Chapter Thirteen

School's Out

Jen woke up against a carpeted floor, a jacket covering her body and an arm wrapped around her waist. At first, she thought she was back in Dulwich Hill, with Chase after falling asleep on the floor because Jeremiah kicked them off the bed.

She smiled happily at that thought and sunk further back into the arms that held her. As she closed her eyes tighter however, images of rain, lightening and brains exploding against the sidewalk, woke her up and reminded her of what had happened.

She got up and gasped as if she’d been under water. Two arms held her tighter and pulled her back. Jen fought against it for a moment but then recognised the arms. She half turned her head and saw Edmund lying behind her.

His face dropped in relief and he gently stroked her face before squeezing her tightly.

Jen pulled away from him and looked at his face again. Wrapped around his mouth was a device that tightened his jaw together so he couldn’t speak. It was made from wires that looked like steel. “What happened?” she whispered, reaching out and gently touching his bruised skin. “Edmund, what happened?”

He shook his head and pointed at the thing around his mouth. She realised they put it on him so he couldn’t speak but she couldn’t think of who would have done it.

Demons, idiot.

She remembered surrendering. She remembered just walking up to the Possessor Demon, willing to give up her life. “Oh Edmund, I’m so sorry.”

He shook his head and took her hand, raising it to his mouth. He couldn’t actually kiss her but Jen understood.

His lips were chapped and swollen from the machine and Jen closed her eyes. “It’s all my fault.” Edmund shook his head. “No, it really is.”

He kept shaking his head over and over then tapped his chest. He kept tapping his chest then started signing ‘talking’.  He repeated the action a few times then shook his head. He sat up and walked over to the whiteboard.

That’s when Jen realised they were in a classroom in Blue Sky Academy. The carpeting and the desks lined up in rows. She walked through slowly as Edmund started writing on the whiteboard.

I was talking. They tracked & found all of us. I’m sorry, Jen.

“Where are the others?” she asked.

I don’t know. They separated us. I only got to be with you because some1 needs 2 take care of you.

Jen had to read it slowly and mouthed out the words. She walked over to the wall and wiped her eyes. “I thought it was Jeremiah. I didn’t even think they’d trick me.”

He started writing on the board but Jen couldn’t figure out what it said, got frustrated and walked off.

Edmund sighed and leant back against the blackboard. He then wrote it out again with basic wording.

U hav been out 4 1 week �" it’s Tuesday. We were tay-ken on Wens-day. Ur head was bad. I thort u were going 2 die. He tapped the whiteboard a few times and Jen turned and read it.

Jen’s jaw dropped. “I’ve been out for a week?” Edmund just nodded. Jen looked down at herself and noticed she was wearing different clothing. “Did the demons give me this?” Again he nodded. She felt dirty in the plain tracksuit and t-shirt. “How long have we been in Blue Sky?”

Edmund held up one finger. Jen raised her eyebrow. “One week?” he shook his head. “One day.” He waved his hand around to say ‘so-so’ and Jen sighed. “Okay. That’s great. That means the Demon prison will arrive soon.”

Edmund pointed up to the clock that said eleven and then wrote 12 on the board.

“So we have an hour.”

He nodded.

“Great.”

Jen’s head pounded and she wondered if the Demons gave her more than just a head whack to keep her out. She wouldn’t have been surprised at all if they had. She could taste something horrible in her mouth and wiped her tongue across her sleeve. “What did they give me?”

Edmund shrugged and Jen just walked to the window of the classroom door. Outside she could see no less than five Demons guarding the door. Two of them were Possessors and the other three were Shifters. She could tell because the Shifters were in their natural skin which consisted of bright blue, gold, yellow, green and red colours. Two of the ones she could see were blue, whilst the other was yellow.

She ducked away from the window before any of them saw her spying and walked over to Edmund. “Come on. We’re busting out of here.”

He raised his eyebrow and Jen just walked over to him and pressed her hand against one of the wires in his cheek. “Break.” she ordered, twisting her wrist. The wire snapped and Edmund grunted in pain. “Sorry.” she looked behind her to see if any of the Demons noticed. “Break!” she said again and another of the wires snapped.

