Young Writers Society

Sebastian

I stormed into my room, closing the door behind me. I instantly started towards the old, scratched up desk by my window, pulling out a pencil and pad of paper, drawing. Today was another girl’s face, I wasn’t sure who she was, but her face was so clear in my head, and I wanted it out. I felt so guilty seeing her face and not knowing her name. I knew she must’ve been from my past life, but then again we all don’t remember much about that.

There was a soft knock on my door, and before I could hiss at her to go away, she opened the door. It was so like her, to walk around like she owned the place. Nothing was private, it seemed. I quickly shoved what I was working on back into my desk and clenched my jaw, continuing to stare at the wall. I hope she could feel my anger.

After a short silence, she started to ramble. I only half-heartedly listened, blinded by my rage. I focused on my breathing, wanting to do anything to make her shut up, to stop complaining about how “selfish” I was. She was too ignorant to see that I was keeping us all alive, and what she doesn’t realize is that if she was in charge of what I dealt with, we would all die.

“Kayden,” I finally said, cutting her off. “How are you any better?” I took a breath, turned around and stood up, staring her down. Her hands were on her hips, which were slightly cocked to the side, her face in a grimace. Her lips were pressed together, eyebrows furrowed. Her long brown hair was messy, like usual, and her freckles were sprinkled on her nose. She was obviously annoyed, and she thought she had some type of hold over me. Oh, was she wrong.

I stood over her small frame, walking towards her until her back hit my wall. “You accuse me of being dramatic, of being selfish, but all you do is walk around this house complaining about our calling, our jobs. I understand you’re only 19, but it’s time to grow up.” She looked so small underneath me, and I could see the slight fear in her eyes, and for some reason that just made me want to scare her even more.

“Sebastian, I do not believe I am the one not acting my age,” she challenged, straightening up, getting closer to me. We were so close it almost looked as if we were about to embrace or kiss, but the only thing happening between us was tension.

I put my hands on the wall, restricting her to exactly where I wanted her, coldness in my voice, “If Gaderel every comes to you again, which I doubt he will, I’m the first to know, are we clear?” I found my eyes wandering from her eyes to her lips for a split second before she slid out from under me and quickly out the door. I stood where I was for a few seconds before chuckling and walking back to my desk.

Before I could get back to my drawing, there was a loud thud outside my room, I quickly rushed to my door, swinging it open and looking down the hall, ready to attack. I didn’t see any danger but instead the top of Kayden’s hair.

I rushed over to her lying unconscious on the ground, “Kayden, what happened to you?” I pulled her head into my lap, yelling for the others. Xander and Indie quickly came from Xander’s room, concern crossing their features, and Aileen and Archie came running from the kitchen.

In an instant, Aileen was next to me on the ground with her hands on Kayden’s face, “what happened? Did someone attack her? Where is she hurt?” Her eyes traveled to mine.

“I’m not sure, I heard a thud and then found her like this. Let’s get her into my room, it’s closest.” Everyone moved away as I swept her into my arms, she was so light, her skin cold. Once we got into my room I carefully laid her down, was it normal to be unconscious this long? It had been at least five minutes.

Aileen sat on the bed with Kayden, her hands on her head, trying to find a way to heal whatever had happened to her. I studied the concern on everyone’s faces, how Xander was holding Indie in his arms. It always confused me how they could be caught up together in this mess. It was quite annoying honestly, they acted like nothing was going on around us, always closed off to each other.

“I can’t figure out what’s wrong with her. She doesn’t seem to be injured, more so like she’s asleep,” Aileen said as she stood up to look at us.

I nodded, “I’ll keep an eye on her. You guys start packing, we need to leave at daylight,” I grumbled. They eyed me for a minute before slowly moving out of my room.

Ten minutes. It had been ten minutes now since she had gone unconscious, but she seemed so peaceful, so still. She was sweating, however, so I decided to get up and quickly get a rag from the bathroom, wet it, and when I walked back into my room she started whimpering, tears falling from her eyes. What the hell was going on? I rushed over to her, holding her head in my lap again, pressing the rag to her head and wiping her tears.

