“And how did he take that?” Bianca asked the Daemon as he packed away her things. Andras sighed briefly as she continued to drill him for details. He was also struggling to fit everything back into her bag without breaking it, he had no idea why Bianca insisted on having such a small bag. Fashion was definitely something he didn’t think he’d ever fully understand.
“Well he certainly wasn’t happy, clearly expecting Sarah to be swept off her feet despite knowing she’s always been a prudent one. When I relayed Sarah’s message to him his face dropped for a moment but he claimed to understand that she’d need some time to answer him.” the Daemon answered as he loaded her miniscule and overpacked bag onto her shoulder
Andras felt a hint of amusement emanate from her at that statement, “Oh brother, he expected Sarah of all people to just go for it? Granted he doesn’t know about our arrangement to ‘shelter’ you but even without that Sarah is the least impulsive person we know.” Bianca mused.
Packing up Bianca’s things had taken enough time to the point where the last of the students were already filing out of the auditorium doors, leaving just the two of them with the teacher, Mr Fargo, as he packed away his lecture gear.
As Andras reached the bottom of the stairs and began to head for the door, Mr Fargo got his attention, “Hey Bianca, do you have a second?” his kind and fatherly voice rang out.
Turning his attention to the man Andras smiled, he was a roughly middle aged man with a good build as he clearly worked out. He had taut features and if you’d only seen him you might assume he was quite intimidating but that appearance was completely betrayed by his scholarly demeanor. ‘The body should be just as sharp as the mind’ is what Andras had heard the man iterate over and over the past few months.
“Sure, what can I do for you Mr Fargo?” Andras cheerily replied, approaching his station.
Mr Fargo smiled, “Oh please you’re an adult Bianca, just call me Andrew.” He reminded her, “But actually it’s not what you can do for me, rather what you’ve already been doing.” He continued with an appreciative smile.
“Huh?” Bianca thought to the Daemon.
“Right, of course Andrew but I can’t say I know what you mean, I don’t believe I’ve done anything special.” Andras replied.
“Really? What do you call your total one-eighty within this class? Don’t think I haven’t noticed.” Mr Fargo commented.
“Oh well re-” Andras began before being cut off by the professor.
“I must confess, after so many months of you spending the entire class on your phone, I had written you off as one of the ‘bludgers’.” Mr Fargo said, moving his fingers for quotation, “No offense.” He added genuinely.
“None taken.” Andras replied.
“As you know, business has a rather frustrating, but true, stereotype of being a ‘nothing’ class that people attend with the sole purpose of just attending college for the lifestyle.” The professor lamented, pinching his nose seemingly as a method of coping with the thought.
Setting Bianca’s bag down by his feet to show respect for the conversation Andras replied, “Yeah in all honesty, that is why I joined in the first place. I only decided to attend because my friend, Amber, was coming here but she had actual career aspirations at the time.” Andras rubbed the back of Bianca’s neck in second hand embarrassment,
“HEY! You don’t need to be so candid!” The ‘delinquent’ protested within, Andras didn’t acknowledge her complaint.
“Right and half your classmates are in the same boat you used to be, I can’t tell you how discouraging it can be sometimes feeling like my lessons are falling on deaf ears.” Andras felt a pang of palpable guilt come from Bianca this time, clearly she wasn’t happy to have contributed to that negative sentiment, “But you turned it around, so I really must know, what was the catalyst of such a transformation?” Mr Fargo inquired eagerly.
“Oh yeah well you see teach, after I went on that island trip a demon began inhabiting my body from time to time and he, along with my friends, eventually convinced me to at least graduate with a degree so I have options in the future.” Bianca sarcastically explained to the Daemon.
Flashing an apologetic smile before answering, “Well I’m sorry to have contributed to that.” Andras began, receiving a curt nod from the professor in acknowledgement, “Well, my friends have always kinda been on my back about taking things seriously but I suppose it was my trip to the island that gave me a bit of a wake up call.”
The professor’s eyebrows perked up at the mention of the island, “I see, I had heard about that, I can imagine it would have been a very difficult thing to go through. You should take great pride in having come out stronger on the other side of adversity.” He seemed genuinely proud of the girl.
“Awwww.” Bianca said happily, “Thank him for me!” She insisted.
“Thank you very much, it means a lot.” Andras replied warmly before picking up Bianca’s bag, “Well I better be off, I’m meeting a friend, don’t want to keep her waiting.” He said politely.
“Yes of course, I’ll see you next class Bianca, keep up the good work!” He said returning to packing up his things, excusing Andras.
“Will do, see ya then!” Andras replied cheerily and walked out of the auditorium with a spring in his step.
“Man I feel bad that people bludging in his class gets him down, do you think we should try and convince some of the other people to pay a bit more attention?” Bianca asked Daemon as they entered the hallway.
“I mean we can try but it took me quite a while of nagging you to get you to take it seriously.” Andras said to her frankly.
He felt the girl’s mood sour slightly at that but he knew that she knew he was right. The pair continued in silence for a short while as they headed back towards the dorm.
It was a lovely day, spring on the precipice of summer was warm but it still had a nice breeze in the air. Even with the protection of the girls’ skin it took Andras a long time to appreciate the sun, after a few months he even began to enjoy the sensation a bit.
“What do you think Amber wants to show us this time?” Bianca asks.
Andras couldn’t help but roll Bianca’s eyes a little, “I can’t imagine it’s anything different than the random tidbits she’s been excited about before but turned out to be nothing.” This had been going on ever since they’d beaten Idsalis and the fact that there were more Daemons out there had prompted their friend to spend a large majority of her free time looking for more information.
“Yeah I know we all want to be supportive but not one of her findings has panned out since the initial find on the Daemon Opus.” Bianca echoed his sentiment.
Andras hummed in agreement as he opened the door to the dorms and made his way towards the stairs, keen to momentarily change the subject he decided now was the time to ask something he’d been meaning to all day, “Anyway, what are your plans for the summer? Going away like Sarah might be?” He enquired.
“Eh not much, I’m going to stay with my parents for a week but that’s about it.” She replied sheepishly, “Plus, it’s not like we can all separate for the whole summer. We do have a ‘shared dependant’ after all.” She teased.
He knew she was joking but the summer had brought up the idea of the longevity of his arrangement with the girls. While luckily most of them didn’t have much in the way of plans there was the understanding that if they wanted to make them they’d have to first make arrangements for Andras’ sheltering.
That was a burden that he’d really rather they not be troubled by but a more elegant solution was yet to present itself.
As Andras approached Amber’s door he decided to shelve that line of thinking for another time as he knew it couldn’t go on like this forever.
*KNOCK KNOCK*
Bianca’s knuckles rapped against her and Amber’s shared bedroom, “Come in.” Amber’s voice echoed from within.
Entering Andras was greeted with the sight of a slightly disheveled Amber who greeted the Daemon, “If I didn’t already know you were in Bianca I’d be able to tell by you knocking first.” Amber joked.
He just felt Bianca shrug internally as the fact that she had little decorum was undeniable.
“Well I never know if you’re changing or not.” Andras shrugged, closing the door behind him.
Amber laughed, he felt Bianca smile a bit too, “And the fact that you’re always considerate of that despite literally being me from time to time will always be funny.” Amber teased him.
“What is it you wanted to show us?” The Daemon said, eager to get to the meat and potatoes of why they were here.
Amber practically beamed at this, “Right! I think this might be the best lead I’ve found. Maybe even better than the first one I found which helped us defeat Idsalis.” She remarked, changing tabs on her laptop.
What Andras and Bianca were greeted with was the sight of yet another message board with various anonymous chatters talking about Spooky Island and the Daemons. “Right, another message board, I see they’re talking about it but what is different this time?” Andras asked a little impatiently.
“Not what but who.” Amber replied cryptically, “The user D4n1 has been on a lot of these pages.” She explained switching from multiple tabs to exhibit the different postings of this mysterious user.
“Ok so you have found a Spooky Island theorist, what’s so special about this one?” Andras asked while reading the different messages they’d posted, one was talking about the different ‘collectibles’ while another was talking about ‘meet-ups’ which seemed par for the course for these fanatics.
“The name! On the initial website where I found the post about the Daemon Opus it was posted by the user Dann1.” She said showing the original post that helped the beat Idsalis.
Andras could tell Bianca also thought this was a bit of a stretch but then Amber brought up another set of posts,
“Hey, looking to meet up and exchange info! Comment your details.”
