Chapter 57

57 The Feeling of Aftermath

But then all of a sudden, the sound of an arrow firing in our direction made me freeze in my place. It was then I heard a loud thud as the arrow hit the ground next to me. An explosion of dirt splashed through the cave, as a huge man came falling through it right next to me with his eyes wide open as he fell onto the floor on top of me.

The sound of footsteps were coming closer and closer, so I quickly stood up as I saw more explosions of dirt fly towards me as I saw two men come into the cave from different sides. The dirt explosion continue to brew, until I saw something fly in my direction from out of the cave and hit the wall behind me.

I quickly turned around to see what it was as I saw the large man who had fallen on top of me being hit by three arrows right in his stomach and chest area. I quickly rolled out of the way, but suddenly a large explosion happened behind me and I rolled forward on my hands and knees as the ground began to shake under me.

I stood up quickly as I looked towards where Malachi was fighting, but all I could see was darkness with bright flashes of lightening around the area.

And soon enough, the whole sky went white and I couldn’t see anything as I closed my eyes, and the dirt dressed on top of me.

My eyes clicked open, only seeing the dirt in my eyes.

What happened?

Was it a bad dream?

Did I lose?

.....

But no, I could see sun above my head and there was nothing around me. I felt around for my wand but couldn’t find it anywhere, but then suddenly it felt like something grabbed onto my shoulder and pulled me back up on my feet.

I tried to see who it was, but from what I saw, it looked like Tisiah.

“Goodness sakes, what happened?” I asked, looking around. No one was there, except a bunch of piles of dust all over the place.

I felt around for my wand and finally found it laying on the ground next to me with my wand in its place. My wand was completely broken into pieces and was lying there on the floor with shards of wood sticking out from its handle.

I sighed in relief when I saw that my wand was okay and still functional even though it was broken. It felt good to use one, although they weren’t exactly real.

“So is anyone else still alive?” I asked, confused and looking around. The sky was bright morning, but it seemed as if the entire place was just dead. Then all of a sudden, we felt the ground open up, and descend us down.

I found myself dumbfounded at what I saw. It looked like some sort of hospital, as every single contestnant was just in a bed, with their eyes shut closed.

“What,” I muttered, as we began to pass by the different people’s beds, “Is this place?”

Suddenly we heard footsteps behind us, and we turned around, seeing Mr. Drails walk towards us in a proud expression. “Hello winners,” he said, “You survived.”

“We won?!” I shouted, with surprise and shock rolling over in my head.

“Yes,” Mr. Drails said, with a calming smile. “Good job.”

I sighed, but still felt confused.

“You guys should go home now,” he said, as he began walking towards a different direction. Shock and amazement just came over me, and I felt such a feeling in my heart that just made smile.

I didn’t think we were actually able to do it, not at all. In fact, I expected us to lose in the first few minutes of the round.

I guess I was wrong, luckily.

“Wow, we actually did it,” Tisiah said.

“We did it,” I said, “We beat Malachi and his team.”

Then, Tisiah looked at me with sincere eyes and said, “Thank you for being a very good teammate.” He nodded, as he looked towards the other members of our team who were laying on the bed, unconscious.

“Your welcome,” I said, as I looked towards them. I saw that they were all fine, except for one person who was lying on the bed, who had a very bad injury on their arm.

“Alright, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, in class,” Tisiah said, as we started to walk out of the room.

I nodded as we went towards the door, but all of a sudden Tisiah stopped and looked towards me and smiled. I nodded back and he walked out of the door, as a portal manifested and sucked in him. I could only just smile, knowing that we were safe from Malachi’s attack for now on.

I slowly walked out of the room myself, as I began to feel tired and sleepy. This was just exhausting, super exhuasted from all the fighting we just had to do against Malachi and his team. A portal then summoned up, and I walked through, arriving home before I realized it.

I quickly put my wand back in my utility belt and showed up home, where my mom was already awake and sitting at the table, eating a bowl of cereal.

“Hey sweetie,” she said, looking up at me. “How has your day been, so far?”

“Great, thanks, mom,” I said, as I sat down on the chair across from her. She nodded, as she started to eat her cereal again. “Hey, listen, um, there’s something that I want you to listen okay?”

“Uh, okay.”

“Yeah, um, I was thinking you should sign off the chess club you’re in,” she revealed with a sigh, as she took another spoonful of her cereal. “Your finals is coming up and I want you focus on your classes, okay?”

I sighed, as she turned her head and looked at me. This is bad, like really bad. The chess club was the excuse needed to go to the YMPA, and now that she’s gonna kick me out of it...

“Fine,” I said with a sigh. “I’ll think about it.”

“There’s no any ‘think about it’, okay?” she said with a stern voice and a serious face. “I know you’re really good at it, but you know, it’s not helping with your actual classes, so you should really focus more on those classes and forget for now.”

“Well I really like chess club, but yeah sure,” I said with a smile.

“Good,” she said.

“Okay well, I should get going,” she said. She stood up from her chair and walked towards me, wrapping her arms around me tightly. “Make sure to do well on your finals, okay?”

I nodded and smiled, as she pulled me into a hug.

I was about to say goodbye, but then she kissed my cheek before she let go of me and left the house with a smile. I sighed in worry, as she walked towards her car that was parked outside of our home.

I quickly went to the kitchen and grabbed a cup of coffee and drank it while I thought about what had just happened. That was the only way I could still stay as a spy mage, because there was no actual chess club. Now how am I gonna explain this to Mr. Drails?

I shook my head from my worries and headed towards the bathroom, as I looked in the mirror and saw my hair all messy from my fight with Malachi yesterday. Then I looked back into my eyes, which were full of fatigue and tiredness.

I must’ve been beat down bad or something, because I didn’t remember ever being this tired in all of my life. I sighed as I went to my room, put on my pajamas and climbed into bed. I looked at the clock and saw that it was only 8pm in the evening.

Figures.

This whole day or whatever it was, was the last thing I wanted to think of it, but there was nothing else that I could do at the moment. So I just laid on my bed and tried to sleep before the morning came.

Preview:

It was the next day, and it was of course Saturday, but I was feeling way worse than I was wanting to feel. I was taking my shower, and I just felt angry. I ate breakfast, and I just felt angry. I prepared to go to the YMPA, and I still felt angry.

I’m not sure why though. It made me even angrier that there was no reason why I was mad, I was just mad. Once I got sent to YMPA, I saw Mr. Drails standing there, waiting for me to come.

“Hello, Connor,” he welcomed with a smile.

“Hello, Mr. Drails,” I said with a nod. His smile was very “out there” and it was starting to get creepy.

As I prepared to enter the building, Mr. Drails quickly stopped me with his hands. “No need to rush now, just make sure you breathe in all the cheering alright. Be normal okay?”

“Why is this a pep talk?”

“Trust me, you’ll see.”