As the group took their first few wary steps out into the hallway the next morning they breathed a collective sigh of relief upon finding nothing but the regular meanderings of their fellow students. Turning to the group, Andras broke the silence. “Ok, we all know the plan. Keep an eye out and keep in contact no matter what. I’ll see you all back here later.”
They each nodded in agreement as they tried their best to go their separate ways without seeming suspicious. Despite their attempt, the six of them leaving the one room at the same time did draw some attention. At the opposite end of the hallway the demon picked up on two girls eyeing them while chatting amongst themselves.
“Goddamn, this situation has everything making my skin crawl.” Lena remarked to the demon.
“Yeah… I’m not used to bein-” He started, “The prey?” She interrupted teasingly, causing a smile to keep on the sides of his mouth as he walked with Kiera to their animation class. “I mean I was going to put it a little bit nicer than that but yes I guess that works too.”
A brief pause settles over them as they walk in a cautious silence through the campus grounds, every student being examined by the pair for even the slightest sign of malice. Fortunately, while some of them seemed to notice their silent gazes, none reacted suspiciously.
“Did you notice how Sarah was last night?” Lena asked him, breaking him out of his trance-like state. “I did… I think she still resents me for what I did.” He replied dejectedly.
“I don’t think that’s it at all, I mean maybe a little but we’ve talked about it a bit on the few occasions she’ll even talk about that time. I think she blames herself for not seeing through you despite the fact that nobody had any idea about demons and possession at the time.” She explained as Andras and Kiera entered the classroom together, making sure to keep their eyes peeled.
Taking a seat next to her they exchanged an awkward smile as they unpacked their laptops, trying their best to pretend they didn’t feel like they were being watched. “I think I’ll need to have a chat with her when we get the chance.” He finally replied to her.
“Hopefully we can find some time soon.” She said as the professor walked in, greeting the class and starting to explain today’s lesson.
——————————————————————————————————————————-
“So you’ve really made friends with and willingly hosted a demon for the past few months?” Elizabeth asked Sarah, drawing the girl out of her intense observation of the roaming students. “Uh well, I guess.” She said non committedly.
“What’s it like?” The inquisitive girl asked her.
Sarah eyed her for a moment, wondering what could be going through that mind of hers to ask such a question, “Being friends with him or hosting him?” She asked back, “Both.” Elizabeth replied happily.
Breaking her stare and returning at least some of her attention to walking as she nearly bumped into someone walking the opposite direction, she pondered the question for a moment. “It’s interesting to say the least, I mean having a demon switch between your friends bodies daily is one thing but having to host him yourself is something else entirely.” She said simply.
“Have to?” Elizabeth asked, seemingly perplexed at the implication, “Surely they aren’t making you right?” She added as they entered the cafeteria, her attention briefly being pulled to all the different stores open for breakfast.
“No no, nothing like that.” She assured her, Elizabeth relaxed a little at the explanation. “I entered into the agreement willingly… I just have my reservations.” She added finally, seemingly all she was going to say on the matter.
“Well that’s good but you didn’t tell me what it’s actually like.” The scientist continued to push, ever hungry for knowledge.
“You’re not gonna let that go are you?” She asked with feigned annoyance, “Well it’s a very hard sensation to describe but as he invades you a feeling of weightlessness ensues as you focus on willingly surrendering your body to him.”
“You have to focus on letting him in?”
“Of course, human protoplasms instinctually kick out demons so in order for him to remain inside, we have to control our instincts to reject him. That’s why you would have heard that the people on the island had their souls extracted before the demon could take over them.” She explained quietly, being extremely careful that no one could overhear their conversation.
“Absolutely fascinating, I simply must find out more.” The girl replied with an almost suspicious amount of glee, Sarah just shook her head at the girl. “You know, if you really want to know, you could always try it out yourself.” She added, trying to unsettle the mad scientist.
As the pair exited the Cafeteria they could see the science building on the other side of the oval, they’d taken the long way around that morning to be extra careful but even from this distance they could see the shattered window which now had yellow lines draped across the threshold, presumably police tape.
Turning her attention back to her friend, instead of the joy she expected to feel at rattling her friend she instead felt a tinge of dismay as her friend seemed to be giving the idea some serious thought, “Hey! Snap out of it.” She teased her.
“Hey, it’s nothing like that. I just think it will be necessary for me to understand in order to begin to figure out what’s going on with him and Lena. It really is quite troubling even if none of the effects seem adverse so far.” She explained, folding her arms and resting her chin on one of her hands.
