Tala

Chapter 4

After hours of driving and only stopping at one gas station, they arrive at the edge of the woods. His body still feels icy cold, and he still doesn’t know where he is, but the trees are massive now. Almost like the Sequoias. Maybe they are in California.

Isabella stops the car by the side of the road and leaves the keys in the ignition.

“Let’s go.”

Nathan steps out without question, he doesn’t want to ask anymore questions.

He is tired. His head is tired of the truth...and Isabella, no this terrifying sorserross, she is also terrifying even though she is wearing the mask of Isabella. Who knows how she..he looks like..

Isabella leads him into the forest, and the deep vines scrape his legs. He is still wearing his pajamas and he realizes he doesn’t have his phone.

The vines grow taller and deeper, and as they walk the car disappears. His breath becomes heavy and only the rays of light seem to keep him awake as the morning sun shines. Isabella keeps a steady pace and never looks back at him, she keeps marching like a soldier into battle.

As time seems to slow down, Nathan hears a scramble of leaves nearby. Isabella stops immediately and only then does she look back at him.

“Wasn’t me..” Nathan says as he shrugs.

Like a blur, Isabella is in front of him like something out of a comic book.

She presses her body on him as he feels her push him to a tree nearby. Her hand clasps his mouth and her eyes pierce like fire through him. She looks around and looks worried.

Nathan with the sudden movement almost forgot to realize that he is in the middle of the forest, with Isabelle, with her firm body pressed against his. His face rushes with blood as he realizes, this is as close as he has ever been to a girl, besides his cousin who lived in Canada. His heartbeat suddenly rushes, even though he knows this was a horrible time to be crushing on Isabella...well Isabella’s body.

She then whispers, “We are being followed..”

He is too tired to respond but her hand is still firmly pressed on his lips.

“I can’t sense who it is...it must not be human.”

With those words Nathan’s excitement of having a girl near him transforms to fear as he remembers that a demon inside him still...

“Stay close to me and the ground, whatever it is, it doesn’t want us to see it. But this means we can’t lead it to my master's place..we can’t put him in danger.”

She then lets go of him and pulls him down towards the ground so they are crouched.

“Well, shouldn’t we go to your master? He is a master after all, can he protect us?”

“No...well yes, but no. I can’t bother him with this…”

She grabs his hand and she quickly pulls him forwards, they brush through the forest moss and as they start to pick up speed he knows for sure that something is behind them.

He could see the leaves and tree branches swoosh behind him like something is there, yet it isn’t. Isabella knows this and stops crouching. She burst into a full sprint, but with Nathan still looking back, she knows they won’t escape it. She firmly grasps his arm now and throws him forward. She puts herself in front of Nathan and throws her hands to her side.

She then makes a quick flick with her hands and suddenly white shiny chains appear. They are beautiful as they float in the air. Nathan stares in awe.

These chains appear out of nowhere, and Isabella grasps them with ease. She tightens them up and then she whipps them towards the forest like cowboy whip/

Black smoke appears out the forest where she has whipped as if something has popped.

There is still no noise.

She then pulls back her chain, and throws it above her. The chain hovers above her head as she makes quick hand movements and casts a curse under her breath. The chain becomes bigger suddenly but also turns purple, a bright purple. The chains fall to her again, and this time instead of grasping the chains she pushes them like wind, the chains release a loud and bright gush of electricity it seems. The electricity circulates around the forest, to the point where Nathan has to stand up from the ground to avoid the current. Then there is a screech.

A nasty, screech.

Nathan looks to the right of Isabella and there in the middle of the forest ferns, a white daunting skeleton looking creature twitches as smoke comes off of it.

Isabella retreats her chains, and then she whipps the creature once more, the creature disappears into dust. Poof gone.

Nathan stands in shock, again he tries to understand Isabella’s power and what has just happened.

The chain disappears now and she walks towards Nathan now.

This is not Isabella.

Her eyes are not Isabellas.

Her glasses are gone now, her eyes are grey and her hair seems to have poofed up.

“You okay?”

“I...yes.”

“Sorry about the sparks...I haven’t been practicing.”

