Tala

Chapter 3

An icy breeze creeps into Nathan’s sheets. After crying and recalling all the times people walked away from him in the middle of a conversation, Nathan refuses to leave his room for a whole week. His parents don’t like him being stuck at home for so long, who knows what he would do to them. But they are glad he doesn't come out, even for food. Jay begins to worry slightly and starts to leave him some food outside his door...but it remains untouched.

He sleeps and dreams of shadows and horns, and a wicked lady. He wakes up screaming and grasping for the ceiling. He doesn’t know what is wrong with him, but he knows it must be something to do with the strange language he spoke. How long had he spoken that language? And why was it that no one seems to have told him?

He sits up and realizes it is still dark outside. His thoughts about Tala have vanished, he no longer wants to find her, he just wants to end this cold pain, and the ticking time bomb inside of him. He wants to be normal, he wants this nightmare to go away. As he stares out the window he catches a glimpse in the mirror, a very quick glimpse. He looks at his reflection and sees two cold gray eyes looking back at him...he didn’t realize how dead he looked.

And as he begins to close his eyes and doze off into another sleep, his body freezes.

He can’t move.

His eyes shift from side to side, but his body seems to have frozen.

What..in the world?

Then his body moves on its own back to the mirror, where he saw the definition of evil. The eyes staring back at him are not his eyes..but black voids. His white skin is not reflecting back at him, but a dark purple glazed skin covers his face..his teeth are not his pearly whites, but instead black diamonds..his hair is no longer black but gone..

Nathan gasps in terror as he feels himself tear up and scream inside.

What he sees in the mirror is not himself...but it is. He somehow feels, this is him. This...thing, this evil thing, is him. He sees himself.

Do you like what you see?

Nathan tries to look anywhere else but the mirror, who was speaking?

Ahhh, you don’t.

With all his strength and will he tries to move his body only to feel his finger move by an inch.

Ah, that is futile. The voice said.

It sounds deep, rough, and familiar…

Nathan can feel his heart beating fast and his body starts to feel numb and icy.

I didn’t think I could take it this far yet, but here we are! Finally, I can take over. HA! Well now, maybe now I can start to align myself better to you.

Nathan’s eyes grow wide..or actually, the thing’s eyes grow wide.

Align? Nathan thought.

Yes, align.

You can hear my thoughts? Nathan asks in fear.

Of course.

How?

Are you trying to get rid of me? I can feel the body lose its energy...are you depriving me on purpose? Have you figured it out that you and I are one?

W-what..what are you talking...about

Eat boy, or i’ll force a fucking-

Before the thing could finish speaking, his body goes limp, and he feels the blood rush back. The evil thing in the mirror disappears and he sees himself again. But this time there is someone sitting on his bed.

“Isabella!?” he screeches.

Isabella is sitting on his bed with her legs crossed. Looking as her usual self. The window is closed, yet she is sitting in his room

She adjusts her glasses and stands up to help Nathan from the floor.

“You okay?” she asks sweetly.

“Y-yes. How? How are you here? Wait, why?”

“You’re welcome would be more appropriate”

She grasps his hand firmly and easily lifts him up as he wobbles towards his bed.

“I-I don’t know what’s happening..I’m-I don’t know”

“I know.”

“You know?”

“Of sorts.”

She walks around his room and looks at his posters and books.

“Well...what do you know?” he asks as he tries to forget the face in the mirror.

“I know you’re not well…”

Nathan stays quiet.

“I also know...you’ve been missing for a week from school. So I thought I’d check on you.”

“How did you get in?”

“I’m on your side Nathan. Always have been. Just didn’t think I would’ve had to intervene so soon.”

“Wh-what are you talking about?”

“You know, the demon you saw.”

Nathan’s pale face becomes ghostly white in terror.

“...demon.”

“I don’t know much. But I do know that it was a demon. Not sure who it is, but now that you can see him..well things are going to get interesting.”

Nathan’s mind races, everything she is saying feels wrong, dirty, not him. Demon?

Isabella walks towards him again and touches his forehead, he feels her warm hand and realizes that his body is still icy cold except for the blood flow inside him.

“You need some rest...and energy”

“I’ve been sleeping a lot..”

“No, not that type of rest.”

She flicks him on the forehead and suddenly he falls on the bed.

Nathan wakes up in a car, with the radio playing some classical music. It’s dark outside and he can see the night stars.

He feels disoriented...and dizzy. It takes him a while to realize that he is on the road and that Isabella is driving…

“What the..”

“Morning”

“What, where? What the hell is going on?” Nathan asks as he starts to recall his memory.

“We are getting you help.”

“Help? For what?”

“To slow down the merge. Or at least make it settle a bit”

‘What the hell are you talking about? And why did you kidnap me? Where are we going? My parents, what did you tell them?”

Nathan is looking outside and sees nothing familiar...no mountains, no trees, just the desert.

“Nathan...I hate to be the one to tell you this. Because honestly, it wasn’t supposed to be my job. My job was just to watch over you, that’s it. I was not planning on getting involved.”

Nathan looks at her even more confused.

“I’ll do my best to explain, but none of it will make sense until you meet my master. Okay?”

