Demons & Angels

So, this is my first submission of an original story that I've been working on for the past few weeks. I understand the title is pretty unoriginal, but as of right now, I really don't have another name for it. Please, tell me what you think of this first chapter. Constructive criticism is definitely welcome and appreciated. Thank you.



Also, I use Google Translate for chapter titles. Not the smartest thing to do, since it can be pretty inaccurate sometimes (all right, most of the time), but I'm afraid I don't know any Latin, so I apologize.



Here we go.



 



I - Speculum - I

    Art.



    Sera Clarke loved creating it with her tools. With each stroke of the pencil against the page, she was one step closer to finishing her sketch.



    A line here, a curve there… The picture seemed to dictate itself as it took shape. Wings… Some spindly and ribbed, others feathery and layered.



     The figures were angels and demons—two forces destined to do battle with one another even as the world crumbled around them.



    Her mind drew them from memory, pulled the images from the things she dreamed, both awake and asleep. One could go so far as to say she was obsessed, but she didn’t see anything wrong with a healthy, twenty-one year old college student like herself expressing what was in her thoughts.



    She didn’t like sketching in the girls’ dormitory; there was too much noise up there.



    Young females—from freshman to senior—did mostly nothing but gossip amongst themselves. They talked about the most up-to-date, trendy fashions, and even shared their sex-lives with anyone willing and able to listen. Sure, there were some like her that preferred to focus on school work rather than extracurricular activities, but a majority of them were brought into the clique that the juniors and seniors created.



    It was Sunday morning in the coed cafeteria, the loud sounds of clinking dishes and idle chatter drowned out by the music Sera had playing in her ears. Having finished her homework for the week, she used her free time to doodle while listening to inspiring guitar riffs from her favorite bands. Rather than have her iPod blasting the newest downloadable rap CD, she was content with her somewhat outdated, but meaningful tunes.



    Sera did relatively well in her classes. Ranging from Calculus to Sociology, she received average grades. She kept herself out of trouble and stayed away from rowdy dorm parties; she didn’t want the school to have anything on her whenever they gave her father periodical calls. As her financial supporter, he had access to all her records at the touch of a button.



    Taking a break, she removed her left earphone as she reached for a piece of toast on her plate, careful to keep any crumbs off her sketchpad. She pushed the pad, changing the angle, turning it upside down and to the left and right as she got a feel for the dynamics of the demons and the angels fighting each other, both reaching for a glowing object in the sky, just a few inches from their fingertips.



    The main angel in the foreground had a gentle, but stern face, her wings folded toward her body to protect her. The demon mirroring her had an almost sardonic smile, his nails elongated like the claws of a beast, his wings spread out wide. There was no clear, definite winner in the drawing. Each was given an equal opportunity to achieve victory.



    Finished with her slice of bread, she was about to continue on her second when a tray slammed down onto the table right in front of her.



    Sera didn’t have to glance up to know who it was. She didn’t talk to many people at the university—in fact, she only really spoke to one openly.



    Her best friend, Aislinn Baillie, had an Irish mother and a Scottish father, something that her grandparents on both sides weren’t too happy about. Having been born in America, she shared none of their accents. She kept her red hair cut close to her shoulders, while her eyes were a bright green.



    Aislinn had a nice spread on her plate: over-easy eggs, mini sausages, and two fluffy pancakes with a neat cut of butter on top. Smirking, she reached for the syrup sitting next to the napkin dispenser on the middle of the table.



    Aislinn could pretty much eat anything; she was active in sports such as water polo and badminton, and she was always on the go, leaving campus whenever she could. It helped that she had the fortunate pleasure of owning a car.



    On the other hand, Sera couldn’t walk up two flights of stairs without feeling winded. She hated exercising, probably more so because she was confined to the university’s gym. She was trapped in the college dorms, forced to do nothing but study, sketch, or play the Playstation 3 console her roommate had rigged up to a sizable flat-screen television.



    Well, it wasn’t completely unbearable.



    “Look,” Aislinn said as her gaze found a spot off in the corner of the cafeteria. “He’s here again.”



