Dawn had spent all of Sunday trying to get into contact with Sky to no avail. She hardly slept for a moment the previous night, so it was no surprise when she dragged herself to school the next morning having barely tended to her appearance. There were a million questions on her mind and after waking up with the realization that what occurred in the forest wasn't a dream, she was determined to get answers.
It annoyed her even more that Price basically dodged every question during the ride home. Instead, he kept insisting that she focus on her studies for the time being. With everything that was going on who cared about homework? There were so many other things to worry about. And as she approached the school courtyard, she was reminded of one such thing as a smiling Rain approached her.
"Rain what are you doing here?"
"You sound surprised," he said. "Something came up, so I had to return early."
"I see," she said. "You could've told me."
"Dawn. You have something on your mind. I can tell."
"Huh?" she uttered. "N-no it's just...I was surprised to see you like you said. Anyway, I have to catch up on some homework."
Rain gazed at her with his intense, deep stare. She loved his eyes, but couldn't help but feel awkward and vulnerable in moments like these. He always exuded a certain nonchalance and tactfulness, but with an underlying arrogance. It was although nothing fazed him because he always felt in control of the situation. Like he could see right through her. And it annoyed her to no end. Partially because she could never read him in that way.
"I'll let you get to that homework then." Rain placed his hands in his pockets and strolled off.
"Wait, Rain. Will you be in class later today? Or maybe I can meet you after school?"
He nodded firmly. "Sure. Just don't go wandering off."
Dawn smiled to herself as he walked back through the courtyard gate and they parted ways. Just then as she paused to think, it hit her. Wandering off? What could Rain have meant by that? It didn't make much sense. Of course, it could have simply been his usual way of toying with her, but it sounded as though he knew about her forest escapades. That just couldn't be possible. The only people who knew that she had gone into the forest were Sky, Aria, Warren, Ellie, and Price. And as V.A.S.E. members, they're committed to keeping the secret. But unless she was overthinking things, Dawn felt that Rain knew something.
When she turned back around to head in his direction, a number of incoming students began to fill the courtyard. Among the crowd was Josie and Zach who excitedly waved her down. Dawn sighed and waved back. Although she enjoyed their company, Dawn had so much more on her mind that she wanted to sort out. Nonetheless, she joined them for a chat session of gossip and school rumors before the bell for class rang. During first period in history class, Price went on with his lectures as normal, gushing about his favorite of historical battles and repeatedly veering off-topic to discuss his personal life. Meanwhile Sky, likely still disappointed with her decision, paid Dawn no attention at all.
Once class ended, Price tapped Dawn on her way out of the room and pulled her aside, requesting that she meet with V.A.S.E. after school for an hour-long meeting to which she agreed. The day went on as normal otherwise, but throughout each of her classes, all Dawn could think about were the events of the past forty-eight hours and what connection Rain's "wandering" remark had to them.
She couldn't put her finger on it, but there was something strange about when she met Rain this morning. And so, once her sixth period class with Ms. Jackson concluded, Dawn went to speak with Rain. Surrounding his desk were a circle of three other girls whose skirts seemed to be curiously higher than normal.
"Rain, can we talk?" asked Dawn. The other girls stepped aside and glared at her.
"Of course," said Rain. "Excuse me, ladies." He stood up from his seat and followed Dawn outside. She stopped at the end of the hallway near an emergency stairwell.
"Who were they?" asked Dawn as she crossed her arms.
"You mean those girls in our class? I hardly know them."
"Oh sure. That's why they were all over you."
"I promise you I have no idea who they are. I didn't want to be rude."
Dawn shook her head. "Ugh, just forget it. I'm sorry. I wanted to ask you about earlier before class. Do you remember what you said to me?"
"I said...you looked like you had a lot on your mind."
"No, the other thing you said."
Rain paused for a moment. "I don't remember. Why?"
"You said...you know what, never mind. I'm so...scatterbrained lately I..."
"Why don't we go out into town for a while?" He moved closer to her and took her hand, massaging her palm with his thumb. "Take your mind off things, no?"
"That sounds really good," said Dawn. "Oh, but I just remembered I can't. I have a club meeting pretty soon. Ugh."
"Really?" asked Rain. "You didn't join math club, did you?"
Dawn laughed. "No, no it's the um, archery club. If you're free tomorrow, we should do something. Maybe you can come over?"
"That sounds like a plan," said Rain. "I'll see you then. Have fun at your meeting."
As Rain walked down the hall, Dawn shook her head at the missed opportunity. It sounded like a much more significant an issue when she thought about it over the course of the day, but as he stood there in front of her, she just felt silly. After her brief talk with Rain, Dawn headed outside and into the main building. The hallways were fairly busy as several of the other school clubs were holding their first meetings. A boy walking with several other members of the archery club handed her a pamphlet and informed her that they would be open to accepting new members until the end of the year. She thanked him, before walking down toward the V.A.S.E. meeting room.
