I couldn’t sleep so like any sane person I went to a cemetery.

Alice’s words kept circling around my head, “Lucius is a problem solver.” There’s no doubt about it, she was testing me. And she was using this Jessica situation as a kind of exam.

So yes, I visited one of the town’s cemetery in order to snag a ghost that might have some interesting powers.

There are no guards around, so I don’t need to worry about being caught. I look at my phone for what time it is now. 3 AM. I better hurry here. The other to graveyards didn’t have interesting ghosts. I hope this one is going to be the place I get lucky.

The ghosts as usual ignore me as I walk from tombstone to tombstone, after all they think that I can’t see them.

Benjamin follows closely behind me. I finally make my way to the centre of this whole place. Now time to get everyone’s attention.

“LISTEN UP YOU BUMS! IF YOU WANT A SECOND CHANCE TO LIFE THEN MY MASTER HAS A PLAN FOR YOU!” shouts Benjamin, all the ghosts turn to face him.

If I shouted like that, I’d probably attract unwanted attention from the living. Who knows if there’s some weird person hanging around here who would have called the cops after that shout. But since Benjamin is a ghost, only ghosts can hear him.

“Really? I’d do anything for that,” one woman says to me. Her head was bloody as though she was in a bad accident.

Obviously, I couldn’t resurrect any of them here, at least not yet. The least I can do is finish up errands they want done in this world. According to Benjamin, ghosts remain in this plane only when they have a strong attachment to the world that prevents them from moving to the other side.

“Do you have any powers you can show me?” I ask her.

“Powers? I don’t know what you mean.”

Why are ghosts always clueless over their powers?

“I’ll give you part of my life force, just do whatever comes natural to you.”

My hand goes through her arm. Next, I send a good amount of life force in her direction and watch what happens.

The woman in front of me then closes her eyes, the grass around her feet begin to grow taller. The grass grows a full arm’s length before stopping.

I guess she can make grass grow. Impressive.

“Next,” I say waving her off.

“Please! You can’t just leave me like this. I don’t know what to do here.”

“You’re holding up the line, lady.”

“Please, young man. At least talk to my husband. He’s been depressed ever since the accident and blames himself for it. I want to tell him that I don’t believe it was his fault.”

“Soul Banishment!” the woman flies off to space by the force of my will. Good riddance, I don’t need a sappy sad story. She must go find some psychic or medium to talk to. Unfortunately for her, most of them, if not all, are fake. Not my problem though.

“What’s up, kid?” this big biker guy with tattoos all over his body approaches me. I can see several gunshot wounds on his chest.

“What’s your power?”

“From what I can tell, I can affect electronics, especially smartphones.”

“Interesting. What affect do you have over them?”

“I can switch them on and off.”

“Next!”

Look, I need a power with practical use. Something that could cause damage to Jessica and cause her to bleed so I can collect her blood.

“Look here, punk. Do you know who the fuck I am? My Boys will kill everyone you love if they found out you refused to help me. You better do as I tell you.”

A tough guy. Unfortunately for him, I don’t have love ones. I raise my hand to do another Soul Banishment.

This biker suddenly goes down on his knees, “I’m sorry for calling you a punk. Give me a second chance. I’m sure my powers could develop into something interesting. Just think about it, you could rob a bank or something if I can shut down the security system. Help me out here kid and I’ll repay you tenfold.”

Interesting, but not interesting enough.

“Soul Banishment!”

The guy skies off the cemetery, far away that I can’t see where he lands up in.

“Good day, sir,” says a little boy. Probably around the age of seven.

“Good day to you too, so what’s you power?”

“I don’t know.”

Okay, let’s see what powers he has. I give him part of my life force. But nothing happens.

“I don’t understand, sir,”

“I think you don’t have any powers. Sorry.”

“Please, sir. Help me, I miss my family,” his eyes water up.

I think I know this kid.

“Where you not kidnapped?”

