Infinite Darkness

Chapter Four

Joshua grunted as his legs gave out on him and he fell onto the floor. He looked up at her girl who looked down emotionlessly. He groaned and winced in pain, his chest felt like it was burning with fire and he could feel the blood drip down from the wound and soak into his shirt. He looked down at his chest and saw a sword pierced right through his chest. It was made of a black, murky substance, and it wasn't made out of metal like a traditional sword. The girl took her sword out and positioned herself to strike again. Joshua crawled to his feet and jumped out of the way. He yelped in pain with every move he made.

"Stop! Why are you doing this?" Joshua cried, clutching his chest to try and stop the blood from escaping 

"How annoying" The girl huffed angrily "Stop trying to dodge and let me kill you."

Joshua felt his heart stop before it began to race. His eyes bulged, and he took a step backwards, stumbling "Kill me?"

She leapt towards him without warning and tried to hit him, Joshua quickly moved out of the way, but he was a tad too slow, and she sliced his cheek open. Joshua yelled in pain and clutched his cheek, he stumbled and fell backwards. Her eyes widened as she saw an opening and she rushed forward and pierced her sword straight through his stomach. 

Joshua's body jerked forward, and he cried out in pain. His shaky hands grabbed the blade of the sword and tried to pull the sword out of his body. The girl pushed the sword deeper into his body and Joshua screeched in pain, the blade cut through his palms and began to pour blood. Tears filled his eyes and begged for the girl to stop.

She looked down emotionlessly and crouched down next to him. She looked at him and surveyed his body and wounds. Joshua began to bleed so much his blood began to pool around his body. Joshua craned his neck up trying to look for a passerby to call out for help, but there was no one in sight. The girl tilted her head "Are you dying?"

Joshua let out a hiss of pain and closed his eyes "No, can you take that out? It hurts"

The girl's eyes widened, and she stumbled backwards and jumped to her feet. Much to Joshua's surprise, the girl complied and withdrew her sword. The murky black substance the sword was made out of it slowly turned into a liquid, and was absorbed back into her body. She stared at him and narrowed his eyes "So, what they say is true... You are the one-of-a-kind, elusive half-human, half-behemon!"

Joshua chuckled and slowly tried to prop himself up onto his elbows "So you've heard of me?"

"How annoying!" The girl scoffed "Of course I've heard about you!"  
 
"Is that so? What have you heard about me?" Joshua smiled "I'm always curious to know what others think about me."

"You're the only half-human, half-Behemon that has ever existed! Watched over by the head family of the Cade clan themselves!"

"So you know about Dokyum and Seungcheol as well?"

"Of course I do, how could I not? They are the part of the head family of the Cade Clan!" 

The Cade Clan was a high-ranking Spirit Slayer Clan. The head family of the Cade Clan which was Seungcheol and Dokyum's family had control over an entire city which was the city they resided. A clan is made up of many families who share the same power. Since not everyone shares the same power and some powers are stronger than others there are many Clans, the powerful clans tend to be higher-classed and respected whereas the weaker ones were lower-classed and ignored or taken advantage of. The head family of a clan was the family which was the most powerful throughout the entire clan, and it was the family that contained the head of the clan, the single most powerful person in the whole clan who oversaw and controlled everyone in the clan.

"Who sent you? The SSS?' Joshua asked

The girl's eyes widened in anger, and she narrowed her eyes. Her fists clenched until her knuckles turned white "I was not"

The Spirit Slayer Society, SSS for short, was the government for Spirit Slayers full of officials, leaders, law enforcers and made sure that no Clan was breaking the rule. 

Joshua chuckled and slumped back down to the ground. Being half-behemon didn't come without consequences. Being half-behemon meant he had a human side which was his most dominant side, and a Behemon side which was vicious, murderous and destructive. Since Joshua was half-behemon, and therefore dangerous, he posed a threat and is always under constant watch. He was policed by the Cade Clan under orders from the SSS. Seungcheol and Dokyum were continually watching over Joshua so that his Behemon side doesn't take over because even though he was only half Behemon, his Behemon was incredibly powerful and could consume many human souls and potentially destroy the world. 

Joshua smiled and sighed "I'm sorry to break it to you, but you can't kill me. I'm half-Behemon, and my Behemon half is immortal."

"I'm aware." 

"Yet you still tried? I congratulate your efforts, I'll give you that" Joshua rose to his feet, his wounds slowly began to close and heal. He looked down at his ripped and bloody shirt and sighed, he would have to get a new one. Joshua heard a squeak, and he turned and saw a ferret crawl up the girl's leg into her arms. She carried it softly and turned away, she was about to leave, but Joshua called out to her, and she stopped in her tracks.

"Hey! Who are you?" Joshua called

The girl stopped, she turned her head slightly and looked right into his eyes. Wordlessly she suddenly disappeared into thin air, as if she was never there. Joshua sighed and slumped back onto the ground, and he laid there for quite some time until his wounds closed up. He stood and brushed off the dust on dirt on his clothes. Joshua looked down to see the carnage, red-blood strained shirt covered in rips and tears, his pants were similarly covered in blood and half of his right pant leg was missing. He'd need to chuck these clothes off, and they were beyond repair. Joshua lugged his body back home when night fell, being undercover would be best to avoid any onlookers from spotting him.

