“I can't say I really see a problem with this but is it really necessary? This place isn't meant to have a foot in religion.” the teacher inquired to the priest who accompanied him as they walked through the halls of the school.

“I was commanded to come here with you.” He replied, frantically scanning each plaque on every door they passed, searching for his desired classroom.

“What boss do you have to immediately answer too?”

The priest halted abruptly and the teacher did the same fearing he may have offended him. “I had a premonition!” He stated excitedly, “He spoke to me directly and told me to come here with you. I don't know why yet but I feel that I will know soon enough.”

“He? Surely you don't mean-”

“Exactly so!” The priest then grabbed both of the teacher's shoulders, his eyes dancing wildly. “It must be because of my unique perception, my ability to see people's demons directly, Richard. This is my calling!”

The teacher, Richard, stared silently at the priest for a brief moment before putting one hand on top of his which still grasped Richard's shoulder. “All right, father Thomas, I think your age is starting to get to you. Perhaps you should start thinking about retirement.” At that, the priest, Thomas, changed his expression to one of annoyance, as though to silently say, 'not this again'. Richard continued speaking even as Thomas broke away. “Isn't it usually God's thing where he communicates with people without actually communicating with them? Plus, what does it have to do with...” Richard's voice trailed off and he stopped for a second. Thomas looked up at him again in confusion. “...my class.” Richard continued then gave the priest a befuddled expression.

“You just realized something,” Thomas commented. “Something to do with my calling.”

Richard stared down at his feet and quickly looked over his shoulder, making sure that no one would overhear him. Confident that they were the only two in the empty hall, the teacher leaned in towards the priest and whispered, “There is this rather strange girl in my homeroom class who always seems to be at the centre of trouble in the school.”

Thomas leaned in closer and asked, “What kind of trouble?”

Richard shrugged his shoulders and said, “Fights mostly. She seems to be the main target of a lot of pranks too though I've never seen one succeed. She has an almost inhuman perception. The other students say she has eyes in the back of her head.” Richard then bobbed his head side to side and added, “Figuratively speaking since she never takes her hood down.”

Thomas stood up straight once more, his expression becoming more serious. “Perhaps I was called here to analyze and exorcist whatever demons are calling so much attention to her.” He thought aloud then turned on his heels searching for the classroom once more.

“You may just have been called here to convince her to lean on someone's shoulder for a change. She doesn't seem like she's ever asked for or accepted someone's help.” Richard then shook his head as his mind came back to reality. “What makes you think you'll be able to do anything for her anyway? It's not like demons exist.”

The priest gave him a hard glance and Richard stayed silent. “Because God wills it so.” he growled and stood in front of the desired door. “She's in here?”

“Albino girl with her hood up, sits in the middle of the class, will be wearing a thick, fluffy belt. Let me go in first so that you don't confuse them too much.” Richard instructed and opened the door, hurrying inside.

The priest followed in after him and scanned everything as Richard introduced him to the class. Thomas, however, didn't hear any of it as his focus was elsewhere. His eyes fell on Luna with a strong sense of duty, at first not seeing anything around her. The teacher then called out to him breaking his focus. “Father Thomas!” Richard yelled. “Are you alright?”

The priest looked at him quickly and his eyes darted back to Luna who didn't pay him any immediate attention. “Yes, yes of course.” he stuttered, confused and wondered if he had been wrong after all and merely imagined hearing his orders. At that moment though he saw a red hand grasp Luna's shoulder and when he blinked, a red-skinned girl with snow-white hair and horns was standing behind her. “Does this school allow cosplay?”

Everyone exchanged glances. “Are you senile old man?” Ian started to laugh at the back of the room. The remainder of the class started to whisper among themselves in mockery.

“Father?” Richard called out to him once again much more quietly. “Are you alright?”

They really can't see her. Thomas continued to switch his gaze between the red-skinned girl and Luna. “She's possessed by one of the vilest demons ever to exist.” He muttered under his breath. At that moment Luna looked up at him, at first without any changes but then she squinted her eyes at the cross around his neck. There was a spark of recognition like it had been several years since she saw one and she scoffed in disgust at it.

“Oi! Priest dude!” Ian made his presence known, cutting off Thomas's train of thought.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Not wanting to draw further attention to Luna nor cause room for panic, he switched his focus to the football player and attempted to smile. “Yes, my son?”

“What's with the flower?” He asked while pointing at what looked like a rose with the edges of its petals starting to blacken that was pinned to the chest of the priest's black robe.

He looked down at it and placed one gentle finger on it. “Bestia nocuit, it's called. The church I'm directly affiliated with had roots in Europe many many years ago. One of my predecessors stumbled across notes when visiting one of the old abandoned churches there, which seemed to have been burnt to the ground. An underground laboratory containing research on this rare breed was found and it's said to be able to ward off monsters who wear human skin.” Thomas then looked up at Ian once more. “Everyone who works at one of our affiliated churches must have one of these flowers on them at all times, retired or not, to ensure the space around them is safe.”

Ian made a face like someone just lied to him and turned his attention away from the priest and instead to whatever was sitting in his lap. One of the other students noticed and started to tease him and Thomas alike. “Careful, Ian. You might get him excited. Male minor playing with things in his lap.”

