Mansion on the Hilltop - Prt. II

~~~

Her car was careening through the red lights and several cars honked at her reckless behavior.

Iris knew there was only one place she can go to for help. She had gotten to know them when she first started to exhibit signs of the Marked's abilities, and they had helped train Iris and kept her off the demons' radar since she was five.

He had helped to stop the nightmares that troubled her sleep and kept the monsters at bay. In was only a coincidence that he discovered her close to the edge of jumping off the cliff  on a family camping trip and convinced the then distraught Iris to gain control of her abilities to lead a normal life.

This small band of magicians had their guild in an abandoned military bunker not far from the city outskirt. They had performed all over the country and the leading magician was an ex-marine, who has gathered a group of ex-con men and other street thugs and turned them around for good. But he was still not someone her family would associate with.

But then again, none of her family knew of the magicians, they did not even know she was a Marked. Only those gifted in the Light could recognize the curse placed on her soul.

Not willing to succumb to her fate and having chosen to serve Trinity, Iris was in her third year studying theology in school.

Pulling the car to a short stop, tires screeching on the asphalt road, she got out of the car and entered straight into the magicians' guild.

"Help, Rollin, this is Iris, help me!" She barged into the steel door despite the receptionist's protest and charged all the way up the stairs.

"What is all this commotion about?" Vale, Rollin's assistant, poked his head from behind the table full of miniature stage devices.

"Vale, where is Rollin? I need his help, now!" Iris banged on the table, "I have to go back, or everyone will die!"

Vale was trying his best to stop the frantic girl from roaming aimlessly in the offices and her wild gestures were catching unwanted attention.

"Unhand her, Vale. It's your lucky day that I am in, lassie. Now tell me what happened and we can go from there." Rollin, the leading magician, appeared from a revolving door, accompanied by his apprentices.

Iris told him of the woman who could grant earthly wishes as well as immortality and the strange villa on the hilltop that trapped the church goers in a time different from the reality they were in.

"This sounds like a portal demon to me, Iris." Rollin said thoughtfully, stroking his chin. "You certainly have a way of attracting bad attention."

"I don't care what they would do to me, but I want to release the saints. They are innocent, ordinary humans." Iris grit her teeth and looked pleadingly at the magician, who at his spare time, was also an exorcist.

Taking a rifle from a weapons cabinet, Rollin calmed her down by giving her an emblem in the shape of a cross and selecting from a few magicians under his employment, they drove back to the villa at day break with a plan.

~~~

When she motioned them to infiltrate the villa from the basement garage, Iris herself went back in from the gate she exited from. This time, she braced herself to confront the matriarch as the gate clanked shut and would not budge again.

There was no one in sight and the stillness made Iris nervous. She tried several doors but all led back to the atrium. She was starting to panic again. Knowing there were several floors to the mansion, she started to climb upwards and ended up on the third floor of the atrium.

Everything was rose-colored and the interior has shifted to a tomb-like vault, albeit well-decorated with motifs and elaborate columns. She was breathing lightly on a balcony, trying to find a way to escape when the matriarch showed up at the floor below. 

Behind her, Iris stopped her breath, was Rollin in his military garb and he was aiming his sniper shotgun at her. "No," Iris said aloud, "not Rollin! You can't control him."

Laughing and looking at her powdered fingers with the brightly painted nails, the matriarch said: "Well, that would teach you not to invite unwanted guests to my house. Lesson number one, don't ever go up against a hungry demon thirsting for a Marked's soul. It would be a pleasure to see you fight against the man who supposedly saved you life."

"How did you know?" Iris gingerly moved away from the balustrades, trying to dock from the aim, but Rollin just followed her every move.  From the cold sweat sliding down his face, Iris knew Rollin was still conscious and was trying his best to repel the demon's mental control on him.

She knew she could kill him easily with her abilities, but in that way it would put her in the same position as the matriarch and commit a sin she could not erase. This was what the matriarch wanted and she would not give in to her.

