((Sorry about the long wait. Thunderstorms.))
Chapter 5
A Night Of Fright And Confusion





Eastside High was the high school for Soul City. It was quite like any other high school in appearance, and in truth, it had quite typical students. Jocks, nerds and geeks, popular guys and popular girls, and then there were regular attendees. It was this school which Brian, Arti and Anni attended.
Anni drove her colleagues to school early that morning and arrived twenty minutes earlier than usual.
Brian looked around through the crowd of students as Anni made the precautions to make sure her bike could not be snatched by some grubby thief. “I think I can see Mari,” he told Arti.
It was. Mari Louise was Arti’s best friend at school. She was four months older than either Arti and Brian so she was a head taller, had dark hair that with braids resting on her shoulders, fair skin, a sweet smile and kind red eyes, and, though it often embarrassed Arti to know it, a more curvaceous figure, but still had a modest physique. Mari wore a red Hawaiian shirt and coal-black pants with matching athletic shoes as her regular attire.
“Hey, guys!” she cheerily greeted Arti and Brian after Anni was done securing her bike and had moved off inside the building. “How are the two of you doing today?”
“Fine so far,” Arti told her friend.
“Same old, same old,” Brian answered.
The three of them walked towards the front doors which had a bush on either side next to the steps.
Then, she appeared. One of the things that could have possibly put a damper on Arti’s morning was her showing up just then. She really didn’t feel she had the energy to put up with this so early in the morning just after getting to school.
“Good morning, everyone,” said Sandi Mys, who was considered the prettiest girl in school. She had red hair that traveled down in two long ponytails and often wore a tan sweater vest that had a white flower right on the chest, as well as dark tan pants and little black shoes. Her eyes were two different colors; the left was aqua while the right was gold, and they sat in the sweetest and most innocent face of a fifteen-year-old girl.
It was not that Arti disliked her. On the contrary, Sandi was probably one of the nicest people Arti knew at the school, even if they were not exactly friends. It was her “popularity” with most of the boys. They would gossip about her good looks, high marks in all her classes, skill in P.E. and personality. It made them all fantasize about a date with her. And that mostly sickened Arti.
Right on cue, Brian elbowed past Arti to approach Sandi.
“It most certainly is a good day,” he said taking one of her hands. “Now that I’ve seen you, Sandi.”
Sandi smiled sweetly. “What a charming thing to say! You’re too sweet, Brian.”
“Sweet” my hairy aunt Fanny! Arti fumed inside.
Mari looked at Arti. “Arti, you okay? Your face is a bit red.”
Arti gasped inward when she realized her face was feeling a tad warmer than usual.
Completely unaware that it might make things worse, Sandi laughed lightly. “Brian, I think I got your girlfriend jealous.”
“I’m NOT his girlfriend!!!” Arti didn’t mean to bark, and looked embarrassed afterwards.
“That’s right,” Brian agreed. “Like I’d go for an unappealing, flat-chest tomboy? I’d much rather be with a full-figured woman with brains to go with the looks.”
He was treading on thin ice.
Now Arti was starting to growl inwardly. Brian, you jerk!!! You are so a dead man later.
Then someone came up behind her and Mari and put an arm around both their shoulders. It was Duke King. He had suave brown hair that had obvious signs of being combed to the left in order to give him a cool look. The typical wanna-be-popular-guy of the school, he wore a blue variation of Brian’s school outfit. Duke was also known to be a trouble-maker and not all that bright.
With him was his portly friend Gus Pork belly. Gus had a red, semi-shaven-looking hairstyle, dark eyes, a simple look on his flabby face, and a big nose. His most notable characteristic was that he was fat. He was so fat, his stomach poked out between his white t-shirt and gray-blue jeans. Gus was often seen hanging around with Duke, though it was often to either help Duke build up his would-be cool guy reputation or to take verbal abuse and orders from him.
“Shame, isn’t it?” Duke asked Arti, turning his brown eyes on her with what he clearly meant to show understanding and compassion. But Arti had heard before that this was his way of trying to flirt. “To be cast aside by the one you spend so much time with.”
“What are you blabbing on about!?” Arti asked angrily.
“Brian doesn’t really seem to care about—” Before Duke could finish that sentence, Brian had his fingers up his nose.
Brian said just four words. “Let go of them.”
Duke obeyed, lifting up his arms and Mari and Arti walked over to stand on either side of Brian.
