Demons

Daenerys Winters had been invisible her whole life. She was outcast to everyone, a freak, sometimes she was called a monster. Her appearance was different than others; ears that pointed to the sky, silver eyes with a cold darkness behind them that scared anyone enough to never contact her, an oval head that ended with a jawline that could cut through rocks and diamonds and thick hair that blended in with the darkness, which hung at each side of her face.

She had been outcast almost all her life. She could never fit in wherever she went; there would always be someone to make fun of her appearance or be scared of her. Daenerys didn’t mind if someone was scared of, it was the opposite. She always found it kind that someone was scared of her. She took it as a compliment.

Kingston High had been her third school this year. “Accidents” had happened at the last two, expelling her from the schools. Her father couldn’t keep her home all day, so he continued to send her to schools, in desperate hope that she would stay for the rest of the year.

It was deserved what she did. The first accident, as she recalls “The Fire”, was exactly as the title implied. She could remember it vividly, like it happened yesterday. A few boys were throwing pieces of curled up paper at her the entire lesson of chemistry, calling her a freak and annoying her. Of course, the teacher did nothing to help her. He simply stood by and helped other children with making their projects. It was the final piece of paper that sent her off the edge and made her mix a small amount of potassium permanganate with glycerin and add a few drops of water. Then she placed a mixture of ammonium nitrate and zinc on top of a paper tower and added a few drops of hydrochloric acid. She soaked a piece of tissue in acetone and dipped a drop of sulphuric acid drawn into a pipette in potassium permanganate to pick up some crystals. The sulphuric squeezed out, causing it to mix with the permanganate and form manganese heptoxide that instantly set the tissue on fire. She mixed the sodium chlorate and sugar thoroughly and placed it on a tray. She added mixture sulphuric until the fire was ignited and lit a notebook on fire she no longer needed. The fire spread quickly across the pages. Daenerys threw the notebook at one of the boys who sat two rows behind her and the fire spread to his pants.

The second accident was less lethal as the first one, but still got her she’d get bullied the minute she’d walk into the school.

Rolling up to school, a cold breeze kissed her skin. The morning light shone brightly on her face and students walked past her in haste to get to their classes. The school was vast, bigger than any other school she had attended. She recalled the horrible memories of school and wished she had stayed home. But she had promised her father that she would attend school and not make any trouble. expelled. The memory almost made her smile. She put a conifer in a boy’s bag after the second period. When he opened it, he, as anyone else would, was shocked to find what was in his bag and jumped out of his chair, screaming bloody mary. His screams caused both confusion and panic. The panic only became worse as the conifer crawled out of the bag and crawled with its little legs towards Daenerys, who sat straight in her chair while the rest of the class ran to the other side of the classroom. The conifer crawled up on her leg and onto her shoulder. She gave a small smirk and the next moment, she was expelled.

This was her third school and hopefully final school. Her father hoped she wouldn’t get expelled. It was her first day at Kingston High and to be frank, she was not nervous at all. She knew the students would never accept her or try to be friends with her. In fact, she’d call on a bet that

Her eyes went from the left side of the school to the right side, then from the bottom to the top, observing the building she would attend for the next eight hours. Grey walls with dark-tinted windows that could not be seen through. A pride flag hung at a pole in front of the entrance and a few feet away from her. Red covered half of the building, which only made her think what the inside would look like. She walked inside and everyone glanced at her sudden appearance. Bright colours caught her eye, which almost made her sick to her stomach. The students near her studied her clothes. It was the opposite of what everyone wore in Kingston High. Her pants were simple and a loose fit, reaching down to her leather boots. Those boots were made from a pretty unusual leather, but were otherwise a common type. A black jacket with the sleeves curled up to his elbows, and a black tightened shirt underneath.

She ignored the stares and went to her locker. This was the second time she had been in this school. The first time was her introduction so she didn’t need to ask anyone where her classes were. Her locker had been painted with words, such as freak or a skull with a snake coming in and out of the sockets. Ironic, since her name meant snake. A small sigh left her.

She opened her locker and grabbed the books that were needed for the first few classes and headed up the stairs to her first class, history. As boring as it was, she had to attend the lesson. She’d rather read a new crime book she collected from the store Ancient Times. It was a small bookshop, but it became her favourite after she found out it had every book she loved. The city of Crylon became a tad better. It was a city of crime. A cesspool of a city, if she could call it a city. A vast forest consumed one part of the city and consumed the lands outside. Someone could easily be murdered there and not be found until a few weeks, or it would be incredible luck. The buildings were high and big. Rain was one of the most common weather

here. The sun would shine once every few days.

