Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

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The world ended in May.

But it didn’t end in the ways that you would think. No, the world didn’t explode, it didn’t become unlivable, it wasn’t invaded by some ancient lifeforce from the galaxies and heavens beyond. Life wasn’t wiped out by bombs and bullets and violence and death, but what did happen in May would change life for everyone, and what is change if not the end of something forever?

So, the world ended in May. It ended for everyone who turned on the news that morning. It ended for everyone in Siberia who experienced it first hand.

The locals called the crater the “Gateway to Hell” because each year the crater sank deeper into the earth, coming down like it was in some kind of quicksand. They blamed permafrost and global warming, but it was much more than that. It was almost as if something wanted to get in.

Or something wanted to get out.

They never truly knew how accurate of a name it would become until May of 2041.

Every living creature in the world looked on together. Animals, humans, insects, even the smallest bacteria. The world itself seemed to hold its breath and watch. The land seemed to ebb and flow around that crater.

And then the world shook. Everything felt it. The humans, the birds, the fish in the sea, the prancing deer in the meadows, the worms in the dirt. They felt the shift. They felt the change. They felt the wrath of millions and billions of years come up to the surface. They felt the demons claw their way to the surface of the Earth, right at that strange crater in Siberia. They felt the panic, the absolutely petrified air of the world flipping upside down.

The citizens in Siberia watched in horror. They watched an unearthly glow rise from the center of the world. They watched as the first wave of demons left that crater, heading straight for civilization.

Chaos ensued.

Cars crashed, people trampled, shots fired, nooses strung. It was the end of the world, and they didn’t want to face it. Who would?

The demons wreaked havoc, causing a rampage, a war, and a human bloodbath. The creatures didn’t stop until someone else stepped in. Until the rest of the world stepped in. Until the chaos allowed the once-divided world to stand together in retaliation against them.

And the humans did it well.

The creatures were subdued within twenty-four hours. The crater closed within less time. Against all odds, we won the battle against the demons, but we sure as hell did not win the war.

The International Demon Hunting Society was formed in response. A solution that wasn’t permanent at first, until it started to work. Until the demons started to die and not come back. Then it became permanent.

The world went back to a sense of normal. A subdued normal. Panic had seeped into human bones, and the world would never be able to rest again, but the change happened, and no amount of fighting could change it back. So we learned to live with it, somehow. Precautions. A military force. Scientists who specialized in demonology.

But the most important weapon humans had in their arsenal was hope. Humans didn’t lose their humanity, they didn’t lose their hope, and that was all they truly had against the monsters from far below their feet.

So that May in 2041 would go down in history as the month the world ended. Or, rather, the beginning of the end of the world.

Chapter Text

You never know when your life is going to change, either for better or for worse. Stella Booker certainly didn’t know on the 9th of October, 2073. All she knew was that she was bored. Bored out of her mind in a boring class with a boring teacher and boring students and a boring topic. She glanced at the clock. 9:37 AM. On a Monday. And she was already feeling like she wanted to bash her own head in with a desk. This was going to be a long, long week.

Mr. Kowis, Stella’s teacher, was talking about old world explorers. Columbus, Lewis and Clark, Hernan Cortes...Jesus, Stella could barely keep her eyes open, and she had a project about this due on Friday. She twirled her pencil between her fingers, her other hand holding her chin. She looked out the window and watched an old blue car drive past, silently begging it to take her with.

For some reason, history was never her strong suit. She just couldn't sit still and learn about things that didn't and wouldn't ever apply to her. There was the argument that history was always repeating itself, so it should apply to her, but Stella found no use in old battles and wars when they all just felt so...outdated. Stella was more into politics in the current world, but even then, sometimes she found herself getting bored of that too. She wondered if that was a bad thing, seeing as how the world basically revolved around politics, especially in the age she lived in.

Especially in a world with demons. That was the only type of politics she was interested in, news about demons.

Or, more specifically, Demon Hunters.

The International Demon Hunting Society, or IDHS, was a huge organization of demon Hunters. No one really knew a lot about them. Their whole organization was completely top secret, or that's what everyone wanted you to believe. The truth was, Hunters and the Society took up every waking aspect of normal everyday lives. You couldn't walk a block without a billboard asking miserable office workers if they "had what it took" to be a Hunter. You couldn't look at your feed on the Chips without some Hunter group's picture popping up with some heroic headline. Hell, you couldn't even have a normal conversation without someone mentioning IDHS and their happenings in some way. It was just ingrained into everyday culture. Not that Stella was particularly upset about it. Who would be? The Hunters were like gods incarnate, coming down from the heavens to fight off monsters and protect humanity. With their secretive ways, their undiscovered base, their harrowing tryouts that contestants trained their whole lives for—everything about them just screamed publicity.

It was amazing.

Stella supposed it couldn't be helped. With the world in ruin and the population on a downward spiral due to demon attacks, everyone needed a light, and that light just so happened to be the very organization protecting everyone. She wondered what people looked up to before the Outbreak. Was there anything that was so ingrained into daily life that everyone knew what it was? Stella heard that the world was really divided before the Outbreak. She wondered if that applied to interests as well.

It must've been pretty rough, back then. If everyone was at each other's throats all the time for simply existing, the Outbreak must've almost been a plus for humanity. It united the world in a lot more ways than one, based on what she heard. A common enemy makes great friends. Sometimes, Stella wondered-

“Stella?” Mr. Kowis demanded loudly.
Stella blinked and looked up at him. He had an annoyed look on his wrinkled face, and he'd said her name in a loud tone, as if he had repeated it. Almost like he'd asked something.

Oh. He had asked something.

Stella cleared her throat and glanced at the board that a Kowis was standing in front of, cross-armed. Pinned onto the front of the board were very old, very serious pictures of explorers who were long dead. She wondered what it would be like to have that fame, to have your name live on in a legacy. She wondered how it felt to have a high school class learn about you as your picture from long, long ago is plastered onto a square of cardboard.

Students were starting to eye her, waiting for an answer. She blinked and cleared her throat once more.

“Sorry, could you repeat the question, please?”

Elsie, Stella’s friend, snickered from her spot on Stella’s right. She glanced in Elsie's direction, then back at the stony faced teacher.

“I asked when Columbus made it to America. Since your and Elsie’s poster project is on him, you two should know.”

Stella smiled sweetly and looked once more at Elsie, as if to ask why don't you answer? Elsie’s smile faded quickly. She looked between the teacher and Stella.

“Uhm, 1872?” she answered, shifting in her seat.

“You’re about 430 years late,” Mr. Kowis said, cocking his head. “The 1870s were the years of the wild west, telephones, and black and white pictures. It isn’t exactly what you’d call undiscovered continents and world explorers.”

