Crusader: Champion of the Dark One

Chapter 6

Jason opens his eyes to a dimly lit cave, he immediately sits up and checks himself to find that he has no injuries and that he was fine causing him to let out a relieved sigh. He looks around himself to see that the cave he is in is a little damp and narrow and that there was only a single path that leads downwards. Jason with little to no options decides to move forward along the path slowly, he noticed how the cave seemed to widen and become larger as he continued forward and as his eyes began to adjust to the dim lightening in the cave, he began to notice more details on the walls of the cave. It was unclear whether anything lived in the cave and so Jason moved slowly and carefully afraid of making too much noise. He tried talking to the voice in his head but it was unresponsive and oddly silent. After what felt like hours of walking, Jason noticed a glow ahead and as he approached it he could make out the sound of water dripping, and the cave gradually opening up into an enormous room with a pond in the middle and a large hole in the ceiling through which he could make out the moon. Jason immediately noticed a figure standing beside the pond. The figure was thin and seemed as if a breeze could knock it down. He approached the figure slowly and cautiously, gravel crunched under his feet as he grew closer immediately alerting the figure, which caused it to turn around only for him to see a woman who wore a green sweater that was awfully familiar.

A sense of dread hit Jason as he realized that the woman was non-other than Ms. Amelia. She sneered in displeasure as she spoke to Jason

“Oh, it’s you,” she said disdainfully

Immediately Jason felt the familiar fear he had for her take over as he looked down at his hands. He was unable to respond as he stood there wishing to be anywhere but here.

“What? Can’t you even respond? I should have expected such uncultured behavior from a charity case like you. How did you even get here in fact”

Jason felt the anger from before started to bubble up again as he was reminded once again the events that transpired that day and how he was constantly tormented at that school. He could hear Ms. Amelia start to approach him as he stood there silently.

“You did not deserve to attend our school. To think that a swine such as yourself, could sully the school’s halls with your filth. When you first applied for the scholarship program I told the board they were making a mistake accepting low-class trash like you.”

As Ms. Amelia continued her tirade Jason began clenched his fist as he began to shake in anger, he looked up at Ms. Amelias as she continued walking toward him and as she approached her form started twisting and turning becoming the visage of a demon. Her thin arms had hooked claws at their ends and glowed an eerie green as curved horns appeared on her head and a serpentine tongue flicked as she hissed as she continued speaking”

“ I begged the former principal to get rid of you, to show him you were unworthy of attending our school. At least Mr. Alexander saw you for what you are”. She pushed him as she finished that statement.

At that moment Jason felt a stillness overcome him as the familiar chill appeared behind his eyes again and then he moved. He threw a punch straight at Ms. Amelia causing her head to snap backward along with the rest of her body. She steadied herself immediately and roar back at Jason as she rushed him. She swiped her hands at him attempting to claw him but he stepped back narrowly avoiding the claw and then rushed at her tackling her to the ground right after but Ms. Amelia with her demonic strength threw him off herself causing Jason to fly back and hit the walls of the cave. He coughed up a bit of blood as he could see the monstrosity rush toward him with wild eyes curved horns and opened mouth full of fangs,  as he felt the blood in his veins feel as if it were frozen as everything slowed down, he grabbed the rock he felt at his side and as Ms. Amelia's head was just inches away swung at it with all the anger, frustration and negative feelings he had in that single blow. He felt the force of contact ripple back through his arm as the stone made violent contact with her head. A sickening crunch rang out as her head twisted at an odd angle. She lay there with blood pooling around her as her body twitched. Jason got up and stood over her as her form reverted back to a weak frail visage with pleading eyes looking up at him. He raised the stone in his hand and brought it back down on her head over and over again as blood splattered all around him and unto his face.

“Well that was certainly interesting”, a familiar voice said.

He turned around to see an old man with a staff in hand . He was dressed in a black robe and his head and body was shrouded by a dark hooded cloak. Jason could make out deep-set wrinkles around his mouth, but couldn’t see his eyes. His staff was made out of gnarled wood with a black gem sitting upon it.

“You’ve done well child, not many have the will to bear the tunnel or the strength to face their fears. However, you took it a step further didn’t you,” He motioned toward the direction of Ms Amelia’s body. “You did not hesitate to destroy that which you feared the most and I now believe you are worthy of my path”.