by Joshua Chou
He had to go. Ethan knew that much. Not that he was excited about attending class, but he wasn’t in the mood to stay in his room all morning either.
“I love 8 o’clock lectures,” Ethan grumbled.
He shook the covers off his bed and lumbered over to his sink. The sink hung under a mirror at eye level, and this was the cleanest thing Ethan kept at all times.
A scrape was festering just under his left cheekbone. The damage was nothing permanent, but it would leave a noticeable mark for the next few days.
Ethan remembered hitting the rooftop while fighting the Wraith and assumed this wasn’t the worst injury he could have suffered.
He checked his complexion and noticed that some hairs still clung to his forehead. Ethan quickly brushed up his hair and washed his face.
Morning prep was easy. Nothing fancy, just a bar of soap to cleanse the grease. He also pulled back the stray hairs to something reasonable.
Give or take five minutes, he looked like he wasn’t a slob. Now he was ready to indefinitely pass out during the lecture.
He threw on his street clothes and plucked a banana from his desk. No one cooked for him anymore, but he had to get some nutrition in before that lecture in Economics.
Ethan put on his backpack and emerged from EU’s West Dorm. A familiar waft of urban smells penetrated his nostrils: garbage, gasoline, street food, and grease. The smells would get better the closer he got to campus.
The campus was located in the middle of New York, and a reasonable walk from the auditorium hall. Pedestrians populated the streets, filling the space that was previously empty two nights ago.
He then saw the biggest billboard of a baby-faced model with tattoo sleeves sporting tidy whiteys over everyone on the street. Nobody paid the ad much mind, perhaps because they didn’t want to look at a half-naked baby-faced man.
“That’s new,” he said.
Ethan checked his phone for the time. 7:40 AM. He needed to walk faster.
The AXEL intern walked past the open sewage drains and piles of garbage waiting around the corner. Good old smells of New York. He was almost out of the proverbial woods.
He dredged past the foul smells and other obnoxious advertisements to make it to EU campus, and thankfully it was cleaner than the rest of Manhattan.
Elysium University’s administrative staff took great care in making their main campus look good from street level. Spiked gates protected the hedges and trees growing on school grounds to keep pigeons off the gate.
“Come on, what’s the hold-up?” asked a voice.
Ethan turned his head. Across the yard was another guy toting a heavy duffel bag. He was walking with someone else, and he looked very similar to him.
Siblings maybe? He wondered.
To Ethan’s surprise, it was Hector walking with the other speaker. They hadn’t noticed him yet. Hector held a half-eaten protein bar in one hand.
“Sorry, was eating breakfast,” said Hector between his chewing.
His brother shook his head. “I told you, just eat something simple,” he said. “Nobody has time to prep breakfast for you.”
“Don’t you have practice to get to?”
The other guy left. “We’ll talk later. See you at home.”
So they parted ways. Ethan paid them no mind and headed off to his classroom.
While there was no barrier to stop anyone from walking in, barriers for stopping cars lined the entrances of the university. A few runes were etched into them for good measure, just in case something unholy decided to walk through the front door.
Other students walked onto campus with light backpacks in hand, and most were not too much of a rush to get to their next lectures.
Ethan took a sharp breath. Here the air was fresher and clear of the airborne muck that was near West Dorm. This was a new day, and he had to concentrate.
Let’s just get through today, he thought. Then get back to work afterwards.
***
Ethan made his way to the auditorium. The room was semi-full. Students came in and took seats wherever they wanted.
While there were more than enough seats to fit three hundred people, the class made sure to spread as far to the back of the auditorium as possible.
A wise choice. If there was a class to slack off in, it was a Gen-Ed lecture. The farther they were from the professor, the better.
Not everyone in class wanted an AXEL license. Some really came for a degree in economics, business, technology, or other higher education degrees. The one thing uniting them was the requirement to take an Economy general education course.
Which no one wanted to do.
