The Spirits' Guide

Chapter 12

"But why Bernice?" Owen asked, dodging a swinging bag and almost running into a moving elbow. He didn't exactly miss the elbow.

"You took her on a date. I guess they assumed that that meant she was close to you." Iris shrugged as she move fluidly through the hallway crowd. People just parted for her naturally. Owen shook his head as he continued to gracelessly follow her.

"Look, the dance is tomorrow. We could go together and talk even more." Iris told Owen. He stopped in the middle of the hallway, a mistake since the girl behind him ran into him.

He quickly apologized before he looked back to Iris to find her gone. It was very unlikely that she would ever think to wait for him, even for just a brief second. It just wasn't Iris.

#########

She watched them through the windows of the school as they walked through the hallways, whispering quietly to each other. She narrowed her eyes as the girl, Abigail, looked out one of the windows and noticed her. She growled as Abigail smiled at her and wrapped an arm around the boy's shoulders.

The hooded girl bared her teeth at the smug green-eyed girl. The smile only grew. She knew she had the upper hand so long as the boy was within arms' reach of her.

The hooded girl had to wonder what would happen if the roles were switched. If she were to be in Abigail's place, she would not be making it obvious that she was aware of a spy. Still, the hooded figure knew that it was smarter to just make the spy aware of her awareness. It would do neither good if they were to fight in daylight. She decided to back off.

Getting up and stretching felt orgasmic for her. She doubted the demon she sent was doing her job correctly. She was rather vague in her orders.

She knew better than that. What was getting into her? Her old teacher would be so disappointed in her. Beyond that, the job was taking too long. She should have taken the boy back by now but here she was, on a roof, glaring through the windows of a classroom with nothing better to do than watch while she got an uneven tan on her hands, since she bothered to cover everything but them.

She sighed as she lowered herself off the roof, and back onto the ground and into the cool shade beneath the overhang of the roof. Looking around, she pulled down the silk mask that covered the lower half of her face.

With the sudden amount of fresh, somewhat cool, air, the girl took in a deep breath. The mask was the very reason why she preferred to work in the night rather than the day, especially one as muggy as this one.

Walking around the alley, she found the extra pair of clothes she had kept next to a clean dumpster, compared to the others that oozed a liquid that not even the ancient girl could place.

Pulling off the jacket and the rest of her clothing, she felt chills go up her spine. She should have left the mask on.

"I see that you enjoy public indecency." A male voice chuckled lowly as he walked around her. The girl just shrugged as though nothing bothered her, not even a man she barely knew watching her change although it was incredibly disturbing.

"Why do you want to take the boy?" He asked, his voice somehow deepening. She shrugged the question away as she shrugged on a tank-top.

"I asked you a question." He was getting very annoyed with her silence. She was not going to give him any information.

He scoffed, knowing the same thing she already knew: he couldn't hurt her. There was no use pushing a matter if he was never going to get what he wanted from it.

She pulled on a pair of shorts and walked out the alley, the man nowhere to be seen.

#########

"What the hell are you saying?" Josephine shouted at Iris. She flinched away from the water she was using to talk to the woman.

Looking back into the lake, Iris shrugged and said, "Should've chosen someone better. She actually walked into a dark alley without care or thought of who or what could have been in there. Maybe if you trained them better, things like this wouldn't happen."

Josephine looked absolutely livid with Iris's words.

"Why do you think I had you there? What were you doing when all of that was happening?" Josephine snarled at Iris.

Iris looked around, hoping that there would be some sort of disaster or reason for why she would delay in answering the question. Clearing her throat, Iris looked back at the water.

"The boy brought suspicion upon April. He followed her, questioned her. Hell, he even thought she was a demon! If he hadn't done such a thing, they wouldn't have noticed her."

"Don't blame the boy for your actions and the lack-there-of. April's death was your fault. Do they know who she is, what she is, where she came from?"

"No. I doubt they knew she was a witch. I also had her change her name to Bernice for safety. She wasn't killed by humans, she was killed by a demon, by that damned she-devil that I met earlier, I'm sure." Iris explained. Josephine still looked ready to rip Iris's arms off.

"What were you doing when this happened?" Josephine grunted lowly. Iris sighed and said, "I was too late."

"I know you were too late! I'm asking where you were!" Josephine out-right screamed at her. Iris looked away.

"I was sleeping. April and I had an agreement that she would work in the day and I would work in the night. The she-devil killed April just before dusk. I'm sorry." Iris murmured.

She hated it. She hated that while a child was being tormented and killed, she was asleep in a five-star hotel. She was snuggled up and warm while a child died. It was sick and wrong. If she had bucked up, she would have gotten there in time or maybe-

"Stop it. I lost April, I'm not going to lose the boy because your head's loose. Get going, the sun's going down and I want you back here with the boy by morning." Josephine snapped and was gone. Iris slouched next to the lake. She watched as the ripples stilled into the calm water. She closed her eyes and listened to the sounds of a busy city.

She heard men shout, she heard women scream. She heard dogs bark and cats hiss. Opening her eyes again Iris thought to herself, "This truly is a wretched city."