Sci Fi & Fantasy / Majitsu/Mechanica (5 1/3)

20 years ago

For the first time in millennia, this place is completely silent.

In a place that should be consumed in the hum of traffic, chatter of people, and the roar of jets overhead, for miles, not even a single bird call can be heard. It’s a silence so deep that, at first, he’d thought he’d gone deaf.

The sky is grey, but he can tell that it’s day. The sun barely penetrates the thick, rolling clouds in golden beams across the flooded landscape. These aren’t rain clouds--it’s a blanket of ash and dust that blocks out the sky which, even though he’s standing in a what was once a building, he can see clearly due to the lack of a roof.

This is the third, and now top floor, of an apartment complex that used to tower hundreds of feet into the air. Below him, visible through collapsed sections of the floor, a reflection of the sky, can be seen in the glassy surface of the water.

The rest of the landscape is an imitation of his immediate surroundings. A few skyscrapers still stand, blasted down to their charred skeletons, it seems that if the air was not so still, those twig-like structures would collapse in the lightest breeze. Other than those behemoths, not a single structure shorter than 40ft tall is visible, in all directions, everything is destroyed and flooded.

It looks like the aftermath of a hurricane hundreds of times more powerful than any than any other.

At this moment, he imagines that this is how the mammals must have felt at the end of the Cretaceous period, immediately after the K-T event that extinguished the mighty dinosaurs. It’s certainly no exaggeration to make that analogy--as far as he can see, mankind is extinct.

There is no movement anywhere, not even in the water. For miles, surface of the water appears as still and undisturbed as the surface of a mirror.

His breathing quickens, and he starts to panic. Not because he’s all alone, but because he’s missing something. There’s definitely something important that he’s lost, right? A mom and a dad, a sibling or two? He grips his head as he tries to think past those concepts and get specifics, but he can’t. He just knows that those people should be here, but he has no idea who they were. Like someone who reads the definition and description of an animal from a far off country, he knows what they are, but he doesn’t really know. The problem is that he also knows that he’s supposed to know these specifics, and it’s driving him nuts.

That line of thought shuts down. Before he self-destructs, he simply abandons that question.

Below him, he hears a light sloshing of water, and sees the accompanying ripples propagate out into the flooded street.

“Someone there?” The boy calls out nervously, thinking up until now, that he’d been alone.

There’s a scuffling sound, and it draws his eyes to the staircase that extends down below, to the flooded second floor. As he watches, a head emerges, along with straining shoulders as this person apparently tries to drag something very heavy up the stairs.

“Could you help me out?” She doesn’t look at him, afraid that any lapse in concentration will make her lose her grip on this thing. She nearly slips and begs him, “Please. Hurry it’s gonna fall.”

Putting away any questions for now, he trots over, and in the next second, he’s mashed up against her as they pull a not-so-heavy duffle bag up the slippery stairs. Even this kid think’s it’s light. He knows that girls are weaker and all, but seriously, he can’t see how this lady is unable to lift this.

“Phew. Thanks.” She drops down on her butt as if she’s too tired to keep standing.

It’s obvious that she’d been in the water, at least, due to the wetsuit that she’s wearing, and the fact that her hair and exposed shoulders are wet. Along her left arm, dark lines seem to trace her veins all the way up to her shoulder and continue beyond the boundary of exposed skin and wetsuit. They look like scorch marks--not the kind of burns that flesh would normally incur.

“Hey. Who are you?” The boy drops down to a sitting position right next to her. She’s definitely older than him, he estimates that she’s an older teenager at least.

“My name’s Wendy.” Her brown eyes swivel up to meet his, locking him in an expectant gaze.

Embarrassed, he murmurs, “I don’t remember mine.”

“It‘s fine. Don’t try to remember things that you can’t.”

Their conversation seems to die there, and the two just sit. She’s flat out staring at him, and he’s looking anywhere but where she is. Other than them, the only other sound is that of an airplane buzzing overhead.

