Raziel followed Melissa again to school the next morning. He was still bent on finding out what are her weaknesses and how to penetrate that force field of hers. He had to get her soul no matter what. Her aura was so powerful—she may be the key to his return to the Spectral World.
The whole day went by as usual: sitting in class, listening to some boring lectures, eating in the cafeteria and back to class again. Raziel, who was staring at Melissa from his usual spot up on the tree, was beginning to go a little bit hungry when he saw her eating away at the cafeteria. He half-wished that he could get a soul right now to replenish himself—it’s been a while since he last sucked a soul.
“Hey, you! What are you doing up there?!”
Raziel looked down from his tree and saw an old man in overalls. It was the school janitor. He was wearing a pair of thick glasses, so it was obvious that his eyesight was bad enough to mistake Raziel for a student.
“You get down here, boy, and go back to class before I report you to the Principal’s office!”
Raziel jumped down from his tree directly in front of the janitor and pulled his collar. He clasped his mouth shut, drowning his cries and dragged him behind the tree out of sight, just in case someone’s watching. Then he twisted the old man’s neck, breaking it and removed his scarf. As soon as he saw the old man’s soul floating out of his chest, he sucked it into his mouth and down his gut, and it all happened within a couple of minutes. He threw the old man away and moved quickly to another tree that has a good view of Melissa and sat there, continuing his watch over her.
As soon as school’s over, Raziel got off the tree and waited at the gates for Melissa. As expected, there was an uproar in the school as the body of the old janitor was found under the tree. Melissa joined the crowd to see what the commotion was about until she felt traces of Raziel’s aura around the old man. She sighed and walked out of the gates, passing Raziel by.
“I assume that was your doing,” Melissa walked on without turning back to look at Raziel.
“He found me. I had to get rid of him. Besides, I was just hungry,” Raziel replied as if it was nothing big about it.
“If there are a million beings like you in this god forsaken world, I bet you’ll eat up the entire population of humans.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Raziel said. “Where are you going?”
“To check out on Judith and see if anything wrong turns out or something. I don’t care if you are coming or not, just stay the hell away from me, as in nowhere near a meter from me.”
Raziel didn’t know what ‘a meter’ meant, but he sure didn’t want to risk his life being electrocuted by her force field. He followed her from behind until they reached a school called ‘Joie De Vivre Elementary School’. They tried to act casual as they stepped into the school. Unfortunately, Raziel’s neither-bone-nor-muscle body with weird attire didn’t do much to make him look anywhere normal. Raziel didn’t care; he couldn’t find another robe like the other day, so he just had to do without.
“You are embarrassing me, Raziel!” Melissa hissed as she took off her long, flowing leather coat and passed it to the vampire. “Wear this before someone mistakes you for someone who just came out of the land of famine and takes you to a lab or someplace.”
Careful not to directly touch her, Raziel took the coat and put it on. He could sense Judith’s bestial aura among the dozens upon dozens of primary school students. Melissa felt it too, and she tracked it down until it took her to the recreational centre behind the school. They saw Judith (whose identity now among the humans is Lavender) among the kids who just came to Melissa to ask for predictions.
“If you are going to be curious about someone besides me, you ought to know her friends too,” Melissa said as she pointed from one kid to another, introducing them. “That one with short blondish-brown hair is Medusa, always asking for test scores. That one who looks very sporty and with pure blonde hair is Hanson, a total football freak. That brunette with two pony-tails on her head is Karen and that shorty over there is Mickey. Hasn’t got a growth spurt in years, but he will…soon. Oh, and that one with very dark-brown hair and a cap on his head, that’s her crush Kent Kristian.”
“We are too far away from them. How are we going to hear what are they talking?” Raziel asked.
“This calls for a little help from my spy-kit. Being a witch doesn’t mean I should be away from modern civilization, you know.”
Melissa took out a bug and a speaker from her bag. She used rubber band and shot the bug, letting it hit on the merry-go-round Judith was sitting on. Then she tested the speaker until she can finally get a frequency to hear their words. This was what the amazed Raziel (at the technology) and Melissa heard:
JUDE: Guys, there’s something I need to tell you.
