The Winged Guardian - 6 A Witch Lesson

The demon barged into my house, somehow he was able to open the door without the keys—right, the lock is busted. I stumbled after him trying without much success in changing his mind.

“You can’t! Mum’s gonna kill me!”I begged and dragged and moaned and pulled.

“Your mother’s not home Leigh.”

I was stupefied at his information.

There was not much I could do later but watching Dylan settling in wherever he liked. I did not have any appetite for dinner so I just shut myself in my room until the demon intruded my territory again.

“Let’s begin!” He announced.

I’d rather die now!

“Here.” Dylan handed me a book—a notebook with scary brown leather cover. The writing inside of the cover said,

Rule of the Demon-Human Contract.

Nothing is free.

I gaped at the words did not know what to make of it as Dylan laughed. “It’s funny, isn’t it!”

I answered him ‘N’ and ‘O’ with my eyes.

“That’s just a joke.” Dylan said suppressing his chuckled. “It’s just a normal notebook. It’s my gift for you.”

I could relax only a little. “Why would you give me a gift? I don’t nee—”

“Oh, you’ll need it.” The demon said. “It’s for our lesson.”

I dreaded the word. “What…lesson?”

Dylan walked casually, yawned a bit, and dumped himself on my bed. “You are now a so-called witch. At least, that’s what humans named people like you. You need to learn how to summon me when we’re apart. And if you wish to know more, you can also learn how to—”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!” That was too fast. Did he say— “I’m a witch?”

“Yes.” The demon continued. “I heard a lot of you were burned to death.” He smiled a little.

Don’t smile saying that kind of thing!

I went two shades whiter at the thought and wondered whether I would be burned at the stake too if people find out? But, hey, that was like—two or three hundred years ago. It’s the digital era now! We are civilized. People don’t believe in such superstition anymore. There’s a scientific proof to that witches don’t exist too!

Dylan fanned out his wings blowing all the consolations away and forced in the new not-quite-blissful knowledge that—

I am a witch!

“Shall we begin?” the demon said.

I spent the rest of the night scribing weird ruled shape consisting of circles, squares, triangles, curved lines and more on that notebook. Even though I was already good at drawing, scribing such complicated pattern with that face watching you all the time was not an easy job. Dylan make me memorized them and said that I had to draw the circle big enough for him to stand in order to summon him. We then went on to the weird tongue-twisted incantation of something like ‘Ztsiu’ or ‘Wrhzo.’ I spent the whole night with him studying all these—witchcrafts.

The sun had already risen when I was drawing the two-hundredth symbol. The yellow ray of hope shined through my gloomy mood and I finally made up my mind.

Peeping at Dylan who was still napping on my bed, I pranced with stealthy steps out of the room, out of the house. I reduced all the noises to minimal and started running as I stepped on the asphalted road. I could not take it anymore!

Fetching out the small piece of paper that Conner gave me, I followed the map. It was not far.

It turned out to be a half-neglected church which situated beside a remote graveyard. The cloudy sky and dense landscape transformed the construction into a haunted chapel and made me shivered. Taking in a deep breath, I exhaled the agitation cumulating inside, bolting up my courage. I needed to meet Conner getting some advice from him, or maybe get any holy stuff there if he was not in the building, be it a holy cross, holy water, holy bible, holy chair, holy table, holy shit! …—Sorry, that was not the shit that was holy but was for me running into the door.

The hinges did not grate in the damp weather. I peered inside the place rubbing my forehead at the same time. The hall seemed desert.

“Hello?”

It actually began to feel like those horror movie as the ‘Hello’ traveled from wall to wall in the empty room.

“Welcome.”

I did not expect any reply so that ‘Welcome’ almost made me jump out of my skin. Seth, Phoebe and Conner appeared at the altar. I swung round and hit my arm with the oak pew as they advanced forward. “Wh—what do you want?”

“Oh, look, she scares.” sneered Phoebe and I suddenly hated her.

“What’s your problem?”I asked sarcastically.

“Hey, that’s rude!”snapped the red maniac.

