Perhaps it was the fact that I was institutionalized when I was a child, so I felt the need as an adult to make up for the years in which people thought I was crazy, but I had always been a rational person. In the war between religion and science, I would always side with science. In the realm of faith and reality, I would bow down to reality. And finally in the bastion of good and evil, I would always find entertainment in the latter. Anything and everything that stepped out of the realm of scientific normalcy was something I strayed far from. So when you considered yourself the sanest and most sensible person alive, and when you’ve been exposed to a Demon like Eclipse, there was no question that the core of your existence would be shaken to its foundation.
This was exactly how I felt all throughout the night and into the next morning . . .
While my plump middle-aged professor droned on and on in our Financial Markets class about God knows what, I found my mind wandering as I stared out the window and observed the scene before me. Torrents of wind and rain thrashed unto the world outside, showing no mercy to the trees that were swaying every which way. Splatters of rain streaked across the bay windows in my classroom, blocking my view of students running across campus.
As I observed the calamitous weather, I found myself possessed by the rainstorm of my own thoughts. I couldn’t shake this ominous feeling—though it could easily be attributed to feeling overdramatic because I now had a Demon stalking me. I thought about Eclipse’s cryptic reply about me being lucky that he didn’t take “no” for an answer. I knew that Demons were notoriously tricky entities—at least from what I gathered from pop culture, folklores, and religious beliefs. I also knew I shouldn’t take what he said at face value. He was obviously trying to scare me into saying “yes” so he could own my soul. I knew all of this, but the chaos outside wasn’t helping to calm the storm brewing within me.
I started scribbling all the notes Professor Cho was writing on the board. This was his lecture for the final chapter before we started reviewing for the upcoming exam. As I took my notes, the only thing at the forefront of my mind was that I was fucked up. I couldn’t help but consider my state of affairs and conclude that I—for lack of better words—had gone bonkers. It continued to baffle me that all of this was happening to me. It was as if I was in a movie with a twisted ending where I was crazy. Perhaps I was at a mental institution right now and completely imagining all of this.
I tentatively pinched myself and sulkily concluded that if I was sane enough to feel pain, then this was reality, not my imagination. Moreover, if I was indeed crazy and imagining everything, I must have been a very dull person. Instead of imagining awesomely fun things, I was imagining myself sitting through an hour of Professor Cho’s boring lectures. Yeah, even a crazy person wouldn’t be boring enough to think of this as her life.
Life wasn’t that simple.
I definitely wasn’t crazy.
Of course, it would be fitting that as soon as I came to that life-changing conclusion, my trigger for another psychotic episode appeared in the nick of time to further muddle with my already screwed up life.
“You humans are such foolish creatures.”
I nearly fell off my chair when I turned and saw the spawn of Satan sitting beside me.
He wore a long-sleeve white dress shirt with light gray pants. He had one hand suspended over the empty chair beside him and the other hand hung down while holding his cigarette. His back was leaning against the chair while his diamond Rolex flashed my eyes every time he brought the cigarette up to his lips. His head was tilted back to allow the cloud of smoke to lazily escape from his mouth. It was a difficult thing for me to admit, but Eclipse was looking glorious, sinful, and yummy as ever.
“What are you doing here?” I prompted in a whispered hiss, shocked at his sudden appearance in my class and disturbed with my indiscriminate attraction towards him. Positively gorgeous or not, no one bugged me in class. This Demon was not going to be let off the hook just because he was aesthetically pleasing to the eyes.
I distinctly recalled him saying that his allure was only potent for a person who was weak-willed. With that thought in mind and my pride intact, I exercised some semblance of self-control. I would not allow his ungodly good looks to cloud my judgment. I wasn't an inexperienced human girl who was ignorant to the existence of Demons anymore; I was now an enlightened human girl. I refused to be the same brainless bimbo he first met.
I was ready for him now.
I may have been a doormat and a pushover with my fellow human beings, but I was planning to be a force to be reckoned with in relation to Demons.
