Knights of Hell

Chapter 18

The rest of the in-between trip had been calm. No one said anything to Mint after Mercy and Xavier beat up Rami and Eric. Though he heard the snide comments under his breath, he brushed it all away. As long as no one tried to kill him, Mint would be fine. While he had tried to prepare for the aftermath of everything mentally, he hadn’t expected it to come so quickly.

The next day, Mint, Mercy, Church, Xavier and Michael had a class together, and surprisingly, Micahel ignored his friends and took a seat with the four at the back. Mint shot him a curious glance but said nothing as he focused back on Eric, pacing around the room, waiting for the class to start.

“So,” Church said, sliding his phone into his pocket to stare at Michael. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”

Michael smiled at them and shrugged. “I thought it would be a good idea to broaden my horizons, especially regarding who I befriend. And you seem like an odd but interesting bunch and so I wanted to befriend you.”

Mint sighed. This seemed like de ja vu, first with the Vause twins and now with Michael. Would he ever get a break? He knew Rami held a grudge towards him, proven when he walked into the class with a cast and a few bruises on his face. Mercy giggled, waving her fingers at him with a broad grin; he scowled at her but took his seat at the front of the class, his two-bit thugs behind him.

When the clock struck, Eric clapped his hands, gaining everyone's attention as the class quietened and everyone began paying attention. Mint dreaded this class, but it was one of the compulsory classes every student had to take, no matter their major. So, he sighed and said he would deal with it after this seminar. He had one more workshop for this unit, and then he was finished with this for the rest of his life. That was the only way to look at it without driving himself insane.

However, he hadn’t expected Eric to get all the students to stand up and push the tables to the edges of the classroom, leaving them to all stand in the middle. He smiled as he stared at the students. “I want you all to stand on the right, if you believe the following statements to be true, and on the left if you believe them to be false. Let’s start with a simple question, shall we?”

Mint frowned. He didn’t like where this was going.

“The inbetween occurred twenty-five years ago.”

Of course, everyone stood on the right. The in-between had occurred twenty-five years ago, when the earth split one hundred feet apart, letting demons that lived in the metaphorical hell down below escape onto the planet, where, with their newfound freedom, they murdered almost two-thirds of the human race.

“In a state of panic, angels descended from the heavens to protect the humans and to annihilate the demons.”

Mint, Church, Mercy, Xavier and a few others loitered in the middle, unsure where to stand. While yes, that was the truth, god hadn’t sent the angels to protect humans, as many believed. Humans were often casualties in the battle between angels and demons, but that part was frequently overlooked. Still, the few who were unsure remained in the middle, and though Eric not so subtly did glare at them, not hiding his dissatisfaction.

“And the simplest of all: Demons are the ‘evil’ ones while angels want nothing but to protect us.”

That is where things went downhill. Michael, who had often always been to the right, for once, moved to the left, along with Mercy, Church, Mint Xavier and a few other students, including Raphael and Melly. Mint stared at the back of his head in confusion. So, maybe he should have asked Micahel more about the favour he had been asking about yesterday, but honestly, he was on edge about not wanting to die.

“Micahel?” Eric asked, frowning.

Micahel shrugged, running a hand through his hair. “My neighbour,” he said, frowning a little. “My neighbour is a demon. But he’s so sweet. He’s always polite, never raises his voice, he always brings us food when he cooks, and helps my grandma bring groceries in. He’s the sweetest person I know, but I saw him for the first time after a few days a couple of days ago, collecting his mail, and he had a gold scar running down his face. He didn’t tlel me anything but it’s obvious what had happened. He’d been left blind in his right eye.”

“He must have done something to piss the angel off. Or, he’s faking it,” Eric snapped.

“We all know the gold scars cannot be replicated,” Michael snapped, glaring at Eric. “He’s never harmed a soul. So, why was he left blind?”

“Because he was a demon.”

“So, all demons deserve death. Is that what you’re saying?” Mint said, tilting his head to the side as he stared at Rami blankly.

“Yes.”

Mint frowned, nodding a little. He raised his eyebrows as he walked to the middle of the class and spread his arms out. “Then kill me.”

Rami hesitated. “What?” he asked, frowning.

Mint’s heart was racing in his chest as he tried to gulp. Church had rushed forward, grabbing his arm, but Mint snatched it away, glaring at Rami. “Kill me. We all know I’m half demon, and you said all demons deserve death. So, come at me. Free shot.”

“You’re a halfie.”

“Still a demon,” Mint added.

“Do we need to call someone?” Michael whispered, looking up at the twins with worry.

“Azure?” Mercy suggested.

“I was thinking the other one, tall, quiet. What was his name?” Xavier muttered, crossing his arms over his chest as he watched the scene unfold.

“Yua.”

“No,” Mint deadpanned, turning to stare at the twins. “We don’t call anyone.” He loomed back at Rami, who was now in front of him with a knife in his hand, and Mint stared at him. “Oh, so you do carry a knife around; surely that’s against university guidelines?”

He turned to look at Eric, and the teacher seemed oddly excited about the exchange happening right before his eyes instead of panicking or calling out the student. He was more excited at the thought of getting rid of a demon he had no choice but to ‘teach’.

Rami was staring at him, and with his arm in a cast and one of his eyes swollen shut from Mercy’s beatdown yesterday, he was a little off balance, and the second he moved, Xavier was in front of Rami. He grabbed the man by the throat, and then Mercy joined in. He watched as the twins beat Rami up. Students screamed, trying to get away from the scene. Mercy grabbed the knife and twirled it around in her hands before bringing it down and stabbing him in his shoulder.

Mint, Church and Michael watched the whole scene play out. “We really shouldn’t get on their bad side,” Church muttered.

“Oh, definitely,” Mint replied before looking at Michael. “Did your favouyr have something to do with the demon you mentioned?”

Michael nodded slowly. “He won’t come out of his house. I haven’t seen him in a few weeks and I'm really worried about him, and i thought since you were also a demon, he might respond better to you than me.”

“I’ll help you.”

Church snickered as Rami groaned, or maybe it was something similar to plead, as he pulled his phone out and took a picture. He snorted.

Mint rolled his eyes, “do not send that to Nether.”

“He likes the drama.”

“He will get his ass beat.”

“By who?”

“Azure,” Mint replied, rolling his eyes. “Especially considering we’re their friends.”

“Maybe having them as friends won't end the world.”

They looked back at the scene, and Eric had now tried to get involved, but Mercy was handling him, smacking him around. Mint winced when she landed a stiff knee between the man's legs, and he let out a groan. “Oh, that’s going to hurt.”

Mint bit his lip as he watched Church text Nether, a broad smile on his face at whatever the demon had said to him. “They’re going to leave.”

“What?”

Mercy groaned, standing up and stretching out her limbs. She tried to wipe the blood off of her face but failed, so she gave up. She stared at the two men on the floor and then shrugged before giving each one a hard kick in the ribs with her shoes.

Xavier stared down at the duo. “You snitch, we snitch,” he deadpanned. “Like father, like son,” he spat.

“Mint, what do you mean they’re going to leave?”

“We’re leaving,” Mercy snapped, grabbing Mint and Church’s hands and dragging them out of the class. Xavier and Michael followed behind them at a slow distance.

Mint stared at his best friend before sighing. “They’re going to leave; Yua said they would eventually rebirth, and they won’t merember anything, including us.”

“All of them?”

“All of them.”

.~*~