There was a monster in the classroom and nobody could see it.
A terrifying mass of black flesh that bubbled, popped and fizzled with every movement. It had two huge luminescent green eyes and a pair of scythe-like claws at the end of thin branch-like arm. The body was practically shapeless, it moved and shifted with every step and ripple of its bubbling skin.
Sei wasn't sure what was worse; the creatures horrifying appearance or the smell it gave off. The stink wafted off it in waves and he was glad that he hadn't eaten breakfast or else he would have thrown up already.
Not that he didn't feel like throwing up now.
The creature moved to the front of the class and stood in front of the teacher as he called out attendance. Another reason for Sei to think he had gone insane, after all, if nobody said anything or reacted to the mumbling thing that stood in the front of the class then they obviously didn't see it. Sei watched as it scanned the classroom for something and accidentally caught its eye.
Shit. Now it knew he could see it.
The thing chittered gleefully and lurched forward. No, no, no, no! Why was it coming his direction! He didn't mean to show the damn thing that he could see it! That was an accident! Sei knew what happened when you let the monsters know you can see them and he wasn't looking forward to the torment that would surely follow him around for the rest of the day.
The thing stood just before his desk now. Fiddling with the lamp attached to the corner. The sound the metal made as the monster slid its claw along the edge was enough to make him think that his ears would start bleeding.
It started to whisper things. Sei flinched and it whispered a little louder.
Damn it all. Now it really knew that he could see it.
Sei looked desperately around the room but nobody could see the black thing making disturbing noises by his desk. Nobody ever saw and up until a while ago neither did he but ever since before school started again he could see all sorts of things. Tiny black things that floated through the air, rotting half-decomposed cats or dogs walking around like nothing was wrong, huge bleeding insects crawling up buildings.
Sei wasn't entirely sure if he was totally sane any more but he really would go insane if this carried on for much longer.
"No... no, you can't go on." the thing whispered, "Everyone will think you're crazy if you try tell them. Why don't you just end your suffering?"
End his suffering? That… did sound nice. He would like to go back to a time when he didn't think he was crazy. A time where there weren't little monsters floating around in the air. How is he supposed to cope with all this craziness?
"Yes, how?" the creature moaned, "How?! It would be better if you didn't have to deal with this at all. Maybe you should just give up."
Give up? A number of options flashed before his mind. The knife in the drawers at home, the bottle of medication in the cabinet that he knew he was allergic to, the exposed beam in the shed behind the house or maybe even a train. Yes, a train would be perfect.
"Or... maybe letting the monsters eat you would be best."
"Maybe letting the monsters eat me would be best." Sei mumbled and looked up from his desk to stare at the claw reaching for him. He could let the black thing eat him now and all his troubles will be over.
The claw was almost to his face when Sei jolted.
"Ah!" he shouted as he jumped backwards, out of the way of the reaching hand. What had he just been doing. This monster was going to eat him and he was just about to allow it to do that!
The monster reached again and Sei screamed again. This time attracting the attention of the entire class.
"What's wrong, Godaiin-kun?" Yamashita-sensei lowered his clipboard, they had been in the middle of roll call.
"Oh." Sei floundered for an excuse. The monster had backed off but now his entire class was looking at him strangely. Sei really didn't want to start the year off with his classmates thinking that he was weird. "Erm, hmm. I- I think- I was... dreaming." he finished lamely, "I think I was dreaming."
The teacher started to scold him for daydreaming and his classmates giggled but Sei couldn't bring himself to care.
The creature was still in the classroom and stayed there for the rest of the lesson. The sounds of its whispers and the popping of its skin was a constant reminder that it was there. Watching him.
There was another one in the hallway.
A tiny one compared to the one in the classroom but that didn't make it any less scary. It looked as if someone had burnt little bits of flesh and then stuck it together with tar. It's two eyes shifted and slid on its 'head' every time it moved and Sei couldn't help but watch in morbid fascination.
Would this one whisper horrible, suicidal thoughts in his ear he wondered. Probably not. It didn't have a mouth.
Sei shook his head and attempted to clear his thoughts a little. Why was he putting up with this? He had a solution to all this, a repellent, so why wasn't he using it?
Brown eyes shifted to the hall that held the closed girl's bathroom. Maybe... maybe he could get into contact with that animal. The demon. It had said that it would protect him and all it would need in return was some of his energy. Sei chewed the inside of his cheek. Already his mouth was beginning to turn into a meaty mess but really who could blame him after having to deal with an hour in the presence of the suicidal monster fighting self-destructive thoughts?
