The Soothsayer's club : Triad of Spirits

[narakunohana]

Author's note: Uhhh... First chapter. But it's not done yet. At all... seriously.

DX

I'll let you guys know when I've stopped being lazy and I'll post more ok? Please tell me what you think of the story so far. Is it... crazy? Stupid? What?! XD; :P

xP

[narakunohana]

Chapter I
An Unusual Discovery

As if by magic, he felt light as a feather, free of all his teenage worries. He was content: the calmness felt like heaven, and that heaven came to life as he took the strength to open his eyes just slightly. He saw light; light that proved true as he also felt great
warmth within his being. His eyes shut once more, succumbing to the bliss – oh, if he could always feel like this carefree, this peaceful forever.


The warmth of the light radiated through his soul, erasing his mind of conscious thought. He wanted to see the bright sky again, so he opened his eyes. The clouds were no more, and what was before him – a woman of fair skin, hair of purest white, and eyes of gold that soothed him even more. He reached a hand towards the goddess-like figure, and was surprised when her warm hands touched his. “Joseph,” it seemed to say. Her voice was of an angel, and it kept on repeating his name. “Joseph… listen… to me… “

The sash the ‘goddess’ wore had wrapped itself around his waist and forced him to stand, still afloat in the eerie scene. Joseph wished that that woman would use her wings to shield his eyes from the blinding light that was from above so he could see her face in detail. He saw movement in her lips, and stopped all thought to listen. “How you see the world, will judge what it will become…”

He frowned, what did she say? Judgment? He only felt the woman go closer, her face still somewhat hidden in its luminous mask. Joseph then felt warm hands caress his cheek lovingly. “Your eyes… will be your guide to help you see what is true… and real.” Another eerie statement had him confused even more. “My eyes? What… do you mean?” he asked, puzzled and clueless in her words. The goddess merely shook its head and disappeared into the light as it finally began to consume her. “Wait! What about my eyes!”

“How you use your gift… will write the blank pages of the world’s fate...” she told him, before completely disappearing. Joseph called out for her, but to no avail. He felt himself falling; his hand still stretched out to the light as it faded from his sight and was replaced with darkness. Joseph groaned as he opened his eyelids to meet the view of an empty, dusk-lit room. He looked around sheepishly, his vision still blurred, only to notice another feminine figure that was before him. The youngster swore at the annoying sound of the woman’s tapping foot. “Glad you’re finally up, Garcia.” She sneered, looking straight at him. “I’ve been trying to get you up for the past half-hour.”

“Where am I?” Joseph queried. “Oh, Mrs. Reeves.” He smiled sheepishly, rubbing his eyes and regaining his focus. He finally noticed the cream-painted walls that seemed to have marks of pens on every side, and the blackboard which he thought was really lame - Yes, he was in his classroom. Joseph had just slept through two of his classes, one of which was Mrs. Reeve’s class, Trigonometry. He stretched out his arms, noticing the hard look on his teacher’s face. “What?”

Mrs. Reeves sighed, holding out a piece of paper with a big 60 written on the northeastern part with red ink; it wasn’t a good sign. “You’re not going to pass your senior year with this kind of grade, Joseph Garcia.” The senior merely shrugged and began packing his things. He was quiet - too quiet in fact. In her observation, Joseph had nil motivation for anything, well… besides food. He was also easily distracted. It was a complete miracle he got so far as becoming a senior.

The silence irked his teacher, causing the 40 year old woman to slam the failed exam onto the desk. Joseph nearly leapt in shock. “Are you even listening?!”

“I am…” he said.

“Then what did I just say, young man?” She thundered, Joseph laughed nervously, not knowing what to answer. He wasn’t really paying attention, actually. He diverted his attention to the mirror on the wall beside him, checking if his chestnut brown hair wasn’t too messy from sleeping. His Teacher had enough. “Oh, you’re hopeless!” she exasperated, slapping her forehead with a skinny hand.

It was then the door opened to reveal a young girl – almost just as old as Joseph. Her hair was neatly tied in a ponytail, and a playful smile sunk into the young man’s vision and filled him with annoyance. “Mrs. Reeves?” she called out, “Oh, you’re here~!” The girl skipped over, passing what seemed to be a folder filled with equations to the math teacher. Joseph frowned. “Why the hell are you here Charlotte?” he asked.

