Obsidian Kiss

four

four

Someone was screaming. Loud and shrill. The sound was so unnatural and bizarre, Lav easily disregarded it as a dream and hugged her pillow tighter. Maybe it was the beginning of a nightmare, she thought as she began to drift off again.

Until it sounded once more, a deafening shriek that echoed beyond the surface of her mind and jolted her to reality.

She was bleary eyed and sluggish as she blinked at the darkness of her room. What time is it? She remembered making the decision to take a nap after Kaede left-

An ear-splitting scream reverberated throughout the dorm hall. The light purple feathers at the tips of her wings spiked in alarm. She kicked her blankets and pillows aside and leapt from the bed. That sound. It hadn't been an element of her imagination. It was real.

And giving off a really bad vibe.

Moving rapidly, Lav dug in her dresser and whipped out the first weapon her hands closed around. An ice pick. The handle was sculpted with an intricate bronze design. She'd swiped it from an ice cream shop as a teenager. It wasn't anywhere near as pretty as the gold blade that her dark angel had confiscated from her but whatever, it still got the job done.

Lav wasn't even sure what was out there but better to be prepared than be defenseless and have her eyeballs plucked out.

Before her brain could delve further into the limitless possibilities of what she was getting herself into, she yanked open the door - and gagged. An atrocious scent of rotten mushrooms and burnt smoke singed her nostrils. She pinched her nose shut but the smoke blistered against the back of her throat.

Note to self - add gas mask to armory in dresser.

Trying to steer onto the brighter side of things, Lav was grateful that were wasn't actual smoke in the air to blind her. But now she had to know what the hell was causing that awful shrieking. She was definitely about to lose her hearing alongside her ability to smell.

She stepped out into the hall and shut the door behind her. That horrid scent would never get out of her pillows so if she could save them by putting herself out in the open, then so be it.

"Lav!" An angel came running from the south end of the hall. Synth. Not exactly a close friend but they'd smoked together a few times. Her frantic gaze was out of character to her usual mellow self as she rushed to Lav's side, their wings bumping. "We have to get out of here!"

Whoa. Half of Synth's blond curls were drenched in crimson. Blood. It also soaked her babydoll nightgown, the sheer fabric pasted to her body.

She didn't appear injured but her heart was probably ready to leap out of her chest as she panted heavily from pure fear. A handful of cocoa colored feathers were clenched in her fist. Those definitely weren't hers. Synth had dusky rose wings.

"What happened? What's that soun-?" The question died on Lav's lips as the source of the sound skidded around the far corner of the hall.

A faceless creature composed of lengthy, dragging limbs and shiny black flesh crawled forward. It didn't have eyes and yet it navigated the hall on four legs like it was home. It had to have been at least ten feet tall and Lav froze, her bones turning to ice. It was a demon.

A demon was in their dorm wing.

She'd never seen one in person. Never knew they could emit such an appalling smell. She didn't even know what kind of demon it was and yet blaring alarms were going off in her head. That's what you get for skipping classes to go dive off cliffs.