Nirvana

Chapter eight

    Dylan offered to take Vanessa home, but she declined. As much as she would have liked to spend a little bit more time with him, she couldn’t risk the man in black seeing them together. Then again, he’s never shown any form of aggression toward her or anyone around her. She was sure he must have been watching her often and hadn’t made any moves on her friends. He also saved Sarina before. Still, she wanted to do this alone. She parolled around the city for an hour. She usually didn’t have to look for him, but he wasn’t at any of the places he usually showed up. The night was getting late and she soon gave up her search. Surely if he wanted to be found, she would have seen him by now. She retreated back to her dorm room to call it a night. 

    It had been hours since she got home and hours of tossing and turning, still Vanessa couldn’t find a way to fall asleep. So much seemed to have happened within the week that she found herself replaying everything from when the man in black first appeared, to Dylan’s sudden appearance at her school. It had seemed all too coincidental. Finally, as the rising of dawn, she felt herself begin to slowly drift off to sleep. However, a startling shift of a shadow outside her window awoke her. She knew it was him, so before he could disappear she opened her window and climbed out to yell out to him, “I know who you are!” The man stopped, looked back at her, his crimson eyes glowing against the morning sunrise. His head tilted to the side as if he were confused. She continued, “The more I see you, the more I start to realize why you seem so familiar. This isn’t the first time we’ve met. You were there at the orphanage. And you were there that night.” He had seemed surprised at first, then distant. “I always wondered what had really happened when I got adopted by Dylan’s family. A lot of my memory from the orphanage is hazy and there are patches I can’t recover. But I remember you. You’d pop up outside my window occasionally just like tonight. You’d keep me company and disappear before I awoke. Then...that night, I remember waking up covered in blood. I was too weak to move, but I remember a dark figure standing over me, the sky clouding with black smoke and the building engulfed with flames.” Vanessa felt her entire body shaking. “Here I thought human’s had burned down my home, but it was you. You’re the reason I have nightmares!” she glared at him, hatred in her eyes. The man only stared at her with such confusion. “I thought you were my FRIEND! But you killed everyone I believed to be my family. There were kids there, adults who took care of us and you killed them!” The man’s jaw clenched as though he were about to speak, but he stayed silent. “Why won’t you say something?!” Silence crept over them. The man looked down, his eyes glossing over as though he were close to tears. “Fine..” Vanessa stretched her arm out and a long green battle axe was conjured into her hand. 

    “I don’t know what your purpose was by showing up in front of me after all these years, but I won’t allow you to ruin my home again.” She brung the axe down hard, aiming for the man’s head. The man dodged at the last second and fell from the ledge they were standing on. Before he could hit the ground, a pair of black wings emerged from his back to carry him safely to the ground. “I knew it,” Vanessa hissed. She had suspected he was demonic after seeing his flame magic, but his wings had confirmed her suspicions. It was one thing to be a fallen angel, but it was another to be a murderous demon. She would not allow him to get away. Before he could regain his footing, she dropped from the ledge using gravity to land her axe hard on the man. Instead of hitting skin, her blade striked against a long steel blade. It wasn’t surprising he was able to conjure weapons, yet she had hoped his execution would be quick. She didn’t want to fight on campus. She could already see that lights were turning on in the dorms. People would arrive soon to see what’s going on. She needed to finish this quickly. She swung her axe repeatedly trying to catch an opening, but he was fast. His blade blocked all of her advances. She saw a slight opening and kicked her leg out, knocking him off balance. He stumbled to the ground. Before she brought her axe on top of him, he stretched his hand out as thick chains sprouted from the ground, wrapping around her wrist and stopping her mid swing. “What?! How-” before she could gather her thoughts, he took off running. She struggled against the chains, but they wouldn’t budge. He was getting away and there was nothing she could do about it. Luckily she saw her friends as well as other angels running out of their dorm houses. “He’s a demon! Don’t let him get away!” she screamed. Without hesitation, every raced after the man, weapons at ready. The farther he got, the looser the chains around her wrist became. When she was able to get free, she summoned her bow, aimed and fired. The arrow struck him in the shoulder and she heard him let out a sickening growl of agony. He stumbled. The other angels were coming up on him and just when Vanessa was sure she’d got him, a huge wall of fire arose separating him from the rest of her classmates. The fire rose high above her school. Everyone backed up immediately to avoid getting burned. Through the flames, the man took one last look at Vanessa. She cursed him. He turned his head and vanished in a spiral of flames. As he vanished, so did the wall. Vanessa fell to the ground, tears spilling down her cheeks. She felt so useless for allowing him to get away once again. But now she was determined. She wouldn’t rest until this man was dead.