“Sparks...you mean the electricity that you just summoned out of nowhere from some imaginary chains! You mean those sparks?” Nathan screams.

“Uh, yes.”

“Isab- No. You...you, sorcerer! What the hell was that creature, what are you and what just happened!?”

“Okay, I can see you’re upset-”

“Upset!? Me? No! Of course not, I have just been kidnapped by my high school crush, who really is possessed by a witch, and im in he middle of the forest in my pajamas being chased by fucking demons! I guess you can say i'm a little upset!”

Isabella’s eyes now turn back to brown, and her hair falls back to normal. She walks towards him slowly, and she holds his face. Her soft hands softly touch his cheek as he looks at her in horror.

“There there Nathan..I’ll take care of you. You’re okay. You’ll be okay.”

And with that, he blacks out.

----

Not too long after he awakes once again in a dark place.

He knows he isn’t in the forest anymore, so he assumes they have made it to the master’s house. As she stands up from the ground where he was sleeping, he sees he is in a small room with nothing around him. Just four sides of a wooden room.

He sees the door and opens it to Isabella and a tall man pouring tea.

“Ah! He’s awake!” the man says.

Nathan walks towards them and Isabella smiles cheekly at him.

“Hi..” he says slowly, as he has no idea what time it is.

“I’ve been waiting for you.” The man pulls a seat for him and another tea-cup.

Nathan sits like he is a kid again waiting for breakfast. The tall man...is tall. His head almost touches the ceiling, or maybe the house is just very small. His eyes are white, with no pupils, and his smooth bald head reminds him of Lee. He wears big hoop earrings and his hands are covered in tattoos.

“So Zara has explained most of the things I assume,” he asks as he sits down.

“Zara? ....yes I guess.” Nathan replies as he sees that the sorcerers’ who took over Isabella's body has a name.

“I see. Well, Nathan. I am Inka, a retired sorcerer and this is Zara, you're protector.”

Isabella's smiles brightly and sips her tea as if this is just another day.

“It seems your path to life has gotten interrupted. I hate to acknowledge that Tala was right..but of course she was right.”

“You know Tala?” Nathan asks eagerly, almost forgetting about Tala, the one with answers.

“Oh yes, she was my student long long ago. But after centuries, she slowly became detached from me, or better yet this world.”

The man sips his tea peacefully before continuing.

“Now Zara, now that you’re here safely, how about you give back the poor girl's body hm?”

“Oh right, ha, i forget how nice it is to be young again! I’ll miss her, but man do I miss me more!”

Zara doesn’t even stand up, she clasps her hands together in prayer and with a sudden whoosh of wind and purple light surrounding her suddenly, Isabella is gone. And in front of Nathan sits Zara. Isabella's possessor.

Nathan’s eyes must’ve been glued to Zara, because his eyes would not blink. Zara...was nothing like he imagined she would be. He had been imagining an old hag, an old evil, wrinkly hag. But no, in front of her stood a young girl, with long silver hair. Her eyes were grey as well and her sun-kissed skin made him shiver. Her thin features made it unbelievable to imagine that she had summoned a giant chain out of thin air. Her clothes though, were still Isabella's. As much as he hated to admit it, Zara was..beautiful.

Yet, with all his might, he hated her. He hated Zara..and what she had done to Isabella.

“Where...where is she?”

“Your classmate? She’s probably dead....”

“I thought you said you would return her safely home with her memories!?”

“Well...I lied.”

Nathan’s chest is on fire in the deep depths of the ocean…

“She’s kidding...she’s fine. Zara could you please me serious for once?” Inka taps Zara’s head. She giggles and winks at Nathan.

His anger has become X10 fold. How could this witch joke around about life so easily?

---

After they had tea, they didn’t talk much about Nathan at all. Isa-no Zara and Inka just caught up and talked about old stories. They laughed and made food, as Nathan watched in silence. He sat in the same position until he saw the sun start to go down and as his icy body turned to stone, he realized that this whole time, the demon inside him had been watching. He felt his eyes heavy, he knew the demon was watching everything. Yet he stayed silent until later at night.

