by Cara Wylde
“So, what’s wrong, baby? You say everything is great, but you don’t sound happy.”
I sighed. “I don’t know. I should be happy. I don’t feel like myself… My life has changed so much and so fast, and even though it kind of sucked before the Academy, I sometimes miss those times. Everything was so much simpler then. I knew what to do, I knew who I was and where I stood.”
“You have a good future ahead of you. A year ago, you didn’t know any of this existed. It’s only natural to feel overwhelmed. But you adapted well! Even as the only human there, you made it. You’re one of them now.”
“One of them…” That was the last thing I wanted to be.
“Hang in there a little longer, baby. You will get used to it and it will all feel so normal. You belong to that…” she hesitated. “World. You know what they say…”
“Fake it till you make it,” we said at the same time. I chuckled. “Thanks, Mom. That helps.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Despite his promise, Morningstar didn’t show up for dinner that evening. Which was fine by me, since I’d eaten mine in the bathtub. But he didn’t show up the next day either, or the day after that. He didn’t show up for the whole of two weeks! Not that I missed him. Also, I was too busy dealing with the new status quo.
What was the new status quo? Excellent question! In few words, I was now the most popular girl at the Academy, the wealthiest, best dressed, most admired and envied chick everyone wanted to hang out with. I was the only one who had a pixie. My outfits after classes slayed. When I walked down the halls, girls and boys alike stepped aside and looked at me like I was the eighth wonder of the world. They all said “hi” as I went past them, and they all knew my name. And used it. No more dumpster girl, no more kuchka, and no more whore, slut, man-eater. Sheba, Sammy, and Kitty were now following me everywhere, trying to get into my good graces. At first Pandora, had a fight with Kitty, who was her best friend, but when she saw the redheaded succubus didn’t care because I was suddenly more popular than the daughter of Satan and Paz’s ex fiancé, even she changed her attitude toward me. When she first greeted me in the dining room. – with a smile! – I almost tripped over my own feet. Pandora was being nice to me?! After I’d stolen her boyfriend?! What had become of this world?
Lorna had kept her word and given me her notes. After that, she just stayed out of my way, mostly. Even though she wasn’t mean to me anymore, or trying to hurt me or kill me, the fact that she was the only one who seemed to keep her awful opinion of me intact despite all the changes made feel oddly safe. Made me feel like the Academy hadn’t gone completely bonkers.
My name jumped up on the worth scoreboard. Mila Morningstar was right under Sariel Gracewing and Francis Saint-Germain. I had no idea why, though. I hadn’t done anything special lately. Except carrying a pixie with me everywhere. Soon, I understood what was happening. The professors had stopped taking points from me. Instead, they were giving me 20 or 30 points randomly, usually just because I was there, just because I existed. I knew it wasn’t fair, but that did free up a lot of my time. I wasn’t struggling to keep up anymore. I didn’t have to. Everyone had stopped giving me homework and assignments. I didn’t know how much this miracle would last, so I decided to take advantage of it. There were a bunch of optional classes I’d always wanted to sign up for but couldn’t because I’d simply never had time for extracurriculars.
I took up Literature.
Literature was taught by Professor Lovecraft, and it was every Friday, from 10 AM to 11 AM. I knew the class would be mostly empty, since the other students were in the same situation as I had been before my name suddenly changed to Morningstar. There were four other students – three girls from the Merciful Death Cabal, and one guy from the Righteous Death Cabal. When I entered the classroom and sat at the front, they immediately started whispering among themselves. I ignored them. Corri was sitting on my desk, which was the new usual.
“We have a new student in our class,” Professor Lovecraft started. “Mila, thank you for joining us.”
I nodded. He was a tall, lanky guy, with a long, oval face, deep set eyes, and short brown hair. He wore a rather old suit, a pair of shoes that he hadn’t polished in a while, and a gold pocket watch. The watch must have been the most expensive object he owned. I had no idea what he was. A vampire? He had no fangs. His suit jacket didn’t have the long slits on the back that indicated he had wings, so he certainly wasn’t an angel, a harpy, or some sphinx. Sphinxes looked much more noble than him, anyway. If I didn’t know better, I would have been tempted to say he was human.
“Today, we shall dive into an all-time favorite of mine. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Has anyone here read it?”
I put up my hand. “I have, a few years ago. It’s about a young, handsome man who is dashing on the outside, but rotten on the inside.”
“Very good, Mila. I want you all to read it or re-read it this weekend, and we will go deeper into Dorian’s world next Friday. For now, let’s talk a bit about Oscar Wilde and the socio-economic background of his works.”
Professor Lovecraft went on like that for half an hour, then the discussion digressed, and we ended up talking about the gothic novel. I liked that about his class. It didn’t have the rigidity of all the others, and the teacher didn’t mind letting the students have a relaxed, natural conversation that he guided gently from time to time.
“Professor, you’ve written some gothic novels.” A dark-haired mermaid from the MDC said.
Mr. Lovecraft blushed a little. “Yes, I have. But I wouldn’t call them novels. More like… novellas. Or short novels.”
“Tell us about them?”
