Weekend school was certainly something Mitch wasn’t excited for anymore these days. There was so much going on that classes were the last thing on his mind. Lara had suited up to walk with him this time, having been finally scheduled to take weekend classes with him after she had gotten her start with Jasper.
There was an awkward silence as they walked together, not only was she old enough to be his aunt but he wasn’t sure what to even say that wasn’t to do with the current investigation.
“Feels weird doesn’t it?” She asked eventually, waiting for his inevitable look of confusion before she continued “We only really know each other in the context of work.”
“Don’t get much time to get to know each other with everything that is going on.” He replied, realising he had never really taken any time aside to try and get to know her. “Usually we are either catching up on sleep, or you are off in the apartment.”
“Exactly,” she laughed. Purchasing her ticket with him before moving to stand on the platform in the darkness of the early morning. It was rather cold this time of year so they both had their jackets on and a spare change of warm clothing in their bags for after class.
“How's charcoal?” He asked after a few moments of silence.
“As erratic as ever” she smiled, taking a seat on one of the sporadic benches along the platform “Jasper and Sophia are taking care of him for the weekend.”
“Wonder if he would get along with spooky.” He started, still nodding a few times as he continued to search for subjects. Eventually settling on “Oh yeah, you’ll get to meet some of my friends too. We hang out every time we come to the school.”
“Oh I couldn’t impose myself into your friend group like that.” she chuckled awkwardly, staring out onto the tracks “Besides, I’m rather old to be hanging around a group of children, don’t you think?”
“Well that's only on you.” he bluntly replied, taking a tight hold of his bag when someone walked past them. “We won’t mind. People of all ages come to these classes, It’s not like a set age group. Just tend to be students around our age cause it's mandatory by the time you are getting ready to work.”
“Guess that makes you abnormal, right?” she asked, occasionally shifting on the seat.
“Very abnormal.” He said with a smile in her direction “but I got the best in the business teaching me at home.”
“I’ll be sure to tell him you managed to give him a compliment.” she teased as the train began to approach.
He couldn’t help but laugh aloud at that, shaking his head as he walked forward to the yellow line on the platform with his bag “Don’t, it’ll go to his head.”
She simply followed, taking their seat in an almost empty carriage. “At least it's warm in here,” she said, rubbing her hands together.
They eventually settled on some chit-chat about all manners of things from television, to movies, and books which helped pass the time.
After he took a brief step outside the carriage to the space between where the bathrooms were situated he gave his mother a call. He returned by the time they had reached Athy with his phone back in his pocket. “Sorry ‘bout that.” He said, taking his seat again “You’ll get to meet Saoirse here, she lives around here.”
“Well let's hope that she's okay with me being here.” She chuckled “Coming on and finding some random woman with your friend might be a bit out there.”
Raising his hands in a calming gesture he reassured her, “I told them you would be coming with me, they are excited to meet you.”
It was soon followed by a loud “Hey there!” as Saoirse boarded the train, rushing over to take a seat next to Mitch. “Long time no see!”
“We’ve been busy.” He replied in defence “Cult’s don't deal with themselves ya know.”
“I assume you are Saoirse.” Lara added, awkwardly holding her hand out for her “I’m Lara.”
“A pleasure.” Saoirse responded, promptly shaking her hand “Mitch has told us about you learning from Jasper.”
“Mitch too.” She corrected, retracting her hand once she was done and resting it atop the table atop her other hand. “It’s certainly been a jarring transition from my old life to this.”
Saoirse nodded along in response before she said “I can imagine, we’ve all been born into it.” As usual Mitch and Saoirse checked about the carriage while they mentioned anything about the family or anything slightly incriminating.
“Probably best we wait to talk about all of this until later. why not tell me a bit about yourself?” Lara asked Saoirse.
The two began to talk about themselves, sharing some personal life details such as Laras bachelor's degree and Saoirse's work with her father on a construction site from time to time.
By the time the train ride was over they had managed to somehow keep a conversation going, even through town as they took the Luas. Mitch found himself sitting out of the conversation as they had talked about anything from movies to school and work Lara had before she came with them.
It was somewhat liberating in itself to not have to focus on keeping the conversation going as they enjoyed themselves. He had something far heavier on his mind. “From now on you’ll be required to meet with Rin at some point over the weekend.” He recalled Jasper telling him the previous night before he left for home. “He wants a consistent update on what's going on with this case.”