Zara and Inka made him go to sleep as they talked about some spell. He felt tired, cold...freezing cold, and so alone. It’s as if his life was gone, whatever life he had was gone.

You’re upset…

Nathan says nothing to the demon. His body is frozen as he awaits the demon to talk to him again in his mind.

Ah, you’re still scared of me? Might as well get used to it kiddo.

Nathan turns his body as if trying to avoid the demon in his mind.

Well, just so you know, I’m not happy about being here either. I hear all your dirty thoughts about Zara...and Isabella...and your judgement for Raul. I hear everything you think...every thought..

“Shut up!” Nathan replies and covers his ears.

No no, I hate it! I hate hearing your thoughts! I can’t hear my own because of you! You talk to yourself too much! I want my own body too, don’t get that confused.

“Then leave!”

I can’t you idiot. Don’t you think I tried? I have tried since the moment I came into your body!

“Then why didn’t you say something before? Why speak to me now? You should’ve just stayed quite”

Oh how easy is it for you to tell ME to shut up. I have been screaming at you the whole time, every stupid decision you made, every action, every experience you had, I was there yelling at you to listen to me! To let you know I was here. I’ve gone insane hearing your thoughts only and not being able to talk to anyone! It wasn’t until you heard the name Tala...that I realized you were able to hear me.

“You’re lying, you’ve been making me talk some weird language for who knows how long, you’ve been controlling me! My actions, myself..who I am!”

That weird language is my native language you baboon, not everyone can speak English you know. I’ve learned English quite well because I'm stuck in this body, but I have tried for years to talk to others. I hope that maybe a fellow demon would hear me. Because I'm stuck with you, i can’t sense other demons so well, so sue me for trying to communicate with my kind. So yes, once in a while I try to control you and yes every now and then I slowly tweak your body to better suit me. It’s hot in here you know..I like it cold.

“You changed me…physically. You changed me?”

Slightly, I can only do so much since it’s not my body...yet.

“Yet..”

Yet. Since I can see no way to get out of here I might as well take it over.

“You can't, it's my body!”

Well I can’t get out so what do you expect me to do? Live in harmony with you in this body? I’m not the one who chose to be here.

“Tala...she can help. She’s the one who dragged you in here...she can get you out.”

That sorcerer won’t help a demon. Heck I don’t want her help. If anything I could kill her with my bare hands if I could! Because of her power, she dragged me from the inferno into you! She fucked up...big time. I’m a level 6 demon..I-

“Shut up! She didn’t do it on purpose, and she won’t help you but she can help me. She saved me once, she will do it again. She’ll get you out and I can have my body and you can go back to where you came from.”

How easy it must be to trust her when you haven’t met her hmm? You have no idea who Tala is, she is not on our side…

“There is no “our,” I’m not on your side.”

You should be...if I take over your body, you’ll go to heaven like you were supposed to go from the beginning and I’ll have a body to live again.

Somehow the demon made sense..he was supposed to be dead technically. If it wasn’t for Tala, he would be in...heaven, not that he believed in that...but now he did and he knew for sure his life wouldn’t be this miserable..

Yeah, your life is pretty miserable...

“Stop hearing my thoughts!”

It’s not like I can help it! It’s like having a speaker phone blast all the time here!

“I just...I just want you out. I want this to end…” Nathan whimpers as tears start to blur his vision.

Nathan...I'll be the first to tell you, Tala won’t get me out. Do you know why? Because the spell she put on you...on us, it unbreakable. This Zara chick thinks I broke a spell or something, and that the spell hibernated me. Pff! Far from the truth! The only reason I didn’t start to possess you early on was because I was confused and weak! Took me years to get my strength back! Tala put a spell that imprisoned me here forever. There is no way to get out or for anyone to get me out. We are stuck forever.

Nathan tried to not think, but tried to understand the demon for once, why would Tala purposely imprison a demon in him instead of getting rid of him the instance she saw it in him?

In other words my dear boy...Tala imprisoned me here knowing I would eventually possess you. Why do you think she told these losers to watch over you hm? Because she knew I would try to possess you! Too bad she didn’t leave them a spell to actually hibernate me. I bet she didn’t know one herself...