HER

It all started, when we encountered that old woman with the creepy little barn owl on her shoulder. Then the young red haired woman who showed up and casted that weird spell on me, I didn’t want to believe her but who’d a thought that I’d have to fight a demon and one of that size; just how many more of those things are out there on this planet? It’s all because of Her, she saved me. If it wasn’t for her I would’ve been dead, but was it all worth it in the end...that I had to lose the people I cared about. It doesn’t change the fact I committed a crime that not in a million years I would ever thought about doing; I didn’t want to do it, I had no other choice, it was either kill or be killed. I still have nightmares about it, like a movie that’s left on repeat and you already know what’s gonna happen from beginning to the end. My name is Alicia Rivera, and this is the story about how I became the Slayer.

I was a born and raised in Mexico City, where my mom and dad took care of me and my best friend Bonita Flores. Bonita or Bonnie for short, lost her family when she was young, so my parents adopted her and became a part of the family. We lived there until I was fifteen years old, but moved due to unnecessary circumstances. Before the events that unfolded that changed my life into The Slayer, I was an average everyday girl; a bookworm who had an active everyday life of going to school, being an honorary member of the student council, studying martial arts after school and working a nine-five on the weekends. Bonnie on the other hand, she was like a grace from god, besides the fact she’s the same age as me, but whatever she decided to put her mind towards, she excelled at; whether it be dance, martial arts, singing, culinary arts, it seemed like she was so perfect at everything did. Admittedly, I had no problem with her being so great at everything—except fighting, that annoyed me to the core the most—I supported her every step of the way and never bashed her for her talents.

All of that aside, I never liked being a goodie-two-shoes like Bonnie, I always had a sense for adventure and wanted to do something exciting with my life. The only excitement I got was from doing martial arts, there was always that rush of adrenaline I get when I’m in a fight; the thrill of standing there against a strong opponent, fighting as if it was the real thing and imagining myself using the skills I learned against ten or more opponents. In middle school, I used to get bullied for just being the quiet kid, so that lead to getting my lunch money taken and getting into fights almost four-times a week, this went on for weeks, I became depressed and was afraid of going back to school for awhile. But my father, Jorge Castillo and my mom, Sierra Rivera, noticed I was getting bullied in school and enrolled me into a kickboxing class, where after a month of training and meditation, I managed to beat the ever-so-living-shit out of the people who bullied me and gained more confidence in myself and started to change my life for the better. My parents always tried to do what’s best for me, but my dad who I was a lot more closer to than my mom, always inspired me to never give up and become the best version of myself I can be. What I truly respected about him was what he told me that saved me from falling into the abyss: “Mija, whenever you feel the world is against you, with the blackest of darkness pushing you in a corner, remember to stay calm and look for the tiniest glimmer of light to guide you out of it.” Hearing his voice, and being around him, made me feel warm inside, like nothing can go wrong when I’m with him.

One time, in kickboxing class I noticed that there was this beautiful young woman with dark red hair—who didn’t look that much older than us—was around five-two, decided in joining the class. Of course when a new girl joins, all the boys wanted to spar with her—not just because she was the hottest girl there—but just to show off their moves and get her number, what they didn’t know was that they had another thing coming. One of the guys went up to spar with her, and as soon as the fight began,he went for a straight kick and what came next was shocking. In a split second, after the practitioner commenced the fight, he was already brought to the ground. Everyone was shocked to see what had happened, it wasn’t that he was an amateur; he was one of the best students in the class and not only that he weighed at least two-hundred-thirty pounds in muscle, while she looked at least one-hundred-twenty pounds. Our teacher was impressed, so he offered someone else to spar against her, that’s when I took the opportunity and challenged her myself. I got into my stance and we both locked eyes with each other, I noticed there was something so strange about her; she had this intense look in her eyes like she was ready to kill me but at the same time her energy was calm and warm. When the fight began, I rushed in with a left feint to her face, I thought I had her but then everything went black and I woke up to what felt like hours, in just less than a second I was down. The class ended with her beating every one there, except Bonnie who arrived late after coming from her boyfriend’s house but decided not to take part in sparring as she admitted she would lose. After everyone was heading home, she pulled me over to the side and told me I have a lot of fighting potential. I took it as a joke at first, believing she was saying that to make me feel better after losing, until she brought up how I could read a person’s energy. Knowing I was going to lose, I didn’t back down and tried to use a feint to get the best of me instead of rushing in like everyone else. I’ll be honest, I was interested and wanted to know more about this woman and asked for her name; she told me her name was Cassandra and gave me her phone number then headed off on the bus. Somehow, I felt like I wouldn’t see the last of her.

