CHAPTER FOUR

Nora was astounded to see so many people at the party considering the incidents that had happened at the venue and its environment. The grass opening between the tree line of the forest reserve and the Vell waterfall was used as the primary party ground. Four bonfires at different angle provided enough illumination for everybody and at a corner were keg stands and tanks for drinks, cups and finger foods. The Deejay clasped his headphone to his ear with one hand, swaying his head back and forth to the rhythm of Sia & Sean Paul’s Cheap thrills blasting from the three speakers as the crowd danced in pairs and groups. A larger percentage of the ladies present at the party wore bikinis while the guys were mostly on three-quarter shorts.

“Kyle sure knows how to throw a party,” Nora noted as she and Ruby walked towards the crowd.

“Told you, you shouldn’t miss it,” Ruby smiled. “Promise me you won’t disappear this time.”

Nora silently debated making that promise because she always kept her promises, infallibly. If she promised Ruby, she would have to keep that promise and Ruby knew that.

“Your word, Nora. Promise?”

Nora breathed out. “Okay. Fine. I promise. I won’t leave without you.”

“Good.” Ruby spotted Chase treading towards them, she waved at him with a smile. Chase and Ruby met at a party like this, seven months ago.

“Hey babe,” Chase smiled and kissed Ruby on her lips. “Nora—”

“Hi Chase,” she waved. Chase and her didn’t get along well, for no reason. Conversation between them was always awkward, so they try to keep it short and simple. Luckily, Davina saved the awkwardness that night.

“Hey, guys! Nora, Mason has been looking for you, although he claimed not to be.” She giggled and pointed to Mason. Mason was holding a red cup and looking around like a lost puppy.

Nora groaned softly. “I better go see him. Ru, I must be back home before 12. I will come to look for you around past 11. Please don’t wander off,” she pleaded.

“Relax, I’m not going anywhere,” she smiled up at Chase flirtatiously. “Now go hook up with that guy!”

She rolled her eyes at Ruby’s suggestion and went to meet Mason. She saw Kyle, on her way to Mason, he was with his friends but she could tell that he was not happy. He was only putting on a show. She also saw Jared, Jeff, Lance, Heather and a few of her colleagues, having a good time as she walked across the party ground.

“Hey!” Mason exclaimed, his face lighting up like fireworks. “You made it,” he hugged her.

“Yeah, Ruby is persistent,” she hugged him back.

“Are you saying you didn’t come because of my awesome power of persuasion?” he said teasingly and Nora replied with a smile. “Want to sit?” he gestured to the log of wood by their feet.

Her eyes dropped on the log, “Yeah, thanks.”

“Are you enjoying the party?” Mason asked as they sat beside each other on the log of wood.

Nora’s eyes ran over the party arena to see what she could enjoy about it; she couldn’t find any. “Well, I just got here so—, I am still taking it all in.” That was the safest answer she could give.

Mason wanted to impress Nora. Hopefully, tonight was the night she would finally see him as more than a friend and team-mate. “Oh right,” he smiled. “Want a drink?”

“Ermm yes.”

“Okay, I’ll be back.” He stood to get a drink for Nora from the table few feet behind them.

Nora's eyes wandered to a boy and a girl, engaged in a lip lock at the far end of the fall while she waited for Mason and scoffed. She had her first kiss two years ago during her summer break with her aunt Lucy in New York. Diego Gallows, a then seventeen years old boy who lived next door to her aunt, had developed a keen interest in her and it was mutual. For a seventeen-year-old, he was annoyingly handsome with the cutest dimples. During a night of truth or dare with Mark and a few of their friends, she was dared to make out with Diego and she did, perfectly so. Mark claimed he knew what they wanted to do, he just decided to play cupid. They kissed three more times before Nora went back home to Meadowville, after her summer break. She looked forward to another summer with the hottie next door but was hit with a big wave of disappointment when Mark told her that the Gallows had moved. She got over her infatuation in a jiffy because that was all it was.