While the professors may stress how important it is to go to every session, there were still students who still opted out of attending them at all. The students who did commit to attending were relaxed enough to talk among themselves.
Ethan wasn’t interested in being on time, but he did prefer to choose his own seat rather than squeeze between complete strangers for a whole lecture.
“Ethan!” said someone. “Over here.”
He turned. Sitting to a side aisle was Nora. She was small and unassuming. Her blonde hair could have been better, but it hung mangled over half of her face.
Nora was almost always mistaken for a kid by strangers. But if one’s face was young enough, no one could really tell who was actually in college as opposed to high school.
No one would know she and Ethan were co-workers in AXEL either. It wasn’t necessarily a secret, but no one advertised their extracurricular activities to their classmates.
Nora smiled and pointed to the empty seat beside her.
“Morning,” said Ethan.
She smiled back. “Congrats on the win yesterday.”
Ethan took his seat. He set his bag down and sat back into the cushions. Nora looked at him expectantly. Ethan finally looked back.
“Um, thanks,” he said.
Nora lightly shoved Ethan in the shoulder. “Come on. A win is a win.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
The doors opened once more. Hector swaggered in, almost basking in the radiance from last night. His face was still clean, probably because he subbed in at the last part of the game.
Bristled brown hair stuck out like a pineapple’s leaves off his scalp. Hector dressed to impress with an open blazer and tee with a star on it.
He looked to a few students, who recognized him from the game last night. They waved and flashed some smiles, but nothing too rowdy.
Hector smiled back and cocked a finger gun back at them. He then noticed Ethan. Hector walked over and offered a handshake.
“Hey, man,” he said with a smile.
Ethan reluctantly smiled back. “What is it?”
“Just wanted to see what’s up,” said Hector. “Cheer up! We won!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Hector waves his hand as if he were looking at another crowd of cheering fans. But he was already there in spirit. “Just imagine it,” he said in glee. “Next week’s game. Spotlights. Screaming girls. Speaking of which…”
Nora watched as Hector turned his gaze to her. She smiled back, but only out of courtesy.
“Want to take some dunking lessons from the pro?” he asked.
Nora hid behind her notebook. “Maybe later.”
Hector flashed his perfect white teeth. “No need to be shy,” he said. “I’ll be gentle.”
“Down, boy,” Ethan joked.
Hector stood upright to find another seat. He whipped out his phone and checked the time. Only a minute before the lecture started. Then everyone could go back to being indifferent.
Ethan checked the auditorium once more. There were plenty of unoccupied seats around. This was going to be a lightly populated classroom.
“See you at practice, Ethan,” said Hector.
It was then that Ethan’s eyes caught it: wisps of something black coming from the ground. He turned his eyes to the floor.
All around Hector’s feet was a ring
of black mist. The mist was subtle but clear to Ethan. And that was a bad sign.
He turned to Nora. She poked her head out to see the mist as well. Nora and Ethan locked gazes. They had seen this before, but not on Elysium campus.
The doors opened once more. The Economics professor walked in with glasses and folder in hand. He took his place, and the whole auditorium quieted down.
Hector quickly found his seat. He hadn’t noticed a thing. The professor then began his lesson and started to talk.
“You saw it too, right?” asked Nora.
“The black mist, yeah,” said Ethan. “We need to bring this up with the others.”
Nora whipped out her phone. The professor hadn’t noticed yet. She began texting the rest of their team.
Chapter 3 – Bad Promises
Ethan and Nora remained a few minutes after class ended. This empty auditorium was a good place as any to conduct AXEL business.
In walked their field leader with suitcase in hand, Iris. She was tall, sturdy, and an intimidating young woman. Silky dark hair lay over her shoulder, and a wall of bangs aesthetically draped over her forehead.
“Morning, Iris,” said Ethan.
Nora nudged her cohort’s elbow. “Morning, ma’am,” she reminded him.
They looked to their leader. Iris smiled coldly to Ethan and Nora. They smiled back, albeit with some respect.
