One Year Later…
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Rahbeem Roth sat in stunned silence.
And then, with a loud sigh, Professor Luis Diaz relaxed and allowed a handsome smile to brush across his lips as he came out of the memory. He folded his hands on the large dark wooden desk as he continued speaking to the well-dressed African American man sitting in the chair facing him.
“And THAT’S why it took me so long to call you back after your job interview. The school had to be shut down for an extra year for repairs and a few adjustments.”
Rahbeems face was bent in a mixture of confusion, disbelief, and what Diaz could only guess was indignation. Did Diaz really think he was crazy enough to believe that story?
“So…” The young teacher began. “How is it that you are alive now?”
“I’m immortal,” Diaz said simply as he picked up a sheet of paper, inspected it and put it back down on his desk.
“Immortal?” Rahbeem said almost wistfully. He sat back in his chair inside of Absolution Academy’s lavish principals office. “You mean you can’t die? Ever?”
“Well,” Diaz said, picking up a red pen. It seemed like he was about to start correcting test papers. “There are a few things that could kill me. Fire does not happen to be one of them.”
The man was silent. Diaz saw the look on his face and chuckled. Humans and their facial expressions were so amusing. He never got tired of them.
“Didn’t you see it on television?” Diaz asked him, the humored smile never leaving his face. “They were showing it all over the news, a live witch burning. And seeing how I’m immortal, I was burning for 9 hours straight!” He unleashed a loud and crazed laugh. “9 hours of excruciating pain--being burned alive!”
He pulled himself out of the memory again, he did not want to go to that dark-dark place. “I’m surprised you didn’t hear about it. It was all over the media and the Internet. They even had a few free concerts during my burning. That little tart…what’s her name? The one that has the silly song that goes..nah, nah, nah, OOOH BABY! You know the one, right?”
Rahbeem was still staring at him incredulously. Diaz had to laugh again. The humans and their funny little faces. He would never get sick of them!
“So…” Rahbeem Roth finally started again. “What’s going to happen when the Christians come back and try to burn the school down again?”
“I’m not too worried about that,” Diaz began. “To appease them, I added America's first official DEMON HUNTERS school. 'The Golden Redemption School for Spiritual Warfare',That’s part of the reason why it took so long for us to rebuild.”
Diaz folded his arms on his desk and leaned over it a bit. “The demon hunters school has made our relationship with the Christians a bit better. But just in case there’s any more insurrection, we have plenty of security in place.”
“In-sur-rection?” Roth sounded out the words as if that peculiar word would make more sense when spoken slowly.
“Remember those gigantic machines you saw today when coming into the school?” Diaz distracted him. “The Tommy walkers? Yes, they are equipped with firefighting and bomb disarming capabilities.”
Yes, Rahbeem certainly remembers seeing those death machines all over campus. If that was Diaz' security force, then indeed the school would be safe from angry religious groups, as well as terrorist and probably alien invasions, as weaponized as those machines were.
“Oh, well…” Roth shrugged, but the look of confusion hadn’t left his face. “So what happened to the 4 boys? Are they alright?”
“Well, I guess that depends on your definition of alright.” Diaz said earnestly. “All four are currently alive, if that’s what you mean. And all 4 are registered students at our illustrious school.”
“One has been hospitalized though. Had a bad run of luck when his sister and mother died in a car accident during the summer. Poor kid needed to be institutionalized due to a suicide attempt, or at least that’s what I heard through gossip.” Diaz shook his head sullenly.
“He will be back at school soon, though. And other than that, the boys are fine!”
Roth nodded, considering that. So far, what Diaz was saying sounded good, but…
“What about the little blonde, Kaye Beltrans' nephew?”
“Yes…Richard,” Diaz’s eye twitched, and then things became so silent all Rahbeem could hear was the faint whirring of the air conditioner.
“You’re being civil with him, right?” Roth eyed him suspiciously. “You mentioned he’s the one that got you burned at the—”
“Oh, that’s just water under the bridge,” Diaz said with a laugh. “Sure, being burned alive is painful.---Extrodinarily painful!!--- And since I'm immortal, I burned and burned and BUUUURRRRNNNNNEEEEDDD and screamed to God for the sweet mercy of DEATH for 9 hours!”
