We managed to squeeze in a small break during the week, and then Jordan approached me. "Hey, Gael, could I ask for a favor?"
"A favor? What happened?"
"I... ever since this whole thing started... after that incident with the Vampire and stuff, I've been gettin' nightmares."
"Nightmares? About what?"
"A bull... a red bull." As was described, a dream of a red bull staring her down in a school hallway. It always started the same way; she was in the Science Room at the end of the day, staying up late like she usually does, before the sound of hooves hitting against vinyl tiling caught her attention. She pulled herself out of the classroom, looking down it to spot that figure slowly rounding the corner to meet her gaze. A massive bull, easily spanning ten meters in height and width, a gigantic red bull, contrasted against the black of night, almost glowing.
"Those have been your dreams?"
Jordan nodded, "Yeah... I don't know what it's about, but... my dreams have only been that. It's... my dream used to be so much more normal, but it's only been that Bull as of recent."
I rubbed my chin, attempting to think of something, but honestly, I was stumped. "I... I'm not exactly sure what I should do here."
"Maybe there's a hint in the dream?"
"We could just ask Naomi."
And we went to do just that, heading over to speak with the Student Council President, who greeted us with a succinct, "Unfortunately, today, I am swamped dealing with complaints from the Disciplinary Committee."
"What complaints?"
"About my recent recruitments. They believe that I am being too lenient to my newly acquired compatriots, i.e., you and Violet."
"A bit unrelated, but other than Violet and me, are there any others in the Student Council?"
"There are, you just haven't met them yet. But yes, I am currently unavailable due to personal business with the Disciplinary Committee, but... Gael, I believe you are capable of handling this issue on your own, okay?"
Naomi left Jordan and me on our own, causing an audible sigh to escape my nose. "Alright, well, I'll help you to the best of my ability, plus..." I grasped my chin, "You may have had a point earlier, about there maybe was a hint in the dream itself."
Jordan and I began walking through the school's halls. "What details are you looking for? I remember those dreams pretty vividly, so... it shouldn't be too difficult."
We found ourselves both at the corner point of the hallway in her dreams. "Okay... so this is where the Bull revealed themselves?"
Jordan nodded. "Yeah, right..." She spun, mimicking the gesture of a giant red bull rounding the corner of a hallway. "And then it stopped."
I sighed. "That isn't a very nice dream. Sounds intimidating as hell, actually." I clicked my tongue rhythmically. "Honestly... in your dream, it's at night when it happens, yeah?"
Jordan nodded again. "Y-Yes. It's always in the late hours of the day-- pitch black outside, nearly."
"Okay... well, that narrows it down!"
"To what?"
"We'll be staying late in the night to see if we encounter anything."
"Huh? That's your solution?"
"Yep, you said that it appears when it's night, right? Have you stayed long enough to see if it was real, or truly a dream?" I didn't really mean my words to come out the way they did, but they were a bit mocking. Of course, unconsciously, I wasn't mocking her situation; I was mocking her cowardice, since I know she despises anything horror-related. Still not my most proud moment, regardless.
"U-Uh..." Jordan pressed her lips together, brow knitted in contemplation. "I... shit... I haven't needed to stay late recently, so..."
"I suppose we're staying late then."
"You're really gonna wait with me?"
I flash my ability, Lateralus, my pressed-together lips curling up into a smirk. "At the moment, I'm-- Violet! I should probably ask Violet if she'll be willing to reinforce us."
Jordan looked uncomfortable at the idea. "I-I'm not sure about that... she's... ever since the last incident she's been--"
Before Jordan could continue, I pulled out my phone and called the girl in question. "Hey, Violet, how've you been?"
She answered, it seemed that she had taken the day off cause she sounded as if she had just had her face buried in various pillows and sheets. "Huh? Whose calling?"
"Your number 1 best friend, Gael, here."
"Wait, what?"
"Gael!"
"You think we're best friends?" I could hear the hope in her voice from the other side of the phone.
"No, but I do think we're friends, though I am begrudging of your eccentric activities."
Violet was quiet for a moment. "Hey... Gael."
