Anarchy

-Chapter One- Damion A strong force shoves me to the ground. I barely have time to catch myself with my hands before my head hits the smooth marble floor. I rub my temple in pain and glare up. “Didn’t realize that you would stoop so low as to attack someone from behind, Ronin.” I shoot the remark up at the sneering face above me. Instead of giving Ronin the pleasure of watching me stumble to my knees and beg for mercy, I simply reach my hand out to grab my books. A huge leather boot stomps down in the empty space between them. “Say, I heard that Damion over herehe was just accepted into the Exorcism Team.” A weasley voice says from above me, causing my body tomaking me go rigid. “Doesn’t make any sense, does it? Never seen ‘em studying with the other tryhards.” A hand grips my hair and slams me against the wall. I grit my teeth, and try to ignore the growing pain that’s started to flair at the back of my head. “I heard a rumor that all orphans end up failing eventually. Do you think that’s true?” I freeze, and hear Ronin laugh a little and kick a few books aside. “You don’t know anything.” I snap, grabbing my empty backpack and trying to stand. Just as I see a fist rushing towards my stomach, a voice yells, “Stop!” I look over to the sound, and see a girl with trailing golden hair and worried eyes running towards us. Oh. Now that she’s getting closer, I think she’s in my class. I had her as a partner for a project once. What was her name? Sag? Sock? “Sage? What’s up?” Ronin grins a little and instinctively tightens his grip. Bad move. In an instant, light flashes and he lets go of my hair, screaming and waving his smoking hand in the air. “What are you doing?” He shouted, but Sage had already run in front of me and was holding out her arms like some type of protective barrier. “No student violence! This was in the handbook, Ronin. You’ve already memorized all 500 policies and terms, correct?” There’s an awkward silence between them, only the light sizzling of the flesh on his hand, although as the smoke cleared there was no wound left. A faux match. Oldest trick in the book. “Must’ve missed that.” He mumbles, and walks away like a beaten dog. His minion quickly follows behind. As soon as they’re gone, she turns to me and smiles, reaching out her hand. “Are you okay? I hope they didn’t hit you too hard, please don’t mind Ronin, he's just like that sometimes..” Her voice fades away in my own thoughts. I ignore her hand and stand up shakily on my own, trying as hard as I can to avoid making eye contact. “Do you want to visit the infirmary?” She asks, but I shake my head, collect my books, and start walking down the hall. “My name is Sage, by the way!” She calls. “It’s nice to meet you!” ------------- The rest of the day, I struggled to try and keep my face hidden among the crowd. Sage Carmori is the type to never leave you alone. I needed to take extra precautions. Luckily, there were a bit more people to duck behind on this particular day. The council and the academy were scheduled to meet today, to talk about the new uprising of Horrors. Years ago, we would’ve never had this problem. They were more cowardly back then. They still had some humanity left in them. Now, they were fully consumed. A long chime traveled throughout the whole academy, ringing in my ears. The final bell. The day was over. I dragged my bag behind my feet, through the gates of the dormitory. There wasn’t a single person in sight- That was because basically nobody lived in the dormitory except me. After all, the rooms were cramped, smelly, and downright horrible. The lunch service was always late. The air conditioning was always broken. When I swung open the door of 367, the first thing I did was fling my backpack across the room and flop face down on the stained mattress. I had nearly dozed off, when a knock at the door startled me. “You can come in,” I called. “The lock is broken.” There was an awkward silence between me and the person behind the door, and then slowly it creaked open and Sage poked her head into the room. “Are you Damion?” “Yeah.” I don’t lift my head. “How did you find me?” “I looked in the school files.” Of course someone like her would have access to the school files. She quietly scoots into the room and closes the door behind her. “Nice place.” I snorted. “What do you want?” “You just left the last time we talked!” She suddenly cried. “You don’t have to be so rude.” “There was no reason for me to talk to you.” I retort. “I saved you!” I sit up and turn to glare at her. For a moment, none of us said anything. “You didn’t save me. You just happened to be in the area. That doesn’t make you a hero.” She opens her mouth like she wants to say something, but for once nothing comes out of her mouth. Then she furiously marches out of the room and slams the door behind her. ------------- “KARST!” I nearly dropped my sandwich on the grass. A couple of kids snicker. “Yes Ma’am?” I ask the tall, thin woman glaring down at me. “Lunch break is over. Join up with the others.” I stuff the sandwich in