~*~MONDAY~*~
People liked to be right. There was something about being correct after a long argument or grudge that was oh-so satisfying about being right. Power came with being right. People trust you, and come to you for advice because, well, you're right. Why wouldn't they trust you? People like that. People like being right, and sometimes fight tooth and nail to be right.
Then there were times where people didn't want to be right. For example, Spinelli at this current moment in time. Slinging her backpack over her shoulder, she walked out of her house, ready to, reluctantly, head to school. That was stalled for a minute when she spotted TJ standing outside, waiting for her, which was fine. They often walked to school together simply because their houses were so close together. Nothing out of the usual there, you know, except the giant bruise covering the entire left side of his face and neck.
"You look like you got hit by a truck!" She said, walking up to him. She reached out to him, but he flinched back. She didn't blame him, it had to hurt. The area around his eye was swollen, making it a bit hard for him to see, and various areas were different colors.
"Thanks, Spin. That really makes me feel better."
"I don't mean it like that, Teej. It just looks really bad. You couldn't even cover this up with makeup, and that's coming from me of all people!"
"I know. I tried," He said. "It ended up looking worse."
"Is it just your face?"
"I wish it was," said TJ. He followed Spinelli as they made their way to the school. "That would make today a lot easier. How do you think the rest of the gang is going to react?"
"With them not knowing how you got the words biggest bruise? It'll be a million times worse than the time you came in with that shiner."
"I'm really not looking forward to today," said TJ. "We have gym and we're playing dodgeball."
"Then sit out, no one's gonna blame you when you come in looking like that. Coach might even make you sit out, anyways." TJ nodded as they approached the school. He hoped that my some impossible chance that the others wouldn't notice, but knew that it wasn't going to happen. The wind itself reminded him of the bruised when it hit his face, causing the slightest bit of pain. The two of them spotted the others standing near the bike racks.
"Staying home sounds like a really good idea now that I'm here…."
"Too late to turn back, now."
"What happened to your face, TJ?" Gus asked his when they all came up to the pair.
"Another square dancing accident?" Vince teased. Everyone let out a good laugh, though Spinelli's and Tj's were filled with a bit of nervousness for knowing the real reason behind the bruise.
"No, not square dancing this time. I, uh, fell down the stairs," TJ said. "From the top of it, too. It hurts really bad."
"How did you manage to fall down the stairs?"
"I dunno. It was a freak accident, I guess. I'mjust lucky I didn't break anything," He said. Their conversation continued after the bell rang and they head inside. Spinelli was the only one who noticed the slight wince in every step TJ made. As they walked through the halls, students noticed, and a few asked what happened to cause such a horrific bruise. He told them the same lie he told the gang before reaching the class.
During class, she couldn't help but sneak glances at him, noticing that the simple task of writing required a break of a few seconds to avoid severe pain. About halfway through the class, Spinelli heard a low grumbling sound, and quickly figured out that it was coming from TJ. She poked him, on his right side of course, and he turned to face her. The sound stopped instantly, and she bushed it off (read: was incredibly thankful) as a false alarm.
When recess came, the group settled on sitting in the cheese blocks, both to keep from doing anything that could hurt TJ or make thr bruises worse and to avoid being asked a ton of questions about what happened. He made sure to sit next to Spinelli and carefully snuck kisses on her cheek in the rare moment when everyone else wasn't looking.
"I'd punch you if I didn't feel bad for you," She whispered to him.
"I know," He said. "You're supposed to feel bad for me."
When recess ended, it was time for gym, and they went separate ways to their respective lockerroom. Upon sight of the horrible brusing, the coa ch ordered TJ to sit out for that day and for however long it would take fo the bruising to go away. Before the gme started, he received a lot of sympathatic looks along with ones of jealousy from those who wish they would stay out of this game. Spinelli shot him a look reading 'I told you so' before she was picked for a team.
~*~TUESDAY~*~
Spinelli was beginning to worry. Yesterday went without incident, minus the 'growling' in class. Today, not so good, no.
