The Last Dainv-Chapter 102

The Last Dainv-Chapter 102

The clock beside his desk read: 5:15 AM. Gale tossed back the damp sheets into the bucket of pink water beside his bed. Some of the contents splashed on the floor. He'd clean that up later. But finally, the last of the bloodstain was gone from his sheets.
He sighed, flexing his fingers. Streetlights filtered through the window blinds, revealing his hands raw from bleach. Mission complete. No more murder scene in his apartment.
Now, what's the plan, Gale? Mia had the papers he needed to give to Ollie. Those documents were something his friend wanted, and he needed them to say sorry.
Grabbing his phone, he opened up the group chat Andrew had made for their study sessions. His thumbs hovered on the keyboard and started tapping away.
[Gale: We need to talk. Face to face. About what happened at the asylum. Meet me after class or I'll find you.]
He hit send quickly. The message showed "delivered" but not "read." Too early, they were probably still asleep.
Five minutes passed. Then ten. Gale stared at his phone.
[Jacob: holy shit]
[Jacob: it's using his phone now]
Three dots appeared, disappeared, appeared again.
[Andrew: DONT ANSWER IT]
[Jacob: the skin walker has begun using technology. fuck fuck fuck]
[Mia: Everyone stay calm. Don't respond further.]
[Jacob: dont answer your doors even if it sounds like gale or any of your family. it wont be able to enter if it doesnt have permission]
Gale pinched the bridge of his nose. Worse than expected.
[Gale: It's actually me. I didn't die. I'll explain everything later.]
[Jacob: BULLSHIT that thing ATE YOU we SAW IT]
[Mia: Jacob, stop responding. It's what it wants.]
[Gale: Alright, I'll find you guys myself.]
Great job, Gale. Should've just told them the truth, and now we're here. The skin walker didn't even look anything like a human. That thing couldn't possibly imitate one.
Gale opened up the browser on his phone, searching up skin walkers. He clicked on a video at the top of the search results. It showed a man pointing the camera at the door, and a woman saying, 'Hey John, can I come in? Can I come in?'. The caption said 'my mom is in Paris for the weekend. Who the hell is this?! #skinwalker'.
This video was about as believable as him dying. Impossibly stupid. That voice could've been anyone. Or maybe this was just a skit. The hundreds of real life spiderman videos had already taught him never to trust anything on the internet. None of this helped him at all.
His eyes turned to the top left of his phone's monitor, 5:47 AM. Today was Friday. Physics class starts at 7:20. Andrew would be there. Jacob and Mia had different schedules.
Option one: Skip class, track down Mia directly, demand the documents. Quick. Messy. Would definitely burn that bridge. Probably.
Option two: Show up to class, corner Andrew afterward. Use him to get to Mia. Would scare Andrew, maybe even make him pass out. Hopefully, it keeps friendships. Maybe.
Option three: Go to Ollie, an adult, let him handle it. But it won't solve the misunderstanding of him being a skin walker. Nothing gained on the friendship part.
Standing up and going to the washroom, he cleaned up the bucket and dumped the contents into the tub. He ran the water for a while until there wasn't any more red in the tub.
Option two it was then.
Gale showered quickly. Hot water eased some of the soreness from yesterday. His torso showed purple and yellow bruises across his ribs and shoulder. Better than yesterday, but obvious.
He dressed carefully. Oversized black hoodie he got from the red cross, ripped jeans for the more casual human flair that adults usually liked to wear.
Opening up the fridge, he put the half-loaf of bread, peanut butter, and butter knife into the storage box and put the box into his left pocket. Gotta have something for lunch.
Gale grabbed his physics textbook, shoved it into his backpack with a notebook and pen, and left. Cold morning air hit his face. His breath made clouds as he jogged to the bus stop, arriving as the bus pulled up.
The ride to Yorkdale Adult Learning Centre took about an hour. After one transfer, Yorkdale's campus came into view. Students walked by on the sidewalk, coffee cups in their hands. Gale was one of them.
Alright. Round 2.
Entering the campus, he went to the 2nd floor, taking the stairs. Room 204 sat at the end of the corridor to the right of the stairs. He took the seat near the door. If Andrew went in without finding him, he'd be locked in. If he ran from the class after seeing him, he'd have a faster time catching the guy.
