Chapter 16: Who Are you?
A chilly breeze brushed against Noelle, which caused a shiver to run through her body. She curled up to try to provide some form of warmth to herself.
“Juliana, why did you leave the window open? Could you close it, please?” Noelle whined.
Noelle's eyes remained closed as she forced herself to try to go back to sleep. But Noelle’s desire to go back to sleep was interrupted by another cold breeze that crawled along her back and caused her to shake again.
“Juliana, please close the window already,” Noelle said as she slowly opened her eyes, only for them to widen when she didn’t see Juliana sleeping in the bed next to her.
Instead, Noelle was greeted with the sight of concrete. Upon seeing the concrete, she quickly sat up and looked at her surroundings in bewilderment.
When did I get outside? Noelle thought to herself as she looked at some of the buildings around her that seemed familiar yet different.
After she rose to her feet, she turned around to look up at the building behind her, only to shake her head in disbelief.
“Wait, that can’t be right. Isn’t this the college of Willow Creek?” Noelle mumbled to herself. The college building nearly looked like the one that she was used to seeing, except this building’s design and color were a bit different.
There’s no mistaking that this is Willow Creek College, yet at the same time, it isn’t, Noelle thought to herself as she started to wander around the streets to figure out what was going on.
Noelle couldn’t help but look over at the various clusters of thick mist that were crawling around the streets. She found it odd since she couldn’t remember a single time when Willow Creek was ever foggy.
After she walked around the streets, an idea finally popped into her mind. With a deep breath, Noelle extended her hand outward, only to look disappointed when there wasn’t a single sign of the spell she had just cast.
She also couldn’t feel an ounce of her magical energy, just like when she was stuck in that endless nightmare with Zeke.
It wasn’t long before her heart rate started to pick up when she thought for a moment that this dream had something to do with Zeke. Her eyes quickly darted around in hopes of catching any sign of him, yet she couldn’t see him anywhere.
She softly shook her head. Relax, Noelle. If this was Zeke’s work, he probably would have been here already, but whose work is this then? Noelle mentally told herself as she wandered around the area to find any sort of clues.
With each step that Noelle took, she couldn’t help but notice that it seemed like the clusters of mist were getting thicker to the point that it was getting difficult to see in front of herself, almost as if the mist was devouring her.
“So, it happened again tonight as well?” a man’s voice spoke out from within the mist.
“Who's there?” Noelle said before stopping in her tracks.
“Did anyone notice anything?” a woman’s voice spoke with concern, lacing her voice from within the mist.
“Not that I know of. But, if we don’t do something soon, then people are going to start to notice,” the man spoke again.
Noelle listened carefully, and she put two and two together that the conversations she was hearing from within the mist weren’t directed toward her. Instead, these two people were having a conversation with each other. But she was trying to understand what exactly it was that they were talking about.
“Something has been lurking out there again, and it’s worrying me; it feels like just another repeat,” the woman said with disappointment in her voice.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll do some investigating, and once I figure out the source, we’ll put a stop to it before it can do any more harm,” the man said, beaming with confidence.
Noelle couldn’t help but think that their conversation reminded her of her aunt's story about the beast that attacked Willow Creek years ago. If her assumption was correct, then why exactly would she be dreaming about that story she was told ages ago? It just didn’t make any sense to Noelle.
Without taking any more steps forward, Noelle decided to go back the same way before the mist got too thick. As she was making her way through the mist, it gradually started to clear up, and it was eventually gone to reveal the same place she had woken up before she had decided to go looking for clues.
“There you are! So, you’re the spirit that’s been causing trouble as of late,” the man shouted angrily.
At that moment, Noelle recognized his voice as the same one she had heard in the mist. But her eyes soon widened when she looked up to see that the man’s face had been blurred, almost as if she wasn’t supposed to know this man’s identity.
“Spirit? I’m not a spirit!” Noelle stated as she looked over at the man who was standing before her.
“Don’t ignore me spirit. I know what you’ve done!” the man shouted, and it was almost like he hadn’t heard a single word that Noelle had just said.
“You’ll pay for your crimes,” the man said before he extended his arm forward. Without any warning, an air slice ripped through the air and tore through Noelle.
At that moment, tears welled up in Noelle's eyes. The pain of the attack caused her to kneel down to the ground as she clutched her stomach. She gritted her teeth as she looked over at the man before her.
For some strange reason, she felt the pain of the attack without sustaining any injuries. But if this was a dream, why was she feeling pain? And this wasn’t like what she had experienced when she encountered Zeke.
While Noelle knelt down, a thought suddenly tore through her mind without giving her a moment to process it. The guy who was in front of her had been ranting about her being a spirit and paying for her crimes. This guy also possessed magical energy since he would need that in order to use spells.
So, did that mean he was a Celestica or Brimwick?
“You’re mistaken! I’m not even a spirit. Are you a Celestica or Brimwick,” Noelle quickly asked the man.
Once those words left her lips, she quickly rolled to the right to dodge another one of the man’s air slices.
“If you think we were just going to stand by and allow you to take more innocent souls, then you were wrong,” the man said before he dashed toward Noelle as a purple glow surrounded his body.
You gotta be kidding me. Is it so wrong for me to have a break? Noelle thought to herself before moving her body to the left to avoid one of the guy’s arm swings, which created a sharp air current.
She could sense the power within that strike. If she hadn’t moved, she was sure that it would’ve cut through her like paper. Even if she wasn’t going to sustain any injuries from his attack, she was certain that she would feel the pain from each attack that managed to reach her.
When the guy closed the distance between them again, she dodged another one of his air slices by jumping backward. But her eyes soon widened when the man closed the distance between them a lot faster than she had expected.
He swiftly sent a diagonal air slice that came into contact with her shoulder since she couldn’t dodge it in time. Upon feeling the slash rip through her shoulder, she immediately gritted her teeth from the pain.
Noelle reached up to grip her shoulder. Just before the guy could land another attack on her, she quickly kicked him in the stomach, causing him to stumble backward before she made a run for it.
Wait, why am I running? It's almost like someone else is controlling me, Noelle thought before she suddenly stumbled forward painfully to the ground when something wrapped around her right leg.
“Did you honestly think you could escape me?” the man said coldly as he got ready to unleash his next attack.
For some reason, no matter how hard Noelle tried to force herself to get up, her body refused to listen to her. The only thing she could do was watch the man in front of her slowly get closer to her with his incoming attack.
Without warning, an icy chill crawled up her back that caused her eyes to widen in panic. This was the same type of chill she had felt at the festival and when she had encountered Zeke.
It wasn’t long till darkness started to creep from behind Noelle before it began to surround her. Just as quickly as the darkness came, she quickly heard the man scream in front of her.
A loud gasp escaped her lips, but she soon relaxed when she saw the familiar ceiling that belonged to the dorm room she shared with Juliana.
She couldn’t help but notice the warmth next to her, which made her want to nuzzle into it. Her face soon turned a shade of pink when she realized the warmth snuggling next to her was Felix in his human form.
“Wake up, are you insane? Juliana is gonna see you, and you told me you weren’t going to cause me any trouble,” Noelle quickly scolded Felix, who only let out a small chuckle.
“Well, someone’s grumpy this morning. But don’t worry, Juliana already left for class, and she left you a cookie on the table along with a note saying not to forget to eat it,” Felix said with a sweet smile that caused Noelle to pout.
She raised an eyebrow at him since she knew he was just using Juliana as an excuse so he could snuggle up to her. However, she didn’t mind seeing his face since he distracted her from that weird dream she had.
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