Another night babysitting.
Oberon picked a piece of fuzz off his otherwise black shirt and flicked it back into the night with disdain. Another night picking off small fries. What I wouldn’t give to… He let his mind wander as he scanned the area around the high school once more.
He hated waiting. Patience was never really one of his virtues. He needed something to happen. Something important. Something that would let him feel alive again. Anything was better than waiting around for a basic no-nothing level nightmare and he was ready to crawl out of his skin with boredom.
A warm wind stuck on the breeze and carried the scent of damp trees and suffocation. Oberon ran his fingers through his silvery hair as he pushed the black hoodie off his head. Even though he was outside, he felt like he needed air. Staring at the way his ivory fingers glimmered in the moonlight, he especially missed the feeling of his talons tearing through a torso. The cold slick feeling of blood and viscera running down his arms surrounded by the intoxicating coppery smell of carnage and death. Feels like forever ago.
But this is where life had led him and he accepted that fact. Didn’t mean he had to enjoy every minute of it. His slender body rocked back on his heels, as he sat perched on the rooftop’s edge like a gargoyle. They had been at this for months now. Almost every night was the same routine. Scout the area for nightmares or any other Underworld creature and then eliminate them by whichever means necessary. Sadly, this town was devoid of any strong or even any large-sized spirits, so he didn’t get much chance to really let loose. That was why they lived here, though, and it made life these past 15 years that much more dull.
Another humid breeze wafted past and blew several strands of silvery hair back into his eyes. He brushed the hair out of his face and managed to wipe some of the sweat off his forehead at the same time. He hated humidity. It was sticky and suffocating and reminded him of a certain time and place he’d rather not think about. He needed a distraction.
Come on… Where is it? Small nightmares, like the one they were hunting, were common enough occurrences around schools. Created from human dark emotions and curses, teenagers with all their drama, anxiety, and cravings were especially prone to creating these soul-leaching spirits. Sticking around a high school was usually the quickest way to find one, but apparently the spirits wanted to aggravate Oberon tonight.
The scowl on his face gave way to a somewhat glazed over look of boredom. Come on, dammit. Come out, come out wherever you are… He cracked his neck to the side as he listened to the night around them.
Crickets chirped loudly from every direction.
A cat scurried through the bushes directly below, chasing some rodent.
A car drove past on the right as its headlights illuminated the otherwise empty darkness for a brief moment.
After what seemed like a muggy eon, the hairs on the back of his neck began to tingle as he felt a slight, but distinct spiritual pressure starting to move towards the surface. Finally!
“Be ready.”
Silence. Oberon closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Seriously, is this kid even paying attention?
He looked at the scrawny teenager standing next to him. “Sir?” Oberon’s face dropped as he received zero response from the figure.
Reve Collins, the 15-year-old half-breed son of a demon, who had just started to awaken to his powers and who had begged Oberon to take him hunting so that he could actually gain control over his abilities, didn’t even have his eyes open. Two small white earbuds protruded from his head and the kid let his fingers dance in the air as if playing along. Lost in his music, Oberon watched an innocent smile spread across his stupid face. From the blue keds to the Superman t-shirt he wore, all he could think was that Reve was a perpetual child.
Oberon exhaled deeply and went back to watching the area where he sensed the pressure emanating from. Nothing but a pain in my–
The ground broke.
As Oberon narrowed his gaze, a grotesque six-foot-long muddled blue and green cockroach nightmare clawed its way out from the soil, antenna frenetically waving about.
The corner of his thin lips curled slightly. This should be amusing.
“It’s here,” Oberon whispered with the slight sing-song of amusement.
Still no response. Oberon reached out and smacked Reve on the leg. Startled, Reve finally opened his eyes and looked down at Oberon. Throwing an annoyed hand out, he pointed to the creature below.
Reve’s gaze followed along the indicated path and as he put his earbuds away. Finally, he saw the giant cockroach down below.
“Ewww! Seriously?”
He knew Reve hated bugs. “Nightmares come in all shapes and sizes, you know that.”
“Yeah, but that’s so gross. It’s one thing when I can squish it with my shoe. It’s an entirely different thing when it’s bigger than I am!”
Oberon muttered under his breath, “So, get a bigger shoe.”
Reve looked over at his mentor with a questioning expression, “huh?” Shaking his head, Oberon downplayed the comment with a look that said “nevermind.”
“Hey, Obie. Watch this!” Reve’s eyes lit up as he cracked his fingers and stifled a quiet “ow”. Reve quickly looked over to Oberon to see if he heard or not. He did. Shaking out his fingers, Reve gave a smirk and stretched out his hands towards the creature. As the grin faded, his fingers twitched and moved as they began to manipulate the air below. Oberon watched as Reve slowed his breathing and began to concentrate. Fingers and breaths started to work in tandem like a well-composed symphony and a dark mist slowly started to collect on the ground below. The mist built and swirled, condensed and stretched like a fine web designed to entrap the underworld creature.
Oberon carefully studied each of Reve’s movements, his breathing, his flow of spiritual pressure exerted into the air, even the playful way he manipulated the mists themselves. For a moment, Oberon felt a little sense of pride. Apparently, the nightly practice was actually paying off. That’s right, now just focus. Bring the energy together and form the doorway. Come on, kid. Just like I showed you.
Sensing the change in the energy of the air, the nightmare skittered in several directions with its antenna waving around, desperately trying to find an escape. Finally, it stopped and stood frozen in place. Good job! Last step, just– Wait. Nope, I was wrong. Reve had taken a peak to look over to Oberon and foolishly lost his concentration. The creature’s antenna quickly picked apart the dark mist surrounding it and Oberon lost his patience. It was just too hot outside for this.
