Arno

As I aimed the gun at Hives, my vision began to get hazy and I could feel my body giving up again. The poison is about to set in again! I have to use this stemata and close out this fight quickly! If I don’t, everyone here is going to die!

I slammed my foot onto the ground to keep myself grounded and focused on lining up my shot. Come on, Arno! You were gonna become a CT, right? You were gonna create a paradise for parasites, right? So earn your keep right here! Right now!

“BLAZING…” I yelled out as I pulled the trigger.

And nothing happened once more. There was no glow from the bayonet’s crystal nor was there a resulting shot fired. Blazing? What the hell was I thinking? What does that even mean? I fell onto the floor and was once again paralyzed.

“Damn. Looks like you should’ve put more thought into your plan, commander. Your ace in the hole just flopped.” Hives picked up the bayonet and started aiming back and forth between Anna, Gollie, and I. “Now I’ll give you the choice: who should I kill first? I’ve never had so many guests and it’s making my trigger finger itch—who the hell is that?”

Because I couldn’t move my head, I glanced as far back as my eyes would allow me and saw an out of breath Rono standing alongside someone. He was as tall as Rono and wore a black mask with red strokes of ink on it. These red strokes created the imagery of screaming, stretched out faces. It was as if they were begging, pleading for an escape from something. That something being the blue crystal on the forehead of the mask that seemed to be the starting point of all strokes on the stemata.

“Guys! I….got help…man this guy runs fast…”

Rono brought a CT! Thank goodness. It’s a shame I couldn’t be any more help but at least we’ll make it out of here alive.

“Rono…who the hell is that?” Ori sweated nervously as she asked in a calm manner. “That mask is a stemata that went missing a long time ago…the CT that previously owned it was found dead.”

“CT or not…he obviously has a problem with me.” Hives began to walk toward the masked man.

The gem on the masked man's stemata began to glow and from the drawings sprouted two mounds of flesh that plopped onto the stone floor. Hives gave an eerie smile as the mounds formed into two short human-like creatures with black sockets where its eyes should be and a black ooze pouring out of them.

"What the hell, man? You're weirding me of all people out. I'm gonna make this quick, got it?" Hives said as he picked up the pace and rushed towards the masked man and his creatures.

As he got closer and closer, the creatures rushed him simultaneously. Hives readied his bayonet mid-sprint and in a near instant, spun like a cyclone and turned the two creatures into mincemeat. After that display of skill, he landed right back on his feet and did a final dash towards the masked man and stabbed him in his chest.

As Hives tackled him to the ground with a devilish smile, his eyes widened.

"You're wearing body armor—"

Before Hives could even finish his sentence and react fast enough to get away, a red hand sprouted from the masked man's stemata and grabbed onto him.

"W-what the hell is this?!" Hives shot off the red arm, but the remaining hand just forcefully dragged him back towards the mask. As soon as his face met the mask, it was as if the mask itself was absorbing Hives. The serial killer tried to push himself away, but couldn’t free himself from the pull of the mask.

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“Help me, dammit! I don’t want to die!” He reached a hand out and yelled for anyone that might interrupt and save him, but no one moved. None of us could even if we wanted to because he poisoned most of us.

“Mom! Dad! Save meeeeeeeeee!” He let out his last yell before becoming completely submerged within the mask. The only thing remaining being his stemata, which the masked man picked up. He was as eerily silent as ever in every action he took. Once he had the stemata in his hands, he began to walk away.

Ori looked over to Rono and jerked her over the man that was about to pass him. She basically wanted Rono to try to stop him and Rono got the message.

“S-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-stop right there! I can’t let you leave with those—” With every bone in his body shaking in fright, he tried to threaten the masked man, but he just walked past him and turned down into a nearby alleyway. As soon as he did, Rono dropped to his knees.

“I can’t believe I was with that guy!”

“CTs are forced to show their badges when asked. How could you not ascertain how weird that guy was and ask to see his badge?” Ori said, still looking at that corner the masked man turned to, as if half-expecting him to round the corner again and kill everyone that just saw what he did.

“We gotta report what we just saw. Wait here. I’ll go get the cops.” Ori rose to her feet and walked off.

When she came back, she brought a CT, fleet of police officers, and paramedics that patched everyone up. Ori gave the CT and officers the story on what happened and everyone was let go not long after. Once Ori and I got back to the mansion, she apologized.

“Don’t worry, Ori! I’ll catch up soon enough and blow you out of the water, so get too cocky!” I put on a smile for her as she unlocked the mansion door and headed inside. When we did, we heard a sound coming from the kitchen. Was someone trying to rob the place? Or maybe…the masked man came back to finish us!

“Arno…” Ori whispered to me.

“I got it…” I crouched and began sneaking down the hallway to the kitchen. Ori grabbed an umbrella that was by the door to prepare herself. Once we were finally at the entrance to the kitchen, I dashed over to the figure and latched onto their back and started beating on his head like a punching bag. The masked man is a lot more muscly than I remember…and taller…

“A-ARNO! PLEASE STOP!”

Ori relaxed her stance and turned on a light to reveal Mr. Terrance eating a strawberry cake on the island counter in the middle of the kitchen. He didn’t even have his usual armor on. He was just in a tank top, jeans, and a pink apron. When I realized who it was, I immediately got off his back and started apologizing.

“I’M SO SO SORRY, MR. TERRANCE!”

“It’s fine…school life probably has you guys stressing out.” Mr. Terrance chuckled nervously. “Uh, do you guys want some pie? I made it myself.”

“Gladly. It has definitely been at least a couple of hours before I ate anything sweet.” Ori sat down at one of the stools and I joined her.

Mr. Terrance cut moderate slices of cake for the both of us and sat down to eat. While we ate, he noticed the dejected look on my face.

“What’s wrong, Arno?”

“Mr. Terrance, I think I hit a ceiling in terms of my strength. I can’t use my stemata.”

“Hm…did you try doing it how you were taught in the academy? Did you try visualizing the stem system within you?”

“Yeah, but there was still no luck. What should I do? If I can’t do something in time…I’ll lose my chance at becoming a CT.”

Mr. Terrance paused for a brief moment, thinking about what to say before coming to a conclusion. “Well it’s hard to describe, but I’ll tell you this: when you’re pushed to the point of breaking….you’ll make it work out.”

“Huh?”

“There are times in one’s life when they’re in such deep trouble, they have no other choice but to either improve or get crushed by all of the pressure. I’ve had that moment happen several times to me and when it did, I grew significantly stronger each time without fail.”

“We ran into a serial killer and a guy with a mask stemata. I don’t think it gets crazier than that.” Ori said as she grabbed another slice of pie.

“Well then, apologies. I pulled a lot of strings to get you two into the academy, but if you flunk out, my hands are tied.” He rose from his seat and took off his apron. “I just came here to visit. I’ll check back in soon.”

“Thanks for the advice, Mr. Terrance.”

“You’re welcome, Arno. I hope it was helpful.” Mr. Terrance said before leaving the kitchen to prepare to leave the house.

I wonder what I’m gonna do. If that didn’t work, I don’t know what will! I need to think outside of the box and do something crazy! That’s the only way I’ll unlock my stemata!

Right?

My loud thoughts were interrupted by an even louder tapping on the table. It was Ori and something was brewing in her mind.

“Don’t worry, Arno. I’ll come up with something. I won’t let our dream die here.”