Élan: A Youngblood World

6 | Fight Or Flight |

     THOSE reverberating statements skinned what was left of repose there is, eclipsed by the daunting blast of the siren and instilling irremediable fear. Ryeld and Cazzie looked at each other, the drastic shock unwiped from their pale expressions, confirming if their ears had not deceived them.

       "Seek shelter immediately and barricade yourselves in any rooms near you. Staff, council members, and authorized students will spearhead your safety circles. Steel yourselves upon engaging in combat!" the speaker behind the megaphones added before the system had shut down along with the lights, devouring the whole room into indiscernible darkness, sipping the warmth that came with and streaming in the cold.

       "Stay close," warned Ryeld.

       The surfacing conundrum erupted. "Everyone, please calm yourselves. Do not panic. The doors are sealed with the activation of the emergency alert system." Mrs. Emberlaine attempted to impede the dismay. Breaths were hollow. Feet refusing to budge. Both juniors and seniors had their hearts clutched at their throats, pumping wildly, filling the soundless room with the drumming beats in their chests apart from the hysterical exclaims of those who already succumbed to the dread.

       Possibly worst yet, despair consumed them when they discovered that no devices had been sparking to life.

       "I-I can't with the dark. I'm scared."

       "Mommy!"

       "I want to go home."

       Phone screens were immobile as cold pieces of bars. The electrical lights were as dead, unresponsive to the repetitive fidgets of switches. No one was getting out. And there is not but an eerie silence from the other side of the entrance. Seconds passed, yet nothing. The open stillness has yet to come to relieve their nerves.

       "Ryeld, what's happening?" Cazzie asked as if he can answer her at all. The coils of inexorable fear evident in her voice.

       "Calm down." Ryeld fought against the obscurity, scouring for the outlines of movements that may be slinking within the dark, hoisting a protective arm in front of Cazzie. "I can't say for sure." He produced a ball of electricity, the others began kindling lights out of their own magic too. "It's common for the school to activate the system without notice as an alert exercise. It should reactivate by the next several minutes ... But these drills do not occur on a Sixth Peak."

       "Maybe it's a test?" One of the students said.

       "Perhaps. It's not like there's a secondary warning."

       The old woman seemed as equally puzzled. "If it were then we would have conducted a meeting for it for this due weekend."

       It took a moment too long for the inaudible murmurs to filter in. The unrest endured to linger ... until the surprise was cut short when a sudden outburst boomed amid the broad room. A sea of dust washed all over, glistening into the ridged spacious puncture on the wall. Hunks of debris were thrown on the befouled floor.

       What emerged from it drained the color from every onlooker.

       A creature, forged in the clad of the darkest matter weaved into the manifestation of malevolence itself. Humanoid from the trunk to the head, though, the lower portion of their frame revealed the root of their monstrosity--strings of tentacles complemented their physique, hovering closely above the ground. A reminder of existence antithetical to human. Its limbs were bony thin, yet impeccably stretched into long incisive claws half its body. It had a pair of eyes carved in rings of dazzling nuggets embedded in its skull head. Its sight choked the urge out of anyone who would dare to let out a single yelp.