Hope people enjoy.
Edwin
sat in class, thinking about the night before. He hadn’t gotten much sleep, and
the sleep he had gotten was filled with nightmares about whatever monster he’d
encountered the night before. The teacher, Mrs Clark, didn’t pick him to answer
any questions though, which was good because he wasn’t paying attention to what
she had been saying. He guessed that she’d probably leave him alone for a few
days to settle in. Luckily, or maybe unluckily, a distraction from thoughts
about the night before came at break time.
As
Edwin left the school building into the playground somebody bumped into him,
and he could tell it was on purpose. It was the guy who’d made fun of his name
the day before. What was the kid’s name? He hadn’t been paying attention. Edwin
ignored the first bump but the guy did it again. “Get out of my way, new kid” the
guy said. Edwin could either be bullied for the rest of the year by this guy,
or make a stand now. He pushed him back, with enough force for him to fall
over; he hadn’t been expecting that. Edwin didn’t say anything. The guy’s two
friends from the same class surrounded Edwin, their expressions suddenly
serious.
“You’re
gonna regret that” the bully said as he got back to his feet.
“I
doubt it” Edwin retorted.
The
bully smiled and then punched Edwin; faster than Edwin had been expecting. The
punch hit him with enough force to send him to the ground. He was pretty sure
he’d scraped his elbow as well. The two other guys laughed.
“Good
one, Tom” one of them said.
Tom, huh?
“Yeah, good one Tom!” Edwin
shouted as he got back to his feet and launched himself at the guy. He’d learnt
his lesson from being the target of bullying at other schools; Just hit the guy enough to make him regret
starting a fight with me. Don’t want to overdo it though, wouldn’t want to get
expelled again.
Thing
didn’t go Edwin’s way though. Tom somehow managed to block and move out of the
way of all of Edwin’s punches. Unlike the other bullies Edwin had encountered,
this guy was actually experienced at fighting. A punch to the stomach sent
Edwin reeling back, winded. Tom laughed at him.
What did the guy next to me say yesterday? “You
shouldn’t have threatened him”
“I’m a
member of the boxing club, Edwin, you
can’t beat me, so just let me rough you up a bit as punishment and I’ll let you
go”. He was already on Edwin, knees on his chest to stop him moving.
Boxing? I remember now. He shouldn’t have reminded
me. There are ways to fight that aren’t allowed in a boxing match, so if
this guy’s skill was all based on his boxing practice, Edwin would be able to
take advantage. As Tom went to punch Edwin again, Edwin went straight for the
guy’s throat. He grabbed it and pulled Tom in close enough to hit heads. That
was unexpected enough for Tom to pull back and away from Edwin. As he did so,
Edwin got to his knees and went for Tom’s legs, taking him to the ground. He
managed to get in only one punch until Tom’s friends started kicking him,
forcing him to roll off Tom and get to his feet.
“Wait!”
Tom shouted at his friends, who immediately stopped. “Don’t get involved in my
fight!” he said to them, his face angry with indignation. The two backed off
and Tom ran at Edwin. Edwin was ready this time. He kicked Tom in the stomach,
doubling him over, then kicked him in the side of the head, sending him to the
floor.
By that
time they were surrounded by classmates who had noticed them fighting and come
to watch. Unexpectedly they got in the way and pulled the two away from each
other.
“What
is wrong with you, are you both children or something?” somebody retorted from
the crowd.
“It’s
only his second day. I bet he’ll get in trouble for this” someone else said.
“After
school!” Edwin heard Tom shout over the crowd. “After school I’ll get you!” as
he was pulled away.
Edwin
was surrounded by classmates then, telling him off for getting into a fight.
Someone telling him to go to the nurse’s office. He knew they’d already made up
their minds about him. Just like all the other schools. He ignored them and
pushed his way out of the crowd, just wanting to be away from them all. He’d
been put in a bad mood.
When he
was sure he was alone and no one was following him he made his way round the
back of the school and found a ladder which lead to the roof. He climbed up,
planning to eat his lunch and have a drink alone up there, where nobody could
bother him. He found that he wasn’t alone. Sitting down, leaning against a
wall, was the red-haired girl from his class. She was reading a book, although
as he got onto the roof she eyed him warily. He awkwardly walked over to her,
remembering her name that the teacher had spoken while taking the register in
the morning. Melisandre.