MEDUSA: No problem, Lavender. Just spit it out.
JUDE: I…uh…I’m not exactly who you think I am.
HANSON: Of course you’re not; you’re a special girl. You’re one in a million!
KAREN: Yeah, no doubt about it. You’re the sweetest, nicest girl we’ve ever met.
KENT: And also the prettiest gal ever.
MICKEY: If it weren’t for your information, Mr. Norbert would’ve proposed to Ms. Rita and broke someone’s heart.
MEDUSA: Yeah. Who would’ve guessed that his college mate would have a crush on him all along and yet he didn’t even acknowledge it! That is one dumb Romeo if I ever saw one!
HANSON: And thanks to Lavender, Mr. Norbert and that college mate Yolanda are going to get married this autumn! This is so cool!
JUDE: Really, guys. I’m not who you think I am. I’m not even entirely human.
KENT: What do you mean not entirely human? You’re perfectly human to me, except those lovely purple eyes, that is. They really do look extraordinary though.
JUDE: I am really a half-succubus. I’m not entirely human. I may not even be human any longer.
HANSON: What do you mean? We don’t get it, Lavender. Why would you say that you are not human?
JUDE: My name isn’t Lavender either. It’s Judith. You’ll see what I mean once the sun sets.
Melissa looked at her watch. It was almost sundown. She thought of the horror if those kids ever see her true form. She wanted to rush out to stop her from doing the unimaginable but Raziel’s warning voice stopped her in her tracks.
“This is her choice. Don’t make this hard on her.”
As the sun began to set, Melissa watched anxiously as her curious friends gathered around Judith to see what she meant. Slowly, both Melissa and Raziel could see and feel the change in her. Judith’s 12-year-old features began to change into the tall, mature girl he first met at the abandoned site. Her fair skin slowly became sun-kissed dark and her neatly tied hair suddenly broke into the wild, savage form that it was, breaking her ribbon in the process. Her purple eyes glowed slightly. Her clothes began to tear, unable to handle Judith’s sudden ‘growth spurt’. Her huge bat-like wings burst out and Judith let out a cry of pain. Melissa winced. The transformation she had to go through every sundown must be excruciating.
As expected, the kids cowered away like heck. Kent remained standing there, too shocked to move. Judith caught her breath for a few moments before standing up, her torn clothes slipped off her body, revealing her dark naked skin. She moved slowly towards Kent and whispered, “I’m sorry, Kent. I didn’t want to lie to you or hide from you. I can only say this: I’m dangerous and I can kill. I don’t want you to die by my wrath.”
She leaned forward to kiss his lips lightly, not wanting to end up falling into her instincts and sucking his energy. She could feel her bestial, ancestral self conquering her. She pushed Kent quickly away from her and flew off into the darkening sky. Melissa and Raziel watched the half-succubus flying away, ready to take her next victim.
“She is going to kill! We have to stop her!” Melissa yelled as she took out her pendulum. She took to her heels but then stopped when she saw Raziel not following her. Raziel was looking at her with those pair of uncaring eyes.
“We? I have no part of this. She had made her choice; she chose to become the succubus she was meant to be. No matter what, she’ll always be one.”
“Listen here, Raziel or whatever name you are,” Melissa growled as she grabbed on his collar. “Judith is my friend and it’s my job to stop her from killing, because if she starts killing again, she’ll be a bigger target for those hunters. Those hunters will stop at nothing to eliminate each and every one of us, and she will not be the first on their list, not if I have anything to say about it!”
She let go of Raziel harshly and huffed, “If you don’t want to help me, fine! But I’m not letting my friend die.”
So saying, she ran off, holding the pendulum high above her head, sensing her aura and ran to the direction the pendulum led her. Raziel glanced at the hectic children discussing loudly among themselves about Judith and at Melissa who was beginning to disappear out of sight.
Raziel finally ran his claws through his bluish-black hair with a sigh and went to the direction Melissa went.
No comments:
Post a Comment