“Think you’re so tough, O’Brian,” Duke growled. “Just you wait. One day I’ll show you how much of a weak wimp you are.”
“That’s right!” Gus chimed in. “Duke will make you cry and you’ll drop to your knees and beg for forgiveness as you kiss his sneakers. But it won’t immediately come, you’ll see how much of a wussy you are! He’ll make you pay for trying to show him up! He’ll—”
“He’s got the idea, Gus,” Duke barked at him. Then set his eyes on Sandi, who looked rather confused about the whole incident. “Sandi, what you doing tonight?”
Sandi seemed to take the question without really noticing how quickly Duke had gone from flirting with Arti to flirting with her. “Nothing. Why?”
Duke approached her. “How about you and me go to the local burger place tonight?”
“Then she’d still be doing nothing.” A tough-looking Chinese girl with black tomboyish hair and hard eyes came out of the doors behind Sandi, wearing red slip on shoes, tan thick jeans, and an undershirt that made her look like she was in the military. Sandi’s best friend, Jacki Chan. She was often near Sandi, protecting her from guys who wanted dates with her, but had less than honorable intentions. The mere presence of her made Duke back up a few steps. “Thought I told you to back off, Duke,” she said with a wicked mix of a scowl and smirk on her face.
Duke didn’t say a word. He’d heard that Jacki took combat lessons in the gym/dojo down town, and had heard what she had done to guys who hadn’t backed off.
Jacki walked past Sandi and Mari, Arti and Brian and stood right in front of Duke. She had a hooded look around her eyes and that same nasty smile. She leaned in close looking right into his eyes until their noses were an inch from touching. Lightly, and almost seductively, she said, “Boo.”
Duke fell flat on his butt from shock and nervousness while Brian laughed and pointed.
“Heh.”
Jacki looked at the bush on the left. “Come out, Rita.”
Rita Sawyer, one of the photographers for the school newspaper, stood up out of the bushes. She had amber hair that looked almost circular and ended in two bangs on either side of her face, thick square glasses, and wore warm lean jeans, an olive-green t-shirt and salmon-pink sneakers. Rita was rarely seen without her camera, and was often seen sulking around campus during breaks to see if she could find anything juicy to take photographs of.
“Spying as usual, I see,” Jacki commented. She sighed. “How’d I get into a school with so many freaks, geeks and weirdoes? Not that I think of either of you being on that list,” she told Arti and Mari.
“HEY!” Brian said offended.
“We’d better get inside,” said Sandi, who always tried keeping the peace. “First period is going to start in ten minutes.”
Arti and Brian had science class first on the second floor. It was just unfortunate for both of them that they were classmates with Rita and Albert Oxford, one of the geekiest geeks in geekdom. His glasses were almost as thick as Rita’s, but circular. He wore a white pinstriped polyester shirt underneath a copper vest, light gray trousers and brown classy-looking shoes. Albert had a hairstyle similar to Gus and had dark eyes that could be best described as “beady” and as nerdy-looking that ever sat in the pasty-skinned face of a person his age. What truly made Arti and Brian dislike him so much—mostly Arti—was his know-it-all attitude. He almost always seemed to know the answer to questions asked. He also had a disgusting habit of flashing his classmates a smile that seemed to say, “Don’t feel bad I raised my hand first. You probably didn’t know the answer anyway”. It was perhaps the misfortune of Arti and Brian that they sat right behind Albert and Rita in class.
“Morning, Hunter,” Albert said in that nasal voice that made it sound like he was fourteen rather than fifteen. That was another thing Arti disliked about him. No matter how quiet she was when coming into class, he always knew when she arrived, even if he was reading one of his books. “Aren’t you going to say morning back?” Albert asked when he got no reply.
“Morning,” Arti grumbled under her breath.
“Pardon?” Albert put his right hand to his ear. “I didn’t catch that.”
You’re kidding, Rita thought as she sat next to him. You didn’t hear what she said? And all this time I’d thought you were part owl. Actually, she had been planning on printing an untrue tabloid story about how Albert was part owl.
“Settle down!” their teacher told them. “Now today we’re going to continue our lesson. Now, can anyone tell me where we left off yesterday?”
Arti raised her hand, but Albert’s blocked it.
“That little…” Arti growled. “What!? Is his arm some sort of….of…arm-in-a-box!?”
“That neither sounded clever or made sense,” Brian commented.