Stella snorted and hid her smile with her hand. Elsie looked about ready to dissolve into the floor.

Mr. Kowis moved on quickly, diving into a rant about how Columbus wasn’t actually the guy history makes him out to be, how this other guy discovered America before him, how Columbus took all the credit, how he was racist, close-minded, blah, blah, blah.

Stella turned to Elsie and was about to whisper to her about Kowis being a hypocrite when she noticed it.

Elsie didn't look up at her. In her lap was a little device that was emitting a strange glow, and Elsie was tapping and swiping away on it.. Stella, confused, leaned over and looked down toward what her friend was tapping on.

A cell phone.

A cell phone?

The thing was ancient, Elsie probably only had it with her just to say she had one. Weird, Stella thought they stopped making those after the Outbreak. People were so panicked when demons showed up that cell phones and new technology quickly became obsolete. After the Barriers were set up, cell signals couldn’t even travel through the magic barricades, making it almost impossible to still use the old hunks of metal for communicating with people long distances away. Sad, as that was basically the phone's only purpose.

Stella stared at the thing. It looked like she was on an old game, the graphics cartoony and odd. It looked like Elsie was controlling a little figure running on a train track. She wondered how the thing was still playable and running. Maybe it was her grandparents'? Were they phone collectors or something?

Stella shook her head. Cells weren't necessary anymore. Instead, everyone had the Chips installed in their right forearms when they turned ten. They acted in the exact same way a phone did. They projected little holograms onto your skin, letting your flesh act as a control panel. They showed videos, news articles, games, everything you could think of that was on the old internet. They acted as trackers as well, in case you went missing or did something wrong and needed to be found. It lowered the crime rates by a lot, since removing the tracker involved tearing open your own skin and ripping it out of your veins and arteries. Stella shuddered just thinking about it.

“Elsie?” Stella asked, quiet as a mouse.

Elsie looked up and over at her.

She gestured toward the device in her lap.

Elsie shrugged at her and turned the device off, shoving it into her backpack. Then she lifted her eyebrows at Stella in a gesture that Stella could only describe as wanting to skip.

Stella subtly nodded, and Elsie shot her hand up like a bullet.

“This is around the time when-” Mr. Kowis saw Elsie’s hand and stopped his spiel. “Yes, Elsie?”

“Could I use the restroom?” asked Elsie innocently.

Mr. Kowis nodded as he sighed. “Be quick.”

Elsie grinned at him and hopped up, grabbing her backpack, dragging it over her shoulder, and walking up to the front of the room. As she passed Mr. Kowis, she suddenly stopped and turned around, her face pale.

“Oh, uh, could Stella come with me?” Elsie asked, looking at Stella with fear written on her face. “I want to use the buddy system. You know. Just in case.”

Mr. Kowis nodded, turning to Stella, who was already grabbing her things and shoving them into her purple messenger bag, clad with pins and buttons. It was old, her mother’s in high school, it’s wear showing on the seams. Stella thought it looked better with a bit of dirt on it.

She stood and followed Elsie’s path, coming up beside her and grabbing her hand.

“You know the drill, girls,” Mr. Kowis stated, straightening. “If something happens, just call someone on your Chips.”

Stella nodded for the both of them. She opened the door, walked through the threshold, and pulled Elsie along with her.

Elsie’s fear might have been faked, but the problem was a genuine one that students experienced. Kids were trained from a very early age to fear the demons, and for good reason. Those bloodthirsty monsters would eat a newborn baby just for sport. She'd heard of it happening before. Freaks, the whole lot of those disgusting monsters.

The Chips were also implanted for protection. If anyone was ever in trouble, all they had to do was call IDHS. People nearby you would be alerted, and if it was a big emergency, a team of Hunters would be sent to you. Stella was pretty sure that the teachers in the school were trained in basic Demon Hunting. They knew what to do in cases of emergencies, and most of the time they needed it. For some reason, schools seemed to be targeted by the creatures a lot. Maybe it was because a big population of people were in one place at one time. Demonologists suspected that the demons could sense where a large group of people were congregated, and they seemed to always target the younger half of the population. The specialists could never really study demons properly, since their bodies just disappeared into an ash after they were killed, and the samples they did get of substances from the monsters didn’t reveal much about them. The demons were a tricky subject all around, but there was one thing that everyone could easily agree on:

They were nothing but pure evil.

Demon infestations were happening daily, and every time, the demons would go on a bloodthirsty killing spree. What was causing the demon infestations wasn’t really the demons themselves, but the Public Barriers. The Public Barriers were erratic, difficult, and implanted entirely by a substance scientists didn’t have a clue about until the Outbreak. Stella had heard about it in papers, the magic element found at the Outbreak sight. It was unpredictable, wild, and wholly unfit for making blockades that all of humanity relied on. But they were the only things that ever worked. The substance stopped demons entirely, though Stella wasn't sure how. All she knew was that they were there, and they were awfully annoying to travel through.

Holes in the Barriers were appearing basically hourly, and they required the immediate attention of Hunters. Stella had only seen one in her life. It looked like something had taken a bite out of the whole Barrier, the edges jagged, glowing a sickly purple, and looking entirely unnatural against the pale blue of the rest of the Barrier. Stella heard somewhere that they popped up because of demons tearing through it, but Stella had a feeling it was because the Barriers were so inconsistent and new. It just didn't seem realistic to Stella that the demons couldn’t touch the Barriers, but they were making holes in them every day. Honestly, she thought scientists and the governments were just covering up their mistakes to make it seem like they had a greater control over humanity’s safety. To give everyone hope. Like hope was going to stop an army of demons when they stormed through a hole in a Barrier and massacred an entire city.

Stella shivered at the thought. Demons were everywhere. There could be a demon inside the school right now. Maybe hiding in a locker. Maybe it was pretending to be a human. Maybe it was in the very bathroom the two girls were headed to.

Their footsteps echoing down the empty hall set Stella on edge. She cleared her throat just to fill the silence and turned to Elsie.
“Was that a phone? Back in Kowis’s?” she asked incredulously.

Elsie looked at her, then looked back forward. “Yeah. It was my mom’s. A twentieth model, I think?”

“A twentieth model!?” Stella guffawed. “Are you kidding? That thing’s ancient!”

“Yeah,” Elsie agreed. “I honestly only brought it because the teachers would be too confused to take it away.”

“You are crazy,” Stella said, giggling. The two had only met last month, after Elsie moved in from some place in New York. The two girls hit it off instantly, like the two were made for each other. Stella was just glad to have made a new friend.

