13 - 13 -

"Now, now," our leader quickly said, our comments only getting louder and more frequent as we desperately tried to find the missing group members. "I promise that we'll find them eventually, they most likely just got lagged behind at a specific turn and went another way."

We all ignored this justification, but we knew that since he was merely a student, he was just as clueless as we were. I lowered my head and started stifling my complaints, realizing that didn't have any special knowledge. At least, I hoped that he didn't.

A few moments later, our leader, with an expression that spelled distress, slowly halted his walking and turned around. "I... Don't know how to say this, but..." He gulped and faced us, his trustworthiness totalled. "We might have gotten ourselves lost trying to find them."

The students started to pick apart our leader, boiling over and revealing criticisms that they had been stirring around in their heads. Instead of joining in, I sympathized but said nothing, waiting for it all to blow over.

"Now," our leader sighed, his face deflated, "what do you all suggest we do now?"

There was no response. We all sat in silence until our leader started to speak again. "I suppose that we should try to find something, even if it isn't..." Our leader trailed, our attention no longer fixed onto him. Our collective gaze was now above his head, spotting the figure behind him.

In the moments that followed, we all got a heavy glimpse of the figure that rounded the corner. It was short and thin, its bones deteriorated and eyes sunken.

In an instant, it lunged towards our leader and gripped his throat with surprisingly powerful hands. The figure then started dragging our leader down the hallway, his attempts to release its grip nullified.

In a single wave, we all reacted and started running after our leader. I followed although I wasn't near the front of the pursuing group. The figure seemed to disappear when we turned around the corner, with the echoes of his footsteps only remaining for a few seconds afterward.

"Looking for someone?" A familiar voice calmly asked behind us. We all whipped around and unlike before, I was close to the source of it.

To our dismay, it was revealed that we had stumbled upon our actual leader, Malus. As we all gasped, he scanned each of us. "Oh, so you're looking for the others?" The corners of his mouth slowly started to rise. "I believe that I can escort every one of you to their location."

The next few seconds were all a blur. One instant, Malus' body started to glow, his smile now a grin. Then all of us were suddenly transported to a different location, my surroundings changing from an ordinary hallway to a dimly lit room.

After my brain processed the change, I blinked and started looking around. I saw everyone, not just the group that I had been with a few seconds before, but even the other half of us that we had voluntarily split apart from.

Immediately, I began to mentally sift through the crowd. More time passed before I zeroed in on an orange creature and I set a path that would lead me directly towards the only being that I had grown to be friends with.

"Feste," Endora breathed, "I nearly got a heart attack when Malus... did whatever he did."

Before I could reply, Malus had interrupted everyone, his voice booming. He chuckled. "It seems like I have them all... Such power..." He gazed at our hostile and confused faces before coughing slowly into his fist and resuming his spiel. "I suppose I'll give you some context. It doesn't seem like any of you will go anywhere anyways."

Partly through the power of telekinesis, Malus picked up a student and dangled him in the air. His body started to compress all at one due to the magical force. "You see, I've been cursed in a rather strange way. Whenever someone starts to develop negative feelings towards me, I get this peculiar boost in power."

Malus dropped the student down to the ground and kept talking among the various hostile comments and threats directed towards him. "In recent years, it's become somewhat of an addiction to see people hate me. In fact, I regret doing this sooner. I feel so alive..."