“This is interesting,” I whispered to Corri. The pixie jumped slightly, taken by surprise. She was bored out of her mind! Not a fan of literature, apparently.
“Let’s see… it’s hard to explain.” After a short pause, he gathered his thoughts and started speaking in a changed voice. He’d been carefree and cheerful a moment before, but as he talked about his books and went deeper into the themes and story lines, a shadow fell over his face, and a note of gravity sneaked into his voice. “I’ve always had this interest… this obsession, even, with beings that are beyond good and evil. You may call them gods, I guess, and I do… That’s what I call them, with the caveat that they have nothing to do with God or Satan, and they are not false gods, either. The Great Old Ones. I didn’t invent them, by the way. They’re not a figment of my imagination. I discovered them when I was studying the ancient myths of the natives, then I went deeper, researched old religions all over the globe, and discovered some tribes in Africa had similar stories. They spoke of cosmic beings that had come to Earth a long time ago, ravaged what was to be ravaged, then hid deep underground to sleep until their time might come again. Sleeping and dreaming, waiting for a new age when they would ravage the Earth once more.”
Chills ran up my spine. I stood up straighter, my eyes and ears completely focused on Professor Lovecraft. Great Old Ones. Sleeping and dreaming.
“They have powers, these tribes say. The people who worship them are granted great physical strength, endless wisdom, and even immortality. So, I took these myths and stories, added a sprinkle of imagination and mystery, and I turned them into short novels. Mostly for myself, though. I mean, I did manage to get published by a small press, but I don’t sell many copies. And that’s okay.” His voice lowered even more. “It just makes me feel better to put it all on paper. The Great Old ones, the terror they bring, the isolated groups that still believe in them and bring sacrifices to them…” He waved his hand dismissively. “Not all of it is true. You know what? I was inspired by obscure myths that aren’t probably true. It’s just a hobby of mine.”
My hand went up faster than lightning. “Where can we find your books? Do they have them at the library?”
“N-no.” He was shocked that I asked. “I can lend them to you, if you’re really interested in che
cking them out.”
“Yes, please!”
“Well, I don’t have them now. Maybe next Friday? If you’re still here…”
I smiled. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
He looked around the classroom. “Students tend to come and go. Not many stick with this class.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I love reading! The only reason I didn’t take your class earlier is because I was so busy with the others.”
“That seems to be the case these days,” he mumbled as he returned to his papers, trying to figure out where we’d left the Dorian Gray discussion. “Back in my day, the classes at Grim Reaper Academy were easier. Less rigorous. And the teachers understood the need for creative extracurriculars.”
Same old, same old. The old generation pitying the new. Sometimes, the supernatural world was no different than my world.
Next Friday, the Literature class was full. Mr. Lovecraft had to find more chairs. Paz and GC had decided to take Literature with me, so we’d spend more time together. That was fine. But Sariel was here too, sitting right behind me, his ice-blue eyes boring a hole in the back of my neck, and Francis, of all people, was sitting next to Pazuzu. Sammy, Sheba, Kitty, Pandora, Klaus, a bunch of MDC and NDC students, and half of the VDC.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked GC.
“Oh, you haven’t heard? Where you go, everyone follows now.”
“What the fuck?! Why?”
“Because you’re Mila fucking Morningstar, and they want to be your friends. Or your acquaintances, at the very least. And if that doesn’t work for you either, then they want to be in the same classes as you.”
Corri flapped her translucent wings and sat on my right shoulder to whisper in my ear. “You’re popular now, Mistress.” She giggled, her voice like a crystal wind chime, which only drew even more attention to us. To me.
I sighed and buried my head in my notebook. I’d re-read The Picture of Dorian Gray and taken some good notes I wanted to share with Professor Lovecraft and the three MDC girls plus one RDC guy who’d attended the class the week before, but now I just wanted to make myself small, so they would all leave me alone. And here goes the only class where I thought I could be myself… I closed my notebook and rested my hands on top of it. I wasn’t going to read my notes or participate in the discussion. I just wanted to get out of there.
The minutes went by slowly. Most of the students hadn’t read The Picture of Dorian Gray once in their almost immortal lives, which only made Professor Lovecraft’s job harder. When the bell finally rang, I gathered my things and headed for the door, hoping to put some distance between me and the crowd of people following me before they swept me away and attempted to make small talk.
“Hey, wait up!” Pazuzu ran after me and sneaked his hand into mine, matching my quick pace. “Are you okay? You were so silent.”
“Yeah.” GC took my other hand. “You didn’t shut up about Dorian Gray all week, and now you didn’t say a word.”
I sighed. “I don’t like this.”
“What? That you’re popular?” GC laughed. “Welcome to my world, goddess! See? I told you it’s not easy. Girls drooling all over you… I mean, boys in your case.”
“And girls, too,” Pazuzu chuckled. “Did you see how Sheba and Kitty were looking at her?”
GC laughed louder. “Oh, man! Like they wanted to eat her or something. In a good way.”
“You know,” Paz turned to me. “If you’re curious, we wouldn’t mind.”
“Curious about what?”
“Shagging a chick or two.”
I pulled my hand free. That was it. Pazuzu had just lost his boyfriend privileges for the rest of the day.
