4th Monster killed & A Shocking Discovery

-• Tia's P.O.V •-

"Tia, are you okay?" Anna asks, slowly walking towards me. "No! Get away from me!" I immediately stand up, pointing my pocket knife at Anna. "What are you doing?!" "I...I didn't me to!" "It's okay, James and Vernon told me everything."

"Told you what?" She slowly takes a few steps closer, and I lower the knife. "That you're not it..." She hugs me, tightening each second. "I'm sorry for doubting you..." "Anna..." She lets go and sighs. "I was just...Really shocked by what happened."

"I can't blame you. I would've done the same." "But this is different! I almost killed you!" "I know, and as I said, I forgive you." I smile at her. "You're not mad at me?" "I could never, Anna." I hold her hands and gesture James, and Vernon to come.

We form a circle and hold each other. "We're gonna leave this place...Together." "You're right." Vernon placed his hand on my shoulder. "But..." I smile at Anna, and she nods. "Guys." Sam, one of the third yeas, comes up to us.

"We need to get going." "Yeah, we're coming." We break off the circle and walk back to the group. "We should go back into the school." "Yeah, we don't have time, we still have 9 more demons to kill." Lucas agreed. "How do you know how many there are?"

A third-year asks. "It's hard to explain but trust me when I say there are still 9 more out there." "Then we need to act faster. After all, once it's sunrise we'll all die except for 5 people." "We should start now then."

We all walk to the door leading back into the school, but right before Leon opened it, Damien barges out, breathing heavily. "What the hell are you doing here?!" Vernon yells at Damien, visibly annoyed and angry by the sight of him. "Woah, easy there, Vernon."

Vernon scoffs and crosses his arms. "Look." Damien raises his hand and he's holding a..."A feather?" "What the hell are you doing with a feather," Anna asked. "Isn't this feather from The Shade?" "The Shade?" "Oh, we named the demons, so it'll be easier and faster to say."

"So? You just have its feather. We can't do anything with it." "Wrong." Sam steps to the front of the group and takes the feather from Damien's hand. "Since we're dealing with Mrs. Harris, we should think about art." "Art?" "Yeah, does anyone here do art?" Leon asked

and some people raised their hand, including Vernon, Sam, and some of the third and second years. "Okay, we have to think about something quick." We all form a circle and start discussing. We talked for a while but soon, Sam had an interesting theory.

"Guys." He stepped forward to the center of the circle. "Art...You can't complete art without making sure, that there are no missing details." "What are you saying?" Lucas steps forward, intrigued by what Sam had just said.

"I'm saying that...What if we burn the feather? It might hurt the demon." "You're right. Once we burn it then...Something might happen to the impostor's body." "Then let's do it. Everyone, start gathering flammable things and place them here." He outlines a circle with his shoe.

As I'm collecting some wood from the surrounding forest, Michael comes up to me. "Hey there sis." "Michael?!" I hug him tightly. "Where the hell have you been? We lost you when we searched the school for Mr. Varion's body." "Yeah, about that..." His smile immediately fades, making me concerned.

"What happened?" I sit him down and we start talking. "When we were searching the second floor...The shade showed up." My eyes widen, shocked by what he said. "The Shade?" "Yeah, it killed everyone but...I got away, hiding in some of the classrooms for a while."

"So it chokes people..." I mutter. "Wait, what?" Michael heard what I said, and questioned me. "What do you mean it chokes people?" "When we got there and everyone was dead, we saw that they had choke marks on their necks."

Michael sighs. "When it attacked us, it was really fast, like, extremely fast." "Then, we have to hurry, because that thing is lurking among us." We continued getting wood and soon returned to the school with it.

*Objects falling and burning* "Okay, now that we have the fire, we should burn it." "Okay." Sam takes out the black feather and places it into the fire, consuming it.

"Ah—" We heard someone wince, making everyone look around for who it could've been. "It winced!" "Wait..." I come next to the fire, getting everyone's attention. "I know that voice..." I pause, thinking about who I heard wince like that.

"It's..." My heart sinks, skipping a beat after finding out who it was. I slowly turn behind me and point at..."It's Yunior." Everyone gasps, and Yunior's eyes widen. "W-what?! It's not me!" Yunior denies, slowly backing away from the group.

"You're not getting away!" I raise my pocket knife and throw it at Yunior's leg. "Ahhhh!!!" He screams, grabbing his leg. "Get him!" James and the others sprint towards Yunior, but his eyes turn black, and the demon's form starts to reveal.

"I didn't want it to come to this!!!" The Shade has now fully transformed back into its original form. It has a coat made of black-crimson feathers, and a mask made of bone's representing a bird's skull." "Hah!" The Shade teleports behind us, and it breaks someone's neck.

"Ahh!!!" Everyone starts panicking, scattering amid the chaos. "Stop!!!" Michael yells, making all of the others stop to look at him. "We should try and follow it! It's our only chance of killing it."

Everyone was scared but they nodded and we start running after it. "What are we going to do?!" "Look!" Anna points at The Shade, who was now flying away from us. "I thought you said it was extremely fast?" I asked Michael. "It was...How?" "You threw the knife at the leg, right?"

Jessica, a third-year asks us. "Yes." "There you go." "How are we supposed to kill I though? It's still fast even with injuries!" Just as I said that The Shade teleported back and cracked someone's neck, going back to its original location right after.

