I don’t know how long I wandered around for. Again, I’m still fuzzy on how human’s calculate time. What I do know is the students were looking at me with a mix of worry, desire, and intrigue after Jonah’s presentation on the black box.
I didn’t talk to anyone as I’d said everything I needed to say. The black boxes seemed handy in getting information out very quickly. Perhaps they could be of use to me someday. If I could release more messages for the humans, then they could be more susceptible to my offer.
As I wondered about the possibilities, I soon found a pure white door at the end of a hallway. Blindingly white, excruciatingly white, it didn’t even match with the rest of the school's interior! The school was built with these graceful columns, intricate friezes, and triangular pediments—this door was a blank slate. It smashed my eyeballs like glass to the face. Flinching, I turned away from the jarringly pristine door. My tears threatened to ruin my glorious makeup that everyone fawned over in the halls. I couldn’t fucking have that! And, I’ll admit it, okay? Mia did an amazing job. Do not tell her.
Anyways, I waved my gloved claws in front of my face, avoiding the tears from escaping my eyes.
“What the fuck? Is that angelic too?”
“No sir, but it is a stark contrast to the rest of the school.” Iggy reported. “I feel it is powered by misery. Anguish and…” His tongue stuck out and cunnilingus-ed the air. “Mm yes, smells like teen spirit.”
I grimaced. “And I have to go in there?”
“That’s what detention is, sir.”
I crossed my arms with a huff. “This is fucking bullshit. I was the one who got hurt.”
Iggy decloaked his head and shot me a look that could freeze holy water. “Did you grow a walnut for a brain or are you entirely fucking stupid? YOU were the one who provoked Gideon’s behavior.”
“So?”
“Humans take that factor into account when dealing with discipline, Damian.”
“What?” I scoffed. “Humans are emotional all the time. They come out the womb crying and never fucking stop. Do they offload their accountability to their collective idiocy just so they can get off easy from any crime—”
“Yes.” He cut me off. “All the time. Yes. That’s why Hell exists, Damian. Humans have crafty ways of bending the concept of justice to fit their ends. For instance, they like to use ‘provocation’ as a partial defense to first or second-degree murder.”
“The hell does that mean?”
“It means you’re going to detention, and Gideon will be in trouble too, but your involvement with upsetting him will reduce his punishment.”
I glared at Iggy, “You’re fucking kidding—”
“You know I’m not.” He said without an ounce of hesitation. The hellizard wasn’t even cracking a smile.
“So, humans just blame the victim for ‘causing them’ to commit sinful atrocities against each other?”
“You asked me once, ‘why is their history drenched in blood all the fucking time?’ Yes?”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“Well, as I said then, and as I’ll say again: they’re passionate creatures sir. Woefully misguided, passionate creatures with short and brutal lives.”
“They’re fucking stupid is what they are. Zero accountability for their actions. No wonder so many of them suffer in flames.”
“Amen… shall we head to detention, sir?”
“Ugh, fiiiiiiinnnne.” I turned to face my unjust punishment and squinted against the brightness of the door. “I don’t wanna.”
“I know sir.”
“But I’m gonna. I’ve gotta stick with it.”
Whatever Marvella or this school could throw at me I wasn’t going to falter. Earth, Heaven, and Hell, would all be mine. Power was my ultimate goal.
My whole existence had been inundated with traditions and rules for maintaining the mess God left behind. Hierarchical structures of which creatures were better than us, which were below us, and which were to be locked away for the sake of the universe. Humans were the reason for our existence. Their sins and choices had to be rewarded or punished accordingly. We were the stick and heaven was the carrot. Yet, if we demons punished humans, that meant we were stronger than them, right?
I’d asked that to every kind of demon, and they always agreed. We have always been stronger than humans. Yet we remained below their feet continuing our duty to hurt them but had no future prospects for ourselves. I'd ask those demons if they wanted to destroy the human spirit, and they said they enjoyed it. Did they want it? I'd press them but they said they didn't know. All they knew was to punish, all they knew was pain.
It was like asking a blind mortal to describe how a painting looks. They don't have a fucking clue. They can touch the painting, they can listen to a description of the painting, but they can never see the real vision of the art. Asking a demon what they wanted was similar to that. They had an idea of what goals and dreams were because humans spoke of them, and they knew they were valuable enough to mock a human for losing their dreams—but those demons didn't understand what a dream even was. It frustrated me to no end but I couldn't fault them for their ignorance.
Demons don't dream.
I was different.
