Surviving Year One (Grim Reaper Academy 1)

Maybe I should go back. This doesn’t look like a good idea anymore. Of course, I wasn’t going to go back. What did they say killed the cat? Curiosity. Well, I was one curious cat right now, so all I could realistically do was pray it wouldn’t land me in a shit-ton of trouble. I walked down the last few steps, and my boots sank into the warm, rusty water. From that position, I could finally see that the spiral staircase had taken me to a sort of tunnel with a low ceiling. It was only a few feet long, though, so I hunched down and walked through it, only to find myself in the middle of a wide cavern.

“Wow!” My voice echoed down dark tunnels I hadn’t yet discovered.

Stalactites hung down from the tall ceiling, uniting here and there with thick, sharp stalagmites. The whole cave was illuminated by candles spread all over the floor and tucked in every available crevice. It might have been a secret cave, but for sure, it wasn’t abandoned. Someone came here every day to tend to the candles. Francis? But why would he? I turned off my flashlight and walked toward the center of the cave, looking up, down, and around, trying to take in as much as I could. The air was impossibly humid, and I could feel the pressure on my chest. I finally stepped out of the low water and onto a sort of platform that was still wet, but at least not completely flooded. In the middle of the platform, there seemed to be a well. It was low and made of white stone, it barely reached my hips, and the same rusty water dripped down through its chipped cracks and crannies.

“Hello?” I was hoping Francis would answer me. He had to be down here. The void between the walls took my voice and carried it deep through the underground. Because it was clear to me now that this whole thing was under the Academy. The void inside the well did the same, and the echoes my voice gave life to drew my attention to the odd structure. I’d thought it was filled with water, but it didn’t seem to be. My simple “hello” turned into “hello-hello-hello-hello”. Ad infinitum.

I placed my hands on the damp edge and leaned over to look inside. Impenetrable darkness. I squinted my eyes to see better, but to no avail. If there was water down there, then it was at such depth that I couldn’t possibly see it with the naked eye. I reached for my phone, hoping that my tiny flashlight would help reveal the mysteries of the fountain, but that was when I heard a faint noise coming from behind me. I turned around, one hand still on the stone edge, and tried to see behind the stalagmites.

“Francis?”

There was another tunnel opposite the one I’d come through, and there seemed to be someone down there. I thought I heard footsteps. I pushed myself away from the well, and just when I was about to take a step toward the sound, something grabbed my arm and pulled me back. I screamed and tried to catch my balance, snapping around to see what had grabbed me.

“Oh my God! What the fuck?!”

A tentacle. A black, slimy tentacle had wrapped itself around my left arm and was pulling me with such force that I suddenly thought this couldn’t be real, and it was just one of my nightmares. A second tentacle sprung out of the well and grabbed my other arm, then a third one wrapped itself around my waist. I was trapped. I was doomed. It was over. The thing was dragging me toward the well, up on the edge, and before I knew it, I was being pulled into its damp, infinite darkness. I screamed and screamed, but soon my voice died a painful, humid death. I couldn’t breathe. The air was heavy, suffocating, and it stank. I didn’t know of what exactly, but it certainly was something that had been alive once, and now was dead and rotting.

I thought I was done for. All I could hope was that a Grim Reaper would hurry up and make his appearance before my body hit the putrefied slush at the bottom of the well. I didn’t want to see the face of the monster the tentacles belonged to. I clenched my teeth and squeezed my eyes shut, struggling to breathe.

“No! Not her!” I heard someone yell from above.

And then… instead of being pulled down down down, I was being pushed up up up. As if the tentacled beast had changed its mind.

I found myself being thrown over the edge of the well, onto the warm, wet stone floor. I could finally breathe, and I did just that, my hands coming to cradle my chest, my eyes still shut tightly. I didn’t want to open them. Not ever again. Two trembling hands touched my face, pushing my blue hair out of my eyes.

“Are you okay?”

Francis. I opened my eyes.

“What the hell was that?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

He sat on the stone platform, but I refused to sit next to him. I refused to spend a minute longer in this cave, between stalagmites and half-melted-down candles, near the well that was clearly the home of some monstrous tentacled being.

“How did you even get down here?” he asked.

I was pacing frantically, my arms wrapped around me. I wasn’t going to take my eyes off the well, if that was the last thing I did.

“I followed you! I saw you upstairs! What the hell, Francis? Don’t you remember?”

He sighed and shook his head. “Mila, that wasn’t me. I’ve been down here since lunch.”

I furrowed my brows. “I saw you, dammit! I saw you! Just… I don’t know… half an hour ago. I followed you to this room, you unlocked the door, went inside, and left the door open.”

“Mila, I didn’t. You have to believe me. It wasn’t me.”

“Who was it, then? Because the guy looked just like you. Your height, your hair, your…” I hesitated. “Your eyes. Except… no, your

eyes were yellow. Francis, why do you have yellow eyes sometimes?”

I couldn’t believe I’d just said that. It made no sense. I was making no sense but seeing how I’d just escaped the clutches of a tentacled monster, I was allowed to act a little crazy.

“I want to get out of here,” I said. “I need to get out. I can’t breathe. What is this place anyway?! What is that… thing?! And how did you…” I swallowed hard, but the lump in my throat wouldn’t go away. “How did you convince it to let go of me?”

He stood up and grabbed my arm gently.

“Let’s get some air.”