Ribbons

"Hey Cai!" came a gruff voice from behind me. I already knew what was coming next and didn't hesitate to stick my foot out to trip Kyle, a highly annoying kid who's 'popular' with the ladies but has a crush on me, the one girl who doesn't fall for his lame pick-up lines.

"It seems I have fallen for you once again," he sighed as he stood up.

"Oh please, you say that everyday! When are you going to give up already?" I asked him. He ruffled some leaves out of his blonde hair before before saying, "I shall never give up until I have won you over!"

"Thinking of a girl as a prize to be won is not the way into any girl's heart," I stated matter-of-factly. I dusted off my knee-length, navy blue, pleated skirt and adjusted my blazer that held the school's crest on it before walking off.

He stood there with his mouth open. I decided to turn around and ask, "You catch any flies yet?"

Then I noticed he wasn't staring at me, he was staring at something behind me. I noticed other pairs of eyes looking behind me as well.

I slowly turned around and saw what, or rather, whom everyone was staring at. A tall, model-like girl was exiting a limo. She had rich, dark hair and cool blue eyes. She looked like Elise almost, except ten times better. She was wearing the ugly, standard school uniform, but she was able to pull it off.

She walked over to me slowly and said in a bubbly voice that was way to familiar, "Hey Cai! Like my new look?"

This was Elise? Talk about dramatic makeover in one night. Too bad the makeover didn't include her personality.

It's not that I hated or disliked Elise, she's really nice and all and she was the first person to talk to me when I was the new girl here only a couple months ago - mostly because were roommates. It's her over-the-top, way too perky personality that bugs me. And the bad thing, is that she only has this personality in public. When it's just us, she's totally mellow and cool.

"You look great. How were able to get off campus? And in a limo?" I asked. I didn't like the look of limos but the insides always looked awesome. I've heard of limos that have jacuzzis in them.

"My mom took me out last night. I thought I left a note for you?" she asked. Oh, I was too tired, I didn't even realize she was missing from the room.

"Oh right, sorry, must've slipped my mind," I gave her a smile in reassurance.

"Ok well, we better get moving!" she giggled and started to skip off to first class.

Elise's transformation was the talk of the day and I heard that she even got asked out a couple times, but surprisingly, she rejected every guy that asked her out.

When we met up for lunch, I decided to confront her about it.

"Ok, what gives?" I began.

"Waddyomen?" she asked with her mouth full. She swallowed before repeating, "What do you mean?"

"You always complain about how you never get asked out and here comes all these guys and you turn them all down? That doesn't sound like you at all."

"Well," she began and looked around to make sure no one could be listening before continuing, "I want to be asked out, but by a certain guy I've been crushing on."

"Ooh... Spill!" I commanded. "Who is he?"

"Kyle," she finally admitted.

"Kyle! That dork?" I scoffed.

"See! This is why I didn't want to tell you! Because you'd just make fun of me," she shouted.
"For the record, I'm making fun of him, not you," I replied, which seemed to tick her off some more. I'm such a smartass.

"Whatever. He likes you anyway," she mumbled.

"Not that I like him. Plus I did happen to catch his staring at you this morning," I nudged her. She laughed and then I knew all was forgiven. The rest of the day was boring. Teachers lectured. Students gossiped. And the sun traveled across the sky until it disappeared, leaving a trail of night.

Elise was already fast asleep when I snuck out. I wore jean shorts and a black tank top with sneakers. I tugged my hair back into a simple ponytail and ran off campus.

I unfocused my eyes, letting all the ribbons to come into view. Usually, I just have to focus my eyes and the ribbons will become invisible to me.

When I was five, I was considered blind, since the ribbons would cloud my eyes and that's all I was able to see. I was terrified of them, because I couldn't see the faces to those who would talk to me, because the ribbons had blocked out everything.

You wouldn't believe my parents surprise when I was finally able to control my sight. They only thought a miracle had happened.

The ribbons only started to whisper to me a year ago. They were always helpful but could never hear what I had to say.

..Cai, there's danger..

..A deflori is just around the corner..

..hurry..

Deflori

Deflori are the twisted version of a Flori, which are flower sprites in Reg terms. The deflori spread seeds into a human, using them as a vessel for more deflori to be born. When the new deflori sprout, they break out of the human, killing them.

The deflori were pretty sick in my opinion. I rushed off and turned the corner, and sure enough, a deflori was there. The deflori had black petals that flowed as a skirt but any person familar with them would know that it was part of their body. The deflori's hair looked like dried up stems and had wilted flowers and leaves hanging limply from them.

The deflori had a man in it's arms and was just about to start the seeding process when something sliced it's arms off. I looked up to see the same boy with the strange white hair from the night before. He was holding his sword which was now covered in the gray blood of the deflori. The white ribbon was tied securely on the hilt with it's end hanging off, flowing in the wind.

The boy jumped off the dumpster he was standing on and went to slash at the deflori again, but the deflori had dodged his attack and was crawling up the side of the building. The deflori spun around and spit a black tar out of it's mouth toward the boy.

Before I could think, I snatched a red and a yellow ribbon out of the air. I ran up the side of the wall with great speed and wrapped the red ribbon the deflori's neck and then jumped down and waited for the effects to start. The red ribbons cause internal bleeding and that's exactly what was happening to the deflori. The deflori's skin started to darken as it's blood fled from it's veins and suffocated it. The deflori then started to shrivel in on itself. It's petals curled upward, concealing it's face as the deflori gasped in pain.

"If you hadn't interfered, I could have killed it just as easily," the boy smirked, and swung his sword behind his back.

"You do know that spit almost hit you. It's poisonous," I stated as I helped the man up, who was shivering in fear.

The man then ran off after a second glance at the dead deflori. I should probably chase after him but, oh well.

"I know that," the boy scoffed. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"Killing things that need to be killed," I replied with an expression that said 'Duh, what else would I be doing?'

I pulled out a black ribbon and went to tie it around the deflori's head now that it had fallen to the ground.

"Why do you do that?" the boy asked. His white hair caught the light of the moon perfectly. How can white hair actually look good on a guy?

"Why do you keep asking so many questions?" I countered and then stood up to leave.
"Wait!" the boy shouted. "Where are you going?"

"To go kill something else. There's a ghomage nearby," I said.

"How do you know that?" he asked.

"The ribbons told me," I stated and then grabbed a yellow ribbon and started to run off. Of course, he started to follow me of course.

"The ribbons told you? How is that even possible?" he yelled out.

"I don't know, it just is," I replied as honestly as possible, even though this kid's prescence was annoying.

I finally spotted the ghomage chewing on something and when I got a closer look, I noticed it was the leg to a disembodied woman that was laying off to the side.

Before I could attack, the boy was already down there, chopping the ghomage to pieces.
"Didn't need to interfere that time," the boy smirked.

"It's all your fault!" I yelled at him. If he didn't have to ask so many question, I could've gotten here sooner and saved the woman.

"Whoa whoa! Hold up, what's my fault?"

"It's your fault we couldn't save her and now you just smirk because you killed the stupid ghomage!" I screamed.

"First of all, the body has been dead for at least two hours, so there is no way that this could have been my fault," he replied.

"Well, whatever. What's done is done. I'm leaving," I grumbled and the headed off.
"Hey wait! What's your name?" the boy asked me.

"Cai," I said automatically. Darn that name question! I didn't want to tell him my name.

"Well Cai, I guess I'll be seeing you around," the boy smirked before disappearing around the corner. And he doesn't even tell me his name. Stupid boys.