Seth dismissed Phoebe with a wave of his hand. “We’re here to save you. We are your savior.” He sounded so high and mighty, but it could not restore my confidence in them. Conner alone was okay. I did not expect to meet the other two. “Let’s not waste time.” He said coldly holding his look with mine. “You’re Ziarre’s contractor?”

Bewildered, I stared back at the amber eyeballs in disbelief. “B—b—bu—but—but how?! Are you also d—da—demon?”

“NO! WE’RE NOT!” Phoebe exploded scornfully, her face turned to her favorite color. “And you don’t have to know HOW!”

Irritated, I ignored her.

“We can help you end this contract.” Seth ignored her too and continued.

My mouth gaped stupidly in shock and I, busily confusing, forgot to pull the lower lip up. So many questions were harassing my brain– how come Seth and his team talk to me?, how did they know things between Dylan and me?, why do they offer to end this stupid contract? I did not know the answers. And even though I wanted very much to care and doubt for their reasons, I could not, their offer blinded my judgment.

“Y—you can?”

“That’s more like it!” Seth said it in monotone but he seemed to be pleased while both Phoebe and Connor also gave me a big grin. “Just kill him.”

“KILL HIM?!” This guy’s crazy! “You’re kidding?!”

“No, we’re not.” confirmed Conner. And that’s coming out of the man I thought was kind!

“B—but—but I can’t kill him! That’s bad a—and he’s far stronger than me!!!”

“Yes, you can’t, not without our helps.” said Phoebe.

“You will…help me…kill him?”

“No.” said Seth patiently. “We can help you with the plan, but you have to be the one who kill him or the contract won’t break.”

I observed the trio hesitantly. I had never killed a person and I confidently did not want to now. It is bad, very bad, no human on earth should do such thing. Groping for something to mask my indecisiveness, I asked, “Why do you guys want to help me anyway?”

“Aww…” Phoebe made a face that added my hatred to her. “It’s just because you are such a pitiful being.”

Pitiful being?

“So, are you in?” asked Seth with his icy tone.

No, of course not! I don’t want to kill anybody. Ending the contract is all I need! Frustration reigned my head. I was torn between my desire and the moral conscience.

Six eyes fixated on me pressuring for my decision. So I made a simulation in my head to help me, picturing myself holding a knife, no, an axe, no, a gun—no, okay, I’ll go with a sword, facing Dylan, I run the steel blade through him in slowmo. Water-clear blood splashes into my face drop by drop, ferrous-rich air stung my nose, and the demon falls down in heap, eyes filled with desperation, shrouded by death. A buzz ran through me and I choked and quailed at the too-real imagination. But I got an answer, eventually.

“I’m sorry. I can’t do it.”

Turning them down, I rushed out of the place without looking back.

Head still whirled with the cruel illusion, I ran faster trying to shift my mind to the legs movements. I found it really uncomfortable around the trio. They were strange and they gave out an evil kind of aura. How could they be the savior when I could not sense a tiny bit of safety and peace from them, especially Seth and Phoebe?

The church was soon left behind. The farther I went away from those freaks the more back-to-earth I felt. Far ahead, ominous clouds began to mass the sky which was losing its color gradually. Trees, big and small, swayed back and forth in the gale as if trying to humiliate my decision. Maybe, I should not have left the church after all.

Suddenly, lightning struck into a tree and it went up in fire. I was startled but was even more scared when I came into an open meadow where everything seemed to be rattling like my heart. The gale became so strong that it plucked off a big oak as easy as plucking a rose. I wide-eyed with horror at the crashing and the dirt were sprayed over me. Butas it always happened in the thriller movie…the worst was yet to come.

THUUUUUDDDD!!!!

There came the thunder. I was expecting that. But the sound still chilled me to the bones. THUD! THUD!! THUD!!! The noise echoed again and again. And it was getting weirder because…I think if I’m not wrong. It’s–louder, as if–closer?

The noise bothered me so much that, despite very scared, I could not resist not looking up into the dark grey sky.

I raised my head and my mouth fell open…

Is that possible?

No, nothing is logical in this world anymore. Take Dylan for example.

THUDD! THUUDD!! THUUDDD!!!

GGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

It was a DRAGON!