The boy nods. I remember seeing missing posters of him around the town. Police say the last time that this boy was seen was when he got in a suspicious yellow pickup truck. Unfortunately, the witness didn’t get the license number.

I can see bruises around his face, arms and legs.

“I’m sorry but I can’t help you.”

I say to him, with a reassuring smile. No powers, no help. I know that sounds callous but that’s life. If anything, the world has taught me it doesn’t care about you and does not owe you anything. Thus I too owe nothing to everyone else. I’m a slave to a vampire, who’s going to be my hero? The world is not a just place, the sooner this kid learns that the better.

“Please!” he cries.

Okay, I see a civil discussion isn’t going to pan out. Thankfully I got my trusted whip with me.

I raise my hand in front of him, ready to banish this kid out of here.

“I’ll go away. Sorry for bothering you,” the kid says walking away from me, his head slumped in disappointed.

“Young Master, don’t you think you were harsh on the child?” asks Benjamin next to me.

I stare at the boy as he walks away from me. I think I was around that age my parents died. The kid should just pass on, forget about his relatives here and move on with his new life.

“Next!” I say, ignoring Benjamin.

I spend the next hour and a half going through the ghosts in this cemetery. All their powers were useless for my cause; some had abilities to make water ripple, others could cause another living person to tear up or my favourite useless abilities was one that could cause involuntary bowel movement.

Just as I am about to leave, admitting defeat, I find an unexpected ghost in front of me.

“Ms Johnson?”

“My child, it’s been a while since you lasted visited me,” she says smiling at me.

Ms Johnson is my next-door neighbour, the old lady that complements my ‘handsome face’.

“You’re dead?”

“I believe so. An accident while trying to fix a faulty wire in my apartment. I should have just hired an electrician,” she sighs, rubbing her hands as though she felt cold. Even though she was over 80 years old, she still looked younger than you would expect. Her brown skin looked as though someone in their mid-40s. And she was always active while alive. I don’t believe she missed one of her daily walks. But I haven’t been keeping track of her due to me being quite busy, dealing with Alice and my uncle’s body has been taking much of my time.

“So, child, can you help me out?” she asks with a worried look.

“That depends what kind of powers you have. I know I’m coming off as a jackass but I have to finish an important task. I can’t go helping everyone I meet. Even you, Ms Johnson.”

“I understand, child. I’ve always taught my daughter to not be a nuisance to others. There’s no such a thing as a free lunch. But if it turns out that I don’t have a special power to assist you, can you at least call the ambulance to inform of my death.”

“Fine, I guess. Let’s see what you got.”

After giving Ms Johnson part of my life force, I watched her do her stuff. Sparks spring around her.

She can produce electricity. That’s excellent, with that we can stun Jessica into an unconscious state and I’ll be able to draw out some of her blood to check whether she’s a nephilim.

“You pass, Ms Johnson. For your assistance in my ongoing task, what do you wish for?”

“Can you resurrect me?”

“Nope. You know how advertisements can exaggerate the truth. I can speak to your daughter if you wish.”

Ms Johnson’s eyes wonder around the cemetery until she finds that missing ghost boy who is now wondering aimlessly about the cemetery.

“I really do want to help that child but…”

“If that’s your wish but you can’t ask for anything more.”

She sighs, “I want you to contact my daughter. It’s been years since I last saw her. I want to say my goodbyes to her. If that’s fine with you.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem. All I need from you is to use your powers under my direction. I don’t expect you to question anything I do.”

“Are we going to kill someone? That’s certainly not like you, Lucius.”

“Trust me, Ms Johnson, you don’t know me enough to make that statement. But I don’t plan on killing her. Anyway, let’s get out of here before a guard arrives.”

We arrive back to the apartment and inform the cops of her death. They had to knock down her door to enter her room. She seemed rather hurt that no one had called during those two days. Not her daughter or so called friends. Such is life.