    “Stop staring,” Sera whispered harshly in reply.



    Aislinn speared her sausage with a grin. “It’s really weird… He’s been eating in this God-awful place for the past week and a half, like he’s waiting for something. I mean, he’s got his own office, or even the faculty cafeteria. I can guarantee you they’re decorated a lot better than our mess hall.”



    Sera wouldn’t deny that it was strange.



    Professor Henry Koenig was a Psychology instructor that doubled as a counselor for the students. She took one of his classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays after lunch. He was a quiet, introverted man who didn’t speak much about himself during his lectures. He was only interested in giving out facts and answering non-invasive questions.



    When Aislinn held up the napkin dispenser, Sera saw him reflected in the metal; he was facing their direction, his hand coming up to sweep away a strand of his medium-length, light brown hair. From the looks of his plate, he had barely touched his food. His glasses were tucked in the pocket of his dress-shirt, since he didn’t like to wear them while he was dining. His head was ducked, so she couldn’t see his piercing hazel eyes.



    “Why don’t you go over and say hi?”



    “Shut up.”



    There weren’t a lot of interesting things in Mauville, California, but Sera was sure that wherever Professor Koenig had come from, he was definitely a welcome addition to the suburban life-style that covered a large portion of the heavily-populated city.



    Her momentary happiness took a significant dip when half the competitive varsity cheerleading squad filed into the cafeteria, their obnoxious laughter and chit-chat far too loud for eight-thirty in the morning.



    Sera didn’t have a problem with cheerleaders. She knew some of the ones on the squad, and they were respectable, self-dependent women. These ones, however, couldn’t go three days without chasing after a piece of meat on two legs.



    She had no problem ignoring them. Luckily for her, the ring-leader called out to Aislinn.



    The redhead gave her an apologetic shrug, though she couldn’t hide the expression of annoyance on her face as the leggy brunette hobbled over to their table on her five-inch heels.



    “Baillie!” the young woman exclaimed, blue eyes unnaturally bright. “Nice to see you here so early in the morning.” She slipped onto the bench beside Aislinn, her group of girls crowding around just as she pulled out her cell phone.



    “What do you want, Erica?”



    “Now, now. Don’t be like that. I wanted to show you something. Or… someone. He’s new here—a foreigner. He asked me to show him around. We even had some fun last night…” She giggled while flipping through the pictures she had snapped with her phone. Some were of her drinking at various frat parties, while others were of her ex-boyfriends. “Here,” she finally said as she shoved her Blackberry in Aislinn’s face.



    Aislinn took a moment to compose herself as Erica draped her breasts across the other girl‘s lap. Grimacing, she looked down at the snapshot of a young man staring into the camera, short, layered raven hair framing his handsome, pale face. He was smirking while he posed against the headboard of someone’s bed—likely Erica’s. His eyes, she noted, were a strange shade of dark-brown, almost red. In the fair lighting she could see that he had many piercings on his ears.



    At least he wasn’t naked, Aislinn thought to herself.



    “He has the most incredible mouth,” Erica droned on, unashamed. “Another kicker is that he’s part-Japanese, but the guy has a huge…”



    Sera cleared her throat loudly as she slapped the cover down on her sketchpad.



    “Oh. Clarke. Didn’t see you there.”



    Sera chose not to make eye-contact with Erica while she put her drawing utensils into her knapsack.



    “You’re such a weirdo,” one of the girls, a well-endowed strawberry blonde, commented. Her flimsy slip-on dress left little to the imagination.



    “I get it,” Erica began as she sat upright. “You’re a lesbian.” She smiled when her posse broke out into laughter. “That’s it, right?”



    Aislinn shoved Erica, causing the brunette to fall off the bench and straight to the floor on her behind.



    Her girls scrambled to help her stand, all the while yelling obscenities at the two friends.



    Sera gazed on in disbelief, honey-brown eyes blinking rapidly. Immediately, the hair on the back of her neck stood as she felt a shadow looming above her. Frankly, she was afraid to peek over her shoulder and see who it was, but the deep, masculine voice that spoke up eased her nerves, only a little.



