III. cinders

     "Marcus, wake up dude." Marc said, shaking Marcus to get him to wake up. Marcus groaned and looked up at his clock. When he saw the time, his eyes shot open and he jumped up.
     "I MISSED SCHOOL??" he yelled, not thinking he had burnt out for that long.
     "uh yeah, about that." Marc said, rubbing the back of his head. "not only did you miss school, you missed 2 days of it."
     "WHAT?!?!"
     And, as usual. a massive fight between the two ensued. Marcus was winning, and he had pinned his demon to the floor when the doorbell rang. they both stopped and looked at the door.
     "Hey Marcus, did you know we even owned a doorbell?"
    "Uhh....no, no i did not." the doorbell sounded again and they just looked at it.
     "...I guess I'll get it." Marcus shrugged, getting up and opening the door. In the doorway stood a massive hulk of a man. his head wasn't visible because of his height, and his massive body made him have to shuffle through the door sideways.
     "uh...hi?" the two said, watching him.
     "Hey Marcus, what's going on man?" their massive guest said, looking at them and sitting down on the couch, making the wood creak.
     "I'm ok i guess...and you are?" Marcus said confused at why this stranger just walked into his house and knew his name.
     "Oh! I'm sorry man, how rude of me to forget. I'm Gen, ya know, Sara's sister."
    "Ah, well, that fixes that half of the problem. So Gen, why exactly are you here?"
     "Sara sent me.she was worried about you since you weren't in school." he responded, looking down at his bag and rummaging through it.
     "Oh. well, obviously I am fine. I just burnt out pretty badly and needed to sleep it off." Marc laughed a little to himself and looked at the window. someone was watching them. he excused himself and walked outside, closing the door. Gen took out a stack of papers about maybe 50 pages thick and handed it to Marcus. On the top of all of them was a note from Sara.
     "she knew why you were out Marcus. she's a hell of a lot smarter than she looks. She just wanted to make sure you didnt fall behind. most of its just handouts, notes, and homework assignments. she said you could probably knock it out tonight." Marcus smiled a little and just set the pile off to the side so he could focus on them later.

     Meanwhile, Marc had trudged his way through the snow around the side of the house, looking for who or what had raised his alarm. He turned a corner and saw a smaller man standing at the window, trying to listen in on any conversation. he had a scroll hanging out of his pocket.
     "Hey. you there." Marc said calmly, making sure he would be heard. he slowly approached the man. the mysterious person looked at him and panicked a little before disappearing into thin air, leaving the scroll in the snow. Marc walked over to where he had been standing and picked up he scroll, noticing it had a lot of ice on it. he knew exactly who it was from. he just put it in his pocket and started walking back for the front door.

     Marcus and Gen were conversing about the school, since Marcus actually enjoyed some company every now and then. Gen looked at his watch and realized how long he had been there. He got up, the two exchanged their goodbyes, Marcus told him to say hello to Sara for him, and Gen left. Marcus sat down and looked at the mountain of papers he had to look through. He sighed and picked up the note, laying back a little and reading through it.
     "Wow. she goes pretty far out of her way for you man." Marc said, sitting next to his boss and looking at his pocket.
     "You know, sometimes I forget we can read each others thoughts. Which reminds me, who was that watching us?" Marcus smiled a little, feeling evil. Marc reached into his pockets and pulled out the letter.
    "I dont know. I think it was a henchman belonging to Ja-"
     "Don't. ever. say his name in front of me." Marcus said coldly. Marc just shut up and looked at his friend, handing him the letter.
      "Either way, it's from him. Probably yet another threat to end your life."
     "Which, of course, he knows I will decline. Then he hunts me down, we fight, he comes close to finally accomplishing his goal, and then he lets me live." he sighed sadly, knowing their cycle all too well.
     Marc disappeared inside to Marcus' mind. He could only be human for so long before he burnt out, and if that happened, then they were both screwed.
    The two just sat around for a while, thinking silently to themselves. Marcus burnt the unwanted letter, and turned his attention to the notes his best friend had sent him.

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     "I sent the message sir." the messenger said, kneeling down before a man who looked a little older than his messenger.
     "Good work Vito."the man threw and icicle at the ground to shoo off his henchman.
    He smiled an extremely sinister smile. "Let's see who will save your life from me this time, big brother."

Author's Note

the line of waves are used to show a switch in POV