Infinite Darkness

Chapter Five

Joshua looked down and saw a blindingly white sword impaled straight through his chest. He then heard a click of a gun and a deafening bang resonated throughout his head, leaving his ears ringing. Joshua's legs gave out, and he collapsed forward onto the ground. Joshua couldn't process anything around him, a part of his brain blew out of his head and was on the ground attached to the bullet. Joshua was left lying on the floor, unmoving and unblinking. 

When Joshua's missing brain piece began to reform, he began to regain his senses. He felt drops of rain battering him, and he could hear the rumble of the thunder. His skin rubbed against the gravel-covered ground, and he could smell his blood. His clothes were soaked, and he had a throbbing headache that was pounding every second. His chest felt like it was on fire, his throat burning and his eyes watered. His eyes began to focus, and he saw a long rat-like animal staring right into his eyes. Joshua realised that it was a ferret and the ferret hissed and backed up, alerting its human companion. Joshua's eyes looked up and met the gaze of the girl who attacked him. It was the same girl who tried to kill him before. She kneeled down in front of him and held his gaze. She was soaked, her hair stuck to her face, her clothes were wet and drooped down, and rain dripped down her face. She shielded the ferret from the storm with her body, and the ferret was dry. 

"You're alive aren't you?" She sighed

Joshua just stared at her blankly. He couldn't feel or move his body. He was paralysed and waiting for his brain to heal fully. She suddenly stood up and began to look around. She carefully picked up the ferret and hid it under her school blazer and walked away. Joshua could hear her footsteps disappear, only for them to get louder again. She kneeled down in front of him, and the rain suddenly stopped hitting him. Joshua was confused, he looked up and saw that she was holding his umbrella over him. She picked up the ferret and placed it under the umbrella to be protected from the rain.

Joshua began to grunt quietly. He could feel his lips parting and with the softest voice to have ever existed he asked: "Why?"

She looked down at him, meeting his eyes. With her free hand, she moved her wet hair out of her eyes and wiped away the water that was hitting her face. "I'm here to kill you."

Joshua grunted again and struggled to open his mouth. With harsh breaths and weak muscles, he whispered: "Why are you helping me?"

She tilted her head to the side and wiped water from her face again "Well, you could get a fever. That wouldn't be nice."

"Why do you care?"

She frowned and sat down in front of him with a sigh "I don't care, fevers , that's all.."

Joshua could hear thunder crack and the sky lit up. Joshua could feel his muscles twitch and he slowly began to move around. The girl noticed this and backed up to give him more room. Joshua only had enough energy to sit up, but since there was no support for him, he fell onto his back with a grunt. She slowly grabbed his arm and hauled him over to a wall that was close to them. She helped him lean against the wall and held the umbrella over him. Joshua panted softly and looked down at his blood-soaked body. His wounds had healed entirely at this point but winced as he remembered the sharp pain.

"You really are immortal" The girl sighed "How annoying."

"Do you want to kill me that badly?" Joshua asked

She shrugged "It doesn't really matter to me if you are alive or dead. It just makes my job harder if you're alive."

"Your job?"

"It's not really a job. You're just in the way of me getting what I want."

"What do you want?"

"Why would I tell you? I don't know who you are"

She the umbrella towards his hand, and Joshua took the sign to grasp the handle. Joshua took the umbrella from her, and she picked up the ferret and stood up. She looked at him for a couple of seconds observing his condition and nodded to herself. "You look fine now." 

She suddenly turned around and began to walk away. Before she could even take a step, Joshua called out to her "Where are you going?" 

She turned around and tilted her head "Home, you're not dying, and I can feel myself coming down with a cold."

"You still want to kill me?" Joshua gasped

She hummed and looked up towards the sky "I'll leave you alone for now. I need to come up with a better plan."

"Leave me alone?" Joshua scrunched his face in confusion, and he looked at her face for any emotion to give him answers to his many questions. He was only met with her expressionless face and stony eyes.

"Yes, I won't be bothering you anymore, for now."

"For now?"

"If it is convenient for me, I will bother you."

"Bother me as in trying to kill me?"

She nodded "Precisely." 

Joshua shook his head to clear his confusion "Why are you telling me this?" 

She tilted her head and looked slightly perplexed "You want to know, don't you? Isn't that why you keep asking me questions?"

Joshua narrowed his eyes slightly "Who are you?"

She stiffed and her lips curled down "That doesn't concern you" She hissed "You don't need to know who I am, that would be better for the both of us."

"What will happen in I find out who you are?"

"Nothing will happen, but you will regret it if you do."

Before he could even reply, she started to walk away. Joshua slumped back onto the brick wall and sighed. The thunder cracked quietly in the distance, Joshua didn't know how long he was there regaining his strength, but slowly the storm began to die down. After what seemed like hours of thunder and rain, he could finally see a beam of sunlight pierce through the black clouds. Joshua felt strong enough to stand up, drops of water cascading down as he did. Closing his umbrella, he made his way home to get a long needed rest.