“Did you see any other people?” He’d originally thought that he was alone, and she proved him wrong, so maybe there were others. Despite the bleak landscape, he found himself becoming hopeful.

She stands up as she answers. “For now, It’s just us.”

“Oh.” He doesn’t even know how to react to that. Everyone other than themselves is gone. It’s a bit of a melancholic feeling with a tinge of relief. If he’s completely honest with himself, he has no problem with it. He can’t remember anyone else anyway.

“Listen, kid.” A single, golden sunbeam seems to fall on her as she puts her hands on her hips. She stares down at him, making sure she has his attention. “From now on, I‘ll take care of you.”

“You serious?” His tone is skeptical. She barely looks old enough to be an adult..

“If you want, I mean. It’s up to you, but--” She points to the duffle-bag. “I think it’s a pretty good deal for you.”

He reaches over and pulls the bag closer by the strap. As soon as he begins to unzip it and see what‘s inside, he zips it back up. It’s a bag full of wet cash.

She proclaims her bounty triumphantly. “That’s enough to start a pretty good life. We won‘t get to keep it if the coast guard rescues us though. “

The boy hesitates. This is too sudden of a decision to make. Some kind of disaster has just happened, he can’t remember who he is or who his family was, and this person has come out of nowhere offering to take care of him.

She extends her hand to him. “What’s the matter? I’ve already stolen a boat and everything.”

Somehow, he has a feeling that this is a life altering decision. But, he’s also got nothing to lose. He takes her hand in silent acceptance. Her knowing grin makes him feel as if he‘s sold his soul to the devil.

“You’ll need a name then.”

The clouds close, and the sky darkens as she considers it. At that moment, for the first time, the air moves as a gust of wind blows over them.

“--Jordan. Like the sacred river, your body will be the site of many miracles, and, for me, your blood--

She crouches down to one knee, and grips both of his shoulders. “--is a life-giving stream.”

She leans forward, and bites him. At first it’s merely as painful as a normal human bite, but, in an instant, it feels as if two thick syringes are being drilled deep into the side of his neck.

******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

13 years ago

The scene is already a familiar one, in a sense. These two students are lucky enough to have a teacher who’s fallen ill--Not severely enough to be life threatening, but enough to keep him home since the first week of the school year.

“What’s the matter? You seem like you’re waiting for someone.”

Startled, Nina quickly recovers from her lapse in concentration and returns to reading.

“…No. I’m just a little worried…”

There is always that one girl, though it differs for what group a person belongs to. For the jocks and meatheads, it’s obviously the most attractive girl. Normal guys, to their own detriment, also lust after this one unreachable female.

But for those on the bottom--the socially inept, awkward nerds--there is a quiet acceptance of defeat in that contest. No, not acceptance, it’s more of an ingrained behavior--an impenetrable mental wall of cynicism that will keep a beta-male from even reaching out for the prize of the alphas.

Within the walls of their minds is a wasteland lacking of any confidence, and a twisted reality. Apathy sets in, and further isolates them from rest of high school society. In extreme cases, somehow a complete loser can come to the insane conclusion that social interaction, specifically the dating scene, is beneath them.

That’s when the second type of girl becomes a savior.

Attractiveness is not required, the only stipulation is that this girl have a friendly personality. Though a deadly friend-zone trap, this is the only type of female that will genuinely care about those beta males. Despite the assumptions of these betas, it has nothing to do with romance, but is simply due to having a extremely friendly personality that cannot help but engage others.

Nina is that girl. The friendly, intelligent, moderately attractive female that, in the end, will have to give the ‘lets just be friends’ line more than even the most attractive girl.

Though, admittedly, she is months ahead, Nina does not know the meaning of the word ‘relax’. Due to her irritating persistence in studying during nearly every free moment, Noah is in the peculiar but fortunate situation of having perfectly correct homework to copy far ahead of time.

That said, whatever it is that can interest this girl more than doing schoolwork must be pretty darn interesting. Jordan presses the matter.