Once again he found he was going to have to come face to face, figuratively of course, with RIn. He found every time that he met him again he got more agitated by the sheer smugness any form of authority came with.
Then there was the problem of the job itself, they had hardly any ideas at all and their session back home when they finished their job came to essentially nothing. Jasper wasn’t offering much advice or ideas which led Mitch to think that everyone was pulling some form of sick test on him to make sure he could follow through and fix this mistake on his own.
“If this is what I have to do, to prove we can be better than the rest of the family… So be it.” He thought.
The day itself went rather slowly at first, meeting up with Joel by the front gates and heading to their rooms before the morning assembly where he recited the exact same thing he did every week. At least this time he wasn’t called out in front of everyone to go see Rin or whoever would want to call him this time.
“So, how's the case going?” Joel asked once they began to move towards general studies.
“It’s getting there..” Mitch replied, clearly exasperated from the topic already. “We have a bunch of evidence and all that, just needs to be put together and then we come up with the final plan.”
“It's a rather awkward situation” Lara added, trying to ease the burden of explaining it all “I’m part of the cult, got time off from them to come here”
“Sounds rough, if you guys need anything tech related just ask and I’ll see if my dad could make it.” Joel offered, stopping in his tracks at the turn they would take to split to the different dorms.
“We may just have to, to pull this off.” Lara said.
Saoirse gently patted her arm and motioned down the other path “We head over to this one.”
“See you over there.” The two boys said, waving at them before going over to their own dorm.
“Hope you are doing well my man.” Joel said, putting a hand on Mitch’s shoulder “Can’t be easy dealing with all this.”
“Not with a team of three my man…” Mitch admitted, brushing his hand off “I appreciate the concern though.”
“Just remember to call when you need something.” He replied, slapping Mitch’s back hard before he ran down to his own room.
The first class was rather uneventful, covering the basics once more as an introductory lesson to Lara they covered a lot of topics they had before. It gave time to think over the plan of attack and write down any ideas he had so he could email them over to Jasper later.
By the end of the class Lara pulled him aside once they got into the hall “I know this might not be the place to say this.. But I feel there's something going on around here.”
“What kind of something?” He asked in a hushed tone, allowing the others to pass on their way to lunch.
She glanced around rather nervously “I feel there's some kind of presence about here. I can’t pinpoint it but I’ve felt it all class.”
Though as Mitch attempted to reply they would have been interrupted by their demonology professor, Heather. “What did you say, girl?” She asked in a kindly tone, sporting her usual floral button up shirt and glasses hanging around her neck.
“Oh, sorry ma’am I don’t want to be a bother.” She replied quickly, and nervously “I was just being paranoid!”
She shook her head once she was done replying, raising a boney old finger to point at her “Don’t try and hide it, you mentioned something about a presence.”
Lara nervously looked to Mitch for some form of help, though he just shrugged and said “You can tell her, she's one of the best here when it comes to dealing with spirits.”
“That is a bold claim, but thank you Mitch.” She replied, lowering her finger and placing her hands behind her back.
“Well…” Lara began, taking a deep breath to ease her nerves, already shaking slightly “I am able to sense the presence of spirits. While I can’t tell much from that, I know when one is close.”
Heather nodded and seemed to stare into the distance thinking about it. “So, you can sense them…?” She mumbled quietly, rubbing her chin for a moment before saying “It has been some time since I’ve seen a non-family member be this sensitive to the air about them.”
“What’s that mean?” Mitch asked for Lara who had backed away a few paces at this point.
“It means she can sense spirits, fairly self explanatory” Heather said with a short lived cackle “But what it actually means is she is sensitive to the magic around us all, and anything that disrupts that such as a spirit will make itself known to her within whatever sphere of influence she has.”
Mitch spent some time talking about it before something clicked with him “Wait, what would she even be feeling in the school?”
“Someone from the family more than likely.” Heather explained, moving into the classroom and nodding at them to follow her. “When you become adept with magic, you absorb it at higher rates which means the air about you is different.”
“I see… would make sense I guess. But Joseph isn’t adept with magic and I always feel it around him.” She said, granting a brief and less than flattering description of the situation to Heather afterwards.
“I’m not sure about that one. Be sure to come to my class after lunch. I have a sample with me for today.” She cackled, walking ahead to the desk.
“Wait…” Mitch replied “you tell us it could just be family, while you have a ghost here in the school?”