The next day, Bonnie and I went to a park just across the street from this old cemetery to hangout. She said she wanted talk about something that’d been bothering her for awhile with her boyfriend, saying he might be cheating on her. We sat on the swings, stuffing a bunch of empanadas down my mouth as she was gathering her words together. As she was about to explain, I mentioned we was being followed and an old woman, with a black colored barn owl sitting on her shoulder, mysteriously appeared before us; she wore an old cloak with weird markings from her neck to her ankles, along with a with an ancient looking necklace with a forest colored jade hanging from it and her skin was wrinkled ad if it was falling off her bones. She walked to us with a creepy smile stretching to her both sides of her ears, “You two should be heading home, otherwise the La Chuza will come for you”, she said ominously with a low monotonous attitude. I told her she shouldn’t worry about us and she should just mind her business. She then continued to blab-about more about this La Chuza shit, until I told her to back off before she gets hurt. As the old woman stepped closer towards us, Cassandra appeared out of nowhere, sprinting at us, hugging the two of us in her arms: “OH THANK GOD! I found the two of you”, she said letting out a sigh of relief. Before I could ask what’s she’s doing there, she pulled us closer in her arms and whispered in our ears, “Act natural or you’ll die”, she said with an intent to kill in her voice. Our hearts were in our throats, but we kept our cool and went along with it. I told her she didn’t have to worry so much and she’ll just tire herself out chasing us around. The next moment, she slapped both of us in the face, I didn’t even notice I was hit until my face started tingling . Cassandra then went on to lecture us even more and talked with the old lady until she walked away into the cemetery. Before she left, we glanced over her shoulders looking at the old woman’s expression, she looked calm but I felt the rage and malice spewing from her body and thought, if Cassandra didn’t show up we would’ve been killed. She then grabbed our arms and walked us home. Bonnie was confused at the time, questioned if Cassie knew the old woman, what she said after haunted me ‘til the next day; “That woman was a demon, she’s a demon that feeds on the flesh of young adolescents; her name is La Chuza, she was once a human a couple hundred years ago who had her family killed by a group of towns people who thought that they were witches. They chased her out of their town and she was never seen again, but what they didn’t know was that this only fueled her with rage and sought revenge on the people who killed her family. She then made a deal with a devil and was granted with the dark arts but in exchange she rid herself of her humanity and took the form of a large black owl which she can shape-shift into at the coming of nightfall. Also the very next night, she slaughtered the entire town’s population that consisted of only the children by devouring their flesh”. I’m telling you when I heard that, I regurgitated from just how insane it sounded. Bonnie fell to her knees from the fear, I asked her a multitude of questions but the ones that stood to me was, why save us and why didn’t she just kill us, when there wasn’t anyone else around. Cassandra then told us, “Because she couldn’t kill me, I’m something not even she can’t kill, but to give you a more reasonable answer, I didn’t want to see you girls die when I could avoid it that’s all”. When we reached my house, it was nightfall and my parents was waiting at the door asking us where we’ve been because we were going to celebrate my birthday in a an hour. Cassandra introduced herself to my parents and said we’re kickboxing partners, my mom and dad thanked her and went inside to prepare a little more for tonight. Bonnie thanked her and rushed inside to hurry, then Cassandra walked up to me and gently grabbed my hand told me something I’ll carry with me to the grave: “I didn’t want to tell you this in front of your friend but I’m a witch, and followed you guys because that woman was after you both for a week, she was just waiting for the right moment to get you both alone. Let me give you something that’ll protect you from any danger even from the likes of a demon”. She started murmuring a chant while waving her index finger over my hand and in seconds, a symbol of a shield with a cross in the center with angelic wings on the side folding in as if it’s shielding it. She told me it’s a protection spell to ward off evil or malicious energies that might try to harm me, and when the time was a right, a power will reveal itself and unlock a power within me. She then disappeared in front of me without a trace. I ran inside to prepare.

