"Hey, Abel, which girl are you looking at?" Sean's voice carried the unmistakable tone of someone about to make fun of him. "Don't tell me the iron tree of Midtown Science and Technology High School is finally about to bloom?"
Abel ignored the teasing and pointed directly at the girl who radiated that overwhelming sense of evil. "Sean, do you know who that girl is?"
Sean followed Abel's gaze, and his expression immediately shifted to something approximating appreciation mixed with amusement. "Oh wow, that one? Dude, I didn't know you had such... unique taste. What's gotten into you?"
Abel held back a sigh. "I don't like her. I just haven't seen her before, so I was curious."
"Her name is Amensa," Sean explained, his tone shifting to something more informative. "She transferred here about half a month ago, but she's really withdrawn. Doesn't like talking much, doesn't make friends. Most people don't even know who she is. I only found out about her by accident."
Sean's expression grew more serious. "Actually, lately she's been in a really bad mood—like, visibly darker and more terrible than before. Everyone's scared of her. They literally run away when they see her coming. Even the teachers seem afraid of something about her."
Sean leaned closer, lowering his voice. "Look, you know how things are these days. School shootings, violence—you never know. My advice? Stay away from her. Seriously."
The two of them walked into the school building while talking, but Abel's mind had already moved on from Amensa. She was dangerous, certainly, but not something he could deal with in his current state. He understood his own limitations perfectly. Whatever power radiated from her was far beyond his ability to confront right now.
But sometimes trouble finds you regardless of whether you're looking for it.
The day passed unremarkably. Classes, lunch, more classes. By three in the afternoon, school was over.
Abel retrieved his bicycle and said goodbye to Sean, heading straight home. His part-time work schedule was Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, which meant he had freedom to manage his time on Monday. He rode through the one-way street that led toward his apartment—a quiet road with minimal pedestrian traffic and trees that had begun to grow thick with late-season foliage. He liked this route. The peaceful atmosphere gave him space to think about things that mattered.
Except today, the road wasn't going to be peaceful.
Halfway home, Abel spotted a figure standing directly in his path, blocking the road completely.
His brows eyes furrowed as he looked more carefully at whoever was in the way. The moment he sensed the evil radiating from them, he knew exactly who it was.
Amensa.
Abel slammed on his bicycle brakes hard enough that the tires squealed against the pavement. His heart rate spiked.
Before he could even process what was happening, Amensa's body became surrounded by a black breath—a visible aura of dark energy. She flashed three times, moving with impossible speed, and suddenly she was beside him. Her hand shot out and grabbed his bicycle's handlebar with supernatural strength.
"You are Abel Shaw," she said, her voice carrying an unsettling mix of curiosity and excitement. "I checked your information today. I'm very interested in you."
Abel's mind raced through possibilities. Why does she notice me? Because I looked at her? Or is her power responding to my attention?
He didn't know, but he knew he didn't want to find out. Not here. Not like this. The evil radiating from her was absolutely something he couldn't provoke casually.
"I'm sorry, but I need to go home and do my homework," Abel said, keeping his voice level and reasonable. "If you want to talk about something, we can do it tomorrow at school. Would that work?"
It should have worked. It was a logical, polite way to defuse the situation.
Amensa's expression made it clear that logic and politeness meant nothing to her.
"No, no, no," she said, her voice taking on an obsessive quality. "Did you just see that? Did you see my ability? But even so, your reaction is very calm, very composed. You're not an ordinary person at all, are you? Let me see what's special about you! Come on! Show me! Show me!"
Her hair began to drift and wave around her head, animated by the black breath surrounding her. As it moved, it revealed her face more clearly—and Abel saw the dark circles under her eyes that suggested weeks of sleeplessness, and more notably, a distinctive red mark on her forehead that seemed to glow faintly.
I've seen that mark before. What is that...?
Before he could pursue the thought, Amensa reached out toward him. Abel made an immediate decision—he abandoned his bicycle completely, letting go of the handlebars as her grip held them.
"Wingardium Leviosa," he whispered, directing the spell at himself.
He launched into the air, putting distance between himself and Amensa as quickly as possible. This was a person he couldn't fight. Not yet. Not now. She was something far beyond what he could currently handle.
Amensa watched him escape, and her expression of manic excitement gradually cooled. She tilted her head, studying him from a distance, and her eyes took on a far more dangerous quality.
"That's it," she said softly, as if coming to some terrible realization. "That's how it is. You hate me just like everyone else, don't you? You see me and you reject me? Hehehehe..." Her laugh was unstable, unhinged. "You hate me. There's no need for you then. There's no need for you at all."
The black breath around her suddenly contracted and condensed. Abel watched in horror as the bicycle she'd been holding—the bicycle that had been made of metal—was crushed as if by an invisible palm, crumpling into a compacted ball of twisted metal with horrible creaking sounds.
If that could happen to his bicycle, it would happen to him in seconds if she caught him.
Amensa's body began to flash repeatedly. In what felt like the blink of an eye, she was directly in front of him again, and the black breath surrounding her stretched out like tentacles, reaching toward him with clear predatory intent. Those same black tentacles had crushed his bicycle into a ball.
Abel had only one advantage: whatever affected the physical world, whatever Amensa's black breath could manipulate, also responded to magical spells.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" he called again, but this time directing the spell at the crumpled remains of his bicycle.
The crushed metal lifted from the ground and shot backward toward Amensa, hitting her with enough force to knock her stumbling. It wasn't much, but it was enough. Abel used that moment to distance himself further, maintaining the space between them while his mind raced through options.
He couldn't fight her directly. He wasn't strong enough. But he also couldn't let her follow him home—not when Theresa was there. If Amensa saw his mother, if she decided Theresa was a target the way she'd decided Abel was...
No. That wasn't acceptable.
There was one solution, though it terrified him. The Sanctuary in New York. If he could get her there, if he could reach the Ancient One, they would be able to handle someone like Amensa. That was the only way this ended without someone dying.
But Amensa, it seemed, wasn't going to make even that escape easy.
Black flames erupted from the ground directly beneath Abel, a wall of dark fire that would have consumed him if he hadn't managed to dodge at the last second, the heat searing his skin even at a distance.
Abel looked back at Amensa in genuine shock. The red mark on her forehead was glowing now, bright red and pulsing like a heartbeat. Behind her, visible through some tear in reality itself, Abel could make out a distorted space filled with darkness, and within that darkness, an enormous figure—something massive and oppressive that seemed to push against the boundaries of the world.
What was she?
As Amensa began to drive the black flames toward him, advancing slowly while the fire crept forward like a predator with time on its side, something unexpected happened.
A barrier suddenly materialized around Abel—something that looked like crystalline mirrors arranged in irregular geometric patterns. The barrier formed a perfect shield, blocking the black flames entirely, protecting him completely.
Abel spun around, trying to find the source of this protection.
END CHAPTER 9