by Bob Dattolo
I shouldn’t have been fucking with them, because I completely missed the third guy firing off a fuck-all spell that basically tried to shatter my spine.
It very nearly did.
When I was sure I wasn’t going to go down to be killed, torso-catcher was dragged into the ground by a spell he wasn’t expecting, then popped up directly in front of me. My shifted fangs tore out his throat, which I then swallowed, and his magic filled yet another cubby.
Now there’s two left.
Their magic is getting more and more frantic and I’m starting to see spells that I’ve never seen before. My shields, walls, and distraction spells are working really well, although I am bleeding from a few dozen smaller injuries.
“Stop fucking around already!” Parece looks done when I see her.
“Fine!” A freaking avalanche of light spells began triggering at my command, blinding everyone again and again and again. From the outside, it has to look like you’re staring into the surface of the sun. At the same time, explosions of sound make my bones rattle from the output.
Until it all stops, leaving me standing in an empty circle with the two guys. They’re dazed and confused for the longest time until they clear their eyes. They both have walls and shields up to stop me from attacking them, but I’m still in the same spot that I was before, arms crossed. This time I’m smiling.
Angelica’s soft, “What the fuck happened to the bodies?” was the only warning the group had before the five corpses arrived. I took a few notes from Levi’s performance. The blades at superfast speeds?
Yeah, I liked that idea. I also liked the horror of using their friends for it.
They were crushed by exploding bags of former friends. Both of them had enough shielding up to stop from being killed outright, just not enough to not be fucked beyond their ability to stop me as I waded through the pulverized remains of their buddies.
The earth mage tried to speak as I crouched down and tore his hands away. They were barely hanging on, so it’s not like I really had to put effort into it. There’re the tears I was hoping for as I eat the first one, chomping through the bones without a problem. His injuries get cauterized just a tad as I pull the hands from the dragon. He can grunt but can’t speak as I eat his hands and stop him from bleeding to death just yet.
Then they both stare in horror as I finger myself to a screaming orgasm. I can tell that the dragon sees me now. Sees what I keep hidden inside.
Then he’s blind to the world as I tear both of them to pieces with claws and spells, letting the pieces rain to the ground all around me as my spells send most of my watchers to the ground as the earth buckles in every direction from the mass of power unleashed.
Their magic feels amazing locked away inside.
Chapter 38
Washing the blood from me allows me to relax and try to rein in the urge to continue to attack people. When the fight was called, I was left blood splattered in the circle with three classes worth of people around me having watched me kill seven people, eat parts of them, and touch myself to an amazing orgasm.
Every dragon there understood my body language as I looked across the entire group. None of them cheered for me, although Samantha did say, “Told you it was gonna be bad.”
One more turn around left me staring at the first- and third-year students, “Go back to your dorms. Stop this stupid shit. Support each other and maybe everyone lives through the fucking trials. None of this shit had to happen if you’d just stop acting like fucking savages.”
Then I flew back and stepped in here.
It’s taken a solid 20 minutes to calm down enough to feel like someone saying something bad about me wouldn’t turn to bloodshed and orgasms. While I don’t have a problem with the second, I’m trying to stay away from the first. Unless it’s needed.
It’s just that it’s not needed at the moment.
My shower ended and I brushed my teeth again, put on deodorant, combed through my hair, and headed into the room. The voices I heard earlier aren’t a surprise, although it’s still a little weird that so many people are here.
Headmaster Anderson is here with the two researchers. Eva and Tiffany are here. No Brody. Angelica, Samantha, and Parece are here. Shockingly enough, Levi’s standing in the open doorway.
“You guys didn’t all get enough of the boobs out there?” I waggled my chest before grabbing some clothes to slip on. No response other than a slight shifting from some of them.
Eva stared at me from her couch, with Tiffany pressed up to her side, “What the fuck…what the fuck are you? You just…you just challenged and killed seven freaking third-year students? Like it was nothing!”
“Told you it was heading in a bad direction. We’re fucking lucky it stopped there.” Samantha nodded at me as I smiled at her. “I’m shocked you stopped yourself.”
“It was kinda closer than I wanted it to be.”
Tiffany shook herself and sat forward, “What the fuck did I miss out there? What do you mean by that? I don’t get how you won, but what do you mean stopped yourself? What else were you gonna do?”
Parece snorted from her spot on my couch, “You missed it then. You couldn’t read her body language?”
“Umm…no? Not really. I was shocked it was happening at all.” She looked me up and down as if expecting to see it again.
“The rest of you saw it?” Serious nods from everyone not them. No sense hiding it away, then. “It’s like this. When I broke your nose in the bathroom?” Short nod from her, “It was that. Just way, way larger. I let more out, if that makes sense.”
Dawning horror on her, “That’s…that’s why you…” her eyes darted down.
“That’s why I fingered myself, right. I told you, just like I’ve told others, I have these freaking walls in place to hold back certain things that I don’t want out there. The stupid comments that people don’t get? Like I said? I use that humor to calm myself down. I kinda lost it there at the end.”