“I never said I didn’t.” she mocked, sitting at the desk “It is also far more likely to be a higher up, I have it under lock and key. No way you should be able to sense it.”
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“Right…” Mitch responded, still not sure what she meant. “Either way, lunch time.” he said to Lara, walking back out into the now almost empty hall where Saoirse and Joel were waiting for them.
Lunch passed in a flash, any form of break seemed to these days. The chatting would pass in one ear and out the other as small talk did and then they were back in class in what felt like a five minute trip.
Once back in class with Heather they took a seat up front, Joel had opted to take spirit walking instead the two days this week to get in practice while Saoirse joined them.
Heather would begin to cover some of the topics they had already gone over to the small class of no more than 20 students in the large room made for about twice that.
“In covering these topics once more, I hope to instil just how dangerous a demon truly is. One wrong move and a full fledged demon will take more than a mile of destruction.” That calm and kind grandmother exterior she had before slowly shifting to a rather disturbingly serious glare. “So what I show you here today is something you are lucky to feel without the consequence of having to deal with it.”
She wheeled a large box out from behind the desk that was coated head to toe in runes, locks, what he could only assume to be salt, and some religious symbols for those weak of heart.
The class looked in on a mixture of curiosity and fear as she began to undo the locks. One by one they fell to the floor with loud metallic thuds. The chains followed soon after, slinking to the floor with an even louder crash atop them. Silence followed, and he wasn’t sure which one was worse.
She moved on to the runes next, placing a hand onto a rune which would cause it to glow, each rune slowly connecting once she powered them up. Moving her hand onto a new one and repeating until she was finished. Once she had finished the last rune the entire box was lit up like something from a science fiction movie.
She went back to her desk where she opened the drawer and pulled out a rather unconventional bowie knife that was covered in the same runes that his dagger had. “Be careful, but don’t be afraid.” She assured the class as she held the blade above the box, pointing downwards at it “Upmost precautions have been taken to allow me to show you this.”
As she hovered the blade she nodded to the door where Nick had entered, taking out a longer blade of a machete with the same runes upon it “Go ahead, do be careful.”
The tension in the air could clearly be felt as more than half the class held their breath in anticipation. Once she pierced the rune on top she placed her hand on the edge of the lid. Everyone waited with baited breath and the suspense gripped them all. She watched the room to make sure everyone was ready before she flung the lid of the box open, and in an instance the room was engulfed in a magical aura so strong even those with the weakest senses among them could feel it.
A feeling of pure dread overtook Mitch, the air feeling cold and his natural mana quivering at the feeling making it hard to not do the same. Though he managed to briefly pull his attention to Lara to see how she was coping.
Her face said it all, pure shock as she looked like she had turned pale, ready to vomit. She stared wide eyed as a figure slowly began to emerge from the box that seemingly had runes also inscribed on the inside.
“Is this what I am reduced to, woman?” It asked in a raspy voice, the first spirit that Mitch had heard cohesively talk “A demonstration for a bunch of children?” Its fingers slowly reached out and gripped the edges of the box to begin ascending. Its form was hazy and covered in a thick layer of darkness that indicated it was in a weakened state according to their studies.
Heather ignored its attempts at banter and said “Take in this feeling, and memorise it. These are what we fight against, and protect the world from. They will do anything to get into your head, promise anything, and deliver nothing.” Pacing about the box with her knife in hand she said “They should never be allowed to live, but this is a rare opportunity.” Her calm demeanour completely vanished by this point as she looked far more cold towards the demon.
As the shapeless shadowy form watched her, about to say something else she replied with “These abominations only destroy, and take what they want!” Thrusting her blade through the barrier the box had made around it, piercing the vague fog like form and causing it to keel over as best it could within its prison.
It only seemed injured, not dead as she removed her blade. How she acted so casually around such an intense feeling of pressure on her very spirit was beyond him. It was a feeling intense enough to make him shudder, his hand trembling as he took out his notebook to try to take some notes that came out as barely legible scribbles.
“Surely a woman after a man's heart” The demon mocked, its tone rather casual for one who had just been gravely injured.
“I think this is far more than enough.” Nick said sternly.
Heather nodded in return and placed her hand upon the back of the box, causing the light about him to grow weaker, seemingly forcing him down into the box once more where she flipped over the lid and began to re-lock the box with those chains and locks that were on the floor.
