My eyes widened as they landed on the girl, yet hers narrowed when she caught sight of me. She stopped twirling the blade in her hand and gripped it so tightly that her knuckles turned white. She mouthed 'what the hell' and furiously stomped over, her clunky combat boots pounding the floor with every step she took.
"You idiot. You seriously went to find her? Have you freaking lost whatever little sense you had before?" she yelled, attracting the attention of all the customers in the small coffee shop.
"How does she know me?" I whispered to Seth.
"Mara, calm down," Seth said staring her down.
"I can't believe you!" Fire blazed in her eyes and she bared her teeth menacingly. "How the hell did you even find her?"
Seth shrugged casually. "I found her school."
"You enrolled in her school?" She stared at him in disbelief. She huffed and turned to the other two guys sitting silently at the table, to see if they were having the same reaction as her. "What the hell for?"
"I want a diploma and options in case this dream crashing gig falls short. Can't exactly put this on a resume—"
"Seth!"
I looked between the two of them, utterly confused. I really didn't understand where Mara's hostility was coming from. This was the first time I've ever met her, so why did she hate me so much? But then again, why did I feel overcome with terror the moment I laid eyes on her?
"Okay, okay. Calm down. I was investigating her because we didn't know what she was. And obviously she's not a demon. I mean, what kind of demon voluntarily signs up for public high school? Even they aren't so masochistic."
I stared at Seth. Did he say demon?
I must've heard wrong.
"You should've told us. We should've worked on a plan – as a team," said the dark skinned guy. He had a deep, gravelly voice that I thought would've been perfect for a radio show.
"And what? Give Mara the opportune moment to slit her throat on our way to gym class?" Seth asked, sarcastically. "I don't think so."
"Funny you should say that since I'm barely holding back from slitting your throat."
They argued a little while longer before I interrupted them. "What the hell is going on?" I asked. My boldness surprised not only me but everyone else as well.
The blonde guy, still sitting at the table, raised both his hands diplomatically. "How about we all calm down and take a seat? Let's talk about this rationally. First off, I'm Elijah." He smiled at me warmly, revealing a dimple in his left cheek. The steam from his coffee cup casted a fog onto the lenses of his glasses.
"I'm AJ."
Seth nudged me with his shoulder. "We know he's very muscular. Stop checking him out."
"I wasn't," I said, but I totally was. AJ was seriously ripped. His muscles bulged with every small movement. I bet he could probably bench me if he wanted to.
"Am I the only one who is unnerved by the fact that we're casually talking to the girl who possesses demonic powers?" Mara hissed.
"Is she talking about me? Does she think I'm a demon?" I asked Seth, laughing out loud. I stopped when no one else laughed. "Wait, are you guys serious?"
Seth scratched his hair awkwardly and said, "That's kind of what I want to talk to you about. Rory doesn't remember anything."
"At all?" Elijah asked, brows furrowing. "How is that possible?"
"Oh my god, you guys are all crazy, aren't you?" I asked, taking a step back.
Seth cautiously put a hand on my shoulder. "Don't be afraid. Just let us explain."
"I mean, I figured she was a little messed up in the head," I said, nodding in Mara's direction, who in turn, scowled at me, "But the rest of you too? I mean, do you hear yourselves? Demons? Throat slitting?"
"Wait 'til she hears about the dream traveling," Elijah whispered to AJ, who grinned.
"Jesus Christ, you're all insane. I'm calling Luke and leaving."
Seth grabbed hold of my wrist as I reached for my cell. This was the first time I had ever seen his composure slip, revealing the desperation in his eyes. "Rory, please. I wouldn't involve you if it wasn't important. You need to listen to us. We really need your help."
Mara snorted. "She can't help us. She can't even freaking remember anything! How is someone like that supposed to help us? We're just wasting our time, Seth."
"Shut up. You're not helping," Seth snapped. Then he said to me, "Look, just hear us out. We're not crazy, okay? And even so, how much crazier are we than a girl who wakes up like this every day?" Before I could react, he yanked on my sleeve and held my arm up for the other three to see.
Mara sucked in her breath, her eyes following the trails of scars and cuts.
I felt my cheeks heat up. Embarrassed, I rolled my sleeve back down. "You had no right to do that."
"We can help you," Elijah said, his tone soothing but with a hint of anxiety. "Please."
I cautiously glanced at the four of them, searching for any tell-tale signs of insanity, but couldn't find anything. They all looked so lost, yet hopeful. Even Mara's fire seemed to simmer as she plopped back into the chair she had been sitting on when we first came in. Elijah motioned at the empty chair next to him. Seth pulled it out for me, gesturing for me to sit.
I sighed dejectedly. "Fine."
"Fantastic!" Elijah said, smiling cheerfully.
"How do I start," Seth wondered aloud.
He and Elijah sat in the two chairs around me, and Mara and AJ were situated on the other side of the round table. Mara had finished her drink and was stabbing at the paper cup with her blade.
"I found one of those," I said, trying to fill the empty silence.
They all turned towards me.
