Chiral

  "They Didn't Believe in Ghosts Until..."A long time ago, when Oka Ohri was very young, she was stuck living at a terrible b school called Tesata. One night, one of the upper tier teachers oeachers I dislike tier list” was hanging around in the lounge area, waiting lohahers to retreat to the teacher dungeon. A loud thuorm boomed overhead, so it ossible he waited until the rain died down to exit the building.

  “Do any of you want to hear a story?” He asked to the students sitting near him.

  Oka didn’t want to hear a story from him, but she had learhe hard way it was better to just humor them when they wao talk. She and a few of the other students murmured and nodded.

  “Wonderful,” the teacher said. “A few years baaybe not a few…gosh, it’d have to be more than fifteen years ago now. There was a girl at this school.”

  The teacher looked over to Oka, who crossed her arms. Another dumb ghost story.

  “She was a bright student, a young i like all of you, which was even rarer back then. One night, a night just like this—“

  A cp of thunder interrupted him for a sed, but he tinued on.

  “A rainy, stormy night like this, she disobeyed her teachers and broke curfew, running off into the forests around the school. Like you, she was too young to have her own bloodsaber, so she was unprotected. She stopped to rest under a twisted and dying tree, with brahat looked like cracks in crete and leaves that looked like ashes. Suddenly, the branches and leaves grasped around her, grabbing her like twenty ghostly arms. She acted fast and bit down on the branch closest to her mouth, but her fangs were instantly stu the bark. All she could do was howl into the night for help…but no one came. By the time she was found…it was too te. The stoes that she still wahe forests around this very school, and on nights like this, if you step outside, and you listen close, you hear her howl. And when you hear her howl, some say you evehe ashes fall. And when you see the ashes fall…you better run, because she’s faster than you.”

  Looking satisfied at the trembling students, the teacher ughed and abruptly left.

  “Goodnight kids!”

  * * *

  That night, Oka couldn’t sleep. She told herself over and over that it was just a dumb story. That the teacher hadn’t left them alohere were still the night guards. She told herself all that, but still shivered and held her fort bunny close.

  Oka gasped when she heard a noise in the hallway outside. Then footsteps. It’s just the night guard, it’s just the night guard, it’s just the night guard. She told herself over and over as the footsteps slowly walked past. She couldn’t tell if they were the normal sounds the footsteps of the guards made…or if they were lighter.

  “The story was she was outside,” Oka whispered to her fort bunny. “She wouldn’t be in here—“

  Just as she said that, she froze as she faintly heard it.

  A howl.

  * * *

  After a sleepless night, some students were looking around for ashes in and around the school grounds. Oka stayed in her room, not wanting to join in with them, especially not after asking if anyone else heard the howling. No one else had.

  "Friend is Ag Suspicious..."

  Kalei knew she might get in trouble for following her friend Syval all the way to the boys’ dorm, but she wanted some answers. Every day for the past few weeks, Kalei had spotted him walking strangely; he was hunched over, cheg around every few seds as if to make sure he wasn’t being followed. It was a bit tough making sure he didn’t see, but she had worked up the o trail him this far so she didn’t want to turn back. All her years of pying games with crappy tacked oh ses had led her to this.

  The boys’ dorm was id out simirly to the girls’ dorm so she didn’t feel lost. Syval walked past the louowards an unassuming door past it. He quickly sed around, f Kalei to duck behind a potted tree. While she couldn’t see him, she heard the door open and shut.

  Kalei chuckled to herself, feeling proud that she had mao follow him this closely. Then she realized she hadn’t thought about the steps now that she’d gotten there. She couldly just follow him into the room. A sickly green light suddenly began to glow uhe door. Kalei carefully stepped closer to the door, trying to look casual in case any boys walked past and wondered what she was doing there.

  Up close, the light from beh moved strangely; it almost looked like some kind of smoke made of sers somehow. She leaned close to the door. She didn’t o lean in too closely, as she heard a rattling noise, like someone was loudly g hard dy around in their mouth. There was some kind of…music? Pying alongside the g. Every few seds, she heard something like a puter screeg. She could also hear some kind of breathy sound, whinerved her the most for some reason.

  All of the sounds didn’t make seogether. Could Syval be practig some kind of dentistry themed interpretive dahe longer she listehe less sense any of it made.

  One more particurly terrible sounding teo screech followed by whispers and Kalei decided she was better off not knowing and bolted back to the girls’ dorm.