Lawson had came in to school with the brace on his jaw removed, and what eager to be able to talk again. Particulary to the person who was behind the need for the brace in the first place. He came up to the group during recess, which Spinelli thought was stupid. Wouldn't you try o stay away from the kid that broke your jaw? Then again Lawson was the definition of stupid.
Lawson had asked TJ what was the big idea, beating him up a few weeks ago, over a game, no less! He kept yelling at him, and TJ didn't say anything, but held himself back from punching Lawson square in the jaw again and breaking it. At least it would shut up.
Like many other moments, Spinelli was the only one that noticed his ear flash red for a split second before going back to normal. She was tempted to knock Lawson out herself, and probably would if she wasn't on the lookout for signs like that one.
"You okay, Teej?" She asked him.
"M'fine," He mumbled.
Lawson said, "You just got lucky. If it was real fight, you wouldn't have stood a chance." It was then that Spinelli wanted to laugh until every breath was out of her body.
"Yeah, right," said TJ. "Can we go, now? I'd like to enjoy my recess."
"Whatever," Lawson said. "Just stay out of my way."
Instead of making a remark, TJ walked away, seemingly angry at the air around him. The gang followed him, asking him if he was okay. He took a deep breath or a dozen, wanting to punch the wall.
'But that might leave a dent,' he thought. He didn't notice when he started to growl out of anger, but stopped when Spinelli put a hand on his shoulder. "Lawson's being a jerk."
"But he does bring up a good point. Why did you fight him?" Gretchen asked. TJ shrugged.
"I got angry at him, so I hit him," He said. "I'll try not to do it again. C'mon, it's kinda hot out here. Let's get under the shade."
"It's hot?" Spinelli scoffed, remembering where he came from.
"Yeah, while wearing this my hat it is," He said. "And my back is starting to hurt…"
They they all reached the side of the school, they all were thankful to get out of the sun. After a few minutes of talking, a dodgeball bounced over and landed near them. TJ reached out and picked it up, but tossed it to Vince to keep himself from throwing it to the back of Lawson's head. He rubbed his shoulder blade and leaned forward to try and ease the pain, hoping that his wings didn't decide to suddenly come in.
With everyone outside as a witness, that would whomp, big time. But he knew in the back o his mind that he wouldn't be calm enough to think in the first place. It was probably just growing pains…
He stretched and felt his spine pop in response. It didn't stop the pain but it made it more bareable for the time being. When he was asked if he was alright, he laughed and blamed the pain on his supposed fall down the stairs. The rest of the day went raher smoothly, save for the few moments that Spinelli had to stop him from growling before anyone else noticed.
~*~Wednesday~*~
When Wednesday came, Spinelli made sure to stand right next TJ went e came in with a murderous look on his face. A select few of the students that they passed on their way through the halls received that glare (Lawson included). Though, she had to give him credit. If she had been giving people that look, she would've eventually punched something.
She watched from the corner of her eye as he clentched and unclentched his fists, and his eye flash red quick enough to be called a trick of the light. It was then that she thought, 'today's gonna be the day.'
But she was beginning to think that she was wrong when class began. He calmed considerably when the lecture began, and she was thankful for that. Class was cut short however when an announcement for all he teachers to bring their students into the lunchroom without any sort of explaination.
"What do you think is going on?" Gus asked as they walked.
"I'm not sure. I can't think of any reason they would have all the students come to the lunchroom," said Gretchen. "If it were some sort of presentaton, then they would send us to the autotorium, not the lunchroom." When they reached the lunchroom, they saw that it was already packed. Some of the teachers were working together to carefully pile the lunchtables against the windows and the door to the kitchen.
"Maybe Menlo knows something, he's in the office most of the time," Said Mikey.
"Yeah, you're right, Mikey," Said Vince. "Where is he, though?"
"Over there, under the stairs," Gus pointed out. They walked over to Menlo, who was writing away on a clipboard. He looked up when the groups shadow partically blocked out the light.
"Hey Menlo, do you know what all this is about?" Spinelli asked.