While its aura had left the room once it was sealed back within the prison, the impact surely hadn’t as everyone struggled to get out of their shock. “It was a necessary lesson, to know how our enemy dwarfs us in sheer power. But we have our numbers and information.” She began to lecture, pacing about the box as Nick moved in to securely move it.
“We have organisation, contacts, strategies to deal with these creatures and so it may sound scary at first, we are more than capable of subduing them. We even had a sect who were specially tailored to hunting down the most dangerous of fiends.” She explained, almost sounding nostalgic at the end even though Mitch heard nothing of her working with his great grandfather.
While the feeling was gone and he was able to take full control of his own body again, he saw that Lara was still trembling as she tried to take some notes, her hand shaking as the notes were left in a very scribbled looking state. While the lecture continued without another demonic incident, Lara was quite catatonic at times.
When class ended Mitch swiftly made his way to the front where Heather was finishing putting her tools away. “Ma’am, could you tell me more about demons?” He asked.
She cocked a brow and looked up at him. “Well, classes are over.” she chuckled, glancing past him at Lara “But I suppose you also look like you need to know more.”
She stood up fast enough to knock the chair back into the wall behind her. “Tell me, girl.” She loudly said to Lara “What did you feel?”
She approached Lara while waiting for a response, which took a few moments for her to say “It felt… Familiar…”
That was enough to cause Heather to stop in place. “What did you say?” she asked, that kind old lady slowly fading away to a far more serious look her way.
“I’ve felt this before…” She stood up after, pulling her bag up over her shoulder before approaching the two “With Joseph, I have felt something similar to this.”
“How could you not tell us that?!” Mitch asked in sheer shock.
“I told you something felt off!” She quickly defended herself. “I don’t control how this works!”
Heather stood between the two and motioned for them both to calm down “Now, how did it feel?” She asked “Someone this sensitive will react to these waves differently to us.” Looking at Mitch with her latter explanation.
Lara had to spend some time searching for the words, shifting in place uncomfortably. “The best way I can describe it is cold, really cold... “ She began “Like it was stealing the breath out of my lungs.”
“That's nothing like what I felt…” Mitch said, before shaking his head and saying “Wait, wouldn’t Jasper and I have felt this demon's presence if this is what it felt like?”
Lara shrugged and said “Like I know how this exactly works.”
“Well I do.” Heather stated proudly, stepping back from between the two “Demons are smart creatures, they learn to hide themselves within crowds of humans and even mask their signature. Someone like yourself, Lara, can see right through them. While a weaker feeling, you can still feel the presence of a demon through its disguise.”
“Then Joseph..” she said, slowly holding her own arms close to her chest “Joseph might be a demon..”
“Are you sure about that?” Mitch asked sternly, this could end up changing the course of the entire situation. “That’s a serious allegation.”
“I would need to go back there to be sure, but I have felt like this around him before.”
Heather would listen intently to the conversation before she said “Well, for now go get some rest and talk this over. Come back tomorrow and I will show the demon once more before it is disposed of. I will get in touch with Jasper and let him know.”
With that brief explanation they were shooed out the door by Heather into the hall. “Now, I must attend to some things.” She said before closing the door behind them.
“What are we even going to do now?” Mitch asked as he walked with Lara down the now empty hall in the darkening school building, the light from the windows dimming as the sun began to set.
“I guess we will contact Jasper, tell him about this and finally commit to a plan.” Lara theorised, noting that there was someone waiting down the end of the hall.
Mitch knew Aoife couldn’t go a week without being some form of a nuisance to him but even he was shocked to see her waiting for them.
Mitch opted to ignore her as they passed, continuing their conversation to feign ignorance to her presence. “Yeah, I think it's time we finally finish this whole business.”
Before Lara had a chance to even reply, Aoife felt the time to be a nuisance was now. “Why bother?” she began, that snarky tone enough to make Mitch’s blood boil “They’re going to be killed off anyway, stop wasting people's time and let the squad take em out.”
He stopped a few steps away from her, turning with a look that could pierce right through her “Are people that expendable to you!?” Raising his voice as he stepped back to stand close “Every person there is a human life you are willing to throw away because it is effort” He scolded as if she was a toddler.
She was left with an expression that was a mix of shock and confusion at the sudden outburst, but she didn’t let it get to her too much before returning to her cocky, condescending tone. “They are expendable, if it means keeping the secret and ensuring more people are safe.”
