The Afterlife Academy Saga

Chapter 11

11

Day 3: 05:31 AM

A strange sound awoke me from a hazy dream filled with dusk wolves and spiky bunnies. It hadn’t been very pleasant, but it was nothing compared to the grating sound of metal. What was going on? Was someone moving a desk through the dormitory hallways?

“Hello?” I pushed myself up, letting my eyes adjust to my surroundings. Metal walls, cement floors, and thick tubes running along the ceiling.

Oh, right. I wasn’t at the Valkyrie dorm. I was still stuck in the bunker.

In the bed opposite of me, I recognised Ryoko’s sleeping form. She was snoring softly, the sheet tangled around one of her legs. She looked so peaceful far away in her dreams and I envied her and at the same time, was glad for her. She got to be away from this concrete hell.

To make sure I didn’t wake her up, I tiptoed towards the heavy door, swinging it open as quietly as I could. The hinges shrieked softly and the Dragon stirred, but never woke.

Good.

The living area was dimly lit. There were some emergency lights that never switched off that cast a greenish hue over the steel pipes and metal floor. The faint glow led me towards the entrance, where a slender figure was crouched down.

Was that…

“Astrid?” I voiced.

The girl jumped up, her eyes wide with guilt. “You scared me!”

“What are you doing?”

“None of your business.”

I gestured to her head. “You’ve got dirt on your cheek.”

She brushed the back of her hand past her face, ridding herself of the evidence. “So?”

“Are you…” I peered past her, staring at the mountain of dirt and metal that blocked the entrance. There used to be a smallish indent from where we pulled Ryuga out, but that was no longer just an indent. It was a gaping hole of dark dirt and soil. “Are you trying to dig a way out?”

“What’s it to you?” she replied defensively.

“Sim said it was too dangerous to do that! Things could collapse even more,” I pointed out.

“I don’t take orders from a Reaper,” she huffed before crouching back down and continuing to dig.

I frowned. “Flavia agreed with him.”

“Well, she’s telling me to stop, is she?”

“Because she’s asleep!”

Astrid shrugged, her hands full of dirt and rocks. “A minor detail. I just want to get out of here. I’m not staying in this bunker with you four for any longer. This is just the worst day of my life.”

“Well, I don’t want to be stuck down here either but I’m not putting everyone in danger because I’m scared.”

“I’m not scared.” My classmate pulled on a steel beam, grunting when it didn’t move. “Come on!”

She gathered herself and the air crackled with magic. Before I could stop her, she directed a gust of wind into the collapsed ground. The entire heap shook as the pole flew away. Some steel tubes and blocks of cement slipped down, displacing the earth in a smooth motion.

“Umm, Astrid? That doesn’t look good,” I warned.

“And since when are you an earth expert?” She took another breath and slashed more air into the air, moving bigger blocks of cement and any metal shard.

“Stop that! Are you crazy?” I tried, reaching out to pull her away, but she directed her magic towards me and herded me back.

I’d have responded with my own, but my display of power would just unsettle the bunker even more and that was exactly what I was trying to avoid.

The pile of dirt next to her changed and changed, and every piece that moved made the damaged ceiling quiver and quake. Cement rubble slid down where it collided with fallen tubes and pipes.

Everytime something moved, panic stacked in my chest. This wasn’t going to end well and she wasn’t listening to me. She never did. There was only one person that could stop this madness, but she was probably soundly asleep. But barging into Flavia’s sleeping quarters was a real breach of privacy, especially if she didn’t think this was an emergency.

Astrid directed another forceful gust into the collapsed entrance and the lights flickered briefly.

Fuck privacy.

I hastened away from my deranged classmate and towards the right wing where Flavia was still sound asleep. Entirely tangled and bunched up in her sheets, she wasn’t aware of any of the craziness going on out there. And while I wished I could spare her of reality, that was not an option right now.

“Flavia. Flavia!”

“What!” She shot up, her usually tight and braided hair frizzy. “Ylva? What the f**k?”

“You need to come. Astrid has gone mad.”

She groaned sleepily and wiped some dried drool from her chin. “I know you don’t like her, but—”

“No, no. She’s trying to dig a way out of here. She’s using her wind magic on the collapsed ceiling.”

The third-year’s eyes widened, the sleep immediately erased. “Fuck.”

She bounced up from the bed and half-hazardly pulled her pants on. With me on her heel, she charged out of the right wing and towards the entrance.

“Watch out!” she called, but it was too late.

With one well-aimed gust, Astrid directed all her power towards an unstable part of the ceiling. The bunker shook as it finally responded to her relentless assault and with a loud groan, it collapsed. The dark earth thundered down, landing on the girl that caused the displacement.

Both Flavia and I rushed forward, but we were too late. The earth threw Astrid to the ground and swallowed her body with one greedy roar.