Amid Nora’s reminisce, she became distracted by a guy she could have sworn appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the crowd. He was tall, at least six feet, wearing a hoodie over brown trousers and a black T-shirt. He examined his surrounding intensely like he didn’t know where he was before stepping away from the crowd. Nora looked around, nobody else seemed to pay any attention to the guy or even saw him as he walked out of the crowd and towards the Reserve which in itself was unnerving. As crazy as the party was, people abided by the rule of not going into the Reserve. Nobody crossed the police line even when the party was a few feet away from the edge of the Reserve.

“Here,” Mason handed her a cup of Soda.

“Oh thanks,” she collected the cup, absentmindedly.

“Are you okay? what are you looking at?” he followed Nora’s gaze with his eyes but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. “Hey Nora,” he waved his hands across Nora’s face. “What are you looking at?”

“You can’t see the guy going into the Reserve?” she said without looking at Mason.

“What guy?” he looked again. All he saw were people partying, nobody was going into the Reserve. “Nobody is going in there.”

“I think he’s drunk. I better stop him,” she stood up at once. Nora ran after the guy, shouting, “Hey! You can’t go in there,” but the music was too loud, it drowned her voice.

“Nora! Wait! No Nora!” He ran after her but he was caught off by a group of drunk guys that stumbled in front of him which made him lose sight of Nora.

Nora followed the hoodie guy to the edge of the Reserve and halted, contemplating if she should go after him or not. She thought to herself, “I don’t even know him, why should I care if he gets mauled by a wild animal?” She stretched her neck to catch sight of the guy but he was far gone, into the Reserve.

“Nora, don’t go into the forest where people get mauled or run out crazy,” she sang to herself, scratching her head. She tapped her fingers against her thigh repeatedly, resisting the urge to run after him. But she could only hold back her curiosity and sense of protecting people for so long. With a grunt, she jumped over the police line and sprinted into the Reserve.

“What am I doing?” she muttered to herself as she squinted to see under the silver moonlight. She tripped and narrowly avoided smashing herself into a tree, then twisted her body to avoid getting caught in vines. She espied a figure, few meters ahead of her. She could not tell if it was the same guy she saw at the party. “Who else can it be if not him?” she muttered to herself, pushing a tree branch aside as she stalked the figure. Her brain persistently nudged her to go back as the music from the party faded away into the distance but her whole body insisted that she kept moving, propelling her forward, after the guy.

“You could not help yourself. You just had to open the Nethergate yourself,” the figure-the hoodie guy she was tailing, said in a manly but smooth voice, few feet ahead of her.

Instinctively, Nora ducked behind the closest tree and peeped to see out who he was talking to.

“You were never going to let me try. I just wanted to try it— and it worked,” another guy with a ponytail replied nonchalantly. A younger girl with short hair was with him.

“It worked? I landed amid unruly teenagers. I hate their teenagers!” he gruffed.

The ponytail guy and the girl looked at each other and smirked, enjoying his displeasure.

“At least he did not drop you in a tree,” the girl said.

“I already apologized for that Max,” said the ponytail guy.

“Easy for you to apologize, you are not the one with cuts and bruises,” Max replied sharply.

“Let us just find them and leave,” the hoodie guy said. “Max put the shield up.”

“Is that necessary? We are in a forest, nobody is here,” she said.

“We cannot take that chance, put it up,” he replied firmly.

“Okay,” she stood still for about two seconds. “Shields up!” she announced.

The ponytailed guy crouched and touched the ground. A few seconds later, he stood up and pointed to his west, “That way.” he said.

The three of them marched due west and Nora followed discreetly from behind. The only sounds in the forest were sounds of nature, birds chirping, owls hooting, toads croaking and the occasional rustling of the trees by squirrels.

Nora remembered what Mrs Darcy, her 9th grade Math teacher said to her about her always looking for trouble and poking the bear to see what will happen. “I should turn back and leave the three cult people alone. But no, I must see for myself,” Nora reprimanded herself in her head.

The two guys and Max had barely taken fifteen steps when the ponytailed guy stopped walking. Nora buried herself behind another tree.

“Roman? What? why are we stopping?” the hoodie guy asked, canvassing the area predatorily with his gaze, expecting to see why they stopped.

“We are being followed,” the ponytailed guy, Roman, replied in a low voice.

“By what? A Telane?” Max asked.

“No.” Roman looked intently, sweeping the Reserve with his stare. “Something else—Someone.”

