Rain fell and thunder crackled as Feferi Peixes knelt beside the grave, her tears adding to the splatter of the downpour. The weather was the perfect backdrop for the sadness that she felt, looking at the headstone. It had happened too fast, and it had been too much for the girl to handle, losing her best friend like that. No matter how much she looked at Eridan's headstone, she just couldn't get her heart over what had happened. She kept crying, not stopping until she felt a single hand on her shoulder, and she turned her head up to see who it was.
"Hello little girl."
The man that stood there was...oddly proportioned. His smile was literally larger than his face, stretching down a good foot and a half beneath his chin. His top hat was similarly large, resting on top of his large, elf-like ears. The glasses on his nose rested in a way that hid his eyes perfectly. He was dressed in a large white suit that hugged his rotund form, and a pink umbrella was resting on one shoulder.
"How would you like your friend back from that detestable God?"
John tapped one foot on the floor of the classroom, watching the teacher as he explained algebra. The material was nothing too special, but the day was different. There were two empty seats in the classroom, and the class felt...different. The entire feel of the classroom was off, and everybody could feel it. They had all been affected by Eridan, it was a terrible thing. But Feferi had taken it the hardest of all, it made sense that she wasn't there. But it didn't make her empty seat any less empty. John kept taking an occasional glance, just to make sure that she didn't just reappear suddenly.
Mr. Teacher man was just getting into the basics of squared variables, when the sound of an opening door caught the attention of everyone in the room. Not a single pair of eyes was still on the paper when they looked up, at the familiar dark-haired form that was Feferi. Even the teacher stood up and went over to the girl. John, being one of her closest friends, was the first to break the silence. "Fef? You feeling better?"
"Yeah, are you alright?"
"You looked really sad yesterday!"
The crowd was quickly aflutter with talk now that the silence had been broken, but Feferi kept it, her face expressionless as everyone talked around her. The chatter went on for a good five minutes without a single word from her, before they noticed her silence and began to get worried. "Hey, Feferi? Are you sure you're OK?"
She finally reacted, turning her head towards John, her voice as expressionless as her face. "...yes. I'm alright. I'm much, much better now." Her eyes twitched a little with these words, filling John's heart with an odd feeling of dread. Something was wrong, very very wrong, but he couldn't put his finger on it! It ended up being his saving grace. Just as he was backing away, her face finally broke the stone, the grin becoming wide and devilish. Her face and body inflated, the skin ripping and changing into a gray hide. Dozens of black gunbarrels grew from it, as her face stretched out, the grin never leaving. The final result was a large, floating ball, with the face staring into the children-and-teacher's eyes.
The room was dead silent, the shock was more than any of them could stand. They still tried to match the monstrosity before them to the image of Fef, smiling and laughing just the day before. How could this have happened? Actually, none of them had a clue. They were still stuck on the "Holy mother of god there is a giant floating...thing in the classroom!" state. Finally, the silence was broken by a scream from one of the students, and the shock was gone, they all turned and tried to run.
The thing that once was Feferi pointed it's gunbarrels, blasts of light coming from them as they fired at the crowd. John ducked for cover, the chair he had been in front of being obliterated before his eyes. One of the large bullets grazed his shoe, slightly, before embedding into the floor. He gasped, the sudden heat from it was excruciating. Luckily for him, it didn't get a direct shot, he didn't know it at the time though. He hid there for a few seconds, while the sound of the cannons slowly quieted, before he peeked his head out.
The head-ball-gun-THING was still there, staring blankly with it's maniacal grin. The walls of the classroom, which had earlier been a pristine white, were now speckled lightly with red. A dead silence rested over the room, as the thing slowly turned and floated out of the classroom. John creeped out from behind the desk, covering his mouth, trying not to vomit as he saw his classmates, or, what had been his classmates. The blood had splattered from the gun wound, and small black stars were found around the wounds. As John watched, the stars slowly began to spread, and soon hundreds of little pentagrams were all across all of them. Within two minutes, their skin was turned pure black by the markings, and with that the bodies collapsed into dust, the venom of the bullets had done its job. John checked his watch. Five minutes. It had been five minutes since the demon had come in, and in that time it had killed everyone.
As John slowly crept over the top of what was left of the class, when he was about halfway across the room, he stiffened as a new batch of screams came at him from down the hall. It had found another classroom. He cleared what was left of the room in one leap, heading down the hall towards the screaming. It wasn't his fault, but that thing was still Feferi. He had to be able to reason with it, or something! He followed the sounds of the screams, up until they stopped, and he just followed the trail of gently-dripping blood. It went outside, so that's where John went.
John burst through the doors to the outside, skidding to a sudden stop. The thing was floating there in the middle of the school yard, and in front of it was another girl. She made an odd sight, just there in the middle of the field, her black dress waving slightly in the wind. Her blouse bore an odd insignia, like a star with many points. She was standing up to the thing, not a single ounce of fear in her bright green eyes. The thing turned and locked every gun barrel onto her.
"NO! What are you doing?! Are you absolutely bonkers in the head? It's going to kill you! RUN!" He tried to yell at her, but his cries were drowned out by the sound of the guns going off, and...the sound of jumping. The girl had flipped backwards, not a single bullet had made it's mark. She landed, turning on her heels, pulling from somewhere some kind of rifle. She dropped to one knee, brought the sights to her eye, aimed, and fired. It didn't shoot a bullet, instead it was a round of white light, which pierced the thing straight between it's unblinking eyes. Time stood still for an instant, before it exploded, black and white light mixed with a fine amount of thick dust, coating everything in a thin layer of it.
John coughed, covering his mouth to keep from breathing in...Feferi? Not a very cheery thought. He slowly opened his eyes again, after the dust had settled. The mystery girl had returned the rifle to her Strife deck, and was kneeling in the dust where it had been. She stood up as she heard John walk towards her. "What was the name?"
He blinked a few times. "...huh?"
"The Akuma. It looked like a person before it changed, right? What was its name?"
"Oh! Her name was Feferi..."
"I'm sorry to say, but she's gone now. I'm sorry for your loss." With that, she turned and began to walk away.
John stood there dumbfounded for a good ten seconds before he began to run to catch up. "Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey! Don't you walk away! You are going to explain what just happened! At least...tell me your name!"
She stopped, turning lightly on one heel to face John again. "My name is Jade Harley, and I'm one of the Generals of the Black Order. Our mission is to kill Akuma, creatures born out of human suffering. And I'm very, very sorry for what happened. Feferi must have been very sad to have had this happen."
She began to walk away, but something made Jade stop. She moved one hand to her waist, slipping it into one pocket. It closed around something there, and her eyes widened a little. "Could it be...?" She muttered silently to herself, before turning on her heel once more.
"Have you ever thought about...becoming an Exorcist?"