    “Is there a problem here, girls?” Professor Koenig asked.



    “Th-That thing pushed me! You were sitting right over there! There was no way you couldn’t have seen it!”



    “I’m afraid I didn’t. Care to explain the entire situation to me? We can go to my office, if you’d like.”



    Erica brushed invisible dirt off her miniskirt as she huffed. “I don’t have time to waste on these idiots. Come on, let’s go!”



    Sera and Aislinn looked on as Erica and her entourage paraded out of the cafeteria, their heels clicking along the linoleum floor.



    The bystanders sitting at the opposite end of the mess hall quickly resumed eating when Professor Koenig gave them a stern glance.



    “Thanks,” Aislinn said as the man turned his attention back to them.



    “Don’t let me catch you doing something like that again. Understood?”



    The redhead raised her left hand as she crossed her heart with her right forefinger. “Scout’s honor, Professor.”



    Sera had to refrain from jumping when Koenig addressed her. “Miss Clarke, may I?”



    She nodded silently, coffee-and-cream cheeks flushed a soft red as she scooted over to give him some room.



    He took his spot next to her with inhuman grace; Koenig reached for the sketchpad still left out on the table—the only thing Sera hadn’t put away. He waited for her to stop him, but when she didn’t he pulled the wire-bound pad in front of him. Putting on his rimless glasses, he quietly started to flip through her artwork, pausing at certain pictures before carrying on.



    Aislinn and Sera watched him, perplexed.



    He stopped for awhile when he saw a particular sketch, this one of a person with a similar appearance to Sera. She was dressed in a gown, angelic wings protruding from her back as a halo floated above her wavy mane. Her hands were clasped in front of her, eyes closed as she bathed in the rays of sunlight in the background.



    “…Is this your mother?”



    Sera nodded silently, keeping her eyes down. “That’s how I choose to remember her.”



    “Choose?” the professor repeated, an eyebrow raised in question.



    “My mother was a very weak and fickle person toward the end of her life. She did things that, in hindsight, I realized they were her methods of getting attention. She was unhappy, so she took it out on my father and I. I don’t hate her, though. I know she loved me. She just wasn’t strong enough to battle her own demons.”



    “Dämon, Teufel… Those were my grandfather’s words for such things.”



    Aislinn didn’t miss the nostalgic flicker in Koenig’s gaze. “People can change,” she said firmly. “Through enough hard work, we can decide whether we want to be like our family, or whether we want to be better. It’s all a matter of will and determination.”



    “I suppose you’re right.” Just as he said this, an odd little jingle began to play. Aislinn and Sera exchanged looks as Koenig retrieved his cell phone out of the pocket of his slacks. “Excuse me for a moment.” The girls watched as he got to his feet and paced back to his own table.



    “Were you okay with telling him something like that?” Aislinn asked as Sera inserted her sketchpad into her bag.



    “I don’t mind. It’s not like he had any ulterior motives.”



    “Love is blind, isn’t it?”



    “Aislinn…”



    Koenig returned, though his expression was nothing short of unpleasant. “I need to take care of a few things. You two enjoy your Sunday.” His gait was brisk as he exited the cafeteria.



    “Guy sure was in a hurry,” Aislinn commented. “He even left his tray there. What do you think that call was about?”



    “No idea. Frankly, it’s none of our business.”



    Aislinn sighed as rested her forehead against the table. “Why do I have the strangest feeling that we’re gonna find out anyway…?”





____________________





    He felt sick to his stomach.



    Joshua Abel didn’t really like delivering bad news to people. Even so, this wasn’t the first time he was put into such a predicament. When your life was full of so many up-and-downs, it sort of came with the territory.



    It was Sunday, the day of “rest.” Why couldn’t she have just waited until Monday?



    That woman was unmistakable. She had stuck out like a sore thumb against the swarm of students that lounged on the front steps leading up to the university’s administration building. All the males had stopped to gawk at her as she passed, some even receiving angry jabs from their girlfriends.



    Now here he was, sitting in Professor Koenig’s office, watching her as she walked about the room in her low-cut skirt-suit.