“Someone? Like a person? That’s not possible. My shield is up,” Max rebutted.

“Shush!” Roman motioned she keep quiet. His gaze pierced the forest as if he could see through the entire Reserve. “There is someone behind that tree.” He pointed to the 7th tree to his left, the same tree Nora was hiding behind.

“Who or whatever you are, now is the right time to show yourself!” his voice resounded through the Reserve.

Nora’s fingertips ran cold in anxiety. She knew he was talking to her, who else would be crazy to follow a strange guy into the forest at night? She considered running but disregarded the idea. It was too late to run. She groaned in irritation, she hated being cornered.

“It can’t be a human right?” Max whispered to Roman, “My shield is—”

“We know Max, your shield is up. We get it,” the guy wearing a hoodie said, curtly. He shouted to Nora, “We don’t have all day. Can we do this already?” he said, pulling out two daggers from a sheath strapped around his waist, one from each side and advanced towards the tree Nora was hiding behind, while the others followed him.

Nora had given up any hope of escaping from the weird reality show she strolled into all by herself. She resolved to come out of hiding, who knows? they might be good guys with a thing for forests at night. She took a deep breath and came out of hiding. Her bold step out of the shadow was met with a double-edged dagger, wielded by the hoodie guy, pointing at her chest. Nora raised her hands in surrender while the three of them stared at her. Nora drew an inference that she had grown a third eye, considering how they gawked at her.

“Heavens! She is human!” Max yelped with flickering eyes.

While Max was fascinated with Nora, Roman was befuddled. “How is this possible? How is she able to see past your shield? Except—,” he paused to think about what he was about to say, “no-oo…,” he said. He rambled to the guy holding a dagger to Nora, “…that is not possible right?” he asked him.

Dagger still in his hand, the hoodie guy kept his eyes fixed on Nora. Nora could read the expressions on the faces of Roman and Max but the hoodie guy had an expressionless face. Nora’s throat was dry. She didn’t know if it was because of the dagger being held to her chest or because she was alone in a forest reserve that had become a hunting ground for strange animals with three weirdos, acting as though they had never seen the female species before. She resigned in her mind that either way, tonight was not the night she would die by a dagger to the chest in the hand of a cute brawny guy.

“How long do you intend to keep holding that to my neck?” she finally said to the hoodie guy.

He lowered his dagger, “Who are you?” he asked Nora.

“I think the question should be what is she,” Roman said, agitatedly.

The hoodie guy took a step back to collect his thoughts then he asked Nora, “Why were you following us?” he asked with a smooth voice.

“I saw you take a hike into the Reserve. I thought you were drunk and didn’t realize what you were doing. So, I followed you, to try to stop you,” she explained.

He glanced from Nora to Max who had been staring at her like she was a pile of gold.

“Don’t look at me, I’ve got nothing for this one,” Max shrugged. “My shield should have prevented her from seeing anything— You know what this means, right?” She giggled, “Seth would have a theory for this. He would love to meet her!”

He moved closer to Nora who was equally confused, except for a different reason.

“Human, I need you to stay still,” the cute brawny guy said calmly and reached out his right hand to Nora’s neck.

Nora saw where his hands were going and acted without thinking. She twisted his arm backwards and kicked his knee joint. He grunted and fell on his knees in front of Nora while Roman and Max cheered her. “I don’t know you but if you touch me, I will rip your arm off!” Nora snarled at the cute brawny guy.

“Cool! Can we keep her?!” Max beamed.

“No, Max you can’t keep her. She is not a pet,” the cute brawny guy said. “You can fight, good!” he said to Nora. Effortlessly, he tackled Nora to the ground, pinning her down with his left arm and supporting his body weight with his right hand on the ground. He brought his face closer to her, “Let’s try this again,” he said with a soft smile. “My name is Keelan. That’s my brother Roman and my sister Maxine,” he gestured to them respectively with his head as Nora’s eyes followed his head movement. He went quiet, expecting Nora to talk. “This is the part where you tell me your name,” he said.

Nora’s eyes darted across Keelan’s flawless face, his perfectly carved lips and square jawline. He was gorgeous and his smell was of lavender spiced with jasmine. She bit her inner lips as she inhaled him, trying to distract herself. “I’ll tell you when you get off of me,” she said.

