Thirty-seven

I sat back in class and thought about the anger I was still feeling at the moment. I know it was better now but it felt like i should have went all the way with punishing them. Burning them with greek fire felt a lot like an assassination rather than a punishment.

During the ten minute break between the two hour long lecture, I took out my phone I scrolled through it to see the news.

BBC covered my act and both stories. The one about the seven year old rape victim and the burning men. Even a video taken from the scene of people running around while on fire.

Then his body came up. I put my phone away as a familiar feeling came over me. But that wasn't even a speck of my anger. In the past we went all out.

One town messed with my protectorates or any citizen, we wiped it out. Or if they broke their side of the contract, we extinguished them, their families, their friends even distant relatives. Or if the other towns came into play thinking we can't kill thousands if not millions, we wiped out their entire country, giving no shit what was in or not. Four or two people can be left to repopulate it.

But now is not the time to go thinking about the past and blood shed. Time to focus. I focused onto the lecture enough that I saw Tiyane walk into the lesson. I grew a bit frustrated as i saw her. But relaxed when she smiled at me.

She promised she wouldn't do this. She promised she'd stay in bed snd just keep it chilled today. It's Friday.

I smiled back and went on with the lecture.

as the lecture proceeded, i took notes and even a look at her. when she was focused, she looked cute, a little frown that couldnt be called a frown formed on her little face. What was really with her? sometimes I'd ask myself. why was she so...

the display turned off, reporting no signal. i looked at my phone and it was turned off. the lights flickered but after a minute, they stopped flickering. Someone was here. Suzy opened the door, seemingly tired. And angry.

okay that's an understatement.

she was furious for some reason. she walked up to me, greeted the lecturerer with a quick hello without even looking at him.

She looked at my face and turned it sideways, inspecting it in great detail, while holding my chin.

"You look Okay. do you feel okay?" She asked letting my face go.

"I am okay."

"hmm," she hummed. "Got any broken ribs? Maybe a concussion? or do you feel sick?" she asked again. All my internal warnings went of.

"No?"

"hmm, that can't be right. i feel sick, you dont?"

"no, but I'm wondering what's going on here."

"So am i." she took out her phone and tapped here and there and showed me. "I am trying my very best to make sense of the situation but i cant eve seem to grasp what is really happening. Can you read this? i seem to have a rather a problem. Is it the network?"

i saw the screen. "James," in brackets next to it was 500 with a symbol for outgoing calls, she called me 500 times.

I blinked as i formulated what was going on. "I think..."

"oh, dont think, I'll do all the thinking. I called 500 times. You didn't answer."

"Shay, i can explain..."

"No no no! Don't. Can you open the message folder and read my sent text? Please." Her frown turned into a smile, but her eyes blazed hot with anger.

I took her phone and opened her message folder. "SOS," 911," 0 AGD" "James, help!"

I read. All SOS signals were sent and recieved.

"What can you see?"

"Text."

"What does it say?"

"Seven hundred SOS' messages sent. All recieved but not opened."

"Good. At least we both have an understanding. May i please see your phone?"

"I don't..."

"You phone please, I'm still nice."

I took out my phone and gave it to her. It was off and she switched it on. After a minute of it mulfunctioning because of Thoth, it went fully on and she asked me what my pin was.

"Quard zero." I responded.

"You call that a password?"

"Seven thousand wouldnt cut it."

"Okay. Lets see." She scrolled and pressed and frowned.

"No messages. No missed calls. So this is the problem."

I saw a glimpse of the future and grimaced.

"No, come i got..." too late. She threw my phone on the ground and stepped on it with her heel, breaking it like it wasnt an Iphone.

She looked at me as i said, "come pn that was my best phone."

"Not anymore, doesn't do what its meant to do." She said with a crocked yet devilish smile. She picked it up and gave the broken phone back.

"So, do you want to do it here or out there?" she asked? out there? i wasnt going to be safe anywhere.

"out there." at least I'll still have a life to get back to.

"okay, follow me. Thoth!" she said as we left the lecture room. she led me to the Ferrari in the parking lot which stomped me, like every student around it. they took photos of themselves around it.

i wondered how she got it in the country. roads here were bad for a car like this.

She handed me her car keys and i raised my hands. "i dont drive."

"why?"

"something i choose not to do." or rather, everytime i drive, i end up with a scrap car riddled with bulletholes. Three times is enough to make one realise the pattern. So i wasnt going to try my deduction anymore.

"Okay." We got in and she drove off. At first, while we were in the populated area of the school, She drove with ease. slowly. but once we got off the populated area, she started going so fast it felt like she was trying to fly off. but guardian corp didnt have any flying Ferrari. I'd know about it cause i was waiting for it.