The teachers continued to talk about the Dark Ages, which happened almost four hundred years ago. Several people died in the war. The War of Shadows was it called. It began in 1593 and ended in 1642. For fifty years, there was a war. For fifty years, countless people’s lives had been sacrificed. No one knew why the war really began, it was all theories and nonsense. But one thing was certain. The soldiers were shadows sent from the far below. The land of shadows, as Mr Dalton had named it.

The Dark Ages was Endor’s history. The country was known for the war. No one was alive to live the tale, but everyone knew that the war was more horrifying than any other war. At least four million people died in those fifty years, another three million went missing. A total of seven million people were gone and were never seen again.

Daenerys turned the page as instructed and saw a picture of a shadow holding onto a black crown with a purple stone in the middle. Runes were carved into the crown. Purple eyes burned through the page. Daenerys brushed the page and felt her head going back, her eyes staring at the ceiling.

Everything turned black, then a light flashed before her eyes. Images flashed before her eyes. A shadow kneeling before another shadow with purple eyes. A winged creature flying through the inky sky, a storm waging behind the creature. Purple lightning shot from the clouds as thunder rumbled.

“Retrieve your body from the temple and bring me the crown,” the shadow with purple eyes said to the other shadow.

The images had gone. Daenerys lay back in her chair. Eyes burned into her skull, laughter in her ears. Back to consciousness, she sat up straight and looked around. Mr Dalton stood bent over next to her, his hand on her desk.

“Are you okay, Daenerys?” he asked with a concerned look. Daenerys nodded and looked around the class. Everyone was either chuckling or whispering something to each other. Either way, they all saw that she was a freak.

It hadn’t been the first time this happened. For almost two weeks now, she’d been getting these “visions” about things her mind could not comprehend. It happened spontaneously. Whenever she touched something or someone, her head would shoot back and her eyes would widen and stare at the above, images would flash before her eyes and she’d regain consciousness after a minute or so.

She looked at the picture. The shadow with the crown was the same one she saw in her visions. She’d seen the shadow before, in a dream – nightmare, to be exact. He stared at her with his purple eyes and razor-edged teeth, calling her name. She’d wake up in beads of sweat, not knowing where she was. It would feel like a fire spread across her chest whenever she awakened.

Mr Dalton told everyone to be quiet and returned to his lecture, glancing one last concerned look at Daenerys. She noticed and looked at him through her eyebrows, her slightly tilted downward.

“Are you okay?” asked a boy a row behind her. Daenerys turned around and studied the boy. A small nose between round curious, emerald eyes; a round head with beige skin and short, wiry brown hair.

“Yes,” answered Daenerys and returned to her text book. She read the first headline under the picture. “Xavaran’s Crown”, she read. She read the words in her mind, her eyes shifting from one word to another in a matter of milliseconds.

In the Dark Ages, a powerful necromancer ruled an army of the undead who went by the name Xavaran Foid. Xavaran Foid was only thirty years old when the war began, but soon created his army by reanimating the dead and using them as pawns against his enemies.

Xavaran won every battle and slaughtered the villages of his enemies, leaving no mercy upon his victims. He shed the blood of his victims and collected a drop from all of them. He put them in his crown. His crown was his most powerful relic. It was also considered a dark object used by witches and warlocks. It was said that his crown could reanimate the dead without Xavaran himself and could break any curse that’s been cast.

After the War of Shadows, the crown and Xavaran had gone missing, just like all the three million people. Both he and the crown were nowhere to be found again, hidden from the world. It was said that the crown may lay on the lost island in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by black magic and blood lusted animals. No one had ever come back with the crown and lived to tell the tale. The name of the island remains unknown.

The boy spoke again, leaning over the table. Daenerys could almost feel the boy’s breath against her skin. She listened to what the boy had to say, wondering how important it was.

“You sure you’re okay?” the boy asked.

“Yes,” Daenerys said, her back turned against the boy. She continued to read her text book, wanting to know more about the shadow and the crown. Perhaps it would trigger a vision.

“My name is Kaz,” said the boy. “Kaz London.”

Daenerys didn’t understand why the boy was still talking to her and what made her think she was interested. All Daenerys wanted to do now was read more about the Dark Ages and its secrets.

“You’re Daenerys Winters, right?” asked Kaz. “I heard about you. Changed three schools in a year? You’re pretty well known around here. How do you like your first day here?”

“Why are you still talking?” asked Daenerys, growing more annoyed at Kaz’s voice by the second. She wished Kaz would stop talking and let her be. But that option could not be chosen.

“Because you seem lonely. Most new kids tend to go to groups to make new friends. You have tried no such thing,” said Kaz.

“I prefer the solitude.”

Kaz kept quiet for the rest of the lesson, which ended sooner than expected. Daenerys’s mind continued to go back to the vision she had. The shadow in her book and in her version looked too much alike that they couldn’t not be the same person. She touched the picture again, in hope of getting another vision but it was to no avail.

