Kelvin's POV
"Ugh! Where am I?" I groaned, blinking as my eyes opened to a world completely drowned in crimson. Everything around me was red. The air shimmered with it, the ground bled it, and the sky was nothing but an endless sea of scarlet.
There were whispers. Distant, soft, but sharp enough to crawl into my head. I couldn't tell what they were saying, only that they weren't friendly.
"What the hell?! How did I appear here? Did my family witches finally come for me? Please, I'm too young to die! My meat is filled with Lethamol and DDT!" I dropped to my knees, shaking as I looked around. There was nothing here. No walls, no ground I could really see, no horizon. Just the crimson stretching forever.
My mind raced. I was just in school. In class. I wasn't drunk, I wasn't sleeping, so what the hell happened? Did someone kidnap me? Did I die?
Then I heard it. The voices.
Blood is Beauty...
The Crimson Night is Nigh...
Sacrifices Will be Made Tonight...
"AHHH! I'm sorry if I ever insulted you guys! I'm too delicate to be a sacrifice! I'm still a virgin!" My own scream echoed and bounced in the red space, fading like laughter that wasn't mine.
No answer came. The whispers only grew louder, closer, circling me like invisible ghosts breathing against my neck.
I spun around in panic. Still nothing. Absolutely nothing. My chest heaved, and the silence after my scream was worse than the noise before it.
"I... don't tell me something is happening in school..." My voice cracked.
Then I heard it. The faint sound of wet feet slapping against a narrow surface. Not one, but many, like a crowd struggling to fit through a tight hallway. The sound of water dripping followed, slow and deliberate.
When I turned around, I wished I hadn't.
It stood there. A tall, thin being, about eight feet high, its body a void darker than night itself. It didn't even look solid. Its shape twisted slightly, as if made of shadow and smoke, but its eyes, those deep, burning crimson eyes, were real. And they stared right into mine.
Every muscle in my body locked. I couldn't scream. I couldn't even breathe. Just looking at it made my stomach twist. Even my family witches looked like goddesses compared to that nightmare.
Blood is Beauty...
The Crimson Night is Nigh...
Sacrifices Will be Made Tonight...
The whispers hissed again. Then, something different, a final whisper that reached into my skull and scratched at my mind.
What will you do now, S...
Everything went dark.
I shot up with a gasp, nearly knocking over my desk. The guy next to me froze mid-motion, a rolled-up sheet in his hand, eyes wide. I was in class again. My classmates stared at me like I'd lost my mind. My heart hammered in my chest, my hands trembling as I looked around.
It was real. I knew it.
The Crimson Night... was today.
Someone was going to die.
I shoved my books into my heavy backpack, my breath uneven. Prep was over, but this wasn't the end. Whatever had started in that crimson world wasn't finished.
It was only just beginning.
...
The bell had already rung for lights out. The entire school was asleep. Or at least, pretending to be.
St. Hubert Seminary Senior High School had a certain rhythm at night. The fans droned lazily, the air smelled faintly of dust and sweat, and the occasional mosquito buzzed in defiance of the netted windows. Somewhere down the corridor, a prefect's footsteps echoed as he made his last patrol.
Kelvin lay on his bunk, the thin mattress creaking under his weight. His baggy black pajamas clung loosely to him, the cotton cool against his skin. Around him, the dormitory was quiet except for the occasional snore or rustle of someone turning in their sleep.
He'd been reading earlier, a habit that never quite died, but now the storybook lay face down beside his pillow. His eyelids felt heavy, his mind hazy. The day had been long, and exhaustion pressed down on him like a thick blanket.
Slowly, the sounds of the dorm began to fade. The fan's hum grew distant. Even the snores melted into a soft, echoing void.
Then came the cold.
It started as a mild chill, like a gust from a cracked window, but it quickly deepened into something else, something unnatural. Kelvin shivered and pulled the bedsheet tighter around himself, but the cold wasn't from the air. It was inside him, creeping along his spine.
His breathing hitched. The darkness around him thickened, swallowing the faint light from the corridor.
And then he heard it.
Blood is Beauty...
The Crimson Night is Nigh...
Sacrifices will be made tonight...
Kelvin's eyes flew open. He was no longer in bed.
The world had changed again.
He stood barefoot on a slick, endless surface, his pajamas clinging to his skin like damp cloth. Everything, sky, earth, horizon, was drenched in red. Not painted, but bleeding, as if color itself had rotted.
The whispers grew louder, echoing from all directions. His breath came fast. He could feel the rune on his brow burning beneath his skin, pulsing with each word.
He turned in circles, looking for anyone, anything, but the world was empty. Until it wasn't.
Something was walking toward him.
A figure, tall and slow, its form shifting like smoke. Each step it took left ripples in the red world, and the air warped around it. Kelvin couldn't move. Couldn't think. His heart hammered in his ears as it drew closer.
Its eyes appeared first, twin pools of crimson light, emotionless and deep.
You saw it, S.... You dream beneath the veil.
The seal breaks tonight.
Kelvin fell to his knees, gripping his head. The rune seared brighter, flooding his vision with blue light. His voice broke into a scream, but it came out silent. The world convulsed.
He fell.
Through color. Through sound. Through the shattering pulse of something ancient waking.
Then his body jerked upright on the bed.
He was back in the dorm. The fan spun lazily again. The other boys slept. Everything seemed normal, except for the faint blue glow reflecting off the window beside him.
He looked up. The rune still burned faintly on his brow.
Outside, across the field, the Old Chapel flickered with red light.
Kelvin froze. He could feel it. A vibration beneath the school grounds, like the earth was humming.
And from somewhere beyond the dorm, a scream tore through the silence.
Michael's voice.
The night had begun.
And St. Hubert Seminary would never sleep again.