Soon, they were all falling to the ground around their feet and the only ones he had left were in his mouth, wrapped around his teeth, holding them tightly together. His cheeks were free of their entrapments but Jen couldn’t figure out how to get the last part of it off without breaking his jaw. “Hold on.” she murmured, tilting his head back. She saw that from that point on it was just a matter of turning a knob and she bit her lip. “This is going to seem intrusive.” She said and before he could even grunt in respond, Jen put her hand in his mouth and started twisting the bolts around. She didn’t want to use magic as she was unsure of her aim. The bolt fell into her mouth and then she undid the one on the other side.

When she withdrew her hand, Edmund put his own in and shifted each piece of the metal out from between his teeth and threw it to the ground. At first, he found it difficult and painful to move his mouth but then he got used to it and sighed in relief. “You don’t know how good that feels.” he whispered.

Jen smiled, rubbing the side of his face gently. “I can imagine”

He winced. There were marks across his face where the wires had been. She closed her eyes, “I’m sorry Edmund.” Her hand dropped to her side and she turned away from him. “I can’t explain what it is with you but...”

Edmund cleared his throat and took her hand from behind. “I know we’re teenagers with many hormonal imbalances that force us to express things at seemingly inappropriate times, but can we jump the cliché for a time when we’re not about to be sacrificed to a demon?”

Jen chuckled and nodded her head, turning around and smiling at him. “Yeah. Sounds like a plan.”

“I think I know where Saint is, but only vaguely. I can feel him. And I can feel two others... I think they’re Eddy and Lisa.”

“It’s too late to stop them.” Jen said peering out the window at the Shifters again and then looked back at Edmund. “There’s only one way to stop this from happening now and you’re most likely not going to like it.”

Edmund laughed darkly, “I don’t like much of this to be honest.” He clicked his jaw a couple of times. “But I can talk again. That’s an advantage, right?”

Jen ran a hand through her knotted and straggly hair and muttered darkly about a hairbrush, plans and ideas running through her mind. She paused and looked back at the Demons outside. “Yeah, it might be a great advantage.” She looked out the window one last time and saw only one of the Demons were outside, one of the Possessors. The others had left, most likely gone to wherever the others were.

Jen pointed her hand at one of the desks and flicked her wrists. “Move.” She ordered. The desks flew back, smashing into one another and then into the wall.

Edmund’s eyes widened in horror. “Are you crazy?”

“Yes.” Jen heard footsteps from outside the door.

“What’s going on in there?”

Jen reached down and grabbed a table leg. “Break.” It cracked from the middle of the desk and came into her hand. She pulled Edmund down against the door wall so neither of them could be seen by the Possessor Demon who peered through. The door opened slightly and Jen lunged out and impaled the demon on the pole, then shoved the door further open.

Edmund’s jaw dropped to the ground as Jen dusted her hands off and stepped over the writhing body of the demon who was choking up thick black blood. “What are we going to do now?”

“Don’t know. Improvising.” Jen started looking down the hallway and then headed back into the classroom and found the whiteboard marker Edmund had been writing with and went back out into the hall. She walked over to the demon, a woman with long blonde hair and startling blue eyes. “To the human inside, I am so sorry about this.” With the thick black marker, Jen drew a pentagram. The demon started to scream, but Jen muffled the sounds with her hand. She withdrew the pole with her other hand and then once again, plunged it deep, this time getting the heart.

The demon fell limp, the human dead too. “What...?” Edmund started to ask.

“The pentagram traps them inside the body.” Jen explained. “The body dies, they die. Sometimes I can save the human if I shoot them through the arm or upper chest. Other times, I have no choice.” She stood up and wiped her hands after she dragged the body inside the classroom and locked the door. “Let’s go.”

Edmund followed her down the hallway of school until Jen was lost. “I don’t know where to go.”

“Follow me then.” Edmund took a sharp turn and ended up in a long hall of lockers. Jen stuck close to him, peering through classrooms and ready to attack with the pole she held in her hands, dripping with black slick blood. Edmund leaned against a hallway wall and breathed in and out deeply. “This way. I think they’ve locked him in the drama room.”

They kept walking down hallway after hallway until Jen pulled Edmund out of sight of two Shifter demons who were pacing the hallway they were about to walk through.

One was blue with large black bug eyes and no nose. Its ears were pointed and it had fangs. The other was red with a long snarling nose and the teeth as thin as a thousand needles, bunched together along its gums.

