Vitrian Secrets by Dele Andersen (book club reads txt) 📕

His head snapped back up, and Wanda’s heart skipped several beats as she noticed his eyes had changed. Her fondness for him disappeared in an instant as trepidation took over. His eyes were no longer the blue ones she had seen previously; they were now cat-like, with golden irises and black pupils and definitely inhuman. She tensed to run, but Eric's hands blocked her on both sides.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Chapter 2

A wave of hot air that only Wanda could sense swirled around her face the moment she noticed Eric's new eyes. She couldn't fathom how his eyes had suddenly changed. How stupid, standing there talking with the demon that had been chasing her! Before she could think, a scream escaped her mouth as she stared at the unusual eyes.

Eric straightened, and Wanda noticed he was at least six feet tall. He towered over her by about five inches. Frustration showed on his face. She could see as he stretched himself that he was not expecting the scream, and she expected that in a moment, his entire body would change to the horrifying demon she had seen. She pushed his left hand off her and dashed away, taking two steps away from him and the staircase. But he was swifter; he caught up with her on her third step. Pressing closer this time, he placed his elbows on the wall, close to her arms on both sides, and prevented her from escaping. He looked down at her, his gaze serious and intense, their heads almost touching. He bent his hand as Wanda watched him and felt his own forehead. Wanda pressed herself against the wall as much as possible, trying to avoid him and his angry expression.

“You should not have screamed,” he said. His eyes revealed his anger. He drew in a deep breath. She watched him, the blood rushing to her brain. “Don't you know anything?”

Wanda stood there. How could she have been so naive? Eric left when she was outside with Tutu, and the demon appeared beside Alfred, and now the demon left, and suddenly Eric appeared again. I should have figured it out easily. I should have known he was the demon.

“Your scream will only attract trouble,” Eric whispered.

Wanda heard the concern in his voice but she didn't care; screaming was the right reaction.

“You are a—” She started to speak when a teacher stepped out of the library about fifteen feet from them.

“Is everything all right over there?” the teacher asked, looking toward Eric and Wanda.

Wanda turned her head in the teacher's direction, though she kept an eye on Eric. She wasn't sure if the teacher could see him or not. She glanced back at Eric, but his eyes were back to a normal deep sky-blue. She studied him for some seconds, confused. The teacher shrugged and walked back into the library.

Wanda wanted to speak when the horrible smell filled the air again. The odor was more intense than when she was downstairs, like she was standing next to it, and she was certain Eric would at any second transform into the demon.

In the same instant, the demon leaped from the stairs nine feet away from them into the hallway. It stood on its two huge feet like an overgrown and deformed lizard, facing Eric and Wanda. It was so big Wanda knew it would close the distance between them in just a step or two.

Eric whipped around to face the demon and moved to the middle of the hallway. The moment Wanda saw the demon again, her heart palpitated heavily, and immediately she understood what Eric meant by, “Your scream will only attract trouble.” The statement didn't mean that the teachers would come out, but that the demon would find her.

Unwittingly, Wanda moved closer to Eric as her entire body shivered at the sight of the demon. Eric's eyes and the search for her brother paled in significance. She was staring at the impossible.

The demon's head sat like a humongous lizard’s head on an enormous neck. Its entire body occupied a good portion of the width between the walls of the hallway. Its hands and legs were formed differently from a lizard's but scaly and slimy looking in a way that made the hair at the back of Wanda's neck stand up.

The hands curved in a bow-like shape, like a baby's legs that were yet to straighten out fully. The huge, four claw-like talons were shaped for gripping. His big legs also had sharp claws as toes, which made a creepy sound as they pecked on the floor.

Shades of bright yellow patches covered its green body. What she had thought was a shiny yellow raincoat was actually the creature’s body.

“Reptallion Sniffer.” Eric said the name of the demon without taking his eyes off it. His hands had gone to his waist, each one resting on an item by his waistline. “Someone must have told it to fetch you.”

“What?” Wanda exclaimed. She moved her head to look at Eric, whose undivided attention was on the demon. She wasn’t sure what perplexed her more, Eric knowing so much about the creature, or the fact that the demon was summoned to get her.

“It's a very fast demon," Eric said, his eyes locked on it. “You can't escape it alone, so when I tell you to run, you run as far away as you can from the school. I will hold it down here.”

Wanda was about to ask how he planned to do that when the demon launched itself at her. It was extremely fast, but to her shock, Eric was faster.

