Chapter 4 - Marked

The bell rang. Mrs. Bailey was reading down the roll call list.

“Butler, Clay,” she said.

“Here, unfortunately,” Clay mumbled. “Why the hell are we still doing roll call in senior year?” he whispered to a nearby classmate.

“Buxton, Analee,” Mrs. Bailey, who either had not heard the comment or else chose to ignore it, continued.

Analee, who had already fallen half-asleep on her desk, merely raised one arm in the air lazily.

“Castello, Peter.”

“Here,” Peter answered brightly.

Clay pretended to cough into his hand. “Kiss-@ss.”

Terance couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. He felt a sharp jab in the rib and looked over just in time to see Nikita pulling her elbow back and glaring at him.

“What?” Terance asked in a whisper, “it was funny.”

“Collins, Noah.”

There was a moment of silence. Devon, along with Nikita and Terance, didn’t seem to find it odd. The rest of the class, however, acted as though something was terribly wrong. Everyone was looking around, trying to figure out why Noah had not responded. Apparently Noah had never been late to class.

Mrs. Bailey, attempting to bring order back to the classroom, continued, “Foster, James.”

Terance, who had decided to disregard the rest of the roll call, turned to Devon. “You think he’s alright?” Terance asked.

“He’s fine,” Devon answered without making the slightest facial expression.

“So what mark do you think he’ll have?” Nikita asked excitedly.

“Impossible to know,” Devon shrugged, “We’ll have to wait and see.”

“Well that’s why I asked what you thought.”

“Give it up, sis, he’s too literal,’ Terance said.

“I am not t-” Devon paused, seeing the door fly open. Noah entered, walking directly to his seat.

Once they were about half an hour into class, Noah finally spoke. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he whispered angrily.

“Tell you what?” Devon asked calmly.

Noah pulled the zipper of his jacket down just enough to show a faint light shining through the shirt beneath. He glared at Devon, who looked briefly and then turned back to the front of the class. “Calm down,” he said simply.

“What do you mean, ‘calm down’?” Noah hissed back.

Devon turned back and stared Noah in the eye. “Calm. Down,” he said calmly, “and it’ll stop glowing.”

Noah hesitated, unsure whether Devon was serious or not. Then, Noah relaxed in his chair and took a deep breath. As he slowly exhaled, he could feel the burning in his chest die down. He glanced down his jacket and saw that the light had faded away. Noah let out a sigh of relief.

“I told you,” Devon said without so much as looking at him.

After school, the gang walked to the chapel together.

“Don’t your parents wonder where you are all day?” Nikita asked Noah.

“Nah, I just tell them I’m hanging out with friends. Which is sorta true.”

“Am I the only one that’s bothered by the fact that we’ve been here three days and haven’t even begun training?” Devon asked somewhat harshly.

“You know, that’s a good idea; I’ve been wanting a chance to kick your butt,” Terance said with a grin.

“Teeth,” Nikita, Noah and Devon said in unison, without ever needing to look. Terance closed his mouth quickly and pulled back his fangs yet again.

“Shut up.”

As the four walked into the chapel, Terance shut the door behind them and bolted it shut. At once, the three demons began to revert to their natural forms. Noah watched in disbelief as they change appearance completely.

“That’s still cool,” he said in awe.

Kaesi smiled, Alagor shrugged, and Astar ignored the comment altogether. He was too busy walking over to a corner of the chapel; upon reaching it, he moved a statue, revealing a door built into the stone floor. It occurred to Noah that the statue had to have weighed at least one hundred pounds, and yet Astar had moved it as if it were no heavier than a pillow.

“What’s that?” Noah asked.

“Trap door,” Astar answered, as if no more explanation was needed.

“It leads to the room under the building,” Alagor explained further. He had a wide grin on his face; it was obvious he was excited. “Of course, we had to make it a good bit bigger to be able to use it as a training room. And the best part is, even if someone finds the door, they can’t open it ‘cause the handle’s been worn away on the outside. Only way to open the door is from below.”

“Then how exactly…” Noah began, but Kaesi interrupted him.

“Like this,” she said, winking. And with that, her body turned into black smoke and dissolved into the ground. A few moments later, the door opened, and Kaesi climbed out of the hole.

Astar, without a word, jumped down into the hole. Kaesi, Alagor, and Noah followed suit. Once below the chapel, Noah was able to see the hidden room. The wall’s looked irregularly built, as if someone had melted them away. He had a hunch that Astar had been in charge of enlarging the room.

“Welcome to our training room,” Astar said to Noah, turning around to face him. Suddenly, Astar’s hands began to glow a bright red. “Now fight.”

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment