Not a Hero, Not a Villain

Chapter 1: The Dark Cloak of Turtle Mode

Chapter 1: The Dark Cloak of Turtle Mode

    “Ark! Get your lazy butt out of bed and help me with this demon!” This is not how I wanted to begin my day, but of course, I don’t get a choice when it comes to my brother. I wonder if he is aware of how weird it is that he so quickly adapted to this crazy new world. Perhaps I should explain what I’m talking about first.

    My name is Arkantos Naevris. Yes, I am aware of how weird my name is. I am about six feet tall with dark brown eyes, black hair, and no sign of being athletic whatsoever. My birthday is June 25, and I am sixteen years old. I was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. It was great until my world was turned upside down, inside out, backward, and then throw around just for good measure. The only people I trust in this world are my brother, Theodore, and my best friend Kayla. They have been with me all of my life. Sadly, with the life I live, that may not last much longer.

    You may be asking, “Well what happened to your world?” I wish I could explain that in a few sentences, but I can’t. To explain why my life is in danger, I have to take you back three months ago. This is the story of the end of the world, the demon apocalypse, and, most of all, me.

    The end of the world started on a Monday. Is there any other day of the week it could end? When that Monday began, I thought it would be as bad as any other Monday, but of course not. It was so much worse than any other Monday. I should have noticed the storm brewing. Maybe if I had this all could have been avoided on my part. 

    I walked to school like every other day. Somehow, I drew the short stick on friends. Neither I nor Kayla knew how to drive. So I was forced to walk the mile to my school. Thinking back on it, I really could have waited for the bus instead of subjecting myself to that. Halfway through my walk, Kayla came running out of her house to join me. I noticed she wasn’t wearing her usual sweatshirt today and commented, “Did you finally decide to ditch the Dark Cloak of Turtle Mode?” She wrinkled her nose and stuck her tongue at my remark about her favorite black sweatshirt then replied, “No, but my mom hid it. She says I need to wear more attractive clothes if I ever want to get a boyfriend. Why would I want one of those? Guys are nasty and they only want one thing: food.”

    I chuckled at that and shook my head at her. I spoke with a mocking parental tone. “Excuse me, young lady. It is not appropriate to call people nasty because of their gender. I happen to be a guy myself and I don’t eat a lot.” Another chuckle escaped me when I caught her looking at herself in the reflections of house windows. I sighed and patted the 5’5” girl’s head. “Don’t worry about how you look. If you try to attract guys with your looks you’ll only attract the wrong kinds. Now let’s hurry up before Mrs. Rust decides to make us recite the capitals of Asian countries. I heard she did that to Tony, and when he got them wrong she sat him in front of the class with a map.”

    Kayla swatted my hand away and rearranged her scarlet hair that I messed up. She hates when I do that, so I only do it more often. Then she looked toward the school and sighed. Her voice was almost a whisper when she spoke. “One day we’ll escape this hellhole and go somewhere nobody has heard of Johnson High School. Until then, please stop getting into fights. Your mom gets on me when I don’t stop you from coming home with another broken nose every week.”

    I held up my hands as a sign of innocence and said defensively, “I don’t do that every week! And anyways, Owen deserved it. I heard him calling you a runt and only I get to make fun of your height. He also dumped ranch on my food at lunch. You know I hate having my food messed with.” That last part was the only part of that entire dialogue that was true. In fact, Owen had simply given me a dirty look for accidentally hitting on his girlfriend, so I showed him his place in the food chain. But I wasn’t about to admit to Kayla, who is like a sister, that I was jealous of Owen Hope. Nope. That won’t happen in a million years.

    Once we reached the school, Kayla and I headed for Geography with Mrs. Rust. I had to stifle a groan when the bell rang a second before I could walk in the door before Kayla. Somehow Mrs. Rust managed to appear in front of me before I could finish stepping through the door. “Hello, Mr. Naevris. Could you please explain to me why you’re late to my class again?” She clicked her tongue and her wrinkled face glared at me as if I had just stolen her car. 

    I shrugged and stepped around the short woman, ignoring her protests. I had been up late the night before working on an assignment for this woman, and I wasn’t about to let her keep ruining my mood. What was she going to do? Throw me out of school for being a second late? That would make for an interesting explanation to the principal. Once she gave up on trying to send me to the office, I sat in my seat next to Kayla and waited for class to begin.

    Kayla leaned over to me and whispered angrily, despite the smile on her face, “If you keep doing that you’re going to get in a lot of trouble eventually.” I shrugged and was about to respond when there was a loud explosion in the room across the hallway. All at once, everyone rushed over to see what was happening. I was the only one still in my seat to notice the man in a black sweatshirt running past the window. This was the first time I saw a demon.

A/N Hey guys! I'm sorry for the short intro. I promise chapters will be longer after this. Thanks for reading and watch for the next update which will be coming soon!