5 AM. The game plan is simple.

I must finish this task with flying colours for Alice, least she shows me the other side of her I don’t want to know. The plan is simple, we’re going to electrocute Jessica before the game, preferable at school. Whilst she is unconscious, I swoop in and stab her with the crystal blade. Then Benjamin comes to heal the wound and off I go.

“If she’s this thing, you kids call a nephilim,” says Ms Johnson, “wouldn’t she notice something off by being electrocuted?”

She has a point. If Jessica is a nephilim and can detect magic, wouldn’t she notice some magical presence when electricity bolts out of nowhere towards her direction?

So we need her to be quite distracted first and therefore not notice the bolt going in her direction.

“Wouldn’t it be more preferable if we did while she is doing the cheerleader performance?” asks Benjamin.

I don’t want to go to the bloody football game.

“Too many people there. Therefore, a lot of witnesses,” I point out.

“How about we wait for her to do her performance routine during halftime. Most people will be gone,” says Ms Johnson. She seems more knowledgeable about football than me. Then again, I don’t find sports particularly interesting.

“Ms Johnson, we still have the problem with her other teammates and there is certainly going to be a medical team during the game. I won’t be able to run to her and get her blood. Unless… you electrocute her so much that some of her blood falls on the ground and I scoop that up. No need to approach her body.”

Benjamin and Ms Johnson nod in unison.

“But it’s too risky, that’s assuming she’s distracted enough during her performance not to notice something strange. There’s also the issue of you, Ms Johnson, being able to deliver a bolt powerful enough to cause some external bleeding but not enough to kill her. I think the more likely outcome is you’ll end up frying her.”

“So what’s the solution?” asks Benjamin.

“Mr Smith. If she’s called into his office, I doubt she’ll be expecting an attack. How about Ms Johnson stuns both Mr Smith and Jessica while they don’t expect it? I’d be able to draw her blood safely from Mr Smith’s office and then call for help afterward. Accidents happen.”

“How are you going to convince Mr Smith to call over Jessica?” asks Benjamin. Ms Johnson stares curiously at me.

“I’ll find a way,” I say confidently at them.

I immediately went back to bed. Sleep is very important. I don’t want to look tired to school today. And so I sleep for just over an hour before being forced to get back out of bed.

I wear the similar type of clothing I usually wear, jeans and a hoodie. This time around, I wear a scarf around my neck to hide the bruising caused by Graham. He’s surprisingly strong. If there are other monsters like him then I need to get strong enough to protect myself. Alice did say she had numerous enemies running around these streets. Some might not be so kind to let me live.

I arrive at school just as the first bell rang. Surprisingly, I see Alice. Doesn’t she think people will find it suspicious that she was in a coma and now she is back to school? We pass each other without saying a word. Just the way I hoped. She didn’t even give me a glance. I guess she’s acting like the way we were before her ‘accident’.

Unfortunately, the first class I have today is no other than maths.

“It brings me great joy to see you well so soon after your accident. If only the rest of your classmates were this dedicated to their time here in high school, everyone would be a genius,” says Mr Rodriguez to Alice.

Alice gives him a short lived smile. Further cementing herself as the ‘Ice Princess’.

“You lazy entitled grubs, I can safely inform you that I wasn’t disappointed in your maths results. The class performed just as badly as I would have expected. I should be disgusted but that would be me expected shit like yourselves to become gold.”

There are a few murmurs after Mr Rodriguez’s comment but no one dares to voice their opposition against him.

“We have two top scorers. Alice and…and Lucius.”

“Who the hell is Lucius?” asks one kid upfront.

This gets some laughs from the other student.

“Lucius Roth, stand so that your classmates can appreciate the work you put in. Be proud of your hard work, it’s not like cheated.”

Reluctantly, I stand up.

“He’s in our class? Never noticed,” someone commented.

Never again will I copy from the highest performer in our grade. That was seriously stupid of me. I take my sit the moment I get the chance. I hate getting that amount of attention.

“That test paper brutally massacred me” says the class clown, Henry.

Everyone laughs, except from Allice and me.

