Nirvana

Chapter nine

    Vanessa took the chance to sneak her way to the side of the creature’s head, unnoticed. “Hey there…” she cooed quietly, touching the creature's fur. It tensed and struggled to move its tentacles, but the vines wouldn’t budge. “It’s okay, It’s okay....I’m not gonna hurt you.” she whispered. He seemed to be ignoring her, only focusing on trying to free himself from the trap. “C’mon, can’t you hear me? Please, I need you to listen to me.” 

    “Pick a card, any card!” Renei said to the man after appearing behind him, holding a deck of playing cards out to him. He turned to kick her. She ducked down and he tried to throw a punch at her. He missed again, but this time his hand grazed one of her cards, slicing open the skin on his knuckle. He then clenched his fist and a wave of rocks flew toward her. They struck her and sent her flying backward toward the ground. While distracted, the man in black took the opportunity to aim at the caped man’s head, however he swerved at the last minute and the bullet struck him in the side. He groaned and fell to his knees. The man’s fire had burned off a lot of his clothing, revealing a more femanine frame. The man tilted his head in confusion. The caped woman hissed at him, but glanced over at the creature to see Vanessa creeping over. She took one last glance at the man and smirked. She screamed something in a language none of them could understand. The creature started to whale as if it were in pain. It’s tentacles finally broke free from the trap and knocked into Vanessa, sending her crashing into the school building. All her friends screamed. It was clear by the blood soaking her uniform that the hit had left her badly injured. They could at least tell she was alive as she slowly struggled to pick herself up from the rubble. However, before she could get her footing, another tentacle slammed into her, blood spewed from her mouth. Seeing the horrified expressions on her friends’ and the man in black faces, she turned to him and said, “It’s me or her, choose if you love her so badly.” 

    Vanessa’s vision was blurred. She could hear a loud ringing in her ears and she tasted blood on her tongue. She felt something slimy wrapped around her waist and hoisted her into the air. She couldn’t feel her arms and had little to no energy to fight back. She felt the tentacle wrap tighter around her like a snake as it slowly started to squeeze her. She could hear the painful wailing coming from the creature. Even though he was trying to kill her, she still felt sympathy for it. She could feel that this was not something it wanted to do. “Can’t you hear me?” she asked directly into its head. His grip was getting tighter and she fought back the urge to scream. “Please, please hear me.” her eyes glowed as she felt a presence connect to her brain. 

    “I do.” the creature responded and she was almost startled by its voice. She then closed her eyes to concentrate.

    “Why are you doing this to us? Why are you here?” she asked. The squeezing had ceased, but her bones still ached at the pressure. 

    “I must obey orders from my master. If not, she will punish me.”

    “What does she want from us?”

    “I am to capture the green eyed man. The man with demonic eyes.” he answered. “That was my order.” 

    “Dylan? Or do you mean the man in black because he has nothing to do with us. He doesn’t go here so why attack our school?”

    “I do not know. My master made me.” 

    “By master, you mean the one in the cape?” she asked. “Is she a demon hunter?”

    The creature grew silent. Vanessa wanted to pry, but she could focus as the creature resumed squeezing her. She couldn’t help letting out a piercing scream as she felt her ribs snap. 

    Sarina watched as her fi=riend was slowly being squeezed by the creature. She wanted to help, but Vanessa’s eyes had started to glow green, meaning she was communicating with it. The caped woman was laughing. It made her want to rip her tongue out. “Tell him to stop.” she demanded. 

    “Either stop him yourselves or capture me.” she spat. “Your choice, but I’m pretty sure your friend won’t be able to hold out much longer.” Sarina hissed, but all went quiet when they heard Vanessa scream. She could hear the man in black scream.He launched himself forward, completely forgetting about the caped woman. She noticed as she began to take the opportunity to escape. “Katskai, Renei, don’t let her escape!” Sarina took off behind the man in black. Fear crept into her heart as she saw Vanessa’s eyes roll to the back of her head.  

    “NO! VANESSA!!” both her and the man screamed. Suddenly they heard a bang and a bright ray of light was shot right into the creature’s head. Without a sound, the creature went limp and collapsed to the ground. Vanessa was released and someone was there to catch her, Darren Walker.

    Her head was pounding, her ears were ringing. What had they hit her with this time? She had been completely unconscious. Usually they wouldn't beat her enough to make her pass out. That wasn’t how they liked to do things. Usually they’d want her to witness everything they were going to do to her. As usual she checked the damage. From the pain in her skull, she likely had a concussion. She couldn’t feel her arms. They must have broken when they were forcefully holding them behind her back. Great, now she won't be able to use them for a few days. She could feel a painful ache between her thighs. Tears pooled down her cheeks. She hated them. She hated this. She prayed, prayed that maybe this time they caused internal bleeding and that maybe she was dying. She prayed that an angel would come and take her away. No more could she withstand their torture. She missed her real parents. She missed Dylan. As she felt herself slowly starting to drift back to sleep she noticed something unusual. There was smoke around her making it even more difficult to breathe. Her ribs ached. Was the building on fire? On most occasions she’d be happy, yet all she could think about was her siblings who were likely still asleep. As much as it pained her, she tried to call out for help, warning whoever was keeping watch of her tonight that there was a fire somewhere. Even if she died, she’d be happy as long as her siblings got out. She screamed louder but no one came. Weak and cold, she lay helpless on the dirty sofa. Surely if father and her uncles weren’t around then maybe they’d already started to evacuate the kids. The smoke clouded her lungs, causing painful coughings. “Please, just make it quick.” she prayed. With her last bit of consciousness, she saw a shadow appear by the stairs of her prison. No, not a shadow, a person. He was small, probably around her age. He was dressed in all black with a mask covering his mouth. The biggest thing she noticed was how bright his red eyes were. She wasn’t sure if it were the moon or not, but they were glowing like rubies. Carefully, he began to lift her into his arms. She let out a small whimper as he folded her arms across her chest. Had her prayers been answered? Was this the angel taking her away from this place? With her last waking moment, she whispered, “Thank you, Crimson.” 

    Vanessa awoke with a start, gasping violently for the air she thought was getting sucked out of her. There was a hand on her, leading her to lie back down. 

    “Easy Ness, you shouldn’t be movin too much.” Dylan said. She stared at him, so bewildered. 

    “W-What happened?” She finally asked. 

    “You’re in the infirmary. You’d gotten banged up pretty bad earlier, so we brought you here to rest.”

    took notice of the bandages wrapped around her head and torso. Her arms were bandaged but she could feel them again. She rubbed her temples trying hard to recall what went down. “What happened to the two people in black? What happened to the creature? Is he alright?”

    “Those guys got away. While we were distracted by you, they vanished.”

    “We? Wait where were you? I remember you being near me when the attack happened, but then you were gone?”

    “Oh,” his face flushed. “I went to get the staff. I wanted to stay and help, but being human, I figured I’d just get in your way.” They heard a knock at the door. Sarina, katskai, Renei and Raid entered with flowers and food. 

    “Oh, good, you’re awake.” Sarina stated. “We didn’t know when you’d get up, but we figured you’d be hungry when you did so here.” Sarina handed her the tray of food they’d gotten from the cafeteria. It consisted of her usual favorites; stir fried veggies, a fruit salad and two red bean burritos. 

    “You guys are life savers,” she said as she dug into the food. 

    “Speaking of life savers, you should thank Darren later on.” katskai chimed in. “He got there just in time to save you before you got crushed.”

    “Darren Walker?” Vanessa asked between mouthfuls. “When did he get there?”

    “Came kinda last minute.” Sarina explained. “He must have gained access to one of the weapon rooms. He shot it with an electric rail gun and it collapsed. They took it in for investigation not too long ago. It’s probably with the national guards by now. She could see a sad expression spread across Vanessa’s face. 

    “They’ll likely kill it, won’t they?” she whispered. 

    “That thing tried to kill you.” Dylan pointed out. “It’s best they took it away so it can’t harm anyone else.”

    “It wasn’t like that, Dyl,” she cried. “He didn’t want to hurt me. That woman made him. He said they had an order. To bring back that guy with red eyes or something. I’m pretty sure he meant the man in black.”

    Dylan’s jaw clenched. “May that be true or not, he hurt you. Excuse me if I find it hard to sympathize with him. I couldn’t care less what they do to him?” by the scowl on his face, he knew he’d upset her, but instead of apologizing, Dylan got up and left the room. 

    “He’s just worried about you Ness,” Sarina started while placing a hand on her shoulder. “We all were. Goddess, if Darren hadn’t shown up when he did, I doubt any of us would have made it in time to save you. Good or not, if you had died, the blood would have been on his hands, literally. Your safety is what matters the most to us.” 

