Chapter 6
I
followed Katie to the edge of town where there was nothing but trees. We ran
until the cement path became dirt and pebbles.
I thought she would have heard my footsteps pounding behind her, but
she was too engrossed in her destination. Every now and again she would pull
out her cell phone and quickly glance at the screen before dashing off
again.
We kept running until I could hear the voices of the other exorcists
from somewhere beyond the trees.
“I don't know what you're waiting for, let's just attack now,” came
the obnoxious voice of Isaac.
“No, we should wait for it to make the first move, we don't know
what we're dealing with,” said Tyson.
“You're just scared because the last one took a chunk out of your
arm,” Isaac replied.
Katie picked up speed and I wasn't far behind, within a matter of
seconds she burst through the trees and was out in an open field. I decided
things would be best if I didn't draw attention, so I hung back and hid myself
behind a bush. I pushed the branches apart and peeked through the leaves to get
a better view. The rest of the exorcists were already there. Tyson, Nina,
Annie, Isaac, Kurt, and Laurence were gathered around in a circle staring at
something I couldn't see.
“Katie, thank god you're here!” Yelled Tyson
“Someone was late. Was there a sale at the mall?”
“Shut your face Isaac!”
I was so excited; I could finally see a real life monster and
witness my first exorcism. I expected them to be dressed in special clothes and
carrying mystical weapons, but compared to my day dreams they looked more like
they were going home from after
school sports.
Tyson and Annie were holding wooden poles which were similar to
those used in the Kendo club. Nina was holding a bow and arrow (which probably
came from the archery club), and Kurt looked like he was prepared to cut down a
tree with a single ax in his hand. Isaac and Laurence weren't holding anything,
so maybe they intended to beat the monster to death.
I caught a glance of a small raccoon in the center of the circle. It
didn't look anything like the monster Tyson showed me on his phone, and it
looked more like a tiny raccoon trembling in fear.
I stared in confusion and began to wonder if what Tyson told me was
the truth, or a funny lie made up to mess with me. What if monsters didn't really
exist after all? What if the teenagers who I had mistaken for having mystic
powers, were actually just a bunch of weird kids? Maybe they were all in a
make-believe club which ran around the forest pretending to be exorcists and
killing animals. I was embarrassed by how easily I had believed their strange
fantasies.
I felt pity for the raccoon. I thought it was going to be beaten to
death, so I decided to intervene.
I walked out of the trees with both hands up to show that I meant no
harm.
“Hey guys,” I said while trying to appear casual and relaxed. I
thought it was the best way to convey my voice of reason.
They all spun around and stared at me.
“Why is he here?!” Screeched Katie.
“What do you mean why is he here? Didn't you bring him?”
Asked Tyson.
“No, why the hell would I do that?!”
“He must have followed you,” said Isaac. “Great job Katie, I can see
those exorcist skills hard at work.”
Tyson frantically waved his arms like he was trying to shoo me back
behind the trees.
“Hey you! Just find a safe place to hide and get out of the way!”
I planned to give a small speech about how all animals are our
friends, but I could finally see what lay behind them. The raccoon began to
gnaw on something pink beside it. At first my naive brain thought it must have
been a peach, but I soon realized the raccoon was chewing on a human arm.
“WHY IS THAT RACCOON EATING SOMEONE?” I screamed.
“Oh crap,” Tyson turned his attention back to the raccoon, but it
was already too late. The raccoon began to shake like it was going to throw up,
but instead it began to grow larger.
“Nina now!” He yelled.
“Roger!” Nina grabbed an arrow from the pack on her back and loaded
it into the bow. She aimed downward and shot, but her arm wavered and the arrow
missed and implanted itself into the ground beside the monster.
“Shit!” Swore Tyson. “Everyone back now! Isaac prepare a charm! Kurt
cover Isaac! Annie take care of this guy!” He said while pointing at me.
Annie on the other hand wasn't too happy about becoming my personal
bodyguard. “What! Why me? You never let me fight monsters!”
“Annie, get back there now!” He snapped.
With a huff Annie dashed to my aid and held her pole out before us
as a shield. Her brow was narrowed in anger, but when she turned back to glance
at me her mouth broke out into a smile. “Don't worry you'll be safe,” she said
gently.
