Undying Love-Chp7

CHAPTER 7: THE TRANSFORMATION

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.

Undying Love-Chp6

CHAPTER 6: THE HYBRID

Within moments, Melissa and Raziel reached Firefox Street. Melissa tossed a few money papers to the driver and said, “Keep the change. You, vampire, move out of the way! I wanna get off! Or do you want me to force you out?”

Raziel knew exactly what she meant. As exasperated as he was, he had to follow Melissa’s orders. He felt so incompetent and degraded being ordered around by a human whose race he had consumed for the past goodness-knows-how-many years. Melissa made a dash into the building they stopped in front of. Raziel looked up and noticed that it was another apartment but more exclusive-looking. It looked like a mini-condominium, to be exact. Raziel followed suite, running behind Melissa who was climbing the stairs 3 steps at a time.

She stopped in front of a door marked ‘R100’ and knocked on it furiously. Raziel heard tiny pitter-pattering of footsteps from behind the door and a frantic turn of the doorknob. A little boy revealed himself from behind the door looking very scared indeed. Melissa came in the room and was shocked at the mess created, as if a tornado just moved in. The whole place was practically a ramshackle: the sofas were overturned, the tables were smashed, the curtains were shredded terribly, the TV began to look like it really had seen better days and the worst of all was that the window was broken, as in including the missing window rims.

“Tiger, where’s your sister?” Melissa asked the cowering little boy who was no older than 6 years old.

“She went crazy,” Tiger said timidly. “She broke everything. She flew out of the window…”

“Shit,” Melissa cursed as she carried Tiger back to his bedroom. At least his room was safe from damage. She laid him on bed and said, “You stay here and go to sleep. Don’t let anyone come in until the next morning, OK? Promise me that.”

Tiger nodded and pulled the covers over his head. Melissa walked quickly out of the boy’s room and out of the apartment room. She did everything in silence and Raziel didn’t bother to ask. Finally, when they were out in the streets, Raziel’s curiosity got the better of him.

“What just happened? Why did the boy look so terrified? What happened to the place?”

“Shh! I’m trying to concentrate,” Melissa hushed him as she took out a pendulum. It was made out of shiny crystal the colour of the sunset sky. It sparkled under the streetlights, glittering like a very rare jewel plucked from the crown of Queen Elizabeth. She closed her eyes and held the pendant right in front of her forehead and seemed to concentrate greatly. Raziel could feel her aura building up. He retreated—he didn’t want himself to be sent flying to another hard-core wall by her force.

A few moments later, she opened her eyes abruptly and said, “I’ve found her.”

“Who have you found?” Raziel asked in surprise.

Melissa didn’t answer, but went on her way. Raziel followed suite. He was getting really irritated by Melissa’s attitude of keeping people in the dark. They went down a long way, turning right and left and straight ahead again throughout the journey. Finally, they reached an abandoned building site. It seemed as if it was really for a very, very long while, judging by the way the whole place was filled with rusted bars and molded wood planks. Rubbish was abundant and sawdust was more than you can imagine. The wrecked building itself was a halfway done job. It was really pathetic the way people just give up on a project that could win them millions in cold hard cash.

Melissa used her pendulum to search around the place, and wherever the pendulum shone and pointed, she followed that direction. Raziel tagged along. He could feel another aura in the abandoned site besides Melissa’s aura. It was strong—almost like of Melissa’s kind, yet it was more bestial than human. The pendulum took her to a run-down warehouse. It stank of mould and fungi, but Raziel and Melissa was too engrossed in their search to bother about the smell.

“Jude? Judith, are you in there? It’s me, Melissa,” Melissa called out. The roof was beginning to crumple, like the whole warehouse was going to fall in one false move.

“Who is this…?” Raziel was about to ask but Melissa hushed him.

“Not a word until she’s out. You don’t want to alert her, believe me,” Melissa whispered to him, then turned around and raised her voice, “Judith, come on out. It’s me, Melissa, your friend. Don’t be afraid.”

Slowly, the person she was calling came into view. She was quite tall, with wild ebony-black hair. She was very dark, like she had been sun-kissed by the sun for too long. Her eyes were the purplest colour you have ever seen. She was barely clothed—her clothes were torn beyond recognition. She had a pair of giant bat-like wings almost like Raziel’s but much larger and much stronger than his spindly ones. Raziel recognized her quite immediately.

“You…”

“You know her?” Melissa asked as she draped her jacket over her.

“She’s the girl I saw one of your fox elves went through. I recognize her purple eyes.”

“Let’s talk outside. I don’t want to be caught dead crushed by pounds upon pounds of rubble.”

