes of the Blight, the pit-like clearing is inescapable.

If you don't recognize the name of a character in your group, then they are a student from another classroom. Their character sheets are pending and I will be accepting them shortly.

Since this is a team based Blight, it will be easier to write replies if you collab with the RPers you got paired up with. This is also a puzzle oriented Blight. Even if the solution is obvious to you OOC, the characters still must work together to come to an answer on their own.

LILY

In preparation for the next Blight, Lily took off her hoodie and wrapped it around her waist like a belt. This way, her muscular arms were unimpeded for whatever this strange school would throw at her. Her speed- which was trained during off-hours- was practiced well enough that she could safely control a minuscule increase in speed.

Once more, the feeling of reality burning through a rippling change coursed through Lily’s body. She imagined most everyone else was thrust into pitch dark and a sudden weightless descent. Her stomach held strong, however, and she found herself around the edge of an arena.

“Witness…” She muttered as she stepped closer to one of the circular platforms she had apparently arrived next to. “I imagine… we gotta watch for something…” she glanced at the other two platforms. The second platform was identical, but the last platform held a new word, “Murderer…?” She scratched her head. She couldn’t make any sense of it so far.

She then noticed that there were two boys with her. She recognized both of them as ones from her class, but she never exactly got a chance to properly introduce herself. “Hey,” she greeted with a wave. When her right arm entered her vision, she flinched when she saw an unusual tattoo scrawled from her hand all the way up her arm. She checked her left, and sure enough the tattoo crossed that arm as well. “You guys got this as well? It’s not exactly fashionable,” she quipped.

KIRBY

“I don’t think I’ll get used to that,” Kirby put a hand to his mouth as he belched. He managed to avoid straight vomiting, however, and stood back up from his hands and knees.

There were three words on the three platforms; Kirby immediately identified those. However, there was one symbol that lay in the middle of the floor. The symbol was not familiar to him, but after calling the word "Knowledge", after four seconds, the same golden letters materialized over top, like some form of translation. “Accomplice,” Kirby caught sight of the strange tattoo that had crawled across his hand, and began to slowly vanish once more. Kirby rolled back his sleeve and examined the tattoo.

“Oh shit,” he said aloud after a thorough examination, “The tattoo is a timer. We gotta do something… before the timer runs out…” He needed more intel. Something… something that had to do with these three platforms…

Something that involves the three of them…

“Guess it’s obvious… we gotta stand on those…” he muttered as he pointed at the three platforms “there’s a catch, though, I just know it…”