“Now,” he shouted as he threw the first object from his waist with his left hand.

The little metallic and silvery object he’d thrown turned into a long, pointed object, like a peg rolling in midair. The symbols on it glowed brightly as if a golden light within the object illuminated the emblem on it. The object flew toward where the demon's heart should be but stuck into its chest instead. An unbearable odor filled the air as ichor poured from the wound.

Eric turned and shouted, “What are you still doing here?”

The demon hissed a horrible sound, which sounded something like, “You . . . you,” as it looked at Eric with wicked eyes. It was apparent that the object Eric had thrown had a supernatural touch to it. The demon moved its left hand to the object in its body. It squirmed, and then its eyes became more brutal.

It swung its right hand toward Wanda. The talons were about to cut her when Eric pushed her and jumped in front of her.

“Arhhh!” Eric cried as the creature’s talons pressed deep into his chest, and Wanda fell to the floor.

Wanda gasped at the dreadfulness of seeing the talons in Eric's chest. Her legs scrambled back on the floor, pushing her till she hit the wall. She went into a dream-like state, watching his blue shirt turn dark at the points where the talons penetrated his body. Within seconds, the dark parts spread and grew wider. Wanda stiffened as she watched the scene.

The demon hissed again, and Eric groaned. The hiss caught Wanda's attention, waking her back to consciousness. She looked up to see the face of the disfigured and overgrown lizard-like creature. The creature seemed to be smiling, as if happy.

“Get up.” Eric groaned as the words came out of his mouth. His eyes reddened, and he grimaced in what had to be excruciating pain. “What are you waiting for—to watch me die? Run . . . go!”

His last two words woke Wanda fully. She got up in a rush, turned, and ran farther down the hallway. She got to the entrance of the library and glanced back one last time to see the demon was still holding its right hand in Eric's chest, and Eric pushing back to get the talons out. Then she hurried into the library.

∞∞∞

As Eric tried to shove the massive hand of the demon out of his chest, the demon hissed again, speaking in an ancient language long dead to humanity.

“No, you are wrong,” Eric responded. “I am not dying today.” He lifted the demon's right-hand talons away from his chest. He was about to jump out of the way when he saw the demon's left-hand talons swinging toward his head. He yanked a silvery knife from his waist. The symbol shone in glittering colors as Eric slashed the knife. The talons of the demon met the silvery knife, and the knife went clean through, a crunchy sound like slicing through freshly plucked apples filling the air. The long talons fell, and Eric staggered backward, gripping the silvery knife, his left hand on the wound in his chest.

The demon groaned in pain, but within seconds the talons grew back. It raised its head and looked at Eric, who struggled to stand upright; the pain in his chest was severe.

The demon readjusted its position and then hissed in its ancient language. It opened its mouth wide enough to reveal long and razor-sharp, uneven-looking teeth. Its eyelids closed.

“That will never be possible,” Eric replied, putting confidence in his voice even though his words were weak because of the wound on his chest. “You will have to finish me before you can get to her.”

The demon hissed and jumped, its huge legs covering the distance between it and Eric. Eric looked up, but he was weak; he couldn't move as fast as he did before. The demon landed on top of him, its full body covering Eric.

∞∞∞

The school library, familiar enough to Wanda that she could easily describe it with her eyes closed, now seemed a complicated maze. The rows and shelves of books all looked the same to her.

Wanda wandered for some seconds, her blood pumping hard and fast. She couldn't take her mind off Eric, who had given her the tiny space to get away, and now he was going to die.

She was pondering on Eric when the teacher who had come out earlier emerged in front of her.

“Are you okay?” the teacher asked as he closed the book he was reading. With his finger, he adjusted his askew glasses upward so he could have a better view of Wanda. His expression changed, morphing into one of concern as he took in her appearance.

Wanda shook her head at the man, but no words came to her befuddled mind. She was still trying to organize herself and had not expected to bump into him.

“Did that boy in the hallway hurt you or—” 

“No,” she said curtly. Her voice was steady this time, but she was still panting.

The teacher had seen Eric.

“You students need to learn there’s a time to be serious and a time to play.” He walked away, turning the next page of the book in his hand.

Wanda watched the teacher walk away and abruptly remembered her brother Jason. She ran through several sections in the library, looking for him. She went to the section of books Jason loved most, but without any luck.

She rushed to one of the library attendants by the desk. “Please, have