“Shut up,” she snapped.
“Yes, Mr. Oxford,” the teacher pointed to him, ignoring the interplay between Arti and Brian.
“We were talking about how an object in motion tends to stay in motion,” Albert was saying.
Just then, one of the test tubes on the desk to the left of the classroom slid out of its stand. The entire class stared at it in surprise and confusion. Then they cried out as it streaked over their heads, made a right turn, and smashed over the head of their teacher against the blackboard. It wasn’t over. Now all the test tubes were popping free of their container and were flinging themselves against the ceiling, causing the students and teacher to duck under their desks. When one of the girls in class thought things couldn’t get worse, she felt a bony finger tap her on the left shoulder. She slowly looked up and screamed. The skeleton that was kept in the back of the class, right behind her seat, to be exact, was holding out its’ hand as if asking for a dance or something before it collapsed on top of her.
Almost everyone in the class couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Except for Arti and Brian.
The two of them ate lunch under a tree in the courtyard of the school that day. They had chosen to eat there because they felt it would be too risky to talk about what had been happening up until then in the cafeteria.
“Poltergeist,” Arti said flatly before eating one of the many the cocktail wieners her father had packed for her.
“Says the girl who doesn’t believe in UFOs,” Brian remarked before taking a bite out of his ham sandwich he had made himself.
“I believe in UFOs,” Arti countered, “I just don’t believe in aliens.”
“Don’t UFOs and aliens go hand-in-hand?” Brian asked.
“UFO can be any unidentified flying object, not just an alien ship,” Arti told him.
“Well, I don’t buy the poltergeist thing,” Brian said.
“Says the boy who fights magic-wielders, goblins and soul-eating humans with magic gloves.” Arti enjoyed teasing Brian that way, and even laughed when he gave her a sour look. If she had stopped to think about it, to an outside observer, this looked very close to couples’ behavior.
“Okay, I’ll give it to ya,” Brian said after both their food was gone and he leaned against the tree. “But say it is a poltergeist? What can we do about it?”
“We can tell Mr. Shin and he can probably send some of those exorcists he has to exorcise the school,” Arti told him. “One thing is for sure, if this poltergeist continues hanging around, it could cause a lot more trouble than it currently is.”
Mallory Royal was the mean girl around school. She was seventeen and thus saw that as her right to bully and intimidate all the “little brats” that she was forced to be in contact with at school. She had wispy red tomboyish hair, an eye-grabbing figure which she often showed off around school by wearing a red athletic shirt and olive-green athletic shorts that exposed her long legs, and also wore blue track shoes. Mallory had dark blue eyes that would have otherwise been lovely, if they didn’t often had the look of dislike or cunning in them.
“You’re saying what!?” she asked her best friend Rita as they sat on the right side of the school. Rita had come to her telling her of all the weird things that had been happening since first period. “A ghost!? Rita, did you take stupid pills today?”
“But that’s the only explanation that keeps coming to me,” Rita told Mallory. “I’ve heard that the ceiling lights went out and then broke in the literacy classroom and library, something spooked the animals in the FFA barn, and, freakiest of all, what happened during first period…”
“I have to admit,” said Duke, who had been part of the discussion from the start as he and Gus leaned against the school wall, “I have been hearing weird stuff’s been going on.”
Mallory quite disliked Duke, but hung out with him since it seemed to be expected of her to be around one of the most popular guys at school. Still, she considered him beneath her due to being sixteen and that he sometimes showed his stupidity. She also disliked Gus, who she considered to be a fat dummy that did nothing but eat and go along with whatever Duke said.
Gus nodded after Duke had finished talking.
“A ghost!?” Mallory repeated. “I can’t believe in that. Maybe weak-minded children can, but I am not a weak-minded child.”
“But Mal,” Rita began, then she got a frightened look on her face as she stared over Mallory’s head.
Mallory now showed a bit of concern, as Rita, Duke and Gus seemed rather upset. “What? What is it? You guys okay?”
Duke closed his eyes and looked away. “Look behind you!” he said through gritted teeth and pointing above her. “Look behind you!”
“Behind me?” She turned and felt a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. Two black eyes were staring down at her from between the jutting branches of a tree. And, considering that the tree was five times taller than Mallory, it was easy to understand why the other three had been so scared. Mallory shook all over before sinking to her knees. She continued to stare up at the eyes even after they had faded away. “R-Rita…did…you get a picture of that!?” Mallory asked after coming out of her shock.