"Found what?" Seth asked.
I pointed to the gleaming metal dagger in her hand. "Her blade."
Mara rolled her eyes dramatically and stuck her finger into the ring at the end. "This is a kunai knife, moron."
Seriously, what was her problem? Even if I didn't know the fancy name, I'm pretty sure it was still a blade. I was about to respond to her snide comment when Seth interjected, "You found it? Where?"
"I woke up with it in my bed a couple weeks ago. I still have it in my room—" I started, but I couldn't finish because they all started talking over me, momentarily forgetting I was there.
"It must've been from the chase. How is that possible?" Elijah asked.
"This might be a good thing," Seth said, rubbing his hands together with excitement.
"But what does it mean?" AJ asked.
"That she's a freaking demon!"
Obviously, that last one was Mara.
"Can someone clue me in, please?" I said loudly, interrupting their heated conversation.
They all shared a look, excluding me from their silent conversation. Then they all turned toward Seth, and he nodded.
"Okay, we'll tell you," Seth said. "Good thing you're sitting down, because what we're gonna tell you might be a little unbelievable, but we're not insane or whatever you said earlier. Just listen to everything we have to say. It'll be a lot to take in so I understand if—"
"Cut to the chase," Mara snapped, slamming her fist on the table, cutting Seth off. She looked at me and said, "The four of us travel in dreams and we fight demons. We don't have any magical powers, but for some reason, you do. So are you going to help us or not?"
Seth gritted his teeth. "Do you have to be so rash all the time?"
"Demon hunters?" I said, emotionlessly. I wasn't sure whether to feel angry or embarrassed. It had to be some kind of prank, or they were all certifiably insane.
"Yup."
"I am out of here," I said with finality, pushing my chair back and standing up.
"Like hell you are!" Seth said. He and Elijah both stood up, grabbed onto my shoulders, and pushed me back down into the seat. "You agreed to listen, so hear us out."
"That was before I knew you were all lunatics."
"No, it actually wasn't before," Elijah corrected. "You already assumed we were insane when you agreed to it."
Seth glared at him and he shut up.
"You're expecting me to believe that you guys are some sort of dream jumping wizards?" I asked, wiggling my fingers to mimic casting a spell.
"The term we like is Dream Crashers," Seth told me.
I was going to comment on that ridiculous name when Mara laughed dryly.
"Ha! We? Don't you mean you?" Mara interjected, folding her arms over her chest. "I still think it sounds stupid. The only reason why we even accepted it is because the only other suggestion we had was 'AJ and the Dreamboats.'"
"It was my idea," AJ added, as if it wasn't obvious enough.
"Elijah, maybe you should handle this," Seth said. "I can't deal with this emotional crap, and she is on the verge of a mental breakdown."
Elijah studied me with his piercing green eyes. It felt like he was analyzing my reaction and expression as he talked. "Even though I don't always agree with Mara's way of doing things, she is right. We're running out of time, so I'm not going to beat around the bush. You are clearly being affected by things that we are involved in," he said, gesturing to my arm, "and we will do our best to try to explain everything to you. We want to help you. Please be patient with us."
When I didn't respond, he continued.
"We're not crazy, and we're not going to hurt you. Believe it or not, we use our abilities to help people," he said, calmly. "Getting all this information might feel like being knocked over by a boulder, and I get that. But please, we'll try to be more patient." With that, everyone looked at Mara, and she nodded reluctantly. "Just hear us through. Please."
After a few seconds to digest his words, I nodded.
Elijah turned to Seth. "She'll be okay. You want to explain it?"
Seth cleared his throat. "Look, Rory. I know it's hard to believe, but piece everything together. Do you wanna know why I seem so familiar to you? It's because we've met months ago, long before I showed up at your school. Somehow, you visited us in a dream we were in when we were in the middle of a fight. And I think you must've been visited by demons in your nightmares, and that's why you have all those injuries."
"But if it's just a dream, then how do I get hurt?" I asked.
They all looked suddenly relieved as I asked this, as if my question meant that I had accepted everything they were telling me.
"That's the case for most people, but it's different for us. We're able to project our consciousness in dreams, and manifest physically—uh well, actually that stuff isn't important for you to know now," Seth said, waving it off. "Oh! But anyway, the other day, when you had a nightmare about me, I was actually visiting you in your dream. We were attacked, but luckily we got away. You don't remember any of it, but I do."
"Why?"
"That's what we don't understand. You should be able to remember," Elijah said.
I furrowed my brow. Now that they mentioned it, I hadn't had a real dream in months. Every night, I had been terrorized by nightmares. And I always felt sluggish and tired during the day, like I wasn't getting any proper sleep.
If what they were saying was true, then it explained so much.
"Why were you in my nightmare?" I asked.
"I was investigating you. Like Mara said, you have special abilities that none of us have, so naturally we assumed you were a demon."
"And you thought she was such a bad actress too whenever we interrogated her," Elijah said, grinning at Mara. "You said that she was definitely feigning stupid."
"At least now I know she isn't pretending to be an idiot," Mara said snidely.