“About?” He scoots his desk back, leaning over the back end and putting his elbow on her desk.

“Huh?” Confused, and as dazed as if she’d just been pulled out of a dream, she tries to catch up to the conversation. How she lost track of herself in the span of two sentences in the first place is beyond him.

Her eyes shift up to meet his gaze--which he quickly, with practiced precision, moves from her bust-line to her eye-line without her noticing (he assumes). Though today he can probably get away with it, since she’s so out of it.

“What’s bothering you?“ He speaks a little more slowly this time, making fun of her. This behavior does not mesh with her normally witty personality.

“Nothing.” She turns the page the wrong way, going back to the previous page without noticing. “Just stuff with my sister.”

“Which one, Marie or Kino?”

“Who do you think?” Her blank stare becomes annoyed and a small portion of her sarcasm returns.

To be completely honest, it’s a dumb question on his part. Marie is the embarrassment to her family, having dropped out of college and quit her job to run off with her boyfriend a few years back. As far as he knew, she’s been pretty much conveniently forgotten since they haven’t heard from her in a year or so, so it’s obviously not her.

Just like big sister Marie was, Kino is that girl who smokes in the bathroom while skipping class, leaves the house in a sweater and arrives at a party dressed like she’s 5 years older, steals from convenience stores, and is pretty much on the fast track to being a knocked up, drug addicted whore like her mother.

Jordan lightly hits his own head. “Duh, right? Kino. What did she do now?” Before she entered the rebellious stage, that girl used to have a crush on him, unrequited though, so of course he has interest in her well being.

Nina‘s hesitating. “I don’t think I should talk about it.”

“That just makes me more curious.” Jordan perks up.

“No, I can‘t…” Though she denies him, her face clearly shows that he’s thinking of the best way to tell him.

This is normal for them, there are no secrets at all between the two. Her energy and genuine kindness seem to point her, like a compass, to the most reserved person in a room. That’s how they’d met back in middle school. Since then, they’ve become inseparable

She has full knowledge of his ‘hobby’ as she calls it. A cynic by nature, even when she was presented irrefutable evidence of things beyond reason, she dismissed them as isolated phenomena with virtually no bearing on day to day life, or simply ignored them. To be clear, she is not a skeptic in the truest sense of the word, merely skeptical of most things outside of Christian dogma.

Don’t get it wrong, he’s got no problem with religion. He certainly can’t readily knock it’s influence on her life, since she’s the only one out of her family to actually be somewhat well adjusted. Of course, there’s also the glaring hypocrisy of a magician calling religion silly. As a person who lives outside of reason himself, he can accept the unbelievable aspects of religion with ease because he understands the nature of these things--they follow a different logic than reality.

Contract logic. Rule logic. Whether they make sense or not doesn’t matter since they follow the logic set within themselves. Majitsu is the same way. As long as it’s orderly, and predictable, it’s just as valid of a reality as the natural world.

She’d probably already have him in the pews on Sunday if it weren’t for the fact that he’s just a tiny bit afraid of being smitten by divine lightning.

“Whatever.” With a swift movement, his cell phone is out, and he’s texting away in full view of the substitute teacher.

Ms. Yin is the type of teacher that students love--the one that can afford to be lax and ‘cool’ because they’re only a substitute. The fact that she’s not merely attractive, but completely gorgeous, is enough to keep the boys in line. At the moment, she’s sitting on the top of an empty desk, surrounded by most of the male population in the room, talking animatedly about something or another. And, as if the room were polarized like a battery, nearly all the females have moved to the other side, away from her.

“I’m surprised you even have it.” Nina comments, with a slight edge to her tone. It’s a frequent point of contention between them. Jordan has approximately one hundred voicemails, not one of which he intends to listen to. “Who’re you texting?”

Women love to ask questions that they already know the answer to, just so they have something to get mad about. Jordan sees the landmine, and defiantly stomps on it. “Wendy.”

“Ugh.”

