Straight-Up Not Having A Good Time At Night Raven College: Prologue

Prologue Chapter 15: Frantic Dashing

Kat tried to control her breathing, inhaling through her nose and out through her mouth.
Run, get jumpscared by the ghosts lurking in the mouths of tunnels or around corners, shoot fire and/or sparkles at them...
Rinse and repeat ad nauseam.

How long was this gonna keep going...?

Honestly, it kinda felt like those haunted house-style shooting dark rides at some amusement parks.
Except they weren't in a vehicle.
And she was the only one without a little laser gun.

Ace shot a ray of sparkles at a couple of ghosts that had popped out from the wall in front of them.
"God... MORE ghosts?! They're floating around all over the place here, too!" He panted.

"If we stop to fight each and every one of 'em, we'll never get anywhere," Deuce replied.
He was still holding Kat's hand tight. Unfortunately, her hand was pretty sweaty at this point, and his slick leather glove wasn't really helping matters.

She was doing her best, but she was pretty sure if she let go at this point, she wouldn't be able to keep up.
She'd probably just fall right on her face, and then the ghosts would....

They would do WHAT?

Honestly, she couldn't even tell if they were trying to hurt them or not, but she didn't really want to find out.

Also-- once again, she had a serious sense of deja vu....
Had she had a dream about running, holding somebody's hand like this recently?
It-- it wasn't Deuce, though.  They were taller-- a lot taller-- and they had cold hands with these long fingers...

Ace scoffed.
"Yeah, I get it, I GET it-- but quit acting like you're the team leader all of a sudden, alright? I mean, the only reason we're here in the first place is because of that shit-brained stunt you pulled with the chandelier!"

"What?!" Deuce demanded, glaring. "I'm pretty sure this all started because YOU tried to skip off on cleaning windows!"

"Oh-- OH!" Ace responded. "Okay then, in THAT case... That little furball burnin' the Queen of Hearts' statue is what REALLY started all this!"

"FNYAGH?!" Grim bristled.
"Well-- MAYBE you shouldn't've made FUN of me, then? Did you ever think about THAT?!"

"Why, YOU--" Ace began.

"HEY!" Deuce interrupted. "This is REALLY not the time! If we don't come back with a magestone by morning, we're ALL getting expelled, remember?! It won't matter who started it!"

"Yeah, I DO remember," Ace retorted. "Which. Is. WHY. We don't need YOU ordering us around like this! You're not our captain or something!"

Kat hadn't actually realized that they'd stopped running until it occured to her how much her throat and lungs were burning.

Coughing, she let go of Deuce's hand, doubling over with one hand on her knees and one at her throat, gasping.

Ugh-- she was absolutely drenched in sweat....
Her hair was sticking to her face, and the chain of her necklace was starting to chafe.

Ace, Deuce and Grim were still arguing, but she couldn't hear them over the blood rushing in her ears.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she took deep, slow breaths, waiting for her pulse to stop sounding so loud.

But then...

She didn't exactly HEAR it.
She felt it more than anything, the vibrations thudding in the soles of her feet and up her numb legs.

...What the hell was that?