Chapter 27.1

The underground complex was eerily quiet. Just a few minutes earlier, the hallways had been filled with the sounds of fighting, hellfire explosions and collapsing portals. Now, Amara led the search through the myriad hallways, trying to retrace her steps back to the room she’d originally been summoned to.

“I know it’s around here somewhere, just gimme a sec,” Amara said.

“How do you not remember?” Tessa asked. “It was like, half an hour ago!”

“I was a little preoccupied trying to stop the ritual! Besides, if I’d taken the extra time to memorize the route, who knows what would have happened to you two.” They checked another room, this one as empty as the rest, and Amara groaned in frustration. She leaned up against a nearby wall, tapping her head against it as she grumbled. “Stupid cult, these hallways make no sense…”

“How about we head back to the main chamber, and start from the beginning again?” Tessa said, gesturing behind her.

“Yeah, fine, we might as well.” Amara pushed off the wall, stretching her arms high above her head. Her back cracked in a few places, and she sighed with relief. When she started walking again, she caught Vee adamantly avoiding her gaze. “Something wrong, Vee?”

“Yes! I mean, no, it’s fine, just… do you have to walk around naked like that?” Vee said, staring at a nearby wall.

“I do, actually. Brandon made me burn my clothes. Besides, I’ve got my exoskeleton…armor… thing. That’s covering up all the important bits, right?” Amara looked down at herself, inspecting the various chitinous plates that covered her body. “Though, I suppose this is a little revealing…”

After pausing for a second, Amara manifested more blackened protective material around her body. Previously, her more sensitive areas had been covered by only the tiniest slivers of chitin, and now it looked more like she was wearing a strange bikini.

“How’s that? Better?” Amara asked.

Vee hesitated for a moment, then finally looked over at Amara. “That’s… fine, I guess.”

Amara playfully tapped Vee on the arm, then walked past her and started heading back towards the main chamber. As they walked, Tessa spoke up again. “What even is our plan here? I told you, the best thing to do is leave everything alone.”

“Tessa, dozens of people are dead!” Vee said. “And without any bodies, no one is going to know what happened. You honestly think it’s best to not do anything? Let everyone think that they simply vanished without a trace?”

“Uh, yeah! This happens all the time when magic gets involved. Shit happens.”

“Ignoring the missing people for a moment, what about the cultists that didn’t vanish?” Amara said. “There’s probably two of them around here somewhere, and Mr. Luxnor was in the cult for a while too. What if someone starts looking into the disappearance? If we do nothing, how can we ensure that those cultists don’t spill the beans about us?”

“What, you think we can convince them to play along? Why would they?” Vee asked.

“Oh, I’m not worried about that.” Amara cracked her knuckles, sparks of hellfire flying off them. “I’ll make sure of it.”

“Even if we do this,” Tessa started, “what would the cover story even be? And again, for the record, I’m against us getting involved.”

“We’re already involved, Tessa.” Vee said, rolling her eyes. “But… that’s a good point.”

The three girls went quiet for a moment, and after a few moments of silent walking, Amara spoke up. “What if we told the truth?”

“Ha! Good one!” Tessa said, laughing. “Wait, please don’t tell me you’re serious.”

“Not the whole truth, we leave out the magic parts. We wait a couple days, let everyone start to wonder about the missing people, and then the remaining cultists come forward to make a statement. They admit to being part of a cult, but say they quit after realizing that some sketchy ideas were being floated. The last thing they heard, the cult was planning some kind of trip over Thanksgiving weekend, and the assumption was that they weren’t coming back. Let everyone assume it was, like, mass suicide or something.”

“That’s… hm. I don’t hate it,” Vee said, furrowing her eyebrows as she thought. “It would be the easiest lie to spin, since it’s pretty much all true.”

“Plus,” Amara said, looking at Tessa, “It gives us a way to spit on Mr. Wellington’s legacy. He doesn’t deserve to be remembered as anything other than a slimy prick that caused the deaths of dozens of people.”

“Ooh, that’s the most convincing thing I’ve heard all night. Alright, fine, I’m in,” Tessa said.