7:15.
Students started trickling in. No Andrew yet. Gale checked his phone. No new messages in the group chat.
Mr. Walker came in, red bow tie, humming a song. "Alright class, let's get started with today's lesson!"
No Andrew. The man actually skipped class! Physics was also his favourite class.
If Andrew skipped his favourite class, the other two wouldn't be any different. They'd be on high alert. They might've said some stuff to the authorities. Police might even take him to jail, and he'd have to make scary looking mean friends.
The class continued. Mr. Walker continued a lesson that Gale completely didn't pay attention to. Each minute ticked by so slowly. No point in chasing Andrew today.
Gale expanded Breath of the Void, flooding him with mundane signatures and a couple of ether signatures he didn't recognize.
One signature looked familiar. It was Mia's by the library's front on the fourth floor, handing out pieces of paper.
No Jacob in the whole building. He'd have to isolate Mia instead.
The class droned on, and soon enough, the clock hit 11 AM.
"Alright class. Next week, we'll have a lab that focuses on Newton's Third Law. It'll be fun. Make sure you come to class early!" Mr. Walker bounced up and down, bow tie bouncing with him. "Class is dismissed."
Gale went to the cafeteria on the first floor. Sat down on one of the benches and thought.
Blank. That's what he thought. Nothing.
Emmerson had told him not to reveal anything to anyone, but he'd have to reveal something to his friends to get those documents in the most non-intimidating way possible.
Pulling up his phone, he opened the contact list. He tapped on Rachel's contact and tapped on the message button. She has a best friend. Maybe her friend was a mundane. She'll know how to explain what he is, his abilities, and all the stuff about Aur, supernatural stuff that mundanes can't understand because they're not part of that world.
Right. At times like this, he could ask for help.
[Gale: hi]
He waited for 2 minutes before a reply came through.
[Rachel: hi, how’s class?]
[Gale: class is good. so, funny thing. can I ask you something?]
[Rachel: of course. what is it?]
[Gale: do you have any mundane friends?]
[Rachel: let me guess.]
[Rachel: you met some friends, and now you have to reveal your powers to them because of something?]
Gale glanced everywhere in the cafeteria. Was she here right now? She was completely right. How did she know?
[Gale: how did you know?]
[Rachel: remember the best friend I told you? she’s mundane and knows everything. we can go hiking some time with her when you're done classes.]
[Gale: really? i can take you to the woods i usually went to up north.]
Gale smiled, this time not forced. He'd teach them how to set up a campfire without using Rachel's fire powers. Make a tent out of the leaves and branches from around the area. He wasn't able to teach her that in the Eclipsed. Maybe even build a pool and fill it up with water from the nearby creek. They could all swim together and race.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
[Rachel: sure, that'd be fun. and Gale?]
[Gale: yeah?]
[Rachel: don't forget to eat lunch.]
[Gale: you too.]
Right, lunch. He did bring lunch. Peanut butter sandwich. Better than all the chalky protein bars the Path gave him.
Pulling out the half loaf of bread, butter knife, and peanut butter jar from his storage box, he put them on the table. Students glanced his way, but he didn't care. He’s still growing after all. Might as well eat first before tracking down Mia.
As Gale spread the peanut butter on the bread, Mia and a girl with glasses beside her came into the cafeteria. They both held a stack of flyers in their arms. When Mia's eyes caught his direction, the flyers from her hand dropped, scattering all over the cafeteria floor.
The glasses girl shook Mia by the shoulder. "You ok?"
Gale stood up, butterknife in hand. "Mia, we need to talk. I can explain everything."
"No," she whispered. "I'm... uh... sorry. I need to go."
"Why?" the glasses girl said. "Who is that guy?"
Mia's grip tightened on the bag over her shoulders. "I have to go. Sorry, Lin. Family emergency."
"But what about the recruitment drive?"
"Cover for me. Please."
Mia turned around and ran back from the cafeteria.
Shit! She's getting away. Gale stood up and followed her, butterknife still in hand, pushing past the students. When he got out of the cafeteria, the crowd of students blocked his view.
Breath of the Void expanded. Tendrils reached and tracked onto Mia. She was by the elevator, going up. Gale walked to the stairwell, taking it up 3 steps at a time.
