Elizabeth groaned as she heaved the heavy machine onto the counter before sighing in relief that everything was finally set up, wiping the bit of sweat that had accumulated on her brow she began to go through a mental checklist of all the equipment she would need. She had no idea why Sarah wanted such an in-depth physical assessment and at such a late hour but alas she was assured it would be necessary.
Plugging in the device and flicking the powerpoint on, it whirred to life and commenced its boot up sequence. Despite the rather obnoxious sound the machine was making, her ears picked up the strangest of sounds from behind. It almost sounded like a muffled scream, turning around she noticed the direction it had come from was the window.
This confused the girl as she was on the second story of the building, so whatever it was, needed to be loud but it had disappeared as fast as she heard it which made the young scientist doubt its occurrence in the first place. Nevertheless, she found herself approaching the window cautiously. Looking out she saw the grassy oval and dimly lit footpaths along the inner area of the campus, sighing to herself and shaking her head she blamed her ‘hellucination’ on the time of night. But as she turned her head to return back to what she was doing, she caught the slightest bit of movement in the corner of her eye.
Whipping her head to the source, she strained her eyes and nearly gasped out loud at what she saw. Two large, lanky, purple creatures were lording over what looked like an unconscious student who was being held up by one of them. She rubbed her eyes to make sure what she was looking at was real but as she opened them again she found one of the creature’s heads had turned and its two green eyes were fixed directly on her. Time seemed to stand still as their eyes locked. Even from this distance she could feel the malice pouring from those two green pits. Her heart pounded in her chest as the decision between fight or flight had yet to be made, tempting flight she looked away for the briefest of seconds before returning her attention to the pair.
Only to find just one standing there, holding the student. Looking around she couldn’t see where it had gone, her heart sank as she realized it might have entered the building. Her mind raced as she tried making a mental map of possible entrances and exit routes. Leaning forward to try and get a better look outside she gasped as she noticed the stealthy demon hugging the wall below her. As if on queue, it jumped.
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“Are you sure about this Sarah?” Andras asked nervously as they traversed the dark hallways of the science building.
“For the last time, yes. If we end up spilling the beans, I trust her. Is that enough for you?” She replied with a roll of her eyes.
“If Sarah thinks we can trust her, that’s good enough for me.” Lena thought to him.
“Okay, if you’re sure.” He replied to her, “Sorry for not giving you the benefit of the doubt, I just worry.” He added.
Sarah paused in her trek to look at the pair with an unexpected look of compassion, “I know you do but finding out what is happening to Lena is the priority here. Once we get to the bottom of this, we can put a lot of our worries behind us.” She assured him.
“Now let’s get go-” She began before a scream echoed throughout the halls quickly followed by the sound of smashing glass. Andras’ body moved before he had time to think as the pair found themselves bolting at incredible speed to the source, Sarah barely having time for a “Wait up!” before he burst into the lab at the end of the hall.
What the pair saw made their shared blood run cold, a demon frantically trying to get at Elizabeth who’d dove underneath a table. Their sudden entrance shifted the demon’s attention to them, it’s snarling face turned to one of shock before rage overtook its demeanor. It uttered a gutteral screech before screaming, “BETRAYER!” In its ancient tongue.
Andras’ protective instinct took over as he heard Sarah arrive in the doorway, pushing his swirling fear, he surged toward the demon. It was in disbelief itself as Lena’s fist swiftly connected to its jaw, the impact pushing it back several feet, it began shaking its head to recover from the blow. Andras only managed to spare a quick glance at the terrorfied girl underneath the table while Sarah yelled, “DUCK!”.
Ducking down instantly he just barely managed to dodge the demon’s furious swipe, roaring in anger as he failed to connect. “FOCUS!” Lena scolded him from within.
Andras hastily brought up Lenas forearm to bat away the demon’s next wild strike, Lena ‘vocalized’ the impact with an involuntary mental groan. Capitalizing on the opening created, he thrust Lena’s leg into its abdomen. The powerful hit sent the demon backward against the wall, breaking many cabinets holding assorted chemicals that spilled out onto the demon and the floor.
Andras huffed as the demon seemed to collapse forward, motionless. He stared intensely at the creature for several moments as an “eep!” brought his attention to Sarah who was helping her friend out from underneath the table. “It’s ok Liz, it seems to be out cold.” Andras turned to the pair seeing Elizabeth looking graciously up at Sarah before her eyes caught sight of him. She seemed shocked and brought her hand to cover her mouth as she said, “What are you!?” incredulously.
The demon’s mind hastily began to concoct a story to explain his freakish strength but as Sarah’s head shifted to his, her eyes widened too. “Andr- Lena… your eyes. They’re glowing blue.”