With a grunt he collapsed onto his couch, he looked around dazed and perplexed with what had just occurred. Sure, Joshua had been tried to be killed before, but ever since he was under the surveillance of the Cade Clan, no one attempted to kill him. It was impossible for that girl to be working for the SSS, after all, it was the SSS that commanded the Cade Clan to watch him. The girl must be working for an outside source, perhaps the Pogdo, the Spirit Slayer equivalent of a mafia group. Joshua shook his head to clear his thoughts, he was too tired to think right now and needed to rest. 

Joshua woke up to a loud bang. His eyes flew open, and he got up with a start. He looked around frantically, and he saw that out the window it was morning. However, there was a thunderstorm rumbling outside, and the sun was engulfed by thick black clouds. Joshua tilted his head in confusion, how could there be a thunderstorm in summer? 

Joshua looked down at his torn and blood-soaked clothes and winced, remembering the pain of the wounds. He quickly changed and binned his clothes, making sure that the bloody clothes were concealed carefully. Joshua grabbed his school bag, pocketed his phone and grabbed his umbrella. With a deep breath, he ventured out to school in a violent thunderstorm. Every crackle startled him, Joshua began to question the importance of education and if it was really worth all the trouble.

When he arrived at school and placed his bag in his locker, Dokyum appeared and looped his arm around him. Dokyum whistled and pointed over to the window as a crack of thunder shot through the sky. "Crazy thunderstorm huh?"

Joshua nodded in agreement as he eyes glanced out the window "It's weird to have such a storm in summer! I wonder what the cause of the strange weather we've been having recently is."

Dokyum snorted and removed his arm from Joshua "Obviously, it's because of aliens!"

Seungcheol approached Dokyum from behind and lightly smacking the back if his head "You idiot, its probably because of a powerful Behemon!"

Dokyum yelped in pain and rubbed the back of his head, shooting a glare at Seungcheol before turning his attention back to Joshua. 

"Something weird happened to me yesterday" Joshua announced

"Yeah, what is it?" Dokyum chuckled "Did you get your first love confession?"

Joshua shook his head and looked around tentatively. He scanned the area, making sure there were no onlookers, evesdroppers and made sure that the girl was nowhere near him. After making sure the coast was clear, he leaned in and whispered "I was attacked"

Dokyum and Seungcheol looked at each other as if conveying a silent message. Seungcheol looked back at Joshua "Attacked by a Behemon?" 

Joshua shook his head "By a girl, she goes to this school."

"A human girl?" Dokyum asked

Joshua shook his head again "I think she was a Spirit Slayer, she knew I was half-Behemon."

"We'll talk about this after school" Seungcheol murmured "Keep your eye out for her, alert us if she attacks you, or if you see her"

"What are you going to do?" Joshua asked

"I'm going to look up the school records. I only know one female student that is a Spirit Slayer, and it's definitely not her. It must be a new student."

Joshua nodded and went about the rest of his day cautiously and carefully. There was no sight of the girl, it was as if she didn't exist. At the end of the day, Seungcheol had approached him with a stack of papers full of student records. He leafed through the documents, squinting and showing the ones with photo ID to Joshua.

"Is this what she looked like?" Seungcheol asked

Joshua shook his head, and Seungcheol sighed as this process continued. They went through all the documents without a match, and Dokyum hummed thoughtfully "Maybe, she doesn't have a school photo. She is new after all."

Seungcheol paused for a split second before nodding in agreement "That is possible. I tried opening the Spirit Slayer student files, but the Principal said that those were classified information that even I wasn't allowed to see."

"It is important to conceal Spirit Slayer ID!" Dokyum stated, "With the amount of Pogdo groups popping up, privacy is as important as ever."

Joshua shrugged "Perhaps she is a part of the Pogdo, she told me she wasn't sent by the SSS."  

"That is a possibility!" Seungcheol agreed "It has happened in the past, it's not a stretch to think that they would try again."

"Seungcheol and I will gather more information" Dokyum sighed "We'll get back to you tomorrow."

Joshua nodded and thanked the brothers. Dokyum shook his head and waved his hands "It's nothing, we're best friends after all."

"Did you want us to walk you home?" Seungcheol offered

Joshua shook his head "You go on ahead, she won't attack me so soon after school has ended."

The brothers nodded and waved goodbye as they parted ways.  Joshua looked longingly at the brothers as he watched their backs disappear into the distance. Joshua, for a fleeting moment, imagined what it would be like to have a secure and close bond with someone else. Joshua shook away the thoughts and looked around cautiously before starting to leave the school and make his way home. Joshua felt his loneliness heavy in the air the entire way home.

A week had passed, and nothing had occurred since the attack. There hadn't been another attempt to attack Joshua, she wasn't even seen at school. It was like she didn't exist, there was no record of her. However, it was still thundering, and it had been the whole week. The sky was dark and covered by thick dark grey clouds. The rain poured down, and thunder cracked. The sun hadn't been seen for an entire week, it was like an eternal night Joshua waved at his friend before leaving school and making his way home. He gulped, pulled out an umbrella and moved through the storm. The wind flung him back and forth, and he almost fell over multiple times. Joshua decided to take the long, but more sheltered way home. The extra 10-minute walk was better than being beaten and battered by the storm. Joshua had been fighting the storm for a week, and he was tired of losing.

Joshua suddenly came to a halt when turning a corner. He was stopped in his tracks as dread began to fill his stomach. He looked down when he felt a sharp pain flow through his body. A bright white sword pierced straight through his chest with his own blood dripping down and pooling at his feet.