The elevator stopped at the 2nd floor, and the target got out of it. Gale got out of the stairwell at the same time, Mia spotting him.
She ran to the right, pushing away people along the way. During the lunch hour, the upper levels didn't have many people.
"Mia! We just need to communicate to solve this!" Gale shouted across the hall. The few students walking by eyed him but went on about their day.
Mia turned left at the end of the corridor. By the time Gale got to the corner, she was already at the end of the corridor.
"Mia, stop!" Gale shouted. "I just want to talk!"
Tendrils fed him information. She was at the other stairwell, already running back down. But why was she running?! He's doing everything he could to be clear and concise with what he wanted, to communicate effectively, like what online articles say about effective communication!
No one was in the hallway to see him. In just a couple of steps, Gale arrived at the other end of the corridor and ran down the stairwell, following Mia to the basement.
The basement stretched before him. Empty, no students. Perfect for isolation and a quick dose of communication. He could safely reveal his powers here and just show her the misunderstanding.
Tendrils told him that she was in one of the rooms that looked like a chemistry lab. Huh, didn't know there were classrooms in the basement too.
Neat.
"Mia, I know where you are." Gale walked casually down the hallway. "Come out, and let's talk this out. I know you're in here."
He entered the lab she was in. She hid under one of the tables, facing away from the entrance. Gale climbed on top of the table, peeked his head down, and saw Mia hugging her knees underneath.
"Mia, how about a talk?" Gale smiled, upside down.
Mia's eyes looked to the butterknife in his hands and screamed, getting up and running out of the classroom.
Her scream made Gale jump and hit his head on the ceiling. Before his head fell onto the table, he quickly realigned his centre of balance upright, like a human.
No table was going to get a free hit on him. The ceiling got a free hit in, but that doesn't count. That was Mia, and he'll let a friend get a free hit in.
Putting the butterknife away back into the storage box, Gale walked outside the lab. Tendrils fed him information. Mia shivered inside a metal cabinet filled with a bunch of jug looking things. She had one of them in her hand. Might be dangerous.
Gale slowly walked over to the cabinet. In front of the cabinet, he pulled it open, quickly pinning her hand onto the cabinet with the jug. Before she could scream, he put a hand over her mouth.
"I'm not going to hurt you. Just listen to me."
Her eyes glanced at the jug, labelled "distilled water."
His hand loosened, and the jug fell onto the floor.
"Please." This time, he could no longer hide the frown on his face. All Gale wanted to do was just explain everything. But she just kept running and running. What else was he supposed to do?
"Who are you?" Her voice shook. "Are you really Gale?"
"I know what you saw," Gale slowly moved back. "But that thing, it's called a skin walker. It didn't kill me."
Mia stepped out of the cabinet, rubbing the arm that was pinned to the cabinet. "Andrew said it killed you and ate your head."
"It tried," Gale said. "It couldn't."
"How?" Her hand gripped the straps of her purse tighter. "Unless it became you!"
Gale backpedalled. His back hit the wall behind him as he let himself slide down and hug his knees. "Look. I know it doesn't make sense, but there are a lot of things that don't make sense by
mundane standards.
"
"Like skin walkers?" Her voice began to stabilize, still catching her breath. "Like whatever the fuck was in that-that place?!"
"Like me," Gale said.
She blinked. "What?"
"I'm not... exactly normal, Mia. I'm… special."
"You're autistic?"
"No? Wait. What's that mean?" Gale said, looking up at her. "Hold on, let me show you."
Phase Touch enveloped his hand. He touched the wall behind him and pushed his hand through it like it wasn't there.
"What the fu-" Mia crouched down, looking closer at his Phased hand in the wall. "How?"
"That place we were in, after the hallways changed? That wasn't the same asylum anymore. It was something else. A rift. A partial one."
"A what?"
"A tear between realities. The asylum sat on top of one." Gale took a careful step forward. "I've been through one before. I know how to fight what comes out of them."
Mia shook her head. "This is crazy. You're crazy."
"Please, believe me. I can do more than this if you need me to show you," Gale said, pulling his hand out of the wall and releasing Phase Touch. "The documents you took from that office, they explain some of it, don't they?"
Her eyes widened. "How did you know about those?"
