Daemon Academy

After around ten hours of driving from the hotel Pandora was staying to the one we were going to stay for the night, I felt really tired. My muscles were killing me from being seated in the same position in the car and driving for so long without a break. We couldn’t afford to take a break earlier if we wanted to get any decent sleep and I didn’t want to crash in the car seeing how uncomfortable Pandora was, so we checked ourselves into a motel around three in the morning—and of course, two separate rooms. Pandora went to bed as soon as I made sure the place was okay and her room was safe. I kissed her forehead and she blushed a bit before telling me goodnight.

I tried to sleep too, but knowing she was in the room next to mine didn’t really help me close my eyes, not even for an hour. My Panda had gotten so beautiful and stronger too. It was my duty to protect my fiancé, and my love for her hadn’t changed from when we were kids. Yes, it was puppy love then, but I still loved her the most. I would do anything for her, risking my life was a must do for me, always and forever.

I knitted my eyebrows together as I started thinking about the academy. She was going to be safe there. I was her guardian and I was a professor in the academy. I was teaching general class and she was going to be my student. Living in the dorms wouldn’t be that bad since we were staying within the academy’s grounds too. Our powers were on a greater scale than our students, not to state the obvious, but there were those who used powerful spelled objects and had to be put in detention.

The sunlight finally streamed in through the thick curtains before I decided to get up from bed and my mind stopped thinking about everything else. My eyes stung and my muscles ached from all that driving and to think I had to sit on my ass for six more hours so we could make our way to the academy. I was tired to say the least but I wanted to get us to the academy soon. A few more hours and we’d be there by afternoon.

I crawled out of the bed and went to check up on her. She was half covered with a blanket and dressed in a loose tank top and a pair of black boy shorts. Her hair looked messy from the wind last night and her mascara was smeared all around her eyes. She looked like a teenager who had fun the night before at a party, getting wasted and what not, but she still looked so beautiful to me.

“Wake up sleepy head,’’ I smiled at her while I sat beside her on the bed. ‘’Get up and have a shower, then we can have breakfast before heading to the academy.’’

“Yes?” She asked me, although it was stifled.

“I’m going to take a shower.” I said, trying to make her listen to me. ‘’You need to shower too, and then it’s breakfast time. Now, get up.’’

She was quiet for a few moments and seemed uninterested. “Okay?” She rolled her eyes and brought the covers over her head.

‘’Good.’’ I was about to walk out and go to my room when I heard her saying, “have a blast.” She sounded sarcastic, but I had no idea why.

“What’s wrong?” I asked turning to face her with my hand placed on the door’s handle.

“Nothing,’’ she replied quickly, like she didn’t even think of her answer.

“Tell me,’’ I told her, closing the door behind me as I stepped inside the room again.

“No. I’m not going to tell you anything. Why should I?” The smile I had plastered on my face while I watched her sleep had now vanished instantly and I narrowed my eyes at her, my anger boiling.

“Because I care, maybe? Because I’m the only one here?”

“Right and I am the beggar now.” I glared at her.

“You—” I bit the inside of my cheek, seething. “I don’t know what makes you think you can speak to me like this when everything I do, I do it for you. I came so far to find you, I searched for you, learned everything I know for you, and this is how you thank me; with a horrible attitude first thing in the morning?’’

I was mad with rage but I wouldn’t let the chaos inside me resurface. I was a teacher. That was what I always told myself whenever I was ready to snap. It was my way of trying to control the beast inside me. It was a fight I had won in order to become a teacher, but I could easily lose to it if I let myself.

‘’I’m showering now and you better take one too. It might help you cool down,” I said, marching angrily towards the entrance of her room.

“Sure, run away again. Not like leaving me alone is a first…” She shot back. “It won’t be that hard this time though, I’m experienced now thanks to you.’’

“I didn’t run away. I didn’t leave you because I wanted to. I don’t know why you like to think that way about me, but that’s not case, and I’m not going to sit here listening to all this crap. Go shower so we can leave, your safety is my top priority and the academy is going to be your holy shield for the time being. Get ready!”

