Origin - One - Rending Nightmare

The room was silent in the way that only an exam hall could be.

There was the occasional cough, maybe a sniffle, the scratching of pencils--often, the silence was broken by the surprisingly loud screech of a chair on the waxed wooden floor.

She took a deep breath and tried to remove herself from the distractions around her, to place herself in that nook in her mind where it was all quiet. Her grandpappy, bless his soul, had taught her that trick. He was a strange man, and she didn’t remember much of him except for his big beard, his smile, and a few of the strange lessons he taught her.

This was one of them, he called it riding the nightmare.

When she was younger she thought it was nothing but a silly way to have fun. Later she cynically thought it was an old man’s way of getting a little girl to sit down and be quiet. Now... now she needed that strange focus.

This was the entrance exam to the Escola Central de Brasil. It was a prestigious campus to be on. From high-school to early college. It had great after-school clubs, it had a political sciences and early-STEM course. It had links to several of the region’s best colleges, and a lot of students from here travelled to the United States to attend one of their ivy-league schools once they graduated high school.

The English teachers were actually English, from England.

The yearly cost for a student was... steep, and that didn’t count the bribes her family had had to pay just to get her to sit in on this exam.

She needed to get good grades on it.

She shifted in her seat and then allowed herself to run a hand through her dark brown hair to push back a bit of sweat. The question was done. On to the next.

Her heartbeat was a drum in her ears, a quick thump-thump beat. She felt a little faint, but pushed through it.

Years of hard work led to this. If she passed, if she studied hard and graduated with a scholarship, then all of her family’s dreams would be so much closer to being accomplished. She’d go to a good college, maybe go into medicine. That was acceptable for a young woman, and it paid well. Or maybe engineering? She’d like that.

She shook her head and re-read the next question while a staff member walked by her. She kept her head down and her lips shut. Being noticed would be trouble.

So many thoughts and scenarios pushed themselves into her mind. So she closed her eyes, just for a second, and she imagined herself grabbing the nightmares and subjugating them to her will. It was a trick to help her nap better when she was little, a lesson that she was in control of herself, even of her own fear.

There was no letting fear control her. Fear, anxiety, stress, they were all things she made for herself. She gripped her pen harder and opened her eyes. A glance to the head of the room and she took in the time. Still two hours to go. She refrained from counting the number of pages left.

Someone screamed something at the front of the room. She didn’t pay attention.

Reaching the end of the page she was on, she flipped it over, then penned her name at the top. Alice De Armas. Just the one family name, not that most would question it.

Next was math. She liked math. It was logical and straightforward. The more... abstract maths were a little hard to wrap her head around, but this was meant for a new high school student. It wouldn’t be much more than algebra and geometry.

A few chairs squeaked, and someone ran by. A teacher spotting someone cheating?

She refocused.

Someone jostled her desk and she frowned, but didn’t look up. The first page was laughably easy, but she went over every question again, just in case.

The next scream was much, much louder, and she jumped in her seat. It was too late though, a boy ran into her seat, head turned to look over her shoulder. Alice gasped as her chair was struck and it tipped way, way back, then with a forward swing, it righted itself and she sprawled onto her desk.

She glanced towards the gymnasium’s exit, confused. What was happening?

There was a bright red light coming from the corridor just outside the doors leading into the gym.

A girl stumbled through the doors. She was bleeding, a lot. Her outfit, a pale blouse and long skirt, were stained with more blood than Alice had ever seen.

She tried to stand.

EVEN THE MIGHTIEST LORD OF THE DIVINE HELLS FEARS THE SHADOW OF SLEEP.

Alice stumbled back into her seat. Someone had just shouted at her. No... it wasn’t a shout. She had heard that voice as if someone had turned a megaphone to its highest setting right next to her, but it was too clear for that.

She was dazed, and it took her a moment to stand back up.

The other students were running to the far end of the exam hall. There was a stampede. The door wasn’t opening, no matter how much they pressed and pushed.

