The Devil's Student Mate

SIX |▪︎ LEVIATHAN ▪︎|

SIX |▪︎ LEVIATHAN ▪︎|

Darkness. Darker than the heart of a bitter soul.

The darkness was prevalent.

That is all I saw as I stared down at my fate.

The chase was over, I had hit a dead end. With nowhere else left to run, I stood on the edge of the cliff and looked down into the dark abyss, the misty, bottomless pit that would become my doom. The frosty air mercilessly nipped by skin and there was nothing I could do to mitigate the viciousness of the harsh atmosphere trouncing my naked body.

While I struggled to accept my fate, she advanced closer in a graceful gait, her persecuting expression giving away the final judgment she was yet to make.

"I did not do it, sister, please believe me, I am innocent." I beseeched, my imploring voice complimenting my besieged countenance. If my joints were not so rigid, I would have fallen to my knees and pleaded harder, but my efforts to gain her conviction were not enough. That grimly set, crucifying expression on her impeccable face did not falter the slightest.

I could have never prepared myself for what she did next.

"Get out!" She sneered in disgust before she roughly shoved me off the cliff and in a second I began to drop rapidly.

I screamed, tried to flap my tattered white wings, but they only lashed the air twice before they vanished and I was left helplessly plunging into the darkness. My skin began to peel off and my silver, icy blonde hair darkened to midnight black and I swung my arms and legs frantically before I crashed into-

"Baby? Mabe, wake up! Baby!"

My eyes flew open and I shot up with an asphyxiated sigh, drawing in air sharply before pinching my face and examining my arms for any signs of deterioration. I tried a few breathing exercises to quell my fright, until my thudding heart no longer hammered my chest so vigorously, until my breathing became stable.

"You were straight up having a panic attack, you are really beginning to scare me, Mabe, what's wrong?" Dom's face was drenched in a blend of dread and indissoluble fret, whatever I was doing must have spooked him out of his mind because I have never seen him like this.

My fingers raked through my hair and I exhaled deeply before clutching his hand and kissing it. Maybe it was selfish of me to invite him here, he does not deserve to witness me like this, to put up with my extraordinarily mystic, capriciously crazy life in just under a day.

"I was just having a bad dream, that's all." He gave me an inquisitive stare and squeezed my hand, before puffing out some air and running his hand down his face.

My poor baby.

"What were you dreaming about? Was it that bad? You… scared me so much…I tried to wake you up for minutes but you just kept panting and inhaling air sharply like you are suffocating… that scared the s**t out of me..I .. I thought you were going to die." Dom held a strong front, but I discern just how emotional he was. His gleaming green eyes were saturated with pain and in that moment, my mind in disarray, I could not offer him solace.

How do I explain this to him?

I have been having that reoccurring nightmare for years now and I still do not know what to interpret it as. Is it a manifestation of my fear of heights? Or my fear of falling short in people's eyes? Or my fear of one day waking up and realizing that I have failed in life and I can't rectify that? Whatever the reason is, it is f*****g up my head. Almost everything about the dream was the same as the last one. The words were the same, my appearance was the same, the only difference was that this time I finally got to see the face of my murderer, of the person who pushes me off the highest of stands. Only the landscape tends to change, sometimes I am falling from the tallest f*****g tree there is, sometimes I am knocked off a skyscraper tall enough to pierce the clouds and sometimes I fall from the edge of a cliff two minutes away from outer space.

"I fell off a cliff…" I hauled out the words, too engrossed with pondering to acknowledge and entertain his desire for me to go on and narrate more than a six word summary to him. "Babe?"

"Hmmm?"

"What's the time?" I dragged out a long yawn and planted my head back on the pillow and played with his long fingers.

"It is an hour and a half before nine." Dom reads the clock so weirdly, he will never tell you the exact time in words, he won't say it is six o'clock or say it is quarter to twelve, he rather skips to hours and mentions how many minutes or hours are left before the hour of his choice. Most times those hours are irrelevant, but nine is relevant to me because that is the time my first class starts.

So I have an hour and a half to get ready and if I do not get started on my routine already, I was going to be late. Time was of the essence, but I could not help myself. I strutted over to my window and did not allow fear even a third of a second to deter me, and pushed the curtains aside, already preparing myself for the worst.

Nothing.

She was gone.

It is common knowledge that supernatural beings do not favour daylight and loom in the dark, under the cloak of darkness when humans are at a great disadvantage and our senses are most blunt.

"What are you looking at?" Dom suddenly spoke from behind me and startled me. His arms snaked around my waist and he pressed his lips on the back of my ear.

"She is gone." I marveled, astounded but very much relieved.

"She was never there." He whispered softly into my ear and I rolled my eyes at his plain derision.