We all scream, but we calm down and keep on following The Shade. "Everyone, listen to what I'm about to say!" Damien yells, and everyone listens as they continue running. "Once The Shade comes to kill one of us, you have to rip some of its feathers out!"

"He's right! It'll be scary, but we have to do this! Do this for your friends so that they have a chance at living!" Vernon yells, agreeing with Damien, and also making me confused. "You agree with him?" I asked. "We don't have a choice. Plus, I think he's unto something."

We continue chasing The Shade around the school, and it continues to kill one of us, but I realized something. "Wait..." "Tia, we have to keep running." "No, it's not that, I just noticed something." "What is it?" "It kills one of us every two minutes." "Are you sure?" "Yeah, I observed it and I was right each time.

"Then we have to tell the others." I shake my head at Vernon. "No, if we tell them then The Shade will hear us." "You're right, But by telling the others, we could be more prepared to take out the feathers." "I have an idea." He leans close to my face.

"We should split up and tell the others in secret, that way, we can tell everyone without The Shade finding out." He nods and runs to the other side of people running. I run to Anna. "I'm...Getting tired now...Running...Isn't my forte." "I know, Anna, but we have to keep going. We have a plan."

"A plan? Tell me." I lean in and whisper the plan. "Okay, so should I also tell the others?" "Yeah, it'll make things faster." We split up, both going to different groups of people running. Soon, everyone knew about the plan.

I run to James and Vernon. "Okay, now that they know, I'm gonna say the code word." "Code word?" James asked. "Each time The Shade is about to go back, I'll tell "Pull." That way, we can guarantee a feather getting ripped.

"This better work, because a lot of people have died already and we're getting tired of running now..." "Trust me, this will work." A minute and fifty seconds have now passed, I get ready to yell and..."PULL!" All of us pull on the air, but one of us successfully pulled some out, sadly dying for it.

"It worked!" "You're seriously happy someone died for that?" Anna asked. "We have no choice Anna, this is the only way." "Are you sure there aren't anymore?" "Well..." I pause but respond with..."I'm not sure, but for now, it's our only plan."

After burning more feathers The Shade weakened and slowed down. "Keep going!" We all try to run but some of us has already gotten too tired and fell to the ground. "We can do this! Don't give up!" There are only 23 of us left running.

As we're about to reach The Shade, it suddenly disappears. "Huh?" "Where'd it go?" We all look around, but don't see it anywhere. "Don't tell me all these people died just for it to get away!" Sam yelled. "Everyone...Quiet." I whisper to them both.

"What is it?" We all stop, silence consuming our surroundings, but right as I'm about to talk I hear...*Twig cracking* "It's here!" "What's here?!" "The Shade! It's invisible!" "Ah!!" Anna screams, The Shade grabbing her from behind. "No!" "Don't come any closer!"

The Shade created a black smoke around him and Anna. "Let go of her!" I yell, when I suddenly see someone in the corner of my eye, sneaking behind The Shade. "Leon?" I mutter, and he immediately shakes his head, signaling to not make it obvious.

"Wait!" The Shade looks at me. "I'll offer my life in exchange for her's!" "Tia, no! You don't have to do this!" Anna grunts. "Come inside the circle!" The Shade points at me. "Let go of Anna first!" "I cannot do that! Now, do it quickly before change my mind!"

I look around and at Leon, he nods, signaling me to agree. "Fine!" I slowly walk into the circle and The Shade pushes Anna away, grabbing me in the process. "Now, time for you to perish—" "Gyah!!!" Leon charges towards us and hits The Shade, pushing us both unto the floor.

"No!!!" I run away as Leon tackles The Shade. "Leon!" Jessica tries to go for him, but I grab her arm. "Don't." "After what you did? You killed almost all of us, Tia!" "I still have one last step to make." "What do you mean?" "Leon!" He doesn't seem to hear me but I could see him nod lightly.

"Take off it's mask and throw it to us!" "I don't think he heard us." "No, he did, just wait." We wait for a while but once he gets a punch in, he takes the mask off and throws it to Michael. "No!" The Shade pushes Leon away, sending him flying across the school garden.

"Got it!" Michael catches the mask and starts running towards the fire pit. "Michael!" "Don't worry! I'll make it!" Michael continues running and soon he reaches the fire, throwing the mask into it as The Shade is about to grab him.

"N-No...This can't be!" It lifts its head up, revealing its blank, empty face. "You'll pay for this!!!" The Shade disappears into smoke and dies. Michael stumbles to the ground, breathing heavily. "Are you okay?" "Leon..." He passes out.

"Leon?" I turn around and see Leon on the floor, some of us gathered around him. I run to them and kneel down beside him. *Coughing* "He's dying..." Leon continues to cough blood, but he says one more sentence with his last breaths. "So-sorry...I...Was one...Of three...Stu-students..." "What do you mean?" "I...di-didn't want to...do it.." "Leon, stay with us."

"One...Of us is...Within th-this...Group..." "Who is it?" "Wa-Watch out...For..." He's about to say the person's name, but he takes his last breath and dies. I stand up, and take a deep breath. "One of us here is a part of them." "A part of what?" Jessica asked. "The three students that want to kill us."