First order of business: Get him out of my class.
“This is ridiculous. You have to leave right no—”
I was in the process of telling him to leave me alone when I suddenly felt stares descend upon me.
I froze.
Despite my own frenetic heart instructing me not to, I turned back and stared down the lecture hall. I was thunderstruck to find that all heads were turned up and peering in my direction. The seats around me were unoccupied by their owners who deemed it unnecessary to get out of bed for an 8:00 A.M. class. Because of this, I had the row to myself today. This meant that when people stared up, they were looking at me and only me.
The worst part was that they were all looking at me like I was some wacko on acid, like they couldn’t see the Demon beside me.
A realization clicked in my mind. It didn’t take me long to grasp the predicament I was in.
Eclipse was invisible.
I was the only one who could see him.
This was why everyone was staring at me like I was a looney tune.
This . . . is not good, I thought glumly just before Professor Cho’s voice interrupted my thoughts.
“Is there something wrong, Ms. Hwang?” It was obvious by Professor Cho’s voice that he was pissed off at me for disturbing the class. My classmates rarely paid attention to him and he did not appreciate me competing for their attention with my sudden outburst.
“N-n-no, no, sir,” I stuttered quietly, blushing while I nervously played with my phone. “I-I-I’m sorry. There’s nothing wrong. Please c-c-continue.”
Although I was horrified that everyone heard the peep I made, I was relieved that my classmates were still half-asleep. Instead of thinking I was talking to an imaginary friend, I was sure, by the way they were eyeing the phone in my hands, they assumed that I was having a phone conversation. I never thought I would say this, but thank God this was such a boring class. The Demon beside me was driving me crazy, but I did not need my whole class to see it unfold.
Casting me a final glare of warning to not be rude again, Professor Cho resumed with his lecture and the lethargic eyes of my classmates shifted away from me.
I silently fumed to myself from the embarrassment I experienced. I glowered at Eclipse with the utmost hatred. Instead of reacting to the death glare I bequeathed onto him, he casually went on with his thoughts. He leisurely ignored the fact that I looked like a complete nutcase in class and could have been hauled out in a straitjacket.
“I mean, your lives are so short, yet you spend the majority of your time doing things that you don’t want to do. Going to school when you’d rather travel the world, working at jobs you hate, dealing with people you dislike, and chaining yourselves to lives you detest instead of giving yourselves the freedom to enjoy what's left of your fleeting lives before the end comes.” He smirked, pulling his cigarette away from his lips. He exhaled the smoke before leaning forward onto the desk. He shifted so close to me that I could feel the sexual heat roll off him. Seduction sparkled in his enthralling eyes. “Such a waste of time if you ask me.”
“Why are you here?” I mumbled, this time covering my mouth with my hand to fake a cough. I couldn’t risk garnering attention and getting reprimanded by Professor Cho again.
He chuckled, amused by my efforts to disguise my response. “Giving you what other humans could only dream of: a chance
at a life you’ve always wanted—the world on its knees.” His voice then grew low and serious. He regarded me with an expectant expression. “Have you made your decision, Gracie?”
“It’s nine in the morning!” I hissed under my breath, still covering my mouth to subdue my voice. My glare took on a more venomous quality. “Don’t I at least get a twenty-four-hour deliberation period before you pester me again?”
“A twenty-four-hour deliberation period would require patience on my part,” he replied, unfazed by my toxicity. A playful glint touched his eyes when he extended a hand out. He placed it over my hand on the table and began to draw lazy circles on my skin. Butterflies warmed up every part of my body. “Patience isn’t one of my virtues, especially when it involves you.”
“This is so inappropriate. This isn’t the time,” I retorted, pulling my hand away from his caress. I was outraged. I couldn’t believe there was a Demon trying to convince me to give him my soul while I was trying to take notes in class. There should be some professional bylaws that prohibited Demons from bothering full-time students while class was in session. It was completely unprofessional and downright rude!
