A Demon's Fate

Chapter 5: Return

"C'mon, that's what friends do!" she said cheerfully, "Now let me take you to your class, alright?"

I agreed, as the two of us trudged through the rain, huddled under our umbrella.As lunch hour came later that day, Moi decided to sit next to me, and was rambling on about her own day with all of her friends. I might have felt a pang of jealousy, not having Soma anymore, but I did my best to hide it from my only remaining friend. "Hey," she said suddenly, "Did you know there's this pond out in the forest behind the school? I hear there have been carved rocks appearing at the bottom!"

She had discovered my secret retreat? I had to keep this secret, I thought to myself. "Haha, it must be ghosts right?"

"That fake laugh tells me you're hiding something..." she says playfully. "Miyouko, is there something I should know about?"

"What?" I glance to my left towards the salad bar, "I have nothing to hide!"

Moi suddenly reaches over the table and grabs my cheeks saying, "You're lying! Tell me what's going on!" half laughing the words out of her mouth. "What are you doing there?"

Yeah, I couldn't hold out that long! "I-It's quiet and calm! It's nice!" I say between bouts of laughter and pain. "I throw rocks in the pond!"

"Ah! Do you carve weird things in 'em too!" she gave my cheeks a good pinch, forcing the answer out of me yet again.

"Y-yes! It's relaxing and relieves stress!"

"Then let's go!" she shouted suddenly, dragging me from my seat. Everyone in the cafeteria was staring at us, but we were gone so fast we didn't get to see.

We were practically running toward the forest, I was barely able to keep up. Yelling at her to slow down the whole way, we dashed in between trees and ducked under foliage. For a moment there, I felt like a kid again, until we made it to our final destination...

A wave of apprehension overwhelmed me as we stood there in the clearing. "A-are you sure we should be here?" I asked warily.

"Why?" she said, "There's nothing here."

"Yeah, but... Maybe there is something..."

Moi pulled out her cell phone. "Like a ghost? I bet I can catch it on video!"

"No, something... Worse... Let's just get out of here, Moi," I begged.

Tamina-san was off put by my tone, but nevertheless decided to peer into the pond. "So... What do you do here?"

"Well," I started, "I take a rock... Like this one. And I carve into it with a pair of scissors... And throw it in the pond." I demonstrated this with a flat one sitting by the water, dropping it with a plunk. "It's like throwing away all your troubles, right?" I said, nervously chuckling.

"Huh... Hey! You know what we could do?" I waited for the answer for a while, until she figured out I wasn't in the mood for games. "We should go on a ghost hunt! Here!"

"N-no-"

"C'mon! It'll be fun. Besides, it's so nice here!" She looked so happy, just standing here in the woods. I... couldn't refuse now, could I?

"F-fine... When should we meet back?"

"Midnight! It's the perfect time for ghost hunting. We'll do it tonight, after school." She started walking away from the pond and I followed her until we finally exited the woods. "I'll see you then, okay?"

"Y-yeah, midnight..." I replied slowly, still feeling the dark aura of the woods. Tamina-san waved goodbye, and we were on separate paths... I glanced back before leaving it behind. That demon was bound to be here come midnight, and it seemed I would join him after all...