The Ethereal Saga - Volume One - The Child of Light

Chapter Five - Starless

"Your mother would kill me if she knew I was helping you go out at this time," said James.
"I was only going to go anyway," Alex retorted, "You just gave me a safe journey. If anything, she should be thanking you."
James laughed, "I'm not sure she'd see it that way."
James looked out of his driver side window briefly and breathed a 'huh' of confusion.
"What's up?" asked Alex.
"Nothing... I suppose I'm just going mad. I need to sleep."
"Why? What's wrong?" Alex asked nervously, he had the kind of day where anything out of place made him afraid.
James gritted his teeth as he pulled in to the lot for the park which contained the skate-park, "It's just, I could have sworn I saw a full moon earlier."
Alex stepped out of the car and looked up. James was right, the moon was gone.
"I suppose it just got cloudy," Alex suggested without belief, something was very wrong, he could feel it in his bones. They both stared at the deep black sky above them. It was the wrong shade of black, more like an absence of colour rather than a shade in its own right.
"It's not clouds... It's weird," James spoke with an air of curiosity.
Alex realised the blackness seemed to have an almost viscous nature to it. It seemed to hang there solidly above him. Then Alex agreed, "It's too low. It's not clouds, it's a black fog."
It was hard to tell with the severe lack of light passing through that made it hard to see but Alex was certain the shadow was hanging barely fifteen feet above them, blocking out their view. It was nearly impossible to look at, like it was telling you to look away. Alex thought to himself that it didn't make any sense, it was like being blind, but only when you looked at it. The shadow seemed to expand and retract slowly as if it were breathing. Or beating, thought Alex.
"You should go," said Alex, "I'm in a hurry."
James thought for a moment that he would like nothing more than to leave, to ease this sense of fear in his gut brought on by the living breathing shadow which floated above them with a diameter of thirty feet at least.
James traced his tongue along the roof of his mouth, "We should go."
"I can't," Alex protested, "She needs my help."
"Who?" James quickly replied.
Alex had felt very confident at home, like Lestrat had messed with the wrong student. However, as he stood there with the hair on the back of his neck standing up and goose bumps running up his arms, he felt scared. He wanted help.
"There's some weird shit happening James," Alex clarified, "This girl is in danger."
"Alex!" James exclaimed, "This sounds like a matter for the police. What can you do to help?"
Alex looked at James sharing his doubt. This light-stealer above them proved that Alex had no idea what he was up against, "She said it had to be me. That she had to call me here."
"Alex, that's crazy. Why the hell does she need you?" asked James.
Alex frowned, "Because he made her."
"Who did?" Pressed James.
Alex found the morbid humour to chuckle to himself as he realised the words he was about to speak did not sound particularly daunting, "My English teacher."
James sighed, "So, your English teacher is hurting students? That's mental! Look, I can't let you do this alone. You need an adult to help talk to this maniac. We get the girl and we call the police, deal?"
"Deal," Alex agreed.