Sei looked back down to the creepy thing-with-eyes slithering across the hallway and tightened his hold on his backpack strap. A little of his energy in exchange for protection was sounding more and more appealing the more he looked at the thing.
Mind made up, Sei stepped around the monster and made his way to the abandoned bathrooms.
There used to be a story, Sei knew, about a ghost that haunted the bathrooms and that it would only appear in front of girls. He wasn't entirely sure but Sei was pretty sure that the myth was actually one of the school's Seven Mysteries. Looking around, the abandoned loo didn't look nearly as frightening in the day time as he was sure it did at night. Thank god.
Sei swallowed and slowly swung his bag off his shoulder to dig in one of the inner pockets. For a moment, the brown haired teen wondered what his life was coming to that he had to run away to hide in dirty, old girls bathrooms to complete a sketchy ritual that might or might not just be the last thing he would ever do.
A page crinkled under his touch and Sei brought it out.
At first glance the page really didn't look like much. It was about the size of a sticky-note and creased near the bottom left corner. The blue circle drawn neatly in the middle, while detailed, was faded and the dull ink took away from the drawings splendor.
Shifting the page to his mouth Sei sifted through his backpack to look for his sewing kit. He normally kept the kit the side pocket of his bag in case he had an emergency at school. Never know when your pants might tear after all. The beads holding the tiny plastic case clicked apart and a thick needle removed. Sei set aside the tiny case and used his free hand to take the paper from his lips.
'Now what?' Sei thought, feeling a little lost. Did he just prick his finger and wait for a bead of blood or did he need more that what would well from a pin-prick? Also, what exactly was he supposed to say once he made his dull piece of page gross and unsanitary?
'Sorry for bothering you, mr demon, but could you come out and take the monster out of my class? It really has been bothering me.' Sei snorted. Yeah, right.
Steeling himself Sei shifted and held the page between his index finger and thumb while he pricked his pinky with the needle. He grimaced as the prick caused a little more pain than he expected but quickly shoved that aside and he swapped the page to his other hand. His bleeding pinky swiped over the page leaving a streak of bright red behind it. Nothing happened immediately after and Sei wondered briefly if he had been tricked before the previously dull ink lit up.
Dull blue transformed into bright cerulean and crinkled page straightened as Sei's blood slowly disappeared, as if it had been sucked up through a straw. The page hummed with power and left the teen floundering. What was he supposed to do now?
"I-I uh-" Sei cleared his throat. Since there weren't any magic voodoo verses suddenly floating in his head should he just say what he wanted? "I would like to take you up on your offer."
The words barely finish leave his mouth before there was a small but firm tug at his lungs. With a muffled poof a burst of smoke erupted from the page. A small figure exploded from the ball of smoke and landed lightly on tiny paws. The thing that had the seemingly benign appearance of a common ferret folded its arms as best it could and smirked up at Sei with unnaturally blue eyes.
"Finally!" it crowed, "You really took your time calling me out. How long did you leave me waiting? A week? Jeez, Godaiin, way to keep a guy waiting in suspense."
Sei sighed. If there ever was a less threatening demon out there then he had obviously not had seen the adorable little hellion standing in front of him. Though, to be fair, his present form wasn't one he had taken by choice nor was it designed to be threatening. Either way, Sei was glad. It made talking to the demon about ten times easier.
He sighed and crouched down. "Should I apologize? For not making a deal with a literal devil? Because if so, I'm terribly sorry if I have offended you."
The demon snorted. "No need to be such a smart-ass. Now," he tilted his head back to look at Sei through narrowed eyes. "back to business. You've made up your mind?"
The little good mood that had gathered around the pair evaporated and immediately grew tense. Sei swallowed and looked away. Honestly, it was ridiculous. The demon was about a tenth his size and about a hundred times fluffier and yet he still eluded more cool energy than Sei could ever hope to.
"Yes." he said with as much conviction as he could muster. It still came out sounding slightly shaky but the demon nodded so Sei figured that at least he'd gotten that much across.
"What changed your mind?" the demon asked. Sei decided to answer truthfully, it wasn't as if the demon's opinion of him could get any lower at this point.
"Big, blobby monsters whispering suicidal thoughts to me during class." he admitted and the demon whistled.
"Right. Can see how that might be problematic." he shook his head and unfolded his tiny arms. "Shall we move onto business then?"