my bag for later, and jog over to the rest of the students lined up in perfect formation. The teacher walks to face the line. “As you all know, today your Exorcist training will begin.” A few gasps ring through the crowd, but she sharply clacks her blood red nails and they fall silent again. “Be prepared for a reminder of your combat training. You will all take the enrollment test. If you succeed, you will become an Exorcist.” A long moment passed, but nobody was courageous enough to ask the question. “What if we fail?” Thirty heads swiveled towards my direction, but I stared directly at the instructor, challenging her to answer. A little smile tugs at the corners of her mouth. “If you fail, Damion Karst, you die.” All thirty of the kids were led to separate capsules to be transported to the first testing location. Even though I had gotten a burst of confidence for a short period of time, now I was scared out of my mind. If you fail, Damion Karst, you die. You die. The red lights inside of the capsule suddenly flashed in my eyes. I squeezed them shut, as the buzzing sound grew louder. Then it was all silent. I slowly opened my eyes. A strong gust of wind suddenly blew my hair out of my face, startling me. After closer inspection, I realized that I wasn’t on a cliff- it was a large towering pedestal made of stone. There were no stairs, nor entrances at the top of the pedestal. Suddenly, a voice thundered in my head, and I realized that it was the voice of the instructor. You all must be wondering why you’re standing here. How do you escape? You’re wondering. Nobody in the crowd talked. The crows had even stopped cawing. To be honest, I don’t know either. Figure it out yourself. Face your fears. It took a moment for everyone to comprehend what she had just said. And then reality hit like a stone. A few of the students started breaking down, praying to their separate gods and crying to their families that were far, far away from them. That’s when a strangely familiar and annoying voice shouted to the whole crowd - “EVERYONE CALM DOWN!” I turn and see Sage standing in the middle of the crowd, with her hands on her hips like some type of god. “We just need to find a way out of here, right? So let’s all just work together and solve this together!” A few cheers follow her statement, but the rest of the students are silent. I could tell she was sweating. Then someone screamed. I looked up just in time to see a Horror whoosh above the crowd and grab someone in its dripping claws. The screaming fades away into the distance, but we all know what happened to them. “How is this fair?!” I exclaim. “We have to find a way out of here and deal with Horrors? This isn’t even a fight, it’s a killing!” I turned to Sage, a grim look painted on her face. I could tell we were thinking the same thing. We were going to die up here. -Chapter Two- Damion Day turned to night. We waited hours not knowing what to do. Every now and then, someone would be snatched up by a Horror and the last we saw of them faded away into the light. None of us tried to save them. My stomach felt like it was eating itself. A few people grew tired of waiting, and desperately threw themselves off of the pedestal in hopes that His judgement might have mercy on them and return them to their families, but every student was met with a Horror. That’s when someone came up with the sickening solution. “Why don’t we form a ladder to the bottom?” A girl with short, blonde hair pulled into a choppy ponytail finally suggested. “We can hang onto each other until we reach the ground.” That didn’t sit well with some people. “But then only a few people would be able to leave!” “Exactly.” She drew two curved blades slowly from her belt, causing a large gasp to echo through the crowd. She pointed one of them into the crowd, and it took me a while to realize that she was pointing at me. “Let’s fight, then. The most worthy exorcists in the crowd will pass the test. Everyone else can die happily knowing that their sacrifice helped humanity.” You didn’t have to be a genius to understand what she was talking about. We either become the rotten humans like our reputation perceives us as, or let ourselves be picked apart. I didn’t know why, but my fists curled at her statement. I reached for the crossbow strapped across my back, the standard weapon that was given to all contenders. We weren’t supposed to attack each other unless that was the task given to us, but I’m sure one time wouldn’t hurt. I raised it, imagining her head right at the center of the arrow. She grinned, and I couldn’t help but notice that her teeth were jagged and broken. Instead of an arrow, it was a Horror. At first I thought it was heading towards her. Then I realized its red, blank eyes were looking straight at me. I started to back away, and I guess the girl thought she was intimidating or something. “Are you scared? Where’s all that confidence you had before?!” It was getting closer. It let out a sound that was a cross between a shriek and a strangled caw, and swooped straight towards