Demon in the Snow, Heather Fledderus [rainbow fish read aloud .TXT] 📗

employer and personal pain-in-the-ass, was not impressed. Nate just held the phone away from his ear and let him rant. One did not hang up the phone on Jarvis if they valued their jobs.

When Nate got home, he managed to still get his garbage out on time. Apparently, the truck always came at two. He curled up in the corner of his room, a blanket wrapped around him, and tried to block out the noise of an empty street.

He slept the rest of the day off.

The rest of the weekend was spent just like that, hearing the neighbors arguing over who does the dishes, then their loud breathing hours later when they finally went to bed. They were two apartments down from Nate, and the one in between had been empty since the last resident got arrested for dealing.

Sunday night. Nate decided to go over his notes from class. There was supposed to be some sort of quiz tomorrow. As if religion didn't play a role in the fact that Sunday was a part of the weekend. And since most religions used Sundays to do stuff, they considered it taboo to do trivial things such as homework on Sunday, unless it was religiously relevant. His head swam as he tried to focus, but wans't getting very far.

Oh well. At least Hannah would be at school tomorrow. He seriously needed some answers.

Gradually, Nate realized that he could no longer hear the neighbors. He sighed with relief, pulled out his ear-buds and turned off his iPod. No need to blast the heavy metal anymore. Now their voices were muffled again- something he could cope with.

With a sigh,  he went to bed. Ordinary life. He smirked. School would end eventually, and then he'd have to find a better job. What kind of work environment would take in an eighteen year-old mechanic who couldn't work with his boss, and tended to call in sick a lot due to migraines?

He'd cross that bridge when he came to it.

4. Target Aquired

Nate sighed as he walked into class, his eyes darting quickly to Hannah's seat to confirm his suspicions. She still wasn't back yet. Was she ever going to come back, or did she take off with her buddies? Nate had never seen them before, but the three of them had seemed pretty chummy together. Skipping school must not be a problem for her- she basically had everyone in the class as a minion anyways, so it's not like she would have a hard time catching up.

Nate took his seat in the back corner of the room as the bell rang. If there was one thing he hated about Harper, it was how she demanded people be in their seats by the time the bell finished ringing, and not a moment later. He dug out his second period notebook- English. Like they needed to learn how to speak. Who cared about that stupid analyzing crap, anyways? Did Shakespeare write his plays to be studied as literary wonders? No, he wrote them to make some cash to feed his family because the guy was as weak as a wet spiderweb.

He didn't really pay attention, opting instead to look out the window over the grounds. They were on the second floor, and their classroom was right by the soccer fields. He watched as the girls' phys. Ed class headed out onto the baseball diamond. Might as well try to get the outdoors whenever it wasn't too cold, he guessed.

His eyes narrowed as the colours outside seemed to change, become darker tints of themselves. A dark form dropped from the sky to land on the pitch like a big pile of dark snow. He watched as it rose, molding itself into a huge white monster, with two extra arms poking out of it's back. Its yellow eyes filled with black, and it reared back its massive head to unleash a blood curdling roar, its arms rising into the air as if it were celebrating.

The phys. Ed class was oblivious to the monster, and kept on walking straight towards it. Nate glanced around the classroom to see if anyone else had noticed, just in time to see a short figure dart past the door in the hallway. He turned his attention back outside. The monster didn't seem to be interested in the gym class at all. It stomped slowly towards the school, each step seeming to take enormous effort. Even though Nate was on the second floor, it felt like the two of them were eye-level, and the monster was getting taller and taller with every stride he took towards him.

Something inside him told him to move, to get down. The monster was looking at him. Its mouth began to open, and Nate could see some sort of ball of energy forming in its mouth.

Someone tackled him to the floor, just as a piercing shriek echoed throughout the classroom, causing the glass to shatter. Nate yelled in surprise, covering his ears to try to drown out the howl. The rest of the class dropped to the floor too, surprised and afraid of what they assumed was a drive-by, even though they were on the second floor. Nate glanced around him, but no one else seemed to notice the monster.

Slowly, he sat back up to watch the monster rear its head again, preparing for another attack. “Stay here,” Hannah told him. She jumped out of the window, and instead of falling to the ground, ran towards the monster on the air. Her blonde hair glittered in the sun, and Nate watched in utter amazement as she charged the beast, her sword gripped tightly in her hand.

