11 A Demon Unleashed

They both got up, "What is wrong with Autumn today, she is weirder than usual and that's something."

While walking to school, they both exchanged glances at each other; Gemei's heart was beating faster and faster with each step they took.

"Why is my heart rate slowly increasing with every step I take? It's nothing romantic, let's be honest here, from a logical standpoint it must be that I'm just really out of shape, YEAH THAT'S TOTALLY IT!"

Without realizing that he totally just thought out loud, Autumn replied with,

"Nothing romantic, you're out of shape?" Embarrassed, Gemei instantly turned to face Autumn with his cheek boiling red. On the other hand, she could not contain her laughter any longer, it was the icing on the cake which finally broke her barrier.

"Hahahahahahahah" She replied after a good laughing session while wiping her tears,

"You crack me up so much Gemei, Thank you very much." He replied with,

"No need to thank me, you're the only person I've ever opened up this much. Instead, I should be thanking you."

At around nine-thirty, they finally reached the academy. As expected, no one cared if they were present or not, with the exception of Sophie who was playing the part of "totally wasn't worried" a bit too much.

The transition from an overly forced strict to a trembling girlish tone was a clear hint that she was finally relieved. At that moment, Gemei was just happy being surrounded by people he cared about. That was quite a turning point for a loner, being alone his whole life, this feeling of belonging and friendship was refreshing and somewhat enjoyable.

While thinking about all that, he caught a glimpse of Autumn's face. She was smiling back but her eyes, it was blank, like a curtain hiding away some awful secret. His expression changed from cheery to petrified in a matter of seconds, the flashback from his childhood came flooding back.

Moments before everything transpired, our hero was in the company of Autumn and Sophie, who were all held up inside the literature class situated in the far east of the building on the second floor. The area was rarely used, thus why Sophie decided to call both of them for a private lecture on punctuality.

Now let's get back into the present, upon seeing Autumn's blank expression, the memory which had been locked away by Mei came flashing down like a bolt of lightning. He could remember everything that Mei had done in his childhood, from when he first came into being and all the events of him getting beaten by his abusive uncle. Gemei was feeling everything that Mei had to endure through in hopes of shielding his weak mind. Lastly, one of the most gruesome memories finally crawled its way from the deepest corner of his mind. 'Rachelle the stepsister,' after that, he completely snapped. Gemei's personality completely swapped, his eyes became one of an untamed beast, a murderer, a demon.

All the pain came flooding down onto him as the more he remembered the more it felt like he was getting stabbed repeatedly in the back. His stomach also began to cramp alongside his throat which grew tighter and tighter as if someone was closing a valve beyond its limit.

This proved too heavy a burden to bear as he forced himself onto his knees in a desperate attempt to soothe the pain. "WHAT IS THIS, WHO AM I, WHAT AM I, DEFEND, SURVIVE, KILL, DEATH!"

Meanwhile all this was happening, Autumn was the first to notice the sudden change in the aura surrounding Gemei. The instant he stumbled onto his knees, she knew something was wrong. Concerned, she slowly approached him with her guard up,

"Hey Gemei, are you ok darling?"

"Wait what happened, why is Gemei on the ground?" Sophie finally noticed.

"BACK OFF SOPHIE, DON'T APPROACH HIM!" She ordered whilst slowly getting close to him.

When Gemei finally lifted his head, everything felt like it was going in slow motion, Autumn saw his eyes, his gaze was filled with rage and murderous intent. "SYNCROS," was the immediate thought which flashed by upon seeing those eyes. While lifting his head, Gemei was fighting against himself, Mei had gone rogue, all the memories triggered by Autumn's stares were messing everything up inside his brain, all the barriers which helped shield him from his awful childhood were coming apart, he could no longer think straight.

Every time he tried thinking, all the thoughts would spread into three totally different perspectives and he could feel every single one of them. For the most part, Gemei somehow managed to stay in control, but when he finally looked up at Autumn and saw her blank stare change into a murderous one, he broke loose. All of his thoughts, may it be Gemei or Mei, fused. He stood up and rushed towards Autumn with murderous intent, being an assassin herself, she saw right through him and dodge the first punch by ducking, whilst doing that she used her right hand and reached down to her ankle and pulled out a gun.

Once contact with the gun was made, she quickly stood up and aimed at Gemei, but he also saw through what she was up, and so in hopes of countering her, he grabbed the paper cutter which was laying on the teacher's table. For a moment during the transition when Gemei was grabbing the cutter, Autumn had already lined up a shot on his head but hesitated for a millisecond, however, said millisecond ended up costing her the fight as he turned around and swung, slicing her right palm. Whilst trying to stay calm, she pulled the trigger but missed as that wound received from Gemei messed up her aim due to blood coming out the injury thus loosening her grip over the gun.

She could not fire any more in fear of hitting Sophie who was directly behind him, so she swapped into a hand to hand combat style but that was simply too late. Ashford, or what he'd become, was far too agile with that blade in his hand, as in less than five seconds he already landed cuts throughout Autumn's body. She was now bleeding from everywhere.

Moments before he went in for the kill, Sophie rushed towards him with the intent of hugging him. Hoping that it would help him regain his conscience, it ultimately resulted in her getting stabbed in the stomach as he cut short her little performance.

While slowly pulling out the knife which felt like spreading butter onto a slice of bread from her body, as it gradually lost all the strength it once had due to shock from her injury, Sophie caught a glimpse of Gemei's face. He was smiling, all the blood around him was making him more and more intense, he was finally at home, this was his true self. A murderous beast which was locked away by Mei who was also another bloodthirsty personality.

Once the knife was out, he went straight for her throat but ended up missing and slicing her jaw instead which reached all the way to her ear. The reason why he missed was because of Autumn, she had managed to crawl and kicked his leg, making him lose balance.

Sophie, on the other hand, dropped down as if someone had removed the floor beneath her, all the futile attempts to cry out and scream were consumed by the warm, throbbing pain, and instead resulted in her gasping for air as all the blood coming out the right side of her face sluggishly made its way into her nose and around her mouth as she laid on the ground.

After being hit off-balance, Gemei slowly turned to face Autumn who was on her knees. He bends down and grabbed her hair and used it as a rope to pull her up, she was screaming but not a single tear shed, this made him both happy and mad. Seeing her bloodied face, Gemei stared into her eyes and smiled. Then proceeded to stab her mercilessly on the stomach without any regrets for his actions.

He continued to stab her, over and over again, she coughed, blood came out, yet he continued. Paralyzed by pain and fear, she was staring death in the face. The aura behind Gemei was of a demon, it was smiling and so was he. Finally feeling the willpower in Autumn diminishing, he threw her onto the floor face down. Even more blood came out, it was an amazing sight to behold, for such tenacity for a simple human wasn't possible. The demon was now content, for all he'd done till this moment was truthfully a work of art, a bloodied painting filled with all his anger and hatred was now on display in this lonesome, quiet, peaceful, classroom.