As they went outside, Melissa sat the girl whose name was Judith on one of the wooden planks. Judith looked really savage indeed, like one move and she’ll tear you into shreds. But her eyes were kind, scared and timid, like she was a little mouse trapped in a lion’s body. Raziel tentatively took her chin and scrutinized her. Judith cowered at the sight of him. His haunting yellow eyes were enough to tell who he was.

“Melissa, what’s this vampire doing here?”

“He’s…sort of an unofficial friend of mine,” Melissa replied, remembering the first time they met and the incident before at the beach.

“She’s a hybrid like you, isn’t she?” Raziel asked, letting Judith’s chin go. “She’s a half-succubus.”

“Yes, unfortunately. It’s not a very good reality for her,” Melissa replied. “She wasn’t born from a marriage at all. Her father, an incubus, flew into her mother’s room one night and raped her. She’s the seed of which became both her gift and her burden.”

“What about her brother?” Raziel asked.

“Tiger is human all the way,” Judith replied hurriedly. “I didn’t mean to scare him, but I just can’t control myself. I haven’t quite got the hang of my anger management. My mother died after he was born and I had to look after him.”

“Where is the man of the house? If Tiger is human, then his father should be around.”

“When my mother was pregnant with Tiger, my father found out about my identity. He must’ve heard it from a certain someone who couldn’t keep his mouth shut. He divorced my mother immediately and left us with nothing. I have taken care of that tattletale once and for all.”

Raziel knew exactly what this half-succubus meant by ‘taking care of’ meant. He folded his arms across his chest and asked, “Then what’s with the destruction of your house? You have something against your brother?”

“No, not that! I love Tiger very much! It’s just that…” Judith was hesitant to say. Her dark cheeks became quite pink.

“She’s trying to control herself from creating havoc like she did in the past,” Melissa helped her to speak. “She doesn’t want to go killing again like before if she were to actually live like a real human.”

“Havoc?” Raziel asked, curious.

“I’ve killed a lot of people,” Judith replied timidly. “I cannot deny or ignore my ancestral instincts. Succubus and incubus have to…”

“Travel around at night to suck energy from their victims during their sleep, I’ve heard about that. Almost like vampires,” Raziel finished off her words. “So I assume that you have been around the street a lot and have sucked enough energy from people to cover up the whole city.”

Judith nodded. “I’ve killed too much. Tiger and I have been moving a lot. There are certain people who are hot on our heels and we have to get them off our backs.”

“What certain people?”

“Vampire-hunters, cult-killers, witch-hunters, you name it,” Melissa replied. “Those people would stop at nothing to destroy us. She’s not the only one being hunted down. I’m also a fugitive of these people. Now that you’ve killed my Harley driver, soon they’ll be hot on your heels too.”

“Why don’t you just kill them off? Isn’t it just easy to just finish them off and rid them of their existence?” Raziel asked.

“I can’t do that,” Judith replied sadly. “They’re like white hair; you pluck out one and 5 will grow in its place. Even if I destroy those who are after me, I will have to face a lot more in the future.”

“A bunch of blood-sucking fleas they are!” Melissa said with a huff. “The more you kill them, the more they multiply.”

Their situation reminded them about his days as Sarafan and the first time he became a vampire.

“I want to control myself. I don’t want to kill anymore. I’m doing this for a…a guy I like,” Judith said sheepishly.

“Jude! You don’t have to tell this vampire everything!” Melissa scowled, annoyed at how straightforward her friend can be at times.

“Well, he’s your friend and he’s somewhat of our kind, so what’s the big deal?” Judith turned to her best friend with a surprised look on her face. Melissa rolled her eyes and waved her hands sarcastically.

“This boy…Does he so happens to call you…Lavender?”

“How did you know?” Judith was surprised. “That’s my human name when I’m around my friends! You didn’t tell him, did you, Melissa?”

“No, I did not! He so happens to follow me around all day and all night like some stalker, so how would I know that he maybe eavesdropping over certain things?!”

“Actually, half of it is because I guess that the name matched her purple eyes,” Raziel pointed at Judith’s eyes.

“Oh,” Melissa replied.

Judith twiddled her thumbs sheepishly. “Yes, that’s him. His name is Kent Kristian. I am so attracted to him, that I have made a decision to quit energy-sucking altogether. I’ve decided to live like a normal human being, but unfortunately, I couldn’t control my appetite. Every night was an agony for me. I had to fight the demons inside me. It worked painfully a few times and Melissa has been helping me out, but recently it got worse. There are times when I had to ask Tiger to tie me up. And now…you get the picture.”

“Do any of your friends know about this condition of yours?” Raziel asked, scrutinizing her wings and was quite amazed at its well-built structure.

“If they knew, they wouldn’t be her friends anymore!” Melissa groaned.