The bathroom was just a bit further. Stella’s nerves were still on fire, her eyes darting around, looking for something. Stupid. She was being ridiculous. There weren’t any demons in the school. If there was, someone would have seen it already, and there would be about a million Hunters here.

Stella had only seen the Hunters in the flesh three times. Once, when her own home was infested when she was three. Her dad was still around then, and she remembered the day like it was yesterday. They were small things—maybe Shedims—and they didn’t do much except run around and knock things over. Stella had found the first one in her room, sitting on top of her doll house and scratching up the pink wall like a dog. Her wall now still had marks, even though they'd repaired it and painted over the old pink. Little Stella had screamed like a Banshee, sprinting down her stairs so fast she almost ran into a wall. Her dad scooped her up and left the house, no questions asked. She didn’t remember anything after the Hunters showed up, but she remembered their suits. Sleek, solid, and powerful. It made her feel like she was safe, like the problem was already dealt with before it had started.

The second time was when she was nine. She was riding a bike down the street when she saw a black van pull up to a house a couple blocks ahead. Out jumped two Hunters, clad with weapons and gear. They sprinted to the door, kicked it open, and started shooting whatever was in that house. Little Stella had stopped dead in her tracks, watching wide-eyed as the Hunters did their job with flawless grace. After they were done, heading back to their vehicle, one had seen Stella. They gave her a little wave before jumping back in their van and pulling off. A couple news vans and fans showed up a heartbeat later, clambering around the house and recording with their Chips and cameras. The police came after that and escorted everyone out, then they took care of the reports and sent cleaners inside to help with the mess that whatever demon was inside had made. Stella watched every bit of it, enthralled. She didn’t show up at her house until six, worrying her mom sick.

The last time she saw them was when she was thirteen. She was eating lunch with her friends at a diner downtown. She reached over, grabbed her milkshake, took a sip, and then stopped in her tracks when she looked out the window.

Outside, peering in at the group, was a huge demon. It had a wolfish, dog-like face and big, beady eyes the size of basketballs. Its hands were pressed up to the window, gigantic things with claws longer than Stella’s forearm, and he was drooling against the glass. She couldn’t see the lower half of it, and she didn’t care to know what it looked like. All she remembered was screaming before it broke the glass, trying to lunge for her. She dove out of the way just in time, the chair she was sitting in ripped into ribbons, the inner cushioning spread everywhere. She watched in terror as the thing went after somebody else, quickly forgetting Stella.

She had booked it out of the diner, a crowd of panicked people following in her wake. She called IDHS about twenty times, right along with everyone else. An older man who wasn’t able to get as lucky as Stella had died in that diner, Stella had watched in horror outside as the thing ripped him to shreds. Someone beside her had thrown up. After everyone else had left the diner, the demon started circling around inside, trampling over the dead man. The little shit was waiting for someone to show up. Waiting so he didn’t have to go outdoors. When the Hunters did finally show up, their elegance, control, and power radiating off of them, the monstrous creature seemed to balk in a corner. The Hunters made quick work of it, left the diner, and then got in their van and left. Easy as pie. Like the demon didn’t just spew a very unfortunate man's innards everywhere. Stella had gone to the funeral service for him. She couldn't walk by that renovated diner now without wanting to cry.

Present Stella shook her head, remembering her situation. It was no time to think of horrid stuff like that. She had to focus. She scanned the lockers lining the halls again, paranoid, and walked with Elsie to the bathroom doors.

Elsie stepped through the threshold first, making her way to the mirrors and dropping her bag onto the counter. It made a plopping sound. She zipped it open, grabbed some mascara from her bag, and then looked back to the mirror. She fixed her honey blonde bangs, fluffing up her waist-length hair that perfectly contrasted her pale skin and blue eyes. She straightened out her white long sleeve, tight against her body, and pulled her dark blue jeans up. Then, she took the mascara, unscrewed it, and redid her makeup.

“Well, don’t be a stranger, Stell,” Elsie said, looking at her through the mirror, wiping a smudge off her face. “Get in here or some guard will see you.”

Stella stiffly walked to the sink, looking at her reflection. Her brown eyes were just as jumpy as she expected them to be, and her usually warm brown skin was dulled to a sickly sheen. She was tense, she could see it beneath her aqua top. She looked over her hair, a few stray strands falling over her face, the rest of her afro curls tucked into a ponytail behind her head. Her makeup was beautiful, but she frowned at herself in the mirror. There wasn't a reason to be so scared, but thinking about the demons made her nervous. She wondered if they would be the first two to get attacked if one of the monsters did show up. Probably. Stella shivered, despite the hot lights from the bathroom bearing into her.

Skipping was really pointless. She knew this, kind of predicted it as the two walked the halls. Right now she wanted nothing more than to go back to that boring classroom, if only to be safe.

“Are you okay, Stella?” Elsie asked her, concerned. Stella looked at her in the mirror. Elsie was watching her, the mascara she was holding paused on her eyelashes. “You seem…shaken.”

“Oh,” Stella replied, turning to her. “Sorry. No, it’s nothing.” Stella shook her head, wondering why the hell she wasn’t on the way back right now. “I’m-I'm fine. I guess your excuse back in the classroom just made me jumpy.”

Elsie smiled a bit, capping her mascara and screwing the lid back on. She dropped it into her bag, looking back at Stella as if she was crazy for suggesting their safety. “Come on, you know I was kidding.”

Stella rubbed the back of her neck, shrugging. “Yeah, I know, it’s just…nothing.”

“Oh!” Elsie exclaimed, grabbing her bag and looking back inside of it. “Yesterday, I was out at that boutique downtown. You know the one, with the huge yellow canopy in the front? Anyway, I was looking for some new pants, and I came across this, and it immediately made me think of you.” She finally found the thing, pulling it out and presenting it to Stella, her hands cupping it as if it were special to her.

It was a beautiful silver necklace with three little stars on it. Stella gasped and leaned in to look at it. The stars were hanging from the necklace, connected to the main chain with loops, allowing them to move freely. She grinned up at Elsie.

“Oh, it’s beautiful!” she exclaimed, touching the delicate little stars. “Elsie, would you put it on me?”

Elsie nodded enthusiastically, already unclasping the chain. “Oh, this is going to look so cute on you!” She went around Stella, pulling the ends together and connecting them. Elsie turned her toward the mirror, gesturing to Stella as she leaned against her shoulder. “It matches your personality perfectly, Stell.”

Stella watched as the stars shone in the light. Stella leaned her head against Elsie’s, the stars tinkling with the movement. They were so different, the two of them, yet they were so similar. Stella had other friends, tons of other friends, but she always felt something different with Elsie. Like she was a missing puzzle piece.