Diaz handsome face ripped apart in darkness, and his eyes began to glow bright red. “9 hours of unimaginable, excruciating, words can’t describe PAIN!! And it didn’t stop till one of the Christians started yelling that she had to get home and pay the baby sitter!!!” And then the darkness fled away, and Professor Luis Diaz looked his more human self and smiled gently at Rahbeem.
“I’m surprised you didn’t hear about it. That little moppet was there, the one that’s always on TV with the fake butt and short skirts?”
“I don’t really watch much TV,” Rahbeem said slowly, looking distant and terrified. Diaz felt bad. He has to be careful not to panic the poor mortal.
“Richard Beltran is the boy's name.” Diaz began. “Richards a good kid. Such a good--great kid…”
And then he exhales. “He’s dumb as a box of rocks, though. I mean, really stupid.”
“You’re not allowed to call the children stupid,” Roth warned.
“Dumb?” Diaz asked. “Ignoramus?”
“No.”
“He’s just,” Diaz shook his head, searching for the right words. “Like a monkey that speaks English.”
“All of what you are saying is bad. Bad adjectives. Find nice adjectives.”
“Very good, Professor Roth!” Diaz exclaimed. “See? This is why we will need you to double as an English teacher. But your main job will be guidance counselor, of course.”
“It sounds like you can’t stand this Richard Beltran kid,” Professor Roth began. “If you’re some kind of demon and he got you burned at the stake, what can I do with him?”
“You can be human,” Diaz said matter of factly. “That’s the one thing you can do that most of the staff in this school can’t.”
Roth is silent as he considered this. What good was being human in a school full of children with supernatural abilities?
Professor Diaz goes into his desk and fishes out some paper work. “I can grade papers. I can say yes or no to things. I can handle everything, but knowing what to do with a student like Richard Beltran. This is a humans' specialty.”
“What’s wrong with him?”
“I told you he’s an IDIOT.”
Roth shakes his head and makes tapping sounds with his tongue disapprovingly. He starts talking to Diaz in an African accent.
“You are a bad man to talk of a child that way!”
“English speaking MONKEY!”
Diaz adjusted the thin, gold-rimmed glasses on his face as he looked over the papers in his hand. “But it’s not just Vegas. All the human students in this school will need some counseling, like Eddie Bon-Moon, for instance. When he gets out of the hospital, I won’t know how to handle him.”
“We demons have a different thought process and different ways we handle stress.” Diaz explained. “If my mother or sisters were killed in a car accident, I would,” Diaz thinks about it for a moment and then shrugs hard. “Disembowl anyone who might have been involved. Run through the streets slaughtering innocents and painting their blood all over my body as I bay at the moon until I felt better.” He laughed heartily.
“You know. That’s it! I’d be back at work that Monday, no problem! But human teenagers? Nope! They need ---”
“Professor Roth, are you alright?” Diaz asked. The man looked as if he was about to faint. He was a bad principle. A very bad principle to over do it with humans again. He pressed the button on his intercom for his secretary. “Ms. Nichols, please bring some water for Professor Roth! It looks like he’s got a dizzy spell.”
“No, I’m alright.” Professor Roth said cautiously as he started to stand up. “I-im alright. I think I just need some fresh air.”
“Well talk again later,” Professor Roth said, opening the door to Diaz’s office and letting himself out quickly.
Diaz sat there alone in his office and blinked. He frowned. The human doesn’t like him.
Rejection was not something Diaz was used to. He stared at the door, his face growing darker and darker and angrier till his eyes began to glow that bright red color.
There was a slight buzzing sound that grew louder and louder the more horrifying Diaz got. The sound of a flies circling around Diaz’s head as he sat in the pain of rejection. And the sound kept multiplying until they were a loud roar. They were flying around Diaz’s head, spinning around him in a demonic swarm.
Then the door opened, and Rahbeem popped his head back into the office. “By the way, am I still going to sit in on your occult sciences class?”
The insects vanished as soon as the door opened and the lights turned back on. Diaz's glowing red eyes also disappeared. The human doesn’t hate him!
“Sure! It will start in an hour. Meet me in room 666.”
“Room 666? Ha, ha, cleaver.” Rahbeem said dryly.
Diaz grinned all the bigger. That perplexed look returned to Rahbeem's face. Then he rolled his eyes and shut the door.
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