The halls were packed with students, some seemed still pretty shaken up about the death of one of their fellow classmate. If only they knew what killed her. The thought crossed my mind and I was very quick to shove it away. It wasn’t something I want to think about at the moment. Every time I closed my eyes I would see the half-woman, Chiyoko had called her Teke Teke.

The bell rang overhead, it snapped me out of my thought and people pushed and shoved themselves around me attempting to get to their class. I followed the crowd, having the presence of so many people pushing around me, made me feel comforted and safe.

    "Don’t be so certain that vengeful spirits won’t come after you in crowds. You’re the only one who can see them even when they’re not wanting to be seen.” I gasped when I heard Ryuu’s voice in my head.

     “What is this?” I mumbled under my breath so no one else could hear. “Why do I have that jerk’s voice in my head?”

Again, I heard what sounded like Ryuu snorting before saying, "Because I am in your head, idiot. Now be vigilant, while no one will be able to see the vengeful spirit, you will be the only one who will see it.”

    Now that brought paranoia to my thoughts, my eyes scanned the crowd and when I didn’t see anything out of the normal, I went back to the weird conversation I was having with Ryuu.

   “How did you get in my head?” I growled under my breath.

I heard him chuckle wickedly and said, “When you were so nicely rubbing my head this morning. I was able to attach a part of my spirit onto you without you knowing.”

    “What? That’s totally an invasion of privacy!” I said loudly, causing the students around me to stop and give me weird looks.

Ryuu laughed loudly in my head before saying, “That was smooth Edith!”

I growled, “Get out of my head.”

    “No can do, Sweet-cheeks. Chiyoko also thought that it was a good idea. Especially with more active spirits running around.” He told me; he sounded smug.

   “Alright, but what about this, what if I am attacked? What could you possibly do? You’re just a statue in a sushi restaurant and a voice in my head.” I whispered, making sure no one saw that I was talking to myself. Ryuu was quiet for a moment and I felt a wave of triumphant.

    When I next heard Ryuu’s voice was when I was shuffling through my locker. “You have a point there. Guess I better give you this.” And I felt a searing pain rip through my arm and I had to bit my tongue to keep from screaming out in pain. The pain was so intense that my body slammed against the lockers beside me. Looking for a way away from all the students around me; my eyes landed on the girls’ bathroom. I shoved open the door to the bathroom a quickly slid inside before anyone else could see me flounder around. Once inside, I rolled up the sleeve of my right arm to see the soft skin on my arm bubble before black ink started to form. Pain soared up my arm and through my whole body and it took me a moment to catch my breath after the pain had all but disappeared.

    “What did you do to me?” I groaned out as I looked at the now black dragon tattoo that was burned into my arm.

     “If you’re ever in danger, just touch the dragon and I’ll come help you out. It’ll also let you know if danger is close."Said Ryuu calmly.

    “How will I know if I'm in danger?” I wondered, brushing away tears from my cheeks, the pain wasn’t as strong as it was when I was being basically branded.

    “It’ll burn.”

I rubbed the area around the dragon, “Oh?”

     “Hurts like a bitch, doesn’t it?” he commented, he sounded smug and it bothered me.

    “Get out of my head, creep.” I hissed under my breath and I pushed myself out of the bathroom. The halls were now empty and void of people, I groaned with frustration and started to make my way towards my class room.

When I reached the door to my classroom, I rolled down my sleeve to hide the dragon that was now painted across my arm. I slid open the door and the whole class stopped to turn and watch me, my cheeks burned with embarrassment as I walked to my seat.

   “Nice of you to finally join us Miss…. Sharp.” Commented my teacher, sarcasm dripped from his voice and he returned to his teachings. I moved abruptly to my seat, trying my best not to draw any more attention to myself.

I slid my bag under my desk before sitting down. I tried to catch up with the lecture but nothing seemed to make any sense to me. As I tried to understand what was going on, I felt someone tap my shoulder.

I turned around to face a boy my age, his hair was dyed blond and his ears were pierced, his features were sharp and handsome.

   “Can I help you?” I asked, looking him up and down.

   “What’s the tattoo for?” he asked.

    “What?” I wondered, placing a hand over my arm.

He pointed to my neck, “On your neck, the dragon. What’s the dragon for?”

I reached up and touched the side of my neck, “Oh, you know, I thought it looked cool.” Knowing full well that my answer was pretty terrible one.

    “Wow, really you think it’s cool?" I heard Ryuu tease and I slapped a hand over where I believed was the tattoo.

   “Shut up!” I hissed through clenched teeth. “You didn’t tell me that it moved.”

    “I didn’t? Thought I did, my bad.” He said sarcastically and I rolled my eyes at him. He was slowly but surely starting to piss me off with his attitude. Something odd slither around my neck and I squirmed uncomfortably as I felt what I can only assume – was the tattoo moving from my neck down my shoulder to my arm.

I     spent the entire class period fidgeting whenever the tattoo decided that it didn’t like its spot on my arm and moved, along with Ryuu grumbling in my head about how boring this class period was. But whenever I suggested that he should just leave so he didn’t have to be bored anymore, he would just say, “no can do,” before going back to complaining.

I nearly cried out with joy when the bell rang, causing Ryuu to stop his rather bad rendition of “Highway to Hell,” where it was very apparent that he didn’t know that words to half, or almost all of the lyrics.

I gathered all my books and loose papers around me before racing towards the classroom door I was picked up by a crowd of people the moment I stepped into the hallway.

    Once I elbowed my way to my next class did I realize that Ryuu had fallen completely silent.

    “What’s up with you? Finally shut up, have you?” I asked sarcastically; laying my head down on my hands I waited for his reply.

    “I just talked to Chiyoko. She should be picking you up soon, so be ready.”

    “What? Why?” I asked, lifting my head from my hands.

   “Just a feeling I had. While you were talking through the hall, I felt something very malevolent coming your way, but I wasn’t able to pin point where it was coming from.” Ryuu’s voice sounded very cold and serious.

I kept my head down, trying to keep from others around me from hearing, “You said that the tattoo was supposed to burn whenever danger is near.”

        “It does. I had to stop it from burning you because of how close the energy was to you. If I had let it burn, you would have had to go to the hospital.” Ryuu explained, something in his voice told me that whatever he had felt had been enough to have him contact Chiyoko.

    “Oh…” I didn’t know what to say; if there was an evil energy hanging around my school then what am I supposed to do?

   “Just keep quiet and don’t say anything. Don’t draw any attention to yourself.”

I was about to tell him that I won’t, when the teacher started her lesson causing every one of her students to fall silent.

   When the note came, telling me to come the office, the class was nearly over and the teacher, Ms. Haru was not pleased with the interruption. The students around me whispered to one another, all of their eyes traveled with me as I walked towards the door; all were probably wondering what the new kid had done to get called to the office on her second day of school.

Chiyoko stood rigidly inside the office. She wore a long green robe, making her body look odd and shapeless. She saw me, but the smile didn’t seem to reach her eyes.

Chiyoko guided me out of the school, through the parking lot and to her car. “Let’s go home, Edith.” She murmured into my ear.

    It was when Chiyoko and I had reached the car did I feel like someone was watching me. I stopped right before I opened the door to the car and turned around to face my school. At first, I didn’t see anything, but when I scanned the third I saw her. It was the same girl with the surgical mask. She stared down at me, her gaze unwavering. And just like a snap of the fingers, she was gone. I waited for her to reappear but she never did.