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Chapter 3 - Barely Holding On

I'm not gonna lie. I thought I was dead.

The seal shattered. Light everywhere, gone in an instant. My chest was screaming, lungs on fire, and the orb… that thing… it was still there. Floating, glowing red like it had swallowed a whole hell inside it. Humming. Not fast. Not even close. Just patient, like it already knew I wasn't going to get away.

"Fuck… fuckfuckfuck…" I muttered, stumbling over a rock, hitting the dirt hard. My hands scraped, my knees cracked, and I barely managed to roll forward before a shadow whipped past me. The air smelled like burnt metal—or maybe it was just me, I didn't care.

I wanted to stop. I wanted to scream and cry and curl up and die right there. But I didn't. My legs didn't listen to my brain. My chest didn't listen. My body just… ran.

I sucked in air like my lungs were broken, coughing. My vision was flickering at the edges, black spots dancing in front of me, and every step felt like my bones were splitting.

Why me?

Why the hell me? I didn't do anything. I wasn't special. I wasn't ready. I wasn't supposed to be running from some demon made out of nightmare glue. And yet here I was, gasping and bleeding and shitting myself, running like the world hated me.

A tendril shot out, slicing through my shoulder. I screamed, white-hot pain ripping through me, and hit the ground hard. Dirt in my mouth. Blood in my mouth. Didn't matter. I rolled, scrambled, whatever, just moving, just alive.

The orb twitched. Shadows curled and hissed like snakes. My hands scraped at the dirt, my heart hammering in my ears.

I didn't even think. I just did.

I slammed my palm down on the ground, muttering the spell I'd practiced a hundred times until my throat raw. My hands were shaking so badly I almost messed it up.

"Seal… bind it… damn it!"

Light snapped up from the dirt, lines forming a circle around the orb. Chains of energy shot out, wrapping it, holding it—maybe.

I thought maybe… just maybe… I could do this.

Then—snap. Crack.

Chains broke. One by one, snapping like brittle sticks. My stomach dropped.

"No… no no no—"

The orb floated free, humming louder, glowing brighter. It wasn't trapped. It wasn't scared. It was angry. And I had just made it angrier.

I crawled back, chest heaving, coughing dirt and blood, muscles trembling like noodles. My brain screamed: run, run, run!

And I did.

I didn't look at anything. Didn't care about the trees, the road, the wind cutting my face. Just… away. Away from that thing that hated me more than anything else in the world.

The orb shrieked, shadows whipping tighter around me. My chest locked, my arms barely moved. This is it, I thought. This is how I die.

Then—heat.

The night split open with fire.

A wall of flame tore across the road, swallowing the orb whole. The shadows recoiled instantly, curling and hissing like they were alive. The glow inside the orb flickered once, twice—then bang.

Gone. Just like that.

I blinked, stunned, my whole body shaking from the shockwave of heat. My ears rang, my throat burned from the smoke, but the orb… it wasn't there anymore. It hadn't escaped this time. It was just gone.

Boots crunched against the dirt. A shadow stepped into view, tall, steady, carrying the faint smell of ash.

"Pathetic," a voice said.

I knew that voice. I knew it better than I knew myself.

"…Teacher…" I croaked, barely able to get the word out.

He stood there, one hand still smoldering with fire like it was nothing. His eyes cut through me like knives, sharp and disappointed.

"You couldn't even hold a basic seal," he said, tone flat. "And you thought you were ready to leave the village?"

My chest tightened. I wanted to argue, to scream, to say it wasn't fair. But the truth sat heavy in my gut. He was right. I couldn't even handle one orb. Not even close.

I dropped my head, dirt sticking to the sweat on my face. My throat was dry, my voice cracked, but I forced the words out anyway.

"…I tried."

He stared at me for a long moment. Then, finally, he sighed. The fire around his hand faded, leaving only the faint smell of smoke.

"You survived," he said. "That's the only reason I'm not dragging you back by your neck right now."

My whole body sagged, exhaustion crashing down like a weight. For the first time all night, I wasn't running. I wasn't dying. I was just lying there, broken, with Teacher standing over me like a wall of flame.

And for some reason… that almost felt worse.

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