"I need to take a shower, when do your classes start?" Dom has the luxury of reflexible, less constricting and encumbering hours being an university student, most of the time I envy him a lot, but the prospect of committing more of my years of life to a course is exorbitantly unnerving to me. Gives me the jitters. I hate obligations.

"I have two afternoon classes and that's it, then at five Avin, Tesla and I are going to the club to train, I have a rematch with Drew in two weeks." I relished the warmth of his body as he imprinted his lips on my neck. I love being held, having a security blanket enswathing my body and Dom satiates that constant need very well. I do not lack physical affection in his presence, which I am very needy for.

"If that's the case, make me a delicious breakfast while I shower." I purred softly, delightedly receiving his soft kisses and the gentle caress of his warm breath.

"Of course, anything you say, baby. What would you like me to make you?"

"Hmmm…" I hummed in thought… anything for me he says…

"I don't know…. I am craving a lot of things.. your cinnamon pancakes are very delicious, but then the waffles… you know what, just surprise me." I giggled when he took my hand and twirled me around, before he drew me in by the waist and his lips delicately crashed into mine. I wrapped my arms around his neck and jumped onto him, fastening my legs around his waist. He kissed me ardently, but I pulled away before he could slip in his tongue, get away, this turns into a full-blown, raunchy make out session and I allow him to devour my lips to his satisfaction.

"Should I join you?" He c****d a brow, giving me a leery, knowing gaze as he lips curved up to a lofty smirk.

"Nope!" I jumped down and swiped away my hair from my shoulder seductively. "You stay where you are. If I step into that shower with you I am definitely going to be late." I threw him a taunting wink before I sashayed off, not forgetting to add an extra, intrepid sway to my hips.

I stepped out of my room into the passage and something departed from the bedroom as well and was at my heels. I can't explain it, there was not even the tiniest sound of feet patting the ceramic floor, but I knew there was something behind me, I felt the unsettling energy tailing me to the bathroom. From what I have heard from survivors of paranormal attacks, showing fear would be the worst mistake you have ever made. These beings invisible to our eyes feed on fear, on negatively and I do not see why not because it is natural to be fearful and rattled when you have an invisible force governing your life, an invisible enemy watching over you. They extract power from oblivion, from the obscurity, because we all know that, even animals which are equipped to master the craft of elusiveness, of camouflage, know that you cannot fight or defend yourself against something you cannot see, against something you do not know and cannot explain.

This is not human versus virus, there are no salves for this infiltrator, this is human versus the supernatural, a higher, more eminent entity. I am at a great disadvantage and the most disgruntling thing is that life goes on, the Earth keeps rotating, I have to carry on with my life despite my uneasiness and live with knowing that I will never be alone even in an empty room. I have to accept that I have to live on the edge, I have to constantly feel terrorized by this woman in my own home. There is nothing I can do, if she wants to follow me, she will follow me, if she wants to throttle me, she will throttle me.

Trust me, I have tried more than a few banishing spells, I have sprinkled salt, I have burned weeds, stems and herbs, I have lit candles, I have mixed up concoctions, I have recited various incantations over the years and nothing has worked. In fact things have only gotten worse.

I took a calming whiff of air as I entered into the bathroom. Battling with discomfort, I took off my nightdress and garnered enough agitation to think of challenging it. That thing. That woman. My not at all genial, or innocuous guest. I was perturbed and jumpy as my eyes, glary, wide open and slathered with fear skimmed over the room, in search of a sign of life. Only the door was in motion, moving to and fro, the creak of hinges accompanying the monotonous succession. The sound was rankling, hence I irately slammed it shut and continued to the cubicle. I opened the glass door and receded inside and remembered one of the ways to deal with unwanted presences in your house.

Speak.

Communicate with them and maybe, just maybe the entity will listen and let you be.

"You are not welcome in here, I deny you access to this shower and I ask you to let me be." I intonated feebly, my form tremulous and giving away just how much she frightened me. Thoughts of asking Dom to drive me to his condo so I can take a shower there were so succulent to my disquiet, fear racked mind, but I did not succumb to the fear, despite how appealing a worry free bath sounded. When I received no visible reaction, I closed the door and tried my level best to ignore that tormenting feeling of being watched.

I was able to wade off any bone-chilling depictions my mind conceived and successfully washed my hair and shaved my legs, but just when I was about to wrap up the shower, I heard the unmistakable sound of the click of an opening door, subsequently followed by the light squeak of hinges and the click! Clack! Of hard, heeled shoe soles patting on the ceramic tiles.

My eyes instantly shot up and I turned off the water so the splashing hiss of the free falling pour will not muffle the less audible noises.

"Dom?! Dom?!" I shouted, my fingers sweeping beneath my eyes and doing away with the beads of water collected by my eyelashes. I heard the footfalls near the cubicle door, but still received no response from my darling boyfriend.

I hope he is not pulling a prank on me.