Nathan nodes, not knowing what else to do.. He had always dreamed of being alone with Isabella, but right now he feels frightened, terrified of her.

“When you were saved by Tala, she had planned on robbing another soul's destiny and giving it to you. However, when she took that destiny away from this soul...it brought something with it. Tala is a powerful sorceress, best I’ve heard of. She is very strong, but that year, she was going through a cleanse of power. That was the first time she did a ritual in who knows how long, so I believe she forgot how strong she was...at least that's what we think. Anyways, she gave you someone else's destiny but also... she brought back a demon, or maybe the destiny she chose at random had a demon attached, who knows! It wasn’t until she saw your aura, that she realized her mistake. She tried to explain it to your mom, but your mom at that time was...well upset, and how would she explain her child had a demon inside it you know? Hahaha. Tala knew that with a demon inside you it would eventually consume you and overwhelm you and basically you would be nonexistent. So she cast a spell on your soul. A spell that protected you from the demon inside, or in other words, it made the demon go into hibernation forever. Almost like living in you..but not disturbing you. This meant that you would be fine until you died. But something happened..something awakened the demon. Though, I think it’s something more complicated than that. I think there is no way in HELL, a demon could break Tala’s spell, so something must have happened early on. You started to show signs of possession. They were very subtle at first, but after some close observation we knew it. The demon had broken Tala’s spell, and I think Tala knew that too.”

Nathan’s expression said it all, his eyes were glued to Isabella's mouth, every word seemed like a lie, a joke. Demons, sorceresses, demons. He didn’t understand, but he did.

This made him feel good but horrible. He knew this:

He knew that there had always been something there with him, inside him, but this explanation didn’t make sense.

“I'm sorry Isabella. I don’t mean to, I don’t think you’re lying. But this, this stuff is just..”

“Looney?”

“That could be a word for it..”

“I know.”

“You said, after some observation..we knew..who’s we?

“My master and I. He is the person we are going to for help.”

“It’s not Tala?”

“Oh no. Who knows where she is at. Everyone knows she’s alive, but where? Not sure.”

“Not in Devil’s Mountain?”

“Doubt it. She’s smart. She would never leave clues that obvious.”

“Then why did she write it?”

“I dunno. I just know, Tala is smart. If she wanted to be found, someone would have found her by now. And guess what? Even the best sorceress has yet to find her.”

“Other people are trying to find her too?”

“Sorceress, not people. But yes. She committed a crime by saving you, of course they want her head.”

“So how do you know about her exactly? Like how do you know of me?”

“Oh well. My master, he knew about you, so he assigned me to you. I’m not sure how he knew of you, but imma guess Tala told him to watch over you “just in case” and it seems like her hunch was right.”

“How long have you been watching over me? Since Freshman year?”

“Oh much longer than that, since you were about six or seven I think?”

“Wait what!? How? You’re...not my age?”

“Course not. I’ve shifted my appearance pretty regularly. I first started off as your classmate in second-grade. My name was Jacob back then. I kept Jacob for a while, and then I changed to Jasmine, your fifth-grade desk buddy. I didn’t like her personality though, so I switched to Lisa the next year. She was amazing, but then she started to get very outgoing and bring attention to herself, so I turned into Isabella in eighth grade. You didn’t notice me back then I believe. Isabella is very shy and introverted, so she makes a perfect host. And here we are!”

Nathan could not believe what she was saying. He remembered all those names, Jacob..the quiet kid in the corner who everyone made fun of, Jasmine, his annoying desk mate who he thought had a crush on him, and Lisa...the popular girl. How could this be? How could someone just take over someone? Did that mean that they weren’t really themselves?

“I don’t understand. How did you do that?”

“Simple. I’m a sorcerer too.”

“I get that...but how?”

“Energy. Just basic energy. Energy is all around us all the time, that if you look close enough you can manipulate it. Like souls have energy and bodies have energy. You just have to manipulate your energy enough to fit into someone else’s. Kids are hard to merge with because they are so active and changing daily...so it took the help of my master to merge me. But as the kids started to mature, their energy would kick me out, so I had to keep jumping from one kid to the next. Isabella matured her energy early on, so I have stuck with her.”

“So..Isabella, where is she?”

“Um, right here? Duh.”

“That’s not what I mean…”

“Oh! No no no, you have it wrong. Isabella is perfectly fine. I’m not really her...I just take over her body when I need to. I let her live her life, and let her personality show all their colors. All I need are her eyes and ears to watch you. Sometimes I’ll guide her towards you or near you so I can hear something, but other than that she’s all there.”

“So the real Isabella...doesn’t know you’re with me right now? Talking to me?”

“No.”

“...so at the library..”

“That was her. I made her skip class...but I had no intention of her talking to you. That was her. After she saw the journal though...I took over.”

“I see. What about her family? We’re in the middle of nowhere..won’t her family put out missing children?”

“Nope. I erased her for now. Very easy to manipulate the memories of adults. So only a few classmates will notice her absence, but since she’s so quiet, I'm sure they’ll forget. And don’t worry! She’ll be back before you know it! My master doesn’t live far!”

Isabella smiles...no, not Isabella...someone else smiles as they drive into the morning gloom.

Nathan sits in silence looking out...how did his life come to this? How?