“Huff… Huff…”

  “Ah… its blurry… looks like its raining. Huh? Who’s this?” A little girl is lying on my lap, my hands are covered in blood as I hold her, but then… something fell from eyes… “what is this? Is this a tear? Am I crying? Why? Who is she that i… I feel like this?” My chest hurts, and there is a knife in my hand, I don’t know what’s going on but I feel… extremely sad… *Sob* *Sob* But then I heard something, I frantically turned my head towards the voice, “who… is that? That man running towards me, I can’t see his face… the rain has blurred my vision.”

  I stood up, and kept staring at that blurry figure of a man running towards me, “what is he saying? He seems to be screaming, although I can’t see his face, he seems…worrie-“ But suddenly I heard a scream.

  “Why?”

  “What?! Who said that…? That man is still far away, it couldn’t be him, That voice… it is eerie, and I… *Huff*don’t see anyone besides me… well… I am tired, I just want…”

  “Why?!”

  “That voice… its echoing” I… *Huff* just want… to… rest… *thud* “huh? did I faint? Guess I did, its too dark here, and that voice it sounded like-“

  “What?! Who? Who is there?! Why is the voice echoing so much… Ugh! my ears feel like they could burst! Stop it! Whoever you are, stop it!!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, my ears bleeding, and my vision dark, and I kept screaming “Shut up! Shut up!!” but then suddenly, the voice stopped… everything went dead silent, so much that I could hear my own breathing as it echoed through the pitch darkness

  “Did it go away?”

  but then… *Tap*

  ”huh? Is that a footstep?”

  *Tap…* *Tap…* *Tap…*

  “someone is coming towards me…”

  The sound of the footsteps started to echo, and panic grew inside me “I have a bad feeling about this.”

  *Tap* *Tap* *Tap*

  The footsteps grew aggressive, and echoed everywhere, as if someone running was towards me

  “I need to run… but I can’t move! Agh!”

  *Tap* *Tap*

  “No… its coming closer! I need to move!” I gathered every ounce of strength in my body, my veins bulged, my teeth clenched, my heart racing, but I still couldn’t move, and the footsteps became louder and closer.

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  *Tap* *Tap* *Tap*

  “Ugh! i need to get up!” It was aggressively and quickly coming closer, and closer to me.

  *Tap* *Tap* *Tap* *Tap*

  “Get up, Dang it!!!” I screamed in desperation, the madness and panic had engulfed me, and in that moment… I heard a whisper.

  “RIC!”

  “No!!”

  Ric yelled as he woke up, “Huff! Huff! Huff!” gasping for air, his face drenched in sweat, his heart racing, with a dreadful expression he looked around for a moment and observed the surroundings

  “T-this… this is my room in the Academy.”

  He let out a sigh of relief, “That was a… dream?” he again looked at the surroundings, and to confirm further he slapped himself, “ouch, Yeah that was a dream, the pain is real.” As soon as he confirmed that, He stopped thinking and went straight to freshen himself, rinsed his mouth, washed his hands and face, and as he stood there looking himself in the mirror.

  Suddenly, for a fraction of a second, he saw it… the reflection of himself drenched in blood with an evil smile on his face, as though mockingly saying “You can’t run away”, but Ric held himself, and even though he was fearful, he clenched his fist in determination and hastily came out, took the book of Blood Lust and exited his room.

  “Don’t think about it. Nothing happened. I just need to get to Sir Reinhardt quickly, only he can help me right now!”

  Ric hurried, his face started sweating, his body started to become heavy, it took more strength to walk than before, and then he started hearing voices in his head, like whispers of the ghosts, they echoed infinitely and his head started to hurt as if getting pierced by hundreds of needles.

  he stopped and fell on the ground, the other students were laughing at him due to how he fell,

  “That peasant tripped! Hahaha!”

  They mocked and laughed but Ric didn’t had the luxury to care about it,

  “Now stay down! That’s where you belong commoner! Hahaha~!”

  The mocking continued but Ric was in agony, “Ugh!” his body started to leak the blood lust, his eyes faintly became red, but he was still conscious, “I need to endure… and go!” He raised head, and yelled out

  “Dang it! Speed!”

  As he chanted, the barriers conjured beneath his feet, and he dashed with all his might, cracking the floor and leaving behind a trail of red mist, he ran like his life depended on it, frantically passing through everyone, going through the halls and corridors, as the voices in his head grew stronger, and his eyes became completely red… but he was still conscious, still holding on to sanity and fighting

  “I need to stay awake! I can’t faint right now! I need… I need to…”

  Then he stopped, and started to frantically look around to find his way, the mist was spreading further, and in the midst of the commotion, isabelle noticed Ric panting heavily,

  “Is that Ric?” she thought, before slowly approaching Ric and asking, “Hey Ric, are you okay?”

  She tried to touch Ric shoulder, but she didn’t know that Ric was barely holding on, and as soon as her hand touched him, he snapped back her hand hysterically, he had lost the sense of friend from foe, and his only goal was to get to Reinhardt’s office,

  “What happened? You don’t look good…”

  Isabelle uttered, her expression became worrisome as she once again tried to approach him, But then… Ric found it, the same corridor he took before to reach Reinhardt’s office, he dashed past Isabelle, ignoring her completely as his vision started to get blurry, his breathing started to slow down, “No, I am close, I just got to turn…” he turned, the mist began to leak more and his speed dropped, his barriers disappeared, and he wobbled in the corridor, just a few feet away from the office’s door.

  “A little… a little more…just a little…”

  Ric mumbled, his tone desperate as he reached it, and grabbed the doorknob, twisting it to open the door and right then… he lost consciousness and fell flat on his face. The red mist busted out from his body, quickly filling up the office and covering the corridor, the mist was overwhelming, as if it would engulf everything around, but then someone chanted.

  “Barrier!”

  A barrier got conjured inside the office, blocking the mist from filling up the office room, it was Rasmond, he stood infront of the office table, protecting him and Reinhardt from the blood lusted mist.

  “That’s student Ric, did something happen to him?”

  Puzzled by the situation he looked at Reinhardt sitting calmly on his chair and asked

  “Sir, your orders.”

  Reinhardt was observing Ric, he looked at him for some time and commanded Rasmond

  “Try to suppress him…, if you do so then I will take another look at your submissions.”