15:13
I lived a mile or two away from school, towards the north west. The house I live in- I use that phrase in order to show respect to the ownership that my parents have over the house- is a modestly large detached. While my father is well known Detective in the Police, the house originally belonged to his Grandfather, or my Great Grandfather.
From my knowledge, my father's family came to England from a Middle Eastern nation, and they came from prior nobility. My grandfather defied the Middle Eastern roots and when he wed my grandmother, they changed surnames to Wolfe. And somehow, in less than one hundred years, my blood went from a khans, from one side of the world, to a middle classed one, on this side of the world.
Don't get me wrong, it's not that I am a xenophobe, or a nationalist, from either side of the family. It's just that the fact that I don't know much about where I came from is interesting, and I wish I knew more. My grandparents had already died by the time I was a child, and didn't tell my dad much about themselves either. From what my father had told me, he only even found out about our roots when several extended family members attended the funeral.
From my knowledge, there still existed a side of my family, that used foreign names, and would never know that they're related by blood, to a wuss like me.
Our father had no family tree to show me, which makes me want to look for one. But the hopelessness that I feel, knowing it will never happen, is immense.
15:21
What's taking her so long?
I had spent quite a while standing outside the South Gates, where Rosemary promised to meet me, well actually… she never promised. But we did have a verbal agreement. Or so I'd like to imagine. People like Rosemary make me doubt myself.
I guess this is a good point to talk about my superpower.
As a child, I remember I could tell every lie. I called my Parents out, I called my Teachers out, I called my playmates out. This was all possible because I was visited by an angel.
The memory is more vivid than anything I had ever seen. It had black wings, the size of buildings. Its skin was white, as in the colour of walls, or paper. Its hair was down to its feet, pure, jet Black. It looked like nothing on earth, it appeared somewhat as a Woman, but the aura coming from it, was not of any human. If it would make more sense, it felt like the difference between me, and the creature, was the same as a Dog and Cat. Or maybe even that was too close. Maybe a Pigeon and a Flamingo? Probably.
My parents didn't really believe me, and maybe thought I was a deranged child, but my brother took my word. My sister was two or three at the time. I am sixteen, my brother is twenty, and lives away in a University Dorm now, and my sister is two years younger than me.
When I met the Angel, I was probably four, or five years old. I remember almost no other memories of that age, but this was so vivid, so extraordinary, that it still felt fresh in my mind.
"Where are we going?" A voice whispered, a voice behind my ear.
She had finally arrived, and I foolishly let my guard down, as I was lost in thought.
I looked at my right shoulder, and I saw practically resting her head on it. She looked at me with snake eyes, and the lack of distance between us could have made me skip a beat.
15:28
"We're going to a Church."
"Is this a practical joke…?" She pulled out her knife. "If it is, you'll be punished." And then she winked at me, threateningly.
I started walking, and she walked side by side with me. I wanted to strike a conversation with her, but decided against it, she probably wouldn't be interested.
To my surprise, she opened her mouth, about to ask a question, and then hesitated.
"Go on, what is it?" I asked, straightforwardly.
"How did you know, everything?" She sounded relatively timid.
She must be referring to yesterday. My ace, or Joker, that let me survive.
"It's my curse." It's the curse that the Angel bestowed upon me. Sometimes I am glad that I have my ability, but many other times, most times, I hate myself. I refuse to use my abilities with friends, like Isabelle, and I only use it for emergencies, but once upon a time, I would point out every lie, I would see through people and hurt them.
The curse gave me a lot of things, but it took away a lot as well. I could never see myself as a human, I refuse to see myself as a Human, and one of the curses I received from the divine angel, was a lack of Identity.
She looked at me, interested. "Your curse?"
"Yeah, a supernatural ability, I guess." At that moment, I decided I would try talking to Bishop Marrs about my own problem, once we arrived.
"Is what's happening to me also supernatural?"
"It is, I wouldn't take you to a Church otherwise."
Wait, I just thought about it. What good would it do if I bring Rosemary to Marrs? Could he see her, or does he want to say something while she's there?
"It seems questionable…"
"I do agree with you, but apparently it's the closest thing we have to a supernatural expertise."
"Apparently?"
"Did you just say that in Italics!?"
"What…?"
"Never mind, anyways, a friend recommended me, but I went there yesterday and they knew their stuff." I self consciously said 'they' when in fact the whole place was empty. I wondered if things would be different today.
"Very well, but what was the Italics thing about?" She inquired.
"How do I explain it…" I wondered. "I thought you spoke in Italics."
"Like what?"
"Like that!"
"You're honestly pathetic."
"Jeez, thanks."
At that moment, I found myself completely off guard. I felt that even when she said that, she was saying it somewhat affectionately. It felt almost that her tone had changed, albeit a tiny bit. It made me smile a bit.