“To pass my project of course.” She told, placing her hands on her hips. Joseph’s lips now feigned annoyance at the new arrival; he never liked Charlotte. She was always ‘the best’ in everything – a teacher’s pet per se. He could admit she was indeed smart, he couldn’t understand why she always spat the fact at his face though. Mrs. Reeves looked over the girl’s papers, sighing as she laid it down just above Joseph’s exam paper. “Oh, it would be less of a headache if you were more like Ms. Arcellana.” The remark irritated Joseph quite a bit, and thus resorted to calming himself by breathing. Inhale, exhale he went, closing his bag and standing up to go home. He was sure he’d get his allowance cut in half again. That would make this around the 4th time this semester – that wasn’t any fun at all.

Mrs. Reeves tapped her foot, “And where are you going, young man?” She asked, “I’m not done with you.” Joseph rolled his eyes, made an indifferent look at his teacher and rival, only to answer back with similar flair. “I’m going home.”

The teacher sighed. Joseph was testing her patience, and if it weren’t for the laws that forbid corporal punishment among teachers to students, she would’ve hit him on the head for his show of disrespect. “You know, your teachers and I have decided to place you on the tutorial program because of your low grades.” She told, regaining the young man’s attention. He was surely in shock by the look on his face.

“Huh?!” he said, “Isn’t the tutorials for the juniors?”

Charlotte laughed, “Your performance is by far, lower than a junior!” Joseph cringed at the side comment.

“Oh, shut up.” He stomped his way to the door. Mrs. Reeves began tapping her foot again. Joseph was very indifferent, especially about his studies. It made her wonder why exactly, but he was too proud to let her on anything despite the fact that Joseph had also been her student back in his freshman year. Back then, he was a pretty good student and competing grades with Charlotte – now, he’s competing grades with Charlotte’s dog. Yes, he was that bad.

“Charlotte will be your mentor until the end of the year,” Mrs. Reeves said, rubbing her temples; obviously had developed a headache with all of Joseph’s bitterness. “No way, I’m not staying here. My dad wants me home by six!” Joseph complained. Charlotte seemed not to have any problem with the idea, as she defended Mrs. Reeve’s decision.

“We’ll do your lessons on your place then!” she said, cheerfully. Joseph obviously took it in a sarcastic manner, and he scoffed. “No way I’m taking you home, Charlotte.” He said. There was actually a logical explanation for that besides him disliking his old classmate. His father was his primary terrorist – and he terrorized his son with teases and bickerings of the sort. Having Charlotte over would be a TOTAL disaster to his masculinity.

“No way I’m passing you either!” Mrs. Reeves retorted, now furious.

“No fucking way! Over my dead body!”

To his dismay though, Joseph found himself walking with his archenemy on the streets. He tried shaking her off on the monorail, but unfortunately, Charlotte wasn’t as dumb as the idea. He gave up after a while, now only minding the view that was the skies. The view wasn’t as blocked anymore since they have walked out of the business district, and tall buildings weren’t a problem now – the heavens were now for his viewing pleasure The skies were filled with a gradient of gold, navy and scarlet – such details that Joseph couldn’t help but be in wonder, to the point of tripping carelessly on a cracked part of the sidewalk they were walking on, and almost being run over by a truck just on the block after. Charlotte surely had her laughs, but the teenager didn’t give a damn. They stopped in front of a small bungalow, to his companion’s dismay.

Charlotte examined the house, which surely looked like it was around a few decades old, and paint was fading away – which she guessed, was originally of light blue. The roof seemed barely close to looking decent, thanks to the marks of rust. She looked at Joseph with disgust and shook him lightly as he was busy with his keys. “You never told me you lived i-in THIS“Joseph rolled his eyes, glaring at Charlotte.

“This hunk of junk of a house?” He told, finally opening the door. A small squeak greeted them; not of a mouse, but of a door that needed oiling. “Well, feel at home.” The interior wasn’t as bad as that of what was outside. The couches were clean, but patched with different colours and varieties of cloth – obviously second-hand. The TV looked like one of those old black and white models, and the carpet was not as best off as the other items on Joseph’s family area – opened bags of potato chips and pop cans were everywhere, not to mention last month’s newspaper and several other, more recent editions. Charlotte frowned, “Isn’t there a woman in this house of yours, Joseph?” she asked, sitting on the couch, “Doesn’t that woman over there ever work?”

Joseph blinked, and noticed Charlotte pointing at a nearby photo of a woman in her 30’s just on the right of the old television set. The table it was on seemed to be the only neat area in the house as the cloth the small table was on was free of any stain. Fresh flowers were on the vase just beside the picture, as were unlit candles that stood just on the other side of it. “My mother’s dead, Charlotte.” He told her as he sat right beside her and stared at the black screen in front of him.