“There is not much of a cure for this, unfortunately,” Raziel replied. “Don’t fight your instincts; embrace it. It’ll do you a lot good that way.”

“Haven’t you been listening? She is willing to give that up for her boyfriend!” Melissa yelled at him exasperatedly. “She’s not going to go around sucking people’s energy anymore! She wants to live normally just like anyone else, just like a human! Unlike you, she’s nowhere cold-blooded and heartless as you are, sucking souls whenever you feel like it!”

“That is only half of what she is now,” Raziel replied coldly. “If she actually gets the man she deserved, what are the chances of her able to resist the boy’s energy? You have seen how rambunctious she turned out to be when she gets all starved up. How can you guarantee that she would not be able to control her instincts and suck the boy’s soul?”

Melissa and Judith were at lost of words. They hate to admit it, but the vampire was right. What are the chances of this half-succubus of resisting temptation and denying her ancestral instincts? From the condition of the apartment, Judith was in a state where she cannot be able to control her hunger anymore. Another day like this and sooner or later, she would end up killing her own brother.

“So what are you suggesting, Mr. Know-It-All Vampire? What do you think she should do?” Melissa had her hands on her waist.

“You humans always claim that you are the brightest among all species. Enlighten me then,” Raziel replied coolly, looking away as if none of their problems are of his concern.

“I guess there’s only one thing to do,” Judith said with a heavy sigh.

“What is it?” Melissa asked.

“I’ll just have to tell all my friends the truth about myself and follow what the vampire says: embrace my ancestral instincts and satisfy my hunger.”

“No! You can’t do that!! It’s already hard for you to survive the human world and have great friends! You can’t just throw it all away by some stupid vampire’s comment!” Melissa exclaimed in horror, glaring accusingly at Raziel.

“I did not suggest anything,” Raziel said nonchalantly.

“Jude! You can’t just give up everything up just like that! You have a choice to live the life you want!” Melissa practically pleaded Judith who was beginning to take flight. “Are you really going to let Kent go?”

“If I can’t even control my killing instincts, then I don’t deserve Kent,” Judith replied as she flew away into the night sky towards the direction of her home at Firefox Street. Melissa didn’t have time to stop her. She turned abruptly towards Raziel and scowled.

“It’s all your fault, you miserable vampire! You’ve ruined her life!”

“I didn’t suggest anything. She decided that herself,” Raziel said.

“You instilled all that stupid ideas about embracing her instincts and all! You are the worst, most terrible vampire in the whole world, you…you…”

“Raziel. I believe I haven’t introduced myself. My name is Raziel.”

“I don’t care about what the heck your name is!” Melissa slapped Raziel’s shoulder hastily, then she turned around and looked up at the moon lit sky and whispered, “I hope she’s OK.”

Undying Love-Chp5

CHAPTER 5: THE SAVING

The moon was high in the sky. Raziel felt more secure during the night (don’t all vampires feel that way?). Again he waited at Melissa’s apartment and watched intently. He had to know more about this girl. He had to find out some kind of weakness that he can penetrate through so that he won’t get electrified and bounced back at every time he tried to kill her.

Soon, he saw her coming out of her apartment. She was dressed in the same black turtleneck and black leather jeans. She was wearing a pair of hob-nailed boots and was carrying a small blackish-grey purse. She even had a black leather jacket over her. Everything on her was dark and black, making even more mysterious among the normal humans around her. She seemed pretty gothic too. She stood there outside the apartment door, as if waiting for someone.

A few moments later, a huge exotic Harley Davidson approached the apartment. The driver waved at Melissa, beckoning her to hop on the bike. Behind the Harley tailed a long hoard of bikes. Most of the bikes were Suzuki or Kimisawa brand but they were pretty much modified, and the noise that blared from the engines was loud enough to be heard a mile away. Raziel was surprised to see this spunky girl having such wild hoard of humans as friends. Melissa laughed gingerly and rode on the Harley. The gang of bikes drove off, the engines blaring like mad.

Raziel followed suite. He jumped from one rear of the car to another to catch up with the bikes and he had to make sure that the vehicle he hitchhiked was going at the same route. When he saw them stopping at a vast beach, he got off the lorry of strong-smelling fish he hitchhiked and followed quietly towards the direction of their stop point.

As he stayed hidden behind a palm tree, he saw the gang of people singing and dancing, practically enjoying themselves. Their music was blaring out screaming rock songs like Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, Evanessence, Eminem and even Marilyn Manson. They danced around their bonfire and drank cans and cans of beer, making loads of rackets. They didn’t give a hoot about littering the place with potato chip bags, beer cans, plastic bags and the like.