me. I did the only thing I could think of- I ducked. The Horror instead, snatched up a boy behind me. I swiveled and instead aimed the arrow at the Horror who was quickly flapping away. Thunk. With a blood curdling scream, the Horror spiraled down from the sky and landed with a sickening thud on the stone. The boy in its clutches struggled to release himself from its sharp knife-like talons, but finally managed when he brought out his dagger to cut himself out. For a second, nobody moved. That’s when I heard the voice. Congratulations. You have passed the first test. In an instant, the stone beneath me opened up and I was swallowed into the darkness. ------------- I opened my eyes to a goose. It wasn’t just any goose. It was white. Not golden, like most of the common geese in the area. I sat up quickly and nearly hit the goose in the head. It squawked, alarmed, and waddled behind a very familiar pair of long, thin legs. “How are you feeling?” I rub my head and look around. I’m not on the pedestal. I’m in a huge, dimly lit room. The walls however, are pure stone, so I realize that I’m probably inside the pedestal. On further inspection, I notice that I’m not the only one there. There are other students littered across the room in clumps, supposedly already forming alliances. “Did I fail?” The instructor picks up the goose, walks it over to a table, and sets it down. “On the contrary, you were the first one to pass. The criteria was to terminate one Horror.” I felt my stomach eat itself. “Kill a Horror? That’s it? You told us to escape the tower!” “Qualities of an exorcist include needing to control one's feelings in a situation of distress. Those who were truly worthy would decide to stand and fight, instead of surrendering to His will.” “And those who died?” “What about them?” I glared at her and turned to examine the other people in the room. There were five or six of them, and they all had spaced themselves out, eyeing each other warily as if someone might attempt to assassinate them. “This is so messed up.” “Isn’t that the beauty of it?” She held out her arms as if she were some kind of holy being. She just looks crazy. “Exorcists are individuals who are willing to give up their humanity in order to keep their place. Only a few exist in the world. Isn’t it exciting knowing that you might be one of them?” I don’t answer her, mostly because I don’t want to listen to another monolog. She sneers, and reaches out to caress the goose's head. “Good luck on the second test.” I trace her eyes as she watches the goose with such intent that I feel like she might just snap its neck without a second thought. The second test wouldn’t take place until two hours after the first one, so the contestants were given a moment of breathing time. The crowd had thinned from thirty, to seven. How was that even possible? There should’ve been way more, especially if everyone knew that they just needed to kill a Horror. “There was a limit.” I turned to see Sage fiddling with her dagger, looking down at her boots. “There was a limit to how many people passed. After the seventh person, the whole entire tower was swarmed by Horrors. Not a single one survived.” “And how do you know that?” She didn’t answer. The second test will begin now. I frowned, and looked around once more at the people surrounding me. From what I could tell, the test wasn’t as nerve wrecking and challenging as people claimed it to be. What they really wanted you to do was to simply act like how an exorcist would during a real life situation. I stepped into the capsule that emerged from the ground. Red lights flashed. Not that hard, right? Everything around me went dark. My body suddenly lurched forward before I even realized where I was. We were standing on a crumbling bridge. Find the corrupt among the innocent. The voice echoed in my mind. The bridge lurched again, and the pathway to the other side started cracking open. We were on a time limit. “One of us is a Horror.” I turned to look at the group of people behind me. They looked as scared as I did. Confused. One of them was lying. One of them was a cannibal, a psychopath. One of them was a Horror. Then, something unlikely happened. Sage nervously stepped forward. “Horrors are afraid of fire, right? So why don’t we just threaten each person here with a flame?” Scorpio huffed at that. “Are you dumb? We don’t have any fire. There hasn’t been any since the last storage raid.” She shifted next to Sage, eyeing the archer boy warily. “W-well.. I have a few matches I guess.. But I was hoping to save them for-.” Scorpio snatched the little box out of her hands before she could finish. The bridge suddenly lurched again, and reminded me that we didn’t have the time to chit chat. “If you're gonna make a decision, make it fast.” I told her. Scorpio glared at me, and struck the match. Seconds passed. They felt like hours. Then, the boy with the bow from before screamed. His eyes turned a ghostly white, and smoke started to rise from his mouth. Sage started to rush towards him, but I pulled her back, watching