Chapter 13: Snake girl?

    Seraphina''s Pov

    After Electra and her friends walked away, I stood there, rooted to the spot, still feeling like a deer caught in headlights.

    All I could think about now was finding Yuna by all means necessary. I had thought her room was nearby, but now I wasn''t even sure. Everything felt like a blur after running into her—Electra, and my pulse was still racing from the encounter.

    What room had Yuna said she was in? 241? Or was it a completely different room number? The numbers kept turning around in my head, and I was too afraid to knock on the wrong door again, especially after nearly dying of embarrassment earlier.

    I didn''t know where to go now, and returning to my room wasn''t an option, especially not after what I had walked in on.

    I was stuck. Confused. Lost.

    I stood in the middle of the hallway, feeling like a complete idiot, and stared at the doors, my mind blank, while I was trying to come up with a plan, any plan. Maybe I could just sit in some corner and wait until I calmed down enough to find my way.

    But then I saw someone coming toward me.

    It was one of Electra''s friends, the tall one. Well, most of them in the group were pretty tall, but this person was the only one in the group taller than Electra.

    I didn''t know her name, but I knew she had to be dangerous, just by association with Electra. My heart skipped a beat, and I immediately started to panic.@@@@

    Why was she coming toward me? Did Electra send her back to deal with me? Did I do something wrong? Maybe I''d offended her somehow by just existing, and now they wanted to make sure I paid for it.

    I felt paralyzed as she approached, her expression indifferent but her eyes sharp. I couldn''t look her in the eyes, so instead, I glanced around, praying for some kind of escape route, but it was too late.

    She stopped right in front of me, looking down at me with curiosity, even though I could sense her impatience. "Who are you looking for?" she asked.

    I swallowed hard, my throat dry. My heart pounded so loudly in my ears I could barely think straight. "I-I''m looking for my friend," I managed to stutter out.

    My voice sounded small, pathetic even, and I hated that I couldn''t hold it together when faced with anyone remotely intimidating.

    My mind raced, trying to make sense of it all. Snake girls? What did that even mean? Was this some kind of twisted school slang? Or was it something else?

    I wanted to run after her to demand answers, but I couldn''t bring myself to move. My body was frozen in place, overwhelmed by confusion and fear.

    Yuna couldn''t be part of something like that. It didn''t make sense.

    But then again... I had heard the rumors, and apparently, everyone at this school seemed to have a dark side. Could Yuna have been hiding something from me all along? Was she not who I thought she was?

    I shook my head, trying to push the doubts away. I couldn''t believe such nonsense.

    My feet moved before I could make a conscious decision. I found myself walking down the hallway and towards room 241.

    I knocked, and the door opened almost immediately, but what I saw made my blood run cold.

    The girl standing in the doorway wasn''t Yuna. She wasn''t even someone I recognized. Her eyes gleamed an unnatural yellow, like a predator''s, and her skin—oh god, her skin—looked like it was covered in scales.

    I blinked, thinking it must be some kind of trick of the light, but when I looked again, it was still there.

    My mouth went dry, and I couldn''t breathe. My legs turned to jelly as I stumbled backward, my body screaming at me to get away. "S-snake..." I whispered, barely able to form the word.

    I tripped over my own feet and fell to the floor, the shock rippling through my body as I hit the ground hard. Pain shot up my spine, but it didn''t matter.

    I couldn''t tear my eyes away from the girl in the doorway, from the way her pupils were slitted like a reptile''s, from the inhuman way she seemed to look down at me with a cold, unblinking stare.

    "SNAKE!" I screamed, the word exploding from my throat as the fear finally took over.

    My vision blurred, and the world around me spun, everything becoming distorted, and I tried to push myself up, but my body wouldn''t respond.

    And before I knew it, everything went dark.