The Morning Star

Chapter V "Keepers"

Her black hair moved away from her face showing her eyes that stared back into his "keeper, I do not wish..."

Ray woke up from his nightmare, as it was becoming a usual occasion to go through such nightmares, seeing faces, people he doesn't know, and events he can't remember. Since his birthday, the activity seemed to be limited to only his dreams, which in turn made his days more stressful due to the lack of sleep. "It's morning already... Oh, it's Saturday." Saturdays meant he'll be hanging out with friends downtown, but luckily it was still too early for that so he could get some rest which he deeply needed. Later that day, Ray woke up peacefully and went out to meet with his friends; everyone decided to hangout in the nearby amusement park. The young Teens had fun and ended their day with ice cream before they split and head back home. On his way back, Ray felt the nostalgic sensation of how his birthday was a few weeks back, but that wasn't what was in his mind. A stronger nostalgic feeling broke through his instincts; it was as if time went into slow motion while he looked around at the faces of the people that passed by. The ringing sound of chains being dragged on the ground snapped him out of his sensation, he turned around, and for a split second his mind flashed back to his colorless grey dreams as his eyes met with the eyes of a girl, the girl quickly broke eye contact and started walking away from him.

"Wait!" Ray yelled before running after the girl, the girl cut through turns and Ray followed until she stopped in an alleyway. Ray stopped behind her, gasping for air after his short sprint. "You, do I know you?" He asked hoping the girl would explain what was happening to him. The feeling of being unwelcomed overwhelmed him, the secret was the girl's Aura, it reminded him of the Aura that surrounded the tree from his past dream. This time the Aura was much stronger, moreover it screamed at him to leave. Ray swallowed his fears and walked closer until the girl turned her head, her black hair moved away from her face showing her eyes that stared back into his.

"Keeper, I do not wish to be a part of your game. Leave at once, I won't warn twice."
"Please, tell me who you are, why do I see you in my..."
"I already warned you."

The girl turned around and muttered "Bring back the black sun, the ones fallen from heaven shall rise, expel, Astra." Ray felt himself being grabbed by the neck before he getting bashed onto the wall next to him then collapsed to the ground. Again for a split second he could see the chain clutched to the girl's chest, and on the other end of her chain stood a creature hidden inside a black armor. The vision barely lasted before it vanished and he looked back to the girl and whimpered in a shaky voice damaged from the impact. "You have it too, the chain... what is it?" The girl looked a bit surprised but returned to her poker face stance and replied.

"You're asking the wrong person; I won't warn you next time."
"Please... it's been haunting me forever now, and I don't understand what's going on, you called me keeper, what should that mean! What am I?"
"So you got absolutely no knowledge of what we are?"

Ray looked up to the girl and shook his head before trying to get up. The pain took over his body keeping him down as he clutched his neck and coughed, the girl sighed and walked to him helping him up. "You got no idea what you did earlier do you?" Ray looked confused at her till she sighed and continued "you raised your Aura levels into aggression, it's what we use to signal wars." Ray now had tons of questions, we? Did she mean there were more people just like them? And for how long has he been emitting this aggression she was talking about? Her statement just made everything even more complicated.

"They call us Keepers, we inherited a curse of being bound to demons. They say it's because a human once traded his soul in exchange of slavering demons to his will, and well, here we are now."
"So you mean there are a lot of people just like us?"
"I'm afraid yes, a Keeper can increase his power by killing other Keepers, this is why the war games was created, those willing to fight for higher status engage in such games."
"So you thought I wanted to kill you?"

The girl nodded and smiled "my Astra isn't the strongest around, and other Keepers usually takes no interest in me, in fact they used to bully me around for having weak links." Everything came in place now, everything was slowly making sense, but Ray still had tons of questions. His mind was lost in thoughts and still tried to capture everything

"I'm sorry for what happened, I still don't understand, there are lots of things that I can't explain. Like how did I signal you? Can other people feel it too?"
"Normal people can't feel intentions, they're blessed by barriers of visions and sensations to differentiate them from our cursed race."
"And, your demon, how did you summon him?"

The girl's face carried al look of worrisome, she shook it away before placing her hand on Ray's chest. "Prayers, each demon has his own prayer that should be recited to summon him. Otherwise the demons are on their own free will." Her hand was raised keeping only her fingers touching her chest. "I'll try to help you find your first prayer, it's something you should do on your own, I'll just guide your way." The girl's fingers pushed harder on his chest, her nails felt as if it tried grabbing his heart. Ray could feel her Aura elevating again, this time it was much clearer, he could tell the girl intended on killing him, but he was too scared to react to this new sensation. Everything came to a stop suddenly, Ray couldn't feel, see, nor hear. The face of the creature he once saw in his dream flashed in front of his eyes, the sound of a roar was the last thing he could hear before he snapped back to reality, he felt incredible pain in his chest, the feeling of it being torn apart. And suddenly the girl was burst away to the opposite wall crashing into the garbage bags that laid there. Her sleeves were torn and fresh cuts filled her hands. She grits her teeth in pain and held on her wounds shivering, Ray quickly ran to the girl and crouched down next to her "What happened!?" He asked worried, but the girl couldn't reply from the pain in her hands, she breathed deeper, her confident look turned into a horrified stare, and she quietly muttered "J... Jen...girth... your demon's name is... Jengrith... and he isn't happy." Ray shook his head and tried to help her up.

"Forget about that now, you're hurt!"
"It's your demon claw marks..."