When the gun ceased its shaking, she knew Rollin had lost the internal battle. She whisked out the cross Rollin gave to her and as she had guessed, Rollin would not shoot where she has placed the cross in front of her.

This frustrated the matriarch and under her order, Rollin too climbed up to the narrow gangway and went behind her to shoot. Iris had no choice but stabbed him with the dagger he has prepared for her. She had sworn to never use her abilities and break the protective seal on her sanity.

With a hiss, the matriarch flew towards her, revealing her true manifestation.

~~~

She had sprinkled the demon with the holy water and watched it melt and scream in pain and the mansion trembled with the demon. She has stabbed it multiple times with the dagger and broke the vial containing the dispersion spell prepared for her from the magicians without using her own abilities, thus preserving the seal on her sanity.

She ran then, dragging the wounded but unbounded Rollin with her. Together they went down the endless stair cases but still no exit to the outside.

In the parlor, confused guests and her family were pounding uselessly on the unbreakable windows. They were still trapped in the house.

The side door, Iris remembered now. There was another flight of stairs from the side door leading down into the cliff face with a Rosetta glassed door-frame.

No portal demons would leave a place completely sealed. There would always be a back-up exit. That must be it, Iris thought excitedly. The house was crumbling and imploding on itself. She ushered the guests down the narrow flight of stairs and with all her might, threw a vase at the glassed door-frame.

The door-frame pulsated with a white energy so intense that she had to shut her eyes for a moment. But alas, the vase only bounced back and broke on the stone steps. The rumbling would not cease and it would not be long before the villa folded on itself, taking everything with it to the dark dimension Iris did not want to dwell on.

"No, I will not give up!" Iris shouted and ran back up the side door and sure enough, strange dimensions were all swirling and imploding inside the atrium. She finally released a bit of her power and unlocked the spirits trapped in the villa.  "Break the glass and I promise to set you free!"

Drawing away her life force, the unlocked spirits of bygone victims shattered the glass door-frame, creating a portal to the outside world.

~~~

When they had all come out of the portal, all were stunned at where they've ended up. They were no longer on the hill but outside a department building teeming with people on the other side of the coastal city.

 

The sun was just setting down below the horizon.

Her father was waving for a cab to take them home and no one seemed to remember anything.

Rollin had disappeared out of view, not willing to disclose their relationship to her family, but Iris was all too glad his wound was shallow.

Stroking her little brother's hair, Iris hugged him tightly in her bosom.

"Are you okay, sister?" His soft hazel eyes inquired curiously.

Smiling, Iris replied peacefully: "Yes, brother, I've never felt better."