She signalled Edmund to be quite and he just nodded. Jen knew her make shift stake wouldn’t be as useful on the demons in front of her, so instead looked at the glass window mounted high above on the wall directly across form her.

Again, Jen pointed her hand and twisted it, whispering ‘Break’.

The glass shattered into hundreds of thick pieces and Edmund and Jen shielded themselves from the downpour of glass. Edmund grabbed Jen and pulled her to the ground but Jen was snaking out her arm from underneath him, recovering large pieces of broken glass.

They both heard the two Demons running towards them and Edmund watched as Jen stayed close to the wall, out of their sight. She counted to three and at the last second, jumped out of hiding and flung them out, at the Demons. There was a minute of silence before Edmund peered around the corner to what had happened. Jen was already rushing forward, jumping over the bodies of the Shifters who laid dead on the floor, large shards of glass inside of their heads looking like ice bergs in the ocean.

Edmund passed over them, nervous they’d come back to life. “Wow they’re freaky.”

“Shape shifters are easier to kill.” Jen murmured. She grabbed more pieces of broke glass off the ground and kept walking. “It’s their body and unlike trolls, they’re brain is crucial. You wouldn’t guess it if you knew them.”

Edmund stared at the bodies of the demons and raised his eyebrow but nodded anyway. Jen grabbed the blue demons body and started dragging it into the closest empty classroom. Edmund followed lead, grabbing the red one.

Jen then walked back out and grabbed Edmund’s hand. On it, in the thick black marker, she drew the encircled pentagram the on his hand and drew one on herself too. She searched through the other rooms and other cupboards to find them all empty. “Let’s keep going to the drama rooms.”

“Just down this hall.” Edmund peered down the hall first then pulled Jen aside, hiding behind another wall. He pressed his fingers to his lips and then lifted three fingers in the air. Quietly, the both looked around the corner at what was going on.

Three demons stood there, two Shifters and one Possessor, right in the doorway of the Drama room. “Finnik is a bloody klutz.” The Possessor said. “And her fingers get buttery when she’s in a human. She probably dropped something and had a whinge about it.”

“And the crashing before?” One of the Shifters, who was most likely a brother of the blue one for they looked very similar, kept his eyes darting down the hall. “I don’t know. I think we should go and look.”

“Kelsa and Juge would have called out by now if something wasn’t wrong.” The last Shifter was a deep orange with hair around its wrist and ankles, the rest of it naked. “Kel!” she shouted out. Nothing but silence greeted them.

“Fine, I’ll go look.” The Possessor sighed and walked towards the staircase.

Jen pushed Edmund backwards and the two jogged down the hall. “There’s three of them. I’ll take them then call you.” she whispered. “Go into a classroom and hide.”

“I can help you.”

“Go into a classroom.” she whispered. “You’re not a hunter...” she was cut off as the steps on the staircase echoed out. Instead of hearing him out, Jen pushed him into the closest class and waited outside.

The Possessor Demon walked into the hallway. “Hey!” he shouted. Jen lunged forward with a shard of glass but the demon smashed it against her own skin.

Jen screamed but then managed to touch the demon with the pentagram she drew on her hand.

He howled with pain.

Sounds of the Shifters running down the hallway echoed around and Jen grew fearful. Three demons when she was without weapon wouldn’t be easy. She kicked the Possessor but he grabbed her foot and twisted it around. Jen yelled and was forced to catch herself on her bloody palm. The pain sent spasms up her arm and Jen fell face first onto the wooden floorboards, splitting her jaw. The demon lifted her up from one of her legs. “Well, well, what do we have here?” the Possessor growled. “A little Hunter girl?” he jerked her up. “With a pentagram on her hand? How pretty.”

Burnt onto his face was the pentagram she had touched him with. Jen gritted her teeth as the two Shifters walked up and started to laugh at her. “Little Huntress thought she could escape. And what happened to your little Wizard?” The orange one grinned, her needle teeth glowing yellow under the hallway light.

“Me?” The three demons looked up at Edmund who was standing out in the hall. “Well I’m right here.”

“Don’t let him speak!” the blue demon shrieked.

