I sunk lower in my seat as every single eye in the classroom burned through my sweatshirt. I could feel the blood quickly flowing into my cheeks and the aching knot in my stomach almost tighten to the point of explosion. With a shaky hand I pulled my hood lower over my face and looked down. Why was this so embarrassing? I had done this many times in the past, so why should today be any different? Well I guess when you claim to see things that others don’t, people think you’ve completely lost your mind. Especially when you’re in a different school with new kids.
But no, I wasn’t crazy and I most certainly wouldn’t humiliate myself on purpose. I mean it isn’t me who makes me say the things I say. Or at least I hope not, because then I would be crazy. But anyone who was me would know that no matter how hard you tell yourself he’s not real, he’s just too realistic to be fake. The rough shiny scales, the piercing red eyes that always seemed to be watching you…
The awkward silence in the classroom lasted for a few seconds while I held my breath waiting to see what would happen. It took every single ounce of courage left in me to take a quick peek out of my hood to see the reactions. My neck was stiff and my face burned with humiliation as I lifted my hood a fraction of an inch. Twenty-four shocked faces stared back at me. I could feel my stomach wounding tighter and tighter until it finally burst with an eruption of laughter from the class.
“She’s completely insane!” I heard a voice struggle through gasps of laugher.
“She can’t be serious!”
“And she’s in our class…why?”
The laughs and comments pounded through my throbbing head and it felt like blood was pouring out of my ears. Even He slithered on to my desk and laughed with them. I think he did it to embarrass me. Or maybe he was too wrapped up in his thirst for power to care about anyone but himself.
“You know that’s not true,” he snickered. “You would be lost without me. And besides, without me there wouldn’t be a you.”
He smiled cruelly exposing two straight lines of perfectly white teeth. My thoughts were never safe from him and they never would be. I was his puppet, a slave to his will.
Mrs. Parker finally snapped out of her puzzled expression and looked at me sternly. “Excuse me? What did you say?”
I looked down again and stared at my blank test paper. The thought of repeating myself only made my throat bunch into a little ball.
“Please don’t make me say it again,” I mumbled, doubting anyone would hear my desperate plead.
“Say it” He whispered to me through clenched teeth. “It will only end badly for you if you don’t”
I tried to clear my throat as best as I could in desperate attempt to sound tougher than I was. But instead my voice sounded shaky and squeaked a pitch higher than I would have liked.
“I can’t use a pen for the test”
My teacher sighed and relaxed her shoulders.
“And why not?”
I slouched as low as I possibly could go in my seat and once again every eye stared at me. My heart was pounding practically out of my chest and at that moment all I wanted to do was to crawl into a tiny hole and bury myself. He was staring at my wickedly with his blood red eyes waiting for my answer as well. I took a deep breath and whispered.
“Because The Messenger said so”