Rita shook her head meekly.
“This is big,” Duke said. “The school is haunted, and the ghost showed itself to us.”
Mallory’s face flashed with an idea. “We could be famous. We could be celebrities. We could all get filthy stinking rich!!!”
“Shame I doubt anyone may believe us,” Gus said in his thick fat voice.
“He’s right,” Rita added.
Mallory snapped her head between Gus and Rita. “What are you two talking about!?”
“I didn’t get a photo,” Rita told her. “And besides, who’d take a photo of two eyes between a tree branch seriously? They’d say it was doctored.”
Mallory smiled softly and put both her hands on Rita’s shoulders. “Is this the Rita I’ve known since grade school? The Rita who caused so many tears to fall from the eyes of pathetic toddlers? The Rita who said that the green ham in the lunchroom in fourth grade was really people?”
“I got suspended for that for a week because it was really Dr. Seuss Day at school,” Rita told her.
“You’ve stretched the truth so much,” Mallory continued. “Even if we didn’t get a photo this time, we can get one tonight.”
“What are you saying?” Duke asked.
“I’m saying we’re coming back tonight and seeking out that ghost,” Mallory told him rather aggressively.
“But…isn’t that…trespassing and breaking an entering?” Guys asked uneasily.
Mallory glared at the two boys. “Since when did you two turn into goody-goodies?”
“We’re not goody-goodies!” they objected. “We….just don’t like ghosts…”
“Well, you’re coming with me and Rita tonight,” Mallory told them. “Or I’ll make you more scared of me than any ghost you can imagine.”
Arti and Brian traveled to the top floor after they entered the HQ building and knocked on the door.
Ms. Pristine peeked out when she cracked the door open. “Ms. Hunter? Mr. O’Brian? What is it?”
“We have something we need to tell Mr. Shin,” Arti said.
“Mr. Shin is currently attending a serious matter,” Ms. Pristine told her. “You’ll have to come back.”
“But this is important,” Arti said. “It could be very serious to public security.”
“As does this matter,” was the response.
“Who is at the door?” Mr. Shin asked from out of sight.
“It’s Ms. Hunter and Mr. O’Brian,” said Monica as she turned to face her boss. “Ms. Hunter says she has something important to say.”
“Then let them in,” Mr. Shin told her. “I feel our business is concluded, anyway.”
Ms. Pristine opened the door wider and Arti and Brian entered.
There was a man in the room standing before Mr. Shin’s desk. He was middle-aged and wore a suit similar to Mr. Shin, but it sported a long black tie and he wore spats, whereas Mr. Shin wore thick shoes. The man had black hair and wore a black bowler with a red rim in the middle. A thick black mustache sat between his upper-lip and crooked nose. His black eyes completed the look that this man would rather be anywhere other than here.
“Benjamin,” Mr. Shin addressed the man, “I will have my people on the look out. Thank you. You will tell Cloud, I presume?”
“Of course!” Mr. Benjamin’s voice was old and cracked. He turned and walked past Arti and Brian. Brian felt he saw Benjamin give them a slight look of contempt.
“Who was that?” Brian asked after Monica closed the door.
“Mr. Benjamin Wright,” Mr. Shin answered. “Vice-minister under Moses Cloud, minister of the Magical Ministry of Peace.”
“The ministry of magic-wielders who try to keep peace between themselves and regular people?” Arti could not help but feel excited. To think that another important organization had come here. Her face was somewhat flushed. “What did he want?”
“Classified,” Ms. Pristine told her.
“No, no,” Mr. Shin waved a hand at Monica. “I will need to tell the Soul Mystics later.” He looked at Arti. “The werewolf Gulo Savage is on the loose.”
That seemed to bring Arti back to reality. “A werewolf?”
“Yes,” answered Mr. Shin. “He has been sighted in the area lately, mostly at night. Mr. Benjamin told me he has been attacking couples in Central Park recently and leaving them with nasty scratches. I told Benjamin that I would have skilled Soul Mystics patrolling the city every night. Now, what was it you wanted to tell me?”
This seemed to bring Arti back to her own concerns. “There have been some weird things going on at school, especially this morning. Mr. Shin, I think it’s a poltergeist.”
It was hard to read Mr. Shin’s expression through his mask, but Arti imagined he had raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Yes,” Arti confirmed. “And I’d like to go and combat this specter, as it is my school.”