"Shay wants to know if this the same spell you cast in 2012?" she asked casually as the car jumped into the air for a moment as we descended down the hill. I held tight to my seatbelt.

"Yeah." I responded.

The car landed with a bump and she almost swerved out of the road as she shouted, "So you mean i have to drive out of...!"

"whoa, whoa, whoa! i know you're mad, but dont kill me, please!" i shouted at her grabbing her steering wheel and held it in place.

"So, what pissed you off? Her?"

"no, it's... it's something else."

"What?"

"can we... forget about it?"

"okay." she agreed and took out a ipad from the side of the door. "Shortly after you cast the spell, something came out of the sea in Bermuda and attacked the whole town. Shortly after, another followed and wiped the entire town out of the maps. Everyone died. Encluding kids, infants even animals."

"how do you know when i cast the spell up?" i took the tablet. And before i could press anything it unlocked itself, showing jargon. paperwork. not my style, or forte.

"Because Shay always thinks of you. Jay. So do i."

"you are not falling for me are you?!"

she hit the brakes and i almost hit the dashboard.

"No, we're not. You're the closest thing Shay has here to a brother, and while we are on the case, you really suck at flirting you know that?"

"I'm not..."

"A girl laid herself out to you and you screwed that up."

"Back to the beacon, okay? and for your information i didn't screw it up."as she swerved over a corner, I held tight to my seetbeat and dropped the pad.

"You don't have any social skills, do you?" I looked at her. Was she kidding? I spent my entire childhood caught between school, training to be a saint and actually being a guardian and cleaning up my messes.

"HELLO?" I said. "Earth to Sue please."

"what?" she asked.

"how can I have social skills when all i do is fight monsters and... I'm not totally human you know that right?" i complained.

"And how did you make your Cults again? I thought the task force was enough." she asked. i kept quiet.

Of course she knew about it, who am i kidding.

"What about the girls who've been calling me since you were 12? how did you win their heart?"

that was a mystery. Well, not so much. Most girl's easily fall in love with a guy if he saves them and does a little magic and I've done my share of those.

"How about princess Fiona?" she asked me one more time. "how did you win her heart that she doesn't want to date or marry anyone who isn't you?"

"i dont know but, did you forget everything we've done since I was twelve? Besides Shay is the one who talks to them, not you."

i said the wrong things.

"I am both your boss and a guardians best friend kid. Shay personally gave me the task of watching over you though i dont really know why you're so important."

"I saved her life one time."

"Yeah, so I've heard, what else have you been good for that make a guardian revere you?" She asked and i know she hated me but i think i finally know why. I'm the useless thief.

"Isn't that what you're supposed to find out?"

"I guess you really are a son of oversight." She retorted as we drove past the gate at high-speed i didnt see the boom barrier. I looked back and turned to her.

"Did you break the boom barrier?" I asked.

"No, I didn't, Bernard kept it up for me."

"Okay." I said as she slowed down and i picked the pad up. The very same pictures from my nightmare showed at the bottom of the paperwork. But as they people burned, they seemed to have been killed first. A single tap to the forehead.

"This is the act of a judge. And I'm not the son of oversight."

"I thought judges came when a guardian died."

"This one isn't. He's chasing the thing that did this." I showed her the images of large worms covering a skeleton.

"But killing everyone? Isnt it too much?"

"No, the worms are like a virus, you touch an infected person you get infected with them. He's actually saving..." i stopped how did i know that? Was that dream actually a memory?

"How do you know that?"

"I wonder that too. So where are we going?"

"New York. So the guy who burnt them is a judge?"

"Yeah, Lyska."

"You know him?"

"You dont wanna know."

"I wanna know. So what happens when a judge is hurt? Say he fell to the thing he was hunting?"

"Beac..." i scrolled back to the paperwork and looked at the beacon type and details. Oh shit! I screwed up big time. "Can you drive faster?"

"Aren't you afraid of high speeds?"

"No I'm not."

We went to a private airfield right off at the edge of Alkebulan capital city watch tower and instantly got a headache. the filter i guess wore off.

The voices returned and i instantly knew what happened in my week long vacation. Monday, an island sank. Another island in the triangle vanished. Three more species had vanished.

One more reason to think mankind is nothing but a curse to this world and protecting them five thousand years ago was nothing but a mistake. But Agarthians are the only beings with a say in the existence of men.

I closed my eyes. More and more weapons are being made. Didn't I break the spell?

"You okay?" She asked as she drove the car into the back of the battleship.

"Yeah, I'm okay."

But not for long i summed.

This unit has met the other unit and a gunfight almost happened. But why wasn't she telling me about it.

I got of the car as she did and walked to the bridge as the ship went off the ground.

Ten minutes later, we were long over atlantic ocean and already on the ground in the forest just off the Canadian border.