Elsie sighed and straightened up, stretching like a feline as she circled around Stella and back to her spot by her bag. She put her palms on the counter and hoisted herself up, now sitting on the surface between the two sinks. Elsie watched Stella as she fidgeted with her necklace.

“So,” Elsie said, grinning at Stella, “how do you like it?”

“Are you kidding? It’s beautiful!” Stella exclaimed, taking a star in her finger, turning it around. “Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. How much did it cost?”

“Oh, it was nothing, don't worry about it,” Elsie stated, raising her leg onto the counter. She crossed her right leg over her left, her ankle resting on her knee. Stella stopped looking at the necklace in the mirror and turned once again to Elsie.

Stella finally squeezed onto the counter beside Elsie, crisscrossing her legs underneath her. “You haven’t started that Columbus poster, have you, Els?”

“Nope,” Elsie confirmed, throwing her head back and bracing her hands on the counter. She stared at the ceiling for a second, and a look Stella couldn’t read crossed her face. But when she looked at Stella, all that was there was pure teasing. “Have you?”

Stella shook her head, laughing. “Man, we’re so getting a bad grade on this thing.”

Elsie nodded, swinging her leg on her knee off the counter and leaning against the wall between the two mirrors. Half of her head was resting on a soap dispenser, and she readjusted by craning her neck to the side. “Let’s just blame Mr. Kowis if our work is bad quality. I mean, he's the one who was against Columbus in the first place. He put the idea that he was a bad guy into our heads. Real professional. I mean, seriously, the way he talks about him, you’d think he knew the guy himself.”

“He probably did,” Stella commented, grinning. Elsie laughed. “No, seriously, the guy’s probably old enough to have known the dinosaurs. He definitely knows how to work that model twenty phone.”

“Do you think we should test it?” Elsie asked, smiling. “Go back in there and show it to him? We could say we found it on the floor somewhere.”

“He’d probably drop dead at the sight of it,” Stella replied, and that sent them both into a fit of laughter.

As the girls’ giggles faded, Elsie once again shifted on the counter, eventually throwing her legs back up and sitting crisscross like Stella. “God, these counters are so uncomfortable. Wish they were padded or something.”

“Why on Earth would they be padded?”

"Why not?” Elsie said, finally hopping off of the counter altogether and stretching again. She groaned as she started to pace in circles. “It’s like they were made to have people not sit on them.”

“Really?” Stella replied in a deadpan.

They fell into a silence, Elsie leaning against the wall. Stella looked at the tiles on the floor and wondered if the two should go back. They’d probably overstayed their welcome. Stella sighed and stood up.

“Alright, Els, we should get back before Kowis hounds us,” she said, picking up her messenger bag and making her way to the door. “It’s not like we can stay here all period.”

“Wait,” Elsie said loudly.

Her tone was…pleading. Almost desperate. Stella paused, turning back to her. She could feel a furrow in her brow. “What’s the matter?”

Elsie shifted, her hands reaching up to grab her hair and play with it. “Well, I saw you talking to Sadie this morning. You mentioned a guy…Z, I think? What’s up with him?”

Z. The troublemaker of the school. Stella thought back to this morning. She remembered Sadie talking to her about a guy. Yeah, it was definitely Z. She had mentioned some crazy shenanigans some guys from their grade did. Apparently, the night before they had gone old school and egged a house. Sadie told her about it, mentioning Z’s name about a billion times. The girl was lovesick.

Stella clicked her tongue. “Oh, Sadie’s got a crush on the Z guy. This morning she wouldn’t drop the topic no matter how many times I tried to switch the conversation. I swear, it was like I was in a super old sitcom. I kinda feel bad for the girl. I don’t really see Z as the type to settle.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Elsie agreed. She dropped her gaze to the floor, and then leveled it back with Stella. She paused, then, “Do you like anyone?”

Stella snorted. “Uh, no. No, I don’t.” She rolled her eyes. “Almost every single guy in this school is annoying, immature, or not my type. The ones that could be classified as cute are taken.”

The truth was, if she wanted, she could probably date anyone in this school. She was popular, or at least by definition. Everyone knew Stella, and Stella knew everyone, and everyone liked her enough that she could ask anything from someone, and they would do it. She didn't like to think about that, didn't think it was right to take advantage of people. She shook her head as she adjusted her bag on her shoulder.

“Whatever, let’s not talk about that." Stella shifted from foot to foot. She was getting nervous again. "We seriously should get back, Elsie.” Stella turned and started her walk to the door again.

“Alright,” Elsie agreed, going over to the counter. She grabbed her bag, hoisted it up over her shoulder, and turned to where Stella was waiting by the door. Her hand traveled to her back pocket, then the other, then to the two in the front.

“Oh my God,” she whispered, frantically checking all of her pockets again. “My cell phone. Oh no. Oh, no no no no no!”

“What? What happened?” Stella asked, moving towards her.

“My mom’s phone, I don’t know where it is!” she shouted, her voice becoming panicked. “Oh, Stella, that thing is probably worth ten fortunes! If she found out she would disown me! She would kill me! Kill me! Stella, we have to find it. We cannot leave this bathroom until we find her phone!”

“Calm down, Elsie,” Stella said, putting a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “It’s just a hunk of plastic. We’ll find it. How hard could it be? Did you have it on you when you came in here?”

“Yes!” Elsie exclaimed, rushing over to the counter. She frantically started scanning it, looking under a crumpled paper towel, looking in the sinks as if the phone was somehow smooshed in the drain. “I felt it in my pocket when I was sitting on the counter.”

“Did it fall on the ground?” Stella suggested, dropping to her knees and searching the dirty floor for a black rectangle.

Shit, Stella!” Elsie shouted, nearing the trash can. “I’m never seeing that phone again!”

Stella got to her feet as Elsie started to search the trash can, throwing paper towels onto the ground in a desperate attempt to find the ancient device. Stella sighed and approached the can on the other side like it was a ticking bomb. Elsie hadn't even gotten close to the trash cans. Where on Earth was this thing?

Stella reached inside the trash can, gagging at the smell and all the germs inside of it. She searched the trash as she spoke, “Elsie, are you sure it’s not in your bag? Maybe you dropped it in there when you were looking for my necklace.”

“No,” she said, then stopped her search. “Well, maybe?” She got up from her position over the can, slinging her bag onto the counter and unzipping it quickly.

That’s when Stella heard the footsteps. Big, hulking footsteps that sounded like they were coming straight for the bathroom.

Straight for them.

As if whatever was out there knew the two were in the bathroom.

Stella froze, turning her head toward Elsie.

Elsie looked up at her from her bag, confused, when she heard them too. She stopped searching and her face drained of color.