Keelan sprang to his feet and offered his hand to help Nora up.

She ignored his hand and stood by herself. “Nora,” she said, dusting dirt and dry leaves off her back.

“Nice to meet you, Nora. Here is the thing, we should not be having this conversation because you should not have been able to see us. So, who are you?” Keelan demanded.

“What do you mean by I shouldn’t have been able to see you? And I already told you my name. I don’t know you, so you don’t get more than my name,” she clipped.

Keelan chuckled with folded lips. “Fair enough. I have a theory, but to test that theory I need you to stay still. Can you do that?”

“What are you going to do?”

“Test my theory,” he said with a low grunt.

Keelan placed his palm on her left collar bone. She finally got a read on Keelan as he closed his eye to focus. What is he doing? she asked herself. She kept her eyes on him, waiting to see what would happen. Gradually, a bright fluorescence light pulsated from her collar bone up to her neck. A warmth that she had never felt before filled her and every cell in her body came alive at the incredible amount of energy circulating within her body. The light was brighter than anything she had ever seen before. Roman, Max and Keelan- who had opened his eyes when the light started pulsating- were stunned. He removed his hand and the glowing dimmed until it was just Nora’s beige skin again.

“What the hell was that?!” Nora asked.

“That was insane!” Roman snickered hysterically. “I have never seen a Core that bright before.”

“No Core should be that bright,” Keelan said, staring at Nora with plain curiosity.

“Except the founders,” Max added.

“What’s a founder?” Nora asked.

“Well, she is not a founder,” Roman replied Max, ignoring Nora. “She is too young to be one and they are all dead.”

Nora was confused. “Who?”

“You don’t know anything, do you?” Keelan asked her.

“Know what? What are you all blabbering about?!” She tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear, “You know what I don’t even care. I’m going home,” she spun and began to walk away from them.

Keelan ran after her, leaving Roman and Max behind. When he caught up with her, he held her by the shoulder. “You want to just go home?”

“Yes! My friends would have been looking for me.” She brought out her phone, “9:34,” she slightly stamped her feet on the ground. “Since I have seen that you are not drunk-just crazy with the ability to make people glow. I’m going back to the fall and you should leave too. Animals have been attacking people in the Reserve recently.” She resumed her brisk walking and Keelan jogged after her.

Keelan sniggered, “Animals…?”

“What is funny?” Nora asked, still walking fast.

“They are not animals.”

“Really?” she stopped. “So, what are they?” she asked facetiously.

Keelan was about to answer her when his eyes trailed off, behind Nora. Towering over Nora, few steps away was a creature, at least nine feet tall. It had two flat horns on its pig and goat-like head with a big bright yellow eye between the horns. It stood on its hind legs and gave a deep growling sound that made Nora’s blood freeze even though she had not turned to see the creature.

“Errrm, Nora—,” Keelan whispered, slowly unsheathing his dagger.

“What?” she asked, her eyes darting sideways to avoid looking back. “There is something behind me, isn’t it there?” she asked apprehensively.

“Well,” he shrugged his right arm and tilted his head, “yes, a Telane demon,” he replied.

“A what demon?” Nora would not have believed him but she could feel the hot breath behind her. Demon or not, she knew whatever was behind her was a nightmare.

“I’m going to need you to run without looking back and don’t open your eyes. They make people experience their greatest fear.” Since she would not be staying to fight, Keelan assumed it wasn’t important to tell her the demon’s saliva was acidic.

“How am I supposed to run with my eyes closed?” Nora said through her teeth. “And what about you, what will you do?

“Slay a demon,” he said with a straight face, flipping his daggers in his hands. “As for running with your eyes closed, I’m sure you will figure it out.” The demon lifted his clawed beasty arm to strike Nora from behind. “RUN!” Keelan shouted. Nora ran out of the way and Keelan lunged at the demon.

Nora ran as fast as she could, reluctantly. Running away from a fight went against her nature. She ran into Max and Roman, sprinting in the direction of Keelan. Nora saw an opportunity to fix her wrong and trailed after them.

“You should stay back!” Max said while running.

