The Claddagh Academy

Dancing with the Devil

                                                “Calm your t**s,” I said annoyed, resting my back on the closest wall and crossing my arms over my chest. Totem stopped pacing and turned to me. He opened his mouth, closed it, and then turned around with a pensive air.

            “But I don’t have tits.”

            “It’s a human expression Totem,” I murmured while inspecting the long hall where we were standing like a pair of sitting ducks. I couldn’t remember how the hell Kodiak had convinced me to protect the school grounds. But here I was, exercising my patience while he went out to have all the fun and fight the big Kahuna demon in the forest. Somehow I’ve ended patrolling the main buildings with Totem while the rest of the Doomhold brothers guarded the school limits. Karoo had ended staying in the dorms after all of his controlling brothers decided that it was best for her to stay with the other girls and keep me informed via telepathically if something went wrong at the dorms.

            So far nothing had happened. And I meant, nothing. The excitement of the battle was killing me. Kodiak had marched into the forest at sunset, carrying Aella in his arms…I wasn’t sure exactly why, but that last image of them walking together was still burned in my retinas like a bad decision. You know, like when you decide to add tabasco to your burger because life it’s too short and all that jazz and then you end sick and every time you picture in your mind a tabasco bottle your gag reflex activates. Anyway, I was hating this entire situation. And I wasn’t the only one. Totem looked positively murderous by my side. We were missing the fun and neither of us was in the mood to cheer the other one up.

            “Come on, we should end our rounds,” called Totem, waving a hand for me to follow him down the hall. I sighed and pushed my body off the wall, matching his pace while our steps echoed against the large grey walls. I looked through the arches at the side of the hall, checking the school grounds. It was a calm spring night. The air was still chilly but it was perfumed with the smell of pine trees and the first flower sprouts that would cover the gardens by summer. The forest seemed like an obscure reminder at our back, signaling that somewhere inside the thickness of its wilderness was Kodiak, probably fighting the Nuckelavee by now.

            I sighed, closing the zipper of my military jacket, and pushing my hands inside of its pockets, “I really wanted to fight a Nuckelavee. Do you have any idea how much I was going to brag about it with the other bounty hunters this summer?”

            “Do not go down that road,” said Totem turning to the right, to where the hall connected with an aerial bridge that communicated the main academic building with the dorms, “I was planning on adding a Nuckelavee finger bone to my Death Cloak. It was going to look like the posterchild of a horror movie and your worst nightmare.”

            “And now look at us,” I shook my head at him, “We are the damned babysitters.”

            “We are worst than babysitters,” quipped Totem with a smile, “we are like grannies overseeing her grandkid’s nap. We are not even getting babysitter level of action in here.”

            “Don’t you think that Kodiak is taking too long to kill the Nuckelavee?” I wondered and Totem shrugged.

            “It can take a while to invoke such a huge demon to this panel. I wouldn’t be surprised if it decides to appear right before dawn. It will be easy to know when a demon crosses the…” and right then an explosion of red flames appeared by the north bound of the forest. The aftershock waves after the explosion brought the smell of sulfur, brimstone and ashes. The fire died fast but the impact of whatever was happening at the forest had managed to shake the foundations of Claddagh. The fight had just started. Totem frowned, staring ahead of us, “When a demon crosses the doors between worlds it brings with it the scent of Hell. It’s impossible to ignore a demon’s presence.”

            I wrinkled my nose and nodded, “I have to concede on that..”

            A second explosion of fire opened up in the sky, right above Claddagh. Totem and I ran to the open arch of the hall and looked outside, to where pure red fire was falling from the night sky and descending fast around the school grounds. Everything happened fast, like a recital production that had been rehearsed a thousand times. The fire showers opened like fireworks and then fell to the ground like perfect columns of red flames. One by one the flames fell and started turning solid, shaping themselves like the bars of a birdcage. We were being contained. Everything clicked in my mind at once. Aella and the Nuckelavee were just an excuse to keep Kodiak busy while the real goal of our enemy was to attack the school. I jumped into action, running back to the dorms.

