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As soon as the horse broke through the wall Chuck backed away out of the room, panic echoing throughout his body. Fiona backed up as well.
“I should have really been expecting that,” she said.
“He’s not moving at all,” Chuck said while pointing at the boy behind the desk.
“Okay, you just grab Tommy and I’ll deal with the horse.”
“Umm, sure.”
Fiona didn’t listen to what Chuck said, she was too busy moving into the room and swinging her knife towards the horse while whistling. She threw several fireballs at it, but the horse didn’t react.
“It’s already on fire,” Chuck said while trying to move around the edge of the room.
“I know, I’m trying to distract it.” Fiona replied. “Shut up and do your part.”
Chuck slowly moved around the edge of the room, moving slowly while trying to stay as far away from the horse and the big hole in the wall as possible. Fiona flicked her knife towards the horse, sending a vibrating blast of air towards the horse. Unlike the skeleton teachers, it didn’t react at all. It shook it off as if it was just a cold breeze and rushed towards Fiona. She dived to one side and the horse charged through the wall of the school, bricks flying in every direction. It tore through several other walls, through classrooms and hallways, and started flying above the school. It glided around in a circle and started heading back to the hole it created, at speed.
“Hurry,” Fiona shouted, readying herself for more.
Chuck ran as fast as he could and picked up Tommy and started to make his way back to the front of the room. The horse hadn’t reappeared, which made Chuck stop in his tracks.
“Where is it?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I can’t see through walls.”
“Jesus. What is your problem.”
“Just go, and I’ll be behind you.”
Chuck started to run down the corridor. In his head, he just needed to make it to the stairs and he’d be free. That didn’t happen.
The horse broke through the wall, stopping Chuck in his path. It turned towards them, fire in its eye sockets and started to walk towards Chuck and Tommy.
“Get behind me, and stay there,” Fiona said.
She moved up ahead and flicked her knife, whistled, and sent every object in the corridor towards the horse. Bricks shattered on contact. A glass trophy cabinet sprinkled down on top of it. Pictures of the various headteachers broke on impact. Nothing stopped it.
“When you see an opening, run,” Fiona said.
The horse got closer and tried to headbutt Fiona. With ease, she rolled to one side. It turned around and tried to kick at her with its back legs, but Fiona jumped back just in time. With every movement Chuck tried to get around the horse but couldn’t. The hallway was just too narrow to get around it.
She ran towards the horse, jumped at it and stabbed the knife through one of its eye sockets. The horse threw itself around trying to get Fiona loose but wasn’t quick enough. She whistled and sent an air blast straight through the skull of the horse. The entire skeleton flew apart in different directions, leaving a trail of fire after every piece.
“Whoa,” Chuck said. “That was incredible.”
“Lets just move before it pulls itself together again.”
They ran through the corridor and started down the stairs without looking back. Chuck was sure he was going to drop Tommy, but he managed to keep him in his arms as they made their way through the labyrinth of the school.
“I’m sure my school wasn’t this big,” he said.
“I don’t even remember my school,” Fiona said.
“What?”
“I mean the one before Whistling.”
They made it to the courtyard. Both of them were out of breath and slowed to walking. Once they’d reached the well, Chuck placed Tommy down, carefully.
“Sorry, I needed to stop for a second.”
“What are you doing? We need to get out of here.”
“My arms. I thought I was going to drop him.”
“The entrance is just there. That’s all we need to get too. That thing doesn’t exist outside of the school grounds, we just need to get there.”
“Oh, I thought you’d destroyed it.”
There was a loud roar and the horse jumped into the courtyard from the top floor of the school and raced towards them.
“This is your fault,” Fiona said. “Get him out of here.”
Before Chuck had a chance to pick Tommy back up, the horse ran at him at full speed, knocking him to the floor. He bounced of the ground and scrapped his chin as he did. Pain seared throughout his limbs, and he couldn’t get back up. His arms and legs had turned to jelly, and he couldn’t move. All he could do was roll over and see the horse getting closer to him.
“Oh God,” Fiona shouted as she ran over to Chuck.
Once she reached him, she turned to face the oncoming horse.
“Now that we’re outside, it’s my turn.”
The horse ran at her as if it was a bull. Fiona dodged. The horse jumped and flew up a little to turn around in the air. Fiona was already spinning around on her heels, waving the knife above her head. The well started to shake, the sound of bricks rumbling got louder in the air, and then the horse was being pelted by the bricks, one by one. To Chuck it didn’t look like it was having much of an effect, but after a few of them he could see that the horse was taking damaged. It wasn’t moving as quickly towards Fiona and then she was close enough to stab the knife forward, whistling loudly and shot a beam of ice through the horse’s skull. The fire in its mane went out and the skeleton dropped to the floor.
“Why didn’t I just do that last time?”
The victory was short lived, as the horse’s bones reassembled themselves and the fire was relit, stronger than before.
To Be Continued…
Part Eighteen will be available next Friday! Don’t forget to subscribe to never miss a post:
Ashley Manning 