The building drew closer as the pair made their way down the footpath, it seemed the broken window had drawn at least a few onlookers who were eager to see what the police were up to. Sarah even caught a glimpse of what looked like one of the officers inside, only for a second though as they crossed the window. “I guess so… but damn I didn’t think the police would take this as seriously as they seem to be.” She remarked.
“Of course they are, do you have any idea how much money goes into those labs? They have security cameras for a reas-” She started, “SECURITY CAMERAS!?” Sarah asked far too loudly, drawing odd looks from some of the distant students. Thankfully the footpath had been mostly empty when she said that otherwise it could have attracted a lot more attention.
Grabbing Elizabeth, “You didn’t think to mention this at all until now!?” She interrogated the girl, “I’d just been attacked by a terrifying demon, something was bound to slip my mind!” She hastily tried to defend herself.
“If they see what’s on that footage we’re all screwed!” She whispered aggressively before speeding up her pace towards the building and her friend tried to keep up.
As they approached the building an officer made his way out of the main building, typing lethargically on his phone. The officer was very large, almost reminding them of Chief Wiggum from the simpsons. His outward appearance gave Sarah hope that he might not be the sharpest tool in the shed which would buy them valuable time. To her dismay though, when the officer looked up from his phone it was at what she could only assume was a plain clothes detective who then greeted him.
“Shit, we’ve gotta find out what they know. Can you think of anything?” Sarah asked her as they watched the pair chat back and forth before disappearing inside the building.
“Uhhh… Oh! We could try getting in the opposite side and try to listen in from the adjoining room. There’s a vent which the sound travels though, it can make simultaneous classes a little distracting if yo-” She tried explaining before getting cut off, “Focus, which way?” Sarah asked forcefully.
The pair pretended to talk amongst themselves as they followed the path to the opposite side of the building, luckily the investigation seemed to be limited to the one room but they had to move carefully in the hallway so they didn’t get seen by any of the officers who were coming and going. They darted from doorway to doorway attempting to be as quiet as possible before reaching the adjoining room.
Opening the door as silently as she could, Sarah could already hear the sound of glass being swept up accompanied by some muffled grumbling amongst whom she presumed were the officers. After carefully closing the door Sarah turned to her friend and whispered as quietly as she could, “How are we supposed to understand what they’re saying?”
Instead of replying, Elizabeth delicately lifted one of the nearby stools off the ground and placed it underneath the vent. Offering Sarah her support to climb on top. The girl accepted her friends help to steady herself as she climbed onto the chair, the mumbling quickly turning to audible speech as her ear neared the vent grate.
“-eems like a random act of vandalism.” A soft, almost dopey sounding voice explained, relaxing the girl a little.
“Then how do you explain the inwardly smashed window? Do you see anything in here that seems like it was thrown through it?” A much gruffer voice replied sternly to the first, that must be the detective, “Where are we at with the security footage?” The man continued.
“You’re not going to believe this, according to the guard I just spoke with, they don’t have any footage from last night.” A third, much more nasally sounding voice answered.
“What do you mean they have no footage?” A wave of relief washed over Sarah as she heard that but dread quickly crept up on her at the implication.
“Yer apparently the system has been in dire need of maintenance so it frequently fails and erases footage the guy was telling me.” The third voice explained.
“So you’re telling me, they’ve got all this fancy equipment in here probably worth god knows how much and they can’t even afford to keep the cameras working?” The detective asked incredulously.
“Apparently so. According to them, they’ve been trying to get something done about it for quite a while now but the one I spoke to didn’t seem too bothered.”
“Hmnn well I can’t imagine they’re paying them enough to care all that much, he might not even be getting overtime for assisting us. Tell the poor bastard he can go home, we’ll take it from here… not that there’s much to go off of.” The gruff voice instructed.
“Yes sir.” Came the reply, being followed only by swift footsteps out of the room. Realizing she’d probably heard all she needed, Sarah carefully climbed down off of the chair and moved to put the stool back before Elizabeth whispered, “What did you find out?”
Looking back at her friend worriedly, “Either we’re the luckiest people alive or someone else doesn’t want the police seeing that footage.” She whispered grimly.
——————————————————————————————————————————-
Bianca and Amber entered the cafeteria cautiously, eyes flicking from person to person as they looked for anyone who was eyeing them too closely. As Bianca was scanning the crowd she was met with a familiar pair of girls who proceeded to wave them over. Waving back she nudged Amber who turned her attention away from the crowd to see Bianca pulling her towards a table.