until his body dissipated, leaving only his clothes lying on the ground. “Why did you do that?” She cried. “I could’ve helped him!” “Are you an idiot?” Scorpio raised her head to the sky. “Well? We passed your test. Let us move forward.” The voice didn’t answer. She sighed. “Probably slow reception..” Just as her head was turned, I rushed forward and grabbed her neck, slamming her into the pavement. I’m not the strongest person in the world, but the bridge was already tilted at an awkward angle so I guess the universe was finally working in my favor for once. The chunk of bridge underneath her head broke loose, and plummeted down into the water below. “What’s your problem?” She shrieked. The others surged forward, but I held out my hand. “It’s you, isn’t it?” Her eyes widened. “W-what?” I pointed to the lonely piles of clothes on the ground. Peeking from behind them was the bundle of yellow talismans. Her breath hitched. “Talismans are like poison to Horrors. They can’t go anywhere near them. That’s why you were avoiding being around him earlier. It’s impossible for a Horror to wield talismans.” I grabbed her collar and lifted her face so close to mine, I could see the sweat running down her face. “The thing was, you didn’t know who exactly had the talismans. Everyone was clumped together, and you couldn’t ask or that would make you suspicious. Since talismans can’t block a Horrors leaking essence, your plan was to extract some of your power into one of the people here. Their human body wouldn’t be able to handle it, and they would naturally decompose. You took a stab, and hoped that whoever you choosed wasn’t the one with the talismans.” I brought my mouth to her ear. “Well you chose wrong.” “H-Hey now,” She stammered. I reached for an arrow and tested the point on my finger, drawing a bead of blood. “I didn’t choose to be here alright? All I want is to go home..” I gripped my crossbow from my back. “Damion wait-” Sage tried, but I ignored her. “Y-You just don’t understand, alright?” Scorpio continued. “The instructors brought me here against my will, I didn’t mean for any of this to-” An arrow speared her forehead. Her body went limp. It was as if the world froze. The bridge immediately stood still, even the pieces that had already dislodged were unmoving in the air. Congratulations. You have passed the second test. Slowly, the bridge started repairing itself. Pieces of debris rose from the choppy waves, and fit back into the structure like a puzzle. Beams unbended themselves. The sky grew blue again. At the same time, I felt my vision becoming disoriented. The second test was ending. I wiped the blood from my face, and met the crowd of eyes that was staring at me. Judging glares. Worried faces. I already knew what they were thinking. They thought I was crazy. Or masochistic. I snorted and wiped some of the blood off of my forehead. They didn’t have a right to judge me. Most of the people here were born as normal civilians- They had kind, loving parents, and childhood friends that they could depend on. They probably became exorcists for the reward, or the reputation. The thought made my blood churn. All happy, joyous memories that they would have no problem recalling. They weren’t fit to be exorcists. They were too soft. They were weak. I slung the crossbow back across my back as the world around me slurred. Memories were not things to be happy about. Memories were supposed to be erased, and left behind. Memories were meant to be forgotten. -Chapter Three- Damion Despite passing the second test, that didn’t make me any more popular. I could never understand these people. She was a Horror. It was necessary. Even so, everyone looks at me like I’m a murderer. It was either them or her. So why? Sage told me that I could’ve shown a “bit of mercy”, when dealing with her. What did you expect me to do, hold her hand? Pray for her? According to the instructor, the last test would be done in individual sectors. As the red flashed, I felt my stomach lurch for a second as the scene swirled around me, and then stopped. I froze. I was standing in front of a house. No, not a house. My house. The rosy wood colored deck seemed brighter in the sunlight. The wind whistled through sun kissed fields, gently swaying the several rows of wheat that surrounded the house. I heard a door swing open and turned to see the person I had least expected come out of the house. “Damion!” A clambering little girl in a yellow raincoat came shooting at me, and I barely had a chance to hold out my arms and catch it before I was impacted. A toothy grin and big, brown eyes looked back up at me. “You’re finally back!” I didn’t know what to do. I just stared. I looked around, thinking I was dreaming, but everything felt so real. The sun on my skin. The silent breeze. The little girl hugged me. I looked back down at her. She was still smiling up at me. As if it were like any other day. As if I had never left her behind. “No-”. I broke away from her grasp and stumbled back. “You’re- You’re dead-”, I stuttered. I fell to the