Chapter 4. Truths
"FLESHIE!" The cries rang out through the halls and ricocheted back in a chorus of other student's and staff's voices. Ashia squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, trying to collect and ready herself, and then walked as slowly and calmly as she could toward the entrance to the school. All she needed was space for all the creatures to gather around her, and her amulet to show them the truth.
Her fangs were gone. Her skin was no longer pale, but a smooth, more natural looking white. Even her cape had been left behind... She saw no use in wearing it if she was no longer a vampire, for the time being. After all, like this, she was powerless, unable to use any of her powers; including the ability to become a bat, and that was the power the cape usually seemed to signify. Still, she wore the same outfit as usual, her hair was the same, and her eyes had remained their usual blood ruby red... She was still Ashia, she just... Wasn't a creature anymore.
She found it harder and harder to keep at reasonable pace as she heard her classmates hurry in her direction. Cold sweat beaded her forehead, and she almost bolted, but she finally turned to her own personal last resort...
She turned it into a matter of pride.
Ashia wasn't perfect, and she knew that. But it gave her a sense of stony satisfaction when she was able to turn her own weaknesses into tools. And while she didn't usually care much what others thought about her, save her friends and family, she DID care about letting others see her back down. No one called Ashia Marie Kyrier a coward! No one!
Determination lent her strength, and she stopped in the dead center of the entrance hall, back turned to the massive double doors. She waiting a little impatiently now for the others to arrive and form their customary circle around her. The students of the Scare School closed in on her, tightly locking her in a prison with living (or not so living) bars. It wasn't really necessary, but they didn't know that. Ashia felt as though her heart would burst, or she would faint, but no, by some miracle she managed to maintain her consciousness. (She wasn't really the type to faint, anyway.) She kept her cool, on the outside where it mattered. Show weakness to creatures and they WILL take advantage, she reminded herself. Unless they were Casper...
"What's your name, fleshie? And how did you get in our school?" Demanded Dash, while Alder just stared like the idiot he was. Quite frankly, they both were, but Dash was the idiot who assumed authority.
"I was already here, and you already know my name," Stated Ashia calmly, though inside she wasn't half so collected. Of course, this only served to confuse the headmasters further, and this didn't please them.
"Listen, fleshie, you'd better start making sense, or we'll turn you into stone here and now! I said, what is your name and how did you get into our school?"
"Get the gargoylite!" Thatch urged excitedly, much to her annoyance. She noted with satisfaction that Casper, Mantha, and Ra threw glares at the vampire, even though he remained oblivious.
"My uncle brought me, stupid, how else would I get here?" To herself, she thought, "I'm playing with them! My life is in danger and I'm playing with them!" Well, by now, Dash was practically red with rage, and he shouted a little as he repeated, harshly,
"WHAT is your name?"
"My name is Ashia Marie Kyrier. I am Kibosh's niece," She grinned at their astonished faces. "Hey guys!" Slowly, shock wore away into disbelief and then rage.
"You aren't Kibosh's niece!" Alder yelled.
"Impossible!" Dash agreed. Thatch stepped forward menacingly.
"If you're Ashia, then prove it! Turn into a bat, or walk through that wall!" She snarled at the smug still-vampire.
"Idiot. Rememberwhattimeofmonthitis?"
"It's the full moon! But wait... Is it possible? Can it really be...?" Casper gasped.
"Ashia?"
"Her amulet..." Mantha said quietly. All eyes turned to the girl's neck, and she smiled, reached up, and displayed the precious talisman proudly for all to see.
"So it is you, Ashia!" She nodded.
"Yes. You see? This is what moonlight does to me!"
"I still don't believe it," Huffed Thatch.
"Batboy, when I get my powers back a week from now, you better lock your coffin tight and pray for mercy, 'cause I know EXACTLY where you sleep!"
"A WEEK?" Everyone gasped. Ashia sighed.
"Yes, a week. The amulet can shorten it to only two days, but as long as I'm not in any immediate danger, Uncle K says I'm not to use it. The moonlight stays in my system longer, that's all. Werewolves are actually pretty resistant to moonlight... It's only when the moon's rays are strongest that when it affects them...But I'm not entirely werewolf, so the moonlight has an easy way in... And not such an easy way out,"
"What do you mean, 'easy way in'?" Mantha asked.