FOR IN THOSE MOMENTS OF UNGUARDED NEAR-DEATH, THEY ARE CLOSER THAN ANY TO THE DOMAIN OF SHE WHO RENDS, THE QUEEN OF SHADOWS, THE NIGHTMARE WALKER.

Again, the voice. “What’s going on?” she asked. She didn’t want to go to the back of the room. Even now, the strange panic that had overtaken everyone was only growing, but some intelligence prevailed and people backed away from the door. One of the teachers, a big burly man, reared back and kicked the door.

It thumped, but remained closed.

Another scream, this time from the entrance. A staff member stumbled into the room, she was screaming, a strangely high-pitched yet gurgly scream.

BESTOWED WITH THE WILL TO REMAIN STEADFAST AGAINST ALL, SHE WHO RENDS WILL WALK AND HAS WALKED THROUGH THE SHADOWS OF THE GREATEST FOES OF HEAVEN AND HELL ALIKE.

Alice grabbed at her head. Her heart was pounding in her ears, faster and faster. But it didn’t hurt. “What are you saying?” she asked.

Something told her she was the only one hearing that voice. She didn’t know what it was talking about though. A nightmare? Someone walking through it?

She couldn’t forget the words. Every one of them was right there, loud and clear as if she was reading them from a plaque in front of her very eyes. That didn’t help her understand them though.

FOR WITHIN THE PITS OF DARKNESS, HER REIGN IS ABSOLUTE, AND EVEN THE BRIGHTEST OF LIGHTS CASTS A SHADOW.

The teacher by the door collapsed. Alice noticed the long, serrated knife plunged into her back. It was pitch-black, crude and poorly made.

A few students ran to her, more teachers shouted instructions that no one was listening to. Only a few students had phones out. They weren’t supposed to have those in the exam room to begin with.

A shooter? Here? Today?

No, she hadn’t heard shots. A person with knives?

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BECOME THE WHISPER IN THE NIGHT. BECOME THE STRANGLED CALL. BECOME SHE WHO RIPS APART THE SEAMS BETWEEN REALITY. THE NIGHT IS ETERNAL. YOUR SHADOW AWAITS.

Someone... something, stepped into the gym. It was small, no taller than Alice’s hip, with red skin and thin limbs. It was emaciated and gaunt, with little horns atop its head and beady black eyes.

She imagined, for a moment, that it was a large carablanca monkey, but the skin was all wrong. It had a pair of knives.

The creature looked across the room, then laughed, high-pitched and cruel. “So much prey! So many deliciousness for the dark lords! And for us!”

More of them started to file into the room. One of them was dragging a girl. Someone Alice’s age. Dead.

Alice heard the room’s collective gasp, she felt the wave of fear pressing in from everyone else. The only windows were high above. The doors weren’t opening. There was no other exit but that one. They were going to die.

I AM DREAM CHARTER. CRAFTED BY YOUR FUTURE HAND TO GUIDE YOU TOWARDS YOUR INEVITABLE VICTORY.

Alice didn’t feel any of the fear. Or... she did, but her lessons, long ago but frequently practised, came to the fore. She took hold of the fear and made it her own.

She stood taller. Something was happening to her. Her heart beat faster and faster. Her skin felt warm. Her eyes watered, unfocused, then refocused and her vision felt cleaner, more clear, as though she’d been wearing dirty sunglasses indoors and just removed them.

AWAKEN ME, AND BY YOUR COMMAND I SHALL SERVE ONLY YOU, RENDING NIGHTMARE.

It was obscene. It was stupid. She was hearing voices and now there were horned demon monsters filling into the gym. One of them ran at a girl nearby, entirely ignoring a boy between it and the girl. It jumped on her chest and raised an arm to stab down at her.

“Awaken,” she murmured.

LET US SPREAD THE FEAR OF YOU.

Alice almost fumbled the sword that appeared in her hand. Her grip loosened, then tightened on the hilt just in time to stop her from dropping it.

The sword was a deep blue, with a double-edge and a basket over the hilt. She wasn’t sure what kind of sword it was, but it seemed almost... fantastical. The colour, the lightness of it.