ground, holding my head in my arms. “I saw him-” I looked back up at her, expecting to see a mangled corpse, a decaying skeleton, anything but this-”, But all I saw was an innocent little girl. “Are you okay?” She didn’t take her gaze off me. I exhaled, looking around one more time. I was alright. There were no Horrors here. She led me by my arm into the cozy little house, hopping up the steps and sitting me down at the table. “Mom!” She called down the corridor. The sound of clanging pans and pots responded, before a chubby woman with choppy black hair came running down the hall. “Coming!” “Mom?” I couldn’t believe my eyes. Here they were, the dead mother and sister that I had spent my whole life mourning the passings of. Yet they were standing here, as if nothing had happened at all. They were just a normal family that lived a perfect life in the lonely country. The woman smiled at me, and before I knew it, was embracing me in a hug. “Sorry dear, it seems like I’ve burned dinner again. You’re gonna have to wait a bit.” As she turned back to the stove, I just stared at her. Trying to find faults, maybe her acting strange or not like herself, but if she really wasn’t real, then she was certainly accurate. She was the same cheery woman I had lived with for twelve years of my childhood, with her worried tension and floppy slippers. “Always burning things.. I don’t understand how I still haven’t gotten sick by all of your cooking”. I swiveled in my chair to see the man enter the room. He still had his tousled brown hair, and steel almond eyes. Yet instead of a suit, he was wearing dirty overalls. His beard grew down to his chest, long and unshaved. He sat down at the table casually, and set his feet on the table. Then he turned to smile at me. The memories burst through the floodgates. Shouting. Broken bottles. Sobbing. I stood up so fast that the table shook slightly underneath my hands. Everyone stared at me. I glared at him, daring him to reveal his true colors and react as he had done before. “Damion? Are you okay?” I gritted my teeth. I didn’t know why, but I wanted to shout. I wanted to break something. Instead, I slowly sat back down. “It’s nothing.” We ate in silence. The food tasted the same as I remembered- Gamey and burnt, but it had a feeling of home embedded into it. A shock of electricity ran through me, and I dropped my fork, holding my head. “Honey?” I looked back up at mom. With her kind and worried eyes. This is all fake. I’m in a test. They’re testing me. Even though I knew that they weren’t real, it still infuriated me to all ends that the instructors had fooled around with my memories like that. It wasn’t alright to poke around in someone's past and alter it. “Son, what’s wrong?” At first I didn’t recognize who had spoken. My eyes met those of a kind man, one that I had never met in my life. “Nothing.” I said, and I kept eating. I couldn’t sleep. The thing was, I was incredibly tired. I had thought that being in a dream world meant that I couldn’t fall asleep in it, but I was wrong. My eyelids already weighed boulders, and no matter how much I wanted to stay awake, I felt myself drifting elsewhere. Why did it feel so real? It didn’t matter how far technology had come, they couldn’t have possibly already devised a machine that could make you relive memories. Was that possible? My bedroom door creaked open, and I immediately shot up and started to reach for my crossbow before I remembered that I didn’t have it. A little girl's head poked into the room, and I relaxed. “Izz what’s wrong?” She pouted and bowed her head with an ashamed look on her face. “I can’t sleep.” I couldn’t help myself. I laughed. “You’re ten, Izz. Shouldn’t you be able to fall asleep on your own by now?” She ignored me and walked up to me to crawl into my bed. I let her. The clock on the wall ticked solemnly and peacefully. That and Izzy's breathing were the only things I could hear. I closed my eyes and started to doze off. I felt like I wanted this moment to last forever. The next day at breakfast, I ate in silence. I guess that was unusual for me in this world, because both my parents looked at each other nervously. Izzy continued stuffing her face with bacon and eggs. “Damion,” Mom finally asked. “Is something wrong honey?” I hadn’t even realized I was glaring at my sausages. “Nothing mum.” I swallowed them in one bite. The man sighed. “Look, Damion, if this is about your exams, it’s fine. We understand you need more time. You still have a whole year..” His voice tuned out, as I sat still at the table. Understand me? Understand? I looked up at him, and he stopped talking. “Who are you?” I mumble. He stared at me. “Son?” I reached for my back, and this time I reached all the way. My fingers grasped on the familiar handle. “My dad may have been a jerk, and I hated his guts,” I could just set this down. I thought. Pretend this never happened. Who cares what happens to my body in real life? I pointed the invisible weapon straight at his head. “But at least I knew he was real.” The arrow pierced