The soft soles of knee high leather boots made no sound as she padded softly along the halls, the students around her paying little heed. They already knew of her eccentricity, news of her first day ritual spreading quickly school wide, so it was only mildly surprising to find the newest addition to their faculty looking once more like she had wandered out of a fantastical land. She wove through the decreasing waves of students with a careful precision until they became nonexistent at the sound of the second bell.

She had no class to teach at the moment, so was free to wander, to observe, to plot. The creatures that did roam the halls now were few and passed over her as though she were nothing. This made her task simpler. Easier. She could nonchalantly follow them without fear of attack. Then again, they never bothered to attack her any longer, not while they knew that she was able to harm them.

The creatures were little more than vague shadows to her, but that was considerably more than what the rest of the school could see. To those who had fallen to them or had put up no resistance, they simply did not exist. To those who still continued to fight them, they could only feel their touch when they tried to feed, the chilling tentacles wrapping around them while they attempted to remove the very thoughts from their minds.

She, however, had made it through both college and university and had not fallen, a task achieved by the fewest of people who were daring enough to take them on after high school ended. She had become strong and developed not only the ability to see them, but also to cause them some form of pain when she brushed them away from herself, a combination of thought and touch.

That had been the reason behind her pursuing post secondary and not some alternative that might allow her to leave behind the shadows forever. She had always believed that she could grow stronger against these things, that she could find a way to defeat them. It had obsessed her to a degree where she no longer feared them, only that she must focus on not falling to them before her theories of becoming stronger could be proved, or disproved. Now, walking the halls, she knew as a fact that she had been correct.

What they were was a mystery. A friend of hers that had recently fallen after letting his guard down for a mere moment had discovered records of their existence in the prophesies of Amalthea in the temple of Apollo on Cumae. They always resided within places of learning and, it was theorized repeatedly throughout the years, that they were forever in search for a lost piece of knowledge trapped within the minds of the establishment which might bring them into the mortal plane of existence. They had spent long hours speculating on what they could possibly want of their minds, but were forever coming up with no resolutions, no answers. For now, they had no name and no reason beyond feeding and primal instincts.

She set her eyes on one of the things in particular and followed it because of its purposeful demeanor, putting aside the contemplation of the why of these creatures. If it did not seem so sure of itself, she would have thought it merely on a wayward path, wandering of its own whim. She followed it through the school, passed classrooms with active classes and paid no heed to the glances she gained because of her attire, empty corridors and around strange corners, all the while outwardly acting as though she were on a pleasure walk. For nearly twenty minutes, the delicate dance between the two of them took place, until it came to a halt and seemed to look at her.

For the first time, she looked up to see her surroundings and she had only a fraction of a second to realize her own stupidity. She had underestimated them greatly, and was about to pay the price for the misdeed. They were not so stupid, not after drinking deep of the thoughts and minds of the people of this school for so many years. Her own presence here had taunted them, having previously attended this school. It reminded them of the fact that they could not delve into her mind before, and they were even more helpless to do so now. Unless, of course, they did as they had done now and changed their tactics.

She saw that, as she had walked, she should have taken the time to look behind her. She had been lured into an empty classroom, void of windows and in a wing that was falling into disuse. Already within were many of the creatures, moving shadows squirming restlessly along the dark walls. From the door, more poured in to block off her escape. She was trapped, and contending with more of the creatures than she could ever hope to defeat.

A thought flashed in her mind, panicked and full of self-blame. I should have known. I should have realized. She knew they were desperate to wreak revenge on her for taunting them so, coming so near to them without them being able to touch. She lured them to her classroom full of prospective victims that had not fallen to them as of yet and ensured that they not drink of their minds while they remained within, not that they did not still try despite that. Indeed, she had even been able to harm them in some way and they surely now sought retribution.

What lasted of her battle was valiant, but useless. They swarmed over her, holding her body in place while they began to prod at her with millions of tentacle like fingers, searching for her weakness. She did not even have a chance to raise a hand against them, though she squirmed in their grip as much as she could in attempts to break free. The cold of them, the unearthliness, it all made her feel like she may freeze before they would find anything. She was held too firmly to even let out a shiver, and she was not about to cry out to gain help from people who would instantly send her to a white, padded room for saying invisible monsters were attacking her. She doubted she could even do that, anyway, so she took her one last option.

Focusing her concentration, she closed her eyes, pulled out any physical resistance and channeled all her energies into one place, the mental. Fortifying her mind, she knew that they would not be able to break through. She did not know the full extent of the creatures’ powers, but she highly doubted that they would resort to killing her if they had orchestrated this much. All she could do now was to hide in her mind and suffer it out until they gave up, like she used to do back in high school when they seemed a formidable opponent individually.

A strange and terrifying sensation overtook her a few endless moments later. The creatures themselves seemed to begin to change, curling and coiling about her as one being rather than many under a hive mentality. Slowly, the coils managed to encompass the whole of her form without leaving so much as a millimeter of skin not touched by its chilling grip, and there was true darkness for a moment. Before, she could see through the lids of her eyes a slight light, but now there was nothing but the darkness of the creatures.

Slowly, her eyes opened, but not under her own will. She was sill within her own mind, waiting for them to go away, but something else was moving her. Within her mind, her eyes widened in horror, though her actual eyes stayed as they were, as though she had no control over them. Indeed, she realized, that she no longer did. The creatures, unable to have her mind, had taken her body for their own intents and purposes.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way, she thought, more like a desperate cry that she wished would reach her lips. I’m supposed to be stronger, this is NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!

Inside, tears welled up at her failure, and that she was now a prisoner of her own body, trapped within her mind. She watched helplessly as she turned to the door and walked towards it, missing the natural rhythm that usually came with it. Her walk had become mundane, sound now being made as the leather hit the linoleum.

A hand reached out to the door knob, though stopped just before. Her face turned to look at the shiny surface, and to see the lifeless eyes that were reflected in it. She did not want to see herself like this, without any emotion or caring, without life or any expression in her eyes. She knew she had a fire and had always depended on it to be there despite everything but now, as she was forced to continue to look at herself, it was gone and the thought was maddening.

Desperation overtook her, needing to be free of this now, to regain control lest these creatures force her hand to do something she might quite seriously regret. There were too many possibilities for them now that they had a physical form, and far too many they could harm. Those with the resistance to them, those students she had so carefully found and collected in her classes, they would be in much danger now. They would be the ones that these creatures would use her form against, she was becoming certain of that. She needed to get out, to regain control, immediately.

Reaching far out to the edges of her mind to where their control began, she tried to force her way through the barrier with a mental fist. Her entire mind went instantly icy, the cold of the creatures encompassing her and piercing what was left of her with a sense of hopelessness that she was not yet ready to accept. Instead, it simply drove on her insanity, causing her to lash out even more and to bring on all the frigidness and pain that they could muster, having no sense behind it except desperation to leave this prison of her mind.

Finally, the hopelessness found her and began to rot away at her soul. Her thrashings lessened slowly, becoming weaker, more feeble, less purposeful. A hint of acceptance, like the light of a newborn star, was beginning to dawn on her. The creatures had won. There was no hope left for her now, not unless there was another like her out there somewhere. She knew that there was none, knew that of all those who might have been able to save her, none would suspect she might have become pawn to these creatures. At least, they would not suspect until it was far too late. Her protests finally stopped entirely, hopelessness filling her with a knowledge unwanted, and emptying her like the Hollow Men of TS Eliot.

A small smile, cruel and heartless, spread onto her own face. "The best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft agly," her voice said, but it was different. It was cold, with an emotionless edge that left a chill within her mind, though she did not feel it in her current state. The creatures had complete control of her, and she was completely powerless to do anything but watch and wait for all of her plans and hopes fall into dust. They had won the war with only one battle, a defeat that came of nothing but her own stupidity.

As her hand touched the cold metal of the door knob, her mind, the only part of her that was still truly her, wept emotionlessly for the future lost because of her before it had even a chance to begin.