"Most things are only able to deflect moonlight, not absorb it, like werewolves do. It makes them stronger, but it is also too much... They lose control because they're overwhelmed by it. Only those who are very well practiced and wise, powerful experts in the field, are able to resist and retain their control and memory... Because normally, the moonlight controls the mind, body, and memory during the full moon, and the fact that it can be resisted at all is a little known fact," She paused, and looked thoughtful before adding, "Come to think of it, that's something Wolfie will want to know; he'd probably try it out next month... Two results for two experiments in a single night!" She smiled and laughed, clapping her hands in front of herself with glee.
"But then if the rest of us can't absorb moonlight like you and Wolfie, then how come we all had our personalities switched during his LAST moonlight experiment?" A creature girl with long hair and three eyes asked shyly; Triclops.
"Good question; see, anything can be affected by moonlight, it's omnipotent. But normally, the sheer amount of moonlight, and the energy caused by it, required to affect the rest of you would shatter the Earth. The only way it was able to do what it did was because it entered all of your bodies in one quick, penetrating shockwave. Otherwise... The entire planet would have already been obliterated," Ashia had difficulty restraining her laughter at all of their shocked and horrified faces. She'd already come to terms with the fact, after all it was in the past, and now it was all the others' turn.
"Obliterated?" Mosshead asked meekly. Ashia nodded, and proceeded to explain the concept to the simple minded creature male in a way she knew any friend of Thatch's would be able to understand...
"Obliterated... BOOM!" She made a hand gesture with both hands mimicking an explosion. The swamp creature gulped.
"Oh," He squeaked. She almost felt bad for making the guy look like an idiot, especially given her own current appearance. He really wasn't that stupid, he just was simply not the brightest, either. He'd had the unfortunate bad luck to be outsmarted by the bully who was Thatch. And really, she knew he must have his reasons, too, but from where she was standing, they could not be reason enough to act the way he did. To act... Like Thatch. After all, Thatch's life was pretty well off. Pampered only child, perhaps?
"Headmasters Alder and Dash?"
"Er, yes?" It was clear to everyone that it really was Ashia, because in their minds, only Ashia seemed to know everything the way this girl did. Thus, they were indeed, one and the same.
"Can I go to class now?"
"O-of course! To class, all of you!" Dash called, shooing them all away with a single tentacle.
"And no smiling!" Alder added. "Or laughter! We hate laughter!" Ashia HAD to smile at that as she passed by, (though to her annoyance she wasn't punished or even told off for it,) on her way to her first period. Some things never changed, and apparently, Alder and Dash were prime examples of that. Not particularly genius, or even compatible with one another for that matter, but stable enough. As Uncle K would put it, they were "balanced." Sigh. How he loved his precious balance... This was why it was so ironic that he always used to rant and go on and on about Casper as well as Thatch all the time. Casper was understandable, because he saw so much of himself in him and he had saved the world and preserved the balance, but on the other hand, Thatch had at least been an accomplice of the very creatures who had very nearly destroyed it! Granted, he also had not FIRED those two creatures yet, miraculously... Though he had done so temporarily in the case of Master Blister, whom had replaced the two headed headmasters until it was proven they were best for the school. Also... Uncle K got bored without them around.
The rest of the day was uneventful, as was the week that followed. If only there were words to describe the look on Wolfie's face both when he saw her as a fleshie and when she told him he might control moonlight instead of it being the other way around, she mused. She still didn't like the way everyone besides her friends skirted around her in the hallways and avoided her gaze; well, all except for the staff and Thatch, who made a point out of staring right at her whenever she turned around. It was frustrating, but with the help of her new companions, she got by.
And the first thing she did when she woke up with her powers and vampire form restored, was drop a temporarily invisible book on an unsuspecting Thatch's head.
(Well, now you know the truth... or at least, part of it. *Grins evilly* That's right! The story is far from finished yet... As I said before, this will be a *short* series. This chapter and the majority of the next are different in that I didn't just type them up... I was in California for close to a week, so instead of typing I hand wrote these pages and then typed them up when I got back.
K T: Lol, you were right! Wow. ;]
cant think of a name right now: Whoa thanks! I actually WAS planning on putting her in other stories, but they aren't as big as this one... Meaning as important. But I'm glad you like her! And now you know. X3)