Charlotte looked at Joseph and apologized, she should’ve known. Though it really was a while since last time she had spent time with Joseph. “Nah…” he replied, and was about to continue with an explanation of some sort before a chime rang. The two came quiet as Joseph’s father came to view. “Ah, you’re home.” The new arrival greeted. He quickly noticed Charlotte, and glared at his son, “Your girlfriend?” Joseph was quick to deny, and Charlotte was similar in saying yes. The man laughed out loud and kicked at the cans in his way as he walked by. “Awh, and I thought I was going to have a probable daughter-in-law soon.” He teased, and began to start rambling about how he knew Joseph had a thing for intellectuals.
Joseph slapped himself mentally – he knew this was going to happen. “This four-eyed girl isn’t and will NEVER be my girlfriend. Not on her life!” He exclaimed. Joseph really began to curse his teacher for all this trouble. Surely, this day will mark itself as the day when his father began terrorizing him again. Charlotte frowned, “There’s no need to overreact, ‘seph.” She said, crossing her arms and turning then to his father. “Actually, his teacher sent me here because of his failing grades.” She passed the failed test paper to the older man; causing Joseph to flinch. Joseph could almost swear he saw his father glaring at him for a moment, and he was already preparing himself for whatever scolding he was about to get. His father though, looked over the exam paper and calmly placed it on the messed up coffee table. “Hnn, 60 eh? That’s better than last week. What was it… a 40?”

“…48 out of 100, Dad.” One thing was sure: Joseph was doomed.

“I See.” His father said, yawning. He looked like he was not in the mood to get mad, tonight, so Joseph just sighed – he was lucky today. He couldn’t get any luckier when Charlotte nudged at him lightly. “Where’s your room?”

“It’s not ready.” Charlotte nudged him again, “Fine! It’s on the left side of the hallway.”

After excusing themselves from the now silent living room, Joseph was dragged over to his room. It was actually quite neat for a boy’s room – and led Charlotte to conclude that it was Joseph’s father that was responsible for the mess in the living room. “So your dad’s a couch potato, eh?”

“Worse.” Joseph added, “And now I’ll get blackmailed! Thanks a lot.” He thanked her with outmost sarcasm. Life was indeed headed for quite a ride; he could feel it in his bones. Charlotte hopped on the bed, laying down with her hands behind her head for support. It was quite unladylike, but she didn’t bother. Joseph raised an eyebrow. “What are you doing on my bed?

“What do you think…?” she asked back. Joseph just went to the other side of the room, opening his closet for clothes. He was planning on changing before he started anything. “No. For whatever it is you’re thinking.”

“Awh.” Charlotte said, sitting up. Few of her top’s buttons had loosened from lying down and that didn’t make Joseph very happy. In fact, he never knew that Charlotte was liberated enough not to mind. “Am I making you uncomfortable?” She winked.

“No, but you’re disgusting.” He told her, slightly blushing as he took his clothes and headed for the door. “Stay here and don’t touch anything. Ya hear!?” Joseph left the room with a big slam. Charlotte was left inside the room, laughing lightly at Joseph’s primary reaction to her seduction. But she figured he had much more self-control than most would allow themselves to see. ‘Guess he’s not what I’m looking for.’ She thought, closing her blouse’s buttons before she looked around.

She noticed a mirror just on the closet door and smiled. What delight it was to find something showing man’s great delight over his own appearance. The mirror was the ultimate symbol of Man’s vanity. “Master…” Charlotte muttered to herself, a hand now at the cold plate of glass.

[narakunohana]

Meanwhile, Joseph had finished taking his quick bath and was now carrying a basket of this week’s laundry down the stairs and onto the back of the apartment for washing later on. He sometimes hated the fact that he was tons more responsible than his drunken, cigarette-run Father. The only thing supporting him right now was the part-time job he was doing every weekend. Ok, it wasn’t a part time job. He took it into himself to become a Library assistant in the City Library just on the next block. The pay wasn’t much, but it got him through life for the past few years – plus free education from the government.

Joseph’s reminiscent thoughts were haltered with a slight squeak of the door, and when his father took the heavy load from his arms. “’seph, Lemme help you with that.” He offered, though forcefully taking the basket. Joseph sighed; it was about time he got help! Though, this was pretty unusual. His father should be watching TV and eating potato chips, and now he’s here helping Joseph out for once in years! “Ah, the weeks load of laundry. Those were the days.” His father started, setting the basket near the door towards the laundry area. Joseph was puzzled though, and waited for his father to continue talking – His father got the message.

“Your… mother used to carry this kind of load around, kinda makes me… miss her.” He admitted, now staring at the apron hanging on the wall. It was slightly covered with cobwebs as it hadn’t been touched for as long as it’s owner laid on the cemetery. Well, not as if Joseph was waiting for his mother to rise from the dead or anything. But the pain of remembering it was something else…

“Yeah,” Joseph replied, a similar air of sadness reeking from the teenager’s usually annoyed expression. “I… Me too, honestly.”