“Kaydence, please, wake up,” I mumbled, distressed. I just wanted to stop whatever was causing her pain. She continued to whimper and cry as I brushed her hair behind her ear, begging for something, anything to wake her up, and suddenly, she shot up from my lap in an instant, screaming.

She was breathing heavily, distressed, and once she calmed down I reached my hand on her shoulder, which made her jump up from the bed to face me, eyes terrified.

“Kaydence, what’s wrong?” I asked, once she realized it was me, she calmed down. She took a deep breath and sat back down on the edge of my bed, hand on her head.

“I don’t know what happened, one moment I was walking to my room, the next I was in this other world, with this man…” her voice trailed off as she stared at my wall, I watched her intently, hoping she wouldn’t pass out again.

“A man?” I pressed, I needed to know the full story, so I could kill whoever did this to her. I’ve never seen her so scared, she’s a pretty fearless person when it comes to demon hunting.

She looked at me finally, chewing on her lip, I noticed she does that a lot. “Yes, a man. It was so vivid, I thought it was real. He was so caring and gentle to me at first, but then…” her voice tightened, and she seemed to be straining to keep from crying again. She took a deep breath and continued, “but then he beat the living crap out of me, and I felt so defenseless. I didn’t even see it coming, I couldn’t sense his aura. I mean, I didn’t even know him but I believed he loved me.” Her voice cracked on the word love, and I looked down. I had never seen her in so much pain, she’s usually the one I could count on to stay strong in our little family.

Without thinking, I pulled her into my chest, resting my chin on her head. She smelled like the sweetness of flowers and felt as soft as a feather. I heard her cries muffled into my chest, and we stayed like that for a really long time, until she fell asleep actually, and I carefully carried her to her room, and let her rest.

I sat down at my desk and pulled out my drawing I had been working on earlier, mindlessly scribbling. Why would she just pass out like that out of nowhere? Who was this man? Was it a demon? But demons can’t love, and she was convinced that this man loved her. And only upper-level demons can take on the appearance of humans. Maybe I should call Gaderel and see what he knows.

I once again put my nearly finished sketch of a woman in my drawer and looked up, “Gaderel? I have a question.” I stood up, pacing. A few seconds later, in a great light, Gaderel appeared in front of me. My gaze shifted to him, my rage bubbling because he had not informed me of our latest mission, but I knew that would have to wait. “Do they know what happened with Kayden?” I clenched my fists as I continued to pace my room.

Gaderel watched me intensively, “She remembered,” he answered simply. This made me stop and look at him, a spark of confusion in my eyes.

“Remembered? Remembered what?”

“Her past life, as I have told you would eventually happen. It will help you better understand why you have the powers you do, and how to use them to your advantage.” He talked in a way that was knowledgeable, but never condescending.

“Okay, next, why would you inform her of a mission before you informed me? I thought we had an understanding that I’m in charge of missions because I’m the only one that understands how to not get us killed, again.” The words dripped off my lips like venom, and I made sure he understood why this was a problem.

“Everything has a reasoning, it was no accident that they,” he pointed to the sky, “wanted her to know first. She must be an essential key to this particular mission. From the chatter up there, this mission will be bigger than anything you’ve ever experienced. You must not go into this with blind range but rather a thoughtful mind, perhaps that’s why they told me to deliver this message to Kaydence.”

My fists clenched, “We’ll be leaving midday tomorrow.” I watched as he left, fuming. Kayden doesn’t have a thoughtful mind, who was he kidding? All she thought about is how she wishes she found peace after her death instead of being “doomed” to live another six years on Earth. All she wanted to do was complain whereas I knew we needed to do our job if we ever wanted to find peace. We all were made aware that if we were to turn to the dark side or if we were to decide to not do our job anymore we would be turned over to Lucifer. But did she care? No. All she cared about is her petty problems.

I threw what little amount of clothes I had into a backpack and carefully packed all my drawings on top of them. With a sigh, I laid down on my small twin bed, which I was way too long for, and closed my eyes as I waited for sleep to finally take me. 

-

chapter word count: 1,850

total word count: 3,924