The Demon Dealings

I was paranoid.

Everyone at school seemed to be normal on the surface but when you figured it out it was only a matter of deciding who is what.

I had this tendency to try and figure out mysteries. Like who stole Johnny’s favorite calculator or… figure out what happened to Jane who hadn’t been to school in days. And then you add the whole “your classmates might be supernatural kids” on top of it and I would relentlessly try and figure it out. So the logical place to start was my friends.

Carys was as normal as they come. I wouldn’t have suspected her of anything. But that might have been the point, to appear normal (like me) to hide the supernatural abilities. But I guess the fact that she hadn’t tried to kill me in the years that we’d been friends meant that she was most likely a light walker.

There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that Jane was a human. Whether she remained that way… I wouldn’t know.

I wondered how many people that I knew made deals with demons to become more popular or pretty or more athletic. It would make sense that most of those people were not human. Or they were just absurdly athletic.

I was out of breath when I got to his door. I was out of breath from following my instincts and fleeing from the scene. Spiros seemed to somehow know that something like this would happen.

“You came sooner than I expected.” He commented as he opened the door.

I hadn’t knocked. But somehow he didn’t seem surprised that I would appear before he was expecting me. Some part of me wondered if he had done something like this before.

There was a tense silence as we made way into his house. We sat down on the same couch Ian and I had our discussion on. I took a deep breath. “Can you tell me what the hell is going on?” It was more of a whisper than a question.

“For a long time we didn’t know how they got in, why they were here or even who they were, the only thing that we knew is that they weren’t like us…

We are not like you.” He deadpanned, looking strait into my eyes.

“For the longest time there was this common misconception that we could live in harmony. That they wouldn’t always just bite you and drink your blood or steal your souls for the power, or even just for the hell of it.

There was the belief that we were people to. Those demons were just men who did terrible things and the other things, the other supernaturals that couldn’t be explained by human means were things of myth. The light walkers made a decision at some point to hide. To escape the persecution because there were so few of us for the longest time but the dark walkers disagreed. They had never liked humans and set out to destroy them. That is where the myths come from.

Eventually the light walkers managed to gain control over the dark walkers. That is the very reason why humans don’t think we exist. Although some have witnessed a rogue dark walker. I assume that is what happened to you. Light walkers don’t just attack humans at random.” He finished.

“Dark walker...?” I shot him a look, slightly creeped out by the term.

“Your mother didn’t teach you any of this, did she?” he narrowed his eyes at me.

“Why would she?” I was slightly confused. My mother was just a normal person who wanted the best for me… right?

“Because you’re a metahuman.” He ran a hand through his hair. “It would make sense that she’d explain the world a little better to her daughter.”

“A what now? This is crazy. How do you even know what I am?!” I winced slightly at my last statement and wished I could just stuff it all back in instead of confirming I wasn’t normal.

“Because, I’m a demon.” He was rather nonchalant about it, which freaked me out even more.

“Oh great. This is just fantastic.” I said quietly to myself, rather annoyed at the situation.

“I know this is a lot to grasp but trust me when I say it. I am a demon.” He looked me in the eye as he said it.

“Why am I even going with this? Why are you telling me this now?” I cried in hopes that everyting had just been a dream.

“You’re going with this because something that was not human but not animal attacked you and you weren’t hallucinating it. You have the wounds to prove it. And I am telling you this so that something like this doesn’t happen again. So that you know what to look for. Now, do you want to know what I have to say or not?” His stare never wavered.

“Ok, then. Have at it.” I crossed my arms over my chest attempting to be tougher than I was feeling.

“You already know what humans are. They’re normal. They have no special abilities. They don’t stand out, they don’t blend in. Most just are… There are no Harry Potter’s amongst the humans. No Batman’s or super heroes. If there were they’d be considered metahumans.” He paused a moment.

“So, my friends… Jane, Cara. They’re humans because they aren’t extraordinary?”

“Or they’re really good at hiding it.” He gave me a pointed look.

School would be a nightmare by this logic. I wouldn’t be able to keep my mind off of who was what and if I should be worried that they might attack me when they got the chance. While some people were easy to identify other people were not as easy to discern.

“I’m sorry, Carys.” I said when I took my usual seat next to her in the only class we had together before lunch.

“It’s ok… really, I just want to know what’s going on. You’ve been acting off since you decided Jane disappeared.” She looked at me with concern in her eyes. “You know you can tell me anything right?”

Not everything… I thought. “Well, I was looking for Jane yesterday and some dog jumped on me… he was a little too excited and scratched the hell out of my face…” I paused for effect. “I was just embarrassed that I let a dog get the better of me.”