Sei nodded and moved to pick up his discarded pin once more. There was another poof accompanied by a larger tug at his lungs and suddenly the demon had taken on a more human-like appearance.
The blue eyed, navy haired demon bit into his thumb with sharpened canines and grinned wickedly when Sei winced at the sight of the wound.
"Problem?" he asked, amused. The brown-haired teen shook his head and focused his attention on drawing more blood. He offered his hand out and the demon met him halfway.
Bloodied hand met bloodied hand and what felt like electricity sparked up and down Sei's spine. As it was, the demon's tail lashed out excitedly behind him. Words tumbled out of Sei's mouth before he could stop them. It wasn't anything special, it didn't rhyme and it wasn't poetic, but the tug at Sei's lungs was deep and powerful. The words meant something.
"Protect me from all that seeks to do me harm and I shall allow you safe passage into this world."
The demon's eyes glowed bright blue as he replied. His words falling like silk ribbons onto Sei's shoulders.
"You feed me." he intoned, "You shelter me. Trust me with your life."
Fire erupted over their held hands and split off into two branches. A stream of fire connected Sei's heart to the demons, a visible representation of the connection they now shared. The fire pulsed once, twice, three times before fading into nothingness. The world blurred and Sei stumbled and fell backwards onto his butt. Knuckles popping as he forcibly unclenched his hand, the brown-haired teen wondered why he was suddenly so tired.
"Whoops, sorry about that." the demon winced and smoke exploded outward from his body, almost immediately Sei felt the dizziness abate. A small, lithe animal darted out from the smoke and onto Sei's knee. "This better?"
Sei hummed. "Yes, much better thank you." A sudden chuckle erupted from his throat and, acting on impulse, he lifted a hand to stroke the soft fur of his familiar. The sudden fatigue he felt compelling him to do something he normally would have never done.
"I must say," he murmured, "that your 'energy save mode' is one of the most adorable things I've ever seen."
"Adorable?" The contracted demon spluttered and then bristled. "I-it's not like I chose to look like this! It's just that smaller animals save more energy, is all!"
Sei smiled tiredly at the ferret on his knee. He supposed a cat or a dog would have worked much the same but like he said, he hadn't had much choice in the matter.
"Yes, yes. Now can we get up and get going? I still have to get to class you know and I am pretty sure break period is coming to an end."
The demon huffed. "Yeah, yeah."
Sei leaned over and pulled his bag close and allowed his new -friend? Accomplice?- to jump in. His backpack would be considerably heavier now but really it was a price he was willing to pay if it meant having his very own monster repellent handy 24/7.
"I hope you know that I can't use any fire while you're in class. We'll just have to stick with some heavy posturing and intimidation until I can really get rid of the pests." Sei hefted his bag and slung it over his shoulder.
"Yes, that's fine for now. Thank you, Rin."
As it turns out, having a demon in your backpack does wonders for keeping blobby monsters away from your desk. Walking into class Sei could immediately tell the difference in regards to how the monster treated him.
At first, the abomination had screeched in delight when it had seen him and rushed forward, reaching towards him with sickle-like fingers. ("There's too much pressure in school. I can't handle it. I need to get away. I-") Sei sucked in a sharp breath and tightened his hold on his backpack and then Rin was there. Tiny claws poking at his shoulders and hissing at the bubbling creature. The other demon startled and retreated some but Rin's hissing didn't stop. Visibly disturbed the demon backed up even further, almost out of the class, and only then did Rin stop hissing. Instead he settled for winding around Sei's neck like a flesh scarf and settled down to glare at the creature every time it moved.
For the first time in weeks, Sei began to feel safe and protected and allowed himself to focus on the history work before him.
Right so the whole Familiar!Rin is still my ultimate favourite so I shall continue to make little stories until I am utterly sick of it. It is literally my favourite right alongside Sei. (Even though he's had about one full chapters worth of appearance time.) This was actually a lot of fun to write. Practically wrote itself, it did. I might do something along the same line in the future.
Some of you may ask why I chose a ferret for Rin to turn into and the answer is actually pretty simple:
Because I wanted to.
Amaimon is a hamster so why not? Also things like foxes, wolves, cats and dogs are also majorly cute BUT cliché in my opinion. So I chose something totally out of the box but still cuddly. Sue me.
Please review. I've got a quizz i should be studying for for tomorrow but instead I'm here posting this shit alongside Oberon (another story that you could please check out?) so DO ME A SOLID AND DROP ME A REVIEW. please?