Chapter 3 - A change unwelcomed(3)

Right after the elaborate speech of the otherworldly beauty, a window-like something popped out in front of me.

It surprised me with its sudden appearance and I fell on my back. "Ouch," I exclaimed after I landed on the sandy hard ground.

 It abruptly brought me back to my senses. Now everything dawned upon me and numerous questions crowded my mind, suddenly I heard bells chime inside my head.

Before I could make sense of anything at all, I heard a monotonous voice congratulate me in my head. "Congrats on passing the first trial."

"You have passed the first trial in 0.5 seconds. "

"Your rewards are being calculated"

I was left with more questions than ever. I passed? I wondered how. I didn't remember killing anything.

I turned to look at Ryan's confused face, and I could tell from his expression that he too saw the floating windows. However, I couldn't see his.

"ugh.. are you alright ?" he asked me as he came to help me up.

He extended his hand to me, "Yeah, just confused as heck" I replied as I grabbed his hand. He pulled me to my feet.

We just stared at each other not knowing what to do, I turned to look back at the school building, which now had kids looking out the window, at the lady. Some were waving to her while others filmed or shouted to her.

I could hear some asking if it was some kind of projection or if a movie or something was being filmed. 

The teachers who had come to their senses shouted at the lady while looking around for somebody to make all this make sense.

Then a stubby older man with a receding grey hairline came out of the building. 

He wore all black like he usually did being a priest and our school's principal. He always wore a silver cross around his neck which accompanied him everywhere.

I and Ryan used to make fun of how he must wear it even when doing the deed with his wife.

The principal shouted mild profanities at the lady with his hoarse voice, threatening to sue her.

 He then yelled at the students to stop looking out of the window which the teachers were soon to follow up on.

He power walked to the flying lady, asking her to shut off all this 'nonsense'.

Just then,

 *pow*, 

A sound rang as he looked disoriented and confused, following that sound came blood from his nose. 

He had hit himself on a wall. 

An invisible wall.

Before either I or he could process what had just happened

 the lady looked furiously at the principal.

"How dare you compare my divine power to some petty trickery. " She roared with her heavenly voice which enraged something within me. 

She then made a simple hand gesture that lifted him up into the air, now the students were all panicked and shouting, and some were crying, I could not make out what was happening inside the school except for the panic that ensued.

She then continued to glare at the principal, and it looked like the principal was being squeezed by an invisible force.

She then in her silence made another hand gesture that gave rise to lots of clanking sounds which arose from her luxuries brushing past each other. 

Soon some force ripped off the principal's head.

 Blood splattered everywhere and on her heavenly face as his head dropped to the floor splashing even more blood, and bounced a bit before rolling to a stop.

My knees went weak at the sight of this ordeal and the whole world started to spin.

 I could feel the blood drain off of my face and my heart race.

 I could feel the adrenaline rushing through my veins and all the warning signs light up in my head.

 Yet I was unable to move because of the sheer amount of fear I was experiencing.

I slumped a little but not to the point of collapse, but I was close. The angel then slowly crushed his body and I saw his blood and gut slowly extrude his body and then she let his body drop to the floor.

*plop*

It was nothing but horror, but right after, I heard bells chime in my head again.

 The same monotonous voice spoke, "You were the first to complete the trial throughout all of the servers, but due to the nonexistent difficulty in completion of your trial there would be a cut in your reward. "

I was once again abruptly brought back to my senses.

 I looked up at the angel averting my eyes from the now-beheaded body of the principal which no longer had the silver cross on it as it had gotten stuck in the lady's robe adorned with gold.

 Only to see her dissipate into thin air.

 Giving it not much thought I looked back at Ryan who was staring at the gruesome scene blankly.

I hurriedly shook his body as violently as I could to get him back to his senses, he looked at me as pale as a ghost and on the verge of tears.

 I understood, yet his reaction made me question my own, but there was no time we only had a mere 45 minutes till the end of the trial.

"Ryan get to your senses " I cried as I blocked his view of the murder.

 It seemed to help. I slapped his face with both my palms and stared into his eyes.

"Look at me Ryan, I need you to listen !" I cried.

He was coming back to his senses a little, "We don't have time Ryan! listen to me, look at me! look at my eyes !" I screamed at his face.

He slowly started to nod and then violently nodded as he replied "Yes, yes"

"Good, keep looking at me, we are running out of time! " I cried

"What? What time ?" He asked while gasping for air.

"DO YOU NOT SEE THE THING THAT IS FLOATING??" I screamed, hoping he too could see the floating window. 

I could not see his but I concluded we must only be able to see our own. 

I drew the conclusion as I remembered seeing the lady stare blankly into space and talk to herself.

"Yes...yes, I do" He replied as he gasped for air in the middle.

"Yes! Yes! What does it say ?"

"It's ugh it's ugh, showing um...a timer and is showing a trial to kill another living being." He stammered.

"Yes, Yes, we need to do that! " He looked down and then looked up at me and his face turned to show multiple emotions, fear, worry, and shock.

He looked to either side and soon started to get teary-eyed, he started to shake his head left to right violently "I can't, I could never" he said while getting more and more frightened by the second.