“It’s time when I say it is,” he countered unyieldingly, his expression faintly unhappy that I pulled my hand away from him.
My own patience trickled away.
“Fine, you want my answer? The answer is hell no. There. You got your answer. Can you go away now?”
Eclipse laughed, shaking his head while taking another puff of his cigarette.
“You always make bad decisions,” he muttered under his breath, staring wistfully down at the classroom.
My venomous eyes turned to him in fury. “Excuse me?”
“The world is in a global recession. Out of all the concentrations to pick, you chose finance? Smart strategic move, Gracie.” I didn’t miss the undercurrent of criticism swimming in his voice. It offended me on all levels. I wasn’t going to get dissed by a Demon without properly defending myself and my choices in life.
“The global economy was fine when I picked my concentration a couple of years ago,” I snarled in defense. I felt like I was talking to my nonexistent parents rather than with a Demon who was trying to seduce me, bed me, and take my soul away from me. I knew he was purposely trying to piss me off because I had just rejected him, but I couldn’t help but defend myself. “It’s not my fault that others screwed up the economy and I’m left to pick up the pieces. If I had known how bad things were going to get, do you really think I would have chosen this?”
He blew out a knowing sigh before carelessly saying, “You should’ve been an accountant.”
“I don’t want to be an accountant!”
“I’m sorry, Ms. Hwang, am I interrupting your phone call?!”
Professor Cho’s angry voice came into the mix, causing me to freeze in horror.
Beside me, Eclipse gave me the “you-should’ve-reacted-more-quietly” look. I knew I should’ve been thankful Professor Cho was under the impression that I was having a conversation on the phone as opposed to one with an invisible Demon. I should’ve been relieved, but I didn’t feel that lucky.
“I-I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m done,” I stuttered shamefully. My cheeks turned a million shades of red as I kept my head down. I had always been shy and introverted; so anytime I received this type of negative public attention, I found it difficult to keep eye contact. Needless to say, I had never wanted class to end sooner.
Once Professor Cho resumed his lecture, I tried to ignore Eclipse for the remainder of class. I was livid and wanted nothing more than to give him a big piece of my angry mind. Alas, there was a time and a place for everything. A college classroom was not the place to berate a troublemaking Demon.
Eclipse did not make my endeavor to ignore him easy. He wanted my attention and he would do just about anything to get it.
“I could turn him into a toad for you.”
“Don’t you dare,” I snapped at him long moments later.
Flipping through the pages of the textbook to make my notecards, I hoped Eclipse got the point that I was angry with him. I came to discover that he actually thought I was quiet because I was too afraid of Professor Cho to make another peep. I imagined he didn’t like how Professor Cho spoke to me and embarrassed me in class. Truthfully, I didn’t like being embarrassed either. Regardless, I didn’t need a Demon to turn my professor into a toad, considering it was his fault I got in trouble in the first place.
With a sigh of adherence to my order, Eclipse slouched in his seat in boredom. From the corner of my eye, I could see him watching me as I scribbled the new concepts onto my flashcards to study later.
“I really hoped that you would agree to give me your soul.” His voice was filled with disappointment, like I had done something wrong.
“Well, I didn’t,” I mumbled. I did not bother to look up at him. I was too afraid Professor Cho would catch me and put me on blast again.
“I didn’t want to do what I’m about to do.”
My heart stopped.
“What?” I asked, finally lifting my head up to face him with startled eyes. The seriousness of his voice frightened all the molecules that made me human. “What are you going to do to me?”
Eclipse glanced at my notecards and gave me an apologetic smile. Just as Professor Cho ended class and announced he was going to pass out the graded projects we turned in several weeks back, Eclipse was gone.
I was suddenly left to drown in a vortex of fear and uncertainty with his absence.
The memory of what he said the night prior replayed in my mind: “You should know that Demons are known to be very persuasive creatures. You should also know that if I want something, then I always get it.”