Nina leans as far back as she can in her seat, away from him. Needless to say, while Jordan and Nina are best friends, Nina and Wendy get along as well as oil and water. While she means well, Nina is a bit of a nosy person, and when she found out that he’s been living with a vampire for the last six or seven years she reacted with all out righteous fury.

Vrmm vrmm. The vibration brings his attention back to his messages. “Alright, Nina.” His empty backpack swings up and over his shoulder as he stands, smirking down at her. “I‘ve gotta go.”

With the speed of a viper, her hand whips out and snatches his phone. It only takes a glance at the contents for her face to become red with anger.

“You can’t.” Then, with a tone full of warning, she adds. “I’ll tell.”

“What are you, ten years old?” He smirks, then, ignoring her reply, he turns to Ms. Yin, and calls her attention. “Ms.Yin, I’m not feeling well, I’m going to the nurses’ office.”

The woman eyes him with suspicion, but lets the obvious lie go. “Go ahead. Feel better.”

Then, like a balloon popping, or a heavy object being dropped, the sound of Nina’s hands slamming down onto the desk turns every head towards her.

“He’s lying!”

He‘s in shock--She actually did it! “What the fu--”

“Ms. Yin,” She grabs his sleeve to prevent his escape. “He’s going to leave!”

“I’m sick, dammit! Let me go!”

“Ms. Yin!”

“Both of you,” The sharp sound of heels hitting the floor, and the sudden change to a firm tone shock them both into silence. “--stop making a spectacle. Nina, go with him if you have some problem with it. I don’t care, just take it outside.”

***

All along this long hallway, along the west wall, windows extend up from waist height to the ceiling. Through these, the light blue hue of light reflected off of the wall of the neighboring school building streams into this corridor. The light is cast against the wall in a distorted rectangle that seems to make the hallway appear longer than it is.

Now that they’re both standing silent in this outside of the classroom, Jordan can’t help but stare at Nina in disgusted amazement. He realizes now that he had underestimated her. Actually, the better term is ‘overestimated.’ He’d assumed that this person was above child-like tantrums, and had the social awareness to fit in with a normal setting. Apparently, even the threat of embarrassment and ridicule had not been enough to pressure her into silence.

If one is campaigning for things like feeding the hungry, or stopping crime, then Jordan would hail them as crusader for good, and proclaim that outspokenness as an admirable trait. Really, Nina will make a great activist for something or another one day. But for this situation, Jordan curses that same strong willed personality with all of his being.

In a times like these, there is nothing to be said. Or rather, it’s too troublesome for him to have this argument with her again, so he’s simply going to avoid it.

“Later.”

Two syllables is all that he spares for her, before turning sharply and walking towards the stairs at the end of the hall. There are no footsteps accompanying his, and he can imagine that she’s still rooted to the spot.

“Let’s do it today.”

That’s all that the message had contained. Just those four words had sparked such an outrage in Nina.

“Is she feeding off of someone else?”

As he reaches the stairs, her icy, accusing voice hits him like a surge of cold water.

“Your neck heals completely to the point of being a mere bruise each time. Even I know that those bites are too infrequent. “

He merely turns his head, fixing her in a hard stare before replying. “There’s no need for anyone else.” His tone is pointed--this meddling girl is pushing the wrong buttons. “I am sufficient.”

“So tell me, how are you sustaining your covenant with such little blood?” Nina’s eyes are firmly focused on the ground--she knows she’s getting into things that she shouldn’t. This is like asking someone about their sex life. In fact, that’s just the way that these two treated it, as if they claimed each other’s hearts by being exclusive to each other.

Nina already knows. She already knows how they’re managing. Only a fool would be realizing it just now. But, this is the first time she’s going to confront him on it.

A person can survive off of an infrequent meal and a healthy fruit juice for the rest of the time, since the only requirement is nutrients, and not the form. It must be the same way for Jordan and his…parasite.

“You’re not stupid. You should already know…though it’s none of your business.” With that, he resumes walking. He’s already descended two full flights of stairs before he hears the hurried stomping of Nina sprinting after him.

