Shadowseal: The Price Of Sin

CHAPTER 10

The classroom was quiet.

When Mikey walked in, the air had already shifted.

But only seconds later

A scream.

High-pitched. Raw.

It echoed from somewhere down the hall.

Students jolted upright.

Chairs scraped, books dropped.

— "What was that?!"

— "Someone screamed!"

— "Is everyone okay?!"

People rushed to the windows, to the door, voices rising in confusion.

Then they flooded out, chasing the noise.

And just as the classroom emptied

The sound began.

Not a scream this time.

A frequency.

High. Piercing. Metallic.

Like a needle dragging across a nerve.

Mikey clutched his head.

His vision blurred.

His legs buckled beneath him.

He tried to breathe

But when he opened his eyes…

They were red.

Blood red.

Not like veins.

Like rage.

He took a step forward, then collapsed to one knee.

His fingers touched the floor.

His breath caught.

Then

His hair began to grow.

Long. Dark. Slowly falling over his eyes.

And then...

Two sharp points broke through his forehead.

Horns.

Twisting upward, bone-gray, veined like stone.

"No," he muttered inside.

"No, not now…"

But his body no longer listened.

He hit the floor.

His shoulders spasmed, his spine arched

His skin... was moving.

It was like something inside him was clawing its way out.

"Stop. I'm still in control. I'M STILL HERE."

But it didn't stop.

His tail came next.

Thick, muscled, long.

At the tip four needle-like spines, twitching like a predator sensing blood.

His skin color changed.

Flesh turned ashen-red, streaked with gray.

Veins pushed to the surface.

His body pulsed like it was breathing through every pore.

And then

Wings.

His back tore open.

Thin, sharp, bat-like wings unfurled from his shoulders

Not soft, not fragile.

Blade-like. Hungry.

Mikey was no longer standing.

He was hovering.

But inside

He was still fighting.

Suddenly, his surroundings fell away.

Everything went dark.

And he was back...

Face to face with the demon.

The chains were still there.

But the grin…

Never left.

"If I didn't start this… then what did?" Mikey growled.

The demon chuckled.

"If I were free, don't you think I'd be controlling you right now?"

Mikey's eyes narrowed.

"Exactly. So you're bluffing."

The demon's laugh deepened, spreading like poison through the void.

"Don't worry…

You're doing everything I want anyway.

You just haven't realized it yet."

Mikey clenched his fists

But the void shattered.

Back in the real world…

The classroom was empty.

The hallways chaotic.

No one saw what happened next.

Because what stood in Mikey's place…

was something else.

Red eyes.

Full horns.

A long, spined tail.

Wings stretched wide.

And then

He moved.

Turned to the window.

Glass shattered

and he took off.

He flew.

Up into the sky.

The sun at his back.

The wind breaking around him.

Below, someone screamed.

But Mikey heard none of it.

Because at that moment

he was no longer just Mikey.

The sky cracked.

The devil form soared upward, massive black wings slicing through the clouds like blades. Below, the world shrank school, people, city… all growing smaller beneath him. He hovered like a tyrant over the heavens, and the air trembled with a bone-rattling hum.

For a moment, he simply hovered.

And watched.

Silence followed.

But it wasn't peace.

It was the silence of a world holding its breath sensing something ancient… approaching.

And then

A roar.

Not a sound, but a force.

It tore through the sky, rattled the ground, and cracked the air itself.

It was a call not to be heard, but to be felt.

Something primal. Something… awakening.

Across the city, people flinched.

Stopped.

Listened.

In streets, in offices, in homes eyes turned upward, hearts thudded harder.

"What… was that?"

And in the sky, the creature smiled.

Its body began to swell.

Muscles thickened.

Bones cracked and expanded.

Its shadow stretched across the city like a shroud.

Fangs sharpened. Horns curled further back, twisting with menace.

But inside that monstrous form…

Mike was still there.

Trapped. Screaming from the depths of his mind.

"What is this?! What's happening to me?!"

He clung to consciousness.

To his own sense of self.

And then

The demon answered.

Calm. Cruel. Amused.

"You want to know what this is?"

"This is the final breath of the part of you you've been trying so hard to suppress."

"For a while, you were so sure of yourself. So confident in your control. But that confidence… gave the mask a window."

"When the sealed souls faded... when the carriers went quiet… when I was chained…"

"The mask began to think."

"It's no longer just a tool. It's something else now. Something with will."

Mike fell silent.

The words cut deep, echoing inside him.

He had always felt the whispers…

But now… the whispers had a voice.

Outside, the creature continued to change expanding, pulsing with dark energy.

The city no longer just looked up.

It feared.

They didn't know what they were witnessing.

But they knew one thing for sure:

The thing in the sky…

Was not human.