Mercy Chapter 16

Faith found herself dozing while waiting for Mrs. Carson to come down to the infirmary.

When she woke, everybody had left, and she was alone with her thoughts.

She buzzed for the nurse, and when she came, she asked about Mrs. Carson, and was told that an emergency had come up, and she’d be back as soon as she could.

Faith tried to piece together what she had learned from her quick scan of Jane’s mind. The girl had gone home for a visit a week ago, and somehow, Brand had been close enough to learn that Jane was in the self-defence class with Faith, and planted a set of instructions that would take her over if they ever sparred together.

Which meant that Faith wasn’t safe at the school anymore, because he wasn’t apparently going to wait for a year, and if he could take over another student once, he could do it as many times as he needed until one of his victims killed her, or forced her to kill them causing her to be expelled.

Which meant none of the other students were safe as long as Brand was out there, and it wasn’t like she could ask Mrs. Carson to tell every student they couldn’t leave the campus.

So Faith would have to leave the school. She wasn’t going to risk the other students being violated the way Jane had been. And since she expected that Mrs. Carson wouldn’t understand, she would have to leave right away, before Mrs. Carson came back.

Faith carefully got up, and got her clothes out of the small closet beside the bed. Wincing in pain whenever she moved her right arm too much, she managed to get dressed, and slipped out of the room as quietly as she could.

Once out of the medical building, Faith snuck towards Poe cottage. She slipped into the building, went to her room and listened outside the door trying to hear if her roommate Talia was there.

It was quiet, so she risked opening the door, and confirmed Talia was clearly not there.

Faith sighed with relief. She hadn’t wanted to have to argue with Talia about what she needed to do. She had come to care greatly for Talia, and for Arwen, and she couldn’t bear the thought of them getting hurt by Brand.

So even though she’d miss them terribly, she had to go before he struck again.

Faith pulled out a rather cute suitcase Talia had got for her as a joke on her first day on campus “to hold all the dresses I’m sure you’ll buy.” she had said, giggling.

Faith smiled as she remembered that moment. Then she sighed, and started filling the suitcase with a few essentials.

Once the suitcase was full, Faith took it, and slipped out of Poe, and headed for the school gates.

Once there, she wondered about how to get through. There would be security there, and if she just busted through, everyone would be after her in no time. Then she summoned her wings, thinking she could just fly over the gate and be gone, but before she could launch herself into the sky, a voice said, “That’s not gonna work, kid.”

She span around, making herself wince in the process as her broken arm flared in pain.

A few feet away was a woman who had recently come to the school as a teacher.

She was caucasian, with dark brown hair that went down to about her shoulder blades. She had tiny black scales that cover the top part of her face around the forehead, eyes, and cheek bone areas, so that it almost looked like she might be wearing a mask. Her eyes were yellow and slitted, her ears were pointed like an elf or vulcan, and she had 2 inch long black horns and a black devils tail. She was wearing black slacks and a long sleeve red shirt.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.” she said. “I was just out for a walk and happened to hear about some girl who skipped out of the medical unit and thought maybe they would head this way. You are the girl they’re looking for, right?”

Faith said, “Yes. You gonna turn me in?”

“Me? No. But why are you trying to leave the campus instead of healing that arm?”

Faith told the teacher about Brand, and how he had hurt another girl trying to get to Faith, and thus why she had to leave the campus.

“I think I see a small flaw, kid. If he could get to one student, what would stop him from getting to anybody in any place you go? You might make the kids here safer, but by your own logic you’d be trading their safety for that of basically everyone else everywhere.” the teacher said.

Faith looked at the teacher in shock, and realized she was right. Then, finally everything she had been through that day, being attacked by Jane, discovering Brand had been behind it, the pain in her arm and the hopelessness of her situation crashed into her all at once, and she started to cry.

The teacher approached, and gently hugged Faith, and Faith said, “What do I do? Maybe I should just ... give up.”

“And miss out on beating him?”

“How can I beat him?”

“You said you had faced him before. How did you beat him then?”

“I ... didn’t. I just forgave him. And he flew away.”

“So he couldnt take being forgiven? Then that’s your secret power, kid. Make it work for you.”

“I ... I’ll try.”

“Good girl. Now let’s get you back to the medical building. We’ll tell the nurses you just went out for some fresh air, and forgot to check in with them.”

“Okay.” Faith said, and then giggled.

“What is it?”

“Well, it just hit me. The way I look, the way you look. I bet this is the first time a devil has given good advice to an angel.”

“I”m no devil. I’m the Amazing Imp!”

Then arm in arm, the two walked back to the medical building, and settled Faith back into her room.

Then Imp said, “Good night, kid. Oh. By the way, do you like Art? That’s what I teach here.”

“I ... before my transformation, I would have been lucky to do stick figures. Now ... I don’t know. But a friend of mine once suggested I could make a good model.”

“They would be right. Once your arm heals, maybe you could pose for my class.”

“I ... wouldn’t have to be naked, would I?”

“I’m pretty sure Mrs. Carson would have my tail in a sling if I had a student posing nude. But we could get you into something backless, and really show off your wings, if you were up to it.”

“I’ll think about it. And thank you.”

“Glad I could help, kid.”

“Faith. My name is Faith. And my codename is Mercy.”

“Well, I bet both suit you well. I better go, though.”

“Thanks again.” Faith said, but Imp was already gone.

To be continued ..