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I scan the photo, a crease forming between my brows as I search for the monster, but there’s nothing there, only a tree. It’s shorter than the ones in the last photo, stretching about fifteen-feet tall. I chew on the corner of my bottom lip in thought as I scan the thick lines of the bark when I see it.
“Look closer,” I hiss, not wanting to take my eyes off the photo in case I can’t find it again. “Just above the second branch.”
I watch Denver out of the corner of my eye as he turns back to the screen, leaning in as if he needs to get closer to see. He sucks in a sharp breath, and only then do I know he’s spotted it too. The bark subtly curves in two spots in the crescent shape of eyelids, and just beneath it another curved line slashes across the front, subtle, but when you see it, it’s unmistakable. Its lips curl up in a sinister grin, the barest hint of razor-sharp teeth peeking out behind them.
“The photo was retrieved from a smashed camera in the woods,” Landon murmurs, his eyes downcast and withdrawn as though he’s picturing the remains. “The hiker’s body was ... less recognizable.”
He lets those words hang in the air as tension builds through the classroom. We all need this reality check. Otherwise one of us might be next. Most of us have been caught up in the school, and the opportunities that will open to many as a result of their attendance here, but there are real lives at stake, real people to protect—including ourselves.
“The arbors are the most dangerous because they can match any other tree around them and blend in, making them nearly undetectable,” Landon explains.
He switches to the next slide where the hiker must have taken the photo as the arbor attacked. Its two nearest branches are turned to lethal claws which reach past the camera, its eyes now wide open. Only a slight ring of white around the irises signals what they are, otherwise they would’ve blended in with the rest of the bark. My gaze sticks to the monster’s teeth, resembling the jagged teeth of a saw but there are seven rows, ready to shred the human to pieces.
“You’ll want to use fire with the arbors. Hit fast and hit hard and don’t stop,” Landon says, his voice thick with distress as he stresses this point. I can only wonder if he has personal experience with surviving one of these lethal monsters. “They require more advanced forces too, so your job is to get away and live.”
Landon switches the slide again and goes through a few other monsters that live in the forest. They’re all animals though and can easily be stopped and trapped with the usual spells.
“We’ve covered the most dangerous and the most common monsters today, and I don’t want to overload you with too much information,” Landon says. “But I do have one final type of monster that I want you all to be aware of.”
“Will there be other lessons on the monsters?” Jakob asks, his green eyes alight with intrigue and fascination.
“Yes, we’ll be discussing more monsters as the year progresses, but we would be here for weeks if I just listed every monster that’s been discovered,” Landon huffs out on a breath of amusement which most of the class echoes.
Jakob looks down, his frown deepening as though he’s disappointed.
“No one has been able to take a photograph of this monster so all we have are drawings,” Professor Pierce continues. “They all vary as they’re all based on the individual’s interpretation, but they all have the same basic characteristics.”
He clicks his button and the picture changes to a drawing of a bedroom. A man sleeps in the bed, the covers pulled up to his chin, but instead of a peaceful look on his face, it’s contorted, lips parted as though he’s screaming, but his eyes are still firmly shut, trapped away in his nightmare. I shift my focus to the other figure in the room and my heart jolts at the dark curling lines. The figure resembles black smoke and tendrils of the shadowed wisps curl through the air, reaching towards the sleeping victim.
My breath catches as I stare back at the figure unblinkingly, my mind struggling to keep up with the flurry of thoughts crashing through my mind. I distantly feel the weight of both Denver and Harper’s attention on me and I know I should look away, that I should play it off or make an excuse, anything to hide the recognition that must be showing clearly on my face, but I can’t.
“This is a shadow monster,” Landon explains. He switches the slide to a picture of the same scene, but the curls of smoke are wrapping around the man’s throat. “They can attack both through dreams from their realm and from ours, meaning there’s no real way to guard against them.”
He clicks the button again, showing a picture of a nightmare dream-scape where a giant, shadowed monster chases after the man.
“The shadow monsters feed off of fear, and evoke nightmares in their victims to satiate themselves off of,” Landon says, and the picture zooms in on the giant figure. Its teeth gnash at the person’s heel driving them to run, to escape, but given its size it could just swallow him whole. “Sometimes they leave the host alive, but other times the nightmares are so intoxicating that they push too hard and the host dies of a heart-attack.”
It doesn’t look exactly like Damon, but it’s similar enough. A million questions sit at the tip of my tongue but I don’t think it’s really appropriate to ask if those shadows are only for killing or if they can be used for toe-curling pleasure too. I haven’t had any nightmares in years though, not even before a big event or a test, which I’d always felt grateful for. One thing is clear though, Damon is a monster and despite my reluctance to dive into that book from the library, I very clearly did somehow transport my consciousness to him that night, and I can’t let that happen again.
“There’s no way to trap this monster while you’re asleep and as witches and warlocks we’re less likely to succumb from their mental attacks,” Landon continues. He clicks a different button this time and the projector flickers off, the screen fading to black. “If you encounter this monster in your dreams you must report it as soon as possible, otherwise they could end up stalking you and making you their new food source.”
I immediately dismiss the idea. There’s no way I’m going to be telling anyone that Damon was in my dreams because he didn’t come to me. No, he admitted he’d been watching me but was surprised to see me there with him. I went to the dream realm unknowingly, and that’s another issue entirely.
Chapter Thirteen
Aria
“That’sitfortoday,class,” Landon says as the projector screen rolls back up. “We’ll continue to go over our entrapment spells for the rest of the week as well as the best combinations for some of the other monsters we covered today, in preparation for next week when we’ll be going out onto the grounds and putting our spells into practice.”
His gaze seems to drift my way, but I don’t dare meet it, not when I’m barely keeping myself together right now. My stomach is twisted in knots at the revelations that have just barreled into me with the force of a semi-truck.
The rustle of paper and smack of footsteps on the hardwood floor pierce through my thoughts, signaling that it’s time to get the hell out of here before I give away anything more than I already have.
“Reditio,” I murmur, and the papers and pen strewn across my desk disappear back to my room.
“Aria,” Harper whispers, concern clear in her tone. Dammit.
I turn to her with a pointed look, silently begging her not to bring any more attention to me.