‘How can these humans stand this type of music?’ Raziel thought. ‘How could Melissa tolerate these types of people?’

Melissa was then seen walking away with a guy who fitted the criteria of the driver of the Harley. He was quite well-built, with long flaming red hair that reached his shoulders and a pair of bright blue eyes. He seemed like a person who just came out of reform school. Raziel wasn’t the least bit impressed about the boy’s looks. He was being quite close and mushy towards Melissa. He laid his lips on the girl’s and kissed her deeply. Melissa returned his kiss. Raziel grimaced. He hated mushy stuff.

He was about to turn away when he heard Melissa struggling away from the boy. The boy clearly had ‘uneventful’ intentions towards the girl Raziel had high hopes of killing and sucking the soul from. He started to touch her everywhere and was caressing naughtily at her breasts. Melissa tried to push her away but he was much stronger. Raziel realized that her force field she boasted about was only useful to beings like him. Humans like that sexual-minded boy has no effect in activating the force field.

Raziel saw everything that was happening and was thinking of leaving her alone. So what if she gets raped or sexually assaulted? That’s not his problem. His job was to kill her and suck her soul. ‘Serves her right to be robbed of her innocence by some no good reform boy,’ he thought. ‘That’ll teach her to mess around with me.’ So saying, he turned and left the scene.

When Melissa’s call became even more frantic, Raziel couldn’t help stopping in his tracks. ‘What am I doing?’ he thought in horror. ‘I’m not supposed to have any compassion for this human. I only have to find a way to kill her and take her soul away to be mine! What’s happening to me? Why do I…’

Before he knew it, his feet were guiding him towards the struggling Melissa. Melissa tried to pry and push the boy away who was definitely into no good.

“Get away from me, you creep!” Melissa yelled, wanting to just kick the boy’s dick but he was quite prepared for that.

“No one gonna hear you here. We are way out of earshot,” the boy grinned victoriously. “Besides, they won’t even care anyway. To them, we are officially a pair.”

“I wouldn’t say that you are way out of earshot,” Raziel came from behind the boy and grabbed his throat. He carried the boy high above his head, letting him choke and kick in the mid-air. Finally, with just one squeeze, he broke the boy’s neck in two with a loud crunch (Ouch!) and dropped him like he was merely nothing more than a piece of carcass. He pulled down his scarf, revealing his somewhat jawless mouth and, for his and Melissa’s eyes only, sucked the boy’s glowing soul that was floating out of his body. It all happened quite fast and quite soundlessly, that Melissa took a few seconds to realize that she was actually standing in front of the vampire.

“You…didn’t have to kill him…” Melissa finally found her voice.

“I was just hungry,” Raziel replied coldly as he covered his mouth again with his scarf. Like I said, a scarf across his face was much better than staring at his scary face without a bottom jaw.

“He’s my driver, you bone-head! He’s the only person willing to send me home! No one else would!”

“What about your companions out there at the sandy land?” Raziel jerked his head towards the direction of the beach.

“They wouldn’t dare to touch me!” Melissa waved her hands dramatically. “They confirmed us a couple! You don’t know how big his influence has on them. If they find out that you actually killed him…”

“You are a very peculiar girl. Not only you have an aura that I am yet to penetrate, you also have an unreasonable behaviour,” Raziel folded his arms across his chest. “I have just rescued you from a possibility of losing your innocence and you…”

“Aha!” Melissa said suddenly, pointing at our resident evil vampire with a scornful look on her face. “You do admit that you were trying to rescue me!”

Raziel felt like biting his tongue, except that he hadn’t many teeth—no lower jaw, for the matter of fact—to do so. When he about to argue his reasons for his acts, Melissa’s cell phone rang. Melissa hurried to pick it up from her pocket.

“Hello? Yeah, it’s me…Uh-huh…What? Are you sure? Hang in there. Just stay there and don’t move. I’ll be right there, OK? Just stay put!”

As Melissa hung up her cell phone, Raziel eyed at the little thing curiously, “What is this contraption you’re using? Why are you talking to yourself with this?”

“I don’t have time for your petty questions!” Melissa huffed irritably. “I got some business to take care of.”

So saying, Melissa dashed away from the place without even looking back or even saying goodbye to her friends at the beach who were still rocking their heads out. She ran until she reached a road and halted a taxi.

For once, Raziel actually followed her right into the taxi and sat beside her. Literally. Melissa’s mind was too occupied to bother about his existence and his persistence to follow. She had her force field to keep Raziel a well distance away from her if he had any bright ideas.

“To Firefox Street, please, and hurry.”

Undying Love-Chp4

CHAPTER 4: THE ENCOUNTER

“State your business, vampire. Are you here to suck my blood or something?”

