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It was Sunday morning, Drew and Grandma Jovel were in church and out of pure stubbornness Nevin insisted on waiting outside for them until the mass was over. It could be worse, the church had a nice apple tree out the front with perfect shade to chill for an hour with a book. Bonus, no popular kids go to church, well besides Drew, but he was a strange kind of popular.
Nevin would never admit it out loud but he rather liked to read but being a bookworm was the last thing he needed to be added to the loser list. He was getting really into his story but was interrupted by the rustling of grass which could only have been someone approaching.
“Hi young man.” A middle aged man stood a short distance away, hands behind his back with a younger girl further away also with her behind her back. The man had a large smile while the girl was avoiding any eye contact. “What are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be inside?”
Nevin looked between the two, an unsettling feeling in his gut. “I’m not all that into religion. I’m just waiting for it to finish.”
He tried to get a reading on them, the man seemed to be mostly positive, with some underlying fear strangely enough. The girl was much more scared and wary with little positive feelings. If there was one thing to be cautious about is the reason for their fear, both were worried about something but there was no one else around and certainly nothing dangerous except becoming the second Isaac Newton (eww Isaac).
“I’m quite a religious man myself but I never really agreed with the teaching in the church. They’re a little too…” The man gestured vaguely, “‘love everyone’ and ‘love conquers all’.”
Nevin chuckled humorlessly. “Can't say I got much love from Christians.”
The man laughed loud and hard, but Nevin knew it was fake, because for some reason his fear increased. “Of course they wouldn’t. Say young man, how much do you believe in otherworldly beings?”
“I told you I’m not religious.” He tried to deflect the topic away from where he was thinking it was going.
“I’m not referring to gods and deities. I mean the supernatural, ghosts, demons and the sorts. Do you believe in that?”
The man's persistence set off all the red flags needed, not to mention the supernatural side of his life being dragged into the conversation. Whatever was going to come of this wasn’t going to be good. It never was. “Look I’m not interested in joining any cult. Please leave me alone.” He heaved himself off the ground, tucking his book under his arm and walking towards the church.
“Would you like to know something about demons?” Nevin blocked him out pretending to not be interested. “They have an aura around them. A cold and chilling one.” The emo froze. “Has anyone told you have a chilling aura? It was the first thing I noticed.” He spun around, the last thing he needed to have was his back to these lunatics. “We’ve been hunting demons for a long time… Aliza grab him.”
The girl, who was far more closer, pulled her hands from behind her back revealing a ritualistic knife. She lunged at him, tackling him to the ground. Despite her sudden balls, she reeked of fear, which strangely enough seemed to fuel Nevin’s adrenaline.
It wasn’t long before he threw her off himself before she could get a swing in with her knife. Clambering back up he noticed that his eyes were glowing cyan again and that ‘Aliza’ was crumpled on the ground further away than he had meant to throw her. Any chance to convince these two that he was normal was so far out the window he wouldn’t be able to get it back.
The man unfortunately also had a knife and was ready to attack. “Just walk away now and you won’t regret this.” Nevin said as aggression replaced logic and the tentacles came out.
He deserved a break for once, to be able to sit down and appreciate what he had, his brother who he would go to the ends of the earth for, his Abuela who had done more for him than his parents ever could and Chris, who despite only knowing for a few weeks, was definitely better than any other ‘friends’ he’s had. All he wanted was a restful weekend without some Quinton level batshit crazy bullshit happening and ruining any semi balance of peace that was left! But No That Would Be Too Good For Someone AS SCREWED UP AS HIM!
A girl’s scream tore through his thoughts and brought him back to reality to be confronted with the image before him. While in his internal distress raged on maybe the man had rushed forward to attack him and his instincts told him to act. Nevin cracked a grin. Or maybe the old bag got exactly what he deserved for ruining Nevin’s morning…A tentacle sliced cleanly through his stomach.