The bell rang. Every student inside the classroom rose to their feet and shoved their chair under their desk. Talking filled up the room, voices became louder and louder with every passing second. Daenerys put her bag around her shoulders and walked through the over-crowded corridors to her next class. The school contained too many students, just as this city held too many people. The city was the biggest in Endor and held thousands of people. At least a quarter of the citizens were criminals, but the number of crimes grew with every day.

Daenerys and a few others stood by the door of the classroom they needed to be. It was well past the time the lesson would begin and the teacher failed to arrive on time. Daenerys studied her surroundings and her potential enemies.

Three children stood in front of her, all of them checking their phones and laughing at something. Students grabbed their books or put them back in their lockers, sighing heavily. Others walked through the corridor or stood by the lockers, initiating conversations with someone else.

They were loud, too loud. It bothered her, but it would be to no avail if she spoke up. Ignoring them was her only option.

“Class is cancelled,” said a student, beaming. “Teacher’s sick.” He and his friend left their position and headed somewhere else. Everyone else left, including Daenerys who headed downstairs to the canteen.

The benches in the canteen were never unoccupied. It was total chaos getting a spot at a clean table, for students made a mess every time they ate their meal. The counter was crowded with students. Most of them shout out aloud to attract the attention of the canteen operators in order to make the first purchase. The operators were never able to meet their demands at once. They sometimes lost their patience and pulled a long face.

The school canteen offered a variety of foods. Unfortunately, the canteen is dominated by foods that are high in sugar, fat and salt such as burgers, fried chicken, fish and chips. These fast foods had a negative effect on students’ health. But, for them, they did not actually care much about that. They just wanted to unwind and to fill up their growling stomachs.

Daenerys sat next to a wall, grabbing a book out of her bag. She flipped through the pages until she found her bookmark and continued where she had ended.

The sound of laughter echoed through the corridors. She heard her name in the distance, but thought nothing of it. Her eyes were focused on the pages.

“– she just snapped her neck backward, like –” heard Daenerys, imagining a student copying her. She was not about to tell anyone she had been plagued by visions for a year.

She flipped a page. Her mind kept going back to the shadow she saw. He sought the crown. It didn’t make any sense to her. Why wait four hundred years to find a crown that could break any curse. It was nonsense. Indeed, her visions were accurate most of the time, but this one couldn’t be true. There was no knowledge of the shadows after the War of Shadows had ended, nor was the crown found. It was simply gone. They all were gone, for good.

She hoped they were all gone.

She wasn’t sure whose twisted idea it was to put hundreds of adolescents in underfunded schools, run by people whose dreams were crushed years ago, but she admired the sadism.

Kaz, the boy from her first class, walked up to her and towered over her. Kaz’s shadow covered Daenerys’s book, which made her look up with a frown on her face. Kaz stood there with an innocent smile that would fool anyone stupid enough. Daenerys wasn’t stupid.

“What do you want?” asked Daenerys, annoyed. Could he not leave me alone, she thought.

“To get to know you,” answered Kaz and took a seat next to her.

“Why?”

“You seem interesting.”

Because of how I look like or what I do when I get a vision? What’s your intention, Kaz?

“I’m not interested in you,” said Daenerys and returned to her book. She flipped a page. Kaz continued to look at her, as Daenerys saw in the corner of her eyes. Could he not take a hint?

“Go away, Kaz. I’m not interested in becoming friends with you,” said Daenerys. “I’ve seen people like you before.”

“People like me?” Kaz’s brow raised, a chortle escaping him.

“People who pretend to be your friend only to betray you in the end. They find your weakness and use it against you. They will use you until they no longer see fit for you and dump you on the side of the road like trash. I don’t fancy that happening to me,” explained Daenerys.

“That’s… deep,” said Kaz.

Daenerys put down her book, enough of the nonsense she had been fed up today. This school was filled with students who did almost nothing about their future; they were only interested in rumours and gossip about the citizens of this cesspool they called a city. She glanced at Kaz and spoke.

“Listen, Kaz, I am not interested in whatever you have to offer me. So, please –”

An alarm blared through the school. Screaming broke loose. Daenerys heard the stampede of students rushing toward the ground floor, screams echoing through the corridor. She rose to her feet, gaining a better perspective of the problem she had to face. Questions raced to her thoughts. Kaz stood, as well, wondering the same thing as Daenerys. What was going on?

The answer met them soon. A crowd rushed down the stairs, panic smeared across their faces. Daenerys caught a few crying, others with blood splattered on their faces. She tilted her head. Interesting.

The other students downstairs took notice of the crowd and were bumped into. Bodies collapsed, tripping over one and another. Students pushed each other out of the way to get to their own safety.

