It's quiet...too quiet

[Huh? HUH?]

In the corner of the living room was a pile of statues and busts made of various materials such as metal, stone, glass, etc.

All of the statues were of Melanie Asato-Romanoff, the wealthiest girl in Omega Academy, in various poses from thinking to prideful.

They all had clothing on too as Melanie was too embarrassed for nude or 'suggestive' poses though strangely she wasn't embarrassed at the time to have statues of her at her place.

"Kat?"

[Yeah?]

"I knew Melanie had a big ego but did your friend ever mentioned this?"

[.....no, Jen never mentioned this, she usually keeps me out of Melanie's place whenever I try to visit, and whenever I ask what their place was like, Jen usually changes the subject avoiding the topic.]

Kat felt a little bad for her best friend, Jen, living with someone who liked having statues of themselves in their home.

Her mind wanders to the times whenever she asked Jen what Melanie's place looked like but Jen's usual response was 'Don't talk to me' with a slight blush. Kat tried to 'visit' the place multiple times through the academy's central network but Jen blocked all of her attempt.

She even contemplated on using her null weapon to force herself in, but Jen would have blocked her attempt with her own null weapon, so Kat quickly disregarded that thought.

Kat's mind slowly imagines what Melanie's bedroom could look like as both Dean and Kat didn't pay attention to it, but she quickly refrain back with a shudder down to her coding. 

"..."

[Dean?]

Kat noticed Dean was silently in his thoughts, probably processing another new aspect of Melanie. But he snapped out of it and said, "Let's leave this place."

His AI companion nodded in response and they both walked out of the front door with Dean leading the way activating his smartwatch's light feature again.

The hallway was still pitch black on this side, but something was different.

Something a little ominous?

Dean's nose crinkled a bit because the smell of metallic invaded his nostril.

The smell of blood.

Usually it wasn't a heavy smell for Dean as he was used to it for the past two floors, but the smell alone suggested a large group of people died here.

Alerted, Dean pulled his sword out and check his surroundings in the pitch darkness outside of the 3 meter light radius. 

Seeing nothing, he made sure Kat was watching his back and continued on down the hallway.

On the other side of the hallway, Dean could see parts of it was still illuminated by the opened dorm rooms.

Dean and Kat continue walking forward cautiously but by the halfway point, the lounge area, they both notice something different this time around. 

"It's quiet..."

[...too quiet.]

The previous crawling sounds in the vents weren't heard anymore but whether it was a good or bad sign, only time will tell.

Nevertheless-

"Haaa..."

-Dean exhaled deeply and continued on even more tensely as the unknown was terrifying.....especially in this darkness.

While walking towards the end of the long hallway, the numbers on the rooms ascended from '39...41...44'.

Dean stopped at the empty room marked '44' because unlike the other opened dorms, '44' wasn't supposed to be empty.

Aside from the dismembered corpse of the husk he fought earlier, there were supposed to be three other corpses of his former classmates turned fiends. 

Dean stared quietly at the empty spots.

His heart slowly rising.

Ba-Dum~

Ba-Dum Ba-Dum~

Ba-Dum Ba-Dum Ba-Dum~

Meanwhile, Kat notices a shadow slowly rising from the ground...possibly from one of the opened vents.

Her holographic form was shaking from fright, but Kat didn't forget her job and screamed out,

[DEAN, BEHIND US!!!]

But Dean was already moving as Kat screamed out, driven by years of training, he clashed with the unknown figure.

Crack

The unknown figure blocked Dean's sword with its own blade but Dean's hardlight sword caused a chip in it. Dean's light revealed the figure to be the headless large corpse of the former hammer wielding fiend he fought before.

The figure had all of the features of a husk except the bone sword that replaces its right arm is larger to the point it could be described as a greatsword.

Undeterred, Dean continue to slash at the creature-

Swish

-aiming for its legs and was successful at severing one of its legs. The husk's balance was destroyed and it immediately fell on the ground though it still had some fight left in its undead form. So far, the husks had no finesse in their blade arm and are weak alone when a skilled fighter is involved.

However-

[DEAN THERE'S MORE ON BOTH SIDES]

Kat yelled out, alerting Dean to a husk on each side of him.

'They may be dead, but they have basic understandings of tactics....or someone is directing them", Dean thought but quickly put it in the backburner as his attention was focused on the three fiends turned husks. 

To his right was the corpse of Kacy, her eyes lifeless but brimming with the same ominous black eyes with red irises though no longer glowing.

A little regretful that he would have to 'kill' them twice, Dean used his telekinesis on the severed leg and intercepted the husk on his left while finishing off the one in the middle. 

Swoosh

Dean chopped both arms like an executioner leaving the middle husk with only one leg, but it was still wiggling with undying rage.

He moved at a certain angle to the left to dodge the right husk, formerly Kacy, leaving it to slash at air. Turning around, Dean then picked up the bone greatsword with his telekinesis and sent it towards the husk, impaling it on the wall.

Crack

Dean immediately block the incoming blow from his right and made quick work of the last standing husk. 

After that, he proceeded to dismember the impaled husk before it 'frees' itself then the other husk with one leg still attached, even the heads were lobed off as he didn't want to hear growls coming from former people. 

All of that took less than a minute as there was no hesitation this time for Dean.

He still felt bitter about killing his former classmates but he left that thought to when this is all over...if it'll be over.

"How did they turn? Was it because they were already infected?"

Dean's mind wander off questioning to how the former fiends turn into husks, but Kat interrupted his thoughts.

[Ummm.....Dean, there's more coming our way....from all sides], Kat warned while still shaking from fright.

And she was right as at least a dozen husks appeared out of the darkness even from room 44, surrounding the duo. 

**********

A/N: Would you have statues of yourself at your place? And possibly sleep surrounded by paintings of yourself? XD