The knife went through Jason's throat before he could finish the spell.
Ash watched from behind the pillar, hand clamped over his mouth, trying not to breathe too loud or think too hard about the way Jason's eyes went wide and then, empty in the span of a heartbeat.
Three hours ago there had been screaming. But now, there was just the wet sound of boots on blood-slicked marble floors and a soft humming sound echoing strange in the hall. It sounded like something that might have been a lullaby. Soon, the sound was drawing closer and closer, the sound of boots clapping the floor and stepping over bodies like they were misplaced furniture.
Ash's left arm hung wrong. His bone jutted white through split skin. Looking at it should have made him black out or scream but fear kept him cruelly awake and he'd discovered he could stay conscious through almost anything if the alternative was dying right now instead of later.
Petra lay ten feet away from him, rainbow hair fanned out in the dust, her hand still reaching for the door she'd almost made it to.
She'd sat behind him in Advanced Theory for four months and hummed off key and once lent him notes when he'd overslept. But now, she was just meat and cloth. She was dead.
"Did we get them all?" A voice drifted from somewhere near the eastern archway. It sounded like Instructor Morwen's. Casual as always like she was asking about attendance.
Ash gasped.
She'd been everyone's favorite teacher; patient, encouraging and always staying after class to help struggling students with spells and other activities. Ash had believed it right up until he watched her laugh while killing someone who'd asked for help.
"All accounted for," a man's voice responded. It had no ounce of mercy in it. It was Instructor Vael, wiping black ichor off his hands with a silk cloth that still glittered in the ruins, "except the Nyland boy." He added.
Ash's heart stopped.
"Oh, that weakling?" Morwen sounded bored, "Nah….leave him," she said waving her hands. "....he'll eventually bleed out or starve or something. I promise you he's not worth the effort."
"Thorough is better than fast," Vael replied, and his footsteps started moving again, methodical and unhurried because why rush when your prey couldn't even run.
Ash pressed himself deeper into the gap between the pillar and the wall, shallow breaths through his nose, and he thought about Lyric.
He'd seen her fall an hour ago, he remembered this clearly, she'd been reaching toward something, maybe him, maybe just away from the blade in her chest, and he'd looked away because he always looked away from the things that hurt.
Four years as her partner and he'd never once looked at her long enough to see past the disappointment in her eyes. Four years of being dead weight while she carried them both because he couldn't do anything.
Four years of wishing he was anyone else, anywhere else, and now he was about to get his wish in the worst possible way.
The footsteps got closer.
Ash could see Vael's shadow stretching across the floor; long, thin and frightening in the once-in-a-while flickering emergency lights that had somehow stayed on through the massacre.
He thought about running but his legs had stopped working somewhere around hour two. He thought about fighting but he'd never been good at that, all his years of training didn't pay off one bit. He even thought about begging but Morwen had already explained what happened to students who begged. Actually she didn't, she showed it and it was honestly not a beautiful picture.
The shadow stopped.
"Found you," Vael said, and he sounded pleased like this was a game he'd won.
Ash looked up completely terrified.
Vael smiled, the same smile he'd used when explaining safety protocols and making jokes about his terrible coffee and telling them they were the future. But now that same smile was more frightening than Ash ever imagined a smile could be.
"Any last words?" Vael asked, "I like to collect them just for fun. It's a morbid habit I know, but we all need hobbies, don't we?."
He let out a loud disheartening laughter that made the situation worse.
Ash's mouth moved but nothing came out except a sound that might have been a whimper or a laugh or both.
"Nothing?" Vael tilted his head and moved closer to him, "Disappointing, Nyland. Not that I expected much but still. The Serin girl at least cursed me out. She had some real spirit to the end, but I suppose you spent four years proving you had none of that. Ouch. You should be ashamed. Oh well!"
The black energy built up, crackling and glowing and smelling like burnt copper, and Ash closed his eyes because he didn't want the last thing he saw to be Vael's face.
Impact.
The pain came slowly. Not as quick as Ash had thought it would. He'd seen what happened to Jason's throat and worse.
Ash screamed until his throat went raw and something inside it ripped. The smell of his own flesh cooking, filled what was left of his lungs. The pain was too much to bear. Flame engulfed his entire body. Beside him stood the culprits, humming to something that sounded like a lullaby. Similar sound as before. It was echoing strangely across the hall. It was indeed a haunting sound. Ash watched as Morwen said something to Vael. He nodded, still smiling.
He wondered what it was was as his vision started blurring. The flames crawled into his mouth, turning his scream to a wet rasp.
His skin blackened and split. The smoke stung his eyes and choked him so he couldn't breathe properly. He knew he wouldn't survive this. This was finally the end for him.
Four years of being worse than average, four years of dead weight, of looking away from Lyric's disappointment and the ridicule and bullying that came from it, of hating every day in this place.
He'd never fought for better or cared to believe that he deserved it.
And now, burning alive while his teachers watched and chatted...
He was miserable through and through.
And worst of all, he just died.