Raziel was quite impressed at how spunky and down-to-earth this girl was. She didn’t even flinch when he proceed to walk nearer to her. He stopped in his track when he had a whiff of her aura. So strong, so powerful, so…deliciously tempting.

“Who are you?” Raziel asked. “Why do you have such a strong aura in you? What kind of human are you?”

“Unfortunately, I do not consider myself a human,” Melissa flung her long dark hair with flourish. “I consider myself as a being. Those people who come asking for my help are humans. I’m not as degraded as they are.”

“Your aura is very strong. Almost as strong as the beings of Nozgoth, but much lower. Who are you?”

“If you must know, vampire, my name is Melissa Celestial, your resident witch from the East,” Melissa said with an air of pride in her.

“A witch?” Raziel was surprised.

“Yup, a witch, and the most powerful at that,” Melissa replied as she sat back on the swing. “I’m the odd one out of all my family of witches. I’m the strongest and the most powerful among my siblings and relatives. It’s very rare in my family to see a witch that has powers exceeding all records of life.”
“I can see that. You say that your family is a whole bunch of witches,” Raziel sat on the base of the merry-go-round.

“That’s right, including my father. In my family, even men are considered witches. They are all in the East, training and meditating their whole life through.”

“Then why are you not training like the rest of them?” Raziel asked, his hand behind his back, materializing the silver sword.

“Because I hate that kind of life!” Melissa snapped. “Just because I have powers stronger than everyone else, doesn’t mean they can deprive me of my freedom and keep me in the house training and meditating where there is a big world out there for me to explore! So I ran away from home, taking a few things with me and came here to the Big Apple.”

“You mean those little fox elves?” Raziel said, pointing at the chalk-like pens in her purse.

“Yup, totally. Aren’t they cool? Fox elves have been in my family for generations now, and I’ve learnt a long time ago on how to control them. I wanna be the greatest witch in the world and earn big bucks, ya know.”

“All the reason why you should just stay back at the East to train,” Raziel got up, his sword ready to cast its first blow.

“Forget it! I’m not going to waste my life there like my family did for generations! For this generation,” Melissa pointed to herself proudly, “I’m making my own life and my own rules! Who are you anyway? Are you one of my family’s new slave or something, sent here to bring me home?”

“Unfortunately, I’m no one’s slave,” Raziel sneered as he revealed his silver sword. “You should’ve stayed home, because I am here to take your soul!”

Raziel charged towards Melissa with splitting speed. He didn’t think that she would be able to keep away from his incoming. He raised his gleaming sword high above his head and brought it down towards Melissa’s vulnerable skull. Surprisingly, Melissa didn’t even as much flinch. She just sat there without even a small expression on her face while he brought his sword closer and closer towards her skull, slashing her beautiful head into half.

Suddenly, the same force field he saw when he first met this girl engulfed her body. It countered Raziel’s sword and bounced it away from his hand and onto the earth, slashing the tip of a bush in the process. Raziel was taken aback for a second there but he decided to end her life with his own hands. Again, he was bounced back by the force field and was sent flying towards the wall. His whole body popped with static as he tried to get up. He did the same thing again and again, and yet his every attempt resulted to serious playground damage.

“Looks like I have to find a new place to do my business,” Melissa sighed nonchalantly as the force field subsided. She picked up her stuff and got off the swing as if none of this had ever happened. Raziel growled as he got up painfully to charge at her with the sword but was stopped in his tracks by Melissa’s warning, “I wouldn’t do that again if I were you.”

“Why?! Why can’t I get close to you?! That’s impossible for a human to have this kind of power!!”

“I told you, I’m no degraded human. I am a being. An ultimate being. A witch,” Melissa smirked as she turned around to face the Soul Reaver. “By the way, FYI, I’ve developed this force field at birth. All of us witches have this kind of protection, but my family only developed it after long training and meditation.”

She cat-walked boldly towards Raziel, who fell on his knees in fatigue over his countless attempts to kill her, and pushed his forehead lightly with a scorn in her voice, “Told you I am powerful.”

He growled and reached out to grab her when he had the chance, only to be thrown away again by her force field. He had learnt the hard way that her force field was very sensitive to sudden movements that might threaten Melissa’s life. He watched painfully and grudgingly as she walked away from him with an air of pride in her steps.

“I’m going to get you!! Your soul is mine!!” Raziel snarled before she disappeared out of sight. Melissa waved him away like he was some kind of insignificant piece of shit. He slowly got up and picked up his sword. He angrily stabbed the sword onto the ground, venting out his anger at such defeat before dematerializing it back into his hand.

As the sun began to set and the night closed in, he tore off the old ragged robe he had on him for the whole day and walked towards the direction Melissa went, tracking down her aura.