“You mean our school,” Brian corrected her.
“Out of the question!!!!” Prince boomed as he stood next to Mr. Shin, looking as if he could intimidate his daughter with his would-be furious face. In reality, it looked more like he needed to use the bathroom. “I’m not going to let my only daughter out at night with a werewolf running around.” His eyes locked with dislike on Brian. “Especially not with a guy like that.”
“Excuse me!?” Brian looked scandalized.
Arti glared back at her father with more successful results. “I was talking to Mr. Shin. What he says goes around here.”
“Denied,” Mr. Shin said.
Arti stared at him. “Pardon?”
“I agree with your father,” he told her. “It is too dangerous to send two sixteen-year-olds out at night with a dangerous werewolf on the loose. Someone could be seriously injured. Or worse.”
“But sir,” Arti said pleadingly.
“What he says goes around here,” Prince shot back at his daughter, a little too smugly.
Arti glowered at her father and stormed out of the room with Brian following her. She shut herself up in her room with the door locked. The walls of her room had been painted pale pink and had shelves that held one or two childhood toys such as a teddy bear she named Jimmy and a picture of her parents. In her annoyance at being denied and teased by her father, Arti had considered taking the picture out of the white frame that said “We R Family” and cut him out of it. But reconsidered. It represented a happier time to when she had been in the third grade. Right before Mariah had died. The thought of her mother almost brought tears to her eyes. She slumped facedown into a pillow on her bed.
“Go away, Daddy!” Arti said through a voice that was fighting not to cry from the sorrow she often felt from missing her mother and the annoyance that still lingered.
“‘Daddy’? I kinda like that.”
Arti’s face blushed brightly and threw open the door to see Brian standing smirking on the other side.
Brian flashed the peace sign. “Hey babe.”
“Don’t call me that. I’m not in the mood.” She wasn’t. “What do you want?”
“I just wanted to know when I should tell Kintaro and Tsukumo to get ready to move out tonight,” Brian said.
Arti looked at him. She was still blushing, but not as much as at what he had said after she had mistaken him for her father.
Kintaro and Tsukumo were not ninjas for nothing. Even if Kintaro could sometimes be rash and something of a boar, they could move about without a sound when it was absolutely needed not to alert anyone to their presence. They were also skilled at picking locks. The pair entered the Hunter apartment noiselessly and entered. Tsukumo approached Arti’s room and lightly rapped the door with her knuckles.
Arti stepped out in her work outfit, and she went with her friends.
Duke and Gus had found difficulty with the lock on the school doors. For whatever reason, neither of them had thought that the lock would be so hard to undo. Rita and Mallory stood behind them, Rita looking bemused and Mallory looking frustrated with the typical stupidity she had come to expect from her “male companions”. Though in truth, considering Twiddle Dumb and Twiddle Dumber almost made Mallory scream in horror and frustration.
“Tell me, Duke,” Mallory asked as he struggled to pick the lock with a bobby pin Rita had handed him, “how many years were you held back in Jr. High?”
“Three,” Gus answered for Duke, and Duke punched him hard in the arm. “Well, it’s not like I told her you wet the bed ‘til you were fourteen,” Gus grumbled.
“You just did, you idiot,” Duke growled.
Rita heard something. “Someone’s coming.”
Gus’s eyes widened. “What do we do!? We gotta hide! I can’t go to jail!! I can’t live on bread and water alone!”
“SHUT UP!” Duke barked.
“Into the bushes!” Rita instructed in a low voice.
Mallory looked at her with hooded eyes. “If you think I’m going into those bushes…”
Gus was surprisingly strong despite how out of shape he looked. He bodily picked up Mallory and tossed her into the bushes against her will before jumping in himself, though he landed on her stomach.
Duke and Rita followed them.
Kintaro, Tsukumo, Brian and Arti arrived at the school doors five minutes afterwards. They were quite unaware they were being watched from the bushes and from a tree nearby.
Tsukumo inspected the lock. “Pretty standard. We shouldn’t have too much—Eep!!”
Kintaro had activated his Idol and turned it into his sword, slashing through the lock. “Excelsior!” he cried and dashed off the darkened hallway with Brian bring up the rear.
“We’re here to kick butt and chew bubblegum! And I don’t like bubblegum!” Brian shouted.
The girls stood at the doorway staring after their partners.
