It was small, it was merely just a ray, but light shot out from her now-bloodied palm once more—hitting the monster directly in the right eye socket, causing it out to bellow out in rage as it staggered back.

Unclasping her unruined hand on her slashed side, Calypso hoisted herself slowly, back onto her shaking legs, and turned around as she forced herself, step after step.

All of this reached a dangerous point. There was no more pain, nor exhaustion. Just a dull, scarily warm sensation that felt like needles prickling all along this poor and damaged girl’s body. She could feel her internal tug-of-war in slipping in and out of consciousness, and now an entire limb was mangled.

But the girl could not be more overjoyed.

Now she can push herself until she breaks, and if she does break, it didn’t matter other than not being able to move, versus being trapped in pain as she was multiple times already. It was the edge, distillment of how this is a game of life or death.

And after all these years, after shrinking in the face of all the unwarranted proclamations that she was a genius when she was simply going through motions, Calypso never felt smarter than right now—after processing information in seconds and committing to plans the second after.

But most importantly, Calypso took delight in making this idiotic animal look stupid. That it can’t kill a what basically amounted to an injured little rabbit.

Only for that terrible, but expected pang of guilt to follow, rightfully following every time she inflated her head too much. Just boasting to herself, how she’s immune to pain now, when that familiar stabbing deep in her heart made the usual round. Even when actually using her so-called-smarts, Calypso fucks it up somehow.

That pain turned itself into an intrusive flashback.

She felt herself cook within the summer's haze. It was so hot the day, that the heat caused her stinging right cheek reignite with pain.

But it didn't matter. Because she got the little bastard back, who did that too her.

Her entire class back then, they all gathered at the jungle system. As Calypso was on the platform before the pole, smugly looking down at the ants.

Gawking at that brat's twisted arm, as he writhed in pain, crying out for anyone to help him. Peyton Rickman. Always boasted about "taking it", pain, is the reason why he constantly hit Calypso. He "needed" to teach her to stop being "so sad" by toughing her up. "Good guys" are strong, "bad ones" weak.

So the girl made an offer he couldn't refuse. She dared him to keep his arm outstretched on the platform, stomping on it until he said "uncle". Knowing back then he wouldn't ever give up.

Revenge and mockery, in one fell swoop. Calypso never felt smart then, as she looked on with a huge smile on her face.

Until the exact moment her 3rd grade teacher rushed onto the scene, cradling Peyton as he screamed out. Her face, panicked and confused... But once they settled on Calypso. It was rage. Nor fear.

Scorn. A scorn that not only burned into the girl, but still raged until this day.

As the flashback ended, Calypso just held onto the crumbling rail. It was that day, that she learned a very important lesson--and it wasn't in the classroom. She was a bad guy, not a good one. Never a good one.

Just in time for the monster to once again spring forth, angrily.

“You… Really are stupid…”

Using everything, Calypso used the broken-down railing as a metal pole and swung right into the monster’s literal skull, causing it to shriek and stumble backwards. The bar crumbled soon after in her hand, but she didn’t care. Immediately, she kept moving forward, leaping toward the section that wasn't destroyed it. Letting herself sway forward to use gravity to give her the momentum to keep working herself up, her blackened hand gripping the railing. Despite the railing itself began to break apart in her very hand, due to the cracks spreading so fast.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The monster roared out in increased volume. It was trapped, able to keep pace not to fall in, and yet couldn’t regain the footing it once had. It was ample time for Calypso to create distance between her and it.

Better yet, as the girl looked about, and despite the cracks coating the location all over—this was Calypso’s floor.

The memories flooded in the quite literal sense. Echoes of people she was supposed to call fellow classmates. This wasn’t from scorn or malice—Alice had that aspect covered. Just as these specters did, barely translucent yellow shadows that gathered, walked, and vanished—to them, that’s what Calypso was.

Calypso scolded herself mentally, for plunging back into emotions she thought passed, complete with official graduation. But it didn’t help that she lurked so slow, almost like a zombie, as she made it down the halls… Once again, no different than what she was, a couple of months ago.

She tried to keep focus… But the echoes started to gather beyond her peripheral vision. Surrounding her on all sides, as she looked on questionably.

Until the crowds pushed through her in the literal sense.

These ghosts walking through her as if she’s nothing, with enough nagging force that it caused Calypso to be tugged about, as she desperately tried to regain ground. Overwhelmed in an instant, she had to resort to looking towards the ceiling, just to keep to the path. Only to see stray cracks forming.

Only for smaller gashes forming on her face.

As much as she tried to move forward, as much as she knew that saving her soul was much more important… It was something about the display, something about the echoes tossing her about, taking her energy that she knew for a fact was gone hours ago—but Calypso could feel heaviness take hold with now glacial steps.

A corner. All she had to do was make this corner. Calypso told herself this, over and over, as they just keep slamming into her. It was a struggle to keep her own eye lids to stay open, at this point. Everything else in her mind faded away as the wariness practically pressed itself down her other thoughts. Perfect prey for the monster she’d been fighting for now no reason. All of that bravado and effort, only meaningless because she ultimately is.

“—FINALLY! A cheat code, but I’ll take it—!"

Not only was Calypso startled by the sound of Alice’s shouts, she was equally surprised at how she was pushed forward by her. And before she could even turn around and look at her, Calypso’s wrist was gripped tight and yanked forward.

Everything around her became a blur of varying yellows, whites, and greys to the point it hurt her eyes. Closing them, before gaining the strength to open them again.

Maybe it was the angle. Perhaps her souls or memories or whatever altered this in her dying mind. But she took immense comfort in seeing Alice’s back once more, as she led the way as Calypso followed. How it should be. How it should’ve been.

Alice tossed her forward as she crossed the corner, causing Calypso to snap out of it as she skidded on the floor. The silly, stupid girl couldn’t help but to look back at her maimed friend, like the puppy she was.

To see her flickering, barely maintaining a corporal form.

“KEEP GOING!” Alice gave a thumbs up, despite that action “repeating” multiple times, over and over. “YOU’RE ALMOST THERE!”

As if she had a choice. The monster soon sprung from the walls, destroying the hall that they were in.

Calypso huffed, sounding dry. The girl used her only working hand to adjust herself forward, towards her second landmark.

A black, metal bench that was fixed within the red brick walls. The sight that encapsulated her third year, where she entered the school and headed straight for this seat. Purposefully missing classes, lunch, just to get away. Calypso knew that simply not going to school in the first place would’ve served it better, but she was too scared in that.

She sat there, hoping that maybe an absolution was coming. Some teacher scolding her, her grades taking a hit that helps along a parent-teacher conference, a bully making fun of her, or even Alice coming along to make her happy. But no. Everyone simply stared and moved on with their lives. When all she hoped for was someone to stare into her eyes, to tell her that they saw something there, something alive staring back at them.

Once again, a piece of her soul simply manifested during her mental lapses. Shakenly, she put the much bigger piece—that had a sideways chuck taken out of it big enough for the last piece and a gash for the previous one—and slotted them together.

There was no victory, no celebration. The exhausted girl simply laid there, curling into a ball while laying in a puddle of her own accruing black blood.

She didn’t care that the monster was looming over, amidst pouncing and nearing its arc.

Calypso glanced at it. Unflinching. It wasn’t different from everyone else.

And with that revelation, both were engulfed in a now potent, searing light. Screams that once haunted Calypso were weak and cried out in pain, as that too was soon muffled, along with her sight.