“Lily! Hazel! How have you guys been?” Bianca asked eagerly, hugging both of them. “We’ve been alright but class has been a nightmare.” Lily complained with a sour expression.
As the pair sat down opposite their friends Amber asked, “Oh really? What’s been happening?”
“Oh you know, just assignment after assignment that’s been piling up. Ms Marquez has really been helping us out though, she’s a gem.” Hazel remarked relieving the pair that it wasn’t from any strange behavior.
So far the pair seemed to be acting like their usual selves but that didn’t alleviate their worries completely. After all, they had been fooled before. “Yeah they really can pile up if you don’t get on top of them right away, I find myself constantly having to remind this one that every time there is a party she wants to go to.” Amber joked at her friend’s expense.
“I don’t party that often.” Bianca tried to defend herself as the other girls giggled.
“Really? You’re just going to try and pretend like Hazel didn’t have to hold your hair just a few weeks ago while you threw up in someone’s garden?” She said, trying to gauge the girl’s reactions.
Before Bianca could respond, Lily interjected, “Actually I think it was me who held her hair, Hazel could barely hold it in herself!” Amber and Bianca shared a quick look of agreement as they cleared Lily.
Going for gold, Bianca spoke up, “Hey in our defense… Josh throws really wild parties.” She said with a laugh.
“You mean Jake throws wild parties girl? Man I knew you hit it hard that night but forgetting who even threw the damn party is impressive.” Hazel said mockingly, with that the pair finally felt themselves relax. Knowing they were around their actual friends made a big difference.
“Ah… that’s Bianca.” Amber noted, “Oooh speaking of, Bianca and I started a little competition amongst us and the girls!” She said, slapping the table lightly for emphasis.
“Oooh how exciting, what’s the game?” Lily queried, glint in her eye at the mention of a game. “We can’t exactly tell you without spoiling it but the winner gets a party thrown for them by the losers. So, you wanna help us win so we can throw a rager of our own?” Bianca asked them.
Sharing a quick mischievous look the pair eagerly nodded, “Alright well all you two need to do is remember a word each and if you can tell it to any one of us later, we’ll get points.”
“Oooh you’re right, that is quite mysterious.” Hazel commented, “Alright well tell us our words and let’s get planning for this party.” She added jovially.
Bianca and Amber each leaned over to whisper a word in their ears, taking a second to say it back to them to ensure they heard it correctly, “Alright, now you’ll just have to wait until you come across the other girls and those points will be ours!” Bianca cheered them on, taking a second to share a slight nod with Amber.
“Alright well now that that’s all sorted, what shall we have for lunch?” The blonde asked the group.
——————————————————————————————————————————-
“God, that felt way longer than it actually was.” Kiera complained as she took a seat at one of the campus cafe tables, “I could barely focus with everything going on.” She added rubbing her temples for good measure.
Sitting opposite her the demon offered her a sympathetic smile, “Yeah it did seem to drag on for quite a while, thankfully I didn’t notice any conspicuous behavior so we might be able to relax a little while there.” He assured her. Andras couldn’t help but take a moment to admire the girl as she continued to massage her forehead, even in her more disheveled moments, she was still quite beautiful.
“Just kiss her already.” Lena teased him.
Not one to be outdone by the girl he quickly jabbed back with, “Oh? I should kiss her in your body in front of everyone? If you’re sure!” He teased back, he could practically feel her mischievous smirk.
“What are you thinking about?” Kiera asked him, drawing his attention back to her. The little voice in his head, probably Lena, told him he should tell her exactly what he was just thinking about but the louder one told him there’s a better time and a better place. Quickly snatching a menu from the table he did his best to pretend to be incredibly fascinated by it, “Oh just wondering what I might get for our late breakfast slash lunch. What were you thinking?” He replied. As he said that he could have sworn he heard a little “Coward.” echo within him and if it wasn’t for Lena’s coy mood he would have doubted he actually heard it.
The girl turned her eyes from him to the menu now in her hands, “Oh probably just the usual.” She replied non-committedly before perking up, “Actually could you order that for me while I run to the bathroom?”
“Uhh I suppose but are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?” He asked with a hint of protectiveness, missing the implication. A smile made its way onto the girl’s face as Lena simply giggled at his slip up. “I think I can manage on my own, the door is just there though so you can keep an eye on it if you’re that worried.” She explained with a mocking tone, the realization caused the demon’s face to redden. He just smiled and nodded as she got up and left, leaving her jacket draped over the chair.