His vow just became stronger.

Undying Love-Chp3

CHAPTER 3: THE GIRL

Raziel sat on the balcony stairs all night until the sun rose at the east. He was quite grateful that he was sun-tolerant, or he would’ve turned into dust straightaway. He heard the girl with the strong aura awoke from her sleep by the ringing of her alarm clock. He looked in and saw the girl walking groggily towards another room. He sat there and watched. He really wanted to know what this girl was doing.

A few minutes later, she walked out of the room fully dressed in a black long-sleeved dress. She had a ‘Peace’ pendant hanging around her neck made out of fake silver. She gathered her books and walked out to the front door.

Raziel climbed down the stairs in a jiffy and waited behind the wall of the apartment. He saw her walking out of the building and towards the bus stop which was a few feet away from the building. Raziel decided to follow her. He grabbed a very old and very torn robe from somewhere near the big trash bin and wore it in haste. He grabbed the rear of the bus and had his feet on the bumper of the bus, ignoring the surprised look of passers-by. The bus took him to a tall building that said ‘Yonderland High’. He saw the girl got off the bus and he followed suite.

He waited outside the gates of the building until every human around the area has entered the building before passing through the gates with ease and flew up to the tallest, densest tree available. He saw the girl at one of the windows, sitting among a whole bunch of humans listening to a man teaching in front of the room. He realized that this was a school. He continued sitting up at the tree, watching and waiting, not wanting to lose sight of the girl.

Finally, in the afternoon, school time was over. The humans all rushed out of the building to do their own stuff. Raziel saw the girl walking swiftly towards the bus stop to catch the next bus. He got off the tree and followed suite. Again, he grabbed the rear of the bus and let it take him to where it might take him. When he saw the girl got off the bus, he didn’t think twice.

That was when he realized that he was in the big city, filled with humans here and there. All those potential souls around him. It was like being taken into a land where food was abundant. But the girl was still his first priority. He wanted her soul no matter what—she could be beneficial to his existence. He followed her all the way down to a…playground?

She sat on a swing as if waiting for somebody. Her darkly dressed attire made her look mysterious and sleek among the people in the playground. Everyone cowered away when they saw her, as if they, too, felt her aura.

“Melissa! Melissa Celestial!”

The girl turned around to face the person who called her. Raziel began to comprehend.

“So,” Raziel said under his breath, “her name is Melissa Celestial. Interesting.”

“What are they doing here? I told you I don’t like too much exposure,” the girl whose name was Melissa grumbled. Her voice had a lot of spunk, like she had been around the big world long enough to make herself street-smart.

“Sorry, Melissa, but they didn’t believe me when I said I passed my test with your help. I hate being called a liar for nothing!” A girl no older than 12 years old complained. Behind her was her gang of friends consisting of another girl and 3 boys.

“Alright, alright. It’ll earn me more bucks anyway. So what are your questions for today?” Melissa waved away her complaint and got right into business.

“I wanna know about tomorrow’s science test!” the girl announced quickly.

“I wanna know if my crush Lavender has the hicks on me!”

“I wanna know about today’s weather, ‘coz I got a football game later.”

“I want to know if Patricia is still angry with me.”

“And I wanna know when our Social Studies teacher is going to ask the Home Science teacher to marry him!”

“Oh yeah, that’s a good question!” the rest of the gang agreed.

“OK,” Melissa said as she took 5 chalk-like pens. She opened the covers of each pens and out came 5 little fox elves no bigger than her own palms. It was obvious that only Raziel and she could see those elves, judging by the confused looks on the children’s faces. She explained to the children about the fox elves and their ability to see things normal people don’t see.

“I’m using these fox elves because they see things like what people are thinking, pass through walls, flying higher than a Concorde and other things. I know you can’t see them, because it takes a person like me to be able to see them. Go, my pets, seek for the answers these poor souls need.”

Raziel saw the fox elves flying out of her hands and out into the street. One of the fox elves passed by Raziel and it shrieked like a frightened puppy before rushing away to do its job. Raziel decided to follow it to see what it was doing. The fox elf led him to a girl with ebony-black hair and the purplest eyes you’ve ever seen. It actually flew through her body without as much as making the girl flinch. It was as if it didn’t really exist at all. Moments later, Raziel saw the fox elves gather together at one spot before returning to the playground.

One by one they approached Melissa and told her the answer. She took out a notepad and scribbled something before handing it to the girl who asked about the test.

“Here you go. You’re lucky it’s a multiple choice question kind of test. These are all the answers.”

“Thank you so much, Melissa!” the girl grinned in delight.