“Like you believe any of that.” He quickly spat, pointing a finger uncomfortably close to her face, almost pushing her “All you ever do is be an absolute bitch around here, I highly doubt someone as callous as you gives any form of a damn about upkeeping any form of peace or secret. All you care about is showing off how much better you are than anyone else!”
As he was continuing to get heated and she backed away from him, he didn’t let her get a reply in before he continued shouting at this point “You and so many people in this family act as if we are some form of superior species to them, that they are no better than animals to be caged and culled! You seem to conveniently forget the part of the family creed that states we are here to protect them!”
Though he had so much more he wanted to say, Aoife just laughed and said “You are such a baby. You try your way, you waste all our time, then come back and see what happens.”
She gave off that same energy that Rin had in their meetings and it was overwhelming him at this point. He wanted to continue, he wanted to shout, but he had no time for any of that.
Heather would have left her class once she heard the argument turn to shouting “Now what is going on?” She asked in a rather adult, official tone as she found the three.
“Mitch is getting upset over nothing, again.” Aoife tried to mock, though her cocky grin was wiped off her face when Heather responded.
“You are both always at each other. Perhaps Rin can sort this out once and for all.” she said, shooing the two down the hall “Off to his office, now.”
The two shared a hateful glare but would start to walk towards Rin’s office. “Not you Lara, come with me. I can show you now real quick.” Heather added as they began to walk.
“I’ll see you later then” Lara whispered to him.
He nodded, watching her leave before he silently marched up to the office, not even giving her a glare at this point. He was told to take a seat outside while Aoife went in first.
He wasn’t close enough to be able to hear what was being said so he just sat in an awkward silence outside of the principal's office. While his heart was pounding, and he couldn’t focus from the nerves it had little to do with getting in trouble and having to meet Rin, but more to do with that sudden adrenaline from finally having said what he truly thought. Part of it felt good, part of it felt sleazy for finally sinking to her level.
After some time the door would open again and he would be called in once Aoife left. Unusually she didn’t give him any form of smart remark, or grin as she passed. She quietly walked down the hall while he entered the office.
“Hello, take a seat.” Rin said once he saw him, pointing to the seat across from his desk.
“Alright.” Was all Mitch responded with, pulling the chair back and plopping himself onto the seat, ready to be scolded.
While he expected Rin to go into some tangent about how he shouldn’t be getting into fights in the hall, he opened up with “So tell me, how goes the investigation?” Leaning forward to pull his chair upright.
While unexpected at first, he was expecting the conversation to eventually lead to this topic. “Uh… It is going fine, we are close to putting an end to this.” he explained calmly, wanting to keep this short and brief.
“Good to hear.” Rin said, a hint of a relief this time. “I was sure I could count on anyone working with Jasper.”
Odd praise aside he decided to bite the bullet and get his fears out of the way, though he felt he already knew the answer. “What, say, would happen if we took too long on this.”
“Well I feel you already know.” He said bluntly, adjusting himself in the seat until he was upright, placing his gloved hands onto the desk. “We stage a mass suicide of anyone involved and scrub our tracks.”
“Why am I not surprised…” Mitch responded, doing his best to keep a poker face despite his feelings of unease.
“Though it seems like you are close to finishing, so no worries about that.” Rin replied, seemingly trying to sound more casual. “You may just be able to get out of this without anyone getting harmed.”
Mitch took a few moments, still feeling like he wasn’t able to get a full picture of Rin in his head. Sometimes he felt like he was trying to be casual friends and other times he was cold and official. “That’s always been the plan.” He finally responded.
“I know what you are thinking. We are all monsters, cold hearted beasts.” He began, waiting for Mitch’s confused look before he reached up and held his hands together “From learning parts of our history, surely you know the threat we are against is immense. But you don’t seem to understand the other threat.”
He gave a moment to think about it, though he was planning to explain it anyway. “Society is a very frail veil over people. Normality is something people have come to expect and understand. If our secret got out they would all panic.”
“So we kill to make sure others don’t feel uncomfortable?” Mitch asked, holding onto the arms of the chair tightly.
“Not just uncomfortable.” Rin assured, raising a hand to him “People will begin to abuse this power, spirits will be desecrated, more demons will be summoned from botched passings.”
Mitch wasn’t sure how to respond, so Rin continued talking. “You are still young, and hopeful. Being a leader teaches you that some decisions, as dangerous as they are…” He placed a hand on his right glove, gripping the fabric and pulling it off to reveal the thick oak wooden prosthetic hand beneath. “Must be made.”