“Hey…
you’re.. Mel, right?” he asked, hoping it’d sound a bit less awkward calling
her by the shortened form. She placed the book down and eyed him up. He looked
at his elbow. He had indeed scraped it. It was red and there was a tiny bit of
blood but it wasn’t too bad. Should he explain? Would that be weird? He just
put his hands in his pockets and looked back over to her. This was the girl
that his blonde classmate had said believed in demons. What was his name again? Melisandre was the only
name he’d paid attention to.
“Yes,
that’s me” she answered. “Do you have business with me?” How formal.
How the hell should I start this? “I saw a
demon last night” ? I don’t think I should be saying that to people….
“I heard that you… uh… know
something about… demons?” the words awkwardly came out. She frowned. Uh oh. She put her book in her bag and
got to her feet.
“Where
did you hear that from?” she asked.
She didn’t sound angry, more… suspicious.
“Our
classmate told me…” Edwin said quietly. “The blonde one sat next to me”
Her
eyes widened at the word ‘blonde’, then her frown deepened. She was definitely angry
now.
“Well
it’s not true. Just some stupid rumour he
came up with. Don’t believe anything he
says. He’s a troublemaker. Although… maybe you are too” she said, and she
turned to leave.
“Hey
I’m not a troublemaker! Trouble just always finds me. Damn that Tom kid….” But
she didn’t turn back. She walked over to the ladder and climbed down, and she
was gone.
Edwin
sighed. “Great……..”
*
“Why
did you tell me she believes in demons!?” Edwin asked his blonde neighbour when
he was back in class.
“Why?
What do you mean?” asked the blonde guy back, seeming confused although with a
slightly amused smile on his face. “You…. Did you ask her about it? Jeez I
didn’t take you for the type to believe in silly stories about demons Edwin” he
said, laughing.
Gah, how annoying.
“I
don’t. But yeah I did ask her, and she said that I shouldn’t believe anything
you say. Maybe she’s right” Edwin answered. The blonde boy just laughed again.
“Maybe,
maybe. Believe whoever you want, Edwin! You have that freedom. All I said, though,
was that people say she believes in
demons. It’s just something I heard. Besides, maybe she’s lying. If you
believed in demons, would you go around telling everyone?”
Does he know? Edwin sighed. Well, it’s true enough. I can’t go around
telling people I saw a monster last night. I’d get put into a mental asylum…
Maybe she’s the same as me. Still…. This guy…. He glanced over at him. Why did I end up having to make friends with
him. He really does seem like a troublemaker. Wait… Friend? Is that right? The
guy had purposefully put the story about demons into Edwin’s head. He doubted
the monster had anything to do with it, but this guy definitely seemed like he
enjoyed messing around with people. But… he was also the only one who had
talked to Edwin, and on his first day as well, as if he was a normal person.
“What’s
your name again?” Edwin asked.
“Jeez,
you don’t even know my name. Such a disappointment Edwin…. My name’s Casimir,
nice to meet you!”
“Casimir?
Seriously?”
He
looked thoughtful for a moment, as if weighing up his options.
“Guess
I can’t fool you. My real name is Arthur.” He didn’t seem like he was lying,
but Edwin made a note to try to remember to pay attention the next day when
their teacher would call out all their names.
*
When
school had come to an end, Edwin was on his way to leave through the main gate
when someone grabbed his arm. He tried to turn around but someone grabbed his
other arm too and suddenly he got pulled away, tripping over his own feet as he
was pulled backwards. He turned his head enough to see that it was Tom’s two
friends, as well as a few other people he didn’t recognise, with Tom at their
lead.
“Make
sure he doesn’t run off” Tom said.
“What
the hell are you doing?” Edwin shouted at him. He knew when he was outmatched.
He didn’t think he could take on this many people, especially if they were all
members of the boxing club. Even so, false confidence might save him. “Let go
of me now unless you want me to kick your ass again!”
Tom
just laughed.
“I’m
going to teach you what happens to people who cross me, any way that I have to.”
Edwin
tried shouting out for help, but when other students saw the group they left
them alone. Cowards….
They
took him to a building he hadn’t been to before. He hadn’t realised how huge this school was before. As they
took him down corridors and past classrooms Edwin kept looking in each one for
potential help, but everyone had already seemingly left. Finally he was dragged
into what looked like a sports hall.
“This
is the guy I told you about. He needs to learn some respect!” came Tom’s voice.