The hallway was largely empty, aside from a few faculty members standing by the exit doors chatting with Ellie. Once she caught eye of Dawn heading toward the meeting room, Ellie parted ways with the two teachers and greeted Dawn as the two entered the room together. Everyone else had already been inside and seemed to be waiting for her to arrive.
"So a gorilla walks into a bar..." said Warren.
"Dude...please shut up. These are not funny, like, at all," said Aria.
"O-oh, but—okay," said Warren.
Dawn smiled the moment she saw the rest of the group. She had only just met most of them, but already she felt close to them. Even Sky gave her a nod upon making eye contact. Once the others noticed that she was there, the group turned their attention to her and called out to Price.
"Hey Dawn," said Warren. "We're just waiting for Price to finish up in his office. You can go grab some food from the cafeteria while we wait if ya want."
"No, thanks. I'm good," said Dawn, as she sat down in a seat beside Warren. "So, what are we doing today?" She looked over at Sky, who sat on top of a table with his back to the window.
"You still think this is some regular club, don't you?" he asked.
"Um, no, I was just wondering."
"Hey you got a boyfriend?" asked Warren. He looked up at Dawn intently while adjusting his thick-rimmed glasses.
"Huh? You really don't waste any time, do you?"
"Nope. And honesty's the best policy. Or directness was it? I read something like that on a pick up artist website. Anyway, are you single? I can take you out for homecoming. My mom will have to drive us. But don't worry–she's cool."
"Man shut up," said Sky.
"Don't be jealous bro," replied Warren. "Just testing the waters. Unless, wait—are you two...?" Warren made a crossing motion with his fingers.
Aria's head abruptly sprung up from the notebook that she had been glued to. "W-what are you guys talking about?"
"Nothing! Nothing..." said Dawn.
Suddenly Price walked in through the doorway connected to the next room over. He was all smiles while clapping and bobbing his head.
"Alright," he said. "Let's get started. I have a faculty meeting in about an hour, so I'll try to make this quick. Today, I want to officially initiate Dawn and explain the situation, so that when next we meet, we can carry out our mission no problems."
"Why are we here then?' asked Aria.
"She's a part of the team, like it or not," said Sky. "We didn't have to come here when you were initiated. But we did anyway."
"You're right, Sky." Aria looked at both Sky and Dawn, before holding her head down. "I'm sorry."
"Hey it's no problem really," said Dawn, as she brushed back her hair. "If you guys have somewhere to go."
"Nonsense," said Price. "This is an official V.A.S.E. meeting. Now, first things first. Last time I briefly explained to you what demons were. Well, truth is, we're still learning about them ourselves. For the most part, all we really understand as fact is that they are after the souls of human beings, are visible only to certain people, and seem to respond to life energy, or the energy of living things. Read these papers."
Price handed Dawn a thick folder filled with pages of typed notes on subjects such as the physiology and history of demons.
"As we continue our research, we are trying to test other theories such as whether they are active only at night and if there are different types of demons."
"I see," said Dawn. Flipping through the pages in the folder, she noticed a sub heading that labeled Traits. "How did you find out this kind of stuff?"
"We've had to get up close and personal with these creatures," said Price. "Not to worry, we've done the dirty work so you won't have to. Hopefully, that is. But anyhow, it's become evident that the forest has the largest concentration of demons. And we've come to believe that Death City may somehow be connected to this fact. So as of right now, we want to begin focusing our efforts on searching the area. With you now added to the squad, we have enough members to safely start our explorations."
"So I'm going to be on the exploration team then?"
"That's right," said Price. "Because there are four of you, whenever an active on-foot mission is required, at any given time we can send out three of you while the other stays behind to run the van's tracking system. We can also split the group into pairs when necessary."
"I get it now," said Dawn. "It's still kind of crazy to wrap my head around...but I think I'm ready to help you guys get to work. When do we get started?"
"We typically go on one mission a month, but that can change depending on what kind of activity we detect. In any case, you'll be needing this." He handed her what appeared to be a revolver.
"A gun?!" exclaimed Dawn.
"It's not actually a gun," said Warren. "Well it kinda is come to think of it..."
"It isn't the type you're familiar with," said Sky. "If you look closer, it doesn't use bullets. Instead there's an explosive plasma chamber. We load them with tubes of the stuff. It's the only thing besides fire that seems to work."
"A plasma gun huh?" asked Dawn. She examined it carefully, raising it up with both hands. The weapon was very heavy and had a long, extended barrel as well. "Just out of curiosity, where do you get the additional...plasma...rounds? I'm guessing you can't just buy this sort of thing."
"Good question," said Price. "I make the special substance myself. You may or may not already know this, but I am a scientist here. I produce it in our very own chemistry lab. The gun can only carry up to four tubes. So accuracy is a life and death matter when using one."
"Well, that's not scary at all." Dawn set the gun down on the table.
"Rest assured you'll be well trained," said Ellie.
"One last thing," said Price. "This is your club uniform. You're allowed to wear it to school instead of the regular uniform on the days that we meet."
Price handed Dawn the club uniform. It resembled the regular academy uniforms, only instead of a solid black blazer, it had a checkered pattern with two different shades of black. The skirt was also checkered, with a black and red pattern. There was also a large sewn-in patch on the chest of the blazer with the V.A.S.E. initials printed. Price then handed Dawn the same high-tech watch that Sky and the other members wore.
"That's the most important piece of technology you'll own," said Price. "It's a tracker that doubles as an ordinary wristwatch. It will let you know whether or not there is a paranormal entity nearby. It also serves as a walkie-talkie, letting you communicate with your fellow members by holding down the red button. Plus it tells the time!"
"This is so cool," said Dawn. "I mean, I'm not in this for the fancy gadgets, but they are pretty awesome."
"Oh yeah," said Warren. "You haven't seen anything yet."
"That does it," said Price. "You're now an official member of V.A.S.E. Our next meeting will be Friday. Be prepared to start your training, but until then you can catch up on those papers I gave you."
"That's it?" asked Dawn. "No special oath or anything?"
"Nah, we're a pretty normal school club in that regard," said Warren.
"I'll be leaving to my meeting now," said Price. "If you still have questions you can email me or ask one of your fellow members."
"I have work pretty soon," said Aria. "I'll see you guys later."
"Aww no one wants to stick around?" asked Warren.
"No. We have lives," said Aria as she opened the door.
"Ouch."
"I have to take care of some stuff," said Sky.
"Well thank you all," said Dawn. "I'm going to head home and get started going through this material."
"Smart," said Ellie. "Take care everyone."
Dawn said her farewells to the club members before leaving school. She arrived at home just before sunset and took some time to freshen up after the long day. Once she finished, Dawn quickly retreated upstairs to her room and hopped on her bed to go through the V.A.S.E. files. Lying on her stomach, Dawn turned down the television volume and began flipping through the numerous pages. Certain pages were written by Sky, but most were Price's work. The pages written by Price were in a format similar to a journal entry–being dated, numbered, and containing discussions about day-to-day experiences working for V.A.S.E.
His work began nearly twenty years ago, at which point he gained an interest in the occult. A lot of his discussions were theories about other inhuman beings on earth and the different points in time that he encountered them. The eccentric passages highlighted his intense passion and fascination with the supernatural. Oddly, some of the pages were torn out, as about fifteen page numbers were missing. Sky's portion of the work were general, standard observations and analyses. Of course, she didn't expect anything else. Sky would never even speak about his personal thoughts or feelings, let alone write them down in a journal.
One page, which was highlighted, described in detail the common traits of demons. It listed features such as red or yellow eyes, horns, claws, tails, and sometimes wings. Deathly pale gray skin was typical, as were sharp, yellow fangs. Other physical traits listed were tall and lanky figures. These creatures had superpower-like abilities which included enhanced speed and strength, regeneration, the power to levitate and teleport, invisibility, and possession. Just reading the long list of these abilities frightened her to death. Even worse was a side note at the bottom of the page, indicating the list was not yet complete.
Dawn continued to further read over the descriptions and traits on the page, when a realization suddenly began to set in on her. The idea formed like the pieces of a puzzle in her mind, before it hit her like a ton of bricks. As she processed the thought in her mind, Dawn nearly had a heart attack. She dropped the papers at the foot of her bed, leaving them scattered across the floor. In her head, Dawn repeatedly forced herself to shut out this feeling until finally it was too overwhelming to ignore. The more she thought about it, the more real it became. What was just a possibility, now seemed almost certainly a reality. Rain was a demon.
It was crazy, ridiculous, and beyond-belief to think. But so too was everything she'd experienced in the past weeks since arriving in Verina. And when she thought back to all the time spent with Rain, there was just no mistaking it. His unnatural, yellow eye color and cold, ghostly pale skin. His ability to seem almost everywhere at once and always know what's on her mind. The fact that he's saved her from falling to her death off a canyon, without so much as a scratch on him. And then that odd feeling she gets from him. Dawn finally realized she felt that same feeling in the forest when she first came face to face with an actual demon.
Of course, Rain didn't meet every requirement needed to qualify as a demon. He was most definitely not a monster. It was quite the opposite in fact, as he was one of the most beautiful people she had ever laid eyes on. Moreover, he obviously had no problem going out during the day and there was no real evidence that he had any special abilities. Nevertheless, Dawn had fallen for Rain and knew in her heart, as senseless as it sounded, that there was a real possibility that he was not who she believed him to be. All that remained now was to discover the truth for herself. Once and for all.