Stella lunged for her bag, trying to be quiet, and zipped it up. Elsie had barely stood up before Stella was shoving her bag into her arms. Elsie fumbled it, but regained control as Stella raced toward a bathroom stall, her bag in tow. She made no sound as she entered the first stall and shut the door behind her.

The doors opened to the outside, giving her more room in case something opened it. She could fight. She could fight back. The demons weren't invincible. No, no they weren't. Hundreds of the beasts died daily. Stella could fight back. She kept repeating it in her head as she unzipped her bag silently and grabbed the first sharp thing she saw, a pair of scissors. Stella surveyed the stall. There were windows above each toilet, barely big enough to fit someone through. Stella silently cursed herself for being tall, for being noticeable, as she got up onto the toilet and crouched, trying desperately not to be seen.

She hoped and prayed Elsie had gotten into a stall in time as the door to the bathrooms opened. The footsteps thundered through the silent room, but they stopped before the sinks.

Shit. Shit shit shit. Elsie had made a huge mess. Those towels were a sure sign the two were there. If that thing was a demon, if it was intelligent enough to know what trash was, if she was in danger…she tapped her Chip five times. It made no noise, and a small screen appeared on her wrist, asking if she wanted assistance. She tapped yes, swallowing hard.

She huddled up closer to the wall. She sent up a silent prayer to whatever god was in the sky, watching her. She wondered if it was laughing at her and her stupidity. She shouldn't have skipped class. That stupid phone. Stupid. This was all so stupid.

The footsteps sounded again, and Stella felt a tear roll down her cheek. She covered her mouth with her left hand, the scissors in her right poised to strike.

Pound.

Pound.

Pound.

Pound.

Then, they stopped right outside her stall.

Stella closed her eyes. She hoped that this thing didn’t take Elsie. She hoped it killed her and her alone. She hoped that death was painless. A horrible way to go, crouched over a toilet in a dirty school bathroom. About to be ripped to shreds. Oh, god-

“Estelle Booker?” a gruff voice said outside the stall.

Stella nearly jumped out of her skin. She stopped crying all at once. She’d never heard of a demon who could talk before.

“This is school security. We know you’re in there. Come on out.”

Stella, despite the situation, laughed. In shock and disbelief. The sound scared herself. She slowly went off of the toilet, her legs shaky as she opened the stall door. Standing before her was a huge, hulking man, matching the footsteps and the voice perfectly. He stiffened when he saw the tears on her face and the scissors still in her hand.

“Are you alright?” he wondered, genuine concern in his voice. “Do you need to go to the nurse’s office?”

“Sir, I thought you were a demon,” she said with a barely audible voice.

He boomed a laugh, slapping his knee even though the statement wasn’t funny. Far from it, actually. Stella just watched him, a very small smile on her face. Man, she just wanted this day to be over.

“Sorry,” he said through his laughter, straightening and wiping his eyes. “Jesus, that’s funny.” He sighed and pulled out his transmitter, saying something into it she didn’t hear. “Maybe I should start announcing myself when I come into bathrooms." He winked, and Stella considered strangling him. "Did you send an alert?”

Stella nodded, her legs still wobbly. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and leaned against her stall.

The security officer said some more things into his transmitter. “Alright, Estelle, I’m taking you to the office. I’m assuming you’re going to be getting detention for being in here past your time allotted. Plus, we got an anonymous tip that you might be causing trouble today, so we have to keep an eye on you.”

Stella opened her eyes and looked at him. “A tip? From who?”

“That’s the thing about anonymous tips, we don’t really know.”

Stella shook her head. “Sorry. That was a stupid question." Stella paused and took a breath. "Why?”

“Huh?”

“Why did I get the tip?” Stella articulated, her patience thinning.

“Oh, we aren’t sure. That’s one of the reasons why we’re taking you to the office, to find out what you're up to.” He started to walk to the door. “Come on.”
Stella got up from the stall door and heard a lock unclicking.

Elsie.

The officer didn’t say anything about her. Which meant that he didn’t know. He was going to leave without her, and Elsie was trying to rat herself out.

Stella quickly stumbled into the door behind her, stopping Elsie from unlocking it. The officer looked back at her, eyebrows raising.

“Sorry,” she said, straightening again while still leaning against the door. “I’m just a bit shaky is all.”

The guard surveyed her. “Come on, kid,” the officer said, opening the door, the wood creaking noisily as he did. “Nothing’s gonna hurt you on my watch.”

For some reason, Stella highly doubted that.

She straightened, hoping Elsie got the message. But, for whatever reason, Stella heard Elsie drop down onto the floor. She whipped around and watched as Elsie unclicked the stall door.

Great. Now they were both in deep shit.

“Stop trying to cover for me, Stella,” Eslie said rather dramatically. Stella reluctantly stepped away from the door as Elsie exited. Her expression looked like she was being sentenced to her death, a serene expression Stella could only describe as heroic.

The guard looked like he was done with everyone’s shit as he sighed and opened his transmitter again. “Name?”

“Elsie. Elsie Kirkland."

“Okay. You come with me too, kid. Guilty by association.”

Elsie raised her chin as she followed the guard out the door. Stella followed close behind, confused and dazed.

Detention.

Detention!?

What the hell did she do to get detention?

Chapter Text

You never know when your life is going to change, either for better or for worse. Rain Farley definitely didn’t know on Monday October 9th, 2073. All she knew was that she was in PE class, counting down the days until her required gym credits were over.

Gym was the bane of her existence.

It wasn’t that she wasn’t athletic. She was in an okay shape, she thought, but it was the nature of the class itself. A sweaty, hot gym filled with giggling girls and a sticky court and squeaking shoes and an old, mean teacher.

The place made her skin crawl.

It definitely didn’t help that she was in the middle of doing a push-up. Rain’s shoulder length black hair was in her eyes, sticking to her face and making her wish she’d put it into a ponytail before this, even if it wouldn’t have held for long. Her arms started to shake as she pushed herself back up. She took a deep breath and went back down again. Coach Brockney had told the girls that the general standard for girls in their Junior year was at least seven. Rain didn’t particularly care if she got seven or not. What she really wanted was to be done with this class. She was just glad the pacer test was over and done with.

Coach Brockney finally blew her whistle. Rain sat up, finally brushing her hair out of her face. She was hot, her clothes sticking to her sweaty body. She pulled her bangs up out of her face, giving her skin room to breathe.

“Good job, girls,” Brockney said to the class in her raspy voice. “Come up to me and tell me what you all got.”

Rain sighed as she stood up, stretching as the girls got in line. She took up a spot near the back, listening to her classmates’ conversations.

Rain picked at her mangled nails as the line moved up. A bad habit, picking and chewing at her nails. They were nothing but stumps now, thanks to her constant nervousness. She shifted now, watching as the girls slowly moved forward until it was Rain’s turn.