Abruptly, the creature suddenly made a break from Reve’s control and raced up the side of the building, heading straight towards the two of them. Reve let out a startled scream and all the collected dark mist evaporated completely. Oberon darted a furious look over to Reve. Red flecks in a sea of brown burned with an incandescent fire in each of Oberon’s eyes as they locked on to Reve. His eyebrows furrowed and a slight snarl turned his lip, his face screaming “are you kidding me?” Reve responded with a half-cocked slightly apologetic smile and shrugged at him.
The giant discolored cockroach raced up and over the ledge, nearly hitting Reve. At least he was aware enough to quickly dodge to the side and land, rather ungracefully, on his back.
Oberon stood up calmly and offered a hand to Reve, “Shall we?” His eyes back to their usual burnt hue.
With a smile full of trust, Reve took his hand and stood up.
What is it about this kid? Oberon closed his eyes and took a deep breath, inhaling the sticky night air. Every damn time. Blissful darkness enveloped him. In the span of a single heartbeat, his solid, human teenage persona dissipated into a dark cloud of deadly energy. Within the next heartbeat, he effortlessly condensed his considerable spiritual pressure into a compact, handheld weapon that even this idiot kid could use.
One of these days, I really need to let him learn to handle this type of thing on his own. Oberon chided himself as he pictured how easy it would be to eliminate this particular nightmare creature on his own. There were several options and he started to tick them off in his mind from the most amusing to the cleanest. But, until the kid could fight alone with just his individual abilities, Oberon made sure that Reve at least got the hang of using a capable weapon. A weapon that would protect him no matter what. That was the promise he had made long ago.
He felt Reve reach out and take hold of him as his shadows finished condensing. On a positive note, at least he’d be able to enjoy killing something tonight. Albeit a small, mindless something. Insect-based nightmares were so basic.
“Ready?” Oberon’s voice resounded from the black dagger that he now embodied.
Reve nodded with a serious look on his face and turned to face his foe. The cockroach creature, for its part, had already turned and was charging towards him again. Reve deftly side-stepped it, but the bug followed and nearly knocked him over again as it raced past. Antenna gesticulating about, it turned and rushed at him again.
Reve took a step to his left and let out a powerful kick to the creature’s mid-section. He actually remembered something from his training. The kick sent the bug flying off the edge of the building and into the stifling night air. Unfortunately for the kid, the cockroach opened its brilliantly colored giant wings, stopping in mid-air. Reve’s jaw dropped. Moonlight streamed through the opalescent wings as the creature leaned forward and flew straight back towards Reve.
Reve’s eyes could not go wider as every muscle clenched, including his clammy hand around Oberon’s dagger, and he raised his arms to protect himself, waiting for the impending collision.
While restricted to his weapon form, Oberon didn’t have many options to help out. That was kind of the point. He focused all his dark energy into the sharpest edge of a blade so that whoever wielded him could cut through nearly anything of this world or below it. This left him with only one option at this moment. Oberon watched the creature flying towards Reve and shifted the air around himself just enough in order to line up precisely. He just prayed that Reve didn’t jerk him to the side at the last second.
All at once, the bug crashed into them at full force. Boy and bug smashed into the rooftop together and slid to a stop several feet away kicking up a cloud of dust and debris.
Oberon smiled to himself as he felt slick, cool satisfaction along his sharpened edge.
Reve frantically scrambled to get out from under the creature, anticipating its next attack. Or maybe he just really didn’t like bugs. Oberon hoped it was the former, but knew better. After a moment and still on his back, Reve waited. His eyes finally caught sight of a whitish-green liquid seeping out from the giant insect’s head and the black dagger that stood proudly in the center of its brain matter.
“You had doubts?”
Reve picked himself up. “Phew! Sorry, Obie. You know I hate bugs and that one frickin’ flew!” With a big sigh of relief and a half-laugh, he walked over and pulled the dagger out.
“Don’t–! Idiot.”
Reve stopped, dagger in hand, and looked back at the bug just as it exploded in a burst of yellow-green gooey guts, splattering him from head to toe in gunk. Oberon’s dagger dropped to the ground.
Trying his best to choke back a laugh, Oberon reformed into his human body.
A loud gag broke the silence. “Ugk! I think my mouth was open.”
Oberon crouched down and inspected the bug’s carcass — or what was left of it. “Yeah. These types always burst, but at least you can tell when it’s dead. Next time, try sending it to the Underworld before it bursts.”
“Seriously, can we go now? I need to burn… everything.”
“It’s already dissolving.” The creature’s remains, including all its much splattered-about goo, began to sizzle away and evaporate. “Besides, purifying would work better than burning.” Oberon didn’t know why he got such joy from it, but teasing Reve was just something he couldn’t pass up. It made him warm and fuzzy on the inside.
“I didn’t mean literally.” Reve did not seem amused by Oberon’s comments. “Doesn’t matter. I can still feel it on me and in my mouth.” He started making additional gagging sounds. “Tastes like… sunscreen… and burnt dirt.”
Oberon opened his mouth to comment and thought better of it. “Let’s get going.” A sinister smirk slipped out as Oberon teased, “You’ve got a big day tomorrow.” Turning, he crossed to the edge of the building.
“Please don’t talk about my social life’s crisis while I’m still dripping in tonight’s crisis.” Taking one more look back at Reve who was still trying to brush off more of the already evaporated guts, his smirk dissolved. Will this kid ever grow up? Casually walking off the edge of the building, Oberon vanished from sight.
Navigate through all the latest Shenanigans postings below: