“So it just got kicked out of his body randomly?” Lena asked incredulously as they all mulled over Andras’ explanation.
Andras sat with a supportive arm around Bianca’s shoulders on Sarah’s bed, she wasn’t traumatized or anything but he could tell she could use the comfort after that ordeal, “Seemingly so, I didn’t see any protoplasm but I know one was in there because the student awoke briefly before being recaptured.” The demon explained.
“How is that possible?” Elizabeth asked, “I thought you said that it required the hosts permission to stay inside?”
“It does, It shouldn’t be possible for them to possess humans without extracting them.” Andras scratched his head as a silence hung over the room., his eyes darting between the lot of them.
Each of them displayed a similar set of emotions, confusion, anger and even fear. Not Lena though and he could feel little from Amber except a sense of calm as the cogs in her head moved to analyze the situation.
“Well if they have found some way, then why did that one lose control” Sarah asked no one in particular.
“Perhaps it overexerted itself? They did say they were chased quite the distance, perhaps their ability to maintain control can be compromised if they are forced to expend themselves?” Elizabeth hypothesized.
Andras shook his head, “I don’t think so, I think it might have something to do with range.”
“Range?” Kiera asked.
“Of course!” Elizabeth exclaimed, “How could I have missed that?” she admonished herself, the group waiting for her to share what she had just figured out with the rest of the group.
“The reason the demons all stopped so suddenly was because they must have reached the range of whatever was binding them to their host bodies.”
“What? What could possibly do something like that?” Sarah questioned the girl.
“I have no idea!” The scientist said with a strange glee, “But I didn’t spend thousands of years as a demon.” She said, turning her head to Andras, “You told me a little about what was it… the Daemon Ritus was it?”
“Yes that’s right but they couldn’t be using that.” Andras brushed off her suggestion before realizing what she was getting at, “You think they’re using some other artifact?”
“They must be, what other explanation is there?” Liz asked rhetorically, “Now, in your long life, did you hear anything about other artifacts?”
“Of course I did, the demon queen had many relics but she couldn’t have had something like this because she would have used it.” Andras explained.
“But what about other parts of the world?” Kiera spoke up finally, “What do you mean?” The demon asked.
Kiera stood up confidently, “The demon queen said herself that the demons have a history dating back before the island, specifically something to do with my bloodline.”
“Hey yeah! If there are any clues to find about what we’re dealing with, I bet that is the place to start.” Sarah chimed in, also rising from her seat.
Andras stood up with the girls, “Then should we go to the library in the morning?!” He asked excitedly, causing all of the girls to laugh.
Even Amber seemed to giggle a little bit from within him, “What’s so funny?”
“You watched one too many of those 80’s movies during your training Andras, everything is online these days.” Lena teased him.
“Yeah, what were you expecting? A short montage of all of us in the library passing books around?” Kiera asked.
“Night turning to day.” Sarah interjected .
“All to the tune of some suspenseful music before one of us jumps up excitedly having found what we were looking for?” Bianca finished as they all continued to laugh.
Though at his expense, he was happy to see them all enjoying themselves as he put on a show of faux annoyance. “Har har, have you all had your fun now?” He asked, placing Amber’s hands on her hips.
“Oh ok ok, I think we’re done.” Bianca said as she wiped the beginnings of a tear from the corner of her eye, their giggles dying down. The group felt much better after a well deserved laugh.
“Well I guess we should get started, I’ll make some hot drinks.” Sarah announced, moving over to the kettle situated on their shared desk as they all pulled out their devices. This was going to be a long night, Andras surmised.
——————————————————————————————————————————-
It was now early morning, the first few inklings of sunlight breached the horizon, Andras downing the rest of what was probably his third cup of coffee before sparing a glance at the rest of them. Bianca had passed out, the poor girl was so tired after the day she’d had that none of them had the heart to wake her up. Elizabeth and Sarah had been bouncing ideas off of each other all night, making rapid progress, stopping only to tell the rest of them what to search for.