“How many?” the woman said, a pencil hovering over a piece of paper.

“Six,” Rain stated, scratching her shoulder.

“One under recommendation,” Brockney informed her, shaking her head slightly. “Shame.”

Rain was about to tell her what a shame her face was when someone behind her cleared her throat. Rain shook her head and left the line, reminding herself that this wasn’t graded. This was just to see where you were at. Nothing personal. Nothing lost.

Rain went back to her spot on the gym floor, rubbing her neck. This class only had fifteen minutes left. Ten minutes until they were free to go to the changing rooms. One more test, and then she could leave. One more test, and then she was free.

She took a breath as the teacher looked at the girls again. “Sit-ups are next. You need at least twenty for this one. I’ll time you for a minute, like last time, and then you’ll tell me how much you got.” The coach explained the proper form for a sit-up next, lowering to the ground and demonstrating for the class. She explained what muscles were being used, how to strengthen them, what this meant for the fitness testing, and how to make it easier to do.

Rain hated to admit it, but the woman was knowledgeable. Although she was pretentious and rude, she was knowledgeable.

Brockney stood up, tapping her Chip a few times to set the timer. Rain got into position, blinking against the harsh ceiling lights in the gym as she looked up. One more test. Then she could get to her next class. Then she could get this day over with.

Brockney blew her whistle, and Rain started her sit-ups.

Up and over her knees, her arms crossed over her chest, back down to the floor. Up and over, back down. She banged her head against the ground on her fifth one, flinching at the pain lancing through the back of her head. That was probably going to give her a headache.

Rain grit her teeth and kept up her process, up and over, back down. Her core was starting to hurt, but she convinced herself the pain wasn’t there, convinced herself that she was going to get crazy abs after this was over. This somehow motivated her, and she got to twenty four push-ups before Brockney blew her whistle again.

Rain sprawled out onto the ground, staring at the rafters and the kickball stuck on top of one. Girls moved around her, forming a line behind the cart. Rain smiled and got to her feet, joining the girls at the back of the line.

For the first time today, she felt excited. She could hardly contain herself as she got to Brockney’s cart.

“How many’dya get?” she slurred, tapping her pencil against the cart.

“Twenty four,” Rain replied, grinning.

Brockney surveyed her out of the corner of her eye. She sighed dramatically and heavily as she set the pencil down and looked at Rain. “Rain Farley, I want you to be honest with me and with yourself,” she contradicted, putting her hands together in a triangle as she rested her chin on her fingers. “Because when you lie, you lie to yourself. You know, this doesn’t matter towards a grade, so I’d appreciate it if you were honest with me.”

Rain blinked at her. Did…did she think Rain was lying?

“What?” Rain blurted.

“You expect me to believe that you got four over the recommended suggestion of twenty push-ups?” she asked her incredulously. “You barely got fifteen laps in your pacer and you didn’t meet the required push-ups, either. Let me be honest, you are not physically active enough to get this many sit-ups with the correct form.”

Rain stared at her. “Are you fucking with me?”

Brockney’s eyes widened. “Excuse me?!”

“Sorry, it’s just-” Rain stopped, taking a deep breath. “Why would I lie to you about my sit-up count? There’s no benefit from it.”

“Why would anyone lie about anything?” Brockney said. “Frankly, I think it’s insulting you would even try to play me like this, kid. I’ve been around much longer than you have.”

“Yeah, I can tell,” she said, quickly diving into more words so she couldn’t catch the insult. “Look, I’m not sure that the principal would like to know you’re accusing students of lying, especially when they’re telling the truth. I think it would get you stripped of your job. And I don’t really appreciate the way you’re speaking to me right now.”

“I could say the same thing,” Brockney retorted. “One more insult out of your mouth and it’s straight to the office, plus detention.”

“Just write down twenty four. It’s the number I got,” Rain demanded. “I’m not backing down from this when I’m not lying.”

Brockney narrowed her eyes. “I’ll write down your score when you tell me what you actually got. They told me you might be acting strange today, but I’d have never expected this, Ms. Farley. It’s not like you to blatantly lie like this.”

“Because I’m not lying!” Rain shouted, smacking her hand on the cart. “This is ridiculous. Are there cameras in here? Is there a way to prove I’m not lying?”

“No,” Brockney admitted, crossing her arms, “but the fact of the matter is that my tuition tells me you're lying, and I choose to believe my tuition over the words of a bratty high schooler any day.”

There is no way this woman got a degree in teaching, no way she wasn't fired already. Rain was seething, trying not to say something she might regret, trying, trying, trying-

“You and your tuition can fuck all the way off!”

Gasps from her classmates sounded around her. Only when she’d realized what she just said did Brockney’s face pale as she slammed her hand on her cart. “Detention! Go to the principal’s office! Now!”

Rain turned away from the bitch and stormed to the door, throwing her weight against it so hard the wood groaned. She stampeded into the locker room, grabbing her stuff from her musty old locker and then exiting, stomping down the hall, absolutely fuming.

It wasn’t until she left the sports department that she realized what she’d done. Until she realized what she’d said.

Damn, she was in such deep shit.

Chapter Text

You never know when your life is going to change, either for better or for worse. Z Montes definitely didn’t know on Monday. What was the date again? Ah, damn, he couldn’t really remember.

All he could really focus on was Jessie Montgomery, who had just toppled his chemistry experiment over. The liquids, Z had already forgotten what they were, were being mixed together unceremoniously on the obnoxiously white porcelain floor tiles. Jessie let out a very dramatic gasp that could only be described as such and turned to his lab partner.

“Oh, goodness!” he exclaimed, spinning back around to the shattered glass lying beside the discarded mixture. “No one come over here! I broke my beaker on the floor!” Z swore the smug bastard looked over at him, just to make sure he saw. And understood.

Z sighed under his breath. He was surprisingly not in the mood to get in trouble today, even though the world was indeed testing him. First the egging of that house the night before, which Z unfortunately and honestly had no part in, even though everyone else swore up and down he did. Then it was being in the wrong place at the wrong time when some girl got caught skipping. Thankfully, she was nice enough to let him off the hook, but that guard was not having it. And finally, Jessie coming and pulling this. Apparently, detention was calling his name. And it wasn’t planning on letting him go anytime soon.

“Mr. Montgomery!” his professor, Mrs. Grimshaw, squealed as she hurried over from the front of the room, swerving around desks and bags like an agility dog. “You need to learn to be more careful! Go sit at your desk, you’re exempt from the experiment today.”

Jessie nodded his head, putting his hands up in surrender as he side-stepped the fussing woman, heading back to his desk. Not before turning around and sticking his tongue out at Z and winking.