“That’s enough! Here are the top 10 worst performers of this class. You should be ashamed for having brains of Neanderthals,” says Mr Rodriguez as he puts the names of those who did the worse on the board.

I’m not sure if it is allowed to call out the names of the worst performers and how much they scored. Then again, Mr Rodriguez does whatever he wants. Some people love the power they have over others.

The rest of maths is us doing revision and going through the common mistakes we made during the test.

I’m waited for lunch period in order to visit the principal so that we can have our little chat. The rest of our time in maths class is not that eventful

Just as I am about to leave maths class, Alice stops me. Discretely she places a paper note in my hand and then leaves the classroom. Confused, I open the piece of paper:

“Next time make sure to deal with the guards. Graham wasn’t too pleased having to clean up after you – Your Beloved Mistress.”

Guards? She must be talking about the guards who were supposed to be watching over the cemetery. No wonder I didn’t find any. More importantly however, she’s keeping a close eye on me. I guess privacy is something vampires don’t understand.

I shove the piece of paper in my jean pocket and leave. After a few boring classes, lunch period finally arrives. I quickly make my way to the principal’s office. Ready to finish this task bestowed to me by my ‘beloved mistress’.

I knock on the door and hear Mr Smith’s voice telling me to come in.

“Oh, what do you want? If you want more money from me then-”

I interrupt, “I came here to apologise.”

Surprise fills his face.

“Apologise?”

“Yes, sir. I was desperate. And stupid and thought using thuggish means to get my way. Uncle Ethan, he went back to his bad ways again.”

“Is that boy back on those drugs?”

I nod slowly at him, removing the scarf around my neck, “Last night, he came home drunk. It was actually my fault for being a worthless nephew. I should not have used your money for rent but he was angry when he found out. Took out his anger at me. I was trying to help our home situation, but he took it as an insult that he couldn’t provide for us.”

Mr Smith stands, starring at the bruises caused by Graham, “I didn’t know. I should immediately call your social worker. This is totally unacceptable”

“No sir, there’s no need. It will only get worse if you take action. He does this every so often. I was just careless.”

Now Mr Smith had guilt in him “Can you call over Jessica? I want to see her face to face so that I can apologise for the blackmail. I’m also prepared to hand myself over to the police. I deserve o be punished for my actions”

“There’s no need, Lucius.”

“Please, sir! I can’t live with myself. I just feel awful; I think I need this in order to quench my conscious. And the first step is apologising not only to you but also to Jessica. Please, call her over.”

I secretly motioned for Ms Johnson to get ready to deliver the strike when Jessica arrives. That’s when I noticed something amiss. The air around this office felt oppressing, as though I was under a water pressure container. More importantly, Benjamin and Ms Johnson were not beside me. They seem unable to get inside the office. As though some barrier was stopping them. Now thing about it, this feels like the time I entered Alice’s family mansion.

“Well, I haven’t told her about all of this.”

Of course he didn’t. Spineless. But I still need to have her here.

“That doesn’t matter, at least seeing her and apologising wild be enough. I can just apologise without telling her what for. You have to understand, Mr Smith, that this is larger than the both of us. You can’t be thinking about your skin when I’m trying to right my wrongs.

Mr Smith reluctantly checks his phone.

“She’s going to be absent for school today but will be come back for the football game. She got a bite mark some time ago, so she’s feeling under the weather.”

Is she recovering from Alice’s attack or something? But her coming over is paramount. I must do finish this task by today.

“Could you please tell her that I need to meet with her in private.”

Mr Smith looks really uncomfortable.

“I’ll see what I can do. You should at least talk to the school’s therapist,” he says to me

“I want to take my time to sort things out. I hope you understand.”

He nods.

“I’ll see you later, sir. Again, I apologise for my action.”

I close the door behind me. Damn! Is Mr Smith more dangerous than I thought. Either he is some kind of supernatural creature or he has contact with one. This barrier around his office is clearly magical. Hopefully my sad story will get him to a point where he doesn’t want to kill me or at least stop being antagonistic to him. I should be careful who I choose to show my other side to from now on.