He’d found himself searching through ancestry websites, hitting mostly dead ends through Kiera’s family tree as the more promising leads were tackled by the smarter pair. The group chat would ping every few minutes with a new link being sent for further investigation.
Kiera seemed to be struggling a little as she took a swig of another one of her energy drinks, he watched the girl crack her next before returning her attention to her laptop. He’d really have to talk to her at some point about those drinks, what he’d read about their effects on the human body was quite troubling.
Lena had lasted the longest of them all before she started showing signs of fatigue, it seems that even her new abilities have their limits.
“God, I’m not gonna grow any extra limbs am I?” Amber joked, having guessed what he was thinking.
“I hope not!” He replied jokingly, “but in all seriousness we’ll have to get her checked out sometime soon.” He added.
“Eureka!” Elizabeth practically shouted, stirring Bianca. The small girl looked around groggily, “What’s going on? Did I doze off?”
“I think I’ve found exactly what we’re looking for.” Elizabeth explained turning over her ipad so the group could see. They were greeted with what looked like a scan of an old book, edges of the visible page clearly having been charred. The fire damage was extensive, cutting off a good portion of the lower part of the page but the middle, while difficult, was legible.
“The Daemon Opus…” Andras trailed off.
“So it empowers them to suppress the protoplasm of it’s host?” Lena asked.
“Yes and it allows them to continue to do so until they leave the effective range of the device.” Elizabeth explained, seeming very happy with herself. “This is an excerpt from a book authored by a witch who was a part of your family.” She addressed Kiera, handing her the IPad.
“Woah… were there any other pages?” The animator asked, “Not that I could find but this was posted to a witchcraft message board just a few years ago, I’m going to try and contact the author but the account has been inactive for a while so it’s a long shot.”
“Well we have to follow up every lead right? Who knows what else we might be able to find out.” Sarah said.
“Hopefully a lot more but what we have is already excellent, the specifics of how the device works might have been lost to the damage but we’ve gained invaluable insight into our enemy.” Elizabeth concurred, the scientist averted her eyes as the sunlight washed over her face.
Drawing the group’s attention to the morning sun. “I think that’s my shift done, can you ask them who’s next? I need to stretch my legs.” Amber asked tiredly.
“Uhh…” Andras started, drawing their tired eyes back to him, “Amber wanted to know who’s next? We haven’t really been following the roster over the past couple days sooo…” He trailed off, avoiding looking at any one of them in particular so no one felt pressured.
From the corner of his eyes he noticed a few of their heads turn to Sarah specifically who sighed in response before rising from her chair, “Yeah I suppose it is my turn.”
The girl had put up much less of a fight than he expected, he wasn’t sure if it was due to the severity of the situation they were in or if it was for some other reason but he was glad that the process was easier than usual.
Nonetheless the process of transferring to her came with its usual difficulties, he’d flowed out of Amber rather effortlessly before meeting the regular resistance inside of their friend but it was noticeably easier than usual. Before long her eyes briefly lit up a light blue as his form had taken control of hers.
The first thing he saw after connecting himself to Sarahs vision was Elizabeth’s face very close to his, studying him carefully. He flinched backwards, “Jesus, give a guy a little warning will you?” He asked using her voice.
“I really must get you to my lab to find out more. This is a whole new avenue of science.” The girl announced, unperturbed by his complaint.
“Focus.” Lena interjected much to the demon’s relief and elicited a frown from the scientist.
“So, we know how they are taking control of the students. How are we going to exploit this?” He asked the group.
“Well we should only need to disable the device during the day right?” Bianca said simply.
“Easier said than done.” Lena replied simply, “We’d need to find the damn thing first.”
“It’s probably in that basement right?” Bianca continued.
Before Lena could lecture her though, Andras jumped back in, “It probably was but if Idsalis hasn’t decided to move it already, he will have made it much more secure. If we are going to make an attempt on it, we’re going to need to confirm its location first.”
“I can think of a way to do that but it’s rather risky.” Elizabeth announced, sounding unsure of her own idea. Seeing the group was waiting on her she continued, “A demon has to interact with the device to become empowered by it right? Well all we’d have to do is follow a demon to the source.