“You’re in luck, boy,” Melissa turned to her second customer. “That Lavender you were talking about, well, she definitely has the hicks on you. She wished that you would ask her to go for that latest horror movie ‘Revolution’.”

“Her wish is my command!” the boy jumped with glee, blushing like heck.

“It’s gonna be rainy today, boy, so I guess you should cancel your football plans for today.”

“Oh, man! That is so not good!” her third customer groaned.

“Patricia is not angry with you anymore, girl,” Melissa turned to her fourth customer. “She thinks that maybe you were just joking about her grades after all.”

“Thank God she understands!” the girl sighed in relief. “I keep forgetting that she’s very sensitive about her grades.”

“And you, little boy, your answer won’t be so satisfying. Mr. Norbert is still contemplating whether to propose to Ms. Rita. He even thinks that maybe it’s not worth it because she might have a boyfriend of her own.”

“Oh man! Mr. Norbert thinks too much!” the children groaned. “We gotta give him a piece of our mind tomorrow!”

“Alright, people, pay up! 10 bucks for each request!” Melissa brought them back to reality. The kids complained about it being too expensive but they paid it in the end, thanking her before they left. As the day went by, there came more and more customers of all ages young and old. Again the fox elves spread themselves finding the answers for their mistress and whispering them to her. They were actually doing all the dirty work for her. By the end of the day, her money jar was pretty much full.
Then something unthinkable happened. When the mystical Melissa got off the swing and patted herself off the dust, she looked towards the wall where Raziel was hiding and said, “Alright, you vampire. There’s no use hiding. I know you’re behind there. State your business.”

Raziel didn’t expect her to know that he was there watching her. Could it be that the fox elf that saw him had told her? It could be. Anything’s possible now.

Soon Raziel found himself standing face to face with aura-filled Melissa Celestial.

Undying Love-Chp2

CHAPTER 2: THE AURA

Raziel walked along the lonely night road, the rain falling mercilessly at his body. Not that he cared. He won’t have a cold or pneumonia like the vulnerable humans around him. He’s already an undead anyway.

He tried to gather some strength to shift back to the Spectral World, but still no use. He didn’t find himself anywhere near spectral. He growled in frustration and continued walking. If he didn’t find a place that could access him a gateway to the Spectral World, he would definitely go mad, regardless his usual sarcastic ways and cold attitude.

Suddenly he felt an aura in the midst. He swung round, trying to locate where the aura came from. Was it the aura of the gates to the Spectral World? Was it that the Elder God has sent his henchmen into this Material World? Was it the aura of Kain? Neither. It was something else. Something…

“Human,” Raziel’s voice rumbled down behind the scarf across his face, his yellow eyes blazing dangerously murderous. It was a much more comforting sight than having to see him without a bottom jaw.

He raced quickly towards the source of the aura. The rain was getting heavier. Thunder was crashing and lightning was flashing like hell, but he couldn’t care less. Besides, why would he be worried about catching death? As he raced further and further down the bleak city, he found himself standing below a tall building—an apartment, to be exact—towering up the night sky. This building also had seen better days but it wasn’t as wrecked as Raziel’s cape. Somewhere in the building, the aura was getting stronger.

“What kind of human would have such a strong aura?” Raziel thought as he spread his wings to fly up. “No ordinary human I have ever met has such strong aura.”

Of course, as limited the strength as his wings were, he could only bring himself up to the 3rd floor. The rest of the way he went up by climbing the balcony stairs. The aura was getting pressingly strong the higher he went up. Finally at the 10th floor, he could feel the aura emitting itself strongly at his face. It came from one of the windows to his right. Raziel flew slowly towards that window and tried it. It wasn’t locked, lucky for him. He opened it and crept in as silently as possible.

There inside the room, he almost suffocated by the pressure of the aura hitting on him. It came from someone who was sleeping on the canopy bed. He walked towards the bed to see the owner of the aura and was surprised to see that it was a girl no older than 20. She had long flowing black hair that spread decoratively on the pillow. She wore a black turtleneck long-sleeved shirt and a pair of body-fitting black leather jeans. She looked like someone who just came home from a joyride. It seemed that she was so tired she didn’t bother to change.

‘Who is this woman?’ Raziel thought. ‘How would a normal human like her have such a strong aura? What kind of human is she?’

When he held out his hand to touch her cheek, an electrical force suddenly engulfed the sleeping girl, forcing Raziel to back away. Raziel gasped silently as he held his three-fingered hand that was popping with static electricity.