“Why’d you lose it, though? I mean, I missed all of that other than you somehow managing to kill all of them, so why did it happen?” Eva looked at the others as if expecting a response from them.
I’m just not sure what to say here. What will be too much? Given the group, maybe honesty is the better option? “I hate challenges.” That seems simple enough to start with. “I hate ‘em. I get why we have them, but the idea that people use something like that as a way to get stronger? That’s the only reason they do it? Not to actually fight someone for a real reason, but just so they can drain power? It’s appalling to me. I’ve told people again and again, I’m a unifier. If we graduated with our current headcount, I’d be a happy girl. Knowing that some people won’t go through the trial because they know they’ll be targets? That makes me want to cry. And eat spleens. It shouldn’t happen. I get that it’s our world, but our world’s shit. It really is. The fact that the adults in our lives seem to revel in it for the most part? The announcer from last year that greeted us and all of that? I’d hold him down and chew off his fucking arms and legs for what he’s involved in. If I had a button to kill every adult involved or that accepts this bullshit? I’d push it twice and see if we can rebuild our society without the needless killing and tortures.”
No response from them as I looked around. Not that I expected one, “So why did it happen? I was on edge because of the challenges to start. People going after others because they think they’re sippy cups? That pisses me right off. Then…” What to say?
Parece’s voice caused some of them to jump, “She was pissed about me being in a challenge.”
Eva looked at her, “Why would she care about that?”
Parece didn’t take her eyes from me, “I won’t say that she cared, not like I think you mean. She hates the challenges. The fighting. We were roommates last year and I was in a group that hated her pretty much until the trial. We weren’t the most aggressive about it, but definitely not friendly. Except when we were in here. After the first bit, we
were decently friendly and would talk. At least a little. Then we spent the summer driving around the country together. Me, her, Samantha, and Angelica. We got to know each other.”
“But you’re not allies?” Tiffany spoke up before Eva could get it out.
“Not officially. She doesn’t really understand that. How we could possibly go after one another if the need came up. Or maybe if the opportunity comes up. We all hate it too, but it’s how we were raised. Not taking advantage of a situation…it’s hard. So, to her? We’re friends even though we’re not allies and rarely even talk. In her mind, you don’t fuck a friend. You don’t target them. You help them. You watch out for them. Heal them. Carry them if you have to.” She looked over at Levi. “Levi fucking hated her last year. I know you both heard the stories. Half of us only made it out alive and with our powers because of her. Literally. She fought Levi up until like 10 seconds before the timer ended and forced him to shift back to human, carried him, and threw him across that last beam ahead of her. That meant that if she fucked up the timing, she’d have lost her power before him. And he had been actively trying to kill her. So…she saw me in a challenge when she knows that’s not my thing, and it added to her being pissed off. Then there’s Levi.”
Levi nodded at her look, “There’s me.” He looked around the room before continuing, “Last year I was all about the aggression. All about it. I was raised…it was bad. I’m like a lot of dragons and some of the mages, where I have my life hanging over my head by my parents. Except my parents?” He took a deep breath, “She killed them when she escaped. I know you both heard about that. That was them. That’s how they were my entire life. My sole goal and dream in life was to come out of here so fucking powerful that I could torture them into insanity before letting them die. When they were killed and that was taken from me, I wanted to kill her for that. Except…I’ve had a lot of time to think. To watch everyone. Listen to the bullshit rumors out there about her. It’s fucking hilarious that some people believe them. Either way, though, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. When I heard that fuckhead talking about going after her? I sort of…I snapped. I was a total dick last year. The others here would admit to that. I was the quintessential asshole here. Powerful. Large. Strong. I would have thought nothing about killing everyone on my way to more power. We did enough of that in the trial, although not nearly as much as I think people think we did.” He shook his head, “So, yeah, I heard them and him and it pissed me off. She’s tried so hard to fit in when most everyone treats her like shit, so to have them wanting to kill her just because she’s a stricken? Or was? I know that was me last year, but I at least had my revenge stolen from me as my excuse.” He stopped talking.
“Levi’s situation was the one that pushed me over the edge. He stepped in to help me. He’s not an ally. We have a…wary acquaintance thing going on at most. This place doesn’t breed more than that and me staying away from everyone to try to stop the freaking rumors don’t really allow for much beyond that. But knowing that he was at risk for me? That means something to me. That means a whole hell of a lot to me. I don’t think he needed to do that, but I can’t thank him enough for wanting to help protect me.”
“I still don’t get it? What were you gonna do? Just…keep challenging?” Eva looks so confused.
Ugh, “Not quite, but pretty much? I have the walls for a reason. For a very, very real reason. I don’t have a clue if I was like this before everything happened or if it came about because of everything that happened, but it’s how I am. Just like everyone here has a fake face that they show others? Never asking questions? Never admitting to weaknesses? Always hiding how much power they have? Never really showing how fast they are or spells that they know in magics class?” I smiled at their looks, “Right? We’ve all seen people hesitate in magics class. Our shielding doesn’t go up quickly. We’re not the first to show that we can do something. We don’t do it as well as we can. Then you throw someone into that circle, and you see that they’re whipping up a dozen spells in about two seconds. For me? I have two facades going.”