“Come on, don’t be like this,” he whined. “I was just kidding.”
“No, you weren’t.”
GC saw this as an opportunity to hog me. “He wasn’t. He was totally not kidding.”
But I wasn’t stupid. I pulled my hand free from him, too.
“What did I do?”
“You’re both acting like children! This is serious. I don’t want this! I want everything to go back to normal.”
I was so busy arguing with my boyfriends that I didn’t see Sariel catch up with us.
“So, you want everyone to call you slut and dumpster girl, make fun of you, and make you eat cockroaches?”
I stopped and faced him, shoving my finger into his broad chest.
“You did that. Oh, so you’re talking to me now? You’re following me, too?” I narrowed my eyes at him, but he didn’t back down. He looked at me sternly, his lips slightly pursed. What did he want, anyway? It wasn’t like we had anything to say to each other. “What’s your deal, Sariel? Why were you in Literature today?”
“Because The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of my favorite books.”
“Ugh!” I huffed, stomped my foot, then turned on my heels and walked away.
“Do you want me to hurt him, Mistress?” Corri asked.
“What? No!” After a moment’s thought, I couldn’t help myself. “How?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. However you want. I could make him trip and break something. A wing, maybe.”
I laughed at the image of mighty Sariel tripping over his own feet. “Archangels can break their wings?”
“Of course. Wings are like any other limb. Except they have feathers.”
“It’s fine, Corri. He’s not worth our time.”
Before I could break free from the throng of students that poured out of the Literature class and seemed to walk faster than me, Pandora and Kitty caught up, called after me, and when I ignored them, blocked my way. Had Pandora been in Literature? I couldn’t remember.
“Pandora wants to ask you something,” Kitty beamed at me.
I crossed my arms over my chest. Two weeks ago, if these two had stopped me in the hallway, I would have peed my panties. GC and Pazuzu were at my side, but I noticed I didn’t feel like I needed them to protect me anymore. Strange things were happening, and they were happening to me. To my own thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
“Is that so?”
Pandora bit her lower lip, looking at me with her big, green eyes. She and Kitty looked so similar that they could have been sisters. Except one of them was a demoness and the daughter of Satan and Lilith, and the other one was a succubus.
She handed me a flyer. “I wanted to invite you to my Halloween party. It would be so great to have you there.”
“Are you serious right now?” I stared at the flyer as if it was going to bite me. “You want me at your Halloween party. Pandora, we’re not friends. You hate me. So, why?”
“I don’t hate you,” she said quickly. “I mean, yeah… I was a bit upset over Paz,” she shot him a sad look, but recovered in a second. “It’s all in the past, and I don’t care anymore. We weren’t meant to be. I can see that he loves you, and you…” She didn’t finish the sentence the way I’d have expected her to finish it. In fact, she didn’t finish it at all. I felt relieved. Because I wasn’t ready to declare my love for either Paz or GC. I still had a couple of things to figure out before I was ready to go there. “Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that we’re cool. I’m cool. I want us to be… err… not strangers.”
She knows how to choose her words.
“So, please come to my party?” She pushed the flyer in my hand, and I took it this time. “It’s going to be on the beach, just by the old caves. I don’t know if you know the place. Paz and GC will show you.”
I think I know the place. I shuddered thinking of that dreadful night. I didn’t only know the beach, but I also knew the caves well. And what lay sleeping inside them. Now I knew for sure that I wasn’t going to attend her Halloween party. Paz and GC would have to manage without me, and hopefully, not cheat on me just because I was no fun and I wanted to stay in my room. My own thoughts took me by surprise. Did I really believe Pazuzu and GC would cheat on me at some point? And
that was why I wasn’t ready to decide whether I was in love with them or not. In lust. In lust, I was for sure. And a girl could be in lust with two men she didn’t quite trust.
“I’ll think about it,” I told Pandora.
Finally, they let me through, and I walked to my next class. Geography. As Paz and GC went to Anthropology, Klaus caught up with me.
“How do you feel, princess Morningstar?”
“Shut up.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Pandora made sure to ask me a bunch of more times in the following weeks if I was going to her Halloween party. I said “yes” every time, knowing full well it was a lie. The night of Halloween came, and I was holed up in my room with Corri and Lovecraft’s first volume of short novels. GC and Paz had dressed up, and they were now trying to convince me to change my mind.
“Come on,” begged GC. “It’ll be so much fun! I bet that if you ask Corri to find you a costume, she’ll snap her fingers and you’ll be… err… Cinderella! Or Snow White! Or whoever the hell you want to be!”
I chuckled. “Snow White and her two dwarves.” In fact, GC was dressed like his favorite Roman god, Dionysus, with a crown of grapes and vines, and a thyrsus in his hand, and Pazuzu was dressed like a pirate. The demon wasn’t a great fan of Halloween, so he’d gone for a rather bland costume.
“We’ll be bored out of our minds without you,” Paz said.
“I’m sure you’ll find something to entertain yourselves with after a beer or two.” I turned the page. It was incredible, but since Paz and GC had practically moved in with me, I’d developed this special skill of being able to read and do my own things while they talked my head off.