"Yes. Apparently there has been a large number of sightings of those monsters about twenty minutes ago. The authorites has instucted everyone to stay where they were. We're trying to bunker down the best we can until we're told it's okay to come out."
"I thought they were all gone," Said Vince.
"Me too. I just hope this get taken care of. We could be stuck here for hours," Said Menlo. They all looked around. The windows and doors were all blocked with tables, and the teachers were working on quieting the kids. It took a few minutes, but soon most of the students were leaning against the wall of sitting on the floor. The gang was lucky enough to get one of the few tables that wasn't used to baracade the walls.
"Anybody wanna take bets on how long we're gonna be stuck in here?" Vince asked.
"I hope we get out before school ends," Said Gus.
"Maybe, but remember, they come out at night, too," Said Gretchen. "There's a good chance we could be here overnight."
"Aren't you gonna do something," Spinelli whispered to TJ. He was laying his head in his arms on the table due to the pain in his back.
"Do what? My back hurts too much to do anything," TJ said. "How would I get out here anyways? We should just wait, they don'tlike being out in the sun for too long. Besides, I don't feel good." The conversation going on in the group paused when he crawled and laid on the table.
"You okay there, Teej?" Vince asked.
"No," He answered. He took off his jacket and let it fall to the floor. "Not feeling good."
"You six! Quiet!" They heard Ms. Finster yell at them, ending their conversation. Whit not being able to talk, things quickly became boring. The choice of things to do to pass time became limited to watching dust, counting tiles on the floor and roof, and doing homework, all things no one really wanted to do. Except homework for Gretchen, but she already had a head start on that.
It stayed quiet for an incredibly long hour, and just about everyone was about to figuratively die of boredom. Then, a low growling sound was heard. Right when she heard the sound, Spinelli head shot up like a spring. While the others were looking around for the source of the sound, she got out of her seat and walked to the edge of the table, and tried shaking him to get his attention. When the growling got louder, and she got a better look at his face, she saw that his eyes were completely red. She stepped back. She had only expected his irises to be red, like all the other times before. As the growling got louder, the others tuned around and realized that it was coming from their friend.
"Hey, TJ, can you stop? You're starting to freak us out," Vince said. He placed and hand on TJ's shoulder, and a split second later, TJ snapped at him, baring his fangs. Vince as quick enough to move away, saving himself from a nasty bite. He turned back around and laid on the table again, clawing at the surface.
"I wouldn't do that," Spinelli said. "Not if you like being on one piece."
"You know what's going on with him?"
Spinelli nodded. "Yeah, but don't freak out okay? It's gonna get weird—" She was cut off when TJ slammed his palm on the table, gaining the attention of everyone around them. She walked over to where she was sitting and picked up her backpack. She shifted through it and found the white bottle that Amy had given her.
"Spinelli, do you mind explaining this to us?" Gretchen asked.
"In a minute. This is sort of an emergency," She said. The growling started to get louder, and TJ, now on his hands and knees, arched his back and closed his eyes in pain. The growling stopped, but a split second later, a pair of bat-like wings shot out of his back. His wings flapped involuntarily, and then slouched. He panted from the massive amount of pain before lying back down on the table and pass out.
"Is….is he okay?" Gus asked.
"Uh-huh…he's fine," said Spinelli. She pulled back to torn shreds of the back of his shirt to get a better look. The area around the base of his wings were red and swollen, but nowhere near the amount of damage she expected. "Just don't come near him yet." For a moment, she wondered if she should take his cap off. The damage was done, it wasn't like things could possibly get worse what with the entire school seeing him sprout wings. She just hope TJ had a plan just in case something like this happened. She hesitated for a second, but took the hat off, allowing his horns and tails to be exposed.
Reaching inside her backpack again, she took out the white bottle Amy had given her. She tossed the bag aside and unscrewed the top. Inside was a red, almost translucent cream. Scooping a little onto her finger, she found that it was cold to the touch, and that it changed color from red to purple. Sitting down, she started to put around the base of his wings, noticing how, almost instantly, the swelling went away. A few moments later, she and the other watched as TJ tried to get up, but ultimately failed as he fell back onto the table again.