Two other figures joined her in her attack, and the monster turned its head to deal with the new threat. A blast of some sort of blue energy shot out from the taller one's palms, blasting through the creature's head at the same time that Hannah drove her sword right into its skull.

Nate watched as the monster howled in pain even as its body disintegrated before his very eyes. Hands from behind him started to pull him away from the ledge, and Nate didn't resist, his eyes not leaving the scene outside the window. It was the same three from the alley: Hannah, Sora, and Chad. And they had just killed a huge monster that no one else but him had seen.

Ten minutes later, when everything had finally settled down and the shattered glass was cleared away, Hannah waltzed into class. She took her seat, glancing quietly at the shattered window before leaning towards Amanda. Nate could hear her from across the room, even though he doubted anyone else could. "What page are we on?"

Nate blinked, surprised. Nothing like "What happened?", eh? He'd have to talk to her later.

Hannah glanced over at him, smiled, and waggled her fingers. Nathan blinked as she turned her attention back to her book.

They seriously needed to talk.

 

5. Scope's Out. Gun In.

Nate saw Hannah standing by a tree, as if waiting for someone He chose to sneak up on her, still convinced that she was trying to avoid him- he hadn't been able to get her alone all day, soething that was normally easy. He cut around a group of freshmen, using them as cover so that Hannah wouldn't see him coming.

“What was that thing?” he asked quietly when he was standing right behind her.

Hannah jumped as she turned, her hand instinctively reaching for her pocket; a movement not wasted on Nathan. “Looking for your sword?”

Just then, Chad and Sora arrived, both with raised eyebrows to see Nathan with Hannah. Hannah glanced meekly at them before saying, “I need to go.”

Nate grabbed her shoulder, stopping her mid-turn, “Not before I get some answers.”

“Look, forget about the alleyway, alright? It never happened.”

“Actually, I'd completely forgotten about that one. I'm talking about today.”

Something flitted across her face, but it was gone before Nate could guess at what it was. “What about today? I was late because my Dad was sick, so I spent the morning calling the clients he had booked, rescheduling for him.”

“Yeah? I still don't care. I'm talking about that huge monster thing. The thing you three,” he glanced briefly at Chad and Sora, “Took down.”

“I don't know what you're talking about.”

“Really? There was no monster?” Nate made his face carry a dubious expression, as if he wasn't really sure any more. “I have been having some pretty weird hallucinations lately, so that could have been another one...”

Hannah jumped at the chance, “Probably.”

“You're sure?”

Hannah nodded.

Nate pounced, “So no monster shattered the glass, and you're not the one who shoved me out of the way and saved my ass. Is that what you're saying?”

Hannah nodded, “You got it.”

“Okay... then how come you didn't ask what happened when you came in?”

“Huh?”

“When you came to school late, your eyes flitted to the window real quickly, like you were assessing the damage. But you didn't ask anybody what had happened. Something like that, you ask questions. But you didn't.”

“Yes I did, you just didn't hear me. You were on the far side of the room after all.”

“Hannah, I can hear the cricket chirping in the classroom across the hall. I can tell you its exact location. From here. I'm not going to miss something like you whispering a question to Amanda.”

“Your hearing's really that good?” Sora spoke up, surprised.

Nate shrugged, running his fingers through his white hair, “Yeah. It's a pain in the ass though. Stopped riding public transit when I was eight.” His eyebrows twitched, “And what's the deal with you wandering around like a freshman? You're like, twelve.”

Sora shrugged, pretending to be nonchalant. Nate could tell that he had been practising in front of a mirror somewhere. “I skipped a couple grades.”

“Really.” He turned back to Hannah. “So what was that thing?”

Hannah, instead of looking at him, glanced over at the others. Chad gave her a nod. Hannah sighed. “Alright. We'll tell you. But not here,” she added quickly when she saw Nathan open his mouth, “It's not the sort of conversation that you want Buraindo to overhear.”

'' 'Buraindo'?”

Sora yawned, “Ordinary humans. People who can't see the monsters, or have lost the Sight. It happens as they grow older. Some synapse in their brain thickens, blocking out the thin optical nerve that enables them to See.”

Nathan just gave him a confused look. Sora shrugged. “Whatever. If you guys are gonna introduce him to the real world, I'm going to shoot for some food.” He