Shaking his head to clear some of the embarrassment, the demon tried to distract himself, and Lena, by picking up the menu and having a serious look at it. “What do you feel like? Maybe some scrambled eggs on sourdough?” He enquired.
“You know I was just going to suggest the same thing.” She replied cheerily, eager to satisfy her rumbling stomach. “It’s almost like I’ve been sharing your body for quite some time now.” He remarked sarcastically as he set the menu down.
As he began to raise from the chair a familiar blonde came into his view and promptly sat down in Kiera’s empty seat, “What the fuck does she want?” Lena asked, voice full of contempt as they stared at none other than Victoria who was curiously staring back at them with a pleasant demeanor.
“Didn’t get enough the other day? You back for mo-.” He began before being interrupted by the infuriating blonde, “Oh no, nothing like that. I just came to catch up, you know, talk about the good ole days.” She replied in a cool, uncharacteristic tone, perplexing the pair.
“What do you mean? We’ve never been friends.” He asked her incredulously, his question provoked a sinister smile causing the pair to feel their stomach sink but as quickly as it appeared, it was gone.
Her complexion shifted to the most faux innocence one could possibly muster on a face, “Oh no? Darn and here I thought after all that time I spent teaching you everything you know, you’d at least consider me a strong acquaintance but I guess not.” She said with thinly veiled malice.
Andras heart practically exploded at the realization, “Idsalis!?” He asked a little too loud, drawing a few heads momentarily.
“You know this guy!?” Lena asked disbelievingly.
‘Victoria’s’ sinister smirk returned as the demon crossed one leg over the other and brought her hand up to her face to examine her nails, “In the flesh.” He said, flourishing his fingers, “So to speak.”
“This is the one I told you about once before, he’s the one who taught me about human culture and how to impersonate you. He was the demon queen’s right hand man for centuries.” Andras relayed to her friend.
Andras’ mind raced as he realized how bad this was, “I thought…” Andras trailed off.
“That I died on the island? Please, if you can get out of that situation then why wouldn’t I be able to?” The demon taunted him, “Now if you’re quite finished talking amongst yourselves I believe we have business to discuss.” Idsalis added.
“Business?” Andras queried carefully.
Idsalis tilted his head forward, dropping his facade for a cold and calculating gaze. “It is quite unfortunate that my subordinate happened to reveal our presence here but nonetheless this does present us with a unique opportunity.” He explained before leaning back in his chair.
“What do you want?” Andras asked, doing his best to keep the venom out of his voice.
“After you betrayed your own kind, impetuous child that you are, you took something that didn’t belong to you. I would like it back.” Idsalis answered condescendingly.
“Why would I ever do that?”
“You destroyed your own tribe for the sake of those girls, I can’t imagine there’s any lengths you won’t go to for their safety.” The demon remarked, a hint of anger creeping into his voice. “Give me what I want and I give you my word, no harm will come to you or any of your ‘friends’.”
Andras clenched Lena’s fists so hard they turned white, “Now now, we’re in a public setting, surrounded by dozens of the adorable sheep you went through so much effort to protect.” Idsalis warned.
Idsalis’ thinly veiled threat alerted him to the possibility that his enemy was not alone, Idsalis laughed as he watched Andras’ eyes darting from person to person in an attempt to distinguish friend from foe.
“Don’t worry, I came alone. I told them I wasn’t worried about what you might do in the slightest.” The demon general goaded him, his poker face giving away nothing. “So, are you going to take me up on my more than generous offer?” His expression changed again to one of false friendliness.
Andras’ instincts were telling him to refuse but he couldn’t escape the thought that this might be the only way to ensure his friends safety, possibly at the expense of the world. He glared at his former teacher, jaw clenched angrily.
“Andras.” Lena spoke softly to him, “We will find a way, you know that.” She assured him, it might not have been much but it was more than enough for the demon to find his resolve and confront the demon with a smug look of his own.
“Never, I’ll make sure every demon meets the same fate as those on the Island before I let you harm them.” He said as confidently as he could.
“Shame but I thought as much.” Idsalis replied without missing a beat, rising from the table he moved to stand over his former student, “Make no mistake, I offered this deal to you to make it easier on everyone involved but I will relish destroying everything you hold dear just like you did to me.” With that final threat, he departed.
Andras watched the retreating form of Victoria before he heard Kiera sit back down at her chair, blissfully unaware of what just happened she asked, “What did she want?”