“How the hell are we supposed to do that?” Keira asked skeptically.
“She wants us to trick or force a demon outside of the effective area and follow it back.” Andras surmised for the scientist.
Keira’s head snapped back to the demon, “You want us to kidnap a demon and then just let it go? They’d never fall for that!” The girl complained.
“No, that’s why we have to make it look real, they’re probably still kidnapping students at night like Elizabeth caught them doing. If we can intervene during one of those attacks we might be able to lure them out of the radius and cautiously follow them back.” The demon explained carefully.
“You’re suggesting we use our classmates as bait?” Amber asked in an almost accusatory tone, “What if something goes wrong?”
Andras turned back to Elizabeth, “Did you make any progress on that special project?”
“Oh we completely forgot to mention that didn’t we? Well before Sarah and I went to spy on Ms Marquez yesterday, Sarah and I spent some time drawing up the schematics. We should have everything we need for the prototype on campus but it won’t be ideal.” The scientist explained.
“How soon could it be put together?” He asked.
“Assuming we can find a few uninterrupted hours in one of the labs we have one up and running by this afternoon, It will be mostly waiting for some of the parts to synthesize. Assembly shouldn’t take long after that.”
“Then we’ll leave immediately.” Andras decided to turn to examine everyone. Bianca was still barely keeping her eyes open whereas Amber and Kiera seemed relatively fine. “Alright, Lena, you’re with Elizabeth and I.” His other half nodded in understanding.
“Kiera and Amber, try and see if you can find anything further. We might have found what we were looking for but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to find that might be useful.” Kiera replied only by loudly cracking open another energy drink, the group weakly giggling through their tiredness.
“What about me?” Bianca asked, fighting a yawn.
“Get some rest, you need it.” He said softly, placing a supportive hand on her shoulder and leading her to lay down.
“But I want to help…” She said weakly.
“We’ve got it covered, don’t worry. Just go to sleep, we’ll be here when you wake up.” Amber assured her friend whose eyes were drooping.
“O-okay….” She said, trailing off to sleep.
With the soft sound of Bianca’s snoozing being the only thing heard in the room, the trio departed the room, heading for the Science building in the early morning sun.
——————————————————————————————————————————-
Andras idly bit at Sarah’s fingernails as they watched Elizabeth hook Lena up to yet another machine as the school’s 3D printer whirred along on the other side of the room. The first few machines Lena was hooked up to were relatively simple, an armband for blood pressure, a finger sensor for blood oxygen levels and now she was running on a treadmill absolutely covered in sensors.
Elizabeth had her wear a white head cap to monitor her brain activity before, during and after exercise as well as some around her chest to monitor her heart rate. Lena had been going for a few minutes now but wasn’t showing any sign of fatigue aside from stronger breathing.
The red haired girl turned to Elizabeth, now fully adorned in a lab coat, “I think I can go faster!” She said eagerly.
A surprised expression made its way onto the girl’s face but it wasn’t an unwelcome one as she jotted down some notes on her IPad before waving to Lena to speed up.
Lena wasted no time bumping up the speed from an already impressive 25km/h straight to 30. Legs turning into a blur as her smaller frame limited her stride length. Finally Lena’s breath started to get stronger as the girl pushed her limits, over the course of several minutes her form started to falter but he could tell from Sarah’s internal reaction that even she wasn’t expecting Lena to have that much endurance.
“Alright, we don’t have all day. Bump it up again, this won’t work if you aren’t completely exhausted.” Elizabeth said, sounding characteristically impatient.
Eager to push herself until she has nothing left, Lena bumped it up a few more kilometers and gave it everything she had. Breathe finally became ragged and her form deteriorating as fatigue crept in. Elizabeth, not wanting the girl to hurt herself, quickly tapped the cooldown button and it began to rapidly slow.