The orange one came at him but Edmund put his hand up. “Stop.” The orange demon skidded to a halt, inches away from Edmund. “All of you, stop.” The Possessor and the orange Shifter stopped too. Edmund looked at the Possessor. “Put her down gently.”

He did as he was told and Edmund walked over to Jen, gently pulling her up into his arms. “Are you alright?” he asked.

“Yep.” she grunted. Her chin was bleeding profusely and she’d most likely need stitches. Her hand was just as cut up and her ankle was swelling from where the Demon had lifted her from.

Edmund lifted her up and let her lean against him. “What are your names?”

The orange one was Lorista and the blue, Kelieeno while the Possessor was Jet. “Lorista, go get tweezers, bandages and disinfectant from the nurses office. Quickly.” Edmund ordered. The Shifter did as she was told and when she came back, handed him the supplies. “Lorista, kill Kelieeno. Then yourself. But do it in a classroom away from us, please and Kelieeno, don’t fight her. Let her do it. Remember, you both want to die.”

Jen watched as the two demons nodded their heads and walk away. A screech was heard and followed by another and Edmund then started to remove the shards of glass from Jen’s hand. Jen looked at him in shock. “You’re pretty good.”

Edmund didn’t smile or anything. He kept working on removing the glass from Jen’s hand. “Jet, tell us what’s going on.” He said, still concentrating on Jen’s hand. Jet started explaining how they were going to take Jen, Edmund, Saint and the Belwink twins down to where the Prison, also known as Hael, would open up. Then the Demons were planning on using the threat of Jen’s life to force Edmund to lead them all inside, to the deepest part of the prison.

Then Jen found out something that shocked her. “Then you are to slit your wrists and pour your blood over the pentagram which binds out master. Once there is enough blood, we were to escort you to the surface, pretend to give you your freedom then kill you from behind.”

“You don’t need to be drained of our blood to free your master?” Jen asked in disbelief.

“No.”

Edmund kept asking questions which Jet answered. Jen was right in assuming they had been drugging her, but they had planned on her waking. They hadn’t planned on her waking until they were in the prison, however. Chase and Jeremiah were both drug induced and somewhere in the school. Zeke and Tobias were possessed by two demons name Haria and Odep and Angel and Greg were missing.

“Good.” Edmund murmured, finished bandaging her hand up then lifted her up

Edmund kept staring at Jet. “Where’s Saint?”

“Who?” Jet replied.

“Saint. Marcus Smith. Young boy with fluffy blonde hair.”

“The blond Wiccan-child? He is down the hall.”

“Is anyone else there?”

“Yes.”

“Who?”

“The human women, the small children and the tall one.”

“Sophie, Alicia, Tony and the Twins.” Edmund sighed with relief. “Are their more guards?”

“Yes.”

“How come they haven’t heard any of the commotion and come to help?”

“They cannot hear. We deafened them in case you did escape.”

Jen and Edmund exchanged a look. Edmund pulled out the last shard of glass then wrapped up Jen’s hand. “Jet, are you in charge?”

“Yes.”

“Go into the Drama room, kill the guards. Then bring Saint and the others to us. Understood?”

“Understood.” Jet disappeared down the hall and went into the Drama room just as Edmund picked Jen up bridal style.

Jen blushed, “I can walk.”

Edmund frowned at her then put her down on her ankle. She hissed in pain but it was only brief because Edmund pulled her back up. “Thought so.” He started to carry her down the hall, following Jet. There was a shouting and screaming noise along with a banging and then just the sound of tears.

The door opened and Jet walked out. “They refuse to come out.”

Edmund carried Jen to the door of the Drama room and slowly peered in. The blue carpet was slowly soaking up black blood and it covered parts of Alicia’s tired and scared looking face. Holding her as well as the twins, was Sophie and Tony.

Saint was no where to be seen.

“Tones?” Edmund called out.

Tony looked up in surprise and relief. He let go of his brother and ran across the room, wrapping his arms around Edmund. “I thought you were dead.”

“Alive and kicking.” Edmund muttered. Jen was being squashed between the two boys and felt more uncomfortable by the second.

Tony backed off and wiped his eyes. “They’ve had us here for a f*****g week. A week, and they keep staring at Saint and talking about slitting his wrists.”

“Where is Saint?” Edmund asked.

