Lost in their own thoughts and worries, neither Matthew nor Rebecca noticed the gradual changes to the sky around them, not until the light of the moon finally broke free from the cloud cover and began to reflect sparklingly off a multitude of beautiful blossoms interwoven amongst the greenery of the forest canopy. “Almost as beautiful as it is scary, under the moonlight,” Rebecca whispered softly.

“It is,” Matthew agreed, as he enjoyed the feel of her chest pressed warmly up against his. Rubbing his hands down her bare back, he caressed her softly, until he worked them all the way down and under her skirt. “Almost as beautiful as you,” he whispered softly, leaning in to kiss her passionately.

“Shit!” Eyes suddenly opening wide, Matthew broke off the deep kiss halfway and shoved Rebecca several steps back from him. “Dammit! We forgot! We got to go!” Spinning on his heels, he spun and dashed off to the trapdoor which led back down inside the school. “I’ll meet you inside the auditorium in a few moments,” was his last fading cry as he leaped down into the open trapdoor and quickly disappeared out of sight.

“Wha… Whaaa.. What the hell?!” Shocked at the almost instant abandonment, Rebecca blinked several times and looked around nervously. Where the moonlight had felt warm and somewhat soothing on her skin just a few moments ago, it was now making goosebumps dance up and down all over her body. Somehow, she’d felt safe in Matthew’s arms. Even with all the weirdness of the world around her, and all that she’d went through over the last several days, she had to admit – to herself at least, if not anyone else – she’d still felt warm and protected while she was wrapped up in his arms.

‘Sure, the boy might be a horny bastard who just wants to rub, feel, and stare at me all the time,’ Rebecca thought to herself, as she wrapped her arms tightly together and tried to rub the shivers out of them, ‘but at least when he’s here I don’t feel like a lone sheep which strayed from the herd and is waiting for the wolves to come eat it. I can’t believe he ran off and left me like that!’

Taking one last quick nervous look around, Rebecca quickly scurried the short distance across the rooftop and began to scramble down the ladder to follow after him. Being alone, outside under the wide open sky and shining moonlight, made her feel like a mouse being stalked by an owl. Hearing on hoot in the distance of the forest, did nothing to help soothe her nerves as she hurriedly pulled the trapdoor shut behind her and rushed the rest of the way into the school.

“Shit! Shit! Shit a fucking damn!” Cussing vehemently under his breath, Matthew yanked open the door to the auditorium so hard he ripped it completely free of its hinges. Barely even registering his act of what would’ve been called blatant vandalism, he simply tossed it behind him and out of his way. He was halfway down the rows in the auditorium, nearing the stage, before the resounding thunder of it blasting into the far wall echoed behind him.

“Fuck a shit! I’m such a dumbass idiot!” With a single leap that covered the remaining distance – well over a dozen rows of seats – Matthew sprung up onto the stage in the blink of an eye. A fraction of an instant later, he’d closed the distance to the trapdoor leading into the cavern below, tore the door open, and leaped down into the tunnel beneath.

Hel’s icy dark aura enveloped him instantly as he entered full battle mode, prepared for anything, as he glanced down the tunnel in front of him. Taking a deep breath as the calm coolness of Hel’s visage washed over him like a shadow, Matthew coolly rubbed his hands once through his hair before striding purposefully down the tunnel and towards the caverns where the others remained. Eyes glowing red in the darkness which surrounded him, a single thought burned icily through his mind.

‘If those bastards have touched what’s mine, I’ll send all their spirits to the damn crystal to be tormented for eternity!’

‘I’m fucked. I’m fucked. I’m fucked.’ Trembling with fear, Jennifer watched as the light inside the cavern slowly faded with the passing of the daylight above. ‘I don’t deserve this,’ she whimpered mentally to herself. ‘I never actually tried to kill anyone,’ she lamented internally, as tears slowly worked their way down her cheeks. ‘The only person I actually hurt inside that place was myself, inside the pool,’ she reasoned weakly. ‘That’s no reason for me to be shackled, enslaved by my own body, and then abandoned down here like some piece of forgotten trash!’

Matthew and Rebecca had forgotten about her! Or else they just didn’t care about what was going to happen to her when the sunset and the crystal began to work its insidious influence upon the people inside the cavern! “I never wanted to be with a single man yet,” Jennifer whimpered softly to herself. “I sure as hell don’t want to be the victim of some sort of mass orgy with all those bastards! All they’ve done is stare at me all day long. Make fun of my shackles. Tell me to wiggle for them. Show it to them. All they’ve did is take advantage of me, making me exhaust myself creating and hardening crap out of glass for them…”

Letting her voice trail off to silence, Jennifer wiped the tears from the corner of her face and shivered uncontrollably as the crystal grew darker and darker, signaling the end of the day. “They used me until they used up all my magics,” Jennifer simpered, “and now they’re going to use the rest of me the same way. I’ve been abandoned, discarded, and left behind here to be nothing more than their plaything!”

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Jennifer forced herself to ignore the warning throb of exhaustion in her temples, to create a long shard of glass about as long and thick as her forearm. “I won’t be easy meat for them,” she promised herself, the corners of her lips twitching back into a snarl. “I won’t be east meat ever again,” she repeated, as she forced her exhausted mind to pull upon the energy to shape the thick glass shard in her hands into the form of a long, thin dagger. When she had finished, the blade was nearly as long as her forearm, but only about as thick as one of fingers and curved into a snakelike S-pattern, leading up to a needlesharp point. The impression the whole thing had was one of business – the icy cold business of killing.

“I’m not easy meat,” Jennifer insisted adamantly to herself, as she once again pushed against her limits. She’d worn her mana down all day long creating a wall of glass spears and hardening them to form a defensive barrier at the exit of the tunnel leading to the school, and then the others had exhausted her mana even more creating axes, knives, and tools for them. Worrying about the impending nightfall, and the horrors that it brought with it to her, had kept her from relaxing and recovering any real energy. Jennifer really didn’t have the energy to even create the glass for her dagger, much less shape it. It was only pure willpower, fear, and determination which gave her the strength to do so. Trying to force herself to harden the weapon so she could use it for protection was completely beyond her grasp at the moment.

“I’m not…” As she tried to repeat her mantra of determination one more time, a wave of sickness washed over her and searing pain erupted like a volcano in her mind. A trail of deep crimson liquid drained down her face as the blood vessels in her eyes expanded and burst as her feeble attempt at controlling the mana around her failed. Falling face first to the ground, Jennifer did nothing to catch herself as her mind shut down and she collapsed hard, blooding her nose and lips.

Dagger still gripped iron-like in her hand, Jennifer lay helpless and forgotten amongst the shrubs and grasses near the tunnel to the surface.