Rust

Chapter 1: Pulsating Ambiance

Louise slowly opened her eyes, coming off a dream where she was the number one mage in the academy in both practical and theoretical nearly immediately. She stared at the white ceiling of her room blankly, considering, like pretty much every morning, just staying in bed and make up some excuse for when the teachers would came knocking. Is not like she needed the classes to stay on the top spot in the academical part. She would go hoping she would cast a functional spell for once, it was the only reason she continued to go all these years, but, uncomfortable questions about her own ability aside, that couldn´t happen because the teachers, except Mister Colbert, where not there to help. They were all just looking down at her, much like her classmates. If she could make herself look convincingly sick, she do it in a heartbeat.

Her thoughts drifted back to Colbert. One time, in her first year in this academy, she had fell sick and had to stay in bed for a week. During that time, Colbert had took the time to bring her homework and extensive notes writing by him of each class that she missed. He also kept her company, and looked genuinely worried, even though it was not really much. Just a particularly bad cold. That made her felt like she mattered, like Cattleya always had made her felt since she was little. She imagined his worried gaze. Damn.

Louise threw the covers off of her, got out of the bed and got to the closet, taking off her nightgown on the way. She opened it and grabbed one of her spare uniforms and a pair of panties. She dressed herself as fast as she could, for top to bottom. She wasted a few minutes looking for her cloak and wand, then got out of the room and towards the first class of the day, Water Magic, hoping to get in time or, at least, not too late. A few minutes later she started worrying. Even though she felt kind of stupid about it, she hadn´t not see anybody yet or heard anything but the wind. It was like she was the only person in this academy. Without realizing it, her pace speed up.

A thundering crash, somewhere close behind her. She held back a scream, and froze in place. Move. She had to move. There was someone o-or something just behind her, something as horribly as a vampire or even an elf, so couldn´t stand here in place like an idiot. Silly things like how could such beast have gotten here, or for what reason, where unimportant. The danger felt as real as the ground beneath her feet.

She swallowed heavily; there was a click in her throat. Another crash, closer to her. Shit, shit, fucking shit. She ran for her life as fast as she could, gland for once for her mother´s training. She didn´t heard anything more, but she didn´t stop or drop her pace at all, for if she did, it could get her. Only dimly aware of it, she got out the dormitories, entered the Water Tower and she found herself at the door of her classroom. Only then did she realized she was crying. Louise breathed in and out, trying to steady her breathing.

There had be nothing behind her. Really, she had been a scaredy-cat since that day, but this was a bit much. It was not rare at all that she didn´t heard anything. She was late, so everybody was already at their designated classrooms and she couldn´t heard everything from the dormitory dorms anyway. Sure, she still couldn´t heard anything, but is not like the teachers talked continuously and the students rarely raised a ruckus. Nothing strange was happening. Nothing.

She brushed the tears from her eyes with the back of her hands, scolded her expression into her best imitation of her mother, and pushed the door opened.

"Sorry, I am la..." Her words died in her throat; the room was completely empty. Ah, no. No. This is not real. Not real. Not real. She hid her face between her hands, breathing heavily, her tears quietly flowing again. It was just a joke, it had to be. Sooner or latter, they would appear behind the door and laugh about how stupid the Zero was and everything would be normal again. Or below the desks. She had not difficulty believing the teacher was on this, too. She started towards the nearest seat, somehow holding on to a shaky smile and looked down. There wasn´t anybody.

"Is not funny, guys." She blurted out, nervously. "Enough already."

When her voice faded, there was only silence. Her hands started shaking and, soon, her entire body was trembling. She fell to her knees, holding her face within her hands and breathing heavily. Not real. Calm down, calm down. A nightmare. Surely, this mess was only a nightmare. She had to wake up, now. Now.

Louise heard something strange and low, so low it was barely audible. She stiffened, blushing for embarrassment and anger, and listened. A human voice, that sound was a human´s voice. She didn´t recognize the person, whoever he was, but she didn´t care. She didn´t even care about the new taunts she would have to heard now. The important thing was that this was over. She stood up, shakily, trying to work out the words. All the effort she was putting in to this was just a bitter reminder that anybody else, someone not broken, wouldn´t have had any problems with this. They could just have casted some spell to hear better.

"In and out, up and down, what is real, what is real, oh, I don´t know..." She nervously licked her lips, and wondered if she had be wrong, if this wasn´t a dream after all. Those words... those words would only be sung by someone crazy. She looked around the room, sweat running down her face like tears. There was not good place to hide. Her gaze went from the blackboard to one of her pockets, the tip of her wand sticking out from it. She breathed heavily. She could do this, there was nothing wrong with it. Just blow that person out, and everything would go back to normal. Slowly, she reached for her wand.

(clockwork doesn´t bleed)

A stray, strange though went through her head. She soon dismissed it, for it didn´t have meaning or relevance for her. She heard an uneven, irritating noise, like nails scratching the blackboard except several times as louder. A shadow passed through the windows. She couldn´t still see him clearly, but he was tall, really tall, the tallest person she had ever seen. And he was holding something that looked like a sword. Oh, shit. Shit. Was this really a smart idea? She didn´t know what was happening but fact was that she hand´ heard anybody else and that man, if he was a man, carried some kind of weapon. And if he had killed everybody, as ridiculous as it sounded, then what could she do against him? Nothing. Nothing at all.

Louise leaped beneath a desk, crouched, hands holding her head. There was a loud sound of impact, and a thundering crash, then, footsteps. She didn´t dare to peek, but her mind conjured a terrifying image of the door, broken in half simply by his fists. Footsteps, scratching, hard groans that sounded almost like he was in pain. She held her breath, and prayed in her head to Founder Brimir. Closer, the footsteps were getting closer. Scratching, on the row of desks she had hid beneath. Her hands shot up to grab her wand, but it was too late. A cold, clammy hand wrapped around her ankle and lifted her like she weighted nothing, making her wand fall to the ground. That was when she got her first good look at that thing.

She had be mistaken. The constantly twitching creature, whatever it actually was, was clearly female. Her large, blood soaked robe didn´t manage to hide the swell of her breasts. She had no eyes, her mouth was too large, her crooked teeth looked as sharp ask knifes, and her skin could only loosely be classified as such. It was leathery, with crude stitches all over, too unnatural looking. She casually carried around with one hand something bloody and... strange. It took her a moment to realize it was a corpse.

Louise stared. The limbs were all twisted completely, and it lacked a head but yes, it was the corpse of one of her classmates. Some girl, which was now completely unrecognizable. How could this have happened so fast? It was ridiculous. She shook her head, and tried to reach for her wand. Her fingers brushed against it, then the creature slammed her down against the desk. She gasped in pain on impact, and spat out blood. The desk gave away under her, breaking neatly in two. She lay in the splintered remains of the desk and looked up at that thing, dazed, her head throbbing, only vaguely aware of the cut there and the warm blood flowing through it. The thing grabbed her by the shoulders. She tried to escape its grasp, but it was no use. Its head went down, and its teeth dug into her neck.

She screamed.