20 Minutes Ago

She stayed in position on the first floor of the library. As a librarian, Meyer had to be here anyway if any students wanted to check out anything. Hardly anyone does.

She yawned as she looked around the quiet, empty room. Meyer wanted to walk around or play on her phone, something to lift her boredom, but she had to stay focused. According to Ross, the wraith could appear any minute, and she had to watch when Ellis left the school. Hopefully, the veil would work on him, like any other human not wearing a guard. If not, well, the agency might have another monster to contain.

She hoped that wouldn't happen as Ellis was the most humanlike compared to the monsters she and Ross fought in the years of being agents. Meyer wasn't sure how she could handle imprisoning or killing a "human" boy.

Her dark grey eyes shifted towards the boy descending the stairs. Ellis's wavy black ebony hair appeared lighter in the dim glow of the paper lanterns, but his chartreuse eyes struck her the most. It looked unnatural as they were more yellow than green. The eyes are windows of the soul, as the saying goes.

After having a brief chat, she watched him leave through the doors that lead to the main lobby, the door slamming behind him, creating an odd silence in the room. The small radio started buzzing, and Meyer pulled it out of her tiny pocket, rolling the little electronic device in her hand.

"It's time," Ross said flatly over the radio.

She disliked the idea of the veil not working on Ellis. Even Ross wasn't sure if he would be affected by it but told her not to worry. How? If the veil failed and she had to watch Ellis, who would protect Ross? Ross was more capable of defending himself than Ellis, but was it right to separate? One wrong move, and they were dead. That's the risk that they agreed on.

She pressed the receiver, "I'm ready," she said, matching the emotionless tone.

She placed the radio back in her front pocket as blue and silver light shone all over the room. She summoned her sword, gold strings consuming her like wildfire, and headed straight to the door.

~~~~~

I walked through the abandoned halls. I couldn't find Mariel or anyone. Where were they? They couldn't have left that quickly, right?

The library was quiet as Death and cold as one, like the monster who wants my eyes and probably my soul.

Why am I here?

Why the Hell do I want to follow a mythical sword woman and a soul-eating monster brawling? The answer was I'm a lunatic, an insane convict that escaped a mental asylum. I could imagine myself being trapped in a room with white walls, eating rice and drinking milk in my white clothing. There were no sounds, no color, just me going crazy in an empty chamber, and this wasn't much different than moving through empty blue halls.

The horrid smile faded the deeper I went. Was the threat gone, or was I getting used to it? I never had that devilish smile longer than five minutes, so maybe it was gone. I hope that was the answer.

I removed my hand from my mouth, no use covering it, and looked at my phone, pressing random buttons. It still won't turn on. Mom was going to kill me if the monster didn't. I put the phone in my backpack and prayed that it would magically fix itself. Maybe there was a wizard nearby, but with my luck, I doubt it.

Someone was talking. It was faint, but it sounded like it was coming from the gym. My shaking hands hovered over the handle as I inched forward. Why am I so scared all of a sudden? I wasn't smiling, so the monster shouldn't be near, right?

Right.

I took a deep breath and opened the door. A loud-click noise made my presence known to the two figures. The sword woman and…

Mr. Ross?

He looked at me with a raised eyebrow, then at her, shaking his head. She shrugged, staring down at her feet. I felt like I should be here, as the air around us was rather heavy and damp, more than it was with the shadow monster thing.

"I was about to tell you," She mumbled.

He rolled his eyes and gestured for me to come over. I strolled towards them, staring at them more with confusion than rage. I had so many questions. I wanted to see an epic fight, but I was alone with two strangers, a beautiful golden-haired woman, and an emotionless bastard. At least they were not monsters, I hoped.

I stared into his dull blue eyes. They were the same color as the halls and walls. Yeah, I hope this wasn't some kind of trap. Otherwise, I was an idiot for listening to him.

I felt something hit my neck. I didn't see who did it, but I could guess. Mr. Ross tossed me to her as my vision went dark. 

Yeah, I was an idiot.

~~~~~

"Hide him," Ross ordered, "We can't have any distractions."

She nodded and hid the unconscious boy under the bleachers as there were not many places to hide him quickly. Ellis should have stayed where he was, but he had to follow her. What could have driven him to do something dangerous?

"It's here," Ross warned.

The air became freezing as it appeared before them. Shadows flow like ribbons on a windy winter night, but it was not floating as it was before, dragging its long tattered cloak along the wooden floor. Meyer was confident that she had weakened it from the blast. She smirked as the wraith struggled to float towards them. The smell of rotten flesh burns their nostrils.

"Can't make any more clones?" She teased.

Ross gave her that look, but she didn't care. Meyer continued to smile under the disgusting smell as the creature stopped slithering.

"You're the mage that has been giving me a hard time," its raspy voice echoed in the room," You're younger than I expected to weld such magic. You must be quite the prize."

Ross didn't respond. His face was stern, and Meyer followed suit, readying her blade; The golden flames surrounded the silver sword. The wraith shivered at the sight of it.

"You're quite the prize yourself," Ross said, "you can either die or surrender. It's your choice."

The creature laughed," and be an experiment to you human? Death would be a wiser choice, but I'm going down until I take what is mine."

Shadows surrounded them as the creature disappeared into the darkness. Black skeleton hands tried to grab the duo, but Ross pulled out his gun and fired them. The lighting magic shot through the blackness like fireworks. The wraith screamed but remained hidden.

"Can you see it?" Ross asked calmly.

"I can't see a damn thing!" Meyer grunted, swinging her sword at dead hands.

"Maybe if you weren't screwing around, it wouldn't have gone this far."

"Is this the right time?" 

"No. But neither was your horseplay," Ross shot a lighting bullet in the darkness, "there!"

Meyer lunged at it, piercing the creature's skin. It screeched in anguish as it turned to ashes. The room reeked of decaying corpses, causing Meyer to gag from the strong smell. She covered her nose and backed away from the black dust piled. The rest of the ashes had to be swept up later.

Ross went to the orb, removing the shield around it. Meyer always had trouble reading him as his expressions were fake or nonexistent. Meyer knew she messed up as she was supposed to defeat the wraith outside. It wasn't a difficult task to accomplish. But she couldn't do both protecting the boy and fighting on her own. Separation was always a bad idea in her mind as Ross was her shield, but he must have a reason. She at least completed one task. Ellis was safe and sound, sleeping underneath the bleachers. The spirit didn't even bother to look for him.

It couldn't get to Mariel in the veil, and the only way to tear down the veil was to destroy the orb or the mage controlling it. She trembled at the thought as she had been with Ross since they were eighteen. A bond like theirs was hard to break. She would be damned if she let a monster kill him, especially a feeble wraith.

Meyer knows how important Mariel was to Ross. She wasn't just his sister, but Mariel was the only few people who respected and loved him. Ross would never forgive Meyer if something terrible happened to her. She couldn't risk putting the girl in danger, yet she did by wasting time. It took only one swing of her sword to take the wraith down. The fight wouldn't have escalated this far if she didn't let her boredom take over.

"Now what?" She asked, covering her nose and mouth with her shirt with tiny particles of the black ashes clung to her clothing.

"Now," he glanced at the bleachers," I'm going to bed."