Chapter 35.3

The lights were off in Chloé’s room, and the blinds were shut tight in hopes of blocking out the sun. She’d spent the entire day yesterday in bed, hugging her plushies tight as she alternated between dissociative episodes and bouts of crying.

After seeing the state of Amara’s apartment, her faith in her friends had been shattered.

Despite Naomi’s protests, Chloé had sprinted across campus as fast as possible, eager to escape everything she’d seen. What was Amara doing? How could an apartment get so damaged in such a short period of time? Chloé hadn’t been there in several months, as Amara normally visited her dorm, but the last time Chloé had visited Amara her apartment had been spotless.

Chloé’s thoughts drifted back to the last few months, and she was hyper fixating on every little detail she could remember. When had her friends started acting strange?

She shut her eyes tight, trying to stop the tears, but her efforts were unsuccessful. She’d known Amara ever since Freshman year, and she’d never been anything other than kind and encouraging.

Memories continued to cycle as Chloé looked for more hints. She had never been the most observant person, and she had no idea what might be relevant. Amara had been dressing a little differently in recent months, did that mean anything? There was obviously all the tension between her and Vee, but Chloé was under the impression that things were slowly getting back to normal.

Of course, there’d also been the cult. Wasn’t that the reason Naomi had first sought Chloé out?

Chloé began spiraling again, and lost track of her thoughts as she began picturing worst case scenarios. Amara being hurt and manipulated by an evil cult, Amara joining them and hurting other people, and everything in between.

Several more hours passed before she found the strength to leave her bed. Her stomach was grumbling, and she felt gross after spending a day and a half crying in bed. Chloé was no stranger to this lifestyle, and she knew she would feel better if she forced herself to leave her dorm. As much as her body protested, she managed to suffer through a quick shower. She dug through her closet, picked out something comfortable, then slipped on her shoes and began walking to the cafeteria.

She dragged her feet as she walked, operating purely on instinct as she let her muscle memory guide her through campus.

Chloé rounded another corner and was now walking along the outer edge of the quad. She shivered, pulling her scarf even tighter as she tried to bolster herself against the cold. Although she still couldn’t pull her eyes away from her feet, she saw a strange blanket of fog spilling onto the concrete from the quad.

Without warning, a heavy gust nearly threw her off balance. She heard something crash nearby, and the ground shook violently in response. With a scream, she looked up and saw a huge cloud of dust a few dozen feet in front of her. Something had clearly just fallen from the sky, impacting both the sidewalk and the side of the building. A cascade of bricks fell from the wall, which now had a sizable dent in it, and Chloé saw exactly what had landed.

A massive creature crawled from the wreckage, standing at least a dozen feet high. Something Chloé had never seen or heard of before, a monster that seemed to have crawled directly from the pages of a fictional bestiary. In strict defiance of everything Chloé knew, the beast was nothing more than a collection of bones. An animated skeleton that, even if one could restore its flesh and musculature, would still be a horrifying sight that defied all reason. It had thick, powerful back legs that clawed at the concrete, and the skeletal frame of its arms showed that they doubled as wings. The creature’s neck was incredibly long, and at the end sat its head. The skull wasn’t quite birdlike, appearing closer to something draconic or wyvernic. The bone on the left side of the face was heavily damaged, possibly from the crash, as Chloé saw a collection of cracks that seemed to originate from a single point.

The beast, whatever it was, had just crawled to its feet in front of Chloé. It appeared heavily disoriented and was shaking as it stumbled back and forth. After another few steps, it seemed to find its balance, and it rose its head before looking down. Although it had no eyes, dreadful purpose filled the sockets of its skull, and Chloé knew it was looking directly at her.

It opened its skeletal maw, and a piercing screech erupted from its empty body. The noise it made was impossible, and it sounded like multiple creatures all screaming in unison. Deep, rumbling moans shook her body to its core while horrid, wailing screeches threatened to shatter her eardrums.