Everything that he says is annoying. He
will pay for this.
“Alright,
give him some gloves and throw him into the ring” came a voice. A girl’s voice.
They
let go of Edwin then, and he could turn around fully. In front of him was a
boxing ring. An impressive boxing ring; seemed like the right size and looked professionally
made. Inside the ring was a girl wearing blue shorts and a blue sports top.
Even her boxing gloves were blue, as she practiced some shadow boxing.
“Here
you go” came the annoying voice of Tom. He pushed Edwin from behind, and as
Edwin turned around he was presented with a pair of gloves.
“What
the hell? You expect me to do what you want?”
Tom
smiled evilly and looked to his friends. They grabbed Edwin and forcefully
pushed him into the ring. Then they spread out to make sure he couldn’t easily
escape. Edwin got to his feet angrily, still holding the gloves.
“You’re
going to want to put those gloves on” the girl advised. Edwin noted that she
was slightly shorter than him. She seemed familiar…. Isn’t she…. The girl from last night? He couldn’t be sure. It had
been dark and he’d only seen her for a short while before he’d ran away.
Although she had been wearing blue clothes too….
“Why
should I have to fight you?” Edwin asked.
“Because
you picked on one of my club members.” She answered. She mock punched the air
in front of Edwin. She seemed unwilling to hit him until he’d put the gloves
on, but it seemed like she was getting impatient.
“But he’s
the one who started it. I was only standing up for myself” Edwin replied,
although by the look on the girl’s face he could tell she wasn’t going to stop.
He looked down at the gloves. Fine.
He put them on.
“I don’t
care either way” she said. As soon as his gloves were on she lunged towards
him, fist first. He managed to block it, just barely. “Good reactions” she
complimented. Then she was punching him.
Edwin
managed to block a few of them but then the force and speed behind them got
faster. He didn’t have a chance to even think about hitting back. He backed
off, but she stayed on him. Damnit.
She was literally running circles around him, punching him from every angle.
When he’d blocked a few simple punches from the front she swung in from the
side and got him in the side of the head. He tried to escape her range but she
was too fast. She’s a boxer though,
right? And I never agreed to a boxing match…. He sacrificed his defence,
taking some painful hits to the face, but managed to swing his leg up in a
powerful kick. There’s no way she’d be expecting that.
Then
Edwin was on the floor. She had been
expecting that. Or maybe she was just that fast. She’d caught his leg and swung
it up, sending him to the floor.
“Come
on, get up” she said, sounding impatient. “Maybe you don’t wanna fight by
boxing rules, but I will”
The
guys surrounding the boxing ring were cheering now. Edwin could hear Tom
laughing. It made him angry.
He
pushed himself up and tried kicking for her legs. She jumped out of the way.
Then Edwin was on his feet and he brought the fight to her, punching left and
right. She dodged each one, hitting him a few times in the face as compensation
for his effort. He tried to get her into the pattern of defending against his
punches, then he sent another kick at her. She seemed surprised for a moment
and back away. He moved in towards her though and kicked again. This one actually
connected! He’d managed to kick her in the stomach. The cheering stopped for a
moment. She hesitated and he closed the ground for another, stronger kick. He
realised his mistake too late. She crouched, blocking his kick with her
iron-like guard, then uppercut him right in the jaw, sending him to the ground
again. This time, though, he couldn’t get back up. His teeth chattered and the
force rang through his head. His senses took a while to come back but when they
did he realised the crowd were cheering again.
“I
kinda feel sorry for him now…” came Tom’s voice from the crowd.
Edwin
tried to get back to his feet but only managed to get up to a sitting position.
The girl knelt next to him.
“Just
stay there for a while. I hit ya pretty hard in the jaw. I’m gonna kick these
rapscallions out then I wanna talk to you alone” she said.
He
realised he was out of breath as well. I
must really be out of shape. He took his gloves off and held his ringing
head.
*
It hadn’t
taken long for the boxing club president to send everybody home. Then it was
just him and her. He’d gotten out of the ring now, rubbing his sore jaw. She looked
him up and down.
“I wasn’t
sure at first, but it is you from
yesterday isn’t it!” she accused more than asked. He was suddenly very aware of
the fact that he’d ran away the night before. He felt embarrassed until the
memory of that monster came back.
“What
the hell was that thing?” he asked quietly.