I was stronger than these mortals, better. I knew there was more to the world than anguish. There had to be more I'd never seen. If Earth was all misery, why would humans suffer by our doing? Earth had to be better than Hell. So I asked the sinners about their lives. I asked Iggy what the surface was like. I learned their languages and pieces of history. I planned my escape. I wanted more than what I was created for. I wanted real power. I wanted real justice. I wanted revenge for all demonkind.
Obviously the teachers underestimated me, the students were oblivious to me, and Iggy was skeptical yet duty-bound to my cause. Whatever detention had in store for me, I could take it. Marvell Academy could try to break me, but it would only make me stronger.
And so, with unwavering determination, I marched to detention, grabbed the door handle and—
“Barry?!” a familiar deep voice echoed from afar.
I flinched. It was Gideon.
“Uh yeah?” I turned but he was already directly behind me. Before I had a moment to speak, his two bulbous muscular arms wrapped around my torso.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“I was so worried about you! I'm glad you're okay. I'm sorry I didn't mean to hurt you man. I didn't know what I was thinking. It all happened so fast.” He babbled on.
He squeezed me harder with each passing second. My ribcage cracked, then caved in, and all of my internal organs were crushed by the sheer strength of his embrace.
In response to his pleas for forgiveness, I puked gushing blood over his shoulder, followed by my heart. Yes, my heart. It was the only organ that somehow got pushed through my esophagus instead of crushed inside my torso. Blood was also dripping from my eyes.
“Blugh.” I groaned to try and make him stop.
He let go of me and froze. “Oh—oh no! I'm sorry Barry. I-I-I didn't mean to hug you so hard. I just got excited that you were okay.” He panicked. “Please don't be mad, I'm so sorry about this man.”
My shriveled body fell backwards into the door like a deflated sex doll. I focused on repairing my eyes first as I didn't want Mia's masterful makeup efforts to be ruined by my bleeding eyeballs. However that meant my spine was out of commission as well as my lungs. Still I pointed at the organ I puked up on the floor.
“Hulgh.” I said with as much strength as I could muster.
Gideon looked down at the floor and his expression soured.
“Oh firetruck! Is that your–your.”
“Hulgh.” I said again, pointing at my chest.
Now it was his turn to puke, except it wasn't his organs. The undigested remains of human food and stomach acid coated the floor in a super-charged wave of bile. The sounds of Gideon hurling made those nearby gawk and shriek at the scene.
Now… super-powered teenage hysteria was quite a sight to behold. It isn't like normal human hysteria as amplified emotions don't trigger a wave of powers to go off. But at Marvell Academy, everything went off. Not only did the humans skitter off covering their own mouths, procure their angel boxes from their pockets, and scream. Oh no… the pure chaos from their combined powers only made it worse.
Gravity warped with students running upside down on the ceiling, sonic screams split the air making students bleed from the ears, plants rapidly grew out of lockers and bit at passerbyers, students panickedly transformed into half-bird-half-human monstrosities trying to get above the chaos only to collide with other flying teens, and lightning electrocuted the ground in sporadically formed clouds and fried the lights. Darkness swallowed the halls, portals opened up in random areas dropping debris from seemingly other dimensions, explosions blew apart hallway columns, students cried and screamed and ran from Gideon super-puking in front of me.
Worst of all? That fucker literally puked on my heart.
Iggy whistled at the carnage left behind, “Wow… I do not envy the janitor here.”
Even with the lights out, the white door still glowed on its own. As I healed up my spine, the feeling of heat mingled with my flesh. The dust had settled and Gideon eventually stopped emptying his stomach.
“Oh no… I really made a mess of things.” He whimpered. “I didn't want to hurt anyone. I just wanted to make friends on the first day.” His eyes had the fucking audacity to water. That's right, he was gonna start fucking crying again.
By this point my face and throat healed, so I let out a sharp hiss.
“Hey. Gideon. What the fuck are you doing?”
“I'm sorry.” He started sniffling. “I just-just keep making everything worse. And I just wanted to make friends on my f-f-first day of school. But I keep hurting people and—”
“Gideon. Shut the fuck up. I'm not going to feel sorry for you so drop the act.”
He blinked at me with eyes as big as dinner plates.
“I'm not acting. I really am sorry. I just wanted to be cool and make friends. My mom said she wasn't sure if I was ready for school. I've only been in training in the temple of solidarity and Mom said that was enough but I really wanted to make friends at school like in the sitcoms and—”
“Holy fuck Gideon shut up.” I inched my body up to lean taller. “Stop being such a fucking pussy. You are the most powerful being on Earth and you're acting like a whiny bitch on his period.”
He pawed at his eyes and sniffled. “That's derogatory towards women and people who menstruate, Barry. You shouldn't say those things. We are supposed to uphold good morals and values for people to look up to.”
