Insanity

Trust me...

During that one last week before my challenge against the female Exorcist was almost here, I went out early that one morning. 3 weeks right before the Red Moon, and the atmosphere's air gets tighter and many of the Hunter's are starting to get sick, it's because of the Demons over filling Gehenna. I walk out to get some practice with my flames, far from the camp grounds. I hear cries and smell the air, this smell-no it couldn't be, I turn my entire attention onto the shadowy figure.

5 kids here training one last time right before the war, who's here with them-it's just a prop to practice, right? One of the kids is a Nymph and the nature around her is an advantage to use all plants and water. She does one hand signal in the palm of her hands and she spreads the plants like wings to trap the Demon inside and give them an advantage. The others, 2 Sirens and 2 Elves race up to attack the Demon while trapped inside tight, giving the children an advantage. One boy Siren stops and uses his ultra sonic voice and commands, "Freeze!"

The movements of that one Demon automatically stops and one female Elf turns invisible and sneaks up to it taking one good lash at it with her sword, she backs up and uses her 5 senses to read the Demon's movements. I lean back as I know they can handle this creature on their own, I gasp as I watch one Siren child screw up a move and slips. The Demon raises it's poison claw and aims for the small child with a twisted ankle. I imagine the child after it dies, all this time surviving to go back home, it's gonna end here before anything even starts?!

I watch as the other children yell out, "Run, get out of there!!!" The small Siren struggles and howls in pain as he can't get up, he cries out, "Help me!" That immediately wakes me up and I run up and block that one hit from the Demon-giving everything it's got. My hand claws make me a shield and I run up to fight it. I hear the Nymph yell out in complete fear, "Hurry, it's the half-fire Demon!" I freeze from my confident movement and turn around in shock and shed tears like bullets. That's what they think of me? Just a fir Demon? But I....just risked my life to save you- I get lost in my thoughts and leave myself way open for a death strike, in which I get bitten in the stomache harder than any blow to the brain.

The Demon hisses and backs away in joy to the blood falling out and it bends over to drink it all up. I turn my attention back and laugh, "That hurt, but I'm still alive!!" I slash right in the heart's core of the Demon and it disintegrates. I stand up and clutch my wound, it's bleeding but it did not effect me that much. Another one sneaks up behind me and I don't even take it seriously to fight it, this time an even larger Shadow Demon tries to hit me in my same wound but I grab it's face and burn it to nothing more then ashes blowing in the wind from my hand.

Phoenix, I really am a monster, aren't I? I look at the children hiding and watch them as they walk out to thank me, I kneel and ask them, "Do you all fear me?" They stay speechless and the Siren boy still hurt struggles to get up, I offer my hand to which her hesitates to but finally agrees and takes it. I carry him in my arms and the kids follow me back to camp. Just before we can get to the entrance of the camp, I ask, "What were you 5 doing out there?" The Nymph replies, "We thought we might need extra training before the Red Moon, we were lucky you were there." I smile and one Elf tells me, "Lady, I don't know why we were scared of you, after today this proves that you really are on our side!"

I give the boy to the Nymph nurses and hand over the other children and wave them goodbye. To be completely honest I still need to train before my "big match" with the Exorcist in a few more days, I mean, I am Half-Demon so her abilities might just defeat me. Also, this match may just settle whether everyone can trust me to be a Hunter again or not, I mean it's tricky but I have to try. My friends made it this far for me and I can't waste this chance, plus I everyone to trust me before the Red Moon or else we are all screwed.

I walk through a crowd, it only takes one person to notice me and everyone makes an opening and they make sure they are at least one foot away from me. I shake my head as I continue walking I bump into some older Hunters and they take it all out on me that it's my fault for not watching where I was going, I mean I do that all the time-but not this time. They all stare at me, and before they could kill me, the same children from earlier come to stand up for me. I mean these guys would go that far to protect me?

 The same children from earlier stand and guard me with their arms spread out to the sides, the same Siren boy is the first one to speak up, "Listen everyone!" Everyone turns their attention on the shorter people standing in front of me and he continues, "I know this is hard to believe, I know that its hard to trust this girl again. When we went out early today to get extra practice, we were attacked by Demons, and this girl saved us!" Everyone whispers in the crowd and I hear just one statement in my head, This doesn't look good... I reply back, *shh... let me hear Phoenix.

The audience remains silent as the kids add on to their speech, "For a long time now, we have feared Demons overpowering us and eating us alive. This girl too is one of them-but only half is bad-blooded. The other half of this girl is good and can be used to help us beat all of them out of this world and back to the Underworld, we can free our world, Gehenna!" Everyone remains silent and the children give in to the tiredness and the crowd walks away, and uneasy and confused feeling is left behind. We are the last ones standing in the middle of camp and I say out my gratitude, "Thank you guys."

They walk away back to the regular schedule and my, "opponent" shows up out of nowhere and breaths all over me-yuck. She spells it out for me nice and clear, "Listen, just because that group of kids accepted you and respect you now does not mean that we even care about you for one second." I wave around and respond to the thoughtful statement by saying, "You seriously have issues, ganging up on people like that just repeating the same thing over and over again. Don't you get tired of having one rival?" She remains silent as I win the round for that argument and I change the subject by asking, "By the way what's your name?"

In return I get nothing and she huffs like a now it all and replies with pride, "Hummph! Why, I am the one and only Mylene Olivia!" I step back only one pace and make an idiotic sound like "Ohh..." She turns around and I finally greet her face to face, she points to me and mouths out, "I will kill you no matter what, I'll prove to everyone what a monster you truly are and that the General was wrong all along from accepting you as a Hunter again!" I shudder and stare hard into the ground, I clutch my fists and refuse to look back at this so called Mylene.

With hands placed on her hips, and a twisted smirk of pure evil and she questions, "Next week will be your last, what are you afraid of dying?!" She pulls my hair closer to her and expects a fast answer, I claw my burning hands into her arms as she yells out in pain and I reply, "I'm not afraid of dying..." She looks at me hard and awaits for me to finish off my wonderful answer and I think about all the things I want to say but I can't take up to much time... My burning gets hotter as she continues to scream for mercy to not kill her just days before the match for everyone to see. I won't kill..I'll win! I finally gasp and finish my sentence where I began, "I'm not afraid of dying... I'm afraid of dying before I even get the chance to protect the ones that I care about!"

She stares at me with a surprised expression and her eyebrows raised at its peak, I fall to my knees and let go of the locked-in grasp and immediately stand up to face Mylene. I add one last thing before leaving, "No matter what you take me as, no matter how you look at me, I am not holding back at the match in the arena! I hope your ready Mylene Olivia, because your going down in humiliation and defeat for everyone to see!" I wave to Mylene while facing the other direction and walk off, with those marks now she knows I have accepted the challenge of fighting to the death.