"You okay there, Teej?" She asked, not expecting much of an answer. TJ managed to push himself off the table and flapped his wings. He looked over to her, bared his fangs and hissed at her. When she didn't even flinch, he spread his wings, making himself look much larger than he actually was. Before he could attack, she reached up, and rubbed the area around the base of his horns. He stopped, and by the look in his eyes, Spinelli could tell that he was seeing is she was a threat. She pulled away, hoping that he wouldn't attack, and he didn't. Instead, he moved to sit on the table crossed legged, while keeping an eye on Spinelli.
~*~ODAW~*~
"Where do I start," She asked herself. It had taken a lot of convincing to get them to sit at the table again, and she couldn't blame them, what with their friend suddenly sprouting wings, horns, and tails. It didn't help that whenever they got three steps away from the table that he stared and hissed at them, but he didn't make any move to actually hurt them. When they finally did sit down, he only moved to sit closer to Spinelli. "Remember when he was acting weird and avoiding us? This is why. He said that his horns were growing in and he didn't want us to know about this. I found out the day we all split up to find him, and he asked me not to tell you guys about it, so I didn't. He looked really upset that I found out. He came to my house later and explained it. What did he say he was….an incubus. He said he was an incubus."
"What's an incubus?" Gus asked, now missing his glasses.
"What happen to your glasses, Gus?" Vince asked.
"TJ took them and he won't give them back," Said Gus. They all looked up at their friend and saw that he was holding Gus's glasses, looking at them as if they were something fascinating and new. Since he was closer to her, Spinelli reached up to get Gus's glasses, but he quickly kept them out of her reach.
"C'mon, Teej. Gus needs those to see," She said. "Give 'em back." He simply blinked at her, not taking her seriously in any way. He then switched the glasses from his hand to being held by one of his tails. "You can't just take people's stuff like that! You know that. C'mon. Give Gus his glasses." He folded his arms and huffed at her statement. He lowered his tail enough for Gus to reach out and take them back.
"Thanks, Spinelli," Said Gus.
"Yeah, no problem," She said. "He said an Incubus was some kind of Demon. I don't know anything about that sort of stuff so I believe him."
"He's right. An incubus is a kind of demon," Said Gretchen. She was busy gathering as much information on Galileo as possible. "It's a type of demon that…err…feeds off…..affection. A female would be called a Succubus… but they're not real. They're not supposed to be real."
"Well, they're real. We have one sitting in front of us right here," said Spinelli. She tossed his hat back and forth between her hands. "And he just grew wings. How 'bout that? I'm actually surprised that he's not attacking you guys right now. The last Incubus I saw that just grew wings wanted to attack anything that came near him. They had to put a chain around his neck."
"The last one? How many are there?" asked Mikey.
"There's a whole world of them—" She was interrupted by TJ putting a finger on her lips.
"Shh! Ssshhhh! Ssshh!" He hissed. "Shhh…."
"I don't think he wants me to tell you about that," She mumbled. "You're gonna have to tell them when you get back to normal, Teej."
"Yeah, why is he acting so weird?" Vince asked. He regretted asking when he gained TJ's attention and he stared him down.
"It's the wings. They're new, his brain has to get used to them or something. That's what I was told. He's on autopilot right now. He'll be back to normal in an hour or two," She said. She looked down at her wrist where one of his tails was wrapped around it. "Sooner than later, I hope…" She tried on unwrap it, but found that it was stiff and wouldn't budge. "Hey, TJ, can you let go? My hand is falling asleep."
TJ looked around from Galileo's screen and glanced over to her. Unwrapping his tail, he stood up on the table and jumped to the floor. He looked around before walking towards the wall on the other side of the room. The other students fearfully moved out of his way as they thought any sane person would. This kid had wings, amongst other things that weren't supposed to be there. Detweiler was already weird in his own right, adding this was almost like he had a point to prove.
When he reached the wall, he looked up at the vent a few feet above his head. He jumped up and pulled the cover to the vent off. Tossing it to the side, he jumped up again and climbed into to the vent.