“I’m
surprised. Ya didn’t run away from me, today. But ya did run away yesterday…
Dunno if you’re a coward or not… But then maybe that’s a normal reaction to
demons, huh?” she seemed more like she was
talking to herself than him. “By the way, the name’s Beatrix, although you can
call me Be for short, or captain if ya like! You should totally join my boxing
club!”
“… Demon?”
he repeated her word. She had definitely said demon.
“Hm,
that’s right. Well maybe. They seem like demons don’t they? They come from some
place that we think is probably hell. I’m not really one to talk to about that though. All ya need to know is that
demons are real, or monsters, whatever you wanna call them. What I do is fight
them, to try and stop them from killing people”
Seriously? Edwin really couldn’t get his
head round what she was saying. Hell?
Were these really demons from hell?
“I guess
this is a lot to take in.” she sighed. “Come with me. I gave ya quite the
beating, the least I can do is buy you something to eat on the way home”
He was
still shocked. He let her lead him by the arm. They walked in silence as questions
whirled through his head about these ‘demons’. He thought about mythical
creatures and angels and religions that talked about demons. When he came back
to his surroundings they were in a pub. She asked him what he wanted. He couldn’t
think about food at that moment. He just asked for a glass of cola. She went
off and returned from the bar with just the one for him.
“Alright”
he’d decided upon his first question. “So who are ‘we’? Who helps you fight
against these monsters?”
“Hm, I’m
really not sure how much I can tell ya without permission from my colleagues….
I guess I should really take you to one of them.”
Their
glasses arrived. Edwin realised how thirsty he was and started drinking.
“Alright
so what can you tell me now then?” he asked.
She looked
thoughtful for a moment.
“Well….
Demons are real…. We have an organisation, sanctioned by the government and
all, and we fight them and keep people safe… or we try to anyway.” She grimaced
for a moment as if recalling a bad memory. “A human can’t fight a demon, not
normally. But we made some special instruments and ways to fight them. Did ya
see my wolf?”
“Wolf?”
Was she trying to confuse him more? What wolf?
“Ah
maybe you were too busy running away to see… But I was fighting that demon last
night with my wolf. He’s cool. We’ve got a special bond, me and him, and he
helps me fight them.” She was sounding crazier by the moment. But she didn’t
look crazy. Her tone wasn’t crazy. Just the idea that she could talk so
casually about the things she was talking about made her seem crazy. But this
was a crazy situation. When Edwin thought back to the night before he realised
he had seen a brief glimpse of something else. So that was a wolf, was it? The next important question then.
“What’s
going to happen to me now?” he asked.
“Well.
That’ll depend on my colleagues. Ya got good reflexes, maybe you could help us
fight them. But then, if ya don’t want to, maybe as long as you agree not to go
spreading stories, we can let you off. Maybe Seymour can make some kinda device
so they won’t see you or something…”
“Seymour?”
“Ah…
crap… That’s the name of one of my colleagues. Probably shouldn’t have
mentioned him. He’s pretty smart though, always coming up with new weapons and stuff.
But anyway that’ll all have to wait til tomorrow. Guess I can’t really tell you
anything else…” She seemed kind of disappointed with herself.
Tomorrow huh? Will everything come into
place tomorrow? I really doubt I’ll be able to get much sleep tonight.
“I
guess I better go.” Beatrix said, getting to her feet and seeming uncomfortable
all of a sudden. “Got a lot to do and all”
“Wait,
wait!” Edwin said, getting to his feet as well. “What’s going to happen to me tonight? Aren’t they going to come after
me?”
She
laughed.
“Don’t
worry about that. I really doubt they’d come after you for no good reason. We’ll
have someone keep guard over your house though, just in case” she said. Was she
just saying that to make him feel better? Either way it didn’t feel like he
could do much about it.
“Tomorrow,
huh?” he said out loud, not even aware the words had left his mouth.
“Tomorrow.”
She confirmed. She had a confident, reassuring look as she put her hand on his
shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, it’ll be alright. We’ll take care of ya! And
you’ll have your answers tomorrow. I’ll come find you during school.” Guess I’ll just have to wait. “Well, see
ya then!” And with that she was gone. He sighed. This was all very sudden. When
he went outside he realised that he had no idea where he was. It was going to
take him a while to find his way home in this neighbourhood he wasn’t used to
yet. It wasn’t dark yet though, and he had the sudden urge to get home before
it turned dark.
No comments:
Post a Comment