Joseph’s father smirked and sat down on a chair. His back was obviously getting to him, and that was just one of the many wonders of aging. “Eh, you shouldn’t. She’ll always be right there with you.”

His son would look at him quizzically, eying him as if squeezing an answer out of him. “Well,” he started, “When… people die, their body decomposes and the soul goes who knows where… and their heart is left with those they love.” Joseph’s eyes widened, was this really his father talking? Was he sick? Possessed? This was too – freaky - to be true.

“One day, I’ll be gone too,” He continued, growing more solemn with each word as if saying his goodbyes, “… and then I’ll be with you.” Joseph blinked and shrugged off the words. He shouldn’t be so affected in such dramatic gibberish. He had more things to worry about, like that test next week.

“Don’t get all dramatic with me,” Joseph spat, though obviously hiding that he was worried about his father.

“Heh, wait… are you procrastinating on your girlfriend or something?”

“… She. Isn’t. My. Girlfriend.”

“Nevertheless, it’s not polite to keep a girl waiting. Give her something to drink.” Joseph blinked at the idea. Yeah, maybe it was a good idea to get that Charlotte a drink, then maybe she’d shut up with all that sugar making her throat itch. He took a couple of sodas and headed back upstairs, glancing one last time at his father as the man stared the old apron down. What was with him?

Joseph shrugged the thought off, and turned the handle to his room’s doorknob. Things suddenly didn’t feel right. Something was wrong. He heard murmurs of more than Charlotte’s voice in the room. He creaked it open slightly and pressed his ear against the space to get a good hear of the conversation.

“Take care of him,” the male voice said, “We need to feed our master.”

“Will do.” It was then when Joseph decided to intrude. He though, only found his former classmate standing in front of his mirror as if in a heavy trance. “Master?” he asked out loud. Charlotte panicked at the sound of his voice and laughed nervously.

“J-Just practicing lines!” she told him.

Joseph shrugged and threw a clan of soda towards his tutor. “You’re no Drama club member!”

“That’s NONE of your business!” She retorted, throwing the large hardbound math book onto the poor boy’s face. Joseph winced as he caught the heavy book with his hands just as it fell from his face. “Pages 13 to 36. Read and solve!” She said WHAT?

“19 PAGES?!” He shouted out in disbelief. What she wanted to do was impossible! Those were all the pages of the advanced Trigonometry chapters, and a dozen of them were chapter tests. Charlotte looked so proud of herself and just laughed, walking towards the door.

“Of course,” she said. “I’ll walk outside for the moment. All this dust’s making my asthma act up.” And with that she left the room and headed outside the apartment. It was now dusk, and unfortunately – or rather, fortunately - for Charlotte, the street lights on this side of the street were beginning to get dim and obviously needed replacement. The government knew better than to reserve the money for simple streetlights for their pleasures, but humanity is indeed something to feel sorry for. The teenager took a deep breath, but with all these trees- why does the air smell like-

“What are you doing here?” Joseph’s father asked. Charlotte was taken aback by her rival’s father’s ‘sudden appearance, but knew better than to scream at this time of night.

“Just getting some fresh air… Though, “ she trailed off, beginning to cough lightly, “I see you’re a smoker?”

“Ah, one of the last few pleasures I had since Joseph’s Mother died.” This made Charlotte’s eyes sparkle somehow. It slightly freaked the man out.

“Do… you know that most of what Humans enjoy are not good for them?”

Joseph’s father merely laughed, “Ah, I’ll try quitting, ‘kay kid? Just give me a few more sticks.”

That was the answer Charlotte was looking for. Her eyes glowed red with fury and sparks of electricity then began to engulf her, transforming her into a deformed demon and shredding her human clothes away as her demonic form had no more use for them. Joseph’s father fell to the ground in shock. What did he just do!? He couldn’t remember anymore. His fear had gotten the best of him and he shook madly right there and then.

As the creature transformed from the innocent-looking lady to the fiendish demon in front of him, he tried his best to stay calm and run away. But for some reason his feet wouldn’t heed his orders, nor was he able to take his eyes away from the demon. The hellish creature gripped the man by the neck and began to choke him. “What…in…”

“Pity those who have no control.” It said, as it’s free arm then covered the man’s mouth, “They will rot in the darkness of my master’s stomach.” His eyes shot open as he then felt something rise from his chest, and as it rose he began to numb. He watched as the demon’s hands left his mouth to give way to the light escaping from him, but as the warmth in his chest began rising towards his head, he felt an inexplicable pain. A pain indescribable by words of man; and he screamed.