“That's enough of that.” Richard snapped and looked at Thomas who might've been offended but he was once again not paying attention. His eyes were once more fixated on Luna. “Thomas,” Richard whispered. “Are you afraid of her?” He asked, noticing that a bead of sweat had formed on the priest's forehead. Still having received no reaction, Richard then backed away about a step and started searching around the room. He noticed a lone sheet of paper on his desk and remembered that Luna had left before receiving her test back the day before. He grabbed it and called out to Luna, asking her to come pick it up.

Thomas watched as Luna got to her feet and as she made her away across the room, everything moved in slow motion. He watched her approach Richard and the red-skinned girl followed closely behind her. The red-skinned girl however never broke eye contact with Thomas, even after Luna lost interest in him. Richard then stood right beside Thomas as Luna was getting close. She stood just under arms reach of them and recoiled, covering her nose with one hand and closing her eyes. “That flower reeks.” She commented boldly and backed up slightly.

She reacted to it. Richard thought to himself.

Both men held their breath and inspected her more closely. “Luna...” Richard exhaled slowly. “You're looking a little pale.” The entire class then fell silent and looked at the trio. I leaned in even closer to him and never noticed any smell to the flower at all.

“I'm just a bit dizzy. That flower has a strong, vomit-inducing dastardly scent to it.” Luna responded and snatched the paper away, quickly trying to retreat to her seat and sit down. In seconds dizzy became a migraine and the urge to throw up became a wrestling match of butterflies in her stomach.

“Did you see that?” Students began to gossip among themselves. “He said that flower wards off monsters in human skin and she got dizzy when she walked up to it. Does that mean she's a monster?”

Luna ignored all their remarks and instead tried to focus on putting one foot in front of the other for the time being. The moment she smelled that flower, she got a splitting headache that felt like it threatened to tear her brain apart. The room was spinning so fast she felt like a runaway yo-yo stuck on its side. The words spoken about her were either inaudible or echoed furiously at varying pitches. She wasn't even sure if she was actually holding that paper as she couldn't feel anything and her mouth tasted as though she had just finished chewing a chunk of cardboard.

Once she got some distance from the priest, she noticed her senses had started to calm down and return to normal, though not soon enough. A student jutted his foot out in the aisle carelessly expecting her to dodge it like she always does, but was shocked when she tripped over it instead. The class's entire demeanour changed and they all looked down at Luna silently, noting that she made no immediate attempt to get back up as she continued to wrestle herself for control of her own mind. Thomas watched from where he was, as the red-skinned girl moved to the opposite side of Luna, and the empty space in the room started to become wavy like a heat mirage.

No, no, no. Thomas thought to himself nervously. Whatever you're planning to do, don't do it here.

The class then broke into an eruption of cheers and laughs as someone had finally done it. Someone had finally bested Luna in some way, shape or form, even if it was something as petty as a simple trip. The boy who had stuck his foot out stood up in the aisle behind Luna with his arms out wide, slowly spinning in place as though he had just been announced for a reward on the sports field. Everyone took turns looking down the aisle, trying to get a good look at her where she lay.

Thomas considered stopping the class from tormenting her further but his body wouldn't respond to his commands. Was he afraid? Or was he curious to see what she could do? Perhaps he was even being held in place forcefully by a child with horns sticking out of her head?

After a few seconds, Luna's senses finally started to come back to her, though she wasn't fully steady yet. She planted one hand down on the ground and lifted herself onto her knees then to her feet, her back turned to the student who got her. The red-skinned girl then pointed at the boy and Thomas, who finally sorted himself out, started to shout in warning. “Don't look into her eyes!” He called out but too late. Luna whipped around quickly, just enough so that the boy could see her left eye. Her pupil had changed into a long, narrow red vertical line and her iris disappeared, replaced by three triangles pointing counter-clockwise around her pupil. Thomas saw three black wolves with blood-red eyes appear at various positions around the classroom and they all moved in closer to the boy, roaring. The boy stopped laughing, his expression became hollow, and he immediately broke into a cold sweat followed by screaming. The laughter around the classroom died down instantly and they all watched in confusion as he cried out in horror and fell backward onto the floor holding out a hand towards Luna in order to protect himself. Thomas lunged forward as quickly as his old bones would let him and forcefully broke the eye-lock between Luna and the boy.

He then waited a moment and released him, making sure his eyes didn't look back at Luna again. The student was drenched in sweat which had completely soaked through his close over the course of a second. Blood was dripping out of every opening in his head. His eyes, his nose, his ears, his mouth; blood drained steadily from each and the boy muttered to himself over and over again incomprehensibly like he was a mad man. Thomas held his brass cross up to him and started speaking a prayer.

When he finished his short recital, he looked back up at the class, at Luna and the red-skinned girl who had started humming to herself innocently, no longer watching him. Combinations of horrified faces and confusion ridiculed the room but no one was more confused than Luna. Her eye had returned to normal the moment the eye-lock was broken. She now stood still, clutching the now normal eye gently. The bell then rang and Luna quickly dashed to the hallway without looking at anyone else. Richard joined Thomas at the boy's side, cell phone in hand, calling an ambulance. Thomas signaled to him to watch the boy and the priest attempted to follow Luna out into the hall. When he got there, however, Luna had already disappeared.

The tone of the gossip around the room changed once more.

“Did she do something just then?”

“Maybe she really is a monster?”

“Is it possible he hit his head when the priest threw him away from her?”

“Should we ask him where we can get some of those flowers?”

Richard popped his head out of the classroom. “Ambulance is on the way. Can you help me move him down to the lobby?” Thomas nodded silently and entered the room again. “I'm not saying I believe you were right about her, but I think you were right about her.”