005: Test

Cautiously, I proceed into the office. My professor sits behind his desk, eyes fixed on the door like he’s been waiting for me.

“I’ve been waiting for you, Ms. Walter,” he says, confirming it.

I glance back at Mr. Grump. He’s leaning against the doorframe, arms folded as he watches. “Beg.”

I turn to the professor. “I want a second chance to retake the test.”

He raises an eyebrow. “And why should I give it to you?”

“Because...” I take a deep breath, “I’m begging.”

He opens his mouth to reply, but freezes mid-sentence, his lips parted, eyes blank.

“What the hell?” I whisper, turning toward my spirit guide. “Why did he just… freeze?”

But he’s no longer at the doorpost. Only his voice is heard, echoing through the walls when he answers. “You don't know how to beg.”

I spin, trying to trace what part of the room he’s in. “How? I literally just did.”

“Do you think this is a joke, Nova?” 

“I don’t–”

He appears in front of me. “Do not lie, Nova. Your whole essence betrays your emotions as much as your thoughts.” He vanishes again, his voice vibrating through the room. “You wanted guidance, I’m giving it. When I tell you to stand, you stand. When I tell you to jump, you jump,” Reappearing in front of me, his face so close to mine that if he had a breath I’d feel it on my skin, he says, “When I tell you to beg, Soul 113, you beg.” His voice drops, deep enough to send a rumble through me. 

For a moment, I’m unable to look away from his eyes, which are flashing with different colors, with shapes moving in them like something alive.

A shiver of fear slithers through me. 

He disappears again. “Now, Nova,” his tone normalizes, “beg.”

The professor blinks back to life, his eyes hollow as they zone on me. “What do you want?”

“T–test,” I stammer, “I... I want to retake the test.”

 “No.”

“Please. I beg you.”

In my life, I never learned to beg. I never found myself in a situation when I had to. And even if I had, I don’t think I would’ve. But I guess there’s a first time for everything. 

“You beg?” He chuckles darkly. “Do you think I'm moved by that?”

I squeeze my eyes shut, whispering to myself like I used to when I was alive.

'This is just an illusion.  I’m not afraid. It’s all in my head.'

I keep repeating the mantra in my head, and when I open my eyes, my professor's body is now transformed into something translucent... almost reflective. 

“You want to beg?” His voice booms, his figure stretching as he hovers over me. “You will beg for your life.”

Before I can react or think, he lunges. 

Acting on instinct, I throw my arms over my face. “Don’t hurt me! Stop, please!”

Knowing fully well that my attempt at begging isn’t enough to stop him, I brace for impact. Impact that never comes. 

“Please.”

Slowly, I pull my arms away from my face, only to discover that he's frozen again.

My mouth parts in disbelief, questions filling my head. 

“You did that,” my spirit guide answers before I can even ask. “Everything that happens here is born of your mind – your emotions have the ability to allow or restrict it. Your fear believed this wasn’t real, and that belief stopped him.”

My brows pull together as I try to make sense of what he just said. “Huh?” 

It’s the best I can do. 

He exhales. “Check the script.”

I go to the table. My script is the only thing on it, perfectly centered. 

I pick it up, and the first thing that my eye catches is the red, marker written score on it. A full score. 

“You’ve passed the test.”

I blink. “I passed?”

I check the script again. Still a full mark.

I actually passed?

Oh my gosh. I passed the test! I’m not gonna die!

A grin starts forming on my lips, but before I go full swing into my celebration, I have to ask, “How the hell did I pass?”

“Figure it out.”

I think back to the whole circus of words he’d said earlier, after I’d frozen the figure. 

It takes some time, but eventually, it clicks that that was how I passed. By freezing the professor.

That simple? It was really that simple? So all I had to do was make someone freeze?

“If it were as simple as you say, you would’ve passed much earlier,” he cuts into my thoughts.

I ignore him, but mainly because I remember something important. “Does this mean that I wouldn’t have to fight anymore?”

For the first time since I’d seen him, something akin to a smile appears on his lips. But it’s gone so fast, I don’t have time to register it. “Oh, you will. You will fight until you’re begging for your life.”

Of course, the one time he almost smiles is to the thought of me begging for my life. 

“Brace yourself,” he instructs, stepping beside me. 

“Where are we goi–”

The ground shakes violently, cutting me off.

When the tremor stops, we’re no longer at the college. We’re standing in front of my mother’s house – the one she lives in now with her new husband.

I turn to my spirit guide. “Why are we here?”

“You’ll see for yourself.”

Before I can question him further, his form disappears into white mist that soon drifts away, leaving me alone outside the house I should've been at, if I were still alive.

It's starting to feel a lot like this world is making me relive the day I never got to finish.

“Is that why I’m here?” I ponder aloud. “Because it’s where I was supposed to be?”  

I glance at the sky, hoping that the voice that had answered in the test hall would answer me now. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

I don't get an answer. 

Instead, the ground softens beneath me, my body slowly lowering. My legs sink first, then my hands. Cold pressure drags me under, and before I can scream, everything goes dark.