Chapter Fourteen - Bleeding Through

Tyler stood in the viewing area, watching Roxy take charge of the students like they were recruits for the Hunters. He stared as she took each one by the hand and helped them perform standing backflips, his being filling with pride and joy. His gaze slipped from her teaching ability and down to her shorts, his eyes following her smooth legs as they pranced from one student to another. Raising his gaze further up, he glanced at her butt; 'Damn, she looks good!' He thought to himself, allowing his mind to drift off into the sweet relief of imagination. Dreaming of the Prince Accounting mission, from how she smelt, to the feeling in his chest he got when they shifted under the covers, Tyler almost missed Roxy coming straight for him! Instead, she climbed over the bannister separating the two and pounced onto him, wrapping her arm and legs like a Koala!

"Hi!" She sweetly said.

"Hi! Did you have a good time?" He asked as if he was talking to a child.

"It's been amazing! Mrs Ellen ate her words when she saw me perform!" Roxy chuckled and smiled before burying her head in Tyler's chest. "I have an idea for tonight! Let me get changed, and I'll tell you about it!"

Tyler waited, expecting Roxy's grasp upon him to loosen so they could walk together, but she refused to walk.

"Are you not going to get changed?" He asked, confused but with laughter in his voice.

"Carry me, lover boy!" She called, commanding and pointing towards the double doors that led to the changing rooms.

Tyler did as he was told, carrying Roxy like a two-year-old to the changing rooms and letting her down by the door.

"I'll be two minutes!" She called, retreating into the darkroom, leaving Tyler alone and dancing in the flickering overhead light with love flooding through his blood.

He turned in his love-drunk haze and spotted something out of the ordinary through the glass windows of the door leading to the visitor area. There, holding his bloody arm and whining in pain, stood a man donning a light brown jacket and trousers, with a green helmet on his head. Tyler cautiously opened the door, trying to get a better look at the old-fashioned man. He couldn't make out the details of his face, but he looked young.

"Are you okay?" Tyler called, concern in his voice, but the man refused to respond. "Do you need help?" Tyler asked, louder with the hope of the man hearing him this time. But still nothing. Tyler stood through the double doors and tried to get a better look at the man, to no avail. However, when the doors slammed behind him, the man slowly let go of his bloodied arm and turned to face Tyler, his face flickering like lightning from the worn bulb. And that's when Tyler noticed it. The man standing at the other end of the corridor's face was peeling away from the skull. His clothes were tattered and worn, and his arm no longer gave him pain.

In disgust, Tyler turned to run out of the corridor and straight into Roxy's changing room for help, but as he moved one foot closer behind him, the decaying man began to charge.

Frozen in fear, Tyler remained where he stood, unable to move his hand and forced to watch the attacker edge closer and closer, a limp slowing him down.

The man reached out for Tyler with his fingers, which Tyler could now see were mainly bones and strings of ligaments keeping them held together, clawing and snatching closer and closer to his face. In sheer instinct, Tyler covered his face and cowered down, only for nothing to happen. He slowly opened his eyes, adrenaline flooding through his veins, and to his surprise, was blocking the man centimetres from his own body. However, it was not Tyler's arm or even Roxy that had stopped this savaged man from mauling Tyler. Instead, he had summoned a form of a shield, glowing blue, against his arm, which was holding the manic man back. The blue glow allowed Tyler to see the man truly for what he looked like. Its peeling skin revealed sections of his skull, and his jacket bore medals from centuries ago, bloodied and tattered.

As Tyler began to process the situation, his mind began to ache, and his vision became flooded and blurry. Collapsing on the floor, the pain started to disappear almost as soon as it came! Then, cowardly looking up, the decayed man was no longer standing before him, and neither was the shield attached to his arm. In fear, he ran to the girls changing room, not caring about the potential screams and cries from the other students he may cause, only to be met by Roxy, standing in the doorframe and looking at Tyler with worry.

"You look like you've seen a ghost!" She told, helping Tyler up off the floor where he had collapsed in an attempt to escape.

"I-I don't know what that was!" But then started, "It was like some sort of zombie!"

Roxy immediately stood straight and slowly walked to the visitor corridor, ready for a fight, only to find nothing.

She looked at Tyler, confused and concerned, "Tell me exactly what happened. Everything." Her voice was fierce and commanding.

"I was waiting for you, and I noticed something in the corner of my eye. So I went in and saw a man wearing a brown uniform and a green helmet! He looked injured, so I called to see if he was okay, but I got no response. So I turned to leave, and he started charging at me. I bent down in fear, and when I opened my eyes, I blocked him with some shield on my arm! It was blue and felt weird on my arm! But then I saw that he was decayed, like flesh stripped from his face. I had a pain in my head; when it went, he was gone, and so was the shield!"

Roxy laughed at Tyler's apparent silliness and assured him it was nothing.

"What you experienced was the Poppy Root coming through. You had an experience as one of your ancestors. What you conjured was probably something like a magic shield. I wouldn't worry about it. Just let me know if you have anything else like that."

Tyler felt defeated by Roxy's answer but knew she was probably right. "How can we be sure that it was the Poppy Root?" He asked.

"Well, the pain in your head is a sure giveaway, not to mention that magic hasn't been around for centuries. Anyway, about tonight!" Roxy nudged Tyler's arm, reassuring him that he was okay, "How about we do some rooftop hopping?"