What was he going to do? What was he going to do to me?
The answer to that question came in the form of the biggest calamity I could imagine.
Strutting up to my row with a stack of projects he had graded, Professor Cho mindlessly slipped mine onto my desk. My world crashed all around me when I saw my paper and the blasphemous grade on it: F.
I couldn’t breathe.
I just couldn’t breathe.
My eyes were nearly bulging out of my sockets in disbelief.
What was this?
What the fuck was this?
I did not care about many things in life. However, I took matters pertaining to my academic career very seriously. I had never seen any letter on my grade report other than an A. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the F. I mean, I wasn’t even one of those jerks who didn’t need to study to get good grades! I wasn’t that intellectually inclined. I studied my butt off and worked hard to earn my A’s.
This was why I couldn’t fathom the F on my paper.
Oh my God.
I knew who was behind this.
Eclipse.
That evil Demon just gave me an F!
“Professor Cho, there’s a mistake!” I shouted like I had just witnessed a murder. “This is a mistake!”
I stood up indignantly, watching as my classmates began to scan over their projects in an expectant manner, accepting that the grade on their paper reflected their efforts. It was only me. It was only me who received the grade she didn’t deserve. Normally, I would be too spineless to stand up for myself, but this was my grade—my future! I couldn’t leave class without getting it corrected.
I gaped down at Professor Cho, finally making eye contact with him. He stood five rows below me, staring at me in nonchalance.
“Professor Cho! Please, sir. You gave me the wrong grade.”
“No, Ms. Hwang,” Professor Cho replied airily, clearly expecting me to react this way. He finished passing out the last of the projects to my fellow classmates before turning his full attention to me. “This is no mistake. The objective of the project was to find fifteen real-life examples that would be applicable to the concepts that were taught in the curriculum. In addition to the writing portion, there were also mathematical equati
ons and graphs that accounted for 70% of the grade. You’ve not only neglected to give any applicable real-life examples, but you’ve also answered every single equation wrong.”
I feverishly scanned through my project in dismay. I thought I was about to have an aneurysm when I saw that my project was the crappiest project I had ever seen. My explanations and written responses not only sucked, but my numerical equations—all in my own handwriting—were all incorrect. Everything was wrong. Sadly, the irony of this entire thing was that if given the opportunity right now, I could easily solve all the equations without breaking a sweat!
“Professor Cho, can we please just talk about this—?”
“Truthfully, Ms. Hwang,” Professor Cho interrupted rudely, “I was surprised at your project. You’re usually so on point with your work. Alas, after seeing your behavior today, perhaps if you spent less time talking on the phone in class, then your next project won’t be as . . . disappointing.”
I clamped my mouth shut, feeling like Professor Cho had slapped me with his chiding comment. I sadly watched him turn away from me and exit the classroom. I realized now that any argument for the betterment of my grade was futile because I finally saw the big picture.
Eclipse appeared in this class on purpose. He wanted me to talk to him and make it appear as if I was being a bad student and slacking off in class. He planned all of this, probably knowing that Professor Cho would be more inclined to work with me to help resolve the issue of my grade if I was quiet in class all day. Since I “disturbed” class twice, I was on Professor Cho’s bad side, thereby meaning that this grade on my report was no longer negotiable. It was permanent.
Eclipse. Fucking Eclipse did this.
Mortified with my grade and embarrassed to be standing in class with my peers who all probably got better grades than me, I dejectedly gathered my things, deposited them into my bag, and ran down the stairs in my white heels like I was a cheetah on steroids.
I had to find Eclipse. I couldn’t let him get away with doing this to me. He had to fix this.
I was already rehearsing in my mind a bunch of things I wanted to dramatically say to him: from cursing at him, to telling him I hated him, to telling him he was the most horrible person in the world. There were many scenarios playing in my head, but all of it came to a screeching halt when, while running down the stairs, I somehow missed a step and—