Daenerys felt the touch of many as the crowd passed her. Her head snapped back, her eyes facing the ceiling. She felt her body falling, but could not move. The light before her grew into a cold darkness. Heavy rain fell on her, dripping off her clothes and face. Thunder rumbled as lightning struck the dark, inky sky above her. She lay flat on the pavement, dozens of people passing her without acknow-ledging her existence. Cars honked and engines roared next to her. She gasped for air as she pushed her hands against the wet pavement.

She rose to her feet and turned a circle, observing her surroundings. Buildings touched the sky, towering over her. Cars driving through the streets, people walking on the side of the road. Most held an umbrella over their head, others simply couldn’t care less about a little rain.

Daenerys saw a hooded figure head toward an alleyway, following a much larger man with a girl under his arm. His hand was gripped around her mouth. She ran over the street and hid around the corner, watching what was about to happen.

“Go away!” grunted the man. “Can’t you see I’m busy here?”

The girl was thrown to the ground, cries escaping her as tears rolled down her cheeks. The man put his hands up to defend his face and prepared himself to fight the hooded figure, who kept his hands at his sides.

The man launched himself at the hooded figure and threw the first punch. The figure swerved to avoid it and faced Daenerys. She couldn’t catch his face. It was covered by darkness. The man threw a hook and missed as the figure bent through his knees and punched the man in his chin. The figure punched the man twice in his face.

The man spat out blood, wiping the rest from his face. Fury tore through him, he bored his eyes into the figure who showed no sign of fear or remorse. Daenerys cowered behind the wall, scared to break up the fight. The girl sat with her knees pressed against her body, tears rolling down her cheek. The alleyway was filled with her cries.

The man pulled out a knife and smirked, blood dripping away from his mouth. He reached forward with the knife, in hope of stabbing his opponent, but the figure was too fast for him and dodged his attack.

Within a blink of an eye, the figure stood behind the man. Daenerys’s brows raised. The figure stood only a few feet away from her. Her pulse quickened. The figure dove his fist through the man’s chest, bones cracked and snapped into two. The figure’s fist bore through the flesh and skin. He grabbed the man’s heart and pulled it out. A small gasp escaped the man and he fell to his knees. The girl held her hands before her eyes, crying loudly.

The figure held onto the man’s shoulder, causing him not to fall. Daenerys saw the figure dive his teeth into the man’s neck and suck the blood from his body. Her stomach flipped.

The figure pulled down his hood, revealing the back of his head. Black hair that hung at each side, ears that pointed to the sky. Daenerys’s eyes widened as she realised who it was. The figure turned around and showed her face to Daenerys.

Daenerys saw a face she did not wish to see. Herself.

Vision-Daenerys bared her teeth and snarled at Daenerys. Vision-Daenerys’s eyes were black, consumed by a cold void that was only filled with hunger. Veins webbed beneath those dark eyes that bore into Daenerys’s skull.

Everything around her turned black once more, a light growing in the darkness until she regained consciousness and found herself flat on the ground, rain pouring down on her body. She shot upright and looked around herself, her vision a blur. Silhouettes rushed toward her. One had a light and shone it in her eyes.

“Are you okay?” she heard vaguely. She nodded.

Everything came into focus. At least half the school – no, almost the entire school – had gathered outside. Men in police uniforms stood around the yard. Two men next to Daenerys wore light blue shirts and dark blue trousers. She caught the glint of a red cross sewed onto the two men’s shoulders. Paramedics.

She pushed herself up, ignoring the paramedics’ advice as she felt as fine as ever. Her mind was in chaos. The vision was still fresh in her mind, clawing at her thoughts. Why did she see herself kill someone? Was it destined she was a killer? And her face… Her face was horrifying to look at. She looked even more like a monster.

The visions were unreliable. The first time she had a vision, it didn’t turn out to be true. At least, at first. A week after she had her vision, the driver of the truck had gotten into a car crash and had broken her neck.

Her eyes went around the school yard, scanning for any clues that could help her discover what was happening. All she remembered was a crowd of students running down the stairs and bumping into each other, then she had her vision and here she was. In the midst of chaos, with not a single idea what the problem was. She wasn’t bothered to ask anyone. She saw how everyone was in a deep state of shock or were crying their little hearts out.

She caught a glint of something in the distance. A man and a woman were pulling a cart with a white sheet over it to an ambulance. A hand stuck outside the sheet, blood dripping from it. Her eyes widened. Death had come to her school.

A hand gripped her shoulder. She turned around to see who dared to put their hands on her and saw her father. Mr Winters adjusted his little round glasses and pulled her with him.

“Hell of a first day, huh?” he said, jokingly.