Write On My Soul

Shades of Black Chapter 5

"...Give us one good reason to believe you." Nick got up from his chair and stood next to his brother.

Karissa resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She couldn't decide what was more ridiculous: the fact that they'd dragged her here and asked her these questions only to tell her that they didn't believe her answers or the fact that she'd actually stuck around to give them the answers in the first place instead of running like she normally would have done. That urge to push past them and rush out of the hotel was still in the back of her mind, but other, stronger instincts were forcing her to stay. Karissa didn't quite know why she was making herself stay in this room with them, but, as was her usual, she figured that her reason would surface soon enough. In the meantime, though, she was left to wonder.

Looking at the faces surrounding her, it wasn't hard for Karissa to deduce that it wasn't really who she was that they were concerned with, which was yet another thing that bothered her about staying here any longer than she needed to. It wasn't her job to be a babysitter; she was supposed to fight off the attacking demons and vanish without a trace. She wasn't supposed to sit down with every person she'd saved and answer every question they had. She certainly didn't have to prove herself to any of them. The arrogance of the request itself was enough to make Karissa wonder even more why she was standing there, letting them interrogate her like she was a criminal.

Then, something caught her eye. He manifested so silently that the one he'd appeared behind hadn't even felt his presence. She knew any warning she could give would only cause more trouble than it was worth, especially since she really had no idea what any demons could possibly want from these six guys. For all she knew, this demon was after her and wanted nothing to do with them.

Karissa slowly pulled her crossbow from an inside pocket of her coat, raising it in her right hand as her finger rested on the trigger. Not wanting Nick to look back and see the demon that still remained unnoticed, she kept eye contact with him while she fired the small wooden arrow just a few inches to the right of his arm. It wasn't until she heard the "thud" sound made when the body hit the floor that she looked away from Nick, pushing past him to ready herself for the impending fight she could tell would result when the demon - whom her arrow had unfortunately only wounded instead of killed like she'd intended it to - awoke from the temporary concussion he'd sustained when he fell. An annoyed look came across her face when she felt a few of the others in the room come over and examine the scene.

"Nice shot." Kevin appeared at her right side. Karissa again resisted the urge to roll her eyes, knowing he wouldn't know a good shot - which this was in all actuality far from - from a bad one. "Did you kill it?"

"Not quite." Karissa answered, making her annoyance known. She spent quite a bit of time working on her aim, and knowing that she'd missed her target at such a close range was something she knew would continue to irk her. "He's still alive, just knocked out. Trust me, you'll know when he's dead." Karissa explained.

"So, what now? What do we do?" Howie stood at Karissa's other side.

"I will wait til he comes to." Karissa put away her crossbow in an inside pocket of her jacket and pulled a dagger out of it's sheath, which was tucked into her belt. "You guys don't have to do anything except stay out of the way."

"Unbelieveable." Alex leaned against the wall next to Brian as they all closely watched the happenings across the room.

"Yeah, she is..." Aaron sighed.

"Awww," Alex said in a playful tone, "Aaron has a crush on her."

Aaron rolled his eyes before returning his attention to Karissa, who was standing over the unconcious creature, the dagger clenched tightly in her right hand. His skin had a green tinge to it, and his short black hair was messy. Like the previous attacker, this demon's clothing was dirty and raggedy. His black shirt was stained with blood where Karissa's arrow had pierced him near his shoulder. Karissa glanced back at Aaron, who then quickly looked away.

The demon took advantage of Karissa's momentary glance away by pulling himself into an upright position, knocking her to the floor when she turned back. "BITCH!"

"Aww, I missed you too," Karissa gave him a fake pout as she stood up and nodded at his shoulder. "As you can tell..." The demon only grinned as he produced a glowing black orb in his hand similar to the one the previous demon had thrown. "Shit!" she dove out of the way as the creature threw the black orb at her, throwing her dagger at the demon and they all watched as he was suddenly transformed into a billowing column of smoke that quickly disappeared. "What a bastard..." she said, getting up and brushing off her jacket. Kevin walked over to where the creature had just been standing and cautiously picked up Karissa's dagger from the floor.

"Wow..." he said. There was no trace of a creature having been there, except for what looked like a scorch mark on the wall where the black orb made impact.

"Yeah, told you you'd know if he was dead." She took her dagger from Kevin's outstretched hand, walking to the bathroom and using a white hand towel to wipe off the blood before putting it back in it's sheath.

"Uh, thanks..." Nick said, looking at the spot where the creature had fallen behind him.

"For?" Karissa raised her eyebrows as she walked back over to the group.

"Getting that thing before it got me."

"No problem, it's what I do." she sighed, looking at the alarm clock on the nightstand and just then realizing how long she'd been with them. "Well, now that that's over, I really need to go."

"You're still leaving?" Aaron asked.

"...Yeah... Why, do you have more questions for me?" Karissa asked, hoping that her tone made it clear that she wasn't answering any questions anyway.

"I can only think of one..."