Soon enough, with all three girls now helping, they managed to find their way back to the small chamber that Amara had been summoned to earlier tonight. Just as Amara had predicted, two of the cultists that had previously tried to take advantage of her were still inside.

They had both gotten dressed, but for some reason, hadn’t bothered doing anything else. They were both sitting on the floor, breathing heavily, and they looked up nervously as Amara entered the room. The other girls followed close behind her, and Tessa spoke up when she walked inside.

“Oh dang, I’ve seen these guys around campus. What happened to them? They look like shit.”

With a closer look, Amara saw what Tessa was referring to. Both guys were still panting, and their skin also appeared somewhat pale. It almost looked like they were sick, with slightly thinner faces and sweat on their brows.

“I mean, I fed pretty deep during the gangbang, but they deserved it,” Amara said, moving closer to Mark. She grabbed his clothes and picked up him easily, pinning him against the wall. “Alright fucker, it’s time you put in some community service. You’re going to help us cover up what really happened here, deal?”

Mark was panicking, trying to struggle against Amara’s grasp, but he clearly didn’t have the energy. “Yes! Please, I’ll do anything! Just don’t kill me!”

Amara couldn’t help but smirk at how much Mark feared her. She set him down, playfully slapping his cheek before turning to the other cultist. “You too, Chris. We’re going to work together with Mr. Luxnor, and if any of you deviate from our script… well, you boys wouldn’t do that, right?”

Mark and Chris nodded, and Amara chuckled in satisfaction.

Halfway through classes on Monday, Amara paid another visit to Mr. Luxnor. As both a teacher and an ex-cultist, they knew his voice would add some much-needed veracity to their story. Predictably, the teacher hadn’t been thrilled to see her again, not after she’d threatened to throw him into hell for all eternity, but Amara worked that to her advantage. She convinced him to play along, explained the plan, and left with a smile on her face.

Everyone spent a few days preparing their stories, doing their best to eliminate discrepancies. All the while, campus was growing more and more concerned over all the missing people. Rumors abounded, social media buzzed with conspiracy theories, but no one had any concrete evidence. By the end of the week, tension was high enough to finally start their plan. The three ex-cultists came forward, sharing their experiences about joining the strange cult.

The media had eaten their stories up. A cult on a college campus? Possible mass suicide? For a few days, Aurelius University had been the hot new feeding ground for a collection of vulturous news organizations. Thankfully, there were no further developments to be found; they had plenty of students willing to talk about how surprised they were, but everyone that actually knew what happened stayed far away from the cameras.

The week eventually ended, and the buzz mostly died down. After all, it was almost Christmas break, and no one wanted to deal with media gossip during finals week. One last week of stress, cramming, and all-nighters before a full month of rest, relaxation, and holidays.

For Amara, things were going surprisingly well. None of her friends had gotten hurt during the fight, and she felt more connected to her abilities than ever before. After so many weeks of being scared of herself, she had started truly embracing everything that she was. For the first time since starting her demonic puberty, she had no one threatening to enslave her, trying to kill her, or blackmailing her into getting on her knees.

At the moment, it was early afternoon, and she was happily strolling into the cafeteria. While the food wasn’t amazing, and she far preferred everything she made herself, it wasn’t terrible, and it gave her an excuse to hang out with everyone. Tessa, Chloé, Vee, and Nick already had a table, and she eagerly walked over to find herself a seat. The table seemed a little cramped, and she hesitated for a moment before Vee, of all people, stood up.

“Here, take my seat. I was just heading out anyways,” Vee said. She threw her things in her backpack, grabbed her lunch tray, and quickly walked past Amara without even looking at her.

“Let me know about tomorrow!” Chloé said, calling after Vee before she could leave earshot.

Amara dumped her things on the floor, then squeezed onto the bench and huffed in frustration. She didn’t want to say anything in front of Chloé, and instead tried to strike up small talk with everyone. “You all ready for finals?” Amara asked.

“Psh, as if,” Tessa said. “As long as I don’t flunk out, I don’t care what I get.”

“I’m just happy all the news vans are gone. They never talked to me, but it was so stressful seeing them hovering around campus like that.” Chloé had mostly finished her food and was now just picking at a brownie with her fork. “Can you guys believe it? An actual, honest-to-goodness cult? Why would anyone do something like that?”