‘What the hell…? She’s no ordinary human! She’s a hybrid! Her soul is perfect! I must have it!’
Raziel materialized his silver sword and held it high above the girl, ready to strike. He aimed the sword dangerously at her throat and was about to embed it swift and quick when all of a sudden, he couldn’t do it. It was nothing to do with her protective shield—she didn’t do anything; she just remained sleeping peacefully. It was also nothing to do with the fear of destroying himself after sucking her soul—he had sucked stronger souls than this and still lived through the day, like Zethon’s soul, for example. It was looking at her face that stopped him. Her face was so serene and calm, like she didn’t have any care of the world. It was as if she wanted him to kill her. This didn’t feel right. Usually when he was about to kill humans and suck the souls out of them, they would cower with fear and begging for their lives not to be killed. This totally didn’t feel right.

Again he raised his sword, higher this time and sent it swiftly down. He wanted to do this quick and silent and have her potential soul inside him as soon as possible but he stopped abruptly. The tip of the spiky sword was pinned on her throat just right, but he didn’t stab her through. Her chest was still rising and falling, indicating she was still asleep—and alive.

He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t figure it out. So what if this human doesn’t beg for mercy? It’ll still be the same. He would get her soul all the same. But he couldn’t do it. He just couldn’t. Something was still not right. Somehow everything seemed way too simple. He wanted to kill her there and then but he couldn’t. It just didn’t feel right. He sighed and took the sword away from her throat and ran his fingers through his bluish-black hair. He will come back for her. Someday he will have her soul, one way or another.

He dematerialized his sword and stepped back from the bed. He hissed, “You’re lucky this time.”

As he crept back to the window and climbed out into the rainy open, he made a vow to find out who this girl really is.

Undying Love-Chp1

Started: 05-21-03 Completed: 07-06-03

CHAPTER 1: THE WEIRD WORLD

Raziel cowered in a small secluded corner of a squatter’s area, thinking of what went wrong for the whole day. He remembered being chased by the Elder God’s henchmen sent to get him to throw him back to the Lake of Death, and in haste, he shifted into the Material World. When he opened his eyes, he realized that he was in the middle of a big Material city with lights and loud music and lots and lots of people.

Everyone passing by looked at him like he was a freak. Well, technically, in everyone’s eyes, he was a freak: with a body built of either bones or muscles, his arms freakily wrapped up in brown, almost-tearing-apart bandages or some kind, his legs wearing rusty metal boots with his giant talon-like toes sticking out, his three abnormally large fingers—claws, to be exact—and his complexion, woah! He is bluer than any other people who had just been to the North Pole! What’s more freaky is that he travels around with a cape that had seen better days and his eyes were a glowing set of yellow.

Anyway, as I was saying, he was walking around the human-filled city like a total freak show. Some girls screamed at the sight of him and some teenagers looked at him and thought he was shooting a movie or some sort. Raziel was in total confusion. How did he get into this Material World? How did this happen? How could this happen? In the Material World, humans are supposed to be extinct! They’re not supposed to be around here! What was going on?

So therefore, our vampire undead hero had to find some place secret and people-less to sort things out. He tried to contemplate the meaning of all this when Ariel appeared beside him.

“You seemed troubled, Raziel.”

“What is this forsaken place? Why are there so many humans?!” Raziel snarled, spitting the last word like it was some kind of grotesque disease.

“I have come to a conclusion that you have fallen into the Material World of the past,” Ariel looked around her. “It seems like we are now in the 21st century state of the Material World.”

“How have I come to end up in a place like this?” Raziel banged his fist onto a rusty trashcan.

“I have to assume that it is due to your haste in shifting to the Material World. I suppose you were too anxious to get out of the Elder God’s henchmen and didn’t have time to coordinate where you want to go.”

“I am not anxious about that Squid! I don’t care about those henchmen! I was just…”

Raziel’s complaints were cut short by Ariel’s sudden announcement, “I see a problem.”

“What problem?” Raziel looked up at the ghostly figure of Ariel.

“Try to shift back to the Spectral World.”

Raziel tried. He found out in horror that he couldn’t shift back to the Spectral World, no matter how he tried. He gathered lots of strength and aura to shift himself into the Spectral World but to no avail. He slumped suddenly to the floor, panting like a dog.

“This cannot be happening. This cannot be happening!”

“It looks like there is no Spectral World in this dimension. Maybe there isn’t a Spectral World to get into unless you find a doorway or a vortex through. It seems that you’ll be here for quite some time,” Ariel said before disappearing into thin air.

The rain began to pour. Raziel could see all the humans, all those filthy little humans he wished he could sink his teeth into running around to find shelter. He was unlucky that there weren’t any squatters around, or he would’ve sucked the soul out of them. He remained sitting at his spot near the trashcan glaring at all the humans, all those potential meals running about away from his fatal grasp.

Finally, disregarding everything around him, he let out an angry, exasperated howl at the dark rainy sky above.