"Are you smiling, thinking me and you are friends? How frightening. Just having you degrade me to your level makes me afraid…"
"Eh Wha-"
"…what next? Are you going to rape me? I will not hesitate to release information of a rapist online, and I will not hesitate to hurt you."
"Wait!" I shouted. "Why are we assuming that I'm interested in you at all!? And how did you jump from whatever you started with, and me being someone that sexually assaults women? If anything, you're the one that assaulted me, therefore you are a hypocrite!"
"Psss… you have a point…" She was desperately trying to think of a comeback.
"And also, why are you acting like such a Tsundere!? I can clearly tell you're enjoying this conversation!"
"I'm not a Tsundere! I have nothing in common with them, go to hell!"
I started laughing. I was laughing so hard. She just admitted to knowing what a tsundere is! This couldn't get any better.
"So tell me, how do you know what a Tsundere is?" I said that, except it was more like, I tried to form sentences and failed because of how much I was laughing.
She proceeded to slap me.
We both stopped walking and faced each other.
She was flustered.
I had stopped thinking of her as attractive, or beautiful, ever since yesterday.
But when flustered, she looked cute.
"tsundere." I said quietly, and we began walking again.
She was still thinking of a reply.
"Tell me then." She said. "Don't you feel any shame in knowing what it means? In fact, you managed to lower my opinion of you by just knowing that."
"Not really." Actually, that was a bit of lie. I felt really embarrassed, but the fact that I have something in common with her, and the fact that I could have a nickname for her to stop her teasing felt like a good sacrifice. "But it is fascinating to see a real tsundere in the real world. I thought they didn't exist outside the realm of Japanese fiction."
"Shut it."
"Hehe."
She took out her knife.
"Sorry."
"…"
"…"
"…so, what's your favourite ani-"
She cut me off. "I will die before I answer that."
Which reminded me,
"Is it true, that you want to die, or disappear at least?"
She had just gained her composure, and lost it again, as I asked her that question. "No, I don't want to die."
"Sorry."
"Where did you hear it?"
If I told her that the guy we were meeting was the one who told me that, she might get mad. But it would be impossible to say it was a school rumour, since she didn't exist.
"Instinct…"
"Then why did you say 'is it true'? That suggests you know something beyond your own knowledge." She stopped walking. "I can't stand liars. Did you use your powers on me, again?"
"Yeah… I did, sorry."
Absolute lie. My powers could let me see people's emotions, their pain, their stories. But they would never let me see things as deep as suicidal thoughts. I could feel things on the surface, but the deepest desires, and emotions of people were still beyond me. That's why I felt helpless.
Most people have little things I can't dig up. But the amount of things she has buried in her hidden, were impossible for me to take out. They definitely dealt with her current situation.
Even if I wanted to, she would have to show me her own problems, herself.
15:51
We were finally in front of the building.
She looked at me. "It's big."
"It is."
The doors were open, but there was a group of people leading a prayer. We went inside, and other than a clergyman, who was part of the prayer, there were no Bishop Marrs' to be found.
"Yo Oliver."
He was behind us all along.
"Hello, Bishop Marrs."
I noticed that Rosemary was completely unfocused, her hand was on her head, as if she had a bad headache.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine."
Then Marrs spoke. "So is this your lil girlfriend?" He pointed at her.
I nearly avoided the obvious.
"You can see her!?" I realised I spoke too loudly, but luckily the noise of the prayer covered for my shouting. "You can see the girl next to me?" I whispered.
He grinned at me. "Let's go somewhere with less stupid noises." I was surprised that a Bishop was calling a Christian prayer 'stupid', but this guy was different from anyone I've seen before. He wasn't normal.
And I couldn't read him.
I tried to see his mind.
It was as if his every thought was closed.
I was scared.
He led us through a door, into a quiet room, and closed the door behind us. There was one small table with four seats around it, but instead of sitting down, he sat on the table, and made us stand.
"Is your headache better lil missy?"
"It is." She answered, while looking hostile. "Don't call me 'lil missy'", and then she looked at me, "What is the meaning of this?"
"What do you mean?"
"He's the person who's going to s-…" she nearly said 'save', but stopped because she couldn't afford to lose her pride. "…help me?"
I understood what she meant. In fact, he looked far worse than yesterday. There was a layer of dirt on his red, and burnt face. He had the same Hawaiian shirt under his black robes as last time. He had several golden necklaces, and a prominent steel one with the Christ on it. I could only assume that was for Vampires… Do they exist as well?
He looked nothing like a professional, he looked like a Tramp, plain and simple.
He then proceeded to ignore her, to ask me a question.
"Tell me, Oliver. Yesterday you said she didn't exist."
"Yes."