“Jordan!” She halts on the landing above him, in front of the window as the metal framework cast it’s cross shaped shadow across the floor “Listen to me, you need to get away from that woman. It’s just not right! That’s not a good relationship!” Nina can’t help but raise her voice a little--she can’t stand to see how badly he’s being deceived.

That vampire is a lover and a mother to him. Those roles are incompatible because they’re opposites. A mother is an idol, a bastion of safety and unconditional love that is somewhat of a packaged deal that comes with being born.. A lover is a conditional relationship that has to be worked at because, by the time someone is old enough to be in love, they already have accepted differences with others and are willing to accept flaws in their lover.

Nina can see that, since he was merely a child, he’s has been trapped in a romantic relationship involving child-like idolatry with a woman who’s also in a position of power over him, due to being his provider and guardian.

Even disregarding her knowledge of their situation, her female instincts are enough to discern that Wendy is the absolute worst type of woman--The kind that can irreparably ruin a normal man, and will certainly destroy a boy without a true mother figure around to act as a shield against these bitches.

“Yeah, yeah.” Waving his hand dismissively, he continues to descend the stairs, only replying, “It’s my life, so I can have as many bad relationships as I want.”

***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Later that evening

Though the sand colored Venetian blinds are tightly closed, the sun still streams across the floor and walls in thin lines.

In the corner, near the glass door leading to the balcony, is an artificial plant that never seems to find a good place to be. There are quite a few rings in the carpet due to the constant movement of the vase to make room for the stacks of books and tools

At the far end of the room, the sunlight hits the wall, leaving a window shaped illuminated square just above their heads. The stacks of books even extend to here, making this room look like a miniaturized skyline.

They’ve all been read, he’s sure. For the life of him, he’d never get used to her manner of talking. This person probably knows every word in the world, save for ‘concise’, and he’s learned to stray away from subjects that interest her when making conversation lest he get huge mouthfuls of information with no break or pause other than what he interjects.

With a light, sucking, ‘pop’, Wendy, who hasn’t aged a day since he met her, pulls her fangs out of his neck and sits up. She’s straddling him as he leans back against the wall in a sitting position.

7 years ago, when an entire city was simply gouged out of the ground, this girl was the only survivor of the explosion, later known as the frozen lighting incident.

Along with the rest of the world, he’s seen the beast at the center of the lighting thanks to the footage of one tape recovered from the surrounding area, outside of the blast radius. As the fireball rose, just before the shockwave hit the camera, an obscured black giant can be seen in only three frames.

When that harbinger of death appeared in the sky, Wendy was the only living organism within the blast zone to survive. That’s how Jordan sees it. He’s not a survivor, he lived through no merit of his own, he’s just someone who was merely saved by the only hero with the power to withstand that monster’s might.

Most likely, before that event, she was quite a mighty mage, but even for her old self at full-strength, the power she used to survive was magic far beyond her ability. As a result, she’s completely broken now. Someone who possibly had a voltage of millions of units of magic, is now reduced to mere tens.

If the flow of power is a closed water pumping system, then, for the most part, the system will never lose any water. That’s how a normal mage works--maintaining, or replenishing power when not using it.

But Wendy is defective.

If a mage is a closed pumping system, then that magic that Wendy used was like a hydrant blowing off it’s cap. The release of current on that scale burned through everything in her soul, even scorching away the ability to turn it off. A new seal is in place to replace the cap that was burned away, but it’s not perfect. She’s constantly leaking the little current she has left like a leaky faucet. Once that voltage drops to zero, she’ll die.

In order to live, she became a vampire.

But a person doesn’t merely “become” a vampire, as if it’s as simple as putting on new coat. For most, being bitten is the method. But in her case, it’s the power of contract.

He doesn’t have the details, but this girl made a contract with the unconscious boy seven years ago, a contract that he agreed to when he accepted a life with her back in the ruins of that destroyed city:

In exchange for something, he will give her his voltage as long as she lives.