“The plan was almost perfect. I guess we need to go with plan B,” says Benjamin.

“Any good plan must take into account unexpected events,” I say to them both.

The rest of lunch period I spend outside, under my usual tree, eating a simple sandwich while watching the rest of the kids here play around. If only every day was like this, just watching other people doing stuff. It’s a bit creepy if you think too hard about it but I’m don’t mean in a voyeuristic way. Just watching life go by is relaxing.

The bell rings marking the end of lunch and on I go to chemistry class. I notice Derrick in the first row desk, he waves at me. I walk past him, giving a nod of acknowledgement. Hopefully he doesn’t think that just because I talked to him last time therefore I’m morally obligated to do so now.

I take a seat at the desk right in the back. That’s when I notice Derrick picking up his bag and walking towards me. He takes the seat next to me.

“I guess you didn’t see me there in front. It’s fine really, I don’t mind being in the back,”

I don’t think he’s that socially inept to not know I wanted to be left alone.

“Yeah, I was on auto-pilot or something,” I respond back, trying to keep my polite persona on.

“Figures. I wish to apologise. I don’t know what got into me. I’m usually not that upfront with strangers,” he says tugging his blond hair. “I wasn’t trying to creep you out or anything but something about you... I’m really bad at this.”

So he was under Alice’s spell. No wonder everyone was looking uncomfortably around me. Shame, why was he the only guy to approach me? Well, he was the closest one to me next so that might explain it. Rebecca is the only girl who launched herself at me. Now thinking about it, Alice’s powers are really powerful.

“It’s fine,” I say to him.

“I feel really bad though,” he laughs awkwardly.

“You don’t have to apologise to me so much, I said it was okay.”

You would swear he was pulling the same stunt I pulled before Mr Smith. However, I can tell he is being genuine.

The intercom comes on:

“The principal would like to wish our senior football team a great match. He’s not going to make the match due to unforeseen events. But we do wish to report that all the tickets to the football game were sold. We thank all those who supported this drive.”

Mr Smith is away. Wait a minute, there are tickets for the football game? Surely they don’t demand such tickets for students.

“Don’t students here get there for free?” I ask Derrick

He snaps out of his worried state, “No. We do get a discount for the ticket price. Were you planning on going?”

“Yes!”

“Hmh, you can always go next time.”

“I can’t. This game is kind of important to me.”

I need to hunt down someone who has a ticket. Maybe I could buy it from them for a higher price. I don’t have money to do such a thing. Well, I can always ask Alice for some cash but I don’t want to feel like I needed her help for this.

“You can take mine,” Derrick says.

“Really?”

He nods, “Sure. If it’s that important to you then you can have it.”

“How much do you want it for?”

“You don’t have to pay me anything.”

“So you’re doing this out of the kindness of your heart?”

He chuckles, “There’s a catch. You have to help out in a soup kitchen my church is organising on Saturday. Just two hours of your time to make the world a better place.”

“Don’t you have a youth club for that or something?”

He grins, looking down at the floor, “There’s no youth club. Father is building a new church.”

“There’s no youth club?!”

“Look, I don’t know what was going over me. Lying is bad but something in me like had to get your numbers.”

He lied? The pastor’s kid lied.

But the most important thing I never asked was whether he was gay. That would also explain why he wanted my numbers so badly. Can Alice’s powers cause an infatuation even towards a gender that you’re not attracted to?

But I can’t ask whether he’s gay. I’d sound like a dick. He could interpret the question as an insult or if he is gay, he could interpret me being against gay people. I can already hear the school throwing terms like ‘homophobic’ at me. I guess I’ll have to ask Alice about the extent of her powers.

“Sure, I guess helping out the poor is the least I can do.” And of course it makes me look good towards society. So people are more likely to trust me. After all, I never said I was an altruist.

Derrick smiles and takes out the ticket.

Now I can look forward watching players kick around a ball. Riveting.