    Vanessa turned away from them, placing her tray on the stand next to her bed. “I think I’d like to rest a bit more.” Realizing their presence was no longer welcome, each of them gave her a hug and left the room. It wasn’t as though she were really mad at them. Her head was jumbled and confused. She had a lot of things to think about including these strange dreams she keeps having that involve her old home. She couldn’t understand why she was always banged up in these dreams and why it all seemed too familiar. What had happened when she left the orphanage? above all else, Who was Crimson? 

    Vanessa took a short nap, but awoke when she heard another knock at the door. It was Darren. 

    “Hey Vanessa. Sorry, did I wake you?” 

    “No, it’s fine. What did you need?”

    “I just wanted to know I finished those reports you asked me to do on spirit week. Is there anything else you want me to do before I head home?” 

    “No, that’s all, thank you.” he gave her a nod and turned to leave. “Hold on, Darren. I wanted to thank you, for earlier. You could have gotten hurt, yet you chose to save me.”

    “Oh, it wasn’t really a big deal. I was actually going around making sure students evacuated the building properly. I saw what was happening and I just couldn’t sit there and watch. I’m happy I was able to be of assistance.” he smiled bashfully. They were quiet for several minutes until he broke the silence. “Actually I did want to apologize to you. Since I got here, I realized I may have been invading your space too much. Sarina mentioned your dilemma with humans. Obviously I’m not offended. I don’t know what happened in your past for you to have that narrative on humans, but I understand if being around me makes you uncomfortable. I’ll try my hardest to give you space and hopefully one day you might be able to feel more at ease around me. Enjoy the rest of your day and I’ll see you tomorrow.” he turned to leave.

    “Hey Darren?”

    “Yeah?”

    “Would you like to accompany me at the lock-in this Friday?” 

Darren smiled cheerfully, “I’d love to.” 

    As he watched Darren leave the infirmary Dylan felt his heart race. His skin felt like it was on fire. It’s been a while since he’s felt this angry. His glare pierced through Darren’s soul and he let out a low menacing growl as black smoke leaked from his mouth. Who was this guy to think he could swoop in so easily and take what was rightfully his? His arm started to burn like acid and he hissed, tearing off the fabric to reveal deep, glowing markings carved into his skin. He knew he couldn’t let his anger manifest here, not so close to her. He couldn’t risk her seeing him like this, especially in this state. An ache grew in his chest and he had an insatiable urge to hurt someone,to hurt Darren. He was just a human, maybe     Vanessa wouldn’t care as much if he were to disappear. Then there was a menacing laugh echoing through his head. 

    “You’re planning on harming the innocent? Ha, I see once a monster, always a monster. How long will you pretend and lie to her? Is she not the one you hold dear?” 

    Dylan covered his ears, trying hard to force the voice out of his head. “Shut up, demon! You don’t know a damn thing about me.”

    “I know enough to know you’re a ticking time bomb. Before you know it, you’ll explode, destroying everything you love in the process. Admit it, you’re just. Like. Me.” The voice’s booming laughter tortured his mind and he felt the need to claw at his own ears. 

    “Um, Dyl, are you okay?” Vanessa asked.

    Dylan’s eyes shot toward her and he hurried to pull his jacket over his exposed arm. He didn’t want her to see the glowing. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Just a bit of a headache.” 

    “No, I’ll be fine. It’s going away already.” silence crept over them and Dylan found his mind racing with worry of how much she had seen. Had she heard him talking just now?

    “Listen, Dyl, I wanted to apologize. I wasn’t angry with you earlier. I was just sad about the situation. I felt kinda useless, you know?” 

    “Yeah I know what you mean.” this was true at least. He did feel useless. She could have died earlier and if Darren hadn’t shown up, there would have been nothing he could do. Suddenly her arms were around him. His body tensed, hoping he’d cooled down a bit and she wouldn’t feel how hot he was. 

    “I don’t like it when we fight. Can we just go get some ice cream or something and hang out? Please?” she gave him a pouty look. 

    Dylan couldn’t deny he was a sucker for her puppy eyes. As quick as the anger had come, it melted away as well as the voice. He held her hand in his. He’d almost forgotten what he had been so angry about. He left out a relieved sigh. It was silly of him to think anything had changed. She was still the same girl. Her gaze was still the same, full of love and trust. He should act too rash. He wouldn’t prove to be the monster he’s been accused of being. She was his ray of light keeping him from evil. He wouldn’t allow anyone to take that away from him. Not even Lucifer himself. “Sure, let’s go.”