“I’m not going to leave him alone with that thing,” Nora replied.

“Alone?” Roman scoffed, “offence not taken,” he rolled his eyes.

Nora did her best but she couldn’t keep up, they were too fast. She wondered if they had tires attached to their legs. When Nora got back to the scene, Keelan was struggling to get up and Max was slicing the demon’s thick fleshy hinds with her daggers. She moved with so much speed, Nora thought she was seeing her strikes in fast forward. Roman had scaled up to its head, trying to stab the one eye between its horns while avoiding its claws.

“Roman! How long is this going to take?!” Max screamed, dodging a kick from the demon. “it is a big yellow eye. How hard can it be to perforate it!”

“You want to switch places!?” Roman yelled, “Keelan! Anytime now bro!”

Keelan took a huge inhuman leap towards the demon to stab the eye. The demon twirled, kicking Max and Keelan, spine first into a big tree. Nora was sure their ribs would be broken or at least, they would have a serious concussion. All attention now on Roman, the demon pulled him from its back and threw him away like he was a piece of paper. Again, Nora was certain Roman had passed out. The creature growled loudly and charged towards Nora.

She loved fighting but this- this was different, this was no McKwosiki. This was out of her jurisdiction but she was not going to let that intimidate her. She saw Roman’s dagger on the ground and picked it. As she rushed to meet the demon, she narrowly escaped being clawed. With all her senses heightened and her adrenaline spiking, she propelled herself upwards using the demon’s hind leg and headed straight for the eye. Had she been this agile? The thought crossed her mind. The demon caught her by the neck as she was about to stab its eye and tightened its grip around her neck. It opened its pig-like mouth and let out a roar, the stench from its mouth filled Nora’s nose. She felt her tummy turn but the smell was the least of her problem, she was fighting for breath and fading fast.

Keelan’s voice, shouting her name snapped her back for a nanosecond. Nora kept wishing for air until her wish became an echo in her mind.

Keelan picked his dagger and darted towards the demon. Then, he stopped on his track abruptly, because of what he saw. The demon held his neck with its freehand and made croaking sounds like it had difficulty breathing. It was choking! The loss of oxygen made it release its hold on Nora and dropped her. Keelan caught her before she hit the ground while the demon fell on its knees, puffing air raspingly. Max pounced on it and stabbed its eye from behind. The demon turned to ashes and disintegrated.

“Is she dead?” Max asked, wiping off her dagger on a plant beside her.

“No,” Keelan answered in a low tone, cradling Nora in his arms, his eyes fastened on her. “She is not dead, just asleep.”

“Who would not want a nap after killing a demon?” Roman sniggered.

Max and Keelan shook their heads at Roman’s witty comment.

“How did she to do that?” Max queried. “She choked a Telane. She did all the work, I only met dessert,” Max kicked a tree.

“Yeah, I saw that too,” Roman said. “How did she do it?”

Keelan disregarded their questions as his mind raged with burning questions of his own. What is she? A Telane demon was not a demon that could simply asphyxiate without a greater force or power. How was a girl from Earth able to do that? he asked himself again. At least, she has the beauty of a goddess, Keelan said in his mind, scanning Nora’s round face in his arms.

“Dude! That is creepy,” Roman said. “You are going to burrow a hole on her forehead.”

“Is that how you intend to hold her throughout the night?” Max asked. “We still have work to do. That was just one of them, the signal picked at least three.”

Keelan tugged Nora closer to his barrel chest. “We will deal with them later. We need to take her home first.”

Max swung her head in Keelan’s direction. “We do?” Keelan was silent. “We are going off mission.” Max continued, “We should find the remaining demons and leave.”

Keelan gave Max a sharp look, “And leave her here?”

Max flung her hands, “Was just pointing it out—you don’t even know where she lives.”

“Check her pocket, her identification card should be there,” Keelan requested.

“Who brings an identification card to a party, that I assume is illegal?” Roman snickered.

Max searched Nora’s pocket with Nora in Keelan’s arm and found a small purse in her back pocket. She opened the purse and found Nora’s student ID.

“There is always a strange one,” Roman said.

“Do you have the address?” Keelan asked Max.

“Yes,” she affirmed, putting the purse back in Nora’s pocket.