"Dom?! Dom! You are not being funny you know." I yelled, my stomach churning as my panic fermented. I wrapped a towel around me and reached for the door handle and locked myself inside. That seemed like the most sensible precaution to take. "Dominique Aruelo Dean Gassarta!" I yelled more furiously, before I blanched from shock when three, hard knocks came from the glass door. I backed myself into the nearest wall and clasped the towel tightly as though it were a weapon or a lifeline. So unexpectedly, the primary door slammed shut and I gasped loudly.

"Dominique! I swear when I get out of here I am going to chop off your balls, throw them into the meat processor and then feed them to your cat!" I can't believe he thinks this is funny! After I vented my traumatic childhood experiences in explicit detail and unbridled, unfiltered emotion to him.

It might have taken me a moment, but I finally hailed forth enough bravery to unlock the door and evacuate my asylum. I took a few timid steps, addled by the chilly temperature in the room. I shivered lightly and my n*****s reacted to the unwelcoming coldness and hardened painfully. I looked around charily, ready to sprint and run out of the room if it comes to that. At first I noticed nothing to rouse suspicion, nothing out of the ordinary, until my attentive eyes landed on the mirror and my breath hitched. A frisson of fear travelled down my spine.

Eight days to go. Was chalked on its surface in near scribbles, in the most ugliest handwriting which most definitely was not Dom's. He is very fuzzy about handwriting and his is very neat and clear… unless he strayed from his meticulousness just to fool me.

But eight days to go?

Eight days to go until what?

Wait….

My birthday is in eight days…

Is this some sort of a pre-birthday surprise?

With that presumption in mind, I was finally able to breath, never minding the fact that I still had those hexing, harrying pair of eyes following my every move. There was this faint scent wafting around the room, a very familiar, poignant scent, distinctively befitting a man, strongly masculine. I knew I have smelled this before, but I could not quite put my finger on it.

Maybe I am imagining that lingering whiff.

"Dom?" I called out again, more calmly this time and gazed intently at the marked mirror.

"Yes, baby?" He yelled back and I exasperatedly rolled my eyes. So now he can hear me, how convenient!

"What are you doing in there?" Let's hear how he lies himself out of this one when he is very inept at thinking on his feet.

"Standing by the window." I picked up just how jaded he sounded, even his voice was lacking vigor and the pitch was pruned by tedium.

My brows furrowed in confusion. "Why are you standing by the window? When did you come back to the bedroom?" Oh my god…. Imagine if the ghost woman is back and he can finally see her!

"I never left the bedroom, you told me to stay where I am."

My eyes almost rolled to the back of my head. Sometimes I forget that this guy is four years my senior, because he sure acts like a juvenile sometimes. "You know I did not mean it literally."

"I know, but I can't move from this position." And now he is pretending to be frustrated to give more weight to his act.

This guy is full of games.

I hope he is joking, and is almost done preparing my breakfast or god knows I will bite his head off and have it for lunch.

"Dom stop playing games and come here." I huffed in disdain, feigning annoyance. Just seconds later he walked into the room with a puzzled look on his fatigued face.

"If you were in the bedroom this whole time, how come you did not hear me shout for you, yet the bathroom is connected to the bedroom?" I asked, pouting my lips with childlike prowess and crossing my arms over my chest. His stare only gained more opaqueness, like my perspicacious question had thrown him into confusion.

"I was in the bedroom, right where you left me, but I did not hear you calling me or anything." Yeah right, he is lying.

"So what are you planning? I know it is supposed to be a surprise or whatever, but please give me a little hint." I beamed, my beatific grin reflecting my excitement. He narrowed his eyes more and looked even more blank than before.

"What are you talking about, Mabe?"

I gestured to the mirror, "That."

"Are you pranking me? Is this a prank? Like a what… a haunted house prank or something?"

Huh?

Is he playing dumb or genuinely confused and oblivious?

"No! I thought you were the one pranking me, I heard you come into the bathroom while I was showering. Come on Dom just tell me, even if it is just a tiny, little detail." I asked him in my sweetest voice ever, trying to coax him.

"I do not know what to tell you, Mabe. I never came in here while you were showering and I am not the one who wrote that."

"You are not?" I mumbled to myself, trying to wrap my mind around the incredulous revelation.

"No. I am being serious, I did not write that and that handwriting is horrible, a doodling toddler could do better." He sneered derisively and I exchanged him a perplexed look.

"But babe… if you did not write that… then who did? If you are not the one who knocked on the shower door, then who did? who was in this room and how did they get in here without you seeing them?" If it was a person, a proper, tangible human being, then there is no way he could have missed the person. The person would have to enter the bedroom first.

But it was not a person, it was not human, now was it?

It was a thing, an unexplained existence.

Eight days to go.

Something is going to go down on my birthday….

And I am not prepared for it.

New Update schedule: FOUR CHAPTERS A WEEK.

Thank you for reading. Until the next chapter. ❤