Behind These Refuge Walls

I couldn't tell Gerry what happened to my hand, so I made up a completely believable excuse about how I'd missed the punching bag and hit the pillar. Or something of the kind.

"Lawdy, lawdy, don't y'all look so fancy today, Ohio!"

A chorus of laughter ensued at Ryan's "joke". He leaned on the back of Danielle's chair. Beside him, Damien spread his legs in front of Paige and her friends, in a completely nonchalant manner.

"Jake, come on!"

The tall boy didn't listen. He took his bag and threw it over his shoulder, creasing the button up shirt he was wearing for the date he had with the girl he had been pining for since the beginning of the school year. He walked right past me and only said good bye to Max and Janice.

He'd taken to ignoring me. He'd seen me talking to Ryan and eventually, like Max and Janice, had to find out that Ryan and I had some "business" together. He'd proven to be more appalled by the fact than either Max or Janice. I understood that, because Ryan had it out for Jake ever since he'd moved here, but it annoyed me that he had instantly assumed that I was now bad for him, too.

However, I admired him for his capacity to steer clear of trouble and ignore every stab coming from Ryan and his "friends".

"So, I was thinking...if you made me your manager, Charlie, I could be the one gathering all the bets from everyone and then..."

"James told me you're coming to Massey today."

Ignoring Max's rant about illegal fights earnings, I nodded slowly as a response to Janice.

"Yeah, I have practice with Michael. I'll give you a ride."

"Thank God you have Michael. I don't know what would have happened to you if it had been Stone instead."

It was all I needed to hear to set my mind on a rampage. It kept me occupied during the break and it wouldn't leave me alone during Mrs. Kraft's class.

"Why would you choose to be an angel? They're so...soft!" I heard Michelle's disgusted exclamation.

Mrs Kraft retaliated. "Why would you say that, Michelle? Let us not forget that all demons supposedly came from the angels. They are all fallen angels in their depths. And think about the avenging angels - bringers of justice and rather cruel punishments. I'd say your..."

"How did we get from STDs to angels?" I asked Ryan, leaning closer to him. I already knew the answer to that (Dianne's question regarding which outfit would be better for a kinky appearance: an angel or a demon?), but he had been staring at me almost too intently. He did nothing to hide it.

"You mean you don't find this interesting?" I shrugged, somehow at a loss of words, for Ryan had taken to looking me straight in the eye. "Just think about it, what if you were an avenging angel? You're a little justice bringer, aren't you?"

He smiled lightly and with that smile came a foreign shadow over his face. His eyes sparkled and in a blink of an eye, he looked away. The bell then rang and I couldn't catch up with him to question him.

Janice soon joined me towards my car, oblivious to my clearly troubled face. To anyone, Ryan would have seemed joking, but there was something off about his figure and his tone - something that no spoiled, ignorant teenager would be able to muster.

"...it would interest him, what with his grandfather's history of angelology..."

I froze in the middle of revving the engine. "What?"

"You didn't know?" Janice turned to face me, eyes alight with excitement at my response. "Ryan's grandfather is apparently a well known angelologist. Travelled the world far and wide to learn about angels and what not. Though his father's merely a businessman, I think Ryan inherited his grandpa's passion. I mean, did you see the way he was listening to Mrs Kraft today?"

"Yeah..." I frowned.

It shouldn't have bothered me - people have all sorts of strange preoccupations -, but for some reason, the fact that Ryan hadn't mentioned anything of the kind to me irked me. I found it too important of a fact to be left aside just like that. What if I was actually interested in angels?

Massey was a huge land of bustling students, as usual. The only difference (something that I had yet to get used to) were the rays of energy and odd demonstrations of powers that belonged to books that made me jump at every step. One student was turning into a wolf here, the other was creating fire out of thin air, all ingredients to a recipe that could have seemed like chaos anywhere else. At Massey, however, Vallin had created an entirely different atmosphere, where they all belonged.

Walking into the gym, I looked after the pale skin of a tall vampire. Instead, I came to face a statuesque figure in the middle of the gym, holding a set of blades. He ignored me as he seemed to be arranging them on a stand. His muscles flexed and his arms gently touched the blades as he put them back. He wore a sleeveless shirt and a pair of sweatpants.

When he turned to me - seemingly not at all surprised by my presence, I panicked.

"Uhm...I'm here for, uhm, the...practice..." I mumbled incoherently. Michael was late. Why was he late? Surely he thought more than to leave me in the same room with a monster.

He threw his hand in the direction of my bag, in a careless, yet violent motion that made me jump. His eyebrow shot up, silently questioning my hesitation and challenging me to dare go against him.

I breathed in and tore my eyes from his arms.

"I...isn't...i don't know, someone else supposed to do this with me?"

"Yes. Me. You have one hour to catch up with what I tell you and you've already lost five minutes staring at me."