Happiness swelled within my
chest. The girl I liked was prepared to protect me from a terrifying man-eating
monster. I wanted to say that I was dying of happiness, until I realized I was
currently facing death on four furry legs.
“I almost forgot,” Tyson quickly dashed over to Annie and I. “I have
something to give you.”
He reached into his pocket
and I assumed he was going to pull out a weapon I could use to protect myself,
but instead it was his cell phone.
“If you don't mind, do you think you could get some shots of me
fighting this thing?” He asked.
“I suppose,” I muttered hesitantly. I wasn't sure if it was an
appropriate situation for taking pictures.
“Thanks,” he said with a wave before turning his attention back to
the monster.
The monster had grown to the size of a person. It still resembled a
raccoon, except its teeth and claws were ten times larger and it was foaming at
the mouth. I wanted to appear brave and manly in front of Annie, but I was soon
clinging to her shoulder on the verge of tears. I may have also been screaming
“Save me, its going to eat us all!”
Unlike everyone else who had jumped back and scattered, Nina
reloaded her bow. She looked like she was going to take another shot but her
fingers were shaking.
“Nina, get back!” Yelled Tyson.
“It's OK, I can handle it,” she said.
Nina didn't get the chance to shoot because the giant raccoon lunged
at her. She screamed and fell back before any of us had the chance to do anything.
I could no longer see her behind the monster, so I assumed she must have been a
goner. It was the first time I'd ever seen someone die so I froze in shock. I
found myself unable to move or do anything.
“Nina!” Yelled a frantic Tyson.
Tyson ran to her aid, but before he'd even taken a step, there was a
large thud, and an ax was suddenly sticking out of the monster's back. I assume
it was thrown by Kurt since he was the only one with any ax skills.
The raccoon in return wasn't pleased at being stabbed in the back,
but at least it wasn't done by his trusted teacher. The monster spun around,
glared at us, stood on its hind legs and howled at the sky in rage. I trembled
in fear and began wishing that the others would get their act together and
defeat the monster before it ate us all.
I couldn't help noticing that its eyes were red, and crimson blood
(most probably Nina's) dripped from the monster's mouth.
"What is that thing?" I said in terror and awe. It was
probably a bad idea to make any noise, and to my horror it jerked its head and
locked eyes with mine. I took a step backwards in shock, and the monster took
the momentary lapse in my guard as an invitation to come hurling towards Annie
and I!
All I could see was the giant monster encroaching closer and closer
towards us. Instead of helping Annie, I screamed, hit the ground, and placed my
hands over my head in an attempt to shield myself.
I'm sorry Annie, I thought. Maybe we
can be together in the afterlife.
I expected to be munched up in a matter of moments, but as scared as
I was, I could hear nothing but yelling and the thud of wood against flesh. I
hesitantly looked up to fine Tyson fending off our approaching death with his
wooden stick.
“Isaac can you hurry up already,” he groaned.
“He's still working on it!” Yelled Kurt.
I scanned the area for Isaac. He was standing off to the side with a
piece of paper between his fingers, and his eyes were closed in concentration.
Isaac's mouth was moving at rapid speed, so he was either chanting or talking
to himself.
Laurence on the other hand hadn't participated much in the epic
battle of high schoolers vs. raccoon. He mostly hung back and looked as though
he was unsure of what to do. Every now and again he'd rush forward as though to
attack, only to quickly catch himself and go back to doing nothing. I later
found out that everyone thought Laurence was pretty useless when it came to
fighting monsters.
To my relief I finally caught sight of Nina as well. I expected her
to be mauled to pieces and scattered across the field, but she appeared unhurt
except for the blood gashing profusely from her leg.
Katie dashed towards her and I assumed she was running to help her
friend, but instead Katie ripped the bow and arrow straight from Nina's hands
and took aim at the giant monster. Her aim was dead on, and she landed a hit directly
through the head. I thought this would be enough to kill it (It looked like
enough to kill anything), but the raccoon continued to thrash at Tyson despite
having an ax in its back and an arrow sticking out of its skull.
“I don't get it, why isn't it dead yet?” I asked Annie.
“Monsters are a lot stronger than regular animals and can heal faster,” she
said without taking her eyes off the battle.