AJ shook his head. "Not helping, Mara."
She only rolled her eyes in response.
Realization dawned on me. "Is that why you showed up at the construction site when I was attacked?"
Seth nodded.
"So you were following me." I smirked triumphantly.
"Not for the same reason you were thinking. I was following in case I needed to kill you."
"So this explains why you're so good at fighting," I said. "And why you're so shady all the time."
"And it also leads me to the biggest problem. So you now know that we're demon killers. In the past, we've been able to handle them just fine, but things are changing." Seth's expression suddenly darkened. "Demons have been increasing in strength and numbers recently, and we don't know why. All we know is that they're planning an uprising."
"This hasn't been a problem before because most demons act independently. They don't have ranks or a hierarchy," Elijah explained, gesturing wildly. His glasses slipped down the bridge of his nose as he talked, and he pushed them back up with his index finger. "But for some reason, they're congregating now. All we know is that something big is happening and we can't stop this on our own."
"What can I do?" I asked.
Elijah grinned. "You have super cool powers! This one time, you conjured a shield out of nothing. You were able to teleport between dreams much faster than we ever could, and we've had years of training. Then you were able to freeze Mara's knife in midair after she chucked it at you."
I glared at her. "You threw a knife at me?"
"We. Thought. You. Were. A. Demon," she emphasized harshly. "What was I supposed to do? Let you run off and hurt someone? Maybe I should've just given you my knife to help you out."
"Right. Because a demon would need a knife to drain someone."
"Shut up, Seth."
"Demons kill people?"
"It's more like they feed on their energy and life force. It's actually very intricate and might be a conversation to save for another day."
I could feel the onset of a headache. They were throwing so much at me, and it was taking me so long to process everything. I still had so many unanswered questions.
"Was that what caused the scene at the school? I thought they were only in dreams?"
Seth frowned. "Things are getting...complicated. Everything we've ever known of the dream world is now out the door. Before, it was true that weaker demons were confined to dreams. There have been some extremely powerful demons who were able to break through to the human world, but most don't like to because they lose all their powers the moment they cross."
"We suspect it's because there's no magic in this world, so it renders the demons powerless," Elijah clarified.
"So that wasn't caused by a demon then? All the birds?"
Seth shrugged. "We can only speculate. It's not like any of us have a PhD in Demon Hunting."
"I still don't know how I'm supposed to help," I said, sighing. "She's right. I am useless. I can't even remember what I've been dreaming about. And I can't defend myself either. I couldn't even run away from humans and you're expecting me to deal with demons?"
"We'll find out why they were after you. I'm betting that it's no coincidence they showed up after your powers manifested."
He quickly filled the rest of the group in about the strange men.
"Do you still have your drawings of the crest?" Elijah asked me. "I can do some research and analyze it for you."
"This kid is a genius," Seth said, grinning. "I don't know why I didn't think about asking him to look at it earlier."
Elijah frowned. "I'm not a kid. I'm only two years younger than you." Then he said to me, "And don't worry about defending yourself. We'll train you. We can help you find out about why these men are after you and help you unlock your memories if you will help us with the uprising."
"I don't know," I said, indecisively.
"No pressure or anything," AJ said, gravely. "But it could be the difference between keeping the demons divided or letting them come together and wreak havoc on mankind in the dream world. And then potentially, our world"
I swallowed.
The three boys stared at me apprehensively while Mara glared menacingly, as if daring me to turn down their offer. I thought about what they had said and about how they could help me. I was scared, that was for sure. I was having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of demons and dream traveling and magic.
Just an hour ago, I was just another normal girl, getting ready to go home after class—
Well, not really. If I was being completely honest with myself, I knew that wasn't true.
For a while, I had known things weren't normal. I obviously knew something was wrong the first day I woke up with a ragged cut on my forearm. I sensed something was off the day Seth Parker showed up in my history class. And then again when I was almost kidnapped in the construction site.
Whatever it is that these four were dealing with, I was smack dab in the middle of it. I could say 'no' and walk away from them, but then I would be left to deal with my nightmares on my own. And that thing that happened at school—what if the next time it wasn't a hallway filled with dead birds, but with my classmates?
My heart clenched as I thought about Luke. If people were after me because of my special abilities, I needed to be able to defend myself and to protect him.
"Okay. I'll help you."
--
A/N: Hi my loves! First off, I want to give a big THANK YOU to all of you for all the votes and comments. They make me so happy when I read them and it really motives me to upload faster. Also - 800 reads?? Seriously, you guys are amazinggg! I feel like I just can't thank you all enough <3
So ta da, part 8. I'm sorry if this part was really boring with all the dialogue, but this is all stuff that needs to be said! I tried to add a few laughs here and there to lighten the mood. The next chapter will have more action, I promise! Please vote and comment, and have a wonderful weekend!
Btw has anyone watched the new Captain America movie?? Gah I'm dying to see it! :P
This chapter is dedicated to mushroomyowl05 for the awesome Seth fanart to the side. Thank you so much Kate!