Chapter 29
Sonny returns to campus about a week and a half after coming out of his coma.
He moves slower than before with a subtle limp, his whole body, especially his right arm wrapped and braced under his school clothes. Students notice his weaknesses immediately and begin to speculate. Conversations stop when he passes by. Ellie walks beside him, close enough that their shoulders almost touch. She does not let anyone rush him.
Bull waits near the lecture hall doors. When he sees Sonny, he straightens. "You look terrible, but good to see you back."
Sonny nods once in his direction acknowledging him.
Jess arrives a moment later. She studies Sonny carefully. "Oh. You have returned to class. Seems premature."
"Maybe so, but I needed to return," Sonny says.
They enter their crypt class together and Ellie departs. The professor pauses when he sees Sonny, then clears his throat and continues as if nothing is wrong. Everyone pretends to take notes. Whispers follow Sonny through the room. Most of them stop when he looks up.
Sonny attends his next class. When Reya walks into the classroom, she pauses when she sees Sonny. Her eyes widen, and she immediately changes direction, hurrying over to his desk. She drops into the seat beside him and starts talking all at once. “Are you okay? How are you even here? Is it really fine for you to be back already?”
Sonny turns toward her, surprised but not unhappy. “Thank you for visiting me in the hospital,” he says. “And for the flowers. They were a welcome gesture.”
Reya freezes for a second, then blushes. “Oh. I’m glad you liked them.”
“I’m doing fine,” Sonny continues. “I’ll still be recovering for a few weeks, but I’m healthy enough to attend class. I appreciate you concerns, but no need to worry.”
Reya studies him, clearly unconvinced. “If there’s anything you need, anything at all, just tell me. I mean it.”
Sonny gives a short nod. “Okay. Thank you.”
The professor walks in before she can say anything else, claps his hands once, and begins the lecture.
After class, Sonny goes straight to Dean’s office. The arrangement is simple. Sonny tells Dean everything that matters, and Dean delivers the official version to faculty and students. Sonny trusts him to keep details he doesn’t want released out of his address. Dean has already heard Bull and Jess’s account, so this meeting is about lining up the story and closing the gaps.
Dean motions Sonny into a chair. “Start from the beginning.” Sonny sits, posture calm, and gives him the full run down. He explains their entry plan, the scouting routes, and how the first three floors behave normally.
Then he explains the fourth floor. “When I went for recon, I encountered no monsters,” Sonny says. “Not a single one. Even as we trekked through to the boss room, there wasn’t even a trace of monsters.”
Dean’s eyes narrow. “That alone is a problem.”
Sonny continues his recount of what happened. The boss room door was open. The boss was already dead. Thomas stepped in first, saw the corpse, and died instantly from a long range ether strike. Sonny tells Dean what happens next without dramatics.
Dean listens without interrupting.
Sonny tells him about Two. How Two got in, likely during the Bronze Corps maintenance window for the teleporters before the first group entered. Then he waited until he sensed Sonny inside the crypt to kill the fourth floor monsters and the crypt boss. It would be easy for an Omega with elite stealth and power to sneak in, hide, wait on the fourth floor, clear the monsters and boss, then attack the moment Sonny’s team reaches the boss room.
Dean’s expression stays controlled, but the tone shifts. “And you killed this man. This ‘Two’.”
“Yes. He is dead.” Sonny confirms.
Dean leans back, thinking. “Bull and Jess described the fight as… impossible.”
Sonny doesn’t react. “They saw what happened.”
Dean holds his gaze. “I do not care your relationship with this ‘Two’. I’m asking only what the school needs to know.”
Sonny looks at Dean. “I understand.”
They talk for close to an hour, going over details until Dean is satisfied the timeline and key facts align with Bull and Jess’s story. When Sonny finishes, Dean taps a finger against the desk.
“Your version is more detailed, but it matches theirs,” Dean says. “Close enough that I can work with it.” He sighs. “I will address the faculty and the student body tomorrow. I’ll keep out anything that connects you to that attacker personally. I’ll also keep out anything that could put you or your friends in potential danger.”
Sonny nods once. “Thank you. I trust you.”
Dean waves him off like it’s nothing, but his eyes stay sharp. “Go. Rest. And don’t give anyone a reason to ask more questions.”
