Chapter 7

Recap

She screamed, shooting across the front lawn of the school and bursting through the doors. At this point she didn't care what was following her, she just wanted to GET INSIDE. Dashing towards an elevator she spotted not too far away, she darted inside and pushed the highest button. The button turned red and vibrated.

Suddenly the elevator said, "Please choose another below 20. Students are not allowed to go any higher. You had chosen Floor 22."

Richiru groaned and pushed the button with a 5. Surely that would take her somewhere. The doors closed with a painstakingly slow motion. Eventually, they shut, allowing her to let out a breath that had been held longer than normal.

Well, atleast she was getting somewhere now...

But wait.

Where was...

"LEAF-KUUUNNNN!" Richiru shireked. She must have left him outside when she flew in. "Nonononononononooo!" Richiru then began to stab at the button with a "G" on it (stands for "ground floor"), wailing all the way in the opposite direction.

This day wasn't exactly going as planned... at all.

…

The elevator door finally opened.

Richiru was just about to stab at the "1" button again, when people began to pile in. She groaned mentally. God, what's happened to this damned world? She squeezed through, noting that they wore the same uniform as she did, the boys having on similarly colored clothing as well. But she ignored it now.

Friends came first.

After calmly walking out and watching as the elevator doors closed from far away, she flew down the hallway. Everything appeared as a blur as she dashed towards a stairwell. Skidding to a stop in front of it, Richiru began to clamber down the steps. Suddenly she tripped, stumbling and doing a faceplant on the ground.

Why did everything suddenly become... bad?

Huffing, she sat back on her knees, rubbing her forehead. Richiru suddenly felt as though, something had become... heavier...

Face paling, Richiru reached a trembling hand upwards to touch the empty place at her neck. She was right. Nothing was there.

She then heard a dog's bark to her left.

Turning her head in that direction and looking down, Richiru saw a small, white terrier with a pink, polka-dotted bow tied around it's neck. It sat there, wagging a small, fluffy tail. Richiru's face became even more pale, sweatbeads beginning to form on her face at what she saw it was holding.

Her charm.

As much as she wanted to grab and throttle it by the neck at that instant, she knew it would just escape from her.

So it was time to settle for a nicer tactic.

"H-hey little guy- or girl! C-can I please have that necklace... back?" Richiru sweatdropped. She didn't sound convincing at all. She just sounded like one of those creepy stalker guys on those crime TV shows, or some shy little girl off of an anime. But she had one thing right, she was shy.

The dog blinked it's eyes at her, tilting it's head to the right, tail slowing down. There was a startling flash of mischief across it's flash.

Suddenly, it jumped around and darted down the school's hallway- with the necklace.

Why that little...

Richiru took off after it, knowing that she would eventually begin to get tired when she reached her limit, so she had to catch the thing before she plopped to the floor with the expression of exhaustion

written all over her body.

After what seemd like hours of running through seemingly endless halls and running up and down stairs, Richiru collapsed to her knees, panting. Yep. It was all over now. Besides, with the necklace gone and all, that would mean that she would have to be forced to depend on herself for luck.

But then again... the contract.

Phesh, if only she had not signed a deal with that thing, she would still be living the everyday life in a house with a evil mother. But no, that demon had to barge into her life and ruin it all.

Losing the necklace also meant losing the deal. And that loss probably also meant losing her life. Then hey, maybe death won't be too bad...

Richiru felt a pair of eyes on her.

The teen looked up a little. The dog sat in front of her, but it wasn't wagging it's tail anymore. The necklace was no longer in it's mouth. Then Richiru noticed something else, like a note, tucked into the large pink bow.

"What's this...?"

Reaching out and gently sliding her index finger and thumb behind the ribbon, Richiru pulled out the folded piece of paper. It appeared to be a note.

Unfolding it, Richiru read it silently. On it were two simple words that made a shiver go up her spine.

You lose

Her face paled and she gasped, dropping the piece of paper as though it had just bitten her.

I-I lost? But how? It wasn't even the end of the time limit yet!

There was a sudden chuckling, and the girl's eyes flickered back to the dog. She wondered for a moment if there was someone else hiding there in the hallway, anybody, when she realized that it sounded close. Too close.

"You shouldn't be here if you want to find that last summoning card." Richiru recognized that voice, and she turned back to the dog again. But how could a dog talk? Maybe there was a small microphone attached to it somewhere, maybe that's how she's able to hear that voice!

No. It was coming from the dog.

The dog was speaking.

Richiru opened her mouth to speak when there was laughter. A bell resounded throughout the school and a constant chattering broke out through the halls.

The demon spoke again from it's dog form.

"Come with me."

…

!

I finished iiittttt! No, there is still more. Yes, it's a cliffhanger XD

I'm so evil~! Anyway, she will be meeting up with the others eventually, but we still don't know what screamed! Actually, I'll just tell you now since I'll probably be too lazy to put it in one of the chapters.

It was just the sound of a bunch of exorcists killing a demon :)

The screaming was from the demon, not the exorcists of course. Since dear Richiru is a little jumpy, I thought that it would make sense to have her zip through the school at that moment :D

I'm just being mean is all.

But where is Leafy? O_o

Guess we'll find out later...

~TPB