Everything came back wrong. She was wrapped in Jordan’s arms beneath a table. It wasn’t their table. They were further from the cafeteria exit, almost at the opposite wall. The bull trampled over their oh so recently vacated table with the nun only dodging by the skin of her teeth.
“Just standing there, huh?”
“Maybe if the Elysium Sister hadn’t been so eager to throw lightning over the tops of students’ heads,” Jordan said as he shoved Irene off of him. He gripped his wand tightly in his hand. Irene hadn’t even seen him draw it.
Speaking of other students. Irene glanced around the room. Most of the students seemed to have made it to the exit. There were a number of others who dived under the tables.
Two cowered in a corner of the room, hugging each other tightly.
The bull had oriented itself towards them in its battle with the nun.
“Those two,” Irene said as she patted his chest then pointed. “They’re about to get–”
He didn’t wait. The body beneath her turned black and white. His own shadow reached up and pulled him under the floor.
Irene looked up to see him emerge from the student’s shadow against the wall. His hands, one with his wand in it still, clasped around both their shoulders. Two screaming students turned black and white before their own shadows consumed them.
The bull rammed into the corner only a second after. Fractures snaked up the blocks. Chunks of the wall and even some ceiling fell down on the bull’s back.
“I hope they didn’t recognize me.”
Irene jumped. Her head knocked against the table before she rounded on Jordan. He had a goofy grin on his face. “I don’t think it matters,” Irene said as she rubbed her head. “Stop enjoying this and do something.”
He glanced back to where the nun tossed very ineffectual lightning bolts at the creature. They didn’t seem to do much except infuriate the beast. After it charged through another set of unoccupied tables, the nun changed tactics.
White fire burst from her fingertips. It shot out like a flame thrower, dousing the bull.
Screeching filled the air once again. Irene and Jordan both tried to block the sound out with their hands.
From the pained look on his face, he wasn’t any more successful than she was.
The flaming bull charged once again. The nun dodged and turned to face where the bull went.
It wasn’t there.
The moment the nun dodged, the bull flapped its massive wings. It stopped–or even went backwards–without another step being taken.
The nun spun around to face her target just as the bull swung its head. Its single, straight horn pierced her chest. Red liquid splattered across the room directly behind the nun as the horn emerged from the other side.
Students remaining in the room screamed. Irene screamed. Jordan did not.
The bull tossed its head to one side and the nun with it. She flew off the horn and slammed into a cinder block wall. The nun stuck against the wall before gravity remembered its duties. She slid down off of it and collapsed on her face. A trail of blood marked her path.
Flames on the bull’s back withered and died as the nun disappeared from Irene’s view.
Irene turned, grasping for Jordan. She wanted nothing more than to tell him to get her out of the room that instant.
He wasn’t next to her.
He knelt next to the nun with his back to the bull like some kind of idiot.
The bull was already charging after him.
It skidded to a stop as shadows peeled themselves off the floor and the walls and anywhere there was a shadow. A wall of darkness formed around Jordan and the nun, blocking them from view.
The bull stared for just a minute. Its head slowly moved over the room until it came to a rest on Irene.
Her heart caught in her throat as she scrambled backwards. All the bars under the table were in the way.
A tremor went through the room as it lumbered towards Irene. Its head disappeared above the edge of the table, but it continued its slow stomp towards her.
Its crumpled horn swung down, hitting the bench in front of her and sent it flying across the room.
The head of the great bull dipped below the table.
Irene pressed as hard as she could against the bars of the table. She held up her hands in front of her the way one would try to placate an angry person. “I don’t have any weapons, I’m not going to hurt you,” she tried to say. She wasn’t sure how it came out. The salty taste of tears filled her mouth as she opened her mouth.
The bull stopped approaching. Its head tilted to one side so a single black eye could take her in. That brought the blood soaked horn far closer than Irene wanted. Her ideal distance would have been somewhere around the opposite side of the Earth.
But still, it stopped.
Relief flooded through Irene. It stared, but it didn’t trample or stab or eat or otherwise try to kill her. She tried not to smile. Animals didn’t like smiling, right? Smiles were considered aggression. She’d read it in a book once.
Instead, Irene slowly reached out. Her hand inched towards the beast’s long face. She stopped her hand just in front of its nose.
Another thing she read in a book. Let the animal get a good sniff.
The bull nudged forwards. Its nose bumped into Irene’s extended hand with a soft tap against her palm. The coarse hair bristled beneath her fingertips.
She let out a short burst of a laugh despite herself. The bull had just killed someone yet here she was, petting it. Irene’s life took a surreal turn somewhere in the last five minutes.
The bull let out a loud and hot snort.
Irene recoiled, pressing back against the table again. The steam was like Jordan’s parent’s sauna. Except for the smell. A coughing fit overtook Irene. It was like someone shoved eggs up its nostrils and left them to rot.
It wouldn’t be impossible either. She could probably fit her entire arm up the bull’s nose. Its head had to be almost her size.
With what Irene was sure was a laugh, the bull pulled its head out from under the table. Its bloody horn swung within half an inch of her face as it did so.
Just as it cleared her table and took a few massive steps backwards, three teachers charged into the cafeteria. One she didn’t recognize, Professor Kines, and the disheveled dean.
Professor Kines immediately raised his wand, obviously intending some kind of attack.
“No,” someone shouted.
It was her. Irene shouted.
Hoping she wasn’t making a mistake, Irene clambered out from under the table and held her arms up. “Don’t attack it.”
Dean Turner gripped Professor Kines’ wand hand and held her hand in front of the other professor.
The bull’s head swung back to look at her.
Irene pinched her eyes shut. If it was about to kill her, she didn’t want to see. Just go. Just go. Please don’t attack them. Please don’t attack me.
She felt the ground rumble as the beast moved away. It slowly marched towards the opening it made.
Irene peeked her eyes open. Everyone’s eyes were trained on it.
The moment it was fully outside, its wings flapped and it vanished in the sky.
“What was that about Irene?”
Irene turned back to find Professor Kines and Dean Turner standing inches away. The other professor moved to kneel near Jordan.
“No need to shout, Franklin.” The dean gave a kindly smile to Irene. “Miss Coggins, if you might elucidate?”
“I didn’t want you to get hurt.” Opening her mouth reminded her that she had been crying. Irene quickly wiped down her face with her sleeve. “The Elysium Sister hit it with at least a hundred bolts of lightning and set it on fire. That all just made it angry.”
Professor Kines shuffled nervously in his spot. He gave a short glance back to where Jordan and the other professor were picking themselves up off the floor.
“I see.” He glanced up to the dean, but she didn’t seem to notice.
“What was it doing here?”
Irene looked at the woman. How was she supposed to know that.