Sonny stands. “Yes, sir.” He leaves the office, and the weight of the crypt follows him into the hallway.
The next day, Dean calls a student assembly. The auditorium fills quickly. Students pack the rows, whispering and checking their phones like they’re waiting for a scandal to drop. Dean steps onto the stage and waits until the noise settles.
“Listen,” Dean says. “As everyone here knows, we had a fatal incident during a test crypt dive.”
The room goes still.
Dean keeps his tone controlled. He gives the official outline. The crypt behaves normally on floors one through three. Floor four is abnormal. The boss is found dead. A student dies. The team fights their way out and evacuates. The crypt collapses shortly after.
He pauses, letting the weight of it sit. “We are exploring alternate crypt options for a similar curriculum,” Dean continues. “Until then, the class will continue without a live crypt dive. Just learning about the fundamentals of crypt diving and crypt properties.”
A murmur ripples through the crowd. Dean lifts a hand. “This is not up for debate. It is the decision.” He ends the assembly quickly and walks off stage without taking questions.
The moment students are released, the school explodes with noise. By lunch, Sonny, Jess, and Bull are the talk of AM. People approach them in clusters, trying to look casual and failing.
A student stops Bull near the hallway. “Is it true the boss was already dead?”
Bull keeps his face neutral. “That’s what Dean said.”
Another student leans toward Jess. “So what happened on floor four. Like, really.”
Jess forces a tight smile. “Dean explained it.”
Someone tries Sonny next, braver than the rest. “How could the boss have already been dead?”
Sonny looks at them, calm and unreadable. “I don’t know.”
The conspiracies start the same day. Some students claim the crypt is tampered with. Others insist it’s an inside job by the Academy of Magic or the Bronze Corps. People keep circling the same detail because it makes no sense to them. Monsters are everywhere on floors one through three, then nothing on four. A dead boss. A vanished crypt.
“No one gets past three floors without killing floor bosses,” someone says loudly in the cafeteria arguing amongst friends.
“That’s what they want you to think,” another person replies, as if they’re solving a mystery.
Bull, Jess, and Sonny do the same thing every time. They confirm what Dean relayed and refuse to add anything else. They don’t argue. They don’t correct theories. They don’t give the school a single extra inch to grab. They keep the real details buried.
About a month passes, and the campus eventually moves on. Not fully. People still whisper when Sonny, Jess, or Bull walk by. But the crypt stops being the only thing anyone talks about.
Sonny continues healing. His right arm takes the longest. He keeps it wrapped most days, even when it irritates him. The rest of his body recovers faster than anyone expects, but he doesn’t rush the process. He ramps his training back up gradually and avoids multi-day training stretches for now.
He also attends class more often than he used to. People notice. Bull notices first. Jess notices second. Reya noticed immediately. Ellie notices every single time. Sonny spends more time with them all, but most of all, he spends time with Ellie. He helps her train. He corrects her timing. He calls out bad habits in short sentences that somehow land harder than long lectures. They go on dates more frequently. They cook together. They sit on the couch and watch TV while Ellie explains things Sonny still doesn’t understand, like why people lie when they’re embarrassed, or why someone laughs when they’re nervous. For the first time in Sonny’s life, he feels content.
One night, after dinner, Sonny sits beside Ellie and watches the TV glow reflect in the window. His voice is quiet. “I think I’m happy,” he says.
Ellie turns her head. “Yeah?”
Sonny gives a short nod once. “I didn’t think life could feel like this. I thought it was only misery, pain, and death. I thought that was all I was.”
Ellie’s expression softens. “You’ve been living like a normal college student this month,” she says. “Classes, training, friends, trying to figure out the future.”
Sonny looks at her like that concept still surprises him.
“Most people would be very stressed with all of that going on,” Ellie continues. “The work, the pressure, what comes after graduation. But you had a life that was so much worse than that. Your perspective is different.” She leans into him. “Don’t lose that. It’s going to make the little moments feel much more special for you than most people who take them for granted.”
Sonny doesn’t answer right away. He just lets the words settle. Ellie rests her head on his shoulder, and they keep watching their show while the apartment stays quiet and safe for a little while longer.
