For the rest of class, and the rest of the school day, she refused to bat an eye in his direction. He hung out with Redrick like usual, and he wasn't exactly trying to talk to her every chance he got, but trying to pull her aside was impossible.
Being the new girl and everything, she was surrounded pretty much the whole day, and was shockingly liked somehow. It didn't make sense to him how anyone could find her anything but annoying. But what did he know? Not like his opinion mattered either way.
The crowd always surrounding her meant "the invisible man," couldn't get anywhere close.
But the moment the school bell rang and the school day was over, she wasted no time in grabbing the invisible man and pulling him aside.
"Ow, careful." Marcus rubbed his arm. "You ignore me all day then try to rip my arm off?" He let his annoyance show.
"We've got things to do, and I hate waiting."
A group of classmates leaving school stopped in front of them, inviting her to hang out with them, but she declined and they all somehow left without getting mad at her—or acknowledging his existence. How the hell is she liked and he isn't?
She turned and waved at a few classmates who called out to her before grabbing Marcus by the wrist and leaving school, pulling him behind her.
Redrick and Sarah walked behind just in time to see Marcus getting pulled away by the new girl and exchanged confused looks.
"I'll call you guys later," he managed to get out before she pulled him further.
After they'd turned a corner and gotten far away enough from school, he pulled himself free of her grasp. "Get off me!" He said, using way too much force to pull himself free, nearly falling over.
River looked at him with disdain as he dusted himself off. She shook her head and walking down the sidewalk. "Try and keep up."
"You try and keep up," he muttered, running up beside her. "Alright, spill it," he spat. "Why are you at my school?"
"I'm a transfer student—"
"The truth," he grabbed her arm, stopping them both at he looked at her semi-threateningly. There wasn't much he could do against someone who could set themselves on fire, but he tried his best to look like there was.
She flung his hand off of her and looked him dead in the eye. "I'm a transfer student!" She turned and kept walking. "I'm also assigned to watch and train you," she waved for him to follow her, "so you don't do anything stupid."
He sighed and caught up to her again. "You're gonna be the one training me?"
"I'm not happy either, kid," she turned into an alleyway. He followed. "But from what we gathered, you're pretty much invisible to everyone not named Redrick, Sarah, or your mother. I confirmed that today."
They both came out the other side of the alleyway. "And?"
"And it'll be easier if you were trained by a classmate under the guise of hanging out after school, than it would be for a middle-aged man and a teenage girl picking you up after school in a black car every day."
Marcus recognised the route they were taking. He looked down the street and saw construction men at work, rebuilding the destruction from the Loveland frog incident.
"But that doesn't explain how you got transferred here so fast. I only agreed to join just yesterday—"
"You don't need to know the specifics," she said, signalling him as they headed in the opposite direction of the reconstruction efforts. "And you're not part of the CC yet, that's what the test mission is for."
"Okay, stop." Marcus stopped walking, making River pause a few paces ahead of him. "I can't keep on following you blindly. There's too much I don't know, and I don't trust you."
River looked at him like she was waiting for him to finish, which annoyed him. He gave her a stare of his own.
"Why'd you stop? Let's go."
"I'm not going anywhere until—"
"You really want an explanation on how the government got me transferred to a government-owned high school?"
Hearing those words made him realise how dumb she made him sound. His cheeks flushed. She started walking again without looking at him. He followed behind her in shame.
How the hell does she keep making a fool out of him!? He sighed and quelled his anger. There were better things to worry about.
"So when is this test mission supposed to happen?" he asked, following her down another alley.
"Sooner than you'll be ready for."
"Says who?" Marcus said, a little offended. She turned and raised a brow at him; he scowled. "You don't know me, or what I'm capable of."
"You mean aside from nearly burning yourself to death inside a giant frog? You're a kid with a death wish."
"Stop calling me 'kid!' How old even are you?"
"Same as you," she walked into another alleyway; he followed.
"Then why—"
"Because you're a kid up here," she said, tapping her temple.
"Oh really?"
She stopped and turned, blocking him from taking another step. "Really. Because the way you are now, you'll fail that test mission in a heartbeat and get kicked out—assuming you don't die."
"I've killed OCs before," he said, taking a step forward, rolling his shoulders, showing her just how much taller he was. She didn't shy away from his imposing gesture.
She took a step closer to him, raising her head to look him in the eye. "You ever fought ghosts?"
Suddenly he felt a lot smaller. "Ghosts?" he said, sceptical. Ghouls and goblins existed for sure, but the concept of ghosts was one he found hard to believe.
As to where OCs came from, he still didn't know for sure—his head canon was the underworld—but the existence of ghosts was something he wasn't sure he wanted to believe.
OCs hurt him, and he hated them, but if ghosts existed, he didn't know how he would feel about killing one.
They were once humans… weren't they?
Seeing the look on his face, she smirked. "Your mission will be exorcising a ghost, and I'll be there as support. Normal people can't ever hope to hunt ghosts, only Holy men can carry out an exorcism," she said, turning around and walking to a slightly open manhole cover, at the end of the alleyway.
"Then how am I supposed to—"
"Holy men, and Witchcasters," she said, covering the manhole.
"But I don't know how to use soul essence or whatever." He stood and watched her melt the side of the manhole cover, welding it shut.
"That's why I'm going to teach you." She stood up and walked over to the only dumpster in the alleyway. He hadn't noticed before, but its lid was welded shut as well, and it was shaking...
"What are you doing?" He started smelling something nasty. Something supernatural.
"There are many ways to educate someone. Research shows that some of the most effective ways to learn aren't by listening in class or studying. It's practice." She placed her hand on the lid of the dumpster and heated it up, melting it.
He didn't like where this was going.
"So I'm going to be teaching you how to use soul essence, and you'll be applying it as you learn… on live subjects." She gave a coy smile. "It's the fastest way I can get you ready in time."
She kicked the dumpster, and it fell to its side, spilling a band of six or seven two-foot-tall humanoid grey creatures with long noses and ears, all dressed in pieces of garbage, and holding makeshift weapons.
As they scurried to their feet, all their eyes fell on Marcus, who stood between them and the only exit out of the alleyway.
His head filled with flashbacks from seven years ago. The image of these same creatures chasing him with Redrick's dad's handgun came flooding back—along with all the memories of the sleepless nights they caused.
"You'll be using soul essence to kill this pack of sewer dwellers," said River with a smirk, "or should I say, goblins."