END

~~~

Mansion on the Hilltop - Prt. II

Second Chance - Part I

I love my job, the Stranger projected nis sarcastic thought to no one in particular in nis vicinity.

Today ne would have to claim a life unless by Providence's sake the girl refuses nis deal. Either way, it would not bother nim much. But for the girl, life would be hell either way.

---
Another bouts of cruel laughter rose at the back of the building. The students assigned to sweep the ground around the concrete water tower and to clean the little garden were having a bon.

Ne stood on the balcony overseeing the back of the school complex building and watched on quietly.

The girl has stubbed her big toes trying to scale the water tower just like a few of her male peers. She had failed miserably and instead rammed her sneakers on the cement wall half way up on her unsuccessful jump.

Two other girls giggled and burst out laughing.

The girl has said nothing but smiled with them, picking up the broom and started sweeping red-faced.

Later when ne followed her to the girl's restroom, ne found her examining and rubbing her feet. Ne peered into her thoughts and found her condemning her foolish self, trying to fit in even when she knew it would be impossible after the bowel accident one time in her junior high years.

At that time she was only in seventh grade and was nervously writing the qualification exam required in her prefecture for students to pass onto the next grade.

Her stomach was not feeling well and as the cramps built up, she tried to hold it in as long as she could, as the proctor was very strict about not going to the restroom during exam period.

In the end she had let out a series of tiny, soundless fart and soiled her underwear. Unfortunately, the farts were odorous enough to make those around her aware she had an accident. Embarrassed, she had immediately ran for the restroom at break but left a visible mark on her seat.

Though she did clean up afterwards, but inside, she already knew she's in trouble.

After the incident, her social life at school had taken a drastic downward spiral and every day she had to endure her classmates calling her unsaintly nicknames, one of which was "Poo king" in a local dialect.

The students were clever in their taunting and ostracizing of her. They never did anything against her when the instructors were around. But she was always by herself at school recess and it was difficult for her to find a team to join for projects or whenever PE class started.

She got by only through reading novels and doodling and though relatively low-profile, even the home class instructor recognizes her talent for arts. Even so, no one encouraged her to develop her potential and she was left alone in the corner desk to be ridiculed and verbally abused by her classmates whenever an instructor's back was turned.

She used to be a bright, care-free, pretty and smiling girl, now she was just reduced to enduring the day as it passed and plagued by the newly popped-up acne problem most of her peers seemed not to be affected.

She just wanted to die sometimes or to live in a fantasy world of her own creation. She felt better interacting with these made-up characters than facing the daily jeers and disgusted looks from her classmates. No girls would play with her, no boys would talk to her.

Her family did not know how to handle this and one day she found her parents awkwardly stooping down to beg the school administrator of letting her transfer to another school. But afraid of damaging the school's reputation and letting the wind out of the bullying at school affect the annual ranking process, the administrator had refused her father's plead and sent them away. She was stuck in this school.

She had despaired and it soured her heart seeing her respectful father bending down to an unsympathetic woman half his age.

Afterwards she had run to hide behind a storage shed and let her repressed rage seeped out through stifled sobs and balled fists. If there was nothing her parents, the adults, could change, then what was there for her to defend herself with?

Her grades have taken a toll and there was no joy in her school life.

The prefecture was known for producing future college graduates like physicians, engineers, lawyers, architects, journalists, and professionals to fill all sorts of esteemed occupations. Those students who failed in the pre-set education system had no hope in securing a future and were looked down to.

One day, a young substitute instructor came and replaced the home class teacher, who has gone on a maternity leave.  The young instructor was very popular among the academically-stressed students and he always had a way of elucidating complex course materials with witty jokes. His unconventional lax attitudes and handsome looks were a plus.

It was a humid afternoon and the sticky rain has left the tension raw in the badly ventilated home economics classroom.

Tasked to create recipes, cook them and put the final products on display at the August Festival to raise funds in competition to other grades was not easy.

Her class has lost last year to a junior grade class and the classmates have vented their anger by vandalizing her desk. The home class instructor at that time had turned a blind eye on this and many ensuing acts.

"Hey, Faith, do you have any idea on a dessert?" The girl sitting next to her asked casually. Faith looked down at her writing pad and sketched an ice-cream bar.

"Pish, why ask for her opinion, Sarah. She'll just jinx our chance of winning." The student treasurer of her class who was sitting opposite to Faith gave the student president a disapproving look.

"Yeah, poo doll here will just made everyone sick with her stinkiness." The tall boy with a prominent forehead remarked with a sneer.