Such a vague agreement yielded the method. Wendy is not truly a vampire, but the method that the contract provided for her to take his current resembles the ability of an authentic one.

Her immortality is fake as well. Even now, after seven years, her soul is trying to repair itself to it’s last undamaged state. Like a broken computer that constantly runs SYSTEM RESTORE over and over, as long as he gives her his blood, her soul and body will constantly attempt to return to that state.

That’s why she doesn’t age--because of the damage, her body is continuously loading old save points.

When asked about the terms of their contract, Wendy has never been clear. She’ll merely look away and say “The exchange has already been made. Don’t worry about it”.

“You’re not going to take more?” His eyes stare pointedly at the scorch marks on her arm, noticing how well-defined they are. They trace the arteries of power that flow throw her body. When she’d completely overloaded them, all the tissue and skin around them was scorched. As she heals, they disappear, but after a time, when the healing stops, the current flowing through broken lines burns the skin again, creating replica marks. Essentially, she’s being burned from the inside out wherever the line breaks are, as the time between bites increases.

She shakes her head and pushes off of him, attempting to get up.

“Wait.” He halts her, grabbing the scorched arm in a firm grip. “That’s not enough. There’s no point if you don’t take what you need.”

“Jordan,” Her face remains straight, but the skin that is in contact with his hand begins to heat up. In contrast, the temperature seems to drop a few degrees as if a chilly breeze has just blown through this room.

Her tone is flat, more void that her usual manner of speaking, enough for him to realize that he‘s in serious trouble.

“--You taste like another woman.”

“Heh, don’t jump to conclusions, I would never--”

Her gaze locks him in a harsh glare. He shuts up instantly.

“I last bit you forty-seven days ago. I remember the time down to the second, perhaps because I’ve been granted the clarity of mind and sense of time that only those in agony would know. You understand, I know, that abstaining is not exactly a pleasant experience.”

He lets go of her, but she grabs his arm in response, maintaining the uncomfortably heated contact.

“O-of course I know that…” Right now, his fight-or-flight response is in full gear.

“That’s right. Of course you do. We belong to each other exclusively. But--”

He doesn’t even see it. Her hand moves so quickly that not even the speed of sight can keep up with her movement. With a heavy crack, the end of a book drawn from one of the nearby stacks is embedded into the wall, just millimeters from his ear. The other end of this 400-page hardcover missile is tightly gripped by the vampire that has him pinned against that same wall.

Her eyes, face, and tone of voice are deceptive. Going just by those cues, he would estimate that she’s merely irritated. But, the spidering cracks that are extending along the wall are a much more accurate indication of just how angry this person is.

“--the basic fact remains the same. You’re taste has been tainted since the last time I’ve bitten you. That does’nt help your claim that I’m jumping to conclusions.“ Her unblinking gaze bores into him, watching for any indication of deceit. “However, I don’t believe that you’re this foolish. If you were guilty, you would have let me go, and waited for me to confront you when I’ve calmed down. Very well--Have you violated our agreement? You might want to elect to take that grace period. At present, a poor answer may get you killed.”

To be honest, her expression hardly ever changes so there’s absolutely no way for him to tell whether she’s upset or not in most cases. To him, this flare up is completely out of the blue and unreasonable, but his experience is enough to make him aware that, somehow, this is actually completely logical in her mind--which seems to an outsider to only know extremes of emotion. That’s not true, of course, she merely runs through every stage of emotion faster than a high-speed maglev. For practical purposes, he thinks of her as a light switch with a ‘calm’ position and an ‘ emotion overdrive’ position.

At the moment, he doesn’t trust his lips to speak without hesitation, and somehow he understands that any stuttering may result in him becoming red paste on this wall, so he simply shakes his head firmly.

“Good. I’ll believe you then.” She lets go of the book (which remains stuck in the wall) and pulls him into an embrace.