Bewildered, the demon’s head searched for the nearest piece of reflective glass he could find. Sure enough, Lena’s eyes were emitting a soft, light blue glow. Something he not only hadn’t intended to do but utterly perplexed the pair as yet another physiological change was added to the pile. “Lena, what’s going on!?” He asked her incredulously.
“I don-” She started before the sound of moving rubble attracted the attention of four of them. The demon leapt from underneath the shattered glass and shelves towards the window, turning its head to screech once more before it leapt out into the night. Andras hastily closed the distance between him and the shattered window to just get a glimpse of the retreating demon as it disappeared around the building. Andras muttered a curse under his breath as he admonished himself for taking his eye off of it.
“How is there one here!?” Lena panicked.
“I don’t know, I thought we’d gotten them all but evidently not.” He shook her head.
“What was that THING!? What are you?” Elizabeth panicked as Sarah tried to console her, “It’s a lot to explain but for now, we’ve gotta get out of here.” Sarah instructed the girl.
“What? I don’t want to go anywhere with her!” The scientist complained and she almost began to hyperventilate through tears. Gripping both sides of her face Sarah forced the girl to look her in the eyes, “Elizabeth look at me! You have to trust me, we have to get out of here before people show up and start to ask questions. I promise you that we will answer anything that you want to know but for now we have to get out of here!”
The girl looked between Sarah and Lena as she seemed to be making up her mind. Collecting herself and taking a quick, deep breath, she nodded. That was all they needed as Andras led the way out the way they came and Sarah pulled Elizabeth along behind them. Their hearts pounding in their chests as they descended the stairs before exiting out into the cool, night air.
They didn’t waste much time as they bolted straight for the dormitory, just barely making it inside the dark lobby as several lights from the torches of the nighttime security guards came into sight as they rapidly approached the building. The four of them shouted back and forth about what was going on before disappearing into the building they’d just made it out of. They breathed a collective sigh of relief.
——————————————————————————————————————————-
“How could this happen!?” Amber asked worriedly.
“We don’t know, all we know is that there are at least two on campus. I have no idea how they’re here but they are.” Andras explained as the group tried to digest the information, Sarah sitting with Elizabeth.
“Did you recognise one of them?” Bianca asked, “There were tens of thousands of other demons on the island, I wasn’t exactly on a first name basis with all of them.” Andras said in frustration.
“What do you mean other demons?” Elizabeth finally spoke up, the poor girl hadn’t said much since they made it to the dormitories except to explain what she saw before she was attacked. “Oh god, don’t tell me you’re all like those things!”
“We aren’t! Well…” Sarah said trailing off and looking to Andras.
“We’ve got to tell her, there’s no way she’ll keep this quiet on trust alone.” Lena told him.
Sighing and bowing his head, Andras took a second to try and gauge how the other girls felt. All of their gazes were worried but they each shared a nod indicating their agreement, “Well we promised we’d tell you everything you want to know. Please just promise me… don’t scream?” He asked as softly as he could manage.
Elizabeth had been unsettled by the wordless understanding everyone had just shared in front of her but the girl’s words had comforted her a little bit, at least enough to agree to the request with a slow nod.
“Okay, I’ll show you the truth. Just do your best to stick to that promise.” Andras said before he unzipped Lena’s jacket, exposing her upper chest.
Elizabeth watched in amazement, and a little bit of terror, as a soft blue glow began to emenate from the Lena’s chest. The color deepened in the middle as the light began to protrude from the skin it was previously contained within. The outward flowing light formed into a demonic head that rapidly began to grow as Lena’s chest shifted forward. In one smooth motion, the demonic form leapt from the girl’s body and ceased glowing as it hit the ground.
Now standing in front of the six girls was one of those things that attacked her before but curiously, it’s face was not full of malice intent but…. empathy. It also had peculiar blue eyes in place of the scary green ones.
The whole room stood silent as they awaited Elizabeth’s reaction. From what the scientist could tell, none of them seemed to be surprised or even the least bit alarmed at the creature standing between them. After what seemed like an eternity of silence she stood up from the bed she was seated on and took a careful step towards him. “You’re one of them… but you’re not like them aren’t you?” She asked, tilting her head curiously.
Andras shook his head, “No, he’s not.” Lena spoke up, drawing the scientist’s attention.
“You… you just had that thin-” She began, “Andras, his name is Andras.” Lena interjected, drawing a coy smile from Liz. The scientists’ sudden change in attitude drawing questioning looks from the gang.
“You just had Andras inside of you… what exactly is going on here?” She asked them.
