Invasion

Once the irrelevant girl left, Ray heard the sound of footsteps, as well as voices speaking outside.

Suddenly, a large group of people in black cloaks raided the classroom, slamming the door open and marching to the front.

The teacher was terrified at the sudden invasion of his classroom. He wasn't paid enough for this job and was starting to regret his career path. First, he gets tormented by delinquent teenagers, now these black-clad freaks are taking over his classroom.

In total there were about 11 of them, at the centre of the group, was the Grand Priest with his iconic animal skull mask, who was standing slightly in front of the rest with his arms behind his back.

"You are Ray, correct?" He asked, the tip of his mask pointing directly at Ray.

Ray pointed at himself, grinning goofily, then looked backwards, hoping that there was still a slither of a chance that the Masked man was talking to someone else named Ray. He noticed that the noise in the room had died down and to his surprise, everyone was looking away, pretending to mind their own business. The atmosphere had changed completely from before.

Ray then looked to Jason and Benjamin, who both had their hands in front of their face and heads on their desk, trying to not make any contact with the hooded men.

Ray stared at them judgementally, "What was that about to envying me."

"Sorry man, that was before Satan himself walked in here, no thank you," Jason joked nervously.

Benjamin gave his excuse next. "Yeah bro, that was back when that babe was still around, those guys can take you away for all I care."

"Why am I even friends with you guys?" Ray remarked, turning back to the hooded people.

When he did, he let out a yelp as the Grand Priest was now standing directly in front of his desk, staring him down in the face.

Ray started to panic. He felt like an old person trying to convince the Grim Reaper to let them live a little longer, and he was compelled to think of the reason for why these people were here to begin with.

'Was it the club? Or maybe the girl with the devil mask?' Ray paused.

'Maybe these guys try to silence people who talk about them,' he thought, starting to go pale. "Are they gonna kill me?" He screamed, imagining himself being carried to a guillotine. He covered his eyes and proceeded to shake his head in fear.

The masked man got tired of waiting and placed his gloved palm on Ray's desk. "You don't mind if we borrow this student?" He asked the homeroom teacher.

The teacher had enough, he was tired of being pushed around by sassy teenagers and now these guys. He wasn't going to put up with this farce any longer. "Absolutely not! Who do you people think you are?" he snapped, jumping out of his desk and pointing.

"Apologies, we didn't mean to offend you," the grand priest responded.

The teacher paused: he wasn't used to getting an apology after getting disrespected. He calmed himself down, sighed then returned to his seat and sighed. "I appreciate you saying that, but I still can't let you take him without a good reason, especially if it's against his will."

In his head, Ray was praising his teacher's resilience. He didn't want to be dragged away to be executed.

"What would constitute as a good reason?" the Grand Priest asked.

"If a teacher requests him to go, I would let him," the teacher responded with fatigue in his voice, "now can you leave, you're taking up a lot of my time."

The masked man put his hand below his mask in a thinking position, then restated. "The principal has asked for Ray's presence as he is suspected of destruction of property," the masked man said deceptively.

Ray interjected, "no that's a blatant lie, there's no way he'd fall for that"

"As Ray said, you can't just tell me that and expect me to believe it without proof," the teacher responded.

"Proof? My apologies, I should have realised sooner. There is indeed proof of his misdeeds."

Ray interjected again. "And where is this proof Mr animal mask?" He asked smugly

The Grand Priest's gloved palm that was laying on the desk slowly twisted 90° where the side of his hand was facing the surface.

Suddenly, in an instant, his arm effortlessly smashed through Ray's desk, chopping it in half. Ray watched in horror as his beautiful desk got obliterated in a single strike. "My desk!" He screamed, horrified.

The teacher sat there speechless. He wrongly assumed from the way that this man spoke formally that he was different from the other aggressive students that he encountered. And now the school property had to pay for his mistake.

"Jeez, what the heck kind of trouble did you get into in block 5 Ray," Jason commented, then put his hand up. "Hey sir, isn't this getting kind of out of hand? Sir?"

It was no use as the teacher's soul had left his body in shock. He was lying in his chair with his eyes completely white.

"Woah, is he dead?" Jason asked Benjamin, who then proceeded to point at Ray in response, causing Jason to turn to look at Ray. "Not you too man."

Ray entered a state of zen. He couldn't take the tragic death of his desk and was now slumped in his seat, smiling at the ceiling. He accepted his fate, knowing that he couldn't overpower these people, especially after that display of strength.

To add salt to the wound, the masked man started speaking to the teacher, despite the fact that he was unconscious. "As requested, we of the Devil's Garden will now take custody of this hooligan," he declared. "And graciously pay for the damages that he has caused," He added reluctantly.

After saying this, two hooded students grabbed Ray's despondent body by his arms and then one by one, the intruders exited the classroom with the Grand Priest being the last one as he felt compelled to leave a final message. "Apologies for the inconvenience," He said, slamming the door behind him, leaving the whole class with blank expressions.