Knights of Hell

Chapter 12 <3

If Mint thought that the stares and pointing had been worse before, but the second Church whirled around to stare at them and call them out in front of everyone, it only got worse. People had stopped mid-conversation to see this confrontation, and Mint rolled his eyes. Surely, they had other things to do than to stare at them, but of course, the Vause twins were infamous throughout the university. Even people in different departments were aware of them, and Church and Mint were somehow still known as the outcasts, even though the duo thought they would outgrow that label once they hit higher education.

Mercy, the older twin, looked down at Church with a broad grin, her dark hair framing her face perfectly. She popped her bubble gum in his face and raised an eyebrow. She nudged her brother with her arm, “I told you they wouldn’t last until lunch. You owe me twenty.”

Xavier was the much more intimidating twin than Mercy, known for being much more sociable. He glared at his sister before staring at the duo blankly. “You couldn’t hold out for twenty minutes more?” he muttered as he pulled out his wallet from his pants and reluctantly handed his sister a note.

“What can we help you with?” Mint asked, trying to steer them away from the prying eyes of the student body, and he did just that, leading everyone to a secluded classroom. Was that his most intelligent decision? Probably not, but he needed to avoid everyone’s accusatory looks.

“Well,” Mercy said, leaning on one of the tables. “We came to a decision,” she said, pointing between herself and Xavier. “That you two are interesting and entertaining and we are now all friends.”

Church and Mint looked warily at one another before they looked at the twins. “Do we get a choice?” Church asked, laughing nervously, and Mercy grinned as she patted his back.

“Of course, you don’t. Anyway, we only came in today because your father? Uncle, however, that demon is related to you, was screaming at the rest of the demons, and neither of us could go back to sleep, so we are to shadow you today.”

Mint rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Sorry about them. He gets tense when they’re over.”

“Right, family., Happens to all of us, so how is Azure related to you?”

“He’s my dad,” Mint said, though that oversimplified the matter slightly too much.

“And Church?”

“Dad by proxy,” Church replied, giving her the thumbs up. “Anyway, is the rumour true?”

“What rumour?” Mercy asked as the two walked out of the classroom, leaving Mint and Xavier silently walking behind the duo as they talked about whatever rumour Church had heard recently.

Mint was too nervous to say anything to Xavier, and from what he had heard, the man wasn’t the most outgoing, so they walked in silence. Mint couldn’t help but locate the looks he was receiving from the student body, and as they ate their lunch with Mercy and Church leading the conversation, Mint only spoke when either of them asked a question. He realised that with the Vause twins here, no one had said anything to him, that this had been the first lunch in his three years of attending this university that he had eaten in the cafeteria with no one saying anything snide or someone accidentally tipping and spilling their food on him. Maybe there would be a positive to having the twins around him.

After lunch, Mercy and Xavier debated going home, but Church dragged them to the class they shared. Mercy complained about how she had planned to skip this class entirely and that the teacher, Eric, had always rubbed him the wrong way, though Church wouldn’t let her because he would be going over important details regarding the trip to the in between.

As the class progressed, Mint tried to hide his disappointment. In all honesty, when he had first heard that there would be a trip to the in between, something so often spoken about but hardly ever seen in person, he had been excited. It was usually warded off for the protection of humans, but the school managed to get a special privilege and, for the day, had been given access to the grounds. But when the teasing he had been forced to endure had turned toward their planned trip, he had become less and less excited. He had heard the whispers surrounding him and the fact that he was half-demon, and if he were to believe what he had heard, then the class ‘prankster’ would try to throw him in the hole to see what would happen. But he didn’t have the heart to tell Church, who was so excited about the expedition that he no longer wanted to go.

“And, to ensure the safety of everybody going,” Eric said, drolling on with a blank expression as he continued reading off the paper in his hand. “All students will be expected to place themselves in groups of four or five. You have five minutes to do so, and any who are not in groups I will be plavcing you in them.”

Mercy and Xavier looked at Church and Mint. Mint sighed. He knew what they were implying and nodded, “Yes, yes. We’re a group of four, Church, put our names down.”

“Okay, I need to ask Eric a question anyway.”

As Church clambered out of his seat, they hadn’t expected Michael to walk over to them with a bright smile. His blue eyes quickly darted over to Mercy and Xavier, a flash of worry in them before he returned his gaze to Mint.

“Hi, guys. Do you need one more person?”

Church whirled around to stare at Mint with the look of someone internally screaming, ‘I told you so’. Xavier was about to reply, but Mercy not so subtly elbowed him in the torso, to which he groaned.

“Michael,” Mercy said, grinning as she popped another bubble made out of chewing gum. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”

“If you were all okay with it, could I be your fifth person?”

Mint sighed. Okay, so maybe Church was onto something. First, there were the Vause twins, and now, Michael, their department's golden prince. “Yes,” Mint replied, “we’d love to have you in our group. Church was just about to go to Eric to sign us all up.”

Church muttered something as Michael took the final seat in the row. When the man returned and sat between Mint and Michael, he snorted a little before he leaned in. “I do have an angel on my right and a demon on my left.”

Mint responded with an elbow to his torso.

And finally, the day and time were given. They would all attend the in between in five days, on Wednesday, but Mint looked forward to the weekend. And with them finally being dismissed, he had no more classes, and they could all finally go back.

~*~