Iris dressed casual, but her fine cotton suit meant business. And thanks to her picture-perfect hair and box glasses, she could have been the secretary of a supervillain.
Their field leader was a graduate student studying at EU. She already had her AXEL license, but was working as a field leader to get some hands-on experience in before joining the force.
Iris was also in the middle of studying for a Master’s degree in Archaic Chemistry. If she passed, she could either choose to go into the forensic branch of AXEL’s forces or get a higher starting position on the police force.
“You’re lucky I brought my materials,” she said.
Iris put her case down on the professor’s podium and opened it. Within were arcane powders and runes. All the tools needed to make a talisman, an exorcising sheet of paper.
A cheat sheet of necessary runes were clipped to the roof of the case. Iris referred to those for her new talisman. She pulled out a sharpie and began drawing on a post-it.
As she etched the runes, she began to chant in Latin. Iris’s eyes hazed over as her pupils clouded white with the arcane powers she drew from within her spirit. The words almost came out as if someone else was using her mouth to repeat the incantation.
“Regna terrae, cantata Deo, psallite
Domino qui fertisascendit. Super
Caelum caeli ad Orientum. Ecce
Dabitvocisuae. Vocemvirtutis,
Tribuitevirtutemdeo. Amen.” Iris chanted.
Iris popped open a baggie of fine powder. She poured it atop the talisman, and the powder immediately ignited into blue fire. Ethan, Nora, and Iris watched the fire subside until ashes remained where the new runes were drawn.
“That still freaks me out,” said Ethan.
“Aren’t you used to exorcisms by now?” asked Nora.
Ethan mimicked pushing his palm onto the seat in front of him. “I find slapping the talisman on a Wraith less weird than making one.”
“You can never go wrong with powdered salamander tail,” said Iris. The regal young woman picked up the talisman for all to see. “This will expel any Wraith from Hector.”
She blew off the residual ash from the talisman.
The doors to the auditorium opened once more. In came Liam, a burly young man with a brown mullet and beard. He was the same grade as Iris, but without a license or anyone to impress.
Liam was dressed more like a laid-back jokey than an aspiring Wraith hunter. This wasn’t intentional, but he almost looked like he popped out of a late 80’s horror movie.
The man did properly maintain his appearance, but the rugged beard he grew drew more than a few questions. If anything, the way he slouched when walking was a good enough indicator of his non-graduate status.
“Hey, Liam,” said Nora. “We just got started.”
Liam smelt the ash in the room and grimaced. “Who is it this time?”he asked.
“It’s Hector,” said Iris. “He’s going to become a Wraith soon.”
Liam rubbed the back of his neck. His shoulders were sore. “Geez, another one?” he asked. “I still have scrapes from last month.”
Iris folds her arms. “Calm down. They were flesh wounds.”
Liam plopped down in a seat and put his feet up a chair. “I swear, if I have to be tied to the bumper of your car again…”
Iris frowned. This wouldn’t be the first time Liam gave her a piece of his mind. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be the last. “Enough!” she spat.
“Guys,” said Nora, “we’re going off topic.”
“Did it start today?” asked Liam. “’Cause we can exorcise it the easy way.”
“Knowing our luck,” said Ethan, “It’s never the easy way.”
Liam stuck a finger at the talisman. “So sticking a magical sticky note on him is the best way to go?”
Nora rolled her eyes. “It’s called a talisman, Liam.”
“It’s still a sticky note,” said Ethan.
Iris held up the talisman towards Ethan. “This is serious,” she said. “Any Wraith will be a menace until exorcised.”
Ethan checked the time on his phone. It wasn’t even 12 o’clock.
“Just call him in after class,” he said.
“Hector isn’t punctual about attending office hours,” said Iris. “Any other suggestions?”
Liam drummed his fingers on the armrest of his seat in thought. Ethan leaned back and tried to think of something else he could suggest.
