It's your last day at RAD.
Finals are finished. Classes have wrapped up. The halls are empty and your footsteps echo. You feel extra aware of everything, from the nervous way you inhale each breath to the steady heartbeat pounding in your chest.
It feels wrong. This place is usually so full of activity. Laughing, shouting, idle chatter. You've never felt so alone here before. Not even when you had to fend for yourself.
There's the column Leviathan liked to hide behind when a loud gang of outgoing demons walked past. There's the corner Asmodeus would peek around after third period to ask if you'd have lunch with him.
There's the dent in the wall where Beelzebub lashed out after Mammon attempted to borrow his wallet for the third day in a row. There's the staircase Belphegor fell down one time. You had rushed after him to see if he was okay, only to find him splayed out on the ground at the very bottom, fast asleep.
You walk past the classroom where you listened to Lucifer's first lecture on music history. The very same classroom where Satan was punished for trying to hex the podium. It's right down the hall from the student council room where everything started.
You pause in the council room doorway and stare at the lined up chairs, recalling how they looked like imposing thrones with everyone staring down at you. Like a lamb to the slaughter. Back then, everyone was hostile at worst and apathetic at best. You struggled, you fought, you overcame each challenge you somehow got wrapped up in, and gradually, all the trials you faced got easier to handle. You got used to life in a strange new world with strange new bonds. The demons opened up to you.
Maybe they opened up to you a little too much. Seven of them were practically attached to you at the hip and you wound up graduating as the most celebrated being at the academy.
Your days at RAD are ending, and your new life is about to begin. Are you ready?
