Later that night, Janet parked her car outside an apartment building and waited with me for Ray’s signal to go inside. We both craned our necks up at the yellow lights that illuminated the fourth floor where his boyfriend lived.
“You getting any strange vibes?” she asked.
“Yeah, for the past twenty minutes we’ve been waiting here. I’m starting to think it was a bad idea letting Ray go inside first.”
We sat and scrolled through our phones while waiting. It was getting late in the evening, so I decided to beat my mom to the punch and text her first before she contacted me.
Hey, Mom. I’m at Janet’s house finishing up the math assignment. Her grandfather’s here, so don’t worry. I’ll be home soon.
Janet chuckled hearing me read some of the text out loud. “Speaking of that project, we should really plan a sleepover soon and actually finish the thing.”
“We should, ‘cause I hate lying to my parents. Like, I do it when I have to, but it still makes me feel guilty, you know?”
“I guess.” Janet frowned before burying her face in her phone. Maybe talking about parents wasn’t the best idea.
The wait continued until the vibration of my cell phone got our attention. Surprisingly, it was a text from Lucas.
Robyn came by and had some complications with the baby, so I drove her to the hospital. I’m on my way home now, babe. I love you.
I didn’t text back. Why? I wasn’t sure. Maybe the circumstances involving Robyn prevented me from expressing any emotion toward him. Just the thought of her always being around was enough to push me away.
“How is Lucas, anyway?” Janet asked. “You know, after the whole Cassandra situation.”
“He’s doing better. Why do you ask?”
“No reason. You two seem to have a really stressful relationship, so I was just wondering how things were going is all.”
In comes another lie in three…two…one.
“We’re fine. Nothing to worry about. You think we can all hang out after everything is over?”
She snorted. “Yeah, and I be the third wheel while you two make googly eyes at each other? No thanks.”
I laughed at her comment until my phone vibrated again. “It’s Ray. He texted to come upstairs...in all caps.”
We got out of the car and hurried into the building, climbing the stairway covered with graffiti on the walls until we were on the fourth floor, standing in front of a green door marked 401.
“Ray said this was the apartment number,” I told her while trying to turn the knob that refused to budge. Shattering glass could be heard on the other side of the door.
“Let me handle this,” Janet insisted with her palm facing the knob. The golden lock slowly melted away, leaving a hole in the door.
“Nice,” I uttered before pushing the door open.
We stepped into a dim living room with flipped furniture and shards of glass scattered on the hardwood floor. Crumbled sheets of paper were strewn across the kitchenette, which had several cracked plates and utensils on the counter and in the sink.
Just what the hell went down here?
Further into the living room area was Ray, who was confronting a light-skinned guy with a buzz cut connected to his five o’clock shadow. He held a crazed look in his muddy brown eyes as he sat in a crooked chair in front of a desk with a laptop.
“Your groupies just broke into my house,” the guy said in a demonic voice, keeping his eyes glued to the laptop screen. “Or maybe they’re my replacements. I was never good enough for you.”
“Aaron, that’s not true,” Ray argued. “You know we’re in this together. Please, just stop what you’re doing. Don’t kill anyone else.”
“Why's he killing people?” I inquired. “And how?”
Ray pointed to the laptop, his busted lip trembling. Aaron cackled and began typing on the keyboard. His constant fixation with the computer was alarming to say the least.
“H-he’s typing usernames that belong to students at the university,” Ray stuttered. “S-some others are from comment sections and forums online. Aaron's able to kill anyone he wants by typing out the name of their account.”
“What in the world?” Janet questioned, bewildered. “Why the hell would he wanna do that?”
“These are the girls you asked to talk to me, Ray?” Aaron asked with a grin. “Is this some joke? We live in a generation of instant gratification and limited attention spans. You honestly think a couple of kids have the patience and intelligence to hold a conversation with me? What have they gone through, huh? Breakups? Petty arguments? Or did their boyfriends cheat on them so they decided to hook up with each other like typical teenage floozies?”
“Nice rant, but you need to stop reading from the cliché teen fiction section,” Janet countered. “You can’t be much older than us, dude. Maybe if you tell us what the problem is, we can help.”
Ray reached his hand out to Aaron, who swatted it away and growled, “Don’t touch me.” He then sneered at Janet. “You wanna know what my problem is? This ‘look at me’ generation of betas howling for their participation trophy. They’re so desperate to be a part of something that they don’t care who they hurt in their hunt for relevancy. Well, I’ve got a surprise for those clout chasers. Every single one of those jackasses online and at my university are gonna die tonight for ever insulting me and bashing my sexuality.”
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He smiled as he got out of his seat and resumed his tirade. “Do you know how hard it is to be me? To have to deal with douchebags at school and trolls online when I’m home? Being gay isn’t as easy as TV shows and movies makes it seem. No, it’s not even close. But it’s okay, because those who can’t accept me won’t be around for much longer. They’ll all be in hell where they belong.”
The Shadow influencing him made its presence known by manifesting in the seat behind him. The sight of a ghastly beast sitting in a chair so human-like was terrifying enough, but the appearance of multiple Shade Crawlers filling such a small space made me fear for my life. They held their position in a tight circle around us like dogs waiting for a command, with another standing on the fire escape outside the apartment window, just waiting for the chance to come in and sneak up on us.
I turned to Aaron in hopes of solving his problem before things got messy. “Look, we can’t do anything about the people who harass you online. Most of them can’t resist the urge to express their insensitive thoughts, I get that. And I know it’s hard dealing with them every damn day, but you can’t use their ignorance as an excuse to kill people. What you’re doing needs to stop.”
“Really? So those bastards are allowed an outlet to voice their opinions and disrespect whoever they want, but I shouldn’t go online and punish them for it? That’s the problem with today’s society: it’s too much nonsense without consequence.”
“Aaron, please, just listen to her,” Ray begged. “Listen to me, too. I’m here for you. You’re not alone in this fight, believe me.”
“You don’t understand me, either. How could you? You haven’t even come out to your mother because you’re afraid she’ll reject you even more than she already has.”
Not only did the harshness of his tone cause Ray to flinch, it excited the Shadow enough to stand and point its talon-like finger at us with an unsettling smile. No longer did the demons have to wait to go wild; the order to destroy was given.
On instinct, I generated a chakram and swung it at the creature behind me, successfully purging it. Unfortunately for Ray, he was bitten on the shoulder by a demon near him and thrown across the room like a rag doll. I hurled my weapon at the creature and slayed it before it could do further harm, but a sharp sting in my back from another demon’s claw painfully reminded me that we were outnumbered. The stabbing sensation traveled through my body before my feet left the ground, soon feeling the impact of being tossed against a wall.
There was no time to recover on the floor. The demon followed up its assault with a stomp that would’ve crushed my skull had I not manifested a chakram to shield myself. It backed away to try something else, allowing me to quickly fling the chakram and eliminate the enemy before it could attack.
My teeth clenched as I struggled to stand on my feet. Janet did her best to defend herself against the remaining three Shade Crawlers, but was unable to put up a fight due to her fire being ineffective against them.
Not to mention she couldn’t see demons.
They started to leave marks that tore through her long sleeve shirt and blue jeans. She formed a cage of flames around herself in hopes of protection, but I knew that wouldn’t work. Not unless I gave it a little flare.
I released a beam of energy that merged with the chamber of fire, creating a fortress of light that no demon would dare attempt to penetrate. With Janet safe, it was time to send these three fiends back to hell.
“Hey.” I got their attention. “Try fighting someone who can see your ugly asses.”
They lunged at me in a fury, two being taken down by my chakram before they could reach me. The remaining one managed to graze my skin with its fangs, but failed to grip onto my arm and had to suffer the wrath of my weapon being thrust into its eye. It didn’t take long after that for it to wail and vanish into thin air.
The only threat left was Aaron’s Shadow. Janet walked out of the blazing sphere and joined me in confronting him.
“You know what’s really your problem?” she snapped at him. “You care too much about what people think.”
“Well, maybe if people stop voicing their negative opinions any chance they get, none of this would be an issue.”
“But you can’t silence society,” I told him. “Yeah, people hate what they can’t relate to, but killing them ‘cause they don’t agree with you doesn’t make you any better.”
“Exactly,” Janet pitched in. “I was bullied on social media in the past, but I didn’t waste my time tracking down idiots for revenge. You have to be strong and be better than them, ‘cause the world is not a nice place, and social media is toxic as hell, but you can still be happy by communicating with people who understand and care about you. Like him.” She pointed to Ray, who held his shoulder and stumbled over to us.
“Why haven’t you talked to me about any of this?” Ray asked Aaron. “We’ve been together too long to be hiding our feelings. Whatever you’re going through, I’m going through it with you. If people online are pissing you off, block’em and navigate the web differently. If people at campus are talking crap, we inform the authorities and let’em deal with those ignorant assholes. Simple as that.”
Aaron trembled as he turned to his laptop and gripped the sides of it. “It’s not that simple. I can’t just turn off my screen and it all goes away. What’s seen online can be felt offline, and I feel it all. I shouldn’t have to change because of other people, but I don’t want anyone to think they’re superior to me. I just want to live my life without being judged. I don’t want to stay in a safe space forever.”
“And you don’t have to,” I said to him. “Never let the opinions of others stop you from being who you are. The world will keep spinning regardless of their thoughts, and you—”
My speech was interrupted by a desperate move from the Shadow. It began whispering in Aaron’s ear to prevent us from breaking its manipulative spell.
“Ray,” I turned to him, “cyberbullying is something my power can’t fix. I can get the demon out of his mind, but it’s up to you to rescue him.”
“Huh? Okay, tell me what I need to do.”
“After I use my Enlightenment to purge the Shadow, I need you to always be there for Aaron. Touch his heart in ways only you know how, ‘cause my power can’t save him, but your love for him can.”
He gave me a puzzled look before nodding. “Okay, okay. Yeah, of course I will. I’ll never leave his side.”
With his assurance, I took control of the situation by releasing a flash of light at Aaron. The energy caused the Shadow to shriek before evaporating into nothingness. When the radiance faded, Aaron collapsed on the floor with his eyes closed. All was over. For now.
“Yo, that was wicked.” Ray knelled down to examine him. “Is he gonna be alright?”
“He’ll be fine, though he won’t remember anything that happened since I had to purge the Shadow’s influence directly out of him.”
“If you have the power to just get rid of the darkness in people, what’s the point in trying to convince them with words to ‘see the light’?” Janet questioned. “Just blind them and be done with it.”
“Because I want people to defeat their demons on their own. When they do that, they keep the memories of all the sinful acts the demon caused them to commit, so the chances of them going back to their bad habits are lessened. It just makes the world a better place when people understand right from wrong.”
She shrugged. “Well, we kept our end of the deal. Now it’s time for him to do the same.”
We both looked down at Ray, who leaned his head on Aaron’s chest and spoke the words, “I’m sorry. I swear things are gonna change. I’ll talk to my mother, and we’ll get through this. Together.”
With their relationship rekindled, preparations to invade Alvin’s lab were set to begin. The night was far from over, and the text message I received from an unknown number was evidence of that.
Hello, Aliyah. I’m ready for your report.