Well, he couldn’t back down now. A lot of times he regretted making that bet. The cursed post he sent out in the middle of his sophomore year, declaring a bet with the whole student body. It confirmed that until he graduated, he could one up every single prank, shenanigan, misdemeanor, excuse, or infraction performed in his presence. If not, a guaranteed twenty bucks to whoever he let down.

Z only remembered one time when he broke the bet, and that was when a kid brought a knife to school. He was pretty sure the twenty wasn’t worth the week-long suspension he got after. It sure as hell wasn’t worth the criminal record started, but hey, the price humankind pays for a quick buck.

Z shook his head, watching as the kid plopped down in his seat at the front. He even had the nerve to lean back in his chair to watch Z’s next move.

Damn. Guess he really couldn’t back down. He had to wipe that smug grin off his face. No way was he paying twenty for this.

“I don’t buy that accident,” Xavier, Z’s lab partner, said as he leaned over the counter to watch the conniving chemical dropper. “You aren’t taking that loss, right?”

“Of course not,” Z whispered back, scanning the room. Students were watching Z with baited breath, waiting for what would come next.

Z had to admit, it was a pretty good ploy. A great one, actually. Just big enough for no serious consequence, but just bad enough that there was no way Z could pass this up without looking like a coward. He ran through things that usually worked in the past. Fire alarm? Nah, he wasn’t looking for that much trouble. Police would show up, and there were too many witnesses to not get caught. Maybe he could fake a fight with Xavier?

Z looked over at him. The dope had taken off his lab goggles, watching Z as he slowly scanned him.

“What?” Xavier asked when he paused for too long.

Z squinted at him for a second longer. “Do you want to get in a fight? It doesn’t have to be real.”

Xavier raised a brow at him. “No way, man, you’re not dragging me down with you.”

Z expected as much. Besides, he didn’t feel like getting sucker-punched, even if it was fake, and he wasn’t trying to explain to his parents why he would have had a bruise on his face. He looked away, trying to find more ideas.

Maybe a big disruption. Try to fake an injury? How would he do that, though? Maybe the fight wasn’t such a bad idea, actually. Z tapped his foot, running a hand through his blonde hair.

Think.

He only had ten minutes left of class. Think.

A different disruption. Maybe he could just start screaming. Like, really loud. An “I’m being skinned alive” scream. But, no, that wasn’t original. He needed something good. He needed to one up this kid.

Then it had to be something he could only do in here. Something he could only do today, something that would make them all forget about the shattered mixture. It needed to have something to do with the experiment.

Z turned and moved toward the lab station, inspecting the liquid in the beaker like it held the secrets to the universe. “Hey, Xavier, what’s in here?”

Xavier looked at him as if he’d grown a third arm. “Uhm, well, I think, uh, I think there’s syrup, oil, and water. Experiment is something with density, y'know? Like, how they won’t mix together if-”

“Okay, I didn’t ask for a lesson, zip,” Z cut him off. He squinted at it, then tapped his Chip quickly. He looked up what could mix with syrup and cause an explosion.

Z squinted at his arm. “What are the ingredients in syrup?”

“Syrup?” Xavier repeated. “Uh, I don’t know, why?”

Z just shook his head. He was no genius, obviously, but he was pretty sure it wouldn’t explode if they added some sugar or something else. But man that would have been really cool.

Syrup. Oil. Water. What could he do with that? Baking ingredients, but no oven. They couldn’t even mix together properly, for that was the whole point of the experiment. But…

Wait.

Edible. All of those ingredients were edible.

Before Z could lose the nerve or think over anything reasonable, he grabbed the beaker, plugged his nose from the potent smell, and poured the dense and sticky mixture into his mouth. Swallowed hard.

He gagged as he set the beaker back down, and the whole class exploded into laughter and giggles.

Z just about threw up. It wouldn’t be too terrible if he ate them separately, but together?

God, it was so bitter.

And sticky.

Slimy and sticky and dense and he felt it stick to his throat and his mouth and-

“Zain Montes!” Mrs. Grimshaw shouted. “Straight to the nurse’s office! Detention! Detention right after school!”

Z regretted his decision badly, but it was way too late now. He spit into the sink at the lab station and wiped his mouth—then he went back to his desk.

Jessie was laughing so hard he was doubled over. He wiped away a tear as he showed Z his Chip, a video of him downing the gross mixture and turning a sickly pale after. Z just smirked at him as he grabbed his bag.

“Oh, dude, smile for a picture,” he said, holding up his arm and pointing it at him.

Z did some peace signs as the photo was taken, feeling a bit too disoriented for a conversation.

“Montes!” Grimshaw interrupted.

Z waved a hand as he walked out the doors. The entire classroom’s giggles followed him down the hall like a ghost. Creepy.

He was never going to get that horrible taste out of his mouth. Whenever he had pancakes, he would only ever think of watered down syrup mixed with vegetable oil.

How much vegetable oil could a person consume, anyway? He figured it’d be fine as he stopped by the water fountain and gurgled some water in the back of his throat.

I mean, what was the worst that could happen?

Chapter Text

You never know when your life is going to change, either for better or for worse. Milo Maeda didn’t have a single clue on October 9th. He was too busy brooding about the grade he’d gotten.

The big red 90%, scrawled and circled like a judge’s verdict, screamed at him as he folded the page in half. It would have been fine to anyone else’s standards, but not his. Never his.

The thing was, he actually tried on that test. Recently, he’d been on a kick of dropping his grades ever so slightly to piss off his parents. Just by little increments, a percentage here, a B- there, but he could tell the two self-righteous pricks that called Milo theirs noticed, and he could tell they were buzzing to snap at him about it. Good. Let them.

Milo shoved the paper into his bag, not quite caring if it crumpled or not. It didn’t help his mood that the two girls next to him were chattering incessantly about something he didn’t care to listen to. He stretched and cracked his neck as he leaned forward, resting his chin in his hand. Just forty more minutes, then he could leave. Forty more minutes, and then he could move on with his day.

“I’m very impressed with your scores,” their teacher, Ms. Seraphin, said as she rounded the corner to her desk. She placed her hand on the scanner sitting on the counter before her, and a beeping sound echoed through the classroom as the hologram in the front of the room booted up.

It showed a data chart of student scores. Blue bar lines showed that most students scored in the eighty to hundred percent lexile, which Seraphin showed her appreciation of with a teeth-baring grin. “This is good, indeed. Looks like we no longer need to go over this topic as of now.” She tapped her Chip, and the projection changed to a very old picture of a man, staring at Milo as if he could tell exactly what grade he got on the theme test. “Now, class, let’s talk about one of the most successful and talented authors of this generation. Charles Dickens.”

