Chapter 10: BLACK OUT

"Miss Betty?"

Caspian sobbed as his child-like voice eerily resounded off the orphanage walls. He seemed so small compared to the tall winding hallways. But the pressure he exerted easily drowned it, threatening to crush the entire building under his Calamitous Will.

He stood at the centre of the waiting room, just below where both twin staircases met. He had his hand over his eyes, and a necklace held tightly in the other.

The binds that sealed his eyes were soaked with tears, and his lips bent in an unnatural frown. Then there was this blood-red mist that leaked from his body as his wailing only intensified, dousing him entirely in its murderous warmth.

The wooden panels scorched under his feet as he made his way through the halls. He stumbled several times, unable to see nor avoid the unconscious bodies that lay on his path with their eyes wide open and foam spilling from their mouths.

"Miss Betty?"

He called out again, now standing before a half-open door. It creaked open and hiding behind her seat was a middle-aged woman with dark brown hair and crescent-shaped glasses.

"Miss Betty, it broke."

Caspian said his voice now strangely dark and gleeful. He walked forward and presented a necklace with a shattered black crystal lying beside it. He laid it on her wooden table and leaned forward;

"What do we do now, Miss Betty?!"

The woman wore a dark look as she peeked from behind her seat. She already knew the state of the necklace so there was no need to confirm it.

"I-I don't know."

She stuttered.

"But that's bad isn't it?"

Caspian chuckled as he drew closer. Just then, her walls had begun to peel and bleed red jagged lines. She looked around wide-eyed with fear, as shrieks resounded from behind the walls.

When Caspian tried to come closer she immediately yelled;

"S-stay back you monster! Stay back, please!"

She was panicking, rushing to open the window behind her office desk but it wouldn't budge.

"Please please stay back!"

She cried, her voice slowly morphing into a younger, more boyish tone.

The once weeping Caspian now had a dark grin stretched cruddy on his pale face. The band aides around his eyes had sunken, revealing the shallow socket that lay behind them. Now he looked far from human.

Slowly he placed his hand on the table, slowly scaling it as he spoke in an otherworldly tone;

"You can't run from you!"

With that, it lunged forward, and that was when Caspian shot up from the floor, heaving and panting like he had just run a marathon.

He grabbed onto the uneven wall beside him for support and suddenly found Deven sitting wordlessly beside him with a flask.

He could barely spare her a glance, focusing mostly on catching his breath.

"Here, take this."

The red-haired girl said as she offered him the flask.

"I'm fine. Thank you."

Caspian said as he pushed the flask away. Still trying to pull his mind together.

'What was that?!'

A nightmare?

It felt so vivid. A part of him had actually believed to be some middle-aged woman. Shivering and utterly terrified by the sight of his own four-year-old self.

"You aren't with your pills?"

Caspian turned to Deven, still a bit shaken. He wore a sharp look, as he scanned her eye.

"I'm fine."

He replied as he tried to stand on his feet. But his head only spun, sending him back to the makeshift bed he had been lying on.

"Water helps… Diane with hers."

Deven said as she launched the flask at him. Caspian caught it with a cautious gaze.

After a couple of gulps, he sent it back to her with a muffled;

"Thanks. But I'm not Diane."

He couldn't deny that it helped. But he had no time for whatever she was trying to get at.

"Where's Makima?"

"Keeping watch. You've only been out for a few hours so it's all good."

Deven replied as she stared at the flame at their centre. Caspian meanwhile tried looking around. Maybe it could help him come to his senses.

They were currently nestled in a cave hidden beside the dizzying fall from before. When he peered into the snow he could still see the frozen lake and its eerie presence.

He returned back to the bed appreciating the bundle of clothes they had gathered to support his unconscious body.

"Thanks for this."

He said having recognized Devens coat. She kept her eyes on the flame and sighed.

"I should be thanking you, 'cause honestly, I would've run away at the first sign of danger. This doesn't really concern you after all."

"I never said I wouldn't."

There was a slight pause as Caspian tried to rearrange his thoughts, before adding;

"We had a deal. So I'm stuck with you all till at least one of you dies."

Deven chuckled at that. The next few moments Caspian spent trying to wave the nightmare away. It's not like it was his first time. Although it had reduced significantly after all his Calamitous Will had been snuffed out of his system.

He wasn't sure what had led to him losing consciousness but when he tried looking within himself he could see that something strange was happening to his soul core.

The faint lining he had formed now had a very subtle red mist hovering around it, just like the knights from before. With worry lining his brows Caspain used spectral gaze to peer at Deven.

'She's clean then why do I—"

Just then an inhuman shriek tore through the freezing air. The two kids exchanged glances but just then the mountain trembled as a heavy weight struck it from above. The next one sent them to the floor. They both struggled to get to their feet but soon the tremors came to a halt.

Slowly they came out of the cave and out into the steep slope. The snow above them was in disarray tossed and turned with dark soil.

Standing on the snow was Makima with her blade and feet planted firmly into the neck of a massive hairless wolf-like abomination. She had a dark look in her eyes as she said;

"What are you waiting for? Run!"