“If they were easy to kill there would be no need for us exorcists.”
“Oh,” I said. That seemed to
make sense.
Despite my amazement and fear I angled the cell phone and took some
shots of Tyson battling the monster. As hard as I tried I could never
understand the guy's obsession with taking photos, and I pray he didn't meet
his end by trying to get a snapshot with the fox monster.
Isaac began to chant louder to the point where he was almost
yelling. The strip of paper in his hand began to glow, then flash, and all of a
sudden a giant ball of lightning began to emerge from the paper. It crackled,
flashed, and I was certain he was going to electrocute himself.
“Move it Tyson!” Yelled Katie. “It's coming!”
Tyson dropped back and left a direct path between Isaac and the
monster.
The giant electric ball finally separated itself from the paper and
shot straight towards the monster like a magnet. It hit the monster dead on and
engulfed it in a ball of light. The whole field around us lit up and began the
flash.
“Wow!” I muttered as I stared
at the raccoon withering in pain amongst the blinding light. Black, white,
black, white. A small glance was enough to hurt my eyes and I had to use my
sleeve as a shield. But even when I wasn't looking I could hear the monster's
screams over the crackles of lightning.
Finally the screaming ended and I looked up once more and blinked as
red spots clouded my vision. After a few moments my eyesight cleared and I
could see that the rabid raccoon monster had been reduced to nothing more than
a smoldering pile of ashes. This terrifying experience should have been enough
for me to realize the dangers associated with exorcism, but all I could say
back then was- “Amazing! Annie did you see that?”
“As expected of Isaac,” she
sighed and collapsed to the ground. “Thank goodness it's over, that was so
stressful.”
“Isaac!” I exclaimed. It wasn't like he was the only guy doing
anything. Tyson, Katie and Kurt had done most of the work. I was about to tell
Annie all my personal observations of Isaac doing nothing, until I noticed her
staring at him in admiration as he poked the smoking raccoon carcass.
“Whatever,” I
hissed before looking away. I didn't think he was that special.
The bloody scene was enough
to make me nauseous, but that didn't effect Kurt who had already pulled out a
bag of potato chips and was happily munching away. Laurence on the other-hand
had finally put himself to good use by patching Nina up. She was covered in
scratches, but she looked mostly fine except for the blood gashing from her leg
and upper arm.
“Hey Nina do you think you'll
be OK?” Asked Laurence while wrapping her leg in a bandage.
“I'm sure it's just a scratch?” She said despite her face being
screwed up in pain.
“You really shouldn't push yourself so hard, if you think it's too
much you should just pull back,” said Laurence.
“I'll try,” she muttered.
I stared in awe as I noticed the resemblance between Nina and my
sister. Her face was identical with the same small nose and large eyes. She had
even tied her hair up in a ponytail the same way. Nina stared at the bandages,
poked the wound hesitantly, and winced at the pain. Up until now I'd only seen
glances of her around school, so I decided that it was time to finally walk
over and introduce myself.
“Are you OK?” I asked. I didn't know her back then, but her
resemblance to Sis was enough to make me feel concerned.
“Yes, I'm fine,” she said with a hint of annoyance. Nina must have
assumed I was one of the others, because she looked up and appeared shocked to
see me staring back at her.
“You're that guy the others were talking about right? Michael
Matsumoto? Kurt told me th-”
I didn't get to hear what she said next because Tyson suddenly
yanked me away by the shirt collar.
“You!” Said Tyson. He held me up so that we were face to face.
“Should not be here.”
His stare was cold and serious, and I was certain that I had escaped
death by raccoon only to face my end at the hands of Tyson Song. “But you took
the photo's right?” He asked.
“Yes,” I wheezed through his death grip. “Yes, I did.”
I handed him the phone and he
dropped me instantly and was by Kurt's side in a fraction of a second. Tyson's
hand was sliding across the screen at the speed of light and it was like I
didn't exist anymore.
“Check out this one Kurt!
This is definitely one for the wall,” he said.
It didn't appear like anything could distract him, and the only time
Tyson took a break was to throw his pole over the Annie and order her to begin
cleaning up.
I rubbed my neck and felt relieved that I had escaped another brush
with death.
