He Who Hunts Demons Chapter 14: 14-Make Certain To Survive Every Ordeal

Read chapter 14 of He Who Hunts Demons by A_Random_Turtle on NovelPedia.

14-Make Certain To Survive Every Ordeal I woke up in a hallway. It was narrow, lined by lanterns hanging from its walls, and led down a path that branched into a T-junction. A silence so heavy it almost felt like time had stopped fell upon me, and a calming fragrance of lavender whooshed across the corridor, prompting me to take a deep breath. I remembered that smell, and now that I looked closely at where I was, I remembered it too. This was my parents’ orphanage. For a moment I’d almost thought this was real. But the gory visuals of my parents’ deaths etched firmly into my brain reminded me of the impossibility. Which led me to recalling what had brought me to this point. I remembered being in a cave and struggling not to fall asleep. Bel had kept me awake, while Wyg was not so lucky. Although, the fact that I was no longer in the cave was enough proof for me to realize that I had ended up succumbing to the exhaustion the cave had thrown upon me. My heart skipped a beat. Blimey! How could I have fallen for the whims of the cave despite knowing what it did? And did the fact that Bel hadn’t woken me up meant that she too might have succumbed to the cave’s pressure? This was bad. Very bad. Was this the end? Would I never wake up again? I shook my head. There was still a chance for survival here. I didn’t know how death felt, but a part of me was certain that this wasn’t it. I was still alive, and that meant there was a way out of this…dream. Loud giggles broke me out of my reverie, and my gaze snapped up from the floorboards I’d pressed my eyes into to see children dressed in white running down the corridor. They all had smiles on their faces, and were calling out to one another very playfully. The scene was so calming that my body twitched in response, nudging me to join them. And for a second, I almost did. But I held myself back. My body remembered the fun I had when I was a child, how we would all run around and play just before nightfall, but this wasn’t real. I had to find a way out. I took my eyes away from the backs of the children as they raced past me, and turned forward. I froze. A figure stood before me. Shuddering, I took two steps back. The figure inclined their head. I couldn’t see their face. It was like something had scratched it away, leaving ragged distorted lines in its place. But I could make out their shape. They wore a white gown, had long, black tangled hair, and was maybe an inch taller than I was. She seemed older than the rest of the children that had just run past me. However, from what I could recall of my parents’ orphanage, there were no girls of her age present. My brows furrowed. I was not satisfied with the vagueness of the information I possessed on her, so I decided to push a bit harder—look past the lines on her face. But a blunt headache hit my skull when I tried. It felt like the hands of a giant grabbed my head and was trying to crush it. I shut my eyes with a groan and stumbled backwards again. “Are you all right?” the girl asked, and just like her face, her voice came back distorted. Wincing, I looked up at her, but didn’t try to push past the resistance keeping her identity a secret anymore “Who are you?” I asked. She was silent for a few seconds, and I instinctively prepared myself for a loop to activate, just like it did with Bel. “Me?” the girl asked, sounding mortified. “I’m ##@$%@ ” Her words scrambled inside my head, plunging me into another world of pain. This time I dropped to my knees, my breaths heavy. The girl rushed forward, leaning towards me. “What’s wrong?” she asked. I was about to reply when I noticed what I was wearing. Just like her, and the rest of the children, I was in a white gown. My forehead creased. I had thought I would possess the body of the stranger in this place, but it seemed that was not the case, because I also found out that resting on my nose were round glasses, and I was certain that they were mine without having to look at a mirror. The girl stretc