"I went back after you all escaped. Checked the office. The drawers were empty."
Mia took a seat beside him, her back to the wall. “The papers talked about experiments. Something called Project Threshold. They were trying to... Wait. If you went back, then what happened to the monster?"
"I killed it."
Mia turned her head to the side to look at him. "With what?"
Gale put his left hand into his left pocket and materialized the Weber on to his right hand. Black goop still clung to the edges of the blade.
Mia's eyes fixed on the weapon. "You had that the whole time? When we were in the asylum?"
"Yeah..."
"Why didn't you use it sooner?"
"I didn't want to scare you all. Three
normal
people suddenly finding out their classmate carries a sword and fights monsters? You'd also think I'm a monster, right?"
Mia chuckled. First time he heard that in a while or ever. "So instead you let us think you died?"
"It seemed simpler at the time."
"Clearly not."
Gale stored the Weber back into the storage box. "I know."
"Those papers I found... they talked about opening doorways to other places. Eventually using that to conquer land or something. It also said it was missing an ingredient..." Mia looked up at the ceiling. "Is that real? Can people actually do that? Like open portals?"
"Not open portals, but…" Gale said carefully. "There are people who have abilities. Who can do things others can't."
"Like you?"
He nodded.
"What are you?" Mia whispered.
"Just a boy that can kill monsters who wants to get his G.E.D." He looked up at the ceiling with her. "I need those documents, Mia. It's dangerous."
"Why should I trust you?" She said. "For all I know, you're working with whatever that thing was."
"If I were, why would I have helped you all escape? Why would I have fought it?"
"I don't know!" Her voice cracked. "That thing was also in the asylum so maybe it wanted something in it!"
"I killed it, and if I really wanted to, I could take it from you right now," Gale said more gently. "But I don't because I don't want you to hate me. You're my friend."
Mia turned her eyes to Gale without turning her head. For a moment, she didn't say anything.
"Have you..." She hesitated. "Have you always been able to do these things all the time?"
"No," Gale said. "I just found out about it a couple of months ago too. It's really…."
Really tough. Gale didn't want to just solely live in Aur. Even Rachel has a mundane friend. He just wanted a chance at being normal, even if that ship has long sailed.
"Are there others like you?"
"Yeah."
"And they all fight these... things?"
"Some do."
Mia took a deep breath. "The papers are at my apartment. I'll get them after class."
Gale sighed in relief, "Thanks."
"Don't thank me yet," she said, standing up. "I have conditions."
Of course she did. Nothing was ever simple. "What conditions?"
"I want to know... to know more of that supernatural stuff and the stuff in the doc."
"Mia, it's dangerous. Its-"
"Non-negotiable," she interrupted before he could say anything. "I found them. I get to know what they say and then some."
Gale sighed. "Fine. What else?"
"You explain exactly what that thing was in the asylum and if there's more monsters out there. I want to know all of it. How they work. How that wall touching thingy works. And how the rift works. Everything."
"I can try?"
"And..." She hesitated. "You help me convince Andrew and Jacob you're not some skin walker or mimic or whatever."
That might be the hardest part. He could do what he did with Mia, but the way Mia looked so scared… Gale didn't know if he could do that.
"How do you suggest I do that?"
"I don't know. You're the special one." She pushed herself up. "Figure it out."
Gale sighed, "
Fine
."
If all else fails, he'll just go with the flow anyways.
Mia brushed dust from her jeans. "I'll text them. Tell them to meet us in the cafeteria at lunch."
"Wait," Gale said. "Don't tell them I'll be there. Just say you want to meet."
"You want me to trick them?"
"I want them to not run away." He scratched his head. "I'm not some skin walker or whatever, right?"
"Fine. But if they freak out, then don't blame me."
"They probably will."
She looked at him and pulled out her phone, then typed on it. A moment later, she showed him the screen:
[Mia: Guys, need to talk about last night. Meet me in cafeteria at 3:30? Important.]
Almost immediately, responses popped up:
[Jacob: are you ok?? did the mimic find you?]
[Andrew: i'm coming. stay in public areas]
Mia pocketed her phone. "There. They're coming."
"Thank you," Gale said.
She eyed him warily. "Don't make me regret this."
"I won't."

.
!
Chapter 102