Oh, no, I'm not staring. This is just me horrified at the prospect of working with someone willing to rip my heart out. I gave him my best poker face. I'm not going to learn anything from you, you're just here to sabotage me and tell everyone that I'm of no use.

My entire back stiffened. I could feel my fists earning to collide with something.

"I will teach you how to fight demons."

I let my bag slide to the floor and took off my jacket.

"I thought you said I'd fight vampires and the like."

"Demons. Where else do you think all other supernatural beings came from?" He slid a piece of cloth to the ground and I found myself staring at him. "If you fight a demon, you can fight anything else. Learn from this everything you can."

My insides twisted, I started bouncing my leg. I opened my mouth to ask him anything when he began walking towards me.

"Am I supposed to fight you now?!" I blurted.

He stopped abruptly. A normal man would have laughed at my panic, but he was enjoying it.

"You can't fight me." What? Now I was suddenly too much of a weakling to fight him?

"So I'll fight thin air? I can do that at the gym and even there I get more collision."

Instantly, I regretted my words. He threw the cloth at me with unnecessary force.

"Tie this around your eyes."

I stared at him, he fixed me with his gaze, daring me to ask him to repeat himself. I couldn't tie it because I knew what would then happen - I'd be lost. Trapped in a room with a creature that only frightened me more than death, I would lose my only best trait - my sight.

My hands shook as I lifted it. I shouldn't have done it, but I tied my eyes and was covered in darkness in an instant. My entire body felt like lead. He made no noise and that only make it worse, because I knew he was still there. That alarming feeling of being around danger hit me in the back of the head like bricks. What was worse was that I didn't understand what he was doing. I didn't know where he was or what he planned.

"You need to stop relying solely on your sight. It will do you no good if you are in a fight with a creature who requires no light."

It did nothing to calm me down. The back of my head itched with anxiety and I started sweating stupidly. Still he did nothing.

"Calm down." How could I? I couldn't see him! What was I supposed to do? "Charlotte!"

I froze and knew how close he was. He stood inches from me - I felt the presence of a block of heat right in front of me. I was close to falling on my back. A hand grabbed the knot at the back of my head and that was it - my own arm shot up and slammed his, only it made a painful collision with a strong forearm.

I shrieked angrily to myself when my arm was grabbed and all of a sudden, the light went on.

I froze.

He fixed me down with a superior glare.

His hand held my arm in an impossible grip. Positioned right in front of me, I could smell his cologne - something fresh, airy, yet heated. I did the only mistake of looking him in the eye. The air went still, an unbearable heat took over. I struggled to get out - struggled and tripped, falling on my back.

All went still.

For the first time since I had become aware of his presence, he sighed heavily, an action in which I suddenly saw a sign of humanity.

"Charlotte, breathe." I did. He looked at me with a frown. "Tie that up and control yourself. Breathe! If you cannot control yourself, then you are of no use to us."

The second attempt went no better, I thought, because the darkness came with panic again. And then he shouted an order - for me to duck, or something -, and I missed it. I hit the floor as a result of his leg hitting my ankle.

Then followed anger. I'd never been a control-freak, I had never struggled to have power over something, but this lack of strength in myself made me angry.

"Focus! Hear me when I near! If you are as strong as you say you are, you will pay attention to your enemy, not to your fear!"

"How do you train these guys by tying those things around their eyes?"

Gerry laughed. "They're blind." I gave him a weird look. "Yes, they're blind. When we're blind, we need to rely on our other senses. A good fighter can isolate his senses and can only work with one if needed. For that, we need to train them all. Come on, I'll show you."

I was enveloped in complete darkness, which seemed fun at first.

"Hear me out!"

Smack!

The hit resonated throughout my body. I kept my ground at the impact between his heavy arm and mine. Yet I defended. Another one followed. I ducked. He moved very fast, quicker than any man I'd ever encountered. Despite the force that I felt in each of his touches, he moved swiftly.

I heard swishing - he'd lowered himself and was bringing his leg to trip me. I jumped to the side and did the same. He didn't fall, much to my disappointment, and I was the only one who felt the impact, I reckoned.

His breathing neared and I ducked his hit, slid and threw my fist. I hit his ribcage. He froze and so did I.

Realization came crashing down and I was quick to take off my blindfold. He stood there, staring at me, with no sign of actually being in pain. His face, though, showed some vague surprise.

My enthusiasm died down as I became aware (yet again) of Stone's presence. A flame was smothered. He seemed to realize something as he straightened himself. I stepped; withdrew.

"Where do you train?"

I was hesitant, but he was not one to refuse, so I gave him an address, all the while thinking of Gerry so as to find some soothing elements. He did nothing more and although I was curious, I suppressed the impulse to ask him why he was interested.

"That will do."

And with that, he turned around and left. I sunk to the floor and let out an airy breath.