“Don’t be. It happens all the time and I’m sure that dog feels bad.” She teased. “But really, that couldn’t have been fun.” She was sympathetic and patted my shoulder. I could tell that she wasn’t sure whether or not to believe me but shrugged it off.

“Nope, but I guess it was my fault. I probably shouldn’t have walked up to him.” I shrugged. “Dumb mistake.”

Before anything else could be said the bell rang and we were dismissed to our next class. I glanced around the halls as I made my way to my next class wondering about certain people.

Who was a supernatural? Were there any metahumans here?

It took me till after class had started for anything to click. There was a group of people that could not have been human. They were too pretty, too smart and too annoying to be a real human. And among those people was someone I instantly knew what he was.

“Oh come on!” I muttered frustrated.

“What was that Natasha?” The teacher asked. This better be about Wuthering Heights.

“I was just commenting on the… unfair nature of Heathcliff’s situation…” Ok, so I cheated a little to figure out what we were talking about. But any other metahuman would have done the same thing.

“Go on.” The teacher urged.

“Well, I mean he never really get a real chance because he isn’t super rich and doesn’t have this fancy title or anything. But then again, he’s kind of obsessive, so I guess that would justify anyone’s actions against him.” I heard some snickers around the room.

The teacher took a breath to respond but luckily the bell rang signaling lunch. I ignored our homework being called out to us as I threw my stuff in my bag and jetted out of there, ready to investigate and prove my theory.

“Natasha!” I heard my name called over the crowd.

I stopped, allowing my fellow annoyed teens pass me. I searched the crowd for a moment before I spotted Cade smiling as he made his way to me.

“Hey Cade.” I said slowly, cautious to my sudden realization.

“Come have lunch with me.” He nodded his head to the door that lead outside.

I shrugged and followed him, glad that I had packed a lunch. But I also hoped I hadn’t smashed it this time. I wouldn’t want to embarrass myself in front of his people. If they were anything like the stories they were a little judgy but then again popular people always were.

He led me to a tree, just him and I. Which I found unusual for someone like him. I had a feeling that he wasn’t planning on having any of his friends come over and eat lunch with us. Why? I had no idea.

“I won’t ask about your face.” Was the first thing he said to me.

“Good, because I won’t tell… So, is this where you take all the girls for lunch?” I joked.

He laughed, “Just you.” He winked.

“You’re a vampire aren’t you?” I asked him before he had the chance to respond. I winced a little, knowing that one day word vomit would get me into trouble.

He looked at me confused and slightly amused at the same time. “No.”

“Damn it.” I stood up. “That was a really dumb question.”

“No, it wasn’t. It was amusing.” He gave me that “famous” Cade smile.

“Oh boy. That was not what I was going for.”

“Natasha…” He stopped. “I’m not a vampire. But that doesn’t mean I’m not a supernatural.” I was slightly surprised at his open admittance.

“Oh, I figured that one out.” I gave him a pointed look.

“Really now?” Again amusement shown clear on his face.

“I should probably…” I gestured back to the school and promptly turned to leave him sitting under the tree by himself.

The tension in the air was starting to annoy me. As I waited for Spiros to continue his explanation.

“You read a lot of us in fiction, see us on the big screen or watch us on TV. As you can imagine it isn’t the same in real life. Vampires don’t drink human blood whenever they feel like it. The light walkers won’t allow it. The reason why you don’t have supernaturals running around killing people, specifically dark walkers is because of the light walkers. We protect humans in order to maintain balance.

So, you probably see supernaturals everyday but don’t know it.” He finished.

“So, I most likely go to school with these… Light and Dark walkers?”

“You probably don’t go to school with any dark walkers.” He said matter of factly.

“Really, why?” I raised an eyebrow at him.

“Because they’d rather eat your face than be your friend.” He deadpanned.

“Oh…”

“Most dark walkers need humans for food, whether it is their energy or their flesh. They need something and like humans aren’t friends with their food supernaturals aren’t either.

The difference between light and dark walkers is a little blurred. Whole races can’t be dark walkers because some don’t kill humans and use them for food, some are different. Like humans believe some people can be evil supernaturals the same can be said for dark walkers. It’s our way of branding the bad guys so to speak.”

“So, generally what types of supernaturals are dark walkers? I mean I know that all humans are bad, so same goes for supernaturals. But is one races predominantly dark walkers over the others?”

“There is a reason why people are frightened of vampires, succubae and incubi, and... demons. Most of them are dark walkers.”

“How did they get that way?” I narrowed my eyes at him.

“It’s in their nature to use humans, to torture and kill them. They’re mostly deceptive. You’ll know if you meet one. They’re always beautiful and alluring. But I guess it would be different to you. You won’t be pulled in.”

“Because I’m a metahuman.” I concluded.