An hour later, we got into the car with my parents and headed out to celebrate my birthday. I was turning fifteen that night so to celebrate, dad was taking us to my favorite spot in Mexico City, Taco Theater; all you can eat tacos of all kinds and if you could finish thirty tacos in thirty minutes, you and your family get free tickets to see any movie you like. With excitement filling the atmosphere in the car, I suddenly felt a cold sweat come down my face. Time was moving like the matrix; my mom and dad we’re moving so slow that I had thought the world was coming to an end; Bonnie was the same, her hand took at least a minute to reach my arm and the space between us is very minimal. My body began to over-heat, I tried unzipping my jacket yet when I tried, my entire arm was shaking profusely. That’s when something on the corner of my left eye caught my attention: my pupils dilated, my heart felt as if it skipped at least ten beats at once, my hands had no feeling in them as the shaking had went away, I couldn’t even scream if I had wanted to because the fear had paralyzed me from whatever I was looking at. Who was on the window...no, what was on it...whether I staring at death itself, or some kind of demon, made very little difference; all I could do, was stare into it’s eyes. This demon, it hadn’t taken its gaze away from me for a second, yet, although I had my eyes locked with it, my mind was too fixated trying to comprehend what I was facing: it had long dark hair flowing down the sides of its face: it’s face was pale white all over, with an eerie-sickening smile reaching the edge of it’s ears and what’s creepier about this creature, only it’s face was human. Then in the blink of an eye, the creature vanished from my sight disappearing in the depths of the shadows in the forest. Suddenly, I heard a small noise against my ear, whispering to me saying “la...chuza”, said the voice. I broke out of the trance and turned to the voice who whispered to me: it was Bonnie. I’ve never seen her in a state of awe like that before; the girl who was so amazing at anything she puts her mind to, was now shaken to her core like a dog with its tail between it’s legs. My best friend felt true fear for the first time in her life and I didn’t know how to help her. I remembered that I had Cassie’s number and tried to call her but to my surprise, it went directly to voicemail. It only got worse from there; Bonnie began bitting her nails to the nub of her fingers until her fingers started dripping blood, my father noticed our fraught behaviors and without a moment of hesitation he pulled the car over to the side of the road. My mother, in confusion, wondered what was going on, looked to see that Bonnie was ripping out parts of her hair. My mom crawled in the back of the car and tried to calm her down but she had starting to scream: tears fell down from her cheeks and she flailed around trying to get free. Dad looked at me, “Mija, what’s the meaning for her behavior?”, he asked. I tried to form words from my mouth, but I looked out the window and saw Her; the La Chuza. She stood on the tree across from where were parked and let out a frightening scream, causing all the animals and birds in the vicinity to flee and fly away. I told my father to hurry and drive away, without even asking questions, he had his foot on the pedal and drove off. My mom, scared for life asked what that horrible noise was, it didn’t sound like a animal she heard before. Bonnie screamed out moments later, “IT’S HER! ITS THE WITCH LA CHUZA! SHE’S COMING FOR US!” Mom and dad both was speechless and my mom began praying with the cross over her head for our safety. Dad was trying to stay on the road as much as possible but before we knew it, our car was hit and everything went black.

I started to regain consciousness; my head was spinning, blood was all over the place and our car was destroyed. My body was still in the car but what I saw traumatized me for the rest of my life; both of my parents were dead. I didn’t want to believe it but it was the truth, both my mother and father dead right before my eyes. I tried getting up and looking for Bonnie, but my right leg was broken so I had no other choice but to crawl out of the the car before it exploded. When I crawled out the broken vehicle, I couldn’t believe what I saw; the noise around me completely ceased, my eyes widened and my pupils dilated, I couldn’t even hear the sound of my own scream because...I witnessed my best friend; the only person left that I cared about, being swallowed by that grotesque demon. I tried to throw rocks at her, begging her to stop and to take me instead but it was too late, my best friend was gone. The demon then turned it’s attention over to me and let out a wicked laugh, looking at me with a wicked smile with Bonnie’s blood dripping off its mouth. I knew I was going to die, with this overwhelming rage fueling my heart, I only wished that I had to power to rip that damned demon into shreds for what it did to my family. It grabbed me by the head, hovering me over it’s mouth fully elongated, ready to devour me, I saw countless souls of the children she’s ate over the years screaming in agony within its stomach. I didn’t want to die, the only thing I could think of was ridding the world of a demon this evil, that’s when my hand where the symbol was placed earlier began to glow, I felt a huge surge of power engulfed my body before I knew it—it all happened so fast— but all I remember was me punching the demon’s face in repeatedly until it was turned to paste. Blood covered my hands and I didn’t feel that surge of power anymore. Cassandra then showed up, filling me in on what happened and told me I’ve unlocked a dormant power within myself and became a Pranic user. She said to me I could use this power however I liked, I asked her if she can teach me how to use this power so I can slay more demons that threaten other humans. She grabbed my hand and accepted to be my master.