Spiritus Animalis (Empath #2) ✔️

Chapter Three

Althea moved uneasily in her chair. Something didn't sit right with her, and she had no idea what was going on. Everything had been fine throughout the day and even Abigail seemed fine. However, Ezra shifted from one foot to the next. He'd been solidifying a lot more lately and it started to look like he was part of the school rather than an angel of heaven. Before they got to the field for pictures, she swore she saw her angel appear behind the bush. The photographer wasn't any help either.

"Althea, stop moving!" the Photographer complained. "If you don't sit still your picture is going to come out blurry." Althea grumbled but remained still. Until she saw her friend staring off at a corner of the football field. She'd started to get nervous. Althea followed her friend's eyes until they landed on the same corner she'd been looking at. There was nothing there, but that didn't mean her stomach and her senses wouldn't have changed. Althea looked back at her friend and saw a wispy figure standing by her and slowly forming into a young woman's body. Long locks of hazel-blonde hair and bright green wings dressed almost similarly to her friend but the only difference was that she had some kind of bow staff hanging from her belt and a crossbow over her shoulder.

A soft white light surrounded her figure as if to say that she stood out to everyone. Althea looked around wondering if anyone else noticed but when no one even looked Abigail's way she paused and glanced over at Ezra. "You don't think?" she said under her breath.

"She's another angel," Ezra responded. "My little sister." As if hearing him, the girl turned, and her brown eyes grew wide with shock before she vanished from view.

A sudden growl took hold causing everyone to scream in fear.

*~*~*

Meanwhile, Peter had gone through and broke away from his old friends. Even though he wanted to be with his new friends and hence, Ezra, he wanted to have some time to himself. Dressed in his black clothes: Peter was in the middle of giving his customer a tarot card reading in his new store. The place was small but at least he could still work and sell a few things for his boss. A man with black hair and tattoos covering his arms and around his neck. The man, Mr. Jericho came out from the back of the store carrying a box of new merchandise. The store was called: Moon Cycles and there were items in the brown box, some were small boxes of crystals while others had books stuffed to the brim.

"Hey Peter," Mr. Jericho said. "Make sure that you put these items up after you finish with your customer."

"You got it Mr. Jericho," Peter answered. Moon Cycles was eight miles from Celestial University, so it wasn't like he'd be leaving his friends. The customer before him: A ginger with freckles and deep green eyes asked for a tarot card reading due to her worry about her brother going to jail yet again. "Looks like from the eight of swords, your brother might be trapped in jail," Peter held up the card which had an image of a young woman with her arms bound and her eyes covered. Swords stood on the left and right sides of her and crossed in front of her.

"What does that mean?" The ginger asked, her voice full of worry. "Will he change? Will he get out?"

Peter looked at the cards before him and another card stood out to him, and he picked that up as well. It was an image of a tower burning and people falling to their demise.

"Don't misjudge this card," he said holding it up. "It means that he would come out, but he'll come out as a completely different person," Relief showed in the girl's eyes as she thanked him and got up. "Your best option would be to have faith and don't let these setbacks hold you down." The woman nodded and walked out of the store. She'd paid him before they did her reading, so he wasn't too worried.

Collecting his cards and placing them back into the deck, Peter put the tarot cards back in its box and got up from his table. Mr. Jericho nodded, leaving Peter to his thoughts. Peter approached the counter and started removing the merchandise from the box when he heard someone walk through the beaded entrance. The beads had made a small noise hitting together. Distracted, Peter looks up and sees his old friends: Adam, Alex, and Jennifer step through. The trio wore their ceremonial robes, Jennifer wore a black and red dress followed by a black and green cape. Dressed in a zip up hem coat with silver buttons and a black shirt with black and green skinny jeans. Alex wore a velvety blood red cape with a white t-shirt and long red skinny jeans. Stunned to see them, Peter placed his hand by his side and subtly started to summon his weapon.

"What are you idiots doing here?" Peter asked. "Haven't you done enough damage?"

"Now Peter," Jennifer said, faking a gasp. "That's no way to treat your friends now is it?"

"We are no longer friends," Peter answered. Adam laughed. Alex smirked and walked over to the counter. Peter controlled his spiritual weapon as Alex got close. As casual as he possibly could, Peter fixed his golden gauntlets.

"That's sad," Jennifer said. "I mean, we allowed you to join our group but when the time came you decided that you'd go against everything that you signed up for."

"Yes, and by doing so, you've not only betrayed our trust, but you also betrayed Mammon," Alex answered, getting into Peter's face.

"How about you step back, or I'll strike you with my weapon?" Peter growled, glaring at Alex.

"You know you could change that, and you could join us," Adam suggested winking at him.

"I refuse to join your cult!" Peter yelled. "I won't let you take advantage of me like that!"

"Fine, Peter," Alex glared. "You should remember this when we curse you, no longer will you be safe, you'll suffer the consequences of betraying us and refusing to join our team!" to prove that they meant business, Jennifer grabbed the pack of tarot cards Peter used and removed them from the box. Jennifer began to shuffle the deck as three cards fall out of it.

One of the cards that she flipped over was the death card, the image of the Grim Reaper stood out, and in the image, there were parts of the card such as dead bodies while a skeletal figure stood before them. The second card was the devil, a hideous creature with horns on his head and a goat-like face. Lastly, the tower had fallen out, flames breaching the windows like it was ready to kill and consume him.

"You should reconsider everything Peter, we wouldn't want something terrible to happen now, would we?" Adam threatened. The Servants of Evil laughed as they walked out of the store. Peter waited until they were out of reach before he grabbed the store phone and called Althea, the only person whose number he had.

*~*~*

There was chaos all around them, Ezra, Althea, and Abigail were attempting to keep everyone calm but nothing they did helped. Abigail groaned and knew that no one else saw the hell hounds except for her. She wanted desperately for them to go through and stop the monsters but with her being the only one who could see them she tried to hold them off. People were crying and running as fast as they could from this invisible attacker. Abigail looked at her friends and saw them with their weapons drawn out. Althea's dagger was striking at nothing but air. Aside from the dogs being to the right of her. However, Abigail had hopes that Ezra at least had some way to stop the dogs. Even if he swung his angel blade. The hounds attacked anyone who ran away from them, sending half the student body to the hospital and the other half face down in the dirt.

Abigail felt useless, struggling to keep everyone in check but her friends seemed to handle it. That is until she saw the second hellhound slowly approach her friend.

"Althea! Look out!" Abigail cried and jumped between her best friend and the monstrous dog. The hellhounds growl and stop waiting for the right time to strike. Abigail stood making eye contact with the dog and tried to communicate with the animal. Before it struck, the hell hounds whimpered and backed off racing toward the forest. Once everyone calmed down and most of them were on the stretcher, Abigail ran over to Ezra as he approached Althea.

"Okay what the hell was that?" Althea asked.

"I don't know," Ezra answered. "But we should get back to the dorms before something worse happens."