"What was that?" Vince asked.
"I have no idea. He'll be back. Maybe," Said Spinelli. "He can't stay in the vents forever. It'll hurt his wings, I think. It looks like it would. You've guys seen those things, they're huge."
Everyone in the room jumped at the sound of loud banging. They all looked around for the source, and their eyes locked on the door leading to the classrooms. Even from behind the tables that were stacked against it, they could all see it move as something from the other side was being slammed against it repeatedly. It banged for a complete five minutes before ending.
A tile from the ceiling fell to the floor than another and another in a straight line. It stopped when the line of falling tiles hit the wall. TJ slowly crawled back through the vents, landing on the floor with a dull thump. With his wings folded in, he forced himself onto his feet and back over to the table. Spinelli and the others saw the various claw-like scratches all over his arms and chest (and probably back). When he reached them, he wasted no time laying on the table and curling into a ball out of the pain.
"Hey, Teej? You okay?" Spinelli asked, brushing his hair out of his eyes. She felt stupid for asking that. Of course he's not okay. Those scratches looked deep and she didn't get a good look at them yet. The bleeding cut on his forehead didn't help either.
She was starting to regret not taking that first aid class her mother insisted she take before starting boxing. That would be useful right about now. But at least the other cuts weren't bleeding. They would need to be looked at, she was sure, but for right now, those can wait.
When TJ managed to look up at her, it was only for a brief moment because he leaned in a kissed her before curling back up with his wings stretched out to cover him like a blanket.
"Did he just kiss you?" Gretchen asked.
"Remember the whole 'feeding off affection' thing? Kissing counts," She said. "It's either kissing on drinking blood. Remember that? I do, and it was gross. He said that around that time our friendship wasn't enough and he was getting really hungry and that he had to drink it. But he doesn't do that anymore. We just….kiss. Sometimes." She watched Gretchen stand up and move around to get a better look at TJ's wings. "Are you gonna get all 'scientific' on us, Gretch?"
"Maybe. This is just too interesting," said Gretchen. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a roll a yellow measuring tape. She unrolled it, measuring one of his wings from base to tip. "Three feet," She said. "How did he manage to hide all of this? The tails I can understand, but there's no way those horns could be covered by his hat."
"The hat hides everything. It's 'magic' he says," said Spinelli. "It's probably really complicated.
"His horns," Gretchen said. She poked it with a sickle probe. He looked up at her, a bit surprised at the sudden sensation. He stayed like that as she poked and prodded him. Just as she was about to pull back, she spotted a crack on the side of his left horn. She poked inside it once and one of his tails was instantly around her wrist, tightly holding on to it has it pull her hand away from him.
"I think that hurts him, Gretch," Said Spinelli. "It's like a cavity. A really bad cavity. And you're the dentist that looks nice but you want to kick in the face for poking it."
"Sorry," She said. "I didn't mean to." She pulled her wrist to try and free it. Slowly, he unwrapped his tail, glaring at her. She looked relatively harmless, much to skinny to actually harm him in anyway, but he was proven wrong when she poked him with that metal thing. He would have to keep an eye on her.
What about the others? The small one in green was probably harmless. He was really small. Then there's the big one…he didn't appear like he would do anything. Then there's the one wearing the numbers. He looked like he could hit him if he let him, but since Spinelli trusted him enough to sit next to him then it was okay, he figured.
Speaking of which, he was getting hungry again, but that would have to wait. He was really tired. Yawning, he exposed his fangs for everyone to see before laying his head down to go back to sleep.
"How long have we been stuck in here?" Vince asked.
"About two and a half hours," said Gus.
"My head is killing me," TJ mumbled. He propped himself on his elbow and held his head in pain. "Did I fall?"
"Welcome back, Teej," said Spinelli. "I dunno if you hit your head, but there's a crack in your horn."
"Oh, man…I'm gonna have to get that filled," He said, reaching up to find it. He ran his fingers along the crack, finding that it ran from the tip of his horn to the base. "It might even have to be cut off."
"I think you might have bigger things to worry about."
"Like what?"
