The Fallen Soul

Nathan was barely able to get through his morning classes and ate lunch outside with Tiffany. He sat down and started to mess with the food on is plate. The nightmare had been draining him all day, even though he tried to keep his mind off of it.
Tiffany tilted her head and looked at Nathan, “are you okay?” She had noticed he was dazed throughout the morning classes.
Another of their classmates approached them, Nathan looked up as he approached. He was wearing a dark blue t-shirt and light blue jeans. His hair was black and cut short, his eyes were a piercing grey. “So the new kid, has finally realized what has happens when you get here…”
“Shut it Daniel, Nathan didn’t cause anything… he was just at the right place at the wrong time…” Tiffany was irked; Daniel was generally a loner but always managed to anger people when he opened his mouth.
“First the bomb incident and then bus accident yesterday? Lone Oak was nice and quiet until he moved in, people were just starting to shut up about his family moving in…” Daniel hated the excess amount of talking whenever someone moved into the town.
“Grr… Just stop talking!” Tiffany was angry now, he had no right to attack Nathan.
“Tiffany it’s fine… let him state his opinion, he’s not bothering me.” Nathan shivered as a sharp pain rushed through his brain.
“But it’s not true!” Tiffany wanted to stand up for Nathan, nobody should be bullied like this. She jumped and shrieked as a giant needle landed right in front of Nathan, nearly impaling him.
“Ugh…” Nathan’s head was pounding. The needle was almost twice as tall as Nathan. The top of the pin was a giant black opal, with cracks filled with white.
“What the heck?” Daniel fell back onto the ground, terror filling his eyes as something landed on the table and picked up the pin.
The figure was tall and skinny, proportions slightly out of order. On his head was a top hat, tilted with pins sticking out of it in all directions. Blood red hair flowed out of the hat, uncontrolled and floating off in all directions yet never crossing the face. The face was a pure white with silver lines that made it look like a mask. To add to the mask like features the eyes glowed like a flashlight shining through an emerald and a permanent smile. The smile was twisted and showed a level of madness that instilled terror. A long coat hanged off the shoulders, with even more pins sticking out all over. A shrill cackle escaped from the smile, the razor sharp teeth only separating slightly. It moved in shaking manner, almost robotic and jerking.
Nathan managed to push himself away from the table, a different pin slamming into where he had been sitting. He crawled away from the table, but another pin ended up slammed in front of him.
Daniel could barely believe what he was seeing and he could feel his panic rising. He heard a loud snap within his head as a large red tiger with white stripes leaped out at the figure. The tiger took down the figure easily, it’s body disappearing every time a pin tried to impale it.
Dr. L and Victor burst through the door, Victor ran to Nathan and injected him with a syringe. “Just barely made it… Dr. L get rid of Hatter”

Dr. L slammed a cane into the taller figure, shattering it into pieces before it disappeared. He smirked as he turned to the tiger.

The tiger faded, reappearing over Daniel, growling at Dr. L who just laughed at its attempt to scare him.

Bast had appeared and ran to Nathan who had fainted from the injection. She proceeded to check and heal the minor wounds he had sustained. Tiffany stood back, trying to not to get in the way.

“Dr. L leave Cheshire alone, I’m going to need help to get him to the office… It will return to the Hermit’s psyche soon enough…” Victor picked up Nathan and headed to the door, Dr. L opening and walking with Victor to the office.

Daniel watched as Cheshire faded and appeared beside him, “what the heck just happened here?”

Tiffany nervously laughed as Bast faded out of existence. “Well, it’s a long story… I’m not sure what happened with… Hatter?” Tiffany was still trying to process what had happened, “I’m not really the best at explaining this, I just got Bast yesterday at the bus accident… Oh, maybe the Velvet Room will summon you tonight.” Tiffany could only hope that the Velvet Room would call him in to explain. They needed to hurry to get back to class before they were late.

Dr. L let Victor into the Nurse’s office and sealed the door before returning to his office, Belladonna and Nameless had been waiting. A piano had been set up in the corner of the room, Nameless approached it and sat down as Nathan was placed on the nearby bed. Nameless got situated, checking which keys produced what notes.

Belladonna turned to Victor, “did you really use the Persona Suppressant? Philemon really doesn’t know what it would do…”

Victor shook his head, “ I had to, Mad Hatter had escaped him… And was actively trying to harm him, if not kill him…” He sighed, “None of those Persona are very stable, do we know who the Hermit is? He called out Cheshire Cat…”

Belladonna shook her head, “if he just called out Cheshire than no, we will call to him tonight… it seems Nameless is ready…”

They all stood back from Nathan and Nameless, staying as quiet as possible. Nameless started to play a Sonata, for the first few measures the notes flowed gracefully. Nathan’s body was glowing a light blue as Nameless played. Suddenly the key changed and the notes started to jumble together as he played further. Nameless suddenly stood back from the piano, cutting the sonata short. “That is… bad… Belladonna you will have quite some work ahead of you… His soul is damaged… but it seems like he has permanent damage that was there before…”

“So the damage is hereditary? His ancestors were quite mad from what I’ve seen through him…” Belladonna had been staring at Nathan’s body that was still slightly glowing. “He’s the strongest Philemon’s seen in a long time… But it comes at the price of his sanity…” Belladonna felt bad since only children were awakening to Persona.

“Belladonna, don’t get attached, you know what Dr. L said…” Victor shook his head, he knew better but he still felt attached to the kids in the school. And Victor had agreed to help willingly, without Dr. L he would still be on the streets. “I do wish that wouldn’t be an outcome but if all Hell breaks lose then unfortunately people will die…” Victor shivered, “You two are lucky, you don’t need to worry about death like the rest of us…”

Nameless chuckled, “it’s not as easy for us, we still worry about becoming puppets again. We were needed sooner than Igor was, so we were given a new life. So we could serve outside the Velvet Room.” Nameless stood by Belladonna, “death would be lucky for us, for puppets we merely don’t exist until we are needed…”

Victor had written up a note to give to Nathan’s parents, “So who wants to deliver this note?”

The door flew open and Jubi walked in, “I will take it, gods know they’ll be expecting someone more professional…” She closed the door, “as for you two, you might want to get to class…” She shooed Belladonna and Nameless out, “now Victor remember the deal the Dr. made with you…”

Victors voice was sharp with irritation, “I know the rules of the deal… and I know I’m not to get attached to any of them… But you don’t deal with him like we do, he’s got this air of charisma… and it’s disturbing…”

“I DON’T CARE FOR EXCUSES! There will be penalties if you fail to uphold the deal…” Jubi glared at Nathan’s body, ”…Don’t fall for false leaders…” she turned and stormed out of the office.

“Sheesh, what is with her? She sure doesn’t like Nathan… Yet, is he our advantage?” Victor put on glasses with crimson lenses that Dr. L had given him for his job. He scanned over Nathan, stopping at his heart where a glyph glowed within Nathan’s body, “Wait, that’s the glyph for… “He ran to his cabinet and pulled out a old book and flipped through looking for the glyph.