Lena jumped on the sides of the machine, bracing herself with her arms as she panted for breath. “Easy there, don’t want you to fall down with all those expensive sensors attached to you.” Elizabeth said, not even looking at the girl she was talking to.
“Gee thanks.” Lena said sarcastically through breaths.
Elizabeth either ignored or didn’t hear Lena because she showed no sign of responding as her eyes flitted from one bit of information to another. Looking up from her IPad the scientist asked the most bizarre question, “You’re not secretly a russian olympic athlete are you?” surprising the lot of them.
“What?” Lena asked dumbfounded.
Their reactions got a giggle from the scientist, “Oh nothing, just a joke about an old sports myth.” She smiled. Seeing that they were waiting for her to continue explaining, she relented.
“I said that because you have elevated levels of estrogen and progesterone. Levels that, in normal circumstances, would tell me you’re 10 weeks pregnant. Little known fact, it’s been rumored that russian athletes would get pregnant and then have an abortion to take advantage of the hormones it produced.” She explained.
Elizabeth could tell from the unimpressed looks on their faces that they were waiting for her to get to the point. “Sorry! Anyway that’s what your blood test told me, there were a few markers that put you above the regular ranges but those two were the most curious. Progesterone increases your oxygen sensitivity so that explains your vast stamina. This endurance test was to try and get an idea of what your new capabilities are.”
“Well what about my strength and speed?” The red haired girl enquired, taking the opportunity to towel off her sweat coated body.
“That’s where it gets really interesting, I want all of you to take a look at this.” The scientist declared excitedly, presenting the screen to them.
They were greeted with what looked like an image of Lena’s brain, though curiously one section in particular was much brighter than the others. “I take it there’s something unusual about that bright bit?” Lena surmised.
“Exactly! That is your pituitary gland, it’s responsible for many things but most relevant to us, it controls the hormones responsible for muscle growth. This brightness means that it is currently working in overdrive despite you not showing any of the usual side effects of an overactive pituitary gland.” Elizabeth relayed to the three of them.
“What side effects?” Andras asked curiously.
“Well I went through some general symptoms with Lena earlier but with a gland this bright I’d expect to see major fatigue, heavy menstrual cycles and long bouts of brain fog but as I said, none of that has really fit Lena.”
Andras shifted uncomfortably, he didn’t know much about anatomy but he did know enough to tell what Elizabeth was implying was quite serious. “Do you think symptoms could develop later on?” He asked.
Elizabeth just shrugged, to the comfort of no one, “I can’t say for sure because this is completely uncharted territory but an educated guess tells me that if she was going to experience the usual effects from a condition like this, she should already be doing so.” She assured them.
“I haven’t tested her strength yet but we don’t have a lot of time left.” She added, looking out the window towards the early afternoon sun. A short silence hung over the room as they each took a second to mull over what they’d learned.
A loud ding from the 3D printer announced that it had finished fabricating the last piece, drawing all of their gazes. “Ask her what she thinks could be the root cause of all this.” Sarah instructed the demon, almost startling him. She’d been so quiet over the past few hours that aside from the odd feeling, he’d forgotten she was there.
“Sarah wants to know if you can guess what might be causing all of this.” Andras relayed to the scientist.
Elizabeth, eager as ever to talk science, beamed at the question, “Well truth be told it could be a number of things, if I had just a few days or maybe even a week I’m sure I could draw a pinpoint it but then I’d probably just find more questions that need answe-” She ranted.
“Elizabeth.” Andras said sharply, “Focus.”
“Sorry! Look, I think that Lena’s body is adapting to Andras’ presence.” She finally announced.
“Adapting?” Lena asked curiously.
“Yes! Do you remember how Amber complained about her sore shoulder last night? As well as the general fatigue from being pushed that hard?” Elizabeth asked, the pair nodded.
“Well after dealing such incredible blows to that demon I didn’t hear a single complaint out of either Lena or Andras. It would seem to me that Lena’s body is rapidly ‘toughening up’ so it can better handle housing Andras.”