"Hm?"
"I'm... I'm sorry for dragging you into that shitshow a week ago."
"It's alright," I look at the aching scar on my shoulder. "It seems these abilities help us with recovery times, so I'm doubly fine."
"Okay. Um... anyways, thanks for checking in on me, Gael."
"Well, I wanted to do that and ask you for a favor. I know that it's sort of like jumping from the pan and into a frier here, but we have a new issue and..." I sighed. "It could be useful to have you around. I need another person with a Boon because we might be looking at a possession case here." I licked my lips anxiously.
"What's going on?"
"Jordan, after what happened last time, has apparently been experiencing this bizarre dream where they meet face to face with a Giant Red Bull at the school."
"Huh? I Red Bull? Like... the drink?"
"No, a fully red bull that's like..."
"Ten meters..." Jordan whispered to me.
"Ten meters in length, around there."
The mic on Violet's phone pricked like static as she sighed. "Okay... uh... So..."
"We're planning on staying at the school and seeing if we can maybe confront the source of these dreams."
"Okay... Yeah, okay... I-I'll be there then."
"Thank you. It'd also be a great opportunity to use that Boon of yours, okay?"
"Hell yeah, superpowers~!" Violet attempted to thrum up some enthusiasm from behind the phone screen, but her voice teetered off. "Okay... I'll see you guys soon."
She hung up, and I turned towards Jordan. "And now we wait."
We both posted up in her clubroom. I was sitting at one of the tables, while she sat in a nearby chair. After an hour or two of waiting, Violet finally arrived, and by now, the sun had begun setting.
"Sorry for making you guys wait, I got stuck in some unskippable dialogue with my aunt."
"D-Did you just say that a conversation with your aunt was 'unskippable dialogue'?" I couldn't help but laugh, hopping off one of the table counters I was sitting on.
"Yeah, because it was." She sighed, tying back her frizzy black hair, clearly not having enough time to style it like she usually does.
Jordan observed us both for a moment before breaking into a smile. "Guess we got the gang here."
I pulled out my phone, looking down to check the time. "We've got a few more hours before we're up and alert. Probably around like, 1-3 hours at this rate?"
"More waiting... wooo~!" Jordan groaned, grabbing her bag and taking out a laptop and several binders. "I'm gonna catch up on some papers while we wait."
"Good idea."
There was a moment of silence, all of us just waiting, submerged in our own thoughts. Eventually, Violet grew bored and started watching TikTok with the audio on, paying no regard to the people surrounding her, periodically laughing at a skit or two. At the same time, Jordan kept her nose buried in her laptop, unflinching. Unlike them, though, I had nothing.
Maybe it was a better time than any to get back into drawing again. I thought to myself, reaching into my own bag and taking out a sketchbook I always carried with me out of habit. I cracked it open, flipping through the pages one by one. It was an old sketchbook, one I used during the last half of middle school, as I transitioned into High School.
There were numerous self-portraits from that time. It was a time when I tried to appear as feminine as possible, wearing makeup, dresses, and other feminine attire. I sketched them all down here. I wonder if I still have the reference photos?
A lot of those photos were of me naked, so probably not. I really liked showing off my neck and shoulders; now that I look at these, I see that there's a lot of anatomy practice in here as well.
Eventually, I landed on some landscape sketches I had made. I didn't do it a lot, but when I did, I made sure to sketch things down to the very last detail.
Looking at all of my previous pieces of art made me wonder if I had gotten rusty. I took a breath, looking at the two girls set out before me, flipped to an empty page, and started sketching. The more focus I became, the more my surroundings seemed to be drowned out by the oceanic noise of my mind, and soon, a faint ringing in my eardrums.
I wasn't the best artist in the world, but I loved art. Never got the hang of music, though, and acting was too overwhelming for me. I suppose writing and sketching have always been my go-to activities. This reminds me of a simpler time.
Getting these powers and all has been cool, but... what about everything that's happened? Looking at it through a bird's eye view really puts in perspective how fucked our situation truly is. Possessed zombie hordes, Vampires, murderers? Where the hell did normality go? Did it all go away when I was ostracized? Did any semblance of normality leave me behind once I had been shunned from my community? Ignored by my own family?