"Like that you grew wings in front of the entire school," She said. He looked up at her in surprise, then behind her where he could see some of the students standing near the far wall. "I hope you have a plan for this."
"Uh…no. Well, yeah, but no. I'll think of something," he said. He was hoping that my some small he would be able to sneak away before this happened, that wasn't the case. Now he had to deal with over 100 people knowing about this. First things first, the gang. "Hey, guys. This is a surprise, isn't it?"
"Surprise is an understatement, TJ," Vince said. "Why didn't you tell us about all this."
"Honestly? You weren't supposed to know. No one is supposed to know, and now the whole school knows," He said. "It wasn't that I didn't trust you guys, but I'm not supposed to tell anyone. I hope I don't get sanctioned for this." He moved to get off the table. Standing up, her found it hard to keep his footing. His center of balance was off because of his wings, making walking trickier than before. He tried folding them against his back to see if it would make walking easier. "Hey, everyone. This is a surprise, isn't it? Heh-heh….
"I promise I'm not dangerous, I swear! I'm as harmless as I was before," He said. Okay, maybe 'harmless' wasn't the exact word he should've used, but it was all her could think off. He started to walk to the nearest group of kids, which also happened to be some of the same people in his class. After five steps they moved away from him. "Great. Just great." Since none of the students didn't want to come near him, he thought about going over to the adults. He could understand their response. It's not like they see someone growing wings every day.
He started to cross the cafeteria over the where the adults were standing at. While he made his way over, he thought about which one he would try to talk to. Ms. Grotke seemed like the smart choice. She was very spiritual; maybe she would understand and be more open minded about one of her former students being a demon from hell.
"Hey, I guess you want an explanation for this, right?" TJ asked the teachers.
"What is all this, TJ?" Ms. Grotke asked.
"I'm uh…I'm not exactly human. I'm an Incubus. You do know what that is, right?"
"Yes, but I didn't believe they were real!"
"You have one standing right here in front of you, now! This is probably a lot to take in, but bear with me here, I didn't mean for everyone to find out. If, uh, if it makes everyone relax a little bit, Incubuses are known for causing trouble and mayhem. Explains a lot, huh?"
"You were always a weird kid, Detweiler," He heard Ms. Finster.
"That's one way of looking at it."
"But what does this mean?" Ms. Grotke asked.
"It doesn't mean anything, I think. But you know those things that we're trying to hide from? It's sorta kinda my job to get rid of them, since this my territory and all. It's weird, though. Those things don't normally come out in the day," Said TJ. He looked down at his chest and noticed the scratches that weren't there before. "Did I climb through that vent?"
"Yes, a while ago."
"Those things must've been really close by if I went to fight then right after growing my wings. But they should be gone now, I guess. Anyway, as much as I would like to answer the millions of questions running through and everyone else's heads, I don't trust you guys to keep this whole 'me not being human' thing a secret." With that, he walked away from them and back over to his friends. "Can you guys stand up for a minute? I need to go something."
"Do what?" Spinelli asked. They all got out of their seats. Once the tale was empty, TJ moved it so that it was standing on one of the shorter sides. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of chalk. He drew on the table, as well as he could, a door He then drew a circle with a diamond in the mind. The lines of the drawing glowed, and the ground shook for the few seconds. Already experiencing this before, Spinelli didn't flitch as much as everyone else did.
When the shaking stopped, an actual door was in place of the drawing. TJ grabbed he doorknob and opened it. Rather than a pathway, it was a large filled it random items. He dug threw them before finding a basketball size white orb.
"Okay, get in."
"Are you nuts? We're not going in there!" Vince said. "How did you do that?"
"I'll explain it later. Just get in. A little help here Spinelli?"
"C'mon, just get in the closet," She said, pushing them in each in. "I've done this before, nothin' to be afraid of. Right, TJ?"
"Right. Nothing at all." Before joining them, he tossed the orb into the air. IT began to glow, gaining the attention of everyone in the room. He hurried into the closet with his friends and closed the door, leaving the school to witness a bright flash, causing their memories for the last few hours to be erased.