    Over the weekend, Vanessa was constantly questioned about what had gone down outside the dormitories. Her friends were furious that she had gone behind their backs and met up with this demon numerous times without telling them. Not only that, but she had put her life in danger going toe-to-toe with him. As much as she understood why they were upset, she didn’t want to hear the lectures. All she could think about was the anger she felt toward the man in black. Word had gotten back to Dylan, yet he was surprisingly calm. For as long as she could remember Dylan was often hotheaded and got angry easily when it came to her being hurt. It was odd, but she was thankful that he didn’t lecture her or question her about the fight. She didn’t want him getting too invested in her dangerous lifestyle anyway. 

    After the weekend, things returned to normal. Her other friends still tried to pry about her fight with the man, but after seeing how fed up she was, they decided to drop the subject. A week goes by and things seem to calm down. The man had stopped showing up around her as far as she knew. She reported him to the A.N.D (Angelic National Defense) in hopes that they would track him down and bring him to justice.  

    Dylan and Vanessa were practically glued together, especially since they had nearly the same schedule. She was excited to spend more time with him. Usually he looked pretty happy, however she would sometimes catch him zoned out with a sad expression. She asked what was wrong, but he always smiled and told her not to worry about it. She assumed he might have been a little lonely. She was often busy in and out of school so they couldn’t spend as much time together as she hoped. 

    They walked through the hallway on their way to the cafeteria. The school was a lot more crowded since it was getting colder outside and a lot of students were staying inside for lunch. Turns out Dylan was upset from loneliness. He hadn’t realized how popular Vanessa was at school. Someone was always interrupting them. It made his chest ache feeling so distant from her. Suddenly he remembered, “Hey, wasn’t your birthday about a week ago? Anything you want for a present?” 

    The question was so random, she almost didn’t have time to think. Not that she really wanted anything in particular anyway. “You came back into my life, what more could I ask for?” 

    He resisted the urge to hug her. It’d be awkward since they were surrounded by people. “That’s sweet Ness, but I actually wanted to get you something. Something, better than any other gift you received. Guess I’ll have to think of something.” 

    “Speaking of birthdays, yours is coming in a few weeks.” she said. “Anything specific you want?”

    “I’d be happy with whatever you gave me,” he said. She frowned.

    “You know that only makes it more difficult to shop for you.” 

    “As long as you’re with me, it doesn’t matter.” he smiled and she turned her face to hide her blush, but nodded in agreement. Suddenly, Renei came running through the halls in their direction. 

    Nessa! Dylan! Nessa! Dylan!” Renei called as she neared them. She stopped in front of them, holding a paper up to their faces.

    “A party?” Dylan asked. 

    “It’s not just any party.” Renei pouted. “It’s a lock in; a school dance, and a giant sleepover!”

    “Woah, inside voices Nei.” Vanessa said, covering the girl’s mouth. “Anyway, what difference would it make if most of us sleep on campus anyway?”

    “Yeah, but we’re staying inside the main building when usually this building is locked down at night. Don’t you think that’d be fun? We get to dance and play games. Plus, Ms. Sulk and Headmaster Cane can’t supervise everything, so we can basically sneak around and do all kinds of stuff.” Renei clapped her hands together thinking of all the pranks she could set up while no one was looking.

    “What exactly are you expecting to happen?” Vanessa asked suspiciously.

    “Maybe we could play a few dirty games.” Sarina suggested as she appeared behind them. “Like truth or dare, or 7 minutes in heaven, strip poker, drunk twister. I heard that’s really fun.” 

    “Yeah, an unsupervised party for a bunch of horny teenagers sounds really fun. Sounds more like a breeding fest. Guess I should start planning the baby showers.”

    “Not this girl, I’ve been on the pill since 8th grade. It’s fine.” Sarina noted. “Plus a party is just what we need to get out of the funk this year is bringing in. I think a break is in order for all of us.”

    “I’m down to go if you are.” Dylan noted. 

    Vanessa thought about it. It didn’t feel right to be thinking about such menial things instead of focusing on the threat outside this school, but maybe they were right. Maybe she did need a change of pace. A chance to relax. “Fine.”

    “Yay!!” Renei cheered. “This is gonna be so much fun. It’s next friday. I can’t wait. 

    Suddenly, the windows blasted through, broken glass flew everywhere. Vanessa and her friends shielded their faces from the shards. A long and thick purple tentacle reached in from the window. 

    “Ew, what is that?” Sarina asked. The tentacle wrapped around Vanessa’s waist before she could move away. 

    Vanessa's voice was muffled as the tentacle wrapped around her mouth and pulled her out the window. 

    The students scattered and screamed as more tentacles came through the windows. It became hard to get through the crowd. One tentacle wrapped around Sarina and pulled her out of the school and held her in the air. Another tentacle tried to wrap around Renei, but she threw down a ball and disappeared.