This wasn’t the first time that Iris shot down her teammate’s ideas, but they had to think of something that the whole group could agree on.
Nora balled a fist and lightly pounded her other palm. “I got it,” she said. “Hector goes to basketball practice every day. We could exorcise the Wraith then. I could do it by myself.”
Suddenly, a strange chill crept up Ethan’s spine. He felt his heart skip a beat. No one else noticed it, thankfully. But Ethan could sense something was amiss. They were being watched.
He peered out of the corner of his eye. Standing beside him was a boy with frazzled black hair. The boy was barefoot and dressed in rags. He had an uncanny blue hue to his eyes. To Ethan’s dismay, the boy was looking straight at Ethan.
“No,” said Ethan tentatively. “We need more guys.”
All eyes turned to him. If the stare of that mysterious ethereal boy wasn’t enough, now he drew the attention of everyone onto him.
Ethan sucked up his nerves and tried to put on his least worried face. Unfortunately, no one was convinced.
“What’s the matter?” asked Liam.
Ethan shrugged. “I mean just sending one person?” he said. “We should be careful about that Wraith. It may have already possessed him.”
The mysterious boy smirked. He was getting a kick out of watching Ethan squirm.
“I’m sure it will be an easy job,” said Nora.
“But-”
Iris snapped her fingers. Ethan fell silent. “Go together,” she commanded. “This should be easy, but the two of you will be more than enough.”
Ethan looked to his side. But the mysterious boy had vanished. Again.
“Ethan? Any objections?”
Iris walked down and handed the talisman to Ethan. All eyes watched him as he was face-to-face with Iris. She stared him down expectantly. Ethan couldn’t pretend what he said was smart, so he had to play along. He took the talisman.
“Works for me,” he said.
“Get to it,” said Iris.
Iris picked up her suitcase and clamped it shut. She quickly vacated the room. Liam followed her out. Nora glanced to Ethan.
�
�Meet me at the start of practice?” she asked.
“Yeah, see you there,” Ethan replied.
They both rose and immediately vacated the auditorium. A hallway led to the exit back into the streets, which led to the rest of the EU campus. But when Nora went one way, Ethan darted the other. A bathroom was waiting at the other end of the hall.
He needed to talk to Gabriel.
***
Gabriel wasn’t exactly the most subtle ice spirit.
To everyone else, Gabriel was invisible until he felt like appearing. No one, not even Ethan’s team, was able to see Gabriel in his human form.
Only Ethan could. That was because the ice spirit had no intent on revealing his true appearance. He could stay out of sight, but he always had a way of getting on Ethan’s nerves.
Today was one of those days. If Gabriel was appearing like that, he had something to say.
Ethan quickly retreated to the solace of a public bathroom to talk. The bathroom was dim, with lights only above the bathroom mirrors. Ethan knew this bathroom, in particular, had issues with the lighting, but no one managed to get around to fixing that issue.
This was good. Sometimes Gabriel wouldn’t appear solid unless he was in partial shade.
“You there?” Ethan hissed.
“Are we alone?” Gabriel asked back. Only his voice was heard, as he didn’t want to be seen yet.
Ethan checked the only two stalls. No feet dangled underneath the doors, and no one was using the other stalls. He was alone.
It wouldn’t make sense to let complete strangers into the conversation. They would definitely get the wrong idea. He couldn’t be seen speaking to a person no one else could see.
So he waited. Sure enough, Gabriel walked up beside Ethan’s shoulder. He came in the same form as a boy with rags.
Gabriel seemingly glided across the floor, with bare feet barely touching the ground. But Gabriel was an ice spirit, and not a relatively approachable human. The mysterious boy’s power of levitation already set off all kinds of red flags.
“How long were you listening?” Ethan said.
“The whole time,” Gabriel replied. “What’s the matter?”
The faucet squeaked as Ethan twisted it. He put his hands in the running water and began scrubbing them. He then cupped a sizable volume of water and splashed it across his face. Gabriel watched all the while.