  "Trapped in a Haunted House"

  Ovie shivered in the cold. She waited for her eyes to adjust in the darkness. She could smell the dust and cobwebs around her. Just slightly adjusting her feet made the floorboards creak.

  Jeans had brought her to this pce. She said this was something every Wildfire Hearts student had to gh. And since she was one of Wildfire Hearts’ students, Ovie had to spend an unknown amount of time alone in a desote shack.

  “Do you have any advice for this?” Ovie had asked Jeans.

  “Try not to think too much. And don’t use your powers.” Jeans told her. “Try to stay calm no matter what. Especially if…well, you’ll see.”

  Ovie wished she had Jeans to reach out to as rain began p outside. She had been brought there with her eyes covered, so she had no idea what the outside looked like either. She jolted at a cp of thunder mixed iorrent that almost sounded like waves crashing into the roof above her.

  It’s nothing, She told herself. They just want to see how I’ll do uhis kind of pressure. That’s all.

  There was a strange sound outside, like broken wind chimes. Before she could even try to picture what made that noise, she heard footsteps.

  Ovie cmped her eyes shut and just tried to picture Jeans. She tried to think about how ’ll be to finally go to the same school as her, even uhe circumstahat brought her there.

  The footsteps moved up wooden stairs. Ovie heard a door creak open, but it didn’t brighten anything up at all when she looked. It took her a sed to notice the pair of glowing red snake eyes across from her.

  “It’s…you…” Ovie said through a hushed breath.

  Ovie had the stories about the Exile, ahem reported. They were striking members of the Order of Terina, brutalizing them and leaving them out to dry. To what end they did this Ovie had no clue. She wasn’t part of the Order, but the eyes locked onto her looked like they were silently judging her. Determining if she’d join the rest left in their path.

  "A Se from a Nightmare Bees True"

  The storm ended. But the quietness, the stillness felt too familiar for Stel Faleur to rex and fall back asleep to the sounds of distant thunder aling rain. It took her a few moments to ground herself, making sure she wasn’t having that nightmare again.

  A void storm was incredibly rare, maybe hitting LE in particur once or twice within every five years. Stel still had very regur nightmares about them. To non-i, it just appeared to be a regur thuorm, maybe a bit more harsh than a regur one, but nothing out of the ordinary. For i, in particur ones born in a void node or had family or friends that did, it was always a tense night at best, and a terrifying disaster at worst.

  Stel didn’t dare turn on the lights as she got out of bed, slowly walking out of her room. her Stel nor her younger sister Zeta were born in a void node, but the threat of losio a void storm felt so real to her. Especially after what had happened during the st one.

  As her eyes adjusted, Stel’s heart rate increased. The silence of the apartme just like then. But it couldn’t be.

  Stel made it to Zeta’s room. The door was shut. She willed her shaking hand to reach for the doorknob, the as silently as possible.

  Her heart dropped when she looked at Zeta’s bed. It was empty. The feeling of still, sudden, lonelihat hit her around five years earlier crashed into her once more. She rushed to Zeta’s bed, already whispering frantically as she searched through the sheets, then around the room. She had dreaded this day, even though she had been told it was impossible.

  Zeta was ten, she wouldn't run out, right? Stel wi the image of Zeta vanishing to go among the lost in a void storm in the middle of the night. She quickly searched the rest of the room, then rushed out to check the other rooms. As soon as she went into the living room, she froze when she saw Zeta returning from the kit holding a gss of water and yawning.

  “I was thirsty…” Zeta said groggily. “Did I wake you up?”

  “N-no, it was…the storm.” Stel k down to hug Zeta. There was a moment of fusion at receiving a hug in the middle of the night, but Zeta’s left arm hugged back while she kept the water iher hand.

  “I don’t want to drop my water.” Zeta said.

  “It’s OK,” Stel whispered. Stel didn't tell Zeta a void storm was ing, or what one even was, but she was too relieved to hide her emotions about it as she usually did. She didn’t want to let Zeta go, but she knew she needed sleep. “Goodnight, Zeta.”

  “Goodnight, Stel.”

  Stel watched Zeta go back to her room and shut her door. Her heart was still pounding when she went back to her own room. A wave of emotions hit her at once, and it took a few mio get herself back together after she cried for what she felt had happehere, for what maybe almost happened, and for what had happe time. For a moment, the nightmare had e true, but like the torrents of rain, it had mercifully passed over the Faleur sisters once more.