Alto & Reigne

After Art, Leo sprinted out of the classroom. Alto was going to follow him but as soon as he got out of the door, a bunch of starstruck girls crowded him. Alto tensed. He wasn’t used to attention, as much as he hated to say it. A millennium of only contacting fellow gods who were all tired of him does that to you. Luckily, Reigne noticed his reaction and quickly dragged him off, making an excuse to the now disappointed girls. She didn’t say anything, just squeezed his hand in a comforting manner.

The twins were soon joined by the familiar beaming face of Maria. She was joined with a short girl with straight blond hair to her shoulders and soft blue eyes that sparkled like sapphires. The two girls were both smiling, while the blond’s was shyer and Maria’s was wide and bright, and holding hands.

“This is Leah, my girlfriend,” Maria introduced, nodding to the blond girl who waved her spare hand timidly.

Alto stayed silent and just nodded in acknowledgement while Reigne greeted her as if the twins had switched roles.”Nice to meet you, I’m Reigne and this is my twin brother, Alto,” she said.

Maria’s expression softened as she glanced at Alto. “Are you okay? You look pale,” she said with a worried look on her face.

Alto pasted a grin on his face as he joined them back on Earth. “I’m fine.” Alto shrugged.

“If you say so,” Maria said with a nod, still looking worried. “Want to join us for break? We always go to the library and sit with Leo while he reads,”

“Sure,” said Reigne. “Lead the way,”

☯

When the group of four arrived at the library, it was almost empty. There were a few students on laptops working or reading and a librarian scuttling around but no sign of Leo.

“That’s weird,” said Leah quietly. During the journey over, she seemed to grow comfortable with the two new friends and chatted to them confidently. “He’s not here,”

Maria shrugged. “He must’ve had something he needed to do first. He’ll show up,” she said as she took a seat at a table and Leah joined her. The twins followed and took a seat.

They talked gently as they waited for Leo to arrive. When they heard the library door open, they all turned to look. Leo entered and glanced up at the group. His soft expression hardened at the sight of the twins. He gingerly walked over and took the last available seat which was between Alto and Maria.

When she saw the state Leo was in, Maria gasped. His eyes were red and he looked awful and pale, excluding his unusually rosy cheeks. “What happened?!” she exclaimed then her eyes widened even further. “Is that a bruise?!” There was, indeed, a blue-ish purple mark that was barely visible on his reddened cheeks.

Maria’s outburst received stares from other students and a stern look from the librarian. “Who did that?” she whispered harshly.

Leo’s eyes stayed glued to the table. “Zach,” he murmured almost-inaudibly.

Leah reached over Maria to put a reassuring arm on Leo’s. “How long?”

Usually, Zach only verbally abused Leo, which is just as bad, but they had never seen signs of it being physical.

“Today,”

“He seemed to be acting strangely in History today,” Leah said. “Do you think something’s up?”

Maria shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. Leo, are you okay? You have to tell a teacher. This can’t keep going on,”

Leo shook his head and stayed silent.

“That guy’s a jerk,”

Everyone turned to look at Reigne who had stood up.

Alto looked up at her with a frown. “What are you doing?”

Reigne raised her eyebrows, trying to signal something to Alto. “To find that guy,”

“He seemed to be acting strangely in History today,”

Alto realised what Reigne was implying and stood up too. “Okay.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Leo’s voice was muffled as his forehead rested on the table.

The two ignored him and left the library, the stares of Maria and Leah following them.

☯

“Do you think he is being possessed by a spirit?” Alto asked as he followed Reigne around. The two were trying to locate Zach and still had most of the break time to find him, but so far, no luck.

Reigne nodded. “Leah said he was acting strangely, and there must be a reason we’re at this school. Maybe they’re feeding off the negative emotions of teenagers?”

“That makes sense. But how can we be sure?”

“We can’t,” said Reigne with a shrug. “Unless someone,” she coughed and murmured ‘dad’, “Could give us a hint, maybe?”

Just as she had expected, no response. They continued searching when a leaf fluttered down from a tree they were walking under and landed on the concrete in front of them. It was oddly coloured, a pale yellow like old, scorched paper.

Out of curiosity, Alto picked it up and was surprised to see a message on it. “It’s from dad,” he whispered.

Reigne glanced over at Alto, who had stopped to stare at the words. “What does it say?”

“Blank eyes.”

“That’s it?!” Reigne practically screeched which didn’t go unnoticed by other students.

Alto shrugged. “I mean, humans don’t normally have blank eyes, so it is helpful. Zach didn’t have blank eyes this morning,”

Reigne groaned. “Perhaps it happened after form? We still don’t know how to cast out the spirit. Is there an incantation? Dad left a lot of stuff out,”

“Maybe it will come to us at the moment like an instinct? We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Suddenly there was a crash. The two gods spun around and found one of the tall trees on its side with screaming students scrambling away. Behind the thick trunk was Zach and he had completely white eyes.

Both of their eyes widened. “This is it,” whispered Reigne. They stood frozen in shock as they stared at the chaos. The area was being wrecked by the spirit and soon the scene was deserted of students being ushered away by teachers. The only ones remaining were Alto, Reigne and ‘Zach’.

Alto suddenly felt a familiar weight on his back and glanced behind his shoulder. He shrieked in surprise which caught the attention of ‘Zach’. On Alto’s back, white bird-wings he often wore in his godly form.

The blank eyes of ‘Zach’ glowed brighter as he charged closer to the godly pair. Alto flew out of the way while Reigne stood frozen in place. Right before ‘Zach’ reached her, water sprayed up from the solid ground in between them like a fountain. Rain thundered down from the grey sky and the wind roared furiously and a powerful gust of it blustered, whistling in Alto’s ears.

Reigne stepped back in surprise then smiled to herself. ‘Zach’ had fallen backwards and was soaked in water. Alto came to stand by Reigne when something popped into his head.

“For the gods, venture back from whence you’ve come,”

Reigne turned to Alto. “What?”

“I don’t know,” said Alto. “It just… came to me?”

“What happened?”

The two gods focused their attention on the boy in front of them. Zach’s eyes were back to his usual sea green and the twins breathed a sigh of relief. The chaos the spirit had caused was also miraculously the same as before.

The weather calmed and Alto’s wings had already disappeared. “You fainted,” Alto lied.

Zach frowned but nodded. “That’s why my head hurts.” Then he walked off.

Alto and Reigne joined their friends in the library ten minutes after they had left. Leo was reading a book while Maria and Leah talked quietly, every-so-often glancing at Leo. He looked better, there was no sign of the bruise besides a small red mark where it had been. The group hadn’t realised that commotion outside or hadn’t remembered it.

☯