“Probably ‘cuz they’re a bunch of lonely idiots, that’s why.” Tessa snickered to herself as she kept eating.

“C’mon Tessa, it’s never that simple,” Nick said. “We have no idea what their personal lives were like, and we might never know. Let’s just be thankful no one we knew got involved.”

Amara couldn’t laugh at the irony of the situation. They’d gotten very involved, just not in the way Nick was alluding to. “I mean, Tessa and I had a stalker for a bit, and he’s been mysteriously absent. That’s not something I’m going to complain about.” Amara saw Nick give her a look, but she didn’t pay it much attention.

“Wait, you had a stalker? Since when?” Chloé asked, leaning forward.

“It’s… a long story, and I don’t feel like going over it right now. Another time?” Amara said.

“You also don’t have to, I totally get not wanting to talk about it,” Chloé said. “Oh! I almost forgot to mention, but the charity hit its final goal last night! As much as I hated all the news people, all the extra attention on our campus meant we got another huge wave of donations!”

A wave of excitement washed over everyone present. Amara even jumped up from her spot so she could to Chloé and give her a huge hug. “Chloé! That’s incredible!!”

“What does that mean moving forward? What’s the next step?” Nick asked.

“Well, I’ve been in contact with the people that run the frat, and they’re currently wrestling with a bunch of legal nonsense. In a perfect world, the money will let us start rebuilding once the weather warms up, but there’s always a chance there might be more complications down the road.”

“Okay, but still, you made that happen Chloé!” Amara said, sitting down. “It was your app, your charity, you did this!”

“I-I mean… it was a team effort, I’m working with other programmers and stuff…” Chloé was now blushing heavily, her hair falling in front of her eyes.

“Come on, you’re the one spearheading all of this,” Tessa said. “You should do something to celebrate! Are there, like… any games you want that you could treat yourself to? I don’t know how nerds celebrate.”

“Tessa!” Amara wrapped her arm around Tessa, pulling her in and putting a hand over her mouth. “Chloé, please excuse the awful behavior of this craven individual. I’ll see to it that she’s punished appropriately.”

“She’s not wrong, it’s not like I’m the partying type… plus, I’m proud to be a nerd! I have things that make me happy, and that’s more than enough for me!”

Knowing better than to push the issue, Amara released Tessa and let the conversation steer towards other topics. Chloé shared some of the technical details that would be relevant once rebuilding started, Nick happily talked about his plans for the holidays, but most of the talk centered on their classes. Before long, it was time to pack up, and everyone left the cafeteria to go their separate ways.

Amara and Tessa ended up walking together for a bit, and Amara eagerly took the opportunity to start venting. “Did you see her? She wasn’t actually on the verge of leaving, was she?”

“Who, Vee?” Tessa asked.

“I mean, come on, she just happens to leave the instant I show up? I swear, she’s been avoiding me all week.”

“Didn’t she tell you outright that she didn’t want to be friends? I’m not at all surprised.”

“But she saved my life! I dunno, I guess I thought things might be better now.” Amara huffed, adjusting her jacket in frustration. The weather had taken a sharp downturn in recent days, so Amara was trying to fit in by wearing heavier clothes, but she hated it. She wanted to keep wearing cute shorts and crop tops, but knew she couldn’t risk people asking questions.

“Just because she stopped you from getting pulled into Hell, doesn’t mean she’s ready to be besties again.”

“Ughhh, I know. Still, I was totally right about asking her for help; we couldn’t have beaten that cult without her!” Amara jabbed Tessa in the side with her elbow.

“Yeah yeah, keep rubbing it in,” Tessa said, rolling her eyes.

“Actually…” Amara said, her voice dropping to a whisper. “I’d much rather rub something else, if you’ve got time. I don’t have anywhere to be for another hour.”

Before Tessa could even speak, Amara noticed a sizeable swell in her aura. “Fuck yeah, next class is just a review session. I can afford to skip that.”

With a devious smirk, Amara began steering the two of them back to her place, her mind racing with possibilities.