“Nash!” Cade called as I neared the entrance to the cafeteria. I paused a moment but I really didn’t feel like dealing with the awkwardness so I kept walking.

“Come on Nash...” He said from beside me.

“Holy… hell. For not a vampire you sure do move like one.” I jumped and placed a hand over my heart.

“I don’t think you’ve met many vampires then.” He paused, “Look, I’m sorry…”

“Should you not… um do that?” I gestured to him. “In public.”

“Its ok, just about everyone out here is supernatural.” He commented, and nodded to the dude standing in what would be just outside of human hearing but I guess thing were different for superaturals.

“Oh God.” I muttered and ducked my head down as I started walking faster to get away from him.

“Nash!” he called again. “I didn’t mean to freak you out. Just… hear me out for a second here…”

“Ok.” I promptly stopped and faced him. “What is it that you want, Cade?”

“I want.. I want…” he huffed, choking on his words. He was frustrated and scratched the back of his head.

“I’m waiting.” I said with attitude.

“I want you!” he finally spat out, and ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

I couldn’t help it, I started laughing. This was ridiculous. “Am I…” I let out some laughter, “Am I supposed to believe that?”

“Yes!” he cried. “I’m not usually this bad with girls but… damn, Natasha, you’re not quite the same as other girls.”

I laughed again. “Maybe you should consider getting better lines.” I patted him on the shoulder, “This is making me laugh.”

“They aren’t lines.” He deadpanned.

“Oh really now?” I raised an eyebrow at him, about to add on another snarky comment when the bell rang. “And that’s my cue.” I turned to leave him in the crowd of reluctant “teens” going back into the building for their next class.

I wondered if Cade was a light walker. It would make sense considering he was going to my school and not trying to eat any of my friends. That I was aware of... And as far as I knew he wasn’t even involved in Jane’s disappearance.

I wasn’t even sure if there was anything wrong with Jane but I the simple fact that I hadn’t seen or heard from her in a few days concerned me. Maybe she had mono.

“Nash!” I recognized the voice as Carys calling to me. I stopped and turned to find her in the crowd.

“Hey, Carys…” I said slowly.

“Where’s you go off to? I thought you disappeared for a minute there when I didn’t see you at lunch.” She said slowly.

“I had lunch with Cade…” I attempted to be nonchalant about it but my voice cracked near the end and I failed.

“Cade?!” She cried in surprise. “I thought you didn’t like him.”

“Uh…” I shrugged at her.

“I’m confused. I thought we agreed he was suspicious.”

“I’m just as confused as you are but he’s just a charmer… nothing else. But I don’t have time to explain… class.” I gestured to a random classroom.

“We’ll talk later.” She told me firmly.

“Sure.” I shrugged again and walked away from her.

Instead of going back to class I left school to figure out what the hell was going on and how everything was connected. There had to be something.

When I stepped off school grounds I ran into the last person I was expecting and I swear he was channeling my mind when I ran into him. I almost let out a load groan of annoyance in response but managed to hold it in.

“I figured you’d leave.” Cade said, leaning against the railing of the building I just so happened to be passing.

“How the hell would you know that?” I asked defensively.

“You’re looking for Jane and you’re getting a lot of shit today. It’s pretty simple. I wouldn’t stay either.” He pushed off the railing and started walking with me. “So, I’m here to help.”

“And this has nothing to do with the liking me thing?” I raised an eyebrow at him, slightly suspicious.

“Let’s just forget about that part for now.” He smiled, “I’ll woo you later.” And then he winked at me. And if I am honest it was not something I was expecting.

“Alright, stud.” I teased. “Got some skills you could use to help me sniff Jane out? Or is all the stuff that they say fiction?”

“I have a few tricks up my sleeve.” He smirked. “I don’t know if they’d impress you, but they’ll help.”

I gestured to the space in front of me, “Show me what you’ve got.”

There had to be other people like me in the world. I mean Metahumans could not be so… singular.

“So, there are people out there like me. Not quite humans but not quite supernaturals…” I paused, allowing him to fill in the blanks.

“Metahumans. Basically enhanced humans.”

“How come I haven’t run into any? Why is my mom the one trying to get me to practice my abilities? Why not secretly learn from another metahuman?”

“Metahumans are incredibly rare. You’re probably the only one around here.” He looked away from me for a second. “Metahumans happened by accident and we’re not even sure how a metahuman comes about. Sometimes two supernaturals have a kid and they’re a metahuman. Sometimes two humans make a metahuman. No one is sure how it happens.”

“So I’m like a random genetic defect.” I sighed.

“Something like that.” I could hear the amusement in his tone.

“How does my mom know about all of this?”

“That, Natasha, is a question for another day.”

I sighed, frustrated at his response. My life just got a whole lot more interesting.