“Kin-kun’s so reckless sometimes,” Tsukumo sighed. “Forgiveness, Arti-chan.”
“What do you see in him?” Arti asked.
“Same that you see in Brian-kun, I suppose,” Tsukumo answered before following the boys.
Arti blushed brightly again. “It’s not like that!” she called Tsukumo as she ran after her. “It’s NOT!!!”
“Was that Hunter and O’Brian?” Duke asked as he poked his head out of the bushes.
“I think so,” Rita’s head popped up next to him. “I wonder what they’re doing here at night.”
“Who cares?” Duke had a mean look on his face. “We’ll just follow them and take a few pictures of them being on school grounds after hours. With any luck Brian will get suspected, maybe even expelled! I never thought I’d get my revenge so soon!”
Rita didn’t think to mention the obvious to him.
“Get your foot off my stomach, you tub of fat!” Mallory screamed at Gus.
The lowlife quartet snuck after the Soul Mystics.
A dark shadow followed them.
The cafeteria was at least twenty yards from the main front and back doors to the school and was in the center of the building. At night the tables were rolled up and placed in a large storage room until they would be needed the next day. It was a very large room with glass walls. There were two doors for students to come in and go out with a window for trays that was now closed.
Tsukumo poked her head inside after undoing the lock, Kintaro, Brian and Arti behind her and they entered the room so they were in the exact middle. “Hello? Any ghosts in here?” No answer.
“That’s not how you call a ghost out, Tsu-chan,” Kintaro told her. He filled up his lungs. “GHOST! COME OUT! THE GREAT AND MIGHTY SOUL MYSTIC AND NINJA KINTARO HIRO HAS COME TO DRIVE YOU AWAY!” No response. Kintaro stared at the empty room in disbelief. “It’s ignoring me!?”
“It wasn’t loud enough,” Brian said. “Let me try. “HEY, YOU POLTERGEIST! COME ON OUT AND FACE US!!!”
Arti had been growling in annoyance. “WILL YOU IDIOTS SHUT UP!? THE WAY YOU’RE SCREAMING, SOMEONE OTHER THAN THE GHOST IS BOUND TO KNOW WE’RE HERE!!!!”
Brian, Kintaro and Tsukumo screamed in pain and held their hands over their ears as Arti’s scream echoed around the room.
“Damn it, Arti! I think you almost blew something out!” Brian was drilling his ear and hoped the ringing would stop soon.
Then it happened. The window slid out and trays starting shooting out at them. Tsukumo, Brian and Arti dodged and even struck out against the trays as Kintaro slashed several of them in half and they fell harmlessly to the floor. The trays continued coming at greater speed, but thankfully the reflexes of the four young Soul Mystics were able to avoid being seriously injured.
As they fought, they were being watched from a safe distance by Mallory, Rita, Gus and Duke. None of them could believe what they were seeing.
“Rita, get ready,” Duke said with a hand on her shoulder. “We’re going in. I wanna see Brian’s face when I bust him.”
“And you intend on using me as a human shield?” Rita couldn’t help but notice how firmly both his hands were gripping her shoulders. It was the sort of grip one uses when they want something sturdy to hold onto when they are very frightened or anxious.
The trays stopped.
“What happened?” Brian asked. “Did it go somewhere else?”
“I’m not sure,” said Arti, checking her Soul Compass. “It says it’s still here.”
There was a flash.
“Got you!”
Brian and Arti turned to see Rita armed with her camera, with Duke, Gus, and Mallory behind her.
“What are the four of you doing here!?” Brian asked angrily.
“I don’t think that’s what the principal is going to care about when we show him pictures of you on school grounds at night,” Duke gloated. “Rita, make sure to develop the pictures as best you can.”
The flashing of Rita’s camera had stopped.
Mallory looked at Rita. “Rita? What is it?”
Rita looked at Brian with soft red eyes. She dropped her camera, causing it to make loud contact with the floor and the film to pop out. She was holding onto Brian a lot more than he—and Arti—felt comfortable with. Looking up at Brian, she said in a light and airy voice, “I love you.”
The faces of Brian and Arti went crimson with shock and embarrassment. Everyone else looked at the scene with wild surprise.
“G-get off!” The more Brian tried to free himself, the tighter Rita held.
“I love you,” Rita told him again. “I have fallen in love with you.”
“Briiiiiaaaannnnn….” Brian recognized the tone of Arti’s growl.
“I’m not doing anything!” Brian told her. “Get her off!”
