2Chapter 3: The Decree
For an extraordinarily long moment, the silence continued. Vero could hear the fast-paced breathing of everyone in the room. Even the teacher seemed to have been stunned into silence. The moment seemed to last forever. Then, as in slow motion, Vero saw the teacher pointing out commands. Her mouth was moving but no sound was coming out. A pounding headache was torturing Vero's skull as his eyes unfocused and sweat popped out on his fur as the heat in the classroom seemed to reach a sweltering degrees. He felt like he was going to pass out for a moment, but then he blinked and things went back to normal, except the terror in the room dramatically increased. A couple of students sprinted over to the windows and shoved down the blinds. Others had picked up desks and piled them in front of the door, as if it would actually help. Then, just like the drills, everyone huddled in the darkest corner of the room near the wall with the door. But there were no grumbles or rolling of the eyes this time. You could have heard a cockroach it was so quiet. Vero realized he was holding his breath. The hallway outside was still suspiciously deathly silent. No one moved. The darkness seemed to press in on Vero until he could hardly see, despite his excellent Malaraj night sight. The shadows under the desk became menacing blobs that suddenly melted into zombie-like figures that crawled toward him just like in his vision. Vero exhaled slowly and closed his eyes, baring his sharp fangs at his invisible terror as if to scare it away. Still nothing happened.
Then the door was suddenly blown apart as if by a bomb. A blinding light filled the room, so bright that the only thing Vero could see when his eyes shot open of the figures that burst into the room were their silhouettes. A second later, hardly enough time for Vero to think rather than defend himself, if he could have done so, another hot light filled the room, this time red. But Vero wasn't even sure about that, because at that same time, his conscience went blank and he knew no more.