“Wendy,” When he finally finds his voice, and it comes out with conviction and anger. “Don’t ever doubt me, I love yo--”

“Stop.” Her slender finger rests on his lips, cutting him off mid-sentence. “As much as I want to hear it, I don’t deserve to be told that. There two things that need to be dealt with at the moment. Firstly, I have a confession--I’ve altered your body without permission.”

“How so?”

“Like everyone else, there’s a barrier around your conscious that protects you from weaker magics like hypnosis and possession. I reinforced that wall three years ago, when you began to take a serious interest in magecraft.”

“I consented to that, remember?”

“No, it wasn’t an informed consent. If a normal person is wearing the equivalent of a helmet, what I’ve wrapped you in is the equivalent of an armored car. I told you that.”

“Yes…”

“That barrier is a protection against invasion, but, at that strength, it’s resistant to changes in the structure as well. Think about a man as the color red, and a woman as the color blue, when two compatible people come together, they adapt to each other, resulting in two purples. In your case, however, the resistance may be preventing some synchronization with others, meaning that you’re at a slight disadvantage when it comes to meeting people.”

“Hm?”

“It’s only very slight--nothing that could prevent you from making friends and meeting girls. That annoying Bible thumper, for example, is too strong of a force to be affected. Essentially, for such a weak resistance to repel a girl like Nina would be as unlikely as a refrigerator magnet pulling a freight train off of the tracks. But it’s still there. I’m embarrassed to say, but, in my jealousy, I neglected to mention something so minor to you for three whole years.”

“It’s not really a big deal, I still prefer the defense.”

“That’s not the point. Stop seeing this in the best light. Think about it, and realize that it’s because there’s been a seed of doubt in my heart, even after we’ve decided to stay together.”

Jordan, despite her seriousness, has to laugh. “I’m not mad. Don’t sweat it. I know that you’re a really jealous person. Why even mention it? Do you want a punishment or something?”

To his surprise, she actually puts her face to the floor in a deep bow. “ I can’t stand hypocrisy. Just now, when I was considering breaking your skull for a minor infraction--”

Since she still has her forehead on the carpet, she doesn’t see Jordan’s jaw drop.

“-- I realized that every moment I neglect to mention that barrier is a breech of trust on my part.”

“I see. Well then,” He puts on a playfully deep voice. “…if you put it that way, then it’s certainly a serious offense. I‘m afraid I‘m going to have to punish you severely.”

“I understand.” She doesn’t move from her prone position.

“Prepare yourself.” Jordan lightly hits her head with a karate chop motion. “There, I hope you’ve learned your lesson.”

“Yes sir.” She barely replies through muffled snickering.

Finally raising her head and straightening up, she turns and leans against the wall (on the side without the book stuck in it) right next to her lover. There’s silence for a moment, and Jordan starts to get nervous again.

“You mad?”

“Absolutely furious.” When she notices the boy scooting to the side, she adds, “Not at you.”

“Nina didn’t--.”

An annoyed glare snaps his mouth shut mid sentence. “ I’m not stupid. Of course I’m not blaming her. I didn’t mention that mental barrier out of the blue either. That’s the second thing, right now that wall is in ruins.”

“Huh?”

“What’s not to understand? It’s been weakened so much that it’s virtually useless now. That can’t be the result of just going to school and doing whatever you kids do normally. In the last month, you’ve come into contact with something extremely invasive--something that tried to tear through that wall. Has anything changed in that time?”

“New teacher.”

“I’m about to get angry again, Jordan. Are you saying that someone using such a focused mental attack on you in the middle of class isn’t noticeable to you?”

“A-ah, sorry, sorry, you’re right. Even a normal person can notice that.” He raises his hands in a mock surrender. “So what are we looking for, a demon, ghost, or fetch?

“I don’t know. Geez, you’re one who goes there, so you should bet telling me. For now, just watch your surroundings, and, as much as I hate her, stick around that Nina girl. If there’s some kinda demon in the school, it’s going to stay far away from that bitch.”

“She’s not a bit--”

He shuts up. If looks could kill, he would have been shot dead by the glare that Wendy hit him with.

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