“Appareo.” From no where, Saint materialized, holding a green hardback book in his hands and wearing a grin on his face.

Sophie was gathering Alicia and the twins up and acted as though Saint’s sudden magical act was normal. “Saint, how’d you do that?” Jen asked, amazed.

“They left us in the drama room.” Tony explained, lifting Joe up and taking Luke’s hand. “Saint found a Latin phrase book and started trying to read it and practice when the inside guards went on their break. I’m guessing the massacre we just witnessed was your doing.”

“I didn’t think he’d do it like that.”

“Edmund put me down please.” Jen asked. He frowned but did as he was told. Jen kept one arm looped around his neck and stood on only one foot. “Ask Jet to accompany these guys to a safe car outside. Tell him also that he must keep them safe at all costs, including his own life and to kill himself afterwards.”

Edmund relayed the message and Jet just nodded.

Jen then let go of Tony and limped backwards. “You go with them.” she said.

Edmund stuck his chin up in the air. “No.”

“Yes.” She said.

Tony looked between them and knew he had to back off but didn’t know where to go. “Saint’s got a book of Latin phrases and they have a single Demon but that’s still not going to be enough to keep them safe, do you understand that? I need to find Chase and Jeremiah.”

“You’re ankles sprained, possibly broken, you can’t do it on your own. Edmund snapped at her. “You’re coming with us.”

Jen instantly felt compelled to follow him and just nodded. But then a rational part of her brain kicked in and she tried to fight against his words. “Give the choice, Ed.” Tony said quietly. “She’ll never forgive you if you don’t.”

Edmund took Jen’s hand and glared at Tony. “I’m not letting her stay here to die. She’ll thank me one day.”

“You know she won’t.” Sophie was already dragging Alicia out of the classroom, followed by Luke.

Joe rubbed his tired red eyes and sniffed. “I want to go home.”

“We will, bud.” Tony wiped his brothers eyes then looked back at Edmund. “As soon as Mysterious realises what he’s done is wrong.”

With one of the most difficult decisions he had to make in his hands, Edmund relented and turned around to face Jen. “I’m not telling you, I’m asking you. Please come with us.”

Jen’s brain clicked and she found she had the option to obey or disobey his voice. She felt relief flood her as she hopped backwards, away from him. “I need to find Jeremiah and Chase.”

“Then I’m coming with you.” he said. “Don’t think of this next thing as a command, but don’t stop me helping you.”

“Tony!” Tony looked over his shoulder at Sophie who was waving her hand eagerly. “Come on.”

Tony looked at Edmund and Jen at a stalemate then he put Joe on the floor. “Luke, come here.” Luke walked over to Tony and he looked both twins in the eye. “Both of you, listen to me. You’re going to listen to Aunty Sophie and Alicia and even Saint, like you were listening to Mum, Dad and me. You’re going to be good and you’re going to do exactly as they say, understand?”

“Tony!” Jen cried. “You can’t all come with me.”

“Not all. Just me.” Tony stood up and smiled at his brothers. “I’ll be back soon, okay? Just go with Aunt Sophie for now.”

Edmund looked at Tony confused and Tony then shrugged. “They’re also little fact that my best fiend and his brother are running around this place with Demons inside of them. I’m coming.”

Jen rubbed her eyes tiredly with her good hand then nodded. “Okay. Just... fine.”

Sophie looked at Jen, her eyes filled with sadness, “Please take care of them. And please get Timmy back.”

Jen smiled tightly and nodded. “I’ll try.”

“Don’t try.” she said. “Just do it.” Her and Alicia took one of the sobbing twins each then ushered Saint along who kept looking back at them with sad eyes.

“Good luck!” he called out as Sophie pushed him forward. “Yell if you need something.”

Tony smiled at them and waved at his brothers and Saint until Sophie had taken them around the corner, following Jet.

Edmund reached out and took one of Jen’s hands and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. “I’m okay.” She murmured, trying to pull off of him.

“You can’t walk.” he said gently. “Just let me help you.”

“We need to find your friends before we find�"” Tony was cut off by a vicious screeching sound and stomping footsteps, running through the hall.

“That’s the worm.” Tony said. “Hurry.” From Jen’s other side, he wrapped his arm around her waist and helped Edmund lift her up. Together they started running through the halls and down stairs, carrying Jen in between them.