What seemed less silly was the way the sword’s shadow travelled down to the ground as an almost solid thing. It didn’t make sense, and yet it did.

“What now?” she asked.

YOU ARE A MAGICAL GIRL. THERE ARE DEMONS INVADING. TRANSFORM.

She froze. A magical girl? For some reason everything up until that moment felt right, believable. Sure, there were demons attacking and she had a magic sword. But being a magical girl? That was just far, far too silly.

Then the girl the nearest demon was on screamed as she was stabbed in the head, and Alice felt her rapid heartbeat stutter. The girl fell, her scream silenced.

Someone had just died while she debated how nonsensical things were.

“How do I... transform?” she asked.

THE SHADOWS ARE YOURS TO COMMAND. DEMAND THAT THEY ASSIST YOU. TAKE CONTROL AND YOUR WILL SHALL GUIDE.

She didn’t know what that meant. She stepped up anyway.

The demon that had stabbed the girl giggled manically, then it jumped up at her.

Alice gasped, tried to grab the sword with two hands, realized that there wasn’t room for her off-hand on the hilt, then she swiped the sword out towards the imp on reflex.

The blade met the demon’s knife and metal went spinning through the air to clatter nearby. The imp pulled its knife back, staring at where the tip should have been. “Bitch whore!” it spat. “Eat your eyesies I will!”

Alice stumbled back. Transform. She was meant to transform. But she was afraid and... and she grabbed her fear. Somehow it was so much easier than it had once been, and also, a lot more literal.

She still fell back, but instead of crashing to the ground, her shadow grew, expanding beneath her and ripping itself free as it fought against the very light that created it with tooth and nail.

The shadows ate her.

For a moment, there was no Alice. And then she was reborn, hatching from a moulting, twisting darkness that had every being that saw it--human or demon--screaming as long repressed fears came to the fore.

The egg cracked, and Alice shot out of it faster than she’d ever moved before.

Her sword painted a black line through the air that casually moved through the imp.

She wasn’t dressed as she had been. Her skirt was replaced with tight pants, like riding pants, and her blouse was now a creamy shirt with ruffles at the chest. She had a caplet of a deep, dark blue, and unfamiliar-but-comfortable hiking boots with golden tassels where laces ought to have been.

The outfit felt incomplete, but she didn’t have time to wonder at it.

“It’s her!” one of the imps screamed.

It ran at her.

Another gurgled something in a tongue that made her skin itch and a ball of greenish fire appeared before it. It tossed it at her.

Alice moved, and almost stumbled at her own speed. The world felt slower, as if it were moving in slow motion whenever she acted. The charging imp was beheaded, then she sliced the fireball apart.

The burning green flames were split apart, but each half still crashed onto the ground and onto a desk and lit both of them up with a gush of fire.

Alice flung a hand out towards the next fireball and the shadows it cast as it moved reversed directions and rose, swallowing the flames with too many teeth.

“Kill it! Kill it for the dark lords!” one imp screamed.

“Eat her soul!” another said. “Eat it and become as a dark lord yourself!”

She didn’t like the sound of that.

Alice ran towards the little demons, the shadows around her leaping up and snatching fireballs out of the air like an eager dog catching treats.

Then she was among the imps and her sword swept left and right. Some tried to parry, but her sword moved through flesh and steel as if it were no more than a suggestion.

And then, with her mind thrumming, Alice came to a stop and looked around her.

Imps, or parts of them, lay across the ground. Some cut, others partially swallowed by their own shadows. Their faces were rictuses of anger and hatred. She couldn’t feel any guilt at what she’d done, only confusion.

WELL DONE, RENDING NIGHTMARE.

The darkness around her slid back, and her sword disappeared with a hiss. She knew she could call it back at a moment’s notice. Her costume faded like darkness before a light, and she was, once more, in her normal outfit.

Then she turned and noticed all the students staring.

“Um,” she said.

How was she going to explain this... and would she have to retake the entrance exam?

***