“Still organizing that meet up, let me know if you’re coming!”
“Anyone still interested in meeting up? RSVP ASAP!!!”
What was curious about it was the timeline Amber had laid out, the first post talking about meeting up was marked ‘Day After Idsalis’ defeat’ and then kept going once or twice a week for nearly a month before they seemingly gave up. The potential implications made Andras’ skin crawl but he wasn’t sure how that was possible.
“What do you think we’re dealing with here? A survivor from Idsalis’ crew?” Andras asked.
“Not quite. With you having disabled the Opus, none of them should have been able to hold onto their bodies and there were no reports of other Daemonic activity at the school so that all but rules out a survivor from here.” Amber explained which made the Daemon relax a little bit.
“Then what?” Andras queried, unsure of what the girl could be driving at.
“What if it’s a survivor from the Island?” Amber posited.
“The island? But that shouldn’t be…” Andras trailed off, realizing that if Idsalis could shelter himself it stood to reason that at least a few others could.
“If it were then why wouldn’t they have been with Idsalis? They might have tipped the scales.”
“I thought of that and when digging through the post history of their accounts I’ve come up with a theory. The Daemon Opus post was dated between our time on the island and Idsalis arriving at campus.” Amber explained going back to the original post.
“You think they might be some kind of independent agent?” Bianca asked which the Daemon promptly echoed.
“Well they wouldn’t have been the only one.” Amber remarked nodding to Andras who had to say she had a point but this was still all very circumstantial.
“Right… what exactly do you want to do about this? Contact them?” He asked, motioning to the screen.
Ambers face dropped at that, “I already tried that, no response. They’ve either fallen off the face of the earth or are choosing not to respond.” She explained, deflating a little in her seat.
“Then what?”
This is where Amber perked up again, “I think if we could track their IP Address we’d be able to contact them an-”
“You want to track down a random person on the internet?” Andras interjected, “Someone who we have no idea about whatsoever.” He added incredulously.
“Amber how many of these leads of yours haven’t panned out? You’ve spent countless hours on this and now you’re talking about tracking someone down like we’re some sort of government age-” Andras began before being interrupted by the blonde.
“Andras.” Amber said firmly and in a tone that the Daemon had never heard her use. Amber’s expression softened to express her sincerity, “I know I’ve found something real. Let me get Sarah onto it and if somehow it doesn’t pan out, I’ll leave it. Ok?” She said calmly.
“She’s serious.” Bianca added.
Andras pondered for a moment, the blondes expression didn’t change as she waited for his answer. With a sigh he said, “Alright but please promise me if this turns out to be nothing then you’ll leave well enough alone. For your own sake.” He asked her.
“I promise.” Amber said confidently while Andras pulled out Bianca’s phone and dialed Sarah’s number before putting it up to his ear.
As usual for Sarah the phone buzzed exactly twice before he heard, “Hey Andras what’s up?”
“Not much, are you busy?” The Daemon asked.
“Not really, just catching up on some homework. What do you need? A switch out?” Sarah asked a little more eagerly than usual which momentarily confused him until he realized she was working on her group project which really meant she was doing the work of 4 slackers and was always keen for an excuse to put it off.
“No but I do have something that will get you away from that project of yours.” Andras offered the girl, receiving an excited humm in response, “Amber has a link to some forum profiles and we’re wondering if you could track down the IP address for us?” He continued.
“Track down an IP address? Andras I’m a programmer not some elite hacker.” Sarah remarked, sounding a little tired of the misconceptions about her desired profession.
“Sooooo…. You can’t do it?” Andras teased. From his time studying with/as her he knew she could do something like this easily enough from the networking unit of her course but would get quite annoyed when Bianca or even her family would ask her to ‘hack’ their bank accounts when they forgot their passwords.
“Just who am I supposed to be tracking down?” The ‘hackers’ voice came across the phone line.
“We don’t know yet but we suspect they, at the very least, have either connections to Idsalis or have some valuable information. They are the original poster of the Daemon Opus.” Andras explained to her.
“Right so we’re sticking our noses where we might regret doing so aren’t we?” Sarah explained, voice dripping with a future ‘I told you so’.
“That we are.” Andras replied confidently, flashing a supportive smile to Amber who clearly appreciated it.