Mallory marched over to Rita. “You heard the loser,” she snapped. “Let go of him!” She put a hand on Rita’s shoulder to pry her off, but then Rita fell to the ground. Now it was a red-eyed Mallory looking with adoring eyes at Brian. “Did she do anything naughty to you, my love?”
Brian took several steps back. “What!?”
Mallory came towards Brian, stepping over Rita, while Duke and Gus just stood where they were in total confusion and Kintaro was trying to retrain Arti, who looked like she could kill both Mallory and Brian.
Tsukumo got between Brian and Mallory. “Leave Brian alone!” She locked hands with Mallory when the latter tried to push her away. Then it was Tsukumo whose eyes became red. Mallory fell to the floor softly and turned on Brian. “Are you alright, Brian-kun?” She hugged him softly. “I love you. I’ve fallen in love with you.”
Now Kintaro looked as furious as Arti. “HOW DARE YOU, BRIAN!!” He released Arti, causing her to fall back a step and ran over to Brian, gripping him by the shirt collar. “What do you think you’re doing with Tsukumo-chan!? MY Tsukumo-chan!?”
“Nothing!” Brian said, becoming very confused. “I’m not even sure this is Tsukumo. Look at her eyes.”
Kintaro looked at Brian, then deactivated his Idol so it once again became a pendant around his neck, and turned Tsukumo around after getting hold of one of her hands so she would be facing him. Then…his eyes became red and he was the one looking sheepishly at Brian. “Brian-kun…”
Unlike the other girls, Tsukumo had not fainted after her hand had been touched. She looked at Kintaro confusedly. “Kin-kun?”
Kintaro moved past her, and advanced on Brian, who was backing away.
Arti could not believe what she was seeing. She looked down at her Soul Compass. The needle seemed to be…..swaying back and forth. As if there were two supernatural entities in the room. She didn’t have much time to think about it, as she noticed with uncomfortable familiarity that Duke had his arm around her waist.
“Come on, Arti,” Duke said. “Let’s get out of here. Something weird is going on.”
“No,” she said. “Brian needs me.” She fought against him as he tried pulling her away.
Gus looked at the unconscious girls on the floor. “What about Rita and Mallory?”
“Who cares?” Duke returned. “They’ll be fine. But I never liked Mallory. The bossy cow.”
Arti continued to fight Duke. She couldn’t leave her friends. Something had been happening to them. Something strange. And she would not leave them. She stomped on Duke’s foot and ran towards Brian after she was free from his grip.
Duke attempted to go after her, but Tsukumo jumped in his path, her Idol having taken the form of a sharp katana. One look at the blade and the foreboding look in the girl’s eyes was all Duke needed. Giving in to the fear from everything he had seen so far, he fainted dead away.
For his part, Gus gave a high pitched scream and ran out of the cafeteria, his cries of “save me, mommy!” and “I think I wet myself” very audible.
“Kintaro, stay away from him!” Arti ran at Kintaro from behind. Kintaro turned around, a frustrated look on his face as he had been a step away from embracing Brian whom he had backed up against the wall on the other side of the room. He threw a punch at Arti, which she dodged. He aimed another strike at her, and she blocked his fist with her hand. This seemed to cause some sort of disturbance. The eyes of Kintaro and Arti became unfocused, both their eyes switching from red to their natural color. They were both breathing heavy as if they were in serious combat. Finally it seemed Kintaro could no longer take it. Closing his eyes, he threw Arti down on the floor and she seemed to go unconscious.
“ARTI!” Brian pushed past Kintaro and set to her, holding the back of her head and her back.
Kintaro opened his eyes, which were now back to their natural color. He looked at Arti, then at his own shaking hands. “B-Brian…I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I…I didn’t mean to…do that stuff….especially….I especially didn’t mean to hurt Arti.”
Tsukumo picked up Arti’s Soul Compass from where it had fallen on the floor. “It wasn’t you, Kin-kun,” she told him comfortingly. “It was something controlling you.”
Brian was shaking Arti. “Wake up. Wake up. Wake up, wake up, wake up! Artemis Hunter, please wake up!”
Arti groaned and her eyes fluttered open. They were their natural color, but looked lightly and softly at Brian. “Brian…I…love….you…” Before Brian knew what was happening, Arti’s arms were around his neck and he felt her kiss his lips softly.
((Continued in "I Love You Brian"))