Of Demons and Fallen Stars

Chapter 11: Initiation

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Damsels in distress are overrated. You can always be your own knight in shining armor.

***

I watched as the room burst into action. I was still frozen in place not quite sure what to do. I could see Jasper and a few other people huddling together with Julia talking and pointing over a map. Others helped carry some weapons and other devices into the room.

I do not even understand what the fuss was about Class B demons. But one thing I knew for sure was that these people are off to a demon hunt.

“You have to come,” one of the twins said. “Show us what you can do with those daggers.”

“I want to see what she’s got, too. But a Class B demon is too much for her initiation, don’t you think Dex?”

“Nah,” Dex said grinning at his twin. “She’ll be alright. A few scratches and some broken bones give good learning experience, right Art?”

“Yeah sure,” Art said handing me a set of throwing knives with a belt that can also hold my own daggers. “Just don’t get her killed. You two are in charge of her.”

“What!?” The look on the twins’ faces would be funny only if I was not starting to get nervous. I’ve been off to hunting demons a few times before. But this felt different.

“Sorry, I guess you are stuck with me,” I said, relieved that my voice sounded stronger than how I actually felt.

“That’s fine. We got nothing against you. But Art, on the other hand, has a problem with his personality.”

“Come on, guys,” Jasper said. He was also geared up like the twins with bandages peeking out of his sleeve. “Our demon appeared a few kilometers west from the outskirts of town. Remember that it’s a class B demon. Keep your formations and don’t ever go alone. Give the signal when you get in contact with it. Andrea, contact us if there is any change here. I don’t want this demon reaching the town. Let’s go.”

There were six of us who left; four guys, Eiscene and me. We drove off with the twins flanking the car on their motorcycles.

“You’ve been saying class B demon. What does that even mean,” I asked. The twins, Art and Eiscene were theorizing about what type of demon it will be, talking through handheld transceivers, the moment we were out of the school. All of what they talked about sounded awful.

“Class B demons are really strong and have quite a few odd abilities,” Eiscene said, answering my question.

“Yeah… Abilities that give us quite some trouble,” one of the twins radioed in. I could hear the scowl in his expression. Bad experience?

“Well it all comes down to whether they have brains or not, which in most cases they don’t,” the other twin added.

Odd abilities? I was rather hoping not to meet another fire breathing humanoid lizard in this lifetime. But it was just my luck that the chances of that happening have increased ever since I moved into this town.

“What was it with Julia,” I asked.

“She’s kind of the club’s radar. You see, she can sense emotions. She can detect most demons by their bloodlust which a class B demon usually have an abundance of,” Eiscene said.

“Ha. If you ask me, I thinks bloodlust is all that they are made of,” one of the twins chirped in.

“Julia is still in the process of controlling her abilities. It still gets to her sometimes.”

“We’re here,” Art announced glancing at the map Julia had marked earlier. Jas killed the engine and started to get off. We stepped out of the car and grouped up with the others.

“He’s wounded, will he be alright,” I asked Eiscene, whispering but he heard it anyway. What is he, a bat?

“I’ll be fine Bloodmoon. Just worry about yourself,” Jasper answered, not even turning to look at me. “Go with the twins. Ice and Art with me.”

We all went through the quiet street keeping to the shadows of the few houses at the edge of town just in case some folks looked out their window. Black-clad teenagers heavily laden with weapons were not exactly what they would expect as late night scenery. The other three went into another direction and disappeared from our sight. A few minutes later we left the residential area altogether and neared the edge of the woods. All that I could hear were our soft footsteps. Suddenly I realized that it became more silent. I felt the twins tense and we stopped on our tracks. The twins clicked their radio three times; the signal. I felt the hairs all over my body stand up, I looked behind me as I felt it but it was already barreling towards us. I managed to stumble out of its way as it whizzed pass me as quick as a gale. I could feel something warm on my cheek. The creature probably scratched me.

“Cam, its coming back,” Dex and Lev shouted to me. They rushed to my aid but they were not as quick as the demon.

As if in slow motion, I watched the demon turn back to me. A face that I imagined a witch would have when I was a kid, a body that resembled that of a vulture’s with feet that were a few inches off the ground and two leathery wings beating strongly at its back completed the nightmarish creature. It was licking off her long blackened nails. Its claws were dripping with black liquid. Just then I cringed as excruciating pain seemed to fill my whole body. I heard myself scream. The creature zoomed towards me again before I could even recover with the shocking pain. I staggered a little. I felt like jelly like all my cells have been loosened from each other.

I could hear the twins yelling at me and rushing over to me. But the creature was faster. Much, much faster. Before I knew it, it was all over me. It clamped its claws into my shoulders but I could not even scream anymore with the pain. I was starting to get numb. It dragged me away from the twins but with me weighing it down (thanks for all that excessive sugar) the twins were able to catch up. They sliced at the creature and the demon released her grip on me. The agony was really great but I managed to sit up. I reached to my side for a dagger but I was not sure if I could make the shot with the twins struggling around the demon. Just then one of the twins crumpled onto the ground with pain. That I could sympathize with.

“Lev!”

The distraction allowed the creature to pull away. The twins did a lot of damage to its wings and it was screeching angrily at them. When it was high enough it prepared for a dive towards where Dex huddled over Lev. Apparently, it does not want dinner anymore; it wanted to kill the twins, right there and then. It started the dive, her wings tucked in and claws out, and coming very, very fast. The twins will not be quick enough to avoid it. I was gripped by a moment of panic. They needed my help.

I breathed in and just like before everything seemed to slow down. With all my might, I shot the dagger. I would worry about the pain later. I saw my dagger hit its mark, smack in its eyes. Everything went back to normal and I saw the creature crash into the ground only just narrowly missing the twins. I sighed with relief and bit back another scream as the excruciating pain came back all at once.

“Good shot,” Eiscene said running towards us.

“You’re late,” I said wincing. “It’s got poison in its claw. It got me and Lev.” I looked to where the twins were. Art was kneeling over them, taking a look at the damage and looking grim as he inspected the gash on Lev’s arm.

Jasper, on the other hand, was leaning over the demon, his back to us. I saw a flash of metal as he took something out of his pocket. Then a few minutes later, he set the corpse on fire carrying over a smell of sulfur and burning flesh.

“You’ll be fine, let’s bring you back to the school.”