Andras and Lena exchanged confused looks, “If that’s the case, then why don’t any of the other girls seem to be experiencing it, even slightly? Surely there can’t be a minimum requirement for time spent possessed to begin changing.” Lena asked.
Elizabeth shrugged again, “That I can’t even make an educated guess on. It might be because he spent that time alone with your body, it could be just because he’s ‘with’ you the most or it could be because the two of you share some special affinity.”
“That’s not very helpful.” The demon complained, having hoped for a more concrete answer.
“It’s the best I can do without longer and more varied tests.” Elizabeth sighed, “Anyway! Would you two mind putting everything back as best you can? I’ll come help you finish up but for now I want to finish assembling the prototype.” She asked kindly.
“Sure, we can do that.” Lena replied, already taking off the sweaty sensor hat. Andras could tell she was happy that she was finished being poke and prodded.
The demon rose from his seat, glad to finally be able to do something. He hefted the centrifuge off the table and deposited it in the storage cupboard he’d seen Elizabeth take it from. Setting it down he spared a glance at Lena who was putting away some of the tools the scientist had used on her. He really wanted to talk to her but wasn’t quite sure how to broach the subject.
“Just go talk to her.” Sarah said briskly, sounding almost annoyed.
“I know I should but what do I say? ‘Hey how do you feel about me inadvertently changing your body’?” He replied.
“You won’t know unless you ask her.” The girl replied, ignoring his squeamishness. Andras sighed, he knew she was right. He might have been closer with Lena than any of them but that doesn’t mean he could guess how she was feeling all the time.
Deciding to rip the bandaid off her approached her, getting her attention with a simple, “Hey.”
She turned her head to him, “Hey.” She replied, her expression one of kindness and sympathy.
“How are you feeling?” He asked.
A smile crept on the corner of the girl’s lips as she closed the drawer she was attending to. “A little tired after that workout but I’m guessing you were referring to-”
“To all of this.” He finished for her. The demon was tempted to break eye contact but her friendly complexion squashed that urge.
“Well it is pretty strange, even for us.” Lena remarked, “But it’s nothing I can’t handle.” She assured him.
“Are you sure? I mean it seems I’m affecting the very chemistry of your body that could have god knows what effect on your life, it doesn’t bother you?” He questioned the girl, slightly souring her expression as she understood the extent of his worries.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least concerned about it but If Elizabeth is right, this is probably sorely needed right now. The difference it will make if we get in a proper fight with them will be invaluable.” She said, flexing for emphasis and to help the demon lighten up.
Seeing that her friend wasn’t fully convinced she continued, “Look, once this is all over we’ll get Elizabeth to run every test she can think of to help us understand what’s going on, ok?”
Andras smiled. “Ok.”
The two were distracted by the sound of a metal tool hitting the workbench Elizabeth was tinkering at. The scientist whipped around excitedly, holding a large modified flashlight. “Finished!” She announced presenting it for them to examine..
It wasn’t pretty by any means, Elizabeth had essentially deconstructed the original device and put it back together with a few pieces of her own. With a few wires sticking out and parts of it being held together with duct tape they were a little skeptical.
Seeing the looks they were giving her work she pulled it back towards her defensively, “Oh come on! No prototype is pretty, I could tidy it up but that would be wasting precious time!” She said, trying to justify its appearance.
Lena and Andras shared a look before the former asked, “Does it work?”
The scientist’s cocky expression returned as she pointed it at Andras and turned it on, damn near blinding Sarah. “Strong enough?”
“Damn, give a guy a little warning next time!” He scolded her as she switched it back off, “But that doesn’t really answer our question, will it destroy the demons?”
“This design is based on the same method sun lamps use to replicate sunlight so it should.”
“Should!?” The two asked simultaneously.
“There’s no way to know for sure until we test it!” She exclaimed, “Unless we want to risk destroying the only good-spirited demon we have then we’ll have to wait to test it on some bad demons.”
Lena ran a hand through her hair before exhaling, “I guess it’s the best we can hope for.”
“Well now that that’s all sorted, let’s finish up here. It’s almost time.” Andras declared.
