chapter 2

I walked down the hall and quickly noticed that it was dead silent throughout the whole school. I turned to the halfling, "Why is it so quiet?" 

 He just looked at me and shrugged, "I don't know. It's only midday, there should be a lot of people around here now." 

I had a bad feeling as we continued down the hall in the direction of the dorms. As we got closer to the dorms, I caught the faint smell of blood that quickly got heavy and thick and seemed to hang in the air, sending a chill down my back. "Do you smell that?" I turned to the halfling, who was hanging back and shivering in fear. At this moment we heard two muffled bangs, and then silence. The halfling took off down the hall in the direction we came from, I froze and stared down the hall in the direction of the sounds. A tall man wearing familiar red tinted spectacles and a thick black vest with various  gadgets came out of one of the dorm rooms with pistol in hand, looked in our direction then spoke into a radio attached to his vest then pointed his gun towards me and began shouting, "Get down on the ground, get on the ground now!" I panicked and began to kneel and looked down the hall where the halfling ran and saw him standing next to the stairs pleading with a bald man in black, his mouth moved but I heard no words. The bald man lifted his gun and shot the halfling between the eyes. It seemed so surreal because it made no sound, not even when his body hit the ground, just dead silence.

"Do you know why the small one had to die?" The  bald man asked. Jack looked shocked and shook his head. "He died because he wasn't strong enough." The bald man slowly walked down the hall and crouched next to Jack "I can see how much power someone has, because our great lord has blessed me with the Eyes of the Magus and you, my poor godless friend have an abundance of it and we will put that to good use in the name of the Lord." The bald man stood up and looked to the man with the red tinted spectacles.  "I should not be hearing you disposing of the heretics, do I need to show you how this spell is properly used?" The bald man raised his gun in a threatening manner. 

The man in spectacles deflated a bit and bowed slightly. "No, sir, I won't make this mistake again."

The bald man glared but seemed satisfied with the answer he was given. "See to it that you don't. Move this one with the rest, but keep him to the side. I believe His Holiness himself will want to see this one." 

The spectacled man nodded and shouted, "Place your hands on your head if you want to live!" I hesitantly complied and the man reached down and cuffed my hands to each other then pulled me to my feet and shoved me forward and shouted "WALK" We walked down twisting halls, thick with the smell of blood. He led me to the gym which was full of a handful of students and a couple professors who were all kneeling on the floor in two rows, one on each side. The man with spectacles forced me to kneel on the ground across from a long row of people including Adran the magic theory professor and next to the cat lady who was glaring at me in class. A troop of men walked into the room from the opposite side of the gym and walked up to the bald man one at a time, then took a position behind each of the kneeling prisoners. 

The bald man stepped between the rows. "I know you are wondering why you are here." The man walked over to Adran and tipped his chin up with the end of a pistol and looked back to us. "Here, we, the strong and pure, chosen of the Lord, will purge the heretics and become closer to our lord's favour" The bald man turned and looked up and down my row. "Now, initiates, you must choose. Kill these heretics and join our glorious cause, or die with them here and now." The others in the row looked horrified and confused. Adran looked to me and as soon as he made eye contact I felt something reaching out from him "Jack, you can hear me in your mind, I'm going to make a distraction i want you to run, run and find the one with the fractured soul he will help you, I don't have time to explain" Adran whispered under his breath for a second and jumped up with a flash of arcane energy, breaking his restraints. "Run" he shouts before gathering blue energy in his hands and flinging it towards 2 of masked men, sending them flying across the room spraying blood. I stood up and turned towards the door as I heard a crack followed by clattering I turned back to see adran fall to the floor, blood seeping from a hole in his head, the whole world seemed to slow down in that moment and sounds seemed to fade. The bald man turned towards me and cocked his head to the side, "It's a real shame, you had so much potential" The man pointed his pistol at me. I froze up as fear gripped my body I willed myself to run but my body didn't comply, the moment seemed to stretch forever.