            “We need to protect the other students!” I screamed over my shoulder at Totem, who cursed under his breath and started running fast at my side. Around us the dark sky seemed to vibrate and pulse. The redness of the fire cascading against the stark contrast of the shadows coming from the forest. Something terrible was going to happen, I could feel it in my guts. I cursed a very lengthy plethora of human insults and started marching down the stairs, “I will protect the girl’s dorms! You go to your brothers and protect the others!”

            “Deal!” yelled Totem, pumping his legs faster in the opposite direction to where I was going. He only had enough time to turn around the corner and look at me over the popping flames closing on us, “Don’t let anything happen to Karoo!”

            “On it!” and that was the last thing I said before going faster down the stairs. I jumped the last couple of steps and landed swiftly on my feet, pushing myself up and then running faster than before. It would have been so nice to be able to shift right then…but no, of course not, I could only rely on Bus 11-also known as my own legs- until I decided to keep developing Fae powers. Unfunckingbelievable. I pushed myself faster and faster. Only a couple more of steps and I would be closer to the third floor, just one more corner and…

            BOOM!

            Debris and dust exploded right above my head. My body turned into automatic mode and I squatted down, dodging an attack directed to my neck. I fell on my knees but broke my fall fast, rolling away from the direction where my attacker was coming from. It took me a second to realize who-or better yet- what was coming my way. I wasn’t particularly fond of watching human movies but among my guilty pleasures I had to admit that watching horror movies was one of my biggest sins. And that thing that was attacking me seemed to have been inspired on the Pyramid Head Guy from Silent Hill.

            I mean it was ugly. Chronically unpleasant, like acne or Athlete’s foot fungus. The monster in question was huge, bald and grey. The demon looking guy coming my way was the material of nightmares and I was kind of relieved it had chosen to wear a cloak because I wasn’t up to see whatever fugly face was hidden beneath that hood. And it stunk. If Hell was real then this guy smelled like a fart would have smelled in Hell. And for whatever reason I was being attacked by it.

            The demon looking guy lifted the heavy claymore that he had swung to my neck and forced it down, missing my toes by an inch. I made a cartwheel, effectively sidestepping another attack and then flipping back. I landed terribly, on my side and had to roll like a pig in the mud to avoid another attack of the bloody claymore. I screamed from the top of my lungs when the pointy tip of the sword scratched my thigh. Damn! That f*****g hurt! Now I was mad.

            Clenching my molars like Rocky Balboa about to knockdown Apollo Creed I got on my feet and started running heads-on against the stinky dude. I applied my full speed, using the demon’s surprise in my favor when he wasn’t fast enough to lift his sword to attack me. I climbed the Claymore easily and jumped on his shoulders, crouching myself over his back and rounding his neck with my hands. Lightning fast I grabbed him by the top of his head and cracked it to the right. The bones of his vertebrae made a pleasant click sound when I broke his neck. The monster fell heavy on his front, touching the floor already dead.

            I only had enough time to get on my feet when a shadow appeared by the end of the corridor. I was breathing hard and the wound in my thigh was pulsing fast. I was losing blood and I was worried that an important vein had been nicked. So far I didn’t feel any pain but that didn’t fool me. No wounds hurt in the middle of a fight. They hurt later, when blood pulsed slower and the adrenaline receded. I didn’t have time to think much about my options. The newcomer started walking in my direction while I stopped by the middle of the hall. This new asshat, whoever he was, would not reach the girl’s dormitory. It will have to kill me first.

            My new enemy was dressed elegantly, like a messenger of death, or better yet, like the Masque of the Red Death. I remember Amadeus telling me about that story of Edgar Allan Poe once. At the time I found the story gory but too passive, I mean there was no action at all. But the description of the masquerade costumes had been cool.  I remembered being impressed by the disguise of the Red Death. The character had been wearing a funeral shroud covered in blood stains and the mask he had covered his identity with resembled the face of a corpse, his expression rigid like that of a dead man. My enemy looked like that character from the Masque of the Red Death story. And he smelled like blood…I wasn’t sure how I knew this; I just did.

