[h1][color=gray]Harmon Rottlage[/color][/h1]
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Harmon was holding a bundle of paper towels over the base of the loose shard, soaking up the blood seeping from the root. He stumbled through the school grounds lazily, his head having returned to an uneasy sensation. His ear canals kept up a low ringing, and his vision through his camera had become prone to random flashes of static. Everything ahead of him occasionally became blurry, causing him to stop and rest on something for a moment. Maybe he should have let Lenny help him. This situation wasn’t pleasant.

Another bout of ringing. But there was something accompanying this time. Some kind of… shriek, or roar. Harmon barely heard it though, the ringing clouded it too much. After a short pause, he continued to walk forward, towards the garden entrance. Strange how often he ended up in this part of the Academy. It’d always been something of a hub. The lamplights were on, thankfully, guiding him along the path. His vision was slowly worsening, so he attempted to pick up the pace. Halfway along his trek, however, the lights – all of them – dissipated.

Harmon stopped. His mouth hung agape as he frantically grabbed the camera from his coat and help it upward. All was dark, but he had the proper remedy. A bit of focusing was all it took to make the built-in light on the front of the camera shine forward. This, however, came at the cost of rapidly draining the batteries – and he hadn’t replaced them in some time.

Suddenly, a noise. Behind him. Sounded like… growling.

The ringing returned as Harmon quickly held the camera over his shoulder, to look at the space behind him. The light illuminated a figure in the distance, facing towards him, head lowered, teeth bared. He didn’t bother examining the other features of that… [i]beast[/i], he just returned the camera to its former frontward direction and began running. And the growling turned to a loud snarl as the beast gave chase.

Harmon let out several quick, panicked yelps. His grip on the camera became sporadic, the light shining everywhere. His head ached as he attempted to keep the camera steady, but the beast was quickly catching up. He was never a good runner. But, again, for this, he had the proper remedy.

A brief veil of static enveloped Harmon, and he was gone. In that same moment, he reappeared a bit further ahead, right in front of the side of a bench, which he quickly slammed his leg into, causing him to keel over. His vision was not doing him any favors tonight. He did his best to get back up quick because he [i]knew[/i] that thing was not far behind. He didn’t take another step, though. Instead, he focused, aimed his camera forward, illuminated the path ahead, and vanished again. This time, he managed to land himself in the near-middle of the path, but he wasn’t out of the garden just yet. He kept his camera raised, continuing to teleport further and further ahead each time, doing his best to ignore the stamping of the beast’s feat on the pathway behind him. A few more rapid transitions, and he found himself before the exit leading towards the cafeteria. He wasted no time in making one more shift towards the double doors at the front of the building.

The beast, however, was still close behind. Every time Harmon had teleported, it had taken the place of his previous position not even a moment later. Harmon stumbled as he got up towards the doors and pulled one open frantically. Once he was inside, he hurriedly shut the door behind him and reached into his shorts pocket, pulling out his utility key. Thank God he was a staff assistant or he wouldn’t have had it on his person.

He shivered as he jammed the key in the lock and turned it, sealing the doors. He backed away, not bothering to stick around in case the beast was about to slam itself against them. He stumbled again, falling backwards, on his rear. Breathing heavily. Sitting in the dark.

Up until now, he was doing a good job of ignoring his head pains during the chase. That feeling quickly returned, along with the ringing, and he cradled his head once again.