“Well you remember the news from a while ago about the demons who were defeated on Spooky Island?” Lena asked. Andras took this opportunity to sit down next to Bianca on Sarah’s bed, the girl rested a supportive hand on one of his long legs as they shared a smile.
“Of course, it was only one of the craziest news stories of this century. I would have killed to study one of those things up close…” She trailed off, eyeing Andras with a glint in her eye that made the demon feel a little uncomfortable.
“Well the short of it is, nearly six months ago during a break between my classes I took a trip to Spooky Island as I received a ticket in the mail.” She began to explain as Liz watched with fascination, “Little did I know, it was a trap. After just a few days on the island, I was captured and replaced with Andras.” She said, looking at the demon for emphasis.
Andras refused to make eye contact with any of them during this part out of guilt he felt at the mention, “Andras was sent here to impersonate me and befriend Kiera. She was the real target because they needed someone from her bloodline to accomplish their goal.” She explained.
“In a few weeks, he convinced us to go to the island with him and we were all captured and replaced.” Sarah interjected with a somber tone that didn’t go unnoticed by Elizabeth.
“The demons had everything they needed to take over the world at this point but, unexpectedly, one thing happened that changed everything.” Lena continued, looking at Andras.
“He switched sides.” Amber added, perplexing the girl.
“I found myself plucked from the soul cauldron by my own body, I initially thought he’d come to taunt me or do something terrible but I was met with worry instead of a cruel sneer. He got us our bodies back and helped us destroy the demons before they could complete their ritual to grant them the power to take over the world.” Lena finished before taking a seat next to the demon.
“But why? Why would a demon help humans?” Elizabeth asked incredulously.
Kiera was the one who spoke up, “I suppose he came to care for us in the time that he spent pretending to be Lena, it seems we were fooled so well because he was actually enjoying himself.” Andras looked at the girl appreciably.
Elizabeth began lightly pacing as she pondered what she had been told, their eyes followed her around the room as she mulled it over. Looking up she posed another question, “Then what is he doing here? And why was he inside your body?”
“After the government came to the Island, we knew he wouldn’t stand much chance on his own. If he got lucky, he’d be on the island alone. If he didn’t… who knows what the government would have done to him.” Lena explained, “and judging by the look on your face, at least a little bit of what you’re thinking of doing.” She playfully accused the girl whose face reddened at the accusation.
“I’m sorry! It’s not everyday you get presented with a completely undocumented species, let alone one with such strange biology. It’s a scientific treasure trove!” She claimed thrusting her hand in the air before quickly pulling it down out of embarrassment.
Lena rolled her eyes, “Anyway, instead of leaving him to either of those fates we chose a different, crazy path. We decided that we would shelter Andras in our bodies, taking turns each day so no one loses out too much.” She explained, giving Sarah the side eye, making it her turn to be shy.
“So you’ve all been living like this for the past few months?” She asked incredulously, “To think, there was a demon under my nose this entire time… wait a minute! Have you ever pretended to be one of them while talking to me?” She asked, staring at Andras.
“O-only a few times as me, I promise.” Sarah assured the girl.
The young scientist scratched her head, “This is all a lot to take in.” She said to no one in particular, “I think I should sit down for a second.” She said, retaking her seat next to Sarah.
There was a brief pause because the attention of the group shifted to the matter at hand, “Ok, now that that’s dealt with for now. What are we going to do about this?” Amber asked them.
“What can we do?!” Sarah spoke up, “We don’t know anything of substance, we don’t know how many of them there are, how long they’ve been here or, more importantly, why they’re here.” She complained, shifting the mood of the room very quickly.
Andras hung his head in defeat and muttered to himself in his Ancient tongue.
“Don’t say that, this is not your fault.” Lena lectured the demon, shocking everyone.
“Did you just understand him?” Elizabeth asked, seemingly the least surprised of the group as she didn’t know how unusual this was as the rest of them were still wide eyed.
Andras spoke again in his harsh tongue, “Yes yes, I know we have to tell them now.” Lena replied.
“Tell us what?” Kiera asked worriedly.
Lena got up from the bed with a huff, “Over the past week, I’ve noticed some physiological changes that don’t seem to be occurring with anyone else.” She told the group.
“What kind of changes?” The ever curious scientist demanded to know.
All Lena did in response was take a single step towards the girl before grabbing either side of her shoulders and hoisting her upwards effortlessly. Lena expected to scare the girl a little but she only looked down in amazement, “Fascinating.” She smiled gleefully as she was set back down gracefully. Even Lena smirked a little at the girl’s reaction.
The rest of the girls seemed equally amazed and confused by Lena’s feat of strength as she continued to explain, “I discovered I could do that yesterday and just now was the first time I’ve realized I can understand the demonic tongue. I understood the demon from earlier when he called Andras a traitor but with all the adrenaline, I mustn’t have registered it.”
Sitting back down next to the demon she continued, “And now as you’ve all seen, Andras’ new color seems to be blue for some reason. That’s why Sarah was asking you to run those tests at such a late time of night, we were trying to figure out what’s happening to the two of us but we never expected we would end up rescuing you from a demon attack.”
“Oh that is a good point.” Liz piped up, looking at Andras. “Thank you for saving me, I just realized that I completely forgot to say it in all the commotion.” She said to the demon who responded with as friendly of a smile as he could muster.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Kiera asked the trio, looking almost disappointed.
“We didn’t want to worry you guys, none of the changes seemed negative and Andras hadn’t noticed any changes with the rest of you so we decided to let you know when we found out a little more so it didn’t panic anyone.” Lena assured them, the three of them waited nervously as the girls processed what Lena had said.
“That’s ok…we understand!” Bianca spoke up eagerly, getting a look from Amber and Kiera who weren’t so quick to move on, “Uh… at least I do.” She said, shrinking beneath their gazes.
“Bianca isn’t completely wrong but just promise that you won’t keep anything like that from us again yeah? We want to be kept in the loop even if it might worry us, especially then.” Amber explained to the trio who waited for Kiera’s verdict.
Seeing that the room was waiting on her she relented, “Ok, like Amber said. If you promise that this will be the one and only time any secrets are kept from us, then I think we can overlook it.” The three of them visibly relaxed at that.
“You got it.” Lena replied, “Thank you for being understanding.”
“Now what are we going to do about this?” The redhead asked, a silence hanging over the room. “Do you have any ideas, big guy?” She said, looking at Andras who took a moment to think it over. Raising his eyes to meet hers with a fierce look, he replied to her in his harsh sounding language.
“Well then you better tell them.” She said, guiding one of his hands up to her mouth.
Elizabeth lit up as she watched the opposite process unfold right in front of her, “I see, so your body is capable of transforming into a mist which can then invade a body and take it over, simply amazing.” She said as Lena’s mouth closed behind the last of his spiritual form.
“Yes yes, very interesting. I understand you have questions but for now we have to focus on the very real threat. You can ask your questions later, ok?” Andras pleaded with the girl.
“Ok but I’m holding you to that.” The scientist responded confidently, happy with herself. The demon just looked at the girl for a moment, if not for her hair being a little messy he wouldn’t have known she’d just gone through an absurdly stressful event. Apparently her scientific curiosity managed to override any remaining fear.
With the rest of the girls waiting to hear what Andras had to say, he composed himself with enough confidence as he could muster and began. “We might be missing a lot of key information but we do know one thing and that’s how they operate. We can use this knowledge to defend ourselves and even use it against them.”
“Why don’t we just call the police? The world knows about them now, they would believe us and maybe they’ve even developed ways to deal with them since the island.” Elizabeth suggested eagerly but shrank down as the intense gazes of everyone expressed their rejection.
“If we do that, what do you think will happen to Andras?” Kiera asked, folding her arms to further express her distaste.
“Well what if we could hide him and then call them?” She tried weakly, it wasn’t easy being stared down by so many at once.
“You’re not getting it, if the government won’t just want to exterminate them, they’ll want to capture them. These demonic bastards, no offense Andras, know who we are and if even one of them is captured do you think they’ll keep that information to themselves?” Sarah explained, Elizabeth shyly shook her head at the question. “Now, what were you saying Andras?”
“Well I think we can assume that they’ve been at the school for at least a little while now, given the rumors of strange behavior we’ve heard.” He began again, “So we have no idea who we can trust, anyone at all could have been replaced and as you girls know all too well, it can be very hard to tell the difference.” Andras didn’t fail to note Sarah’s deep frown at the reference, while none of them looked upon that time fondly, she’d had the most visceral reaction of the group.
“So to start, we can’t stay in a group this large 24/7 without raising some serious questions so we’ll have to travel in pairs during the day but at night I will watch over you all.” He explained.
“Hold on, we’ll all be sleeping in the one room?” Elizabeth complained, “And likely taking group trips to the bathroom and showers.” Bianca teased the girl, much to her dismay.
“But…” She tried, “But nothing, unless you want to risk having your body stolen by a demon, you’ll just have to deal with it. Trust me, it’s not a fun experience.” Amber silenced the girl, hugging her arms to her chest at the unpleasant memory.
Elizabeth’s face twisted and turned as she desperately tried to come up with an alternate solution but failing to do so, she finally relented. “Fine but if I think this is going sideways and I have no other choice, I will call the authorities.”
“I expect no less.” Andras replied simply, “If that’s all, let’s get back to the plan.”