    She had asked him to call Koenig, all the while grinning with that devilish smile of hers.



    “Yeshua,” she drawled as she picked up a particularly interesting object on the professor’s desk. it was a snow globe with a little Husky dog inside of it, a gift one of the graduating students had given him, thanking him for his years of help.



    “My name is Joshua,” he corrected her as he played with the ring on his right thumb.



    The woman chuckled, her strange, indigo eyes filled with mirth. “But that’s not what your college record says, darling. Yeshua Michael Abel, right?”



    Setting the snow globe down, she approached him, her hands trailing across his shoulders. Her fingers moved up to stroke his face, her black, manicured nails a stark contrast to his light complexion. Red lips curling, she planted herself in Joshua’s lap, making sure to wriggle her shapely behind against him before making herself comfortable.



    Draping her arms around his neck, she threw her legs up, her heels horizontal to the floor.



    “You’re such a good boy, you know that? You have wonderful grades… You’re handsome, too.” She reached for his unruly silver hair, her forefinger and thumb playing with a strand. “It’s such an unusual color… Do you dye it?”



    “No,” he answered flatly. A pleasant aroma was wafting off her long, flaxen tresses, but he did his best to ignore it.



    “That’s good. I would hate to feel cheated,” she replied with a slight pout. “I have a problem controlling my temper, you see. You don’t get angry easily, I can tell. Animals are drawn to you. They sense the compassion in you, the will to do nothing but good.” She pushed her supple breasts against his chest as she continued. “Despite that, you don’t have many friends.



    “Perfect Yeshua, always doing as he’s told, smiling at everyone he sees… Deep down, you hate it, don’t you? You hate the solitude. You long for someone to share your pain. God has been cruel to you, hasn’t He? He cursed you. He gave you that power, but you can’t do a thing to heal the loneliness in your heart, can you?”



    Joshua couldn’t deny that there were many things in his life he wished he could change. His appearance was a major one. He would always receive strange looks as a child. It wasn’t often that a young boy sported silver hair and abnormally light brown eyes, almost to the point where they seemed golden.



    However, he wasn’t going to let a demon twist his heart.



    “Ira, remove yourself from Abel, now.”



    The woman gave a start, both she and Joshua unaware that Koenig had entered the room.



    She slithered off the young man like a serpent, her arms folded across her chest as she flashed Koenig a scowl. “Well, now, Henry. You’re no fun at all.”



    The professor closed the door quietly behind him as he made his way across the room, making himself busy with fixing everything the woman had touched. “What do you want? As the secretary of our competing university’s dean, you shouldn’t have so much time on your hands.”



    “First of all, my name in this form is Maria. Maria Joannis. Second, is it so wrong for me to come and visit you? You and I are connected. Patientia and Ira. Those are the names we were given. Be a little more courteous when you use them.”



    “I don’t owe you a damn thing,” Henry responded as he pushed his snow globe back onto the stack of papers he had yet to grade.



    “You’d think with your powers, you would have seen something like this coming.”



    Henry turned on his heel, his hands now clenched at his sides. “Get out of my office.”



    “Are you sure you’re Patientia? You’ve got quite a short fuse.”



    “Only when I’m dealing with you.”



    Fed up with their back-and-forth banter, Joshua held up his hands to stop them. “Professor, I get your hostility, but the sooner we hear her out, the faster she’ll leave.”



    “See? Of course Yeshua would be the voice of reason.” Disregarding the fact that Henry had just rearranged his desk, she plopped herself right on the corner of it. “The new student that just enrolled in this university has been keeping in touch with me. Apparently, he’s like myself.”



    “A male Vice? Why? Invidia is female, so there’s no way,” Joshua contemplated aloud.



    “…It’s not Invidia,” Koenig admitted after a long pause.



    Joshua glanced up at him as if he had grown a second head. “What? No way! Professor, that can‘t be right!”



    “We’re not perfect beings, Abel. Just like the Vices aren’t perfect, either. There are two more Virtues, both girls.”



