Under the pale illumination of the half phase moon, in a field positioned right in the middle of a forest, were a group of people cheering and dancing around it.
Among the group was Seth who stood leaning against a tree at a dark corner secluded from the rest.
As he gazed at the happy bunch as they danced their night away, he couldn't help but feel nervous.
Today was a day dedicated to him and four other teens his age.
After the wave, when spirits began roaming earth and Exorcists began awakening, people from his neighborhood in particular, started this ceremony they said was to call upon the ability bestower.
Though Seth and practically everyone knew that this was just an excuse to drink till morning under the watchful gazes of the few exorcist invited. As everyone already knew that awakening was natural for the lucky few after they turned fifteen.
Today was kinda special though as there were five teens turning fifteen which had never happened in their small community. Even for two only happened once and sadly both of them ended up not awakening.
But today with five teens awaiting awakening there was bound to be one Exorcist and Seth prayed to be him.
"What are you thinking about?"
Lost in thought he'd failed to hearken someone approach. Turning his head he was meet by a girl about the same height as he was, staring at him. She had waist length black braids and brown eyes.
"Nothing." Seth answered stealing his gaze from her and back to the people who already seemed to be celebrating as per their tradition, which was that even if an Exorcist wasn't born that day nevertheless it was a joyous day for their birth.
"You're actually weighing your chances of awakening. Aren't you?"
Seth, seeing that she'd just hammered the nail right on the head, shrugged but didn't say anything, which made the lady chuckle before continuing.
"You think that this time because there's five of us, your chances are plenty high, right?"
"If you know this then you're also thinking about it." Dre, confirming that she also awaited awakening, shot back. The whole night, except for his father who forced him to come here, he hadn't interacted with anyone, he didn't even know the other teenagers awakening and quite frankly he didn't care.
"Yeah, by the way why are you hiding back here?"
"I'm not hiding, I'm just waiting for the ceremony to end."
"Everyone gather around, it's time." An abrupt loud announcement echoed drawing their attention.
"There's your que, oh and I'm Celia by the way."
"Seth."
"Nice to meet you Seth, let's see who'll awaken." Her lips curling up she said.
"Yeah." Forcing a smile, Seth answered as he also walked towards the middle of the field.
Getting pushed forward, the five teens stood in the center of the group that stared at them intently.
"Let the awakening commence, in 10, 9, 8, 7."
Seth, as he crentched his fist and listened to the people count down, couldn't help but utter a small prayer.
His entire life he'd always wanted to be an Exorcist, not the arrogant type like those who were supposedly guarding them, but a true Exorcist who'll lead humanity from this peril.
Before the countdown hit zero, Seth held his breath til he heard the crowd break into murmurs.
"Wow, just like expected one of them did awaken."
"Now we have another Exorcist to protect us."
"What if she joins them?"
"Then we'll just have to pray for her."
Hearing that, Seth's heart sunk, he wasn't the one to awaken. His life as a victim was now officially beginning.
Peeling open his eyes, he turned hisgazed towards his left to meet Celia, who had a wide grin, veiled by blue hue that danced around her body. This was the indication of her soul essence which every human could see.
Smiling helplessly he uttered "Congrats."
"Thanks." She answered prior to being showered with endless compliments by the people that'd formed a crowd around her.
The other teens including Seth faded into the background, no one felt sorry for them as they weren't really dying and almost everyone here was also a regular human.
"Don't worry, the night is still young kiddo." His father knowing how much he wanted this, tried to console him.
"I'm not a kid." Bursting out in anger, he shot out of the crowd and into the forest.
His father didn't pursue as he knew he would calm down eventually. As for protection the Exorcist here would surely sense a rift break, which in all sense was nearly impossible as most tended to break near huge water bodies, though he still worried a little as majority would break out immediately after midnight but with two tier 8 exorcists he felt at ease. He also knew his son wasn't dumb enough to trekk too deep in the forest.
'Damn, why is life so unfair?' Seth hissed as he ran through the forest.
"Why?" He shouted, however other than the rustles of leaves, the forest remained deathly silent.
After running for a couple of minutes, he stopped and sat beside a tree gasping for air.
'What now?' He pondered gazing at the pale moonlight that managed to sip through the gaps.
Painting his eyes around the place he'd sat, a sudden blue hue glowed behind one of the trees.
"Who's there?" Jerking up from his position, he asked staring intently at it.
At first he'd thought it was a spirit, but if that was the case then he would've already been dead as spirits tended to attacked immediately after they spoted a human. It wasn't a person either as the grow wasn't that bright, so what was it?
Slowly approaching the tree, Seth peeked behind it and what he saw left him dumbfounded.
'Since when did objects poses spirit essence?' cautiously picking up the weird mask that laid there, he pondered.
It was a bronze skull mask that had it's lower jaw missing and was adorned with multiple long green feathers on its forehead.
Glimmering under the moonlight, Seth held it on his hands contemplating on what to do with it.
Though it didn't take him long, he was desperate to became an Exorcist and at this moment nothing else laced in his mind.
Seeing that the peculiar mask had spirit sense, Seth didn't ponder any longer as he brought it to his face. Surprisingly the mask didn't fall off even without his support.
For about a minute, nothing really happened making him sign in dismay, he really expected some kind of reaction no matter what.
Extending his arms, he was about to take it off when something unexpected happened.
What's this? Seth listened to the mechanical voice in awe, for a second he didn't know what to do, but the moment he decided to take the mysterious mask off needles of pain stung his skull.
Trying to pull it off was of no use. He cried out in pain but no sound left his lips, folding on the ground, the needles still persisted for a whole minute, which felt like an eternity for him, before finally receding.
'What the hell? What bonding? What did it do to me? Seth questioned.
A slight headache lingering, he rose up and immediately took it off. This time it didn't pose any resistance, though it did something that was even more mysterious. Seth had tried throwing it away but glancing at his hand it was nowhere to be found.
"What the?" He could somehow sense that he still had it but it wasn't in his hand nor his face.
"Let's try it." He reminenced about wearing it and boom, it was in hand again.
'What are you? It already did the worst' his desperation leading him, he put it back on.
Nothing really happened except for the mechanical voice notifying him that it was activated. But this time he decided to observe every detail. There was no way something could be that painful and not give a reward.
He tried talking to the mechanical voice a few times, but other than the feathers rustling, it remained silent. He did this for two or so minutes, he even tried out his strength before finally giving up. Raising his hands he was about to pull it out when suddenly his eyes contracted as his lips curled up under the mask.
'I take everything back, I'm the luckiest person alive' Grinning like a psychopath, he whispered.
Looking at his hands through the mask, he observed a veil of blue hue that even covered his body, though not as bright as Celia's, it was there. This made his heart race with exitment. How could one be so lucky?
Due to the decision of wearing the mask a second time after the bonding, it activated the spirit essence embued on it and spread it across Seth's body.
After seeing this he immediately took off the mask and stared at his hands and unexpectedly they still retained the grow.
"Yes."