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They walked through the park in silence towards the skate-park within. Alex had a feeling that he knew where she would be. There was a large ramp with a hollow underneath where teenagers often flocked to hide themselves from the world whilst they shared inexperienced kisses and words they didn't understand the true meaning of.
Their fear was palpable. Palpable like the black cloud that hovered over them.
Alex found a morbid kind of humour at the thought of being followed by a black cloud for real and not just within his overly emotional teenage angst. The truth was Alex's depression was as much a choice as it was a curse. He didn't ask to be sad or tired all the time or wake up every day with a migraine but the feeling of being misunderstood and alone was the most familiar thing in his life, he didn't know who he'd be without his depression. His demons had held him when nobody else would. The flash of bravery his powers had installed in him today was the first bit of positive emotion he had experienced for a long time and it had only gotten him in to trouble. His negative outlook was safer, he decided. The cloud was getting thicker as they got closer, there was less and less light with every step. Even the torch light from their smartphones seemed to be vanishing in to the shadows above them.
"Something is very wrong," James broke the silence with an obvious statement, "Like bad horror movie wrong."
Alex agreed. He never liked horror movies but now he was wondering that if he had watched more, he may have learned a few things about how to handle the supernatural. He got the feeling that his head on approach might just get him in to some serious trouble.
The trap was obvious, he had been invited here for the first time earlier that day and now he was being forced here under threat of a classmate's potential death. It occurred to Alex for the first time that any trust he placed in Sarah's situation may have been misplaced. After all, it was her who had so wanted him here and her danger that had driven him to arrive here.
They arrived at the skate-park at last. He began to make for the ramp when he heard footsteps to the left of them. There, to his amazement stood his science teacher, Mrs Harrison. Her plump figure was almost comical under the circumstances. Slowly the black fog began to condense and lift. Alex tried to watch where it went but Mrs Harrison began to speak, "I knew you'd come," came a cold icy voice that was definitely not his science teacher, "But I didn't think you'd be stupid enough to bring extra cannon fodder."
There was a bag next to her, like a sports bag used to carry P.E equipment. She reached in to its folds and pulled out a baseball bat.
"Well then," the icy voice said, "Shall we get started?"
She ran at Alex and James as they both jumped out of her way in either direction. She snarled and turned and chose her prey, Alex.
"What the hell is wrong with you?! Why are you talking like that? Where is Sarah?!"
Her mouth slowly morphed in to a thin smile, "You ask a lot of questions for a boy whose life is in danger. It's a shame you were never this curious in my classes. I might not have had to fail you in the Shakespeare module."
"Shakespeare?" Alex replied as she swung and missed as he jumped backwards, "in science?!"
James shoved her over from behind, "Science? I thought this was your English teacher."
She began to pick herself up and shook her head quickly and grabbed her bat again.
"No," Alex explained, "That's my science teacher!"
"But you said English teacher?!"
"I know what I said!"
"Alex," James said as he looked at him, "She said Shakespeare."
A realisation dawned on Alex as he saw Mrs Harrison's glazed over eyes looking at them swinging almost blindly. She swung back, and Alex acted quickly as he pushed James out of her crosshairs and received a full blow to his side and he crumpled to the ground. His world began to spin, and he was winded lying on the cold concrete. He spat blood as air returned to him. He looked up to see Mrs Harrison with the bat raised ready to land a killer blow and he swiftly rolled to one side as the bat slammed down on the ground beneath him. The bat split as she made contact and she screamed as loud as she could. Alex was spent but James promptly returned again, and rugby tackled her to the ground.
"Jesus Christ!" James said as she grappled with him. Alex spat another blob of blood and felt his head spin again. He was seriously messed up, he thought. Harrison seemed to have strength beyond her stature because she swiftly rolled over James and had him beneath her. She began landing closed fist blows to his face repeatedly. Alex tried to get to his feet to help but stumbled over again, helpless. He reached out with his palm open, willing for something to help him save James. He felt a rush of heat quickly move from his shoulder down his arm as a ray of green aura shot from his hand like a leafy shuriken and swiftly separated his teachers head from her body.
"HOLY SHIT!" screamed James as he scrambled up from beneath her covered in blood, "Jesus Christ, Alex! What the hell was that?!"
Alex forced himself to his feet. "I- I don't know," he stammered, "I just wanted her to stop."
James was breathing heavily and his cheeks looked bruised from the punches but otherwise a lot less harmed than he could have been, "Well damn, she sure as hell did that."
They stared in disgust at the decapitated head beneath them.
"I killed my science teacher," Alex lamented "I killed a person."
"It was self-defence Alex," James said trying to console him, "Anyway, I don't see how you could have done...that!"
Alex knelt down next to the head, "It wasn't her James. That wasn't her voice."
Alex closed her eye lids.
"I thought she sounded a bit... well not right," James agreed.
He stared remorsefully and in disgust unable to remove himself from the grisly sight, "She had a family and I killed her."
James put his hand on Alex's shoulder, "Jeez man, it's not your fault. Someone made it so it was you versus her, they did this. If you want someone to blame, let's figure that one out."
"Something isn't right," Alex said.
"She's decapitated," pointed out James.
"Shut up. Look," Alex said and James, against his better judgment took a closer look at the separated head. There were two marks on her neck, as if like fangs.
"She was bitten," James said.
Alex nodded, "I think this night is just getting started."
They turned around from the dead teacher and both looked up. The moon shone triumphantly above them, and the stars were back. Alex thought they were beautiful, the comfort they brought in that moment when they were back where they should be was reassuring after the recent events.
"So..." began James, "Where did the shadow go?"
Alex hated James for asking the right question at that moment, "Away, hopefully."
Alex spat blood again.
"You don't look so good," said James.
"We'll worry about that later, let's go get Sarah."