    Maria began to laugh, her sharpened canines visible. “Luxuria is a feisty one. I hope Castitas is strong. Sooner or later, Acedia and Tristitia will show up as well. You better have all your hens lined up by the time this thing gets under way. I came here today because I was doing you a favor. I can’t guarantee the safety of the students here.



    “Demons are hungry creatures, Henry. When they sense that four Virtues are at this school, they’ll start to do some terrible things.”



    “Is that a threat?” Koenig demanded.



    “Not at all. Unfortunately, I’m not very useful in times of combat. I can only influence people to become minions for our cause. However, with Luxuria—the demon capable of wielding the sword that can cut through almost any barrier—the threat has intensified. You and I can only spin low-level spells. That doesn’t count for much in a war for humanity’s deliverance.”



    Maria turned to Joshua, her delight very much apparent. “You, darling, have the power of God’s gentle hands. Healing wounds that would normally kill someone… That’s very useful.”



    “I can’t heal a demon’s wounds,” he replied.



    “No, but that makes you a priority. Anyway, I have to get going. Do make sure not to hurt Luxuria, all right?” Maria rose, her hips swaying as she approached the door to Koenig’s office. “One more thing: I always know where to find you. So, don’t think you can hide from me for very long.” With that, she exited his office.



    Joshua hated seeing Henry like this. The man was obviously strung-up, trying and failing to hide his anxiety as he slipped into his leather swivel-chair.



    “We can’t sit around here and wait for something to happen, Professor. Bad things happen… Horrible things.”



    It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Joshua was speaking from experience. Henry wasn’t fully aware of everything that had happened to the boy in his youth, but he knew that the university student had been surrounded by demons nearly his whole life; he had come to Mauville to keep the rest of his loved one’s out of harm’s way.



    “What would you have me do?”



    Joshua perked a bit at this, his expression earnest. “You have a mansion on the outskirts of the city, right?”



    It was true. The Koenig family owned a large piece of land between Mauville and the next city over—it had been passed down for generations before the title had finally fallen to him. He housed many of his relatives there, from his nieces and nephews to his aunts and uncles. His mother, father, and grandfather had long since passed away, but his grandmother still remained as strong as ever.



    “Running away will solve nothing, Abel. Even if I managed to get all of the Virtues to come and seek refuge there, it won’t stop this war. It’s inevitable.”



    “I never said to run, sir. I just…” Joshua shook his head as he exhaled softly. “I just wish we didn’t have to fight it. I’m prepared to do what I have to, but I’m not about to let someone get hurt because we didn’t act first. You have to tell Castitas and Industria. Miss Joannis said Acedia and Tristitia would come next, didn’t she?”



    “Twins,” Henry remarked sourly. “Twins, when split apart, their powers are halved. Yet, when they’re brought together, they are able to carry out their deeds with full force.”



    “That seems a little unfair.”



    “Industria is strong. She has a sense of honor and pride, but she is also considerate of those around her. It won’t take long for her to harness the power inside of her.”



    “What about Castitas?”



    The professor faltered at this, his brows drawing together as he leaned back in his chair. “She truly lives up to her name.”



    Joshua didn’t like this anymore than Henry did. Despite that, they knew what had to be done. “When do you plan on telling them?”



    “Tomorrow the earliest, Tuesday the latest. Even though I am a Virtue, I still have my responsibilities as a college instructor.” Henry watched as Joshua rose from his seat, the young man giving him an uneasy smile.



    “Well, as a student riding on government funding, I have to do my best, too. I have an exam tomorrow in Anthropology.”



    “…Thank you for putting up with me. If it weren’t for you, I would have lost my head already.”



    It wasn’t often that Koenig expressed the kinder, gentler side of himself. Joshua felt privileged to see it. “You’re welcome, sir. If you need me, you have my cell number. Don’t hesitate to contact me.” He didn’t want to leave the man alone, but they both had things to tend to.



    He moved to the door, giving Henry one last somber glance before he left the office, satisfied when he heard the soft click of the tumbler as it slid into place.



    Closing his eyes, he pressed his forehead against the hard surface, his hand still on the cold knob.



    “Invidia,” he whispered. “You’ll come too, won’t you…?”