Chloé began panicking, her breathing grew erratic, and her entire body froze from fear. This thing made no sense. How was it moving? Why was it here?

The creature took a step forward, the ground shaking again.

Tears fell down her cheek. She stared at the beast, its very existence overwhelming her, and she couldn’t bring herself to run.

Another massive step. The creature was now only a few feet away from her.

Chloé shut her eyes, her chest heaving.

This was it.

Her entire body tensed, preparing for the end, when the ground shook again. A second crash, this one directly in front of Chloé, nearly threw her to the sidewalk. Unlike the first one, this one was paired with an extraordinarily hot burst of flame, as if a meteor had just crashed and exploded. The beast screeched again, but this time the noise was no longer directly next to Chloé, and it sounded lower, as if the beast had fallen over.

Before Chloé could summon the strength to open her eyes, something impacted her body. Limbs of some kind wrapped around her hips, lifting her off the ground, and this second creature began running away, carrying her with it.

“I’m so sorry, Chloé, but you’re about to have a lot of questions.”

Chloé opened her eyes. Looking up, the first thing she saw was that they were already on the other side of the quad. The massive skeletal creature was flailing on the ground, attempting to stand up.

She looked down next, wondering if it really was Amara carrying her to safety. The person holding her certainly looked like Amara, at least a little. The skin tone matched, and she was wearing Amara’s pajamas. What didn’t make sense were the large, red wings sitting in the middle of her back, or the massive tail that darted back and forth underneath them.

“Amara?” Chloé asked, finally managing to fight through the fear and speak. “Why are you wearing your Halloween cost—OH MY GOD.”

In a panic, Chloé pushed her hands against Amara’s back. She tried to look around, to see what else was happening, but she was immediately distracted by what she felt. The muscles in Amara’s back were moving in time with her massive wings, and Chloé was so confused she didn’t know what else to say. She watched Amara crouch down, then with a powerful thrust of her wings, she leapt nearly a dozen feet into the air, clearing an entire flight of stairs in a single jump.

Her momentary distraction now gone, Chloé began fighting to try and get off Amara. “Let me go! What’s going on?!”

Amara held tight, her tail even moving to hold Chloé still. They reached the main entrance to the cafeteria, where Amara pulled the door open and ran inside, her tail making sure that Chloé didn’t hit her head. As Chloé continued fighting, she looked up and watched as they sped through the lunch line, then finally stopped in the cafeteria proper. Amara grabbed Chloé and effortlessly lifted her up before placing her down on a table.

For the first time, Chloé looked her friend in the eyes. It was definitely Amara, of that she had no doubt, but the whites of her eyes had completely vanished. Her amber irises were glowing incredibly bright, and there were also two horns jutting out from her forehead.

“Amara, what’s going on? What was that thing? What are you? Why are you like this?” Chloé asked, her breath panicked and labored.

“Chloé, please, I know this is scary, but I don’t have time to explain right now.”

“Is this why things have been so weird recently? Why everyone has been avoiding me?” As Chloé spoke, she saw genuine hurt flash across Amara’s face.

“I never meant to hurt you, Chloé. I promise I’ll tell you everything as soon as I can, but that thing? That monster isn’t alone, and people are going to die if I don’t get back out there and stop this.”

“I-I…”

“You’ll be safe indoors. I need to rescue as many people as I can, and I’m going to send them here. Tessa and Nick are on their way, and Vee’s helping me hold back the reapers. I’ll be back soon, I promise!”

Before Chloé could speak up again, Amara pulled her in for a hug. She squeezed tight, then quickly released her hold and ran for the entrance again. Chloé watched as her friend left, her tail and wings moving effortlessly in tandem with the rest of her body. Her wings were massive, and the tips converged into sharp talons that sat high above her head.

Perhaps, Chloé thought to herself, high enough to gouge holes in an apartment ceiling?

She continued watching the entrance, even long after Amara had left, in stunned silence.