    Vanessa squirmed in the tentacle’s grip. The giant tentacle was attached to a giant creature that looked to be a mix between a bear and an octopus. Someone in all black was riding on the creature’s head. She looked around to see if it had gotten a hold of any of her other friends. She saw Sarina and a few of her classmates. Thankfully she didn’t see Dylan. It’d be hard to defend herself if she had to worry about protecting him. Hopefully he ran off and got somewhere safe. She saw Katkai running over from the exit. 

    Vanessa! You okay?” he asked, trying to avoid the tentacles coming for him. She kicked and sqirmed trying to remove the tentacle from her mouth. “Hold on! I’m gonna get you down from there.” He sprouted wings and jumped up, heading toward her, but was pushed down to the ground when another tentacle slammed into his chest, knocking the wind out of him. 

    Sarina kicked at the slimy tentacle. “Let me go! You’re getting my uniform dirty!” Her eyes glowed and the tentacle around her began to freeze over. Katskai ran up and smashed through the frozen tentacle. Sarina fell to the ground, landing gracefully on her feet. 

    “You good babe?” Katskai asked. “I was on the other side of the building. I saw everyone running and came as fast as I could.

    “Don’t worry bout it. You came just in time. Where's Raid?” she asked. Katskai shrugged.

    Vanessa continued dangling from the creature’s tentacles. She began to summon a blade when she heard a loud bang and the tentacle went limb. The creature wailed in pain. It released her and she used her wings to glide to the ground. She assumed it was one of her fellow classmates, but no. The man in black stood on top of the roof wielding a flaming rifle. She glared at him, but she had bigger problems. She hurried to help free the other kids who had gotten caught. She could hear several shots going off followed by several explosions. The man in black was firing explosive rounds at the creature’s head. It screeched and fell back with every shot. After close examination, Vanessa realized there was someone standing on top of the creature’s back. This person was also wearing all black as well as a cape which he used to block the bullets. Vanessa cursed. “You gotta be f*****g kidding me.” strangely enough, the creature’s attention seemed completely fixated on her man in black. Even the caped man was staring intensely at the roof. She saw him smile.  

    The creature’s attention seemed to be on him. He was at least happy it was no longer going after Vanessa. The creature’s arms stretched out to him, but he dodged taking the opportunity to run down its arm. He aimed his rifle at the cloaked figure on its back and fired. He dodged by seconds as the bullet tore through the man’s cape. He didn’t seem fazed. Moreover, he looked amused. He wasn’t sure who this person was, but the smell coming off of him was close to being demonic. A fallen Angel, maybe. He let out a monstrous growl, warning them to back away, but they didn’t seem the slightest bit threatened. As he neared the base of the creature’s arm, he pounced and knocked the cloaked figure off the creature’s back.

    Vanessa and her friends regrouped, everyone except Renei and Raid. 

    “What is that thing?” Katskai asked.

    “It doesn’t look like a demon,” Vanessa said. “Maybe it’s some typa alien or something.” 

    “Who’s that?” Sarina asked, pointing to the person in the black cape. She noticed as the second person in black pounced and attacked the caped one. “ Ness, isn’t that the guy who showed up at the dorms? Why’re they fighting?”

    “Hell if I know. I would have thought they were friends. They could both be demons?” She turned to the creature who continued to flail it’s arms against the school building. Some of her classmates were working hard to restrain it. “Forget them for now, let them fight. We need to get that thing under control.” 

    They each worked together trying to restrain the creature’s tentacles. One of them wrapped around Katskai’s ankle and lifted him into the air. It brought him over its mouth, threatening to drop him in. “s**t!” he cursed. However, before he could drop, a playing card sliced through the tentacle’s midsection causing it to fall to the ground. Katskai caught himself and landed safely on the ground. Renei was standing on the window seal of the school. 

    “I didn’t miss the party did I?” she asked with a melodic tone. “Didn’t think you guys would get so restless without me.” She laughed and jumped down and caught the card between her index finger and thumb. 

    “Rey, where the hell did you go?” Vanessa asked. 

    “I had to get my materials ready.” she replied. “What’s going on here anyway?” 

    “No time to explain,” Katskai said. The creature grew back his missing tentacles, readying itself to strike again. “We gotta get rid of this thing already.” The arms lunged for him, but he dodged out of the way. 

    “Slicing off it’s arms is getting us nowhere. If we keep cutting them off, it’ll only grow back. We gotta stop it at the source.”

    “Aim for the head, got it.” Katskai agreed as he summoned a long blade.

    “No, we don’t have to kill it. If it’s in animal form, I may be able to communicate with it. I just need you guys to cover me.” She then touched the ground and a huge stem rose from the dirt. It wrapped around the tentacles and Vanessa pulled her hands up. The vines pulled tightly against the ground. “You may not like it, but help the man in black keep the caped one distracted.” They all agreed and flew off to assist in fighting the caped man.