And before ne came, the class has erupted to jeers and the usual elbowing.

With a barely contained rage, Faith abruptly stood up from her chair and threw the writing pad at a male classmate.

"Woah, what's into you, ass-wipe. You think you can take us on, is that so?" And scrunching up a piece of paper, he started flicking paper balls and rubber band projectiles at Faith.

Laughing now, the other male classmates joined the fray.

"Sit down, Faith. Just ignore them, Teacher Y'i will be in soon." Sarah pulled at Faith's sleeve, but Faith knew the only reason Sarah spoke to her occasionally was to uphold her squeaky clean image in instructor Y'i's eyes. Sarah had on many occasions, deliberately wrote her name on the whiteboard at study periods when Faith has not misbehaved, just to have someone stay behind after school and to show she was doing her class monitor job.

Faith did not sit down but remained defiantly standing, allowing herself to be pelleted with saliva, paper balls and rubber bullets.

When Instructor Y'i showed up without warning behind Faith, the students were caught red-handed in their acts. Some froze their throwing hands in mid-act and others only had surprise and guilt on their faces. Instructor Y'i placed his hands on Faith's slightly rigid shoulder and she sat down obediently.

Smiling, teacher Y'i had casually asked the class to pipe down and walked to the podium to begin class. Afterwards, the class had remained behaved for the rest of the week and Faith was freed from taunting and one or two girls actually apologized for not standing up for her.

Instructor Y'i's presence was enough to squish any further violence.

Where did he come out? Many students had scratched their heads but had no clue. The classroom door was at the left but Faith was sitting close to the back wall. If Instructor Y'i had come in, all would have noticed and the two boys charged for watching the door did not see the teacher come in.

---

"Faith, please come to the staff room to see Instructor Y'i." The sinewy voice of the Administration Secretary carried over the PA and was broadcasted over the entire school complex.

The students raised their heads and the Science teacher jetted her thumb at the door. "Haha, finally you'll get what you deserve, shit-face." A boy whispered close by. 

 "Yeah, nobody's called into the staff room if not for doing something wrong and to be punished." Another chimed in.

Faith said nothing. She was thinking about suicide and revenge, but was too chicken and soft-hearted to carry out either.

"Have a seat, Fei. Would you like a can of fresh, cool, rambutan bubble water?" Instructor Y'i was rummaging in the staff cabinet and winked as she came in. "I had the privilege of being given Teacher Lindsay's famous homemade rice-rolls but I ate already and was wondering would you do me the honor of eating them?"   

She nodded and a tiny smile broke on her worried face. Apparently Instructor Y'i was trying to help her.

It has been hours passed since a student has bumped her in the hallway and caused her to spill her lunch box on the floor. Nobody reported the incident and Faith knew telling the other teachers would only made her life more miserable. Besides, the teachers would at most lecture the class and let it go.

---

Her luck was starting to improve when Teacher Vanessa returned from her maternity leave and Instructor Y'i was promoted to an adjunct professor to the financial prefecture.

Faith was left crest-fallen. She was just used to eating lunch with Instructor Y'i from time to time and enjoying the improved attention and new-found relationship with the other students. Her grades were getting higher and she actually liked coming to school for a change. 

To be continued...

Second Chance - Part I

Lady Knight

On the saffron plains of Dreamscape, a knight in shining armor is galloping fast through a winding path across the quiet hills. The rider seems to be on a mission and in her right hand, glinting in the pale sunlight, is a golden scroll, carrying the message from the battle field whence she comes from.

In front of her is a vast white birch woods, a shortcut to her destination. It is splattered with dashes of yellow and brown foliage and covered with a blanket of snowy-silver blossoms. She slows down her horse as she sees a batch of verdant grass growing directly ahead in the cobble-stone littered, sinew-thin trail. She has not noticed the leering orange pumpkin monster in a grey-cowl, who's hiding itself behind the silvery branches.

A single fluffy dandelion stands swaying gently in the sudden eldritch breeze. She lifts up her hlemet mask, gets down from the tall war steed and lightly touches and plucks up the white flower.

"Never mingle in the affairs of the magical and divine forces." Somewhere in her mind, a faint voice prompts her to set down the dandelion.

As if a wisp of smoke has gone out of her, she falls down unconscious.

A witch with long curving nails, dresses in black and wears a smiling mask comes forth. She has no face and only darkness envelopes her entire being. She comes and carefully bears her away.

The horse stays rooted to the spot where the grass grows and faithfully awaits for his mistress to return.

She becomes a dreamy maiden, pampered as long as she doesn't remember her origins. Often as travelers pass by the spectral Castle Vanishing, en route to the Kingdom of Exsanguinous Pure, they would see the fabled fair lady, singing on a balcony, surrounded by Baldachin coverings of the finest quality. Waiting, waiting for her valiant square-bannered knight.

Will a Prince Charming come and rescue her, or must she rescue herself?

The end = ?

Lady Knight