"What if you're right?"
"Huh? I mean… I'm confused."
"What if, she never existed. Or only existed in your head. What if the girl only existed for the purpose of today?"
���What!? I don't understand this. And why is today important?"
"You didn't have a headache when you came in here, did you?"
"That's right."
"So, tell me, are you really a normal high schooler? Don't you have any secrets you'd like to tell me?"
That was meant for later… not when he should be busy with her.
"What do you mean she doesn't exist?"
"Plain and simple. She's a ghost. Would you believe that?"
Then she spoke:
"What is this bullshit? I exist, I lived, I have a family… I have an existence!" She sounded sad, almost like she was about to cry.
But he still didn't look at her, or reply to her.
"What if she had never really existed in our world? Would you believe me if I told you, the only reason she is here is for you to enter this holy Church, without disturbing the Lord at all?"
"Huh!?"
"The church is protected from evil things. So when a teenager like you comes in, their evil is cleansed, and they have a sort-of-headache. But you can walk in and out fine. Tell me, don't you have divine protection?"
The Angel.
My powers.
I do have divine protection.
"I don't believe you. I believe she exists, the same way me and you exist."
He chuckled. "Very well, you are right. The girl does exist."
"Tell me. Can you see her?"
"Yeah, she's a pretty…" He stopped.
When we looked at her, she was on the floor crying, quietly.
"Did I touch a few nerves lil missy tsundere?"
Huh? Where did he hear that!?
He stroked his uneven, and scruffy beard. "Guess she's more scared than suicidal, sorry if I put wrong ideas in your head yesterday fella."
"…"
"Anyways, her problem isn't 'not existing' as you said yesterday."
"huh?"
"Didn't I tell you? Maybe I forgot. Anyways, her problem is that she is 'in the background'. She is barely noticeable, as if she wears camouflage everywhere." He said, then he looked at her, who had stopped crying, and said, "Did you pray to Erebus by any chance?"
Erebus. The God of Shadows. The Greek God made of Chaos. And the brother of the more famous Nyx.
"Let me tell you a lil thing about Gods, Fella."
"Gods?"
"That's right. Think of it like the trinity except a lot more. Gods are born out of mythology and faith. Think of it like the Chick and the Egg. No one knows which came first, but it was probably the Egg, and both are needed for an eternal cycle. When we pray to 'God', we are essentially leaving a prayer in the air, that can be answered to by whichever Deity that has free time, or whichever who the request fits. In this case, I'm assuming Erebus answered a wish from her, a wish of something along the lines of 'let me live in shadows.' It's not a nice wish to be answered in hindsight, but at the time, a lil missy tsundere would want such a thing."
I looked at Rosemary, who had finally stood up, her face was Red, and she looked horrible. I felt bad to let her meet such a person.
"Is this all correct?"
She nodded.
"Why?"
"…"
Then he laughed. "Do you want to be seen, lil missy tsundere?"
She nodded, again.
"I'll send you guys home now. Be back here by…probably ugh… Ten at night…?"
"Why?"
"Well, we're going to talk to a god of course."
"Why?"
"We'll need her to ask Erebus to undo her prayer."
"But why so late?"
"Is it past your bedtime, kiddo? We need to summon a Shadow God, in darkness of course. And besides, the Church is doing a big thing up until Nine-ish. I need to prepare everything in an hour. Of course, all this is coming out of your pockets, so don't worry about the costs."
"What do we need to do?"
He looked at Rosemary. "When you come back, wear all black, and reveal as little skin as you can. Oh, and bathe to wash yourself from any impurities." He then turned to me. "You can just come normally. But I need you to both bring offerings."
That made me wonder. "What type of offerings does a God want?"
"Food or Alcohol will do… oh wait you guys are kids. Just bring some stuff that looks respectful."
I looked at Rosemary. "Are you fine with this?"
"Mhm." She nodded.
Then Bishop Marrs, hit me with something unbelievable.
"Tell me Oliver, you lil fella, why are you giving away fifteen grand for this girl?"
She looked at me suspiciously.
It was two things.
I wanted her to be brought to Justice for the murders.
I wanted to uncover the secrets in her mind.
And also, I liked her. She was antisocial, she had attacked me, she nearly killed me, but I felt a connection with her.
But I didn't think I could say either.
"…"
"Very well, I'm busy, so if you guys aint got any more words, I have to do a lil thing." He jumped off from the table, opened the door, and strolled out.
We stood there in silence for several minutes, I offered her tissues. She accepted.
16:32
We left together. Without speaking, she led me all the way to her house.
Absolute silence. Not awkward, just…
Depressing.
"I live here." She pointed at a large apartment. "Floor nine, room eight. Ninety-Eight. Come over by eight."
I nod.
Pathetic Silence.