"What? What do you mean? The penalty is death, Ryan! We could end up like the principal" I shouted, was he not getting the situation? I mean it is pretty unrealistic.

But the principal just died! So it would mean we could die too!

"Do you not get it Luna?" he shouted at me interrupting my train of thoughts. He had a pained look.

"Ge-get what? We are going to die if we don't finish the trial ?" I exclaimed. I didn't want to reveal that I had already cleared it. It could be trouble.

'Humans are unpredictable' said a voice in the back of my head. What? What was that?

"Luna look around, we are the only ones here! there is no other human being !"

He exclaimed once again interrupting my train of thought.

What he said was true, to clear the trial would mean one of us had to kill the other.

 He plopped down onto the ground.

 As I stood in disbelief, "No, no that can't be".

 I turned to the school building and ran only to be stopped after a few steps by another invisible wall.

I punched it as hard as I could as many times as I could, I kicked, punched and rammed myself against it but the wall stood unshaken and without a dent. The difference now was the multiple blood stains on it revealing its presence to the world. 

My hands were now a bloody mess, tears rolled down my eyes as I slowly slumped down, exhausted and hopeless. The thought that Ryan would end up like the principal, shook my core, I was filled with dread. 

I felt hollow and couldn't help but blame myself. It was my fault, but what was my fault?

My mind was a mess, I could not answer my own feelings and thoughts. 

Each passing minute felt like a lifetime.

I continued to cry as I kept assaulting the wall. There were 30 minutes left now, I felt a hand on my back, and I looked over my shoulder to see Ryan smiling.

I could only shed tears as I looked at him.

 He dragged me to my feet and we both walked back to where our school bags lay, in silence.

He sat on the hard ground which I was quick to follow, I leaned on him as he used his shirt to wipe off the blood from my fists.

"The whole thing is funny, isn't it ?" He said in a calm voice.

 He waited a good minute for my response before continuing "I want to believe it is just a nightmare." he said in his usual cheerful tone.

 Once again I didn't reply but this time nestled myself closer to him and once again cried in silence.

He looked up at the sky and took in a long breath. "You know you squished a poor caterpillar to its death with your big butt," He said teasingly.

I almost rolled my eyes, was now the time for that?

But I realized he was trying to make me feel better, trying to lighten the mood.

He was not good at it. He was terrible at trying to lighten the mood. 

 But it only made me sadder, I would be alive unlike him.

 I wished for a miracle as I stared at the floating window as the timer continued its countdown.

In a moment it all made sense, I looked back to discover the squished caterpillar still stuck to my pants.

That was it! "That was it!" I exclaimed filled with copious amounts of joy as I started hitting Ryan in excitement and disbelief. 

I collapsed in his arms as I laughed my head off.

 It was a relief. I looked at him.

"Read the trial again, would you?" I asked cheerfully while looking up at his face from his arms.

"Huh? " He looked confused for a moment before his face brightened too, he had realized it too!

 The requirement was killing a living being, not a human in particular.

 It all made sense. I crushed the caterpillar to its death when I fell on my back after being startled by the floating window!

 It was right before the completion message too!

I looked at him, he was still wary of whether the sudden revelation was true or not.

Well, he *did* not know about me having completed the trial.

 I couldn't fault him. I sprang to my feet at a moment's notice and dived headfirst into the bushes near us.

I was happy the invisible wall did not stop us from moving inside the school yard which we had just exited before this hell came about.

 I was never really a fan of these plants, but now I am so happy for their existence.

I giggled as I went around looking for insects, and then all of a sudden bells chimed in my head again.

I stopped in my tracks.

"You have killed 23 living beings, your rewards are being calculated."

Said the monotonous voice. Once again I had killed something without realizing it, but what did I kill?

I looked down hoping to find some squashed insect but I only found some oddly colored leaves with numerous yellow spots.

I realized the leaf must have been affected by bugs or something close and I must have killed the bugs by accident.

 I continued my search after having discovered something new again, I heard the bells chime many times after that just by walking around in the bushes, I uprooted a few small plants but that didn't make the bells chime.

I crushed the plant roots with the soles of my roots but it still didn't seem to have done the trick.

 I soon found a plant small enough so that I could grind the whole thing up and then I heard the bells chime again.

 And so I went on conducting my weird experiment as I tore the bushes apart.

***

I ran to Ryan after realizing only 10 minutes were left, he was a few meters away from me. I was sure he had finished the trial too but confirming it was not going to hurt.

" Done ?" I asked him as I tilted my head sideways. 

"mhm" he nodded as he struggled to get out of the dense bush which was the only one standing now.

A deep sigh left my body, he still seemed to be processing everything and so was I.

A sudden appearance of a being of unknown origin, a murder, bells in my head, invisible walls, a floating window like the sorts we find when playing games, and the panic within the school building which is for some reason oddly quiet now.

I was worried about my sister too, she was inside the school.

 I was wondering if this was happening outside the school too. Are my parents alright? I wondered.

And it was at last time to put a stop to our worries as the timer came down to its last 5 seconds.

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Heyya ! I would really appreciate it if you could comment on your thoughts about this chapter and tell me how I could improve my work !!, lov yall <3 I rlly appreciate you reading and also commenting !!!< p>