The Morning Star

Chapter III "Ora Pro Nobis"

As the water moistened the pale skin of the teen, he managed to pick up the remains of his sanity before heading back to class. The empty hallways with the sounds of lectures being given as every door passed by made him more anxious about reaching his classroom, moreover anxious of the reactions he'll receive from everyone, but to his surprise, everyone acted normal as if nothing happened. The lecture went on and everything seemed back in harmony. Ray walked back to his seat with his eyes low, facing the ground, for he didn't want to have any sort of eye contact with his classmates. He sat there, sighed, and by taking a deep breath, he felt how heavy it was to breathe under such tension.

His eyes now locked on the cravings his pen did on the desk, though it wasn't readable he could subconsciously make up the pronunciations of the inhumane characters. "Ora... Pro... Nobis..." he spelled inside his head. "Whatever that means, how am I able to read it though?" This raised more questions to his head, but as the bell rang announcing the end of the lecture, Ray sighed and held his head in defeat as he remembered his undone English assignment. Quickly, he searched for the presentation sheet and found it laying back in his bag, all done, all tidy, all prepared. "But... how..." He asked himself as he remembered barely being able to finish a third of the assignment before his blackout.

The rest of the school day went on smoothly, and Ray ungratefully submitted his homework. The hours flew by as they'd use to. The bell finally rang, announcing the end of the day, as the students huddled out to their homes. Ray would await the school bus on the side of the street. it was late that day which was out of the ordinary, and soon enough he dived into his thoughts again. He closed his eyes, voluntarily for the first time of the day, stimulated with fatigue he was soon lost in what seemed to be another dream. The teen could see himself floating in a pitch black void talking inside his mind. "Ora Pro Nobis, what is it supposed to mean..." The scenery changed into the dark alley Ray was inside the time before, standing felt heavier than usual, the weight of the burdens he carried on pulling down on his chest. "Ora... Pro... Nobis..." he said to himself one more time. The weight felt even heavier crumbling his body down, the sudden sting forced him down on his knees in pain clutching on what seemed to be melted on his chest. "What the hell!" He yelled as his hand, desperate for explanations, held the chains that extended out of his chest. His eyes watched in disbelief as his hands tugged and pulled trying to break the chains to no avail It might have been a moment of curiosity, or a desperate attempt to figure things out, his eyes followed the chain to see what was on the other side.

The chain extended to the dark pitch ahead of him, and from the darkness shined a pair of red eyes glaring. The chain suddenly started being pulled by the unknown creature forcing the teen to slowly be dragged into the dark abyss of the alley. A whispering voice echoing through the darkness called upon him. "Ora Pro Nobis." The voice chanted, "Ora Pro Nobis." It demanded. Ray felt lost within himself trying to win the tug of war pulling himself away while the creature pulled him in, until his arms finally collapsed and gave in. The creature pulled him closer as he gave in weakly walking as the chains pulled, the fast glimpse of the creature's face made him contract in disgust as the face was now visible. The red glaring eyes situated on what seemed to be a dirty brown face barely covered with what remained of its greyish long fur. The creature reassembled a humanoid figure, but it's head and face was a closer resemblance of a dog. The chain finally stopped tugging, and Ray was standing right in front of the creature that was pulling him in, soon after the shock ended, Ray's eyes finally gathered enough courage to check the outline of the body that stood there. It was tall, more of slender, it had its back arched forward so that its face would meet up with Ray's. "The creature seems to be malnourished, or god knows if it's supposed to look that way." Ray's head commented as his eyes noticed how the bones of the creature could be seen outlining its skin. Then he noticed something that sent chills down his spine, the chain, the chain that was extending from his chest to the creature's hand, it ended right on the creature's chest as well. Ray gulped and uttered "W-what are you?"

The creature responded in mutters and unknown noise, but deep within his mind, weirdly, words were being assembled. He didn't quite focus on them first, but he could tell some of the words were "sleep... me... death... awake... us..." Then all of a sudden, the creature tugged on the chain with its right hand pulling Ray closer to it till its breath fell upon him, its left hand pushed onto Ray's shoulder and the weird noises was said to his face again. "Free ... us... Ora... Pro... Nobis... Ray... Ray... wake up god dammit!" Ray finally got up to find himself embraced in the arms of his friend Dale, with his hands on Ray's shoulders, his eyes worried yet determined as Ray slowly opened his in response to the voice. "Ray this isn't a normal lack of sleep; we're heading to the school nurse NOW." Dale demanded. As a child just awakening from a deep slumber, Ray couldn't move much, his body was aching and everything felt out of place. He took a look around and noticed he was placed on the bus stop wait chair, but that's not where he was waiting. Ray never used the chairs; instead he'd just sit on the school's fence waiting for the bus. "It's okay Dale, I really need to get back home." A frowning Dale sighed and poked the head of Ray before replying in a cold two toned voice. "Ora pro nobis." The eyes of Ray grew wide after hearing what Dale said. He clutched him with both hands and asked.

"What did you just say?"
"I said call me."
"Call me?"
"Yes Ray, I just said call me."