I grimaced. This guy was really going to lecture my ass about morals and values like he had any fucking clue what they were? This idiot bashed in my brains because he got flustered over making a moral decision.
“Fine. You act like a whiny shit for brains on his period. Is that better?”
Gideon blinked and gave me a look. “Do you even know what a period is?”
In truth, no, but I'd heard a few sinners use that insult. I imagined it was a period of anguish universally known and mocked for succumbing to one's emotions. That's precisely what Gideon was having, wasn't it?
Either way, I doubled down.
“Psh, yeah I do, so stop having a big fat period and give me my heart back, asshole.”
Gideon had stopped crying, he looked half confused and half disgusted. “Your mom didn't teach you the struggles of womanhood?”
“Gideon. Heart. Now.”
He obliged by once again, removing his shirt. He took my heart and cleaned it up as best he could from the nuclear aftermath of his gag reflexes.
As he cleaned it he said: “You might think I'm mean, but I'm not I promise. I just want to help people. And, I'm really sorry I hurt you and made a mess of things. I just… Can we start over man? Like, clean slate?” He held up my heart, clean as a freshly polished pitchfork.
I snatched the heart from his hands. “Start over? Fat chance.” I scoffed. “You are nothing but a fucking boy scout with no concept of how fucked up world is. You want to play hero, and save the day, but you're not going to get jackshit if you think this world is worth saving. You're a fucking moron.”
He sheepishly looked away, rubbing the back of his neck. “I'm sorry I made such an awful first impression but… I disagree.”
“That you're a boy scout?”
“No, that I'm dumb for believing this world is worth saving.” He squinted. “Why are you here if you don't believe in that too? I thought we at least had that in common.”
I shoved my heart in my pocket. “I have my reasons. You wouldn't understand.”
“Try me.” He dared.
I chuckled, and the rest of my organs healed up inside my torso.
“Gideon you are a weak, pathetic, naive soul with far too much power to handle. I am strong, clever, and indestructible. If you want to understand me, you'll have to become strong, clever, and indestructible. Otherwise I'm not wasting my breath. You get it?”
He clenched his fists, glaring at me with slight traces of laser-red resentment. Oh what a powerful specimen he was. There was much terrifying potential I could use with him. Even being cornered by him against the door, I could see the raw power this guy had. I imagined him flying through the skies at my command, tearing off the wings of angels, melting their million eye-balled faces into a gooey soup of salvation. He was incredible, and as much as his whiny attitude annoyed me I still wanted him for my army. The potential for carnage was too enticing to ignore. I just needed to break his soul, and by the looks of it I was picking at scab wounds of his scraped ego. Yet, before I could twist the knife into his wounded pride, the wrath in his eyes vanished.
“Yeah.” He unclenched his fists. “You can be mean to me all you want Barry, but I'm not giving up.”
I smirked. “Giving up what?”
“The chance to be your friend.” He stated. “A bully can always become a friend if you can understand why they're in pain. And I don't know why you're in pain Barry but I want to help you. I mean geez, high-school can be so scary right? I'm scared too, I've never been to a real school before and I don't know how to act. But I do know you don't have to pretend to be macho and tough for other people to like you.” He placed his hand on my shoulder, looked me in the eye, and smiled like a Saint bestowing a lost soul a snippet of sermon.
“Barry, I think you’re cool by just being yourself. And if you don't believe in yourself, I'll believe in you. You're gonna fit in at school, and do great, and people will love you for who you really are. If you don't have a friend yet I'll be your first. We can look out for each other and make high-school not-so-scary.” He held out his hand for me to shake. “What do you say?”
I widened my eyes, looking between his hand and his dopey face.
“You… want me to make a deal of… friendship? In exchange for what?”
“Um. Nothing?” He shrugged. “Just being friends is enough for me.”
Friends? Was enough? For him?
Where the hell did he get off thinking I was in pain? Or that I was scared of being accepted? I was here to cause pain. I wanted his soul not his companionship! And I was getting ticked off by how happy-go-fuck-me this idiot was.
“Friendship in exchange for nothing?” I scoffed. “That's a terrible deal. Do you even know how to—you know what? Stupid question, you don't know how to make a deal. If you did, you would've offered me something I actually want.” I slapped his hand away and opened the door to detention. I ranted as I marched in.
“I never make friends, especially not with a dumb period boy like you. I can't believe you had the fucking nerve—no—the fucking lunacy to ask me to be your friend. You're the dumbest dumbass to ever dumbass in the history of dumbasses. Why would I ever want to be friends with you without anything to gain from—gAH”
I collapsed on the pure white ground, with my body writhing in agony.