Draeyer Academy (Rewrite)

Chapter 24-Nightmare

*The beginning needs a bit of a trigger warning, just in case.

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Alec stirred, feeling the cold hard ground beneath him. Knowing that he could get sick like that, he shook away the fog that tried to wrap around his mind. With some difficulty, his eyes fluttered open, but his vision remained blurry. He shook his head and pushed himself up from the ground using his small hands. When he sat up, his vision gradually cleared, prompting him to look around. Looking at the narrow walls and trash bins in the area, he was in one of the alleys of Gelun.

He blinked. What happened? Why am I here? Holding his aching head, he tried to remember what he had done before.

He was on his way home from selling his prey when a woman walked up to him. The woman said something he couldn't remember, before forcefully leading him into the alley. After that...he remembered being fed something and his body grew weak very quickly. He was pushed to the ground, asking the woman to stop as she straddled his small body. He remembered being afraid and angry, so angry that he was screaming...and then everything went black.

"Where..."

His voice gradually grew quiet when his eyes fell on a figure lying on the snowy ground next to him, red flowers blooming around it.

No. Not flowers. Blood.

The woman who dragged him earlier lay there in her blood, slowly losing her breath from the hunting knife plunged into her stomach. He quickly backed away in surprise.

It was his hunting knife. Did he do that to her? When did he? Why couldn't he remember?

A scream from down the alleyway interrupted his thoughts. His ears rang from the sound, and it made his headache worse. Urgent footsteps started to gather towards him when the person who screamed pointed in his direction. More people started to gather, their alarmed voices combining, causing him to clutch his head harder. He tried his best to tune them out, but he could hear fragments of their conversation.

"That child...murder...."

"I knew that this...happen...day."

"...doctor, she's...breathing."

"Catch the little monster!"

No! I didn't do anything wrong. It was her! I was just protecting myself!

He wanted to voice out his thoughts. But stopped when someone roughly picked him off the ground. He struggled and shouted, trying to plead his case when he followed the direction of their gaze. Looking down at his small hands, he found blood soaking his gloves. He could feel the blood on his skin slowly freezing from the cold. Unknowingly, he started shaking.

He had been a hunter since he was nine. At 11 years old, he was already used to blood due to his years of experience. However...it was the first time he was ever disgusted by blood.

His surroundings started to darken, everything disappearing until he was the only one left. White horrifying face started revolving around him, whispering and shouting.

What have you done?

"...c!"

What a monster!

"...ec!"

He's gradually turning into a feral beast.

"...lec!"

"Shut up! Shut up!"

But the voices never stopped. They grew louder and louder until they finally shouted all at once.