I stormed out of her room and went to take a cold bath. I was an Expisco; a chaos demon with Lucifer’s blood in my veins, and his blood in those situations could make me furious to the point I could hurt my loved ones. I learnt it the hard way, and I wasn’t going to be a victim of my own strength ever again.

Expiscos were one of the rarest half demons because they are children of the demon Lucifer. Chaos demons didn’t get the powers and abilities, like other half demons inherited but instead they had demon sensors. Chaos demons could sense chaos. For example, if a person thought about their plan to murder someone or if a demon wanted to drive his victim crazy by using paranoia thoughts send to the victim, the chaos demon would hear or perhaps even see it. However, if it was just wishful thinking they probably would not sense anything. They could also usually tell what kind of supernatural others are and they tend to get out of control when their happiness is disrupted. Chaos demons crave and need chaos in their lives, but not in my case. Like Pandora, I was a special case for reasons – yet unknown to me.

I took off my clothes and stepped inside the bath where I let the cold water wash away my anger, my madness and my sadness that crept into my very soul. She had no idea what she was doing to me, how she made me feel. My feelings were on an emotional roll-coaster playing hide and seek with confusion. Once I was done, I wrapped the big towel around my waist and got out of the bathroom. My thoughts were still being all over the place and my heart was in disarray.

I was surprised to see Pandora sitting on the bed with her chocolate hair still wet, and with her hands on her lap. ‘’I’m sorry about before,’’ she said, not looking me in the eyes.

‘’Apology accepted,’’ I said, not thinking about it. I went over to the armchair beside the mirror and grabbed my black jeans and a blue shirt, along with my boxers and socks. I was behind her so I decided on changing clothes while she sat at the end of the bed. She didn’t even think of checking me out which hurt a little but whatever.

‘’Can we skip breakfast? I don’t feel like eating,’’ Pandora trailed off.

‘’Okay,’’ I just answered. I didn’t want to push her into eating; she could throw up on the way. She could eat at the academy if she felt like it.

Soon, we were on the road again and the silence between us was awkward but not unwelcomed. Pandora was still a child, she had yet to fully mature. She’d come to understand me better when she was ready. She had too much on her plate and her age along with her mood swings didn’t help her much. I knew her powers were driving crazy from time to time, so I hoped the professors in the academy could manage to show her how to keep her emotions under control. Then she wouldn’t go against me like earlier and with no real reason whatsoever.

All my life, all I ever wanted was to be capable of protecting her and staying by her side. I never asked for anything and I always followed my parents’ orders as well as her parents’. That was why I had to study so hard and had to even to do research using my own body. She didn’t know the lengths I had to go to in order to find ways to keep her safe. There will be a day when I’ll be able to tell her everything and I hope that then she’ll realize how much she means to me.

As we drove down the freeway, for a brief moment I thought I could see her glaring at me but I wasn’t sure. “You don’t like me very much anymore, do you?” I asked her. She turned her head to stare out the window.

‘’I do,’’ she said in a boring tone that seemed like I had asked her what she had for dinner yesterday night.

“You hate me,” I stated, looking straight ahead of me as I drove.

“I think I’m afraid of you,” she replied, wrapping her hand around a bundle of her hair to keep it from hitting her in the face. ‘’It’s because I trust you too much.’’

I instantly smirked. “That’s good?’’ I kind of wondered, because I took joy in knowing she trusted me. Still though, afraid? Why? ‘’But, do you hate me?”

She sighed. “Do I act like I hate you?” she asked, turning her head to face me, her chocolate eyes staring deep into my own. I shrugged, smirking slightly as my brown hair shuffled from the wind.

“Yeah, a little bit,” I admitted and she shrugged, pushing her sun-glasses further up her nose.

“Then,” she started, learning her head lazily on the headrest. “I guess I hate you.”

My eyes were still focused on the road before us but my smile grew. “No, you don’t.”

“Then why ask?”

“To make sure,” he said slowly, nodding his head along with his reasoning. “I needed to make sure that my fiancé didn’t hate me.”

“And now you’re sure?” She asked curiously.

“Kind of,” I replied, but I could see the small smile on her face.

It didn’t take too long for us to reach the gates of the academy, but when we did, Pandora stared at the buildings within the academy grounds in awe. I was sure she had never seen anything like it before and we still had a long way to go.