“Worm?” Jen asked.

Edmund replied, “There has been this long giant worm creature, sliding through the halls, checking in on us. Sometimes Germanicus or the Kollar is on the back of it.”

“Germ-who-now?”

“The Demon possessing my father and the Troll.” They reached the ground level eventually and found themselves in graffiti lane, one of the laneways leading out of the school which everyone tagged at some point. Jen spied Sophie, Alicia, the twins and Saint, jumping into a van from the corner of her eyes and sighed in relief but then Tony and Edmund turned a sharp corner, pulling her vision away. They were nestled between two of the buildings of the school where the students who were much crueller and meaner hung out. The steel bench was snapped in two and there was a thick smell of urine, alcohol and cigarettes that caused her to scrunch up her nose.

“If you’re talking about, what I think you’re talking about, it’s called a wyrm which, if it is, we have no hope of surviving without finding some iron.” Jen sniffed the place again. “Although the scent of this place will throw it off course for a little.”

“What about the gates surrounding the school?” Tony suggested. “What are they?”

“Steel.” Jen replied. “Where is the school anyway? It’s a Wednesday.”

“Holidays started last week.”

“Shouldn’t they run facilities like this one all the time? I mean, some people in here have murdered.” Jen sighed, leaning back on the brick wall.

“Present company included.” Edmund murmured.

There was another screeching noise, sounding like thick sharp nails down a chalkboard. “Find them!” they heard a man shouting and Jen knew there was no way out now. The detail around the school would be upgraded tenfold. “Find them now!”

“We leave, they kill Chase, Jeremiah and maybe even Zeke and Tobias.” Edmund whispered quietly, almost reading Jen’s mind. “And I can sense, Lisa and Eddy around here, somewhere.”

Jen looked down at the broken steel bench and pursed her lips. “Get off this thing.” she said, getting up onto her good foot. Edmund and Tony got up as Jen held her hand over the sheet. “After I do this, I reckon we have two minutes to get out of here because they have a troll who will now be tracking magic. So, I break this bench, you two grab the steel and run.”

“And you?” Edmund asked.

“You were right.” she said quietly. “I’m too injured to find people, but I’m not too injured to fight a wyrm, and a troll.”

“What if Germanicus is on the back of it?” Tony asked. “You won’t make it Jen.”

“I’ve made it so far.” she replied, her favourite cocky attitude returning. “I’ve beaten a lot of odds in my lifetime, Tony. This is just one more.”

Edmund studied her carefully then leant close to her, pushing her hair behind her ear. He cupped his hand around her ear and closed his eyes, breathing in deeply. Jen was confused and nervous as to what he was doing but then he whispered, “Heal,” into her ear and the throbbing in her hand and ankle stopped.

In surprise, Jen removed the bandage from her hand and found there were only light scars along it. She looked up at Edmund was smiling proudly. “Why didn’t you just do that earlier?”

“Because that was the first time I’d ever done it.” Edmund braced himself and waited. “Come on. Let’s do this.”

Jen looked at Edmund in awe and didn’t notice Tony’s amused smirk as she regained her posture and held her perfectly fine and working hand out over the bench. “Break. Snap. Shape. Move.” she twisted her wrist with every word and in front of their eyes, the steel bench broke into six long pieces and folded over itself to create long daggers from the sheet of metal with blunt edges for them to hold.

Edmund and Tony picked two up each and turned back to Jen. “Meet us in the Portable buildings.” he said. “We’ll go get Lisa and Eddy then meet you there, okay?”

“Just remember to stab right through the heart.” Jen reminded them. “Or else they won’t die. And avoid Zeke and TJ until I find where they stashed my jewellery.”

“Oh yeah.” Edmund dug around in his pocket and threw her the ruby keychain he had given to her on her first day. “I hid it from the Demons.”

Jen caught it and nodded. “Thanks. You should go and don’t speak. If you speak, they’ll track you.”

Edmund winced and nodded a few times. “Come on!” Tony yelled and Edmund ran after them. At the end of the laneway, both of them jumped on top of the brick wall that was in front of one of the buildings, and lifted themselves through a partially open window, back into the school.

Good luck, Jen thought as she could only hope her two novice partners would make it through.

Author's Note

Spelling? Grammar? Editing in general?