He couldn’t say exactly what, but something about this seemed hilarious, he just couldn’t stop laughing. He locked eyes with Aliza, her’s flooding with tears and his with the mysterious black substance.
“Please,” she begged as she scrambled away, “It was a mistake. I won’t bother you again just please spare me.” Her torso bloomed with pain as a black tendril pierced through her abdomen, her choked screams piercing through the air.
Nevin’s smile stretched abnormally wide. “No.” He took great pleasure in watching her cough up the black liquid before going limp. Then he went sour. “How rude. Get me all riled up and die on the first hit. Pathetic.”
He looked back towards the church. He wasn’t insane, he still had his wits about him. If he’s going to go on a rampage he’ll spare his twin and Abuela. As long as they stay out of his way.
He slowly approached the church entrance. Aliza’s screams must have warned those inside because a few faces peered at him through the stained glass windows. Something akin to glee ran through him at hearing the panicked commotion inside. As he reached for the handles he noticed his hands were completely covered in the black sludge. He tried wiping it off but unsurprisingly it just reappeared on his skin. He ignored it for now, he could get rid of it later, for now he was focused on the task ahead. As he grabbed the doors handles a fire like pain ripped throughout his body.
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The monster on the outside let out a twisted scream. Drew felt like he was suffocating in all the terror of the patrons. People quickly began moving away from the windows to the altar where they were furthest from the doors. A boy he vaguely recognised moved towards the entrance despite the pleas of others telling him to come back but having no guts to get him.
Barry had a bad feeling about what was outside but he wasn’t nearly as scared as everyone else. He looked out the stained window at the blurry distorted creature. There were few details he could make out. It had the silhouette of a human but was entirely black. It caught sight of him and stared back. Cyan. It had bright cyan eyes.
Barry didn’t know if he should be proud or full of dread, because this just proved his theory more and more.
It joined him opposite the glass, so they stood sort of face to face. “Can you hear me?” Barry asked.
“Who are you?” Even its voice had a distort to it.
“Right now, I’m a friend.” Barry made sure that his voice wasn’t loud enough for the others to hear. “You’re Nevin, right?” He pressed his hand against the glass. “What happened?”
“How the hell do you know who I am? Who are you?” It- He asked in an accusatory tone.
“My name is Barry Price, but people know me as-”
A fist collided with the glass causing cracks to run all throughout it.“You’re that creep that stalks everyone. I’ll be doing justice by killing you.”
Now Barry was a little bit scared because he knows that's not an empty threat. “Please Nevin if you just turn back to normal I won’t tell anyone. I’ll keep your identity a secret.”
“Why would I go back to normal? When this is the best I’ve felt in a long time.” He started cackling and pounding on the window. Barry knew it was too late, there was no reasoning with him.
He turned back toward the cluster of terrified Christian. He pulled out his phone as he grabbed Drew’s wrist and dragged the two of them to the side. He dialed a number and waited for it to answer. “Come on, pick up.”
“Blue? What’s up?”
“Oh thank God. Error, I need your help. Code Cyan down at the church.”
“You’re joking right!?”
Barry pinched the bridge of his nose. “No I’m not. He’s snapped and there are people's lives at risk.”
“Ok ok. I’ll come as soon as I can.”
“No.” He looked down at Drew who stared back in confusion. “You need back up, you know you can’t take him down yourself. Get Ink, you’ll stand a better chance.” He hung up and turned his full attention to Drew. “I’m sorry about this, but Drew you do know who that is, right?”
Drew shook his head aggressively. “No. No, whoever you think that is, you're wrong. Nev wouldn’t do this.” He looked towards the window that was littered with cracks but still holding up mysteriously. But he could make out the cyan eyes, a familiar colour that caused a pain in his chest. “Nev, no”
Drew dragged himself toward the thing that was his brother. Nevin stopped pounding on the glass when he could make out who was on the other side. Drew pressed his palm to the window and after a moment of hesitation so did Nevin. “Nevin, what happened? Why are you like this?”
It glared back, full of hate.“Not all of us can be good.”