"Woah!" Violet exclaimed, looking over my shoulder, snapping me out of my stupor. "That's an awesome sketch!"
There was a sketch of Violet and Jordan, but it was unfinished. I got distracted, it seems, opting to draw what looked like some... twisted hare, distorted, contorted, reduced to an amalgamation of jagged shapes and chicken scratch lines.
Violet pointed at the sketch of herself. "Is that me?"
I nodded. "Yeah, and Jordan."
"I didn't know you could draw. You're good, dude."
"Thanks, it's been a long time."
"Long time?"
"Haven't drawn in a couple of years at this rate."
"Really... why'd you stop?"
I thought about it for a moment. "I don't know... just... didn't feel the passion anymore, I suppose. It's a hobby anyway."
"Actually, I've always wondered. What do you wanna be when you graduate, Gael?"
"I dunno. Whatever and wherever life takes me, I suppose. I'm along for the ride."
"No set plans, huh?"
"None."
"Well... for me.... I want to be an actor."
"Really now?"
Violet chuckled. "Yeah, I've always wanted to be one. All the other stuff I do is essentially just shit I love, like a good movie and stuff."
"You certainly have a way with words, don't you?"
Violet scoffed, her eyes panning over to the windows pointing outside. She licked her lips as her gaze met with darkness. "I think it's time."
I sigh, standing up to put away my sketchbook. "Alright, let's get this done and o--" Before I could continue, my speech was interrupted by the sound of something crashing through the hall beside us. My head whipped around to the direction of the sound, and then my gaze panned over to Jordan. "Fuck!"
"What?"
"Jordan's missing!" I stormed out of the Science Room, skidding across the vinyl ground beneath my feet before placing arrows on my hands and feet. As I propelled myself forward, the sounds of chaos continued to mock my ignorance from afar.
I could see from the windows beside me, Violet rushing to aid me, making her way to the other side of the room to meet me as I sped past.
Now, with Violet behind me, I continued and was met with a sight.
The hall was in complete ruins—shattered glass everywhere, with some walls broken down by an unknown force. I stood up, keeping the arrows I placed on my feet, skating slowly through the school's halls. Where the hell did you go, Jordan? I asked myself, eyes trying their hardest to lock down where she could've gone.
Violet, from afar, yelled out to me. "I've got your back!" Suddenly, I felt faster than before. I couldn't help but blink as the world began to slow down. It wasn't a significant enough change to cause problems or alter my perception too much, but I felt as though I was given some temporary yet substantial advantage.
I looked over at Violet, and I could tell, even from here, that this had something to do with that ability of hers.
And with that, along with a sigh from me, I continued forward, analyzing my surroundings as best as I could.
I stopped, feeling a presence beside me. I looked to my right, witnessing a massive hole in the wall, with rubble still falling off what remained. Within the darkness of this hole, a gigantic red beast stood. They glowed, shining amidst the black of the room, gums flared out in a violent, rageful state as they stared me down, almost frothing at the mouth. This wasn't the Bull —no... the Bull did exist, but it just wasn't what we thought it was.
I believed it was some haunting at the school. A Bane manifested from the collective rage of everyone here, set to lurk in the halls of our Academy. What I see before me now is a young woman glowing red, much larger than her usual self in terms of height and muscle mass, with horns curling around her head.
Although Naomi's lesson on Boons and Banes helped us understand what these concepts were in their most basic applications, it didn't paint a complete picture of the full scope of what Boons and Banes can encompass. It was now that I realized this.
Jordan was transformed, possessed by something. Whatever I was going to fight next, I still fail to understand it to this day fully. Doesn't help that I am now forced to live with the consequences of this event even now.
I jumped back, readying my stance as Jordan stepped forward, revealing her face more and more amidst the darkness. It wasn't just her physical body that had changed; her face had become more animalistic, as if she were in some in-between state of transformation.
"Jordan... hey... What the hel--" Before I could continue, she sprang forward.