Milo tried to pay attention. Honestly, he was doing pretty good for all of ten minutes, taking notes, listening intently, the whole nine yards. But the girls kept talking, and Ms. Seraphin didn’t seem to notice. Or care. So they got louder. Milo started to get slower, then just wrote down specific words, then stopped altogether as he tried to differentiate the girls’ conversation and the teacher’s incessant rambling.

Milo shook his head and just leaned back in his chair, giving up. He’d study at home, he supposed. He didn’t have karate lessons today, so he was free for the time being. He instead listened to the conversation to his right.

“Okay, so like, do you know how I wasn’t here for all of last week?” one of the girls said to the other, her voice too loud for a whisper.

Milo saw the other one nod from the corner of his eye. “Yeah, I was wondering where you were. What happened?” 

“You’ll never believe this, Callie.” The girl leaned forward, her bracelets clacking against the desk as she widened her eyes. “My whole house got infested with Hellhounds ! It was crazy . Like, everything got torn up. Most of my clothes, too. Oh, and that really cute blanket you got for me last month! I was, like, devastated . They didn’t even let us see the house until the weekend, we had to stay at that crappy hotel by the old mall. But, oh my gosh, Callie you’ll literally never guess which Hunters were assigned to it!”

Callie was on the edge of her seat, the teacher and her lecture completely forgotten. “Wait, was it that new group, the Red Raiders, or something? I heard they were in Pennsylvania recently.”

“Yes! The Red Riders!” the girl practically shouted, tapping her Chip. “I’ll show you a picture. I was like fan-girling so hard when I found out. Apparently, it only took them an hour to get them all cleared out. I’m not even kidding! An hour to kill those thousands of gross mutts ? We should, like, keep the house how it is, because that group is going to be so famous one day, I swear.”

“Oh my God, that tall one?” Callie pointed out, leaning into the little screen on the girl’s arm. “Probably so hot. Ooh, do you think that he’s our age?”

The girl snorted. “Hell no. He’s way too skilled for that. If there was a group of teenagers they’d be horrible . I don’t think they recruit people that young anyway.”

Callie straightened, turning teasing eyes to the girl with the ransacked home. “Do you think we could become Hunters when we get older?”

“Oh, for sure,” the girl said, nudging her friend with a smug smile. “Easy work.”

Milo shook his head slightly. Though the girls were joking, the probability of anyone from that school becoming a Hunter was next to nothing, even if they trained their whole lives. The Hunter idea was almost always nothing but a pipe dream, the same as becoming an astronaut or a Hollywood star. Achievable, maybe, but next to impossible.

IDHS wouldn’t even bother with minors, let alone ones that had no experience in athleticism. People trained since birth to join the Hunters, only to almost always be humiliated in the annual Hunter tryouts. The turnout was always massive, but never public, in case winners wanted to be Undercover.

A strange idea, an Undercover Hunter group, but much more popular than he’d think. Milo assumed Hunters would want nothing more than to flaunt their identity, to get the glory along with the money, but that wasn’t the case for some. A normal life didn’t seem like much to Milo. If he ever became a Hunter, he’d damn well make it known.

The girls’ conversation finally trickled back to Milo’s ears. “Hey, Callie, do you want to skip? I was thinking we could…leave.”

Milo’s eyes slid to the two in silent alarm.

“The school? Oh yeah, for sure, this class is boring and I don’t have anything important going on in my other ones.” Callie raised her hand, and the teacher noticed.

“Yes, Callie?” she called.

“May I use the restroom? I’d appreciate it if I could use the buddy system with Stacy.”

Ms. Seraphin rubbed her eyebrows, but nodded at the girls. “Yes, go ahead, but make sure you read up on what you two missed.”

“We will,” Stacy said, standing and flipping her hair over her shoulder. The girls grabbed their bags and made their way out of the classroom.

When they were gone, the teacher kept up the lecture. It wasn’t until he couldn’t hear the footsteps of the girls outside did he realize that they could be in danger very soon.

It wasn’t Milo’s problem. It really wasn’t. He had no clue what possessed him to raise his hand.  Maybe some divine intervention was working on him that day, because he wouldn’t have gotten in trouble otherwise. He never raised his hand before, never cared before. Why had he started right then?
“Yes, Milo?” Seraphin asked, looking almost as surprised as he felt.

Couldn’t go back now. “Sorry, ma’am, it’s just those two girls, Callie and Stacy. I overheard their conversation, and I’m concerned for their safety.” 

It wasn’t really a lie. Students shouldn’t leave school during hours, especially if they didn’t have a ride or a plan. Infestations could be anywhere, and it’s not like they could have protected themselves if they got into trouble.

The teacher furrowed her brow. She probably didn’t expect him to say that. Milo noticed the students blinking at him, seeming to see him sitting there for the first time.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Maeda, but there’s not much I can do.” She simply shrugged, already tapping her Chip to change the projection. “If you’re truly worried about how they might get into trouble, I’m sure the security officers will get any wrongdoings taken care of.”

“No, you don’t understand,” he said. Now he truly knew there was something possessing him. “They said they were going to leave the school. They would be outside of the security officers’ jurisdictions, leaving them to their own defenses. If there are any demons outside they will get hurt, or worse.”

Ms. Seraphin’s face slowly turned stony. “I don’t appreciate the way you’re speaking to me right now, Mr. Maeda. I’d suggest you stop while you’re ahead. I can’t do anything about it now, I apologize.”

Milo tried to shut up. He really did. He seriously didn’t know what was wrong with him, because he opened his traitorous mouth once again. “When you have the blood of two teenage girls on your hands, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

She turned fully toward Milo, staring at him as if he’d just told her the future. “What did you just say to me?”

“You heard me.” What the hell ? What was he doing? Milo seemed to watch from above as the ghost in his body said, “You might as well be sending those two to their deaths.”

What the fuck ?

Milo certainly did not care about those girls. He didn’t care whether their lives were at stake or not. He actually didn’t care about Ms. Seraphin, either, or whether she would be considered a murderer for letting those girls go to the bathroom. So why was he saying this?

“How about you go to the principal’s office?” Seraphin said, more as a statement than a question.

Milo didn’t hesitate. To avoid digging a deeper hole than the one he’d already gotten himself into, he grabbed his bag from where it was sitting against his desk. He stood, slung the strap over his shoulder, and then made his way out of the classroom. Not before he saw the projection on the wall before him though.

A text that read “Small Expectations.”

He wasn’t sure if it was a mistake or not, but it just about described him right then as he shoved the door open, following the ghosts of the girls as he walked down the hall.

Fuck him.

He better not get detention for this.