            The mysterious figure stopped a couple of steps away from me. We regarded each other silently while the sound of a horrendous roar shattered the night. The roar had come from the direction of the forest. I was worried out of my mind about Kodiak. His fight against the Nuckelavee had to be going down right then and I was terrified that he might be wounded, but I couldn’t show any sign of weakness. A lifetime of fighting had taught me that our best weapon is our confidence. If we lose our confidence in the middle of a battle then no weapon could save us from losing. Taking a deep breath I squared my shoulders and faced the masqueraded man.

            “What do you want?” I asked him and the cloaked figure turned his head to a side, regarding me like one would study a painting. He took a step closer but I remained immovable, waiting for any signs of a possible attack.

            “Have you ever danced with the devil?” asked me the hooded shadow, his voice a cold shriek that wasn’t quite Fae and definitely not human. A demon? How the hell I’ve ended fighting two demons in a single night? Normally it wasn’t that easy to come across a demon. They tended to like hanging around the human world but even in those rare cases in which Amadeus and I saw one it was usually not a strong demon and at times not even a real menace that was worth killing.

            “I’ve danced with quite a few ugly bastards,” I offered him with a shrug and the demon laughed. I got goosebumps hearing him laugh. That sound wasn’t winning any Grammys any time soon. And before I could even see it coming I felt the blood in my veins being snatched from the inside of my body. I gasped in pain, my eyes opening wide in bewilderment. The masked demon opened his hands like a puppeteer about to start a performance and then my veins were squeezed as if they were strands connected to the fingers of the demon.

            It hurt a mother.

            Seriously, I’ve never experienced a pain like this. I was being controlled like a puppet and my veins were like strings that moved me up and down, however that demon wanted me. I wasn’t in control of my own body anymore and the experience was one of genuine hopelessness. Never before my will had been so horrendously ignored. In anger I started dancing a morbid waltz across the hall. My entire body moved in a woodsy sequence at the will of the demon controlling my arms and legs. The waltz turned faster and faster until I was moving in circles, my blood pulsing so fast that my heart started pumping at an aching speed. The demon was going to make me dance until I died.

            I’ve promised myself long time ago that I would never lower myself to the level of my enemies but I wasn’t going to let myself die like the puppet of a demon either. I closed my eyes and urged the siren to come out. It took me longer than what I imagined but I was finally able to wake her up. I let her consciousness open and connect with my own mind before I looked at the demon controlling me and invoking my power of compulsion. Technically speaking, sirens weren’t allowed to use their Voice and what I was about to do was kind of illegal…but hey, a girl had to do what a girl had to do.

            “Stop,” I singed using the sea language and at my words the demon stopped moving his arms. A slow smile stretched my lips in macabre happiness. I licked my lips next and then looked intensively at the demon, “Now you are going to let me go and next you will march to that wall and hit it with your head as many times as you need until you grow unconscious.”

            By the time I walked out of the hall the demon was lying in a pool of his own blood looking unconscious for all intents and purposes. I kept running on my way to the girl’s dorms while I inspected the night sky by the tall windows of the corridor. The flames had stopped popping in the sky but by now the entire structure was surrounded by strong bars of fire.

We were trapped.

            And the only person that could save us all was busy in the forest, battling a Nuckelavee on his own. I cursed for the millionth time that night and started running the steps in my direction to the third floor. I needed to reach Karoo and keep her protected. I’ve promised Kodiak and Totem that I would protect Karoo and I wouldn’t break my promise.

            Limping I reached the middle foyer and stopped when I saw a hooded Fae at the end of the stairs. His back to the entrance of the girl’s dorm. Tall and poised, dressed in scarlet robes and with a dark mask covering his face. Suddenly I remembered what Amadeus had wrote on his letter… Molly escaped with the help of a hooded stranger that at the time couldn’t be identified. His face was covered by a black mask, no recognizable clothes or insignias.

            Judging by his height and pose this stranger was Fae and the black mask…yes, it had to be him. This stranger, whoever he was, was the master mind behind all the attacks I’ve suffered since entering Claddagh in the summer. He had come to me. He had planned all this to get me exactly where he wanted. If I had to guess he had even planned to send his minions after me while he waited by the girl’s dorm, knowing that I would end returning to the dorms to protect Karoo.

The Fae clasped his hands at his back and faced me. The air turned colder. A moment passed and then he finally spoke.

“We finally meet, Blaise Darkholme.”