skin. Somebody screamed. The flowery wallpaper peeled away like dried glue. The three people sitting at the table clawed at their faces, slowly turning black and cracked until they melted into deceased horrors. I felt like my body was being pulled between two different points, stretching, stretching- And just like that, my world shattered. When I came to, I wasn’t in the kitchen anymore. I was in a dark, cold capsule with dimly lit lights. Alone. ------------- I waited in the room in silence. None of the other capsules lit up. There was no voice in my head. I absentmindedly traced my finger over the hardwood of the crossbow. It was a nice weapon, but I knew that it wasn’t durable enough to depend on. With a sigh, I set it down. A small ding echoed through the room, and one of the capsules swung open. In a cloud of mist, the little girl stumbled out, holding her hand over her mouth. “The gas isn’t poisoned,” I said, but I knew that wasn’t the reason. She was still clutching onto her book, but all of the pages had been ripped off in a flurry. For a second she didn’t move, just shivering in the middle of the room. “I s-saw them..” she whispered. She looked up, and I met her eyes. “I did too.” The girl refused to let go of me, even as the last contestants finished the test, so I let her. Despite the weird looks I got from everyone else, “Is she your sister?” Sage whispered. “No.” I whispered back. Congratulations contestants. You have completed the test. Barely. Some people had passed out on the floor. Others just stood shivering, and wouldn’t make eye contact with anyone. There was a skittish boy in the corner sobbing into his knees. Today, your training as exorcists shall begin. We will take back our land from Him, and you are the front lines. You are the only who will venture beyond the confinement. Do you accept? There was no button to say yes or no, and no nod or shake of the head from anyone. We already knew. There was no choice. -Chapter Four- Sage Five months later… I stalk the Horror like a wolf to its prey. The billowing black form sprinted through the dark alleyways, occasionally checking behind itself. It’s no use. I’m too well hidden. In a flash, I pull a dagger from my satchel. The handle is sharp and curved, but the blade itself is as short as a stub. Nevertheless, it glints dangerously. I throw the weapon with an efficient slashing motion, and it finds its mark right in the Horrors skull. The creature howls, and claws at its two slashed eyes. I pull the large shape off my back, preparing to finish it off - The Horror screams as a mass of flames envelops it, and it melts away into the ground. I stomp my foot on the ground. “Michael!” The hidden silhouette emerges from behind the wall, grinning like an idiot. “Hey Sagey!” I cross my arms and glare at him. “This is the third time this week that you’ve stolen my kill.” “H e .. l p ..” He doesn’t even bother looking at the Horror on the ground. He carelessly kicks the puddle, sending black goop flying everywhere, including onto my clothes. The screams recede. “Bring it to the instructor, sunshine. In the slums nothing belongs to you.” I ball my fists as he strolls away. When he’s finally out of earshot, I kick a can beside me. “The nerve! We’re both on the same team, why does he have to act so full of himself?!” I’m so busy fuming, that I don’t realize the weapon on my back is still unhooked. I quickly throw the cloth back over the top and tie it back. With one last look at the puddle on the floor, I heft the object over my back and start towards the direction of the facility. “You look different.” I swung around and reached for my satchel before I recognized the voice that had just addressed me. “Damion?!” He said nothing, and looked down from his spot above the alleyway. “Nice to see you again, Carmori. Why don’t we have a little chat?” ------------- Note to self - Don’t bring bombs to a funeral. A strange meeting place indeed. Me and Damion stood in the middle of a crowd that had majestically parted from us. The rain poured down on me, and since we didn’t have umbrellas like the other visitors, we were getting soaked. Well, I was. For some reason he just had an umbrella in his bag. Pulled it right out by the handle and casually unfurled it. What was wrong with this guy? I hadn’t hidden my weapons or anything, which meant we were probably making everyone else really uncomfortable with our dangerous explosives and knives. I wiped my face, and tried to pin back my bangs. “Why are we talking here?” He didn’t take his eyes off of the ebony coffin in front of us. The other guests started clearing out in a hurry, and I felt bad that we had intruded on their funeral. “Well?” I read the plaque on the coffin. John Harrison, ??? - ??? (Read like: Unknown to unknown) “Never saw the point of putting the dates if nobody ever knew them,” Damion muttered, clearly ignoring me. I gave him an, ‘Are you serious?’ look. “Can you get to the point? Why did you bring me here? Whose grave is this?” He finally turned away from the coffin. “Sage, do you believe in regrets?” I blinked. “Regrets? You mean evolved forms of horrors?” He nodded. I scoffed. “I dunno, what is there to think about them?” He didn’t answer. Great. He was lost in thought again. “They’re not just evolved.” I stared at him. “What are you talking about?” “I kind of understand where He is coming from now,” He mumbled under his breath, but loud enough for me to hear. “He’s just teaching people a lesson, you know? We all take things for granted, and this is what happens.” I stomp my foot, making him jump. I was done being patient. “Damion, what do you want?” He sighed. “I need your help with something.” “Then, what do you need help with?!”. “This regret I’m hunting is targeting civilians who have strong feelings of love for each other. I’m not sure why, but it must have something to do with the contract it made before it died. I need you to help me lure it out.” It took me a second to realize what he was saying. “You need me to act like your girlfriend? He didn’t answer so I guess I was right. “You're kidding.” I throw my hands up in the air. “You hate me! You would barely look at me for the whole entire test! Why me?!” He shuffled nervously. “I'll pay you?” Was he being serious right now? “Well considering your track record, I don’t see why I should agree!” I shouted. I started to storm off, but he grabbed my wrist. “At least think about it?” I ran. The next week passed by uneventfully. An exorcist had more rights than a normal civilian, but since I was still in training I had to complete commissions before I could do anything. The problem was dog headed Michael. He kept on doing my commissions for me, and by the end of the month I didn’t have any money from my lack of returned bounties. Meanwhile the guy was practically wading in gold. I could barely even feed myself properly, and had to split my portions into eighths in order to control myself. I kept thinking about Damion and his offer. In truth, an exorcist would be entitled to accept (duty before all else) but I really didn’t want to have anything to do with him. He had been unnecessarily cruel to the horror in the test, and I had already decided that he was on my people I’d like to avoid list. Besides, if nobody knew he had offered, nobody would punish me. My decision was questioned the next day, however, when I met the strangest little girl I had ever seen in my life. ------------- The Myreman Cafe was usually the most crowded place in town, but ever since I had started visiting, the locals had steadily started clearing out. I felt bad and apologized to the owner several times over and over again, but he was a kind, mute old man and would always reply with a smile. Today however, was not the case. I had just stepped inside the little building, when I found that the whole entire building was ransacked. Tables were overturned. The cute little wallpaper covering the walls was torn to shreds like paper. The chandelier hung on barely by a wavering chain. I ran to the back room and opened the door, forcefully. The old man turned and smiled as if it was any ordinary day. “Are you alright?!” I cried, but he showed no sign of distress and went back to mixing his batter. A light chomping noise in the corner caught my attention, and I turned. There was a little girl huddled in the corner of the room, smacking on donuts and pastries. She looked up at me and gave me the dirtiest glare I had ever seen in my life. “Who are you-” I started, before she hissed at me like some type of rabid animal. The old man walked over and set another plate of donuts in front of her. She grabbed two and stuffed them in her mouth at the same time. Aggressively. I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t well versed in babysitting, and kids didn’t really like me at all. So I swallowed my nervousness, and tried to look as least intimidating as possible. “Are you lost?” She looked up and spat a piece of her donut at me. I tried not to pull out my daggers. “I said, are you lost?” She shrank back instantly, all the attitude seeped away. “I’m not lost.” She mimicked my voice. “Are you homeless?” “No! Damion is just at training today, so I’m getting my own lunch!” That surprised me. Damion? The Damion that dragged me to a funeral to try and get me to act like his fake girlfriend? That Damion?” On second thought, their relationship kind of made sense. A dog and a creep. Perfect for each other. “What’s your name?” She swallowed the last donut in one gulp. “Nautica.” “That’s a pretty name,” I tried. “Thanks.” An awkward silence passed. “I don’t like you,” She admitted. “Wha-” I paused. Now that I think about it, she looks familiar. “Wait, were you in the exorcist test with Damion?” She nodded. “Are you kidding?! You’re like, nine.” “Eleven!” She snapped. “And don’t you dare insult me Mortaboe.” Mortaboe? What the heck was a Mortaboe? I snapped out of my thoughts. “Wait, how do you even know who-” Nautica was no longer sitting in front of me. I whirled to the old man. “Did you see her leave?!” He looked up at me and smiled. To be continued...