CHAPTER 13: THE CORRUPTED

It was as tall as two men stacked on top of each other; its head nearly reached the rocky ceiling. No, upon closer inspection, it had no head. Not even a face. Instead, it had an enormous jar of ink on its shoulders, with a soft pointed hat on top. There were tiny cracks along the glass of the jar, and bubbles of ink would spill out of the gaps and dissolve into the air like steam, ignoring the principles of gravity.

It wore a large green tunic, leather boots on its stumpy feet, and it carried an enormous pickaxe in its hands. As the group of Night Ravens took in the monster's horrible features, it stalked forward, dragging the pickaxe loudly across the ground.

"St… Sttttt…" Its voice was deep and gurgling, as if a man was drowning in the ink of its jar-like head. "Stone…"

"…Stone?" Deuce asked faintly.

"Wh-What…" Grim's bravado was swept away. "What is that thing?!"

"How should I know?!" Ace demanded fearfully.

"C-Can you talk…?" Jill asked the creature nervously.

"STONE!" the monster roared. It swung its pickaxe, getting the weapon caught on the ceiling before jerking it free and striking with a mighty blow that cracked the ground. BOOM! The group all ran out of the way, facing their enemy.

"Take this!" Grim cried, summoning blue fire. The creature grunted in pain, but it quickly patted the flames out and continued to advance.

"My turn!" Ace used a wind spell, but the creature wasn't deterred in the slightest.

"Cauldron, I summon thee!" Deuce cried, and another cauldron materialized over the beast and dropped down on its jar-like head. The monster screamed in pain, then pushed the cauldron aside and readied its pickaxe.

"F-Fire!" Jill tried to say. "Wind! Water! Th-Thunder…! Um, earth?" But nothing worked!

The sky is dark as ink…
…
…
Your bones shiver tonight…

…
The moon shines bright…
The wind blows through you…
…

Jill was taken aback by these strange, jumbled words. Ace pulled her back by the collar, snapping her out of it and keeping her away from the large pickaxe. BOOM! The oversized tool created another small crater in the earth, exactly where Jill had been.

"We threw everything we could, and nothing's working!" Ace said. "…Retreat, guys!"

Without arguing or snarking back, the three followed Ace down the cavern, losing track of where they used to be or where they were headed.

"STONE! MINE! GIVE STOOOOONE!" the creature bellowed. It gave chase, dragging its pickaxe.

"Don't tell me it can smell the magestone!" Jill cried.

"Well, this stone is ours! That thing can get its own magestone!" Grim yelled.

"Yeah, I don't think telling it that will work," Deuce huffed as he ran.

"Over here!" Ace pointed to a narrow passage.

One by one, the four of them sprinted inside, winding up in a small dead end. The ceiling wasn't much taller than Jill was, and the room was rounded like a dome. The creature furiously pounded the passageway with its fists and even pickaxe, raining gravel and dust down on the students' heads. But it couldn't knock the walls down; it only widened the passageway by a small margin. Still not big enough to squeeze through.

The creature gave another grunt of frustration, slammed its fist into the wall one more time, and stalked away. The four were left inside the little room, catching their breath and trying to process what had just happened.

"This is great! Just great!" Ace cried. "How are we supposed to get the magestone back now?!"

"Maybe this certain magestone is really important, and that's why everyone's after it?" Deuce asked. "It didn't take us that long to find the right magestone—we could maybe give this one back, and find another…" He dug into his pockets, and his face fell. "Oh no…"

"What?" Grim demanded worriedly.

"I… I think I dropped the paper that told us the specific measurements," Deuce confessed abashedly.

"Wh-What…?!" the other three cried in shock.

"I'm really sorry! I thought I slipped the paper into my pocket while we ran, but…" Deuce sighed. "It would take too much time to try and find where I dropped it, even if there were no enemies around."

Ace checked his phone. "We just wasted an hour," he said. "One more, and we're done. There's no way we can get out of here in time!" He scowled and shoved his phone into his pockets. "This is so unfair! I didn't do anything wrong, but now I'm spending my first day at Night Raven with you guys, stuck in an old mine being chased by ghosts and monsters!"

"You think any of us wanna be here?" Grim replied. "And anyway, it's your own fault for insultin' me earlier! Not to mention, you knocked the fireball up to that chandelier!"

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Ace scoffed. "Did you want me to just stand there and get hit? And get over yourself already, everything I said about Ramshackle was the truth! Ask anyone on campus—oh wait, we can't! We're all getting expelled because of you and your hot temper!"

"I mean… you could've used water magic to put the flames out," Deuce spoke up. "Using wind magic only makes fire stronger. You both share the blame, I think."

"Oh, don't get me started on you, Cauldron Boy! If it wasn't for your little summoning spell, I wouldn't have gotten startled, and I wouldn't have blown the fire that far!" Ace yelled.

"I was trying to stop you!" Deuce argued. The two freshmen got up in each other's faces, and Grim hopped angrily between them. The three quickly dissolved into furious bickering, pent-up after a long hour in each other's company.

Jill's voice was stuck in her throat. She wanted to break them up, to knock some sense into them, to be the reasonable one… but her entire body was trembling like it wanted to fall into pieces. She stared down at her right hand. There was still a large cut in her palm from where she got pierced on the rock. Jill had no time to treat her wound; the bleeding had thankfully stopped, but blood was all over her hand, on the edge of her sleeve, on her shirt, her hair, on the ground…

Jill's blood was everywhere, staining whatever it touched, making everything worse, just like her constant streak of bad luck. Just like her life.

She was thrown out of her peaceful town into a completely different world with no way back. She was threatened, insulted, and ridiculed. She was forced to live in a disgusting, moldy old house with no comforts. She was ordered to go to a new school, meeting countless students and teachers at once, but not having anything in common with them. She was chained to a bratty cat with fire powers who caused trouble for Jill and didn't feel any guilt over it. She was wearing an ill-fitting suit and her shoes were too small and her hand hurt and there was a small tear in her jacket shoulder from where Grim had scratched it earlier—

I want to go home! Jill cried in her head. I want my mom and dad! I want my friends! I want my clothes! I want my dog and my house and my room and my school and my life back! I don't want to be here I want to go home I want to go home I want to go home—

"Look, don't blame me for this," Grim was saying. "It ain't my fault I have a worthless minion! She can't do a single thing right!"

This isn't me, this isn't my life, this is a nightmare, a horrible nightmare, I can't do this—

"Don't bring Jill into this," Deuce scolded. "I know she's skittish and not very useful, but she's doing her best!"

Stop it, shut up, you don't know me, you don't know me at all, this isn't me, this isn't where I belong—

"That's supposed to be her best? Wow, I'd hate to see what her worst is," Ace said. "Jill has been just a useless load this whole time. Isn't that right…?" He glanced over at her, and his red eyes widened in concern. "Jill…? Hey, c'mon, speak up…"

Stop it, just shut your mouth, this isn't my life, I want my life back, I WANT MY LIFE BACK—

Jill finally broke. She slumped against the rocky wall and sobbed loudly, her breath hitching and choking, wrapping into a tight ball with her arms around her legs. The dark world blurred and spun around her, and the others' voices rung in her ears. She pressed her face into her knees and continued to cry, too weak and tired to do anything else.

For so long, Jill had been bored of her quiet rural life in Crittenden and longed for something new. A new world that would open up just for her, like something out of her collection of fantasy books. Well, she had gotten her wish. Everything in her life was gone, and she had fallen somewhere completely and utterly new.

But Jill didn't fall into Wonderland, Narnia, Oz, or even Christmas Town.

She had fallen directly into Hell.