Annie had begun dismantling the weapons and placing them back into a
large duffel bag. It looked like a lot of work, so I decided helping her was
the least I could do for defending my life.
“Hey Annie!” I called out.
“Michael, you shouldn't have come here, you could have gotten hurt,”
she said without looking up from the weapons she was packing.
Annie was right, but all I felt back then was joy that a girl was
concerned for me. “Hey, I'm sorry, but you did a great job protecting me. Let
me help you with that.”
I picked up a rod and attempted to dismantle it before I realized I
didn't know what I was doing, so I handed it back to Annie. I peered into the
duffel bag to see what else was there. My second reason for helping out was
because I wanted to check out there exorcist gear. I was hoping they kept all
their mystical weapons in the bag for special occasions, but it was packed full
of arrows and strips of paper no bigger than an envelope.
“Do you use this stuff for exorcisms?” I asked.
“Sort of,” she said while brushing her hair behind her ear. “These
are paper charms that we use for fighting the monsters.”
They were all decorated with different calligraphy which I couldn't
understand. I picked up a charm and brought it closer to my face for better
look. I squinted and attempted to decipher the characters, but before I knew it
the charm suddenly caught fire. I quickly threw it away in shock like a kid
playing with matches for the first time, but I soon picked up another and
squinted, only to watch as it burned from top to bottom. I thought it was a
magic trick worth showing Sophie.
“Wow!
This is awesome, the paper just caught fire by itself. Where can you buy this
stuff?” I asked.
I turned to interrogate Annie about the magic paper, but her eyes
were wide and her mouth was open in awe.
“Michael, that's amazing,” she said.
“Really?” I asked. Her sudden awe was puzzling, and I thought that
maybe I could have unintentionally used the power of my mind to make it burn. I
attempted the same thing to the grass near my feet but there was no result.
Before I knew it Tyson was also leaning over my shoulder. “Hey Michael,
are you sure you've never done any training to be an exorcist before?”
“No,” I said.
“That's odd, normally it doesn't do that unless you know what you're
doing. Especially not to normal people. Are you sure you're not related to the
Matsumotos?” He stared at me skeptically. “But you don't look like the pictures
of the other Michael.”
I felt ecstatic.” Does this
mean that I also have amazing exorcist powers?”
“Maybe,” said Tyson. “Or Annie made a mistake when she was writing
the charms, we once had a batch that constantly let off smoke.”
“Hey! My calligraphy is perfect,” protested Annie.
“Hey! Hey! Do you think that you could teach me some cool exorcists
tricks, like that thing were you send out a giant lightning bolt?” I asked
naively.
“Ha!” laughed Kurt. “That's a good one.”
“I don't know,” said Tyson “things didn't end well with the last guy
who begged us to join. We thought it would be fun to teach him how to be an
exorcist, but we spend a week cleaning him up off the pavement. The worst part
was breaking it to his parents.”
I stood there with my mouth open in horror, and I would have never
guessed that Tyson was messing with me until Annie began punching him in the
arm.
“Stop making up stories,” she said. “You're full of it! You're
always moaning about how you wish there were more of us out here. ”
“Hey!” He said while fending off her assault. “We have to talk to
Akito, it's not up to me!”
“But it wouldn't hurt to have another person right?” She asked.
“Annie,” I said with my eyes wide open in admiration. Too bad that
vouching for me only led to her lying in a pool of her own blood.
“He'll probably just get in
our way,” muttered Isaac.
“You aren't serious are you Annie?” Asked Katie. “Since when do they
let guys like this in?”
“But he's the adopted son of Able Matsumoto so that must count for
something. If we train him up, he might turn out to be pretty good. It wouldn't
be bad to have a guy called Michael Matsumoto on our side, right guys?”
She turned to the others. I don't know if she expected them to cheer
in support but they just stared at her blankly. Laurence opened his mouth, and
looked like he was going to say something encouraging, before a glare from Kurt
silenced him. I sighed and returned to helping Annie pack so that no one would
see my face turning red from embarrassment. I thought that was going to be the
end of my exorcist career, but it was only the beginning.
This is the end of the free samples. You can purchase the ebook with the whole 25 chapters from the link below.
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