Meanwhile, Joseph was busy being frustrated with the math problems ‘Charlotte’ had given him. It had been a good 3 minutes – and being himself, he found himself having problems solving the first question. “To hell with this crap!” he said, throwing his solution paper on the trash. “That Charlotte, always making me crazy with her sadistic nonsense.”

He then heard a scream; a deafening one at that, as if it was from so much pain. Joseph acted upon impulse and ran as fast as his legs brought him towards the sound. He gasped when he opened the door and saw his Father’s limp and motionless body on the ground. “Father!” He cried, running towards the man who he probably didn’t look up to… but definitely cared for. Joseph held him in his arms, if he was dead, why is he so warm?

“No use shaking him, you fool.” A voice rang behind him. Joseph went to look at the owner of the strange voice. There stood the demon that attacked his father. He shuddered lightly, and fought inwardly to try to speak at the malevolent creature. “What… in…”

The creature huffed a breath, as if it couldn’t speak. Behind the creature was a dark shadow, eyes lit yellow with mystery. The shadow stroked the demon’s fur, and it would purr in reply to the calming. “Y-you’re… demons!” he concluded, from the horns on the silhouette and on the creature. Speaking of Charlotte, he brought himself to look around a bit more, noticing shreds of what was used to be Charlotte’s uniform. “Wh-What have you done to my father and Charlotte!?”

The shadow moved lightly, as if it was taken aback by the young man’s show of bravery. Truth be told, the kid shouldn’t even be able to see him. “It is amazing that you can see me, child.” He said; his voice sinister as evil could go. Joseph shuddered, the voice alone brought the hairs on the back of his head to stand, and his knees to shudder and weaken. “And for that feat, I’ll give you your answer.”

The Shadow looked at Joseph hard, as if peering into his soul and searching for any sign of sin. “Charlotte. Charlotte is right here. Her real name… is Warp.” He said, stroking the demon again, “She is my pet, my grim reaper… my death-bringer, a demon whose job is to search out those who have sinned far great, and bring it to my master’s presence.”

“Your master?” Joseph queried, his curiosity subduing his fear for a bit. “W-who’s this .. master?”
“Do you have the courage to say his name if I told you?” The demon replied, “Your father’s soul will be taken to him, and he will be punished for his carnalities in the pit of my master’s stomach.” Warp began to eye Joseph, and pull forward towards the terrified mortal, but seemed to be held in place by the shadow. “Mmm… warp seems, to have taken interest in you.” He told Joseph. Somehow Joseph felt that ‘interest’ part wasn’t good. “Do you know that she hasn’t eaten anything for the past 500 years?”

Joseph knew it. He was going to be demon-food if he didn’t get away. He crawled back towards the door, glancing one last time at his father’s ‘dead’ body.

Then came the words that Joseph feared. “Get him.”

Joseph stood quickly and ran towards the door and inside his home, not even minding the shadow that had disappeared just as it released the demon. A chase then went on between the man and beast, the two toppling the living room furniture and breaking the fragile china that once was kept carefully beside the dining table. Now, the two were on either side of the table – circling each other with the table as the barrier that set the two apart.

‘Think, Think!’ Joseph thought fast, if there was any moment that he needed smarts, this was it. He looked around for any possible escape route and saw the stairs – but the creature blocked his way. Going under the table was more like suicide – and was a stupid option to start with. “Get out of my way!” Joseph ordered in dire frustration, throwing towards warp the first thing that he had taken from the kitchen counter – a glass bottle filled with vinegar.

The monster screamed in agony as the glass shattered on impact with it’s head, and as the acidic liquid made contact with red flaming eyes. “JOooooosEeeeEpHH!”

The brunette teenager took warp’s disorientation to his advantaged and took the remaining leg of a chair to the demon’s right flank, letting the demon fall to the ground in painful agony.

Joseph then took the opportunity and headed upstairs, entering the first room that he saw – his father’s bedroom. He took whatever spare time he had to lock the door and pushed his father’s rather heavy wooden closet to block it – next came a chair and was about to pull his father’s bed when the door shook. It looked like his assault on the imp made it even angrier.

“JoOoooSePH COmE OUuuuUUtTT!” It growled as it continued ramming on the poor door. Joseph meanwhile pushed against the closet with his back.

“Damn, this door won’t hol-“ The young man wasn’t even allowed to finish what he was telling himself – The door exploded and threw Joseph back onto the wall of the room, as well as what remained of the closet and it’s contents.