“Ask her about Justin!” Bianca insisted. While he would usually tell her to leave Sarah alone, he himself was quite curious as to what she said and will take the excuse of blaming Bianca for the question.
“By the way… did you give Justin an answer yet?” the Daemon asked cautiously, he looked back at Amber who was clearly quite eager to learn herself.
“I… I told him I would go.” Sarah answered.
“Hell yeah!” Bianca cheered over their connection.
While disappointed that he wouldn’t see her for the summer, Andras was thrilled for her. He was really happy that she didn’t feel obliged to stay for the sake of sheltering him; however there was a pang of concern that the others might be more burdened.
“That’s amazing! From what you’ve told me about his family’s exploits on their summer vacations you’re in for a blast.” Andras replied cheerily, Amber smiled at him in support.
“I know. I honestly wasn’t sure if we could do it but after the girls told me they’d handle ‘it’ I couldn’t think of a reason not to go!” Sarah replied expressing genuine relief and excitement at the same time. “Anyway, I’ll get to tracking down this mystery person of yours. I’ll talk to you later.” Sarah replied, hanging up after a brief goodbye.
“She really didn’t want me to grill her.” Bianca laughed.
“No she did not.” Andras replied with a laugh of his own.
“Well Amber, she’s looking into it. Are you ready to get to work?” Andras asked the nursing student.
“Oh, right. Yep, come on over.” Amber replied, turning to face him properly.
Andras stepped towards the girl, placing one of Bianca’s arms on her shoulders before beginning to collect his essence from within Bianca.
He began disconnecting himself from the nerves in the tips of her fingers and toes, pulling his outer reaches in towards the center of her body. Shrinking and condensing the matter that made up his form until he could feel his spiritual self begin to take shape within Bianca’s chest.
With a push upward he felt his being push outside of his host, his vision flickering from Bianca’s eyes to his own eyes forming outside of Bianca’s mouth. Though he didn’t have much time to enjoy the view as he was busy closing the very short distance between himself and Amber’s waiting mouth.
Andras didn’t have many physical sensations while in this form but he could definitely feel the heat of Amber’s mouth as his spiritual form crossed the threshold into his friend. Wasting no time Andras broke himself back down and spread throughout her body, quickly flowing through every crevice and connecting to every nerve before carefully taking control of her motor functions.
“All good in here?” Andras checked, as he gathered his surroundings. The Daemon was hyper aware of every sensation she was currently experiencing. The sound of the low whirring of her laptop fan, the feeling of the various clothes she was dressed in and the pressure of the chair she was sitting on.
Then as if a threshold was met, his awareness turned to normal and he was greeted by his smiling friend.
“All good as usual, I can’t say I’ll ever accuse you of being too rough.” She assured him.
Bianca began stretching her shoulders, “Oooooh boy does it feel nice. That’s way more satisfying than taking off a tight pair of boots, I’ll tell you that.” She joked as she continued to flex and stretch.
“Alright well I’m going to go get ready for dinner, I’ll leave you two to your studies.” She said finishing stretching and grabbing her toiletry bag before heading off to the shower.
“So, what unit do you want to cover first?” Andras asked Amber, turning to her laptop and navigating to the homework folder.
“I think we should start with…”
======================================================================
Andras yawned, his eyes navigating to the corner of Amber’s screen.
8:39pm
It wasn’t even that late, but spending all day in classes with Bianca and then spending nearly five hours studying with Amber had really taken it out of him.
“Yeah even I’m at the end of my rope.” Amber echoed the daemons sentiment.
“Should we shower and call it for the night?” The Daemon offered.
“Yeah that sounds like a good idea.” Amber replied with a mental yawn.
Andras sheepishly closed her laptop and got up carefully as her body was now sore from all of the sitting. The Daemon began meandering about her room for a change of clothes and her toiletry bag. This is when he heard Amber’s phone begin to vibrate on her desk.
Glancing over at it the tired Daemon noticed Sarah’s name displaying prominently in the center. Picking it up and answering the Daemon spoke, “Hey Sarah, what’s up?”
“I found the address.” Sarah said with obvious concern. “We’re going to need to talk, come over.”
“Woah there, what’s wrong?” Andras asked, suddenly becoming a lot more alert.
“Whoever this person is, they are very close. Too close for it to be a coincidence.” Sarah replied.
“I’ll be right over.” Andras remarked.