Joshua woke up to birds chirping, rubbing the sleep from his eyes he made his way over to the window. It was sunny outside, it was the first sunny day he had seen in an entire week. You wouldn't even be able to tell that there had been a storm that lasted a week. For the first time, Joshua felt like it was indeed summer. He made his way to school and began thinking about what had occurred yesterday to report to Dokyum and Seungcheol. 

Joshua spotted Dokyum the school entrance and ran up to meet him. Dokyum turned and greeted Joshua excitedly "Hey! Can you believe this sun? I think summer has officially started... even though it had officially started a couple of weeks ago..."

"Things seem to be looking up now don't they?" Joshua smiled

"Hey, Dokyum!" A voice called

Joshua and Dokyum turned to see one of Dokyum's friends. It was a Spirit Slayer student named Jaehan, who was urging Dokyum to follow him. Dokyum excitedly agreed and waved goodbye to Joshua before running off. Joshua made a mental note to tell Dokyum and Seungcheol about what happened yesterday when they all met up.

Joshua went to class early seeing as he had nothing to do. When he walked in, his teacher Mingyu was already there writing something on the board. Mingyu stopped for a second, and his eyes followed Joshua to his seat.

"Alone again! Where's Dokyum?" Mingyu asked

Joshua shrugged and yawned "With Jaehan, they're talking about Spirit Slayer stuff."

"Hey, remember that this Friday the S-ranked Behemon will be passing over the city. Be safe okay?"

"What S-ranked Behemon?" 

"Its name is Tantibus, it's one of the oldest and aggressive known Behemons."

"Scary" Joshua yawned "What does it do?"

"It is said to manifest fears, but no one really knows for sure" Mingyu sighed "Those who have tried to fight Tantibus haven't lived to tell the tale."

"That does sound dangerous!" Joshua remarked, "You would think the SSS would have sent a team of pro's to kill it by now."

"No one is dumb enough to risk their lives for that kind of thing" Mingyu snorted "Even if they do want to kill Tantibus, they would be too greedy to try! There needs to be at least three high-class Spirit Slayers to take it down, and no one wants to split the profit!"

"No one wants to do it for the greater good?" Joshua asked

Mingyu scoffed and rolled his eyes "I don't think anyone climbed to the top of the SSS to help the greater good of the people."

"You sound like a grandpa complaining about politicians" Joshua chuckled.

"Grandpa?" Mingyu coughed, he looked flabbergasted "I'm in my early twenties!"

The bell rang for class, and people started to clamber into the classroom. Dokyum arrived last, earning a scolding from Mingyu. Dokyum smiled sheepishly and bowed three times before sitting down next to Joshua. Whatever Mingyu was trying to teach, Joshua had a hard time trying to pay attention. Mingyu was not a bad teacher, on the contrary, he was one of the best teachers at the school despite only being a student teacher. Perhaps it was due to lack of proper sleep, or due to the fact he was getting stabbed and severely injured as of late and his body was suffering because of it. Whether Mingyu picked up on it or not, he decided not to ask Joshua about it. Joshua supposed it was due to the stress of the S-ranked Behemon that was coming. It's not like Mingyu could speak openly about it due to most of the student and staff being normal humans and not Spirit Slayers. 

After class ended Dokyum was out the door in a heartbeat, telling Joshua to eat without him because he had to talk to Jaehan. Joshua understood, being a Spirit Slayer, it was obvious that Dokyum would want to spend time with other Spirit Slayers. Considering how Joshua was half-Behemon himself he felt slightly awkward when the brothers talked about Behemon hunting with excitement. Joshua knew there was not much Dokyum could speak with Joshua about regarding his job or hobbies and due to the high Behemon activity as of late Dokyum was gushing to talk to someone other than his brother about it. Even though Joshua understood this, it still made him very lonely. It's not like there were any other Half-Human's and Half-Behemons at school, let alone in the entire world. Sure some Behemons allied with the SSS, but Behemons were very different to humans, and Joshua felt like he was more of a human than a Behemon. 

He ate alone and walked around the school and took in the surroundings. Normal humans spoke about their days casually, joking with each other and laughing without any care in the world or concern for safety. He envied it. Weaker Spirit Slayers boasting about their conquests and hunts. Many which were blatant lies, but garnered the awe and respect from those who were unaware and gullible. He envied it. Stronger Spirit Slayers relaxing with their friends, or strategising about future hunts. He envied it. By the time school finished, Dokyum and Seungcheol left without a goodbye due to urgent business with their clan. Joshua watched them rush home as their backs disappeared into the distance. He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, he wasn't even able to tell them about being attacked yesterday. Joshua sighed and slung his backpack over his shoulder and began to walk home by himself with the hot sun beating down at him and his shadow covering the path in front of him.