Hazy Memories

Opening his eyes, Kelvin woke up to the blinding lights of the school infirmary. He looked to his side, and saw other first year students. A huge majority of them were unconscious, while a few of them were fully awake.

“What the hell happened? Why is everyone in the infirmary?” Kelvin said.

He thought back to the events of the end trial, and quickly remembered the mysterious hooded men.

“Who the hell were those men?” Kelvin thought.

“How are you feeling Ken?” A voice said, distracting Kelvin from his thoughts. He looked up, and saw the head teacher Sylvester with the school nurse.

Seeing the head teacher, Kelvin’s heart skipped a beat.

‘Shit; why is the head teacher here? What does he want with me? Just act normal.’ Regaining his composure, Kelvin replied back:

“I’m fine sir; thanks for asking.”

“That’s good to hear; and it’s nice to see you responding quickly to treatment. So, let me cut to the chase.”

“What exactly happened at your trials?”

Hearing that, Kelvin’s heart began to race.

‘What the hell am I supposed to say? It seems like he has figured out my true identity. What if they have been watching our performance and activities in the fragmented realities? Shit; I’m screwed.” Kelvin thought, as streaks of sweat appeared on his face.

“Um… I don’t understand what you mean sir.” Kelvin replied.

“Allow me to explain.” Sylvester said.

“After you and your fellow first year students entered the fragmented realities for your trials, we noticed a problem. So I and a few other demon hunters decided to go in, and check up on you guys.”

“We went into the fragmented realities, only to find all the first year students unconscious in each of the fragmented realities. And as you can see, a good number of your fellow students are still unconscious.”

“He’s right.” The school nurse added.

“We spoke with a few students that had regained consciousness, and they all said that they didn’t really know how they feel unconscious. To be exact, they didn’t even remember anything that went down in their trials.”

“So, let me rephrase the question.” Sylvester said.

“Do you remember anything that happened in your trials?”

Kelvin thought for a while, and replied.

“I’m sorry; I can’t really remember. The memory about the trial is a bit hazy, and I get a splitting headache when I think about it.”

After thinking it through, Kelvin decided to lie, and go with the flow of things. If he had told the truth, they’d bring him in for further questioning, and he wouldn’t want to draw the attention of any demon hunter. After all, he still needed to lay low.

“That’s okay.” Sylvester said.

As he turned to leave, Kelvin stopped him, by asking one question that was on his mind.

“You said you noticed a problem; what kind of problem sir?”

“It’s nothing you should bother yourself with; get better soon. I’ll be taking my leave.” Sylvester replied, as he left with the school nurse.

“Could the problem he mentioned, have anything to do with the mysterious masked men from the trial? And why was everyone unconscious?” Kelvin thought, as he lay back on the bed.

Meanwhile, in a certain dark and dilapidated building…

“My lord, the marking ritual has been completed.” A pale and strange looking man said.

“Good; with the marking ritual going as planned, we just have to wait for the command of the grand master.” A large mountain of a man said.

The large man was muscular, and he had a serpentine looking tail. All this, together with the markings of a large open eye across his chest, really gave the man a scary look.

“If I may speak my lord; the marking ritual didn’t exactly go as planned. There was a little mishap.”

“Speak!!” The large man said in a deep and scary tone.

“It appears that the host of the blood arch demon has infiltrated the academy, as a first year student; and unsurprisingly, the marking ritual did not have any effect on him. We would like to know your orders concerning this. What shall we do with the boy?”

After thinking for a while, the large man replied:

“Keep an eye on him. I’m sure the grand master would love to see him; and in time, we shall welcome him to our legion of fallen angels.”

“As you wish my lord” The strange looking man said, as he left.

Two days later…

Back at the academy, some of the student’s activities had to be temporary suspended due to the strange events of the end trials. Their normal classes and combat trainings had to be suspended for a week, in other to give the first year students some time to recover. The security of the academy was also increased, so as to prevent the same situation from happening in reality.

Kelvin was already healed up and feeling better. He would also be leaving the infirmary that very day. He decided to check up on his friends.

The infirmary was quite big and as such, it took some time before he could find his friends. Shockingly, all of his friends were unconscious except Ray. Kelvin came to his bed side and saw that Ray had sustained a number of injuries which included a broken arm.

“Ray, how are you feeling?” Kelvin asked.

Ray looked up and replied in an optimistic voice:

“I’m okay. The divine healer has already healed most of my injuries and my arm. So I’ll be back to normal in no time.”

Looking at Ray, Kelvin could see how stressed out and disturbed he was, and so he decided to ask.

“Ray, what happened in your end trials?”

Ray lowered his head on hearing the question. He hesitated a little bit before he answered.

“The head teacher asked the same question. Ugh… Honestly speaking, I don’t really know. I have a very vague memory about it. I do remember some things; like how I broke my arm.”

“How did you break your arm?” Kelvin asked.

“Well, in my end trials we entered a fragmented reality with a jungle like scenery. If I remember correctly, everything was okay; I and my team mates completed all our challenges without any problem. But that all changed when we arrived at an ancient temple.”

“I don’t really remember the details. My memory is kinda blurry. We fought a stone person in the temple and in the process of fighting I broke my arm.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. But is that all? You don’t remember anything else?” Kelvin asked.

“No, not really; the last thing I remember seeing was an open black portal and the next thing I know, I’m waking up in the infirmary.” Ray replied.

“Okay, don’t stress yourself too much about it. Just focus on getting better.” Kelvin said.

“Thanks Ken. I hope Carl and the others are faring better than I am.”

“They’re still unconscious; but they’ll be fine. I’ll be checking up on you guys from time to time.” Kelvin said, as he took his leave.

‘It seems like the same thing that happened to me, has happened to everyone else. Who were those men? What was the meaning of their words? And why am I the only one that seems to remember?” Kelvin thought deeply as he exited the school infirmary.