Eva looked me up and down, “Two?”
“Yeah. Two. The first is the normal one that you guys have. I’m never the first to cast a spell if I can help it. I never have the strongest results. Things like that.”
“You should see her light spells.” Parece smiled at my look, “What? You know you want to do it. Most everyone here already knows.”
“Umm, light spells?” Tiffany this time. “All of us can cast a light spell.”
“We can. We had to in order to make it through the trial last year. How many can you cast at the same time?” Parece asked the question I didn’t think she’d toss out there.
Tiffany didn’t answer at first. “Two?”
Most of us laughed, “C’mon, Tiffany. Seriously? You had to cast more than that to graduate.” I decided to run with it, “Everyone here can cast more than that. Maybe not easily, but we can still do it.”
“And you?”
Instead of responding, I let my hair glow a little and fired up a nice round 60 of them and let them move around the space at different speeds. None of them matched for size or color.
“My God, and there’s sound!” Ira, one of the researchers, stared up at the lights in awe.
I let them run as I started talking again, “The first façade is the one you guys have. I hide away what I can do. What power I have. What spells I know or can cast. All of it. The second is…me. Like you saw in the bathroom? The façade is the normal me that you see. The real me isn’t normal. At all. I’ve lived in agony for a huge chunk of my life, and that added to everything else? The me that I hide away isn’t safe. Isn’t fun. For others. I want the façade to be the real me. The me that I kinda remember from before my parents attacked me.” My shattered memories paraded through my brain, “I remember being happy. So happy. I loved my life. Now I can’t even remember if what I think was my life was really my life. I had my parents. I loved them to bits. They said they loved me. Then…boom. First period. Had my inducement ceremony, and everything went to hell. They proved just how much they didn’t love me before I could even react.”
Deep breath, Maddie. Hold it in. “I try to hide away the real me in the hopes that I can get back to what I was. What I remember. Not wanting to hurt people. Not wanting to do things that the façade me would hate. Yet knowing, absolutely knowing, that if push comes to shove? I’ll tear down the fucking walls and feast on everyone I can in order to save myself.” I couldn’t even start to hide the scent of rage pouring from me, “That’s what I face every time someone tries to dominate me. Dominate others, I’m fine with it. Come for me, and the door in my walls appear and I’ve got the key in hand. People dominating me led to my life being torn to fucking pieces, and I’d rather be dead than have that happen again. No, wait, I’d rather everyone else be dead than have that happen again.”
Arms engulfed me from the side, and I leaned into them, “Jesus, Maddie. Calm it down like a thousand percent.”
Samantha and Angelica joined her, with Angelica laughing, “Thousand? That’d just get her back to wanting to kill most people. She’s gotta back it off more than that.” She hugged tighter, “No one’s trying to dominate you right now. We’re here because that was…that was fucked out there. We knew how close you were to trying to take on the entire third-year class or some crazy shit like that, and we wanted to make sure you managed to not turn all psycho on us.”
More deep breaths allowed me to calm myself to the point that the rage was finally bottled up. “Thank you. I can’t say that I expected to see any of that when I flew back. Or to get involved in it.”
They released me one by one, with Parece being the last, “We get it. Don’t think we don’t. It’s just that if we get pissed, people don’t die in droves.”
Laughed from the adults. Not that we’re not all adults, but for the purposes of this place and this room I mean the headmaster and the researchers.
Ira spoke agai
n, “Maddie, we’re here because we obviously saw everything. We wanted to make sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m good.” Let’s not talk about the burning feeling inside with my magic. I’m not liking that feeling, although it’s not close to strain. That’s a good thing. Obviously.
“Excellent. We’ll be there to monitor the trial again. If you’re willing to stay after, we have some tests we’d like to run by you. We can pay again?”
“Umm, it’ll depend on how the trial goes and what kind of timing you’re looking for.”
“We understand. We’ll talk more later. For now? Be safe.”
“I’ll try.”
The adults left without a backward glance, letting Levi close the door.
“They didn’t mention anything about being able to pull you?” Levi asked from his place against the wall.
“No. Still no buy-in from others. I’m not willing to go down to 25 percent, you know?”
“I can’t believe it’s even being discussed!” Tiffany is an interesting mix of annoyed and jealous that I haven’t heard from her before.
“Well, we got us a one-of-a-kind dragon here, so they’re curious.” Samantha sat again. “Now…out with it. What’re you hiding?”
Crap, she knew? “What do you mean?”
She rotated her hand, as if telling me to go faster, “Let’s skip the whole I don’t know what you mean then distracting statements about random things. Out with it. You hit on something in that fight and you did it, at least that’s what I picked up. What the fuck did you do? You’re practically chomping at the bit about it.”
