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Chapter 11

  I sat on the chair in front of the desk. It had already been half an hour since I'd woken up, but as I looked at Kaisaa, I couldn't bring myself to wake him up. He seemed so peaceful as he slept. It was so cute. Watching him like that reminded me of back when he used to stay at my house. I was always up long before him of course, and even then it was hard to resist watching him. But now I had more important things to deal with. I opened the book back to the page I had marked. "How to Banish a Vampire"

    I studied each page intensely, noting each and every detail listed on the ragged old pages. I'd need all the information I could get if I was seriously going to do this. I would also need help from the old woman, though I wasn't entirely sure she would help us. I had to at least hope, though.

  After I went through the instructions a few times, I looked at the clock, and then back at Kaisaa. We'd have to leave soon. If we waited too long, Aku would come looking for me.

"Kaisaa..." I walked over to him and sat on the bed, gently rubbing his leg. "Kaisaa, wake up." My voice was gentle, but still loud enough to make him stir.

  "Hmmm?" His arms stretched out above his head as he let out a yawn.

    "We have to go soon." I said while softly stroking his cheek.
  "Mmm..." He touched my hand and smiled sweetly. "Okay, I'll get up."
 

  As soon as he was ready we quickly gathered our things and set off to that old shop.

  On our way out, I started filling Kaisaa in on more of the details. "First of all, we'll need to somehow get Aku close enough to the woman for her to be able to cast the spell. Then, she has to say 'ego expello quovis', or something like that, and then we just need to hide him somewhere and run."
    "Just run? Don't you think we should... I don't know... tell his family or something?"
  "Well , we can't just call them up and tell them we banished their brother or son or whatever. I don't really want a whole family of vampires after me."

  He let out a sigh, "Yeah, I guess you’re right."
  "Heh, I just hope this is as easy as it sounds!" I wanted to believe things would go smooth ly and easily, but somehow I knew that wouldn't happen.

  Kaisaa's eyes traveled around the shelves of books and magical objects as we entered Mysticism. It seemed he was just as fascinated as I had been the last time I was there.
  "Sorry Kaisaa, but we have no time for shopping right now." I glanced up at the desk to see the entire back side of a newspaper.

    "I knew you'd be back." The woman's voice echoed around the room as she turned a page.
  "Uh, yeah. We have a question for you."

She set the paper down to reveal her crooked smile.
  "Is that so? I see you've brought a different friend than before."

  "Yes, we need your help... to... get rid of the vampire."
  The smile that was so apparent vanished quickly, and her face become grave. "Young one, why have you resorted to this?"
  "I just need to do this. Please help us."
  "I don't really know if I can."

  "It says we need an experienced magic user though! You're an experienced magic user aren't you?"
  Her face turned red as she let out a giggle. "Oh stop it!"
  "Uhhh...." Kaisaa walked up to stand by me and gave me a quizzical look. "She's the one who can help us. Right?"

I looked back at the old woman, allowing her to answer the question. She remained silent though, raising an eyebrow.

  "Look Kaisaa, she's got a lot of knowledge all right !" I felt the need to defend her.  

  "Sorry." He said before walking off to look at books.
  "I really don't know. The vampire didn't give me any kind of bad aura. I don't see why you want to get rid of him." The old lady said, ignoring our little argument, "Not all vampires are bad, you know. I , myself , have yet to put my own notes in that old book."

  I was confused, and my expression must have shown it, because she continued on in her explanation.

  "You see, I once was in love with a Werewolf."
  "So … you've gone through something kind of like me?"
  "Ah, you admit you like the boy?"

My face felt hot, and I turned to see if Kaisaa had heard that. He hadn't.
  "Well... I might, but I don't know for sure. That has nothing to do with this anyway!"
  "You're very wrong."

  I sighed. " All right , then , will you please tell me what the right thing to do in this situation would be?"
  "Ah, the way you youngsters think! I'll bet you haven't even talked about this with Aku."
  "Well no, I haven't but... wait... how do you know his name?"
    "Whoops, I meant 'your vampire friend'." She said with a wink.

  "But... how did you-"
  "You'll learn in good time! Anyway, talk with him first. And also, be careful. You don't know what may be lurking in the shadows." Her cold expression sent chills down my spine. I knew better than to not listen.
  "Hey, how much is this thing?"Kaisaa broke the silence. We both turned our attention across the room to him. H e was holding up a large purple crystal strung on a silver chain.
  The woman squinted at it."1500 yen... but I'm not sure if you can handle that necklace. "She wrinkled her nose as she examined him.   "I don't approve." Her response surprised me. Kaisaa set the necklace back down, disappointed.

  "Well, anyways," The woman began again, turning back to me, "It seems to me that you are also faced with another decision... a less urgent one, but still very important.

  "What do you mean?"
  "How you feel will determine your whole future. Which path will you choose? The human..." She said glancing at Kaisaa, "or the vampire?" Her question bugged me a little. I'd come here for magic, not love advice.

"Well... I definitely want to be with..." Who did I want to be with? Up until now, I'd always known that I loved Kaisaa. And when I first met Aku, I didn't like him at all. And then I started thinking he was a murderous, soul sucking prick . But now... "I don't know." I said flatly.
  The old woman chuckled, her giant chest bouncing up and down. "Ah, in time it will become clear. But I really don't think such drastic measures should be taken so quickly."
  "Well... okay. I still don't really understand what I'm supposed to do though."
  "If you were listening-"
  "I was!" I exclaimed quickly, inte rrupting her.

  "-then you would know that I think it unwise to banish Aku so quickly. If you come to find that you loved him all along... you may end up very lonely." I could feel my heart pound quickly in my chest as her words cut into me like a razor.
  "There... there's nothing like that between me and Aku!" I said in a harsh whisper, suddenly remembering that Kaisaa was in the same room as me.
  "Well, if you say so... but you may want to warn him before you banish him..." She picked the newspaper she had been reading back up and pushed it towards me.
  I looked at the paper skeptically. The small bold letters that formed the title of the article seemed to jump out at me. The 'Death Queen' Continues on her Massacre .
  "So what?" I pushed the paper back up to her. "I seriously doubt the 'Death Queen', or whatever, is going to come after Aku, or me for that matter." But then I remembered, "Actually, there's something I need to tell you. I was in the library a while ago, looking through your book, and I felt like I was being watched."
  She looked down her nose at me. "Well, that could just be paranoia."
  "Yeah! That's what I said, but Aku made a huge deal-"
  "As I was saying, that could just be paranoia, but given your very... interesting living environment, I suggest you be careful." She said patting the newspaper.
  Her finger rested above the heading. Had the person at the library been the ‘D eath Q ueen ’ ? The thought seemed ridiculous... but now almost possible.
  "Can I trust Aku?" I asked, my mind returning to where it had been before.
  "Aku is young, but very capable. You should know that. He may be a vampire, but his heart is true."
  "Bu-"
  "Haru." I was startled that she used my name, "He can help you."
  I stood there, taking in her advice. " All right . I'll give him another chance."

  I glanced over at Kaisaa, who was now gazing at crystal balls in amazement, "Well, we should probably get going. See ya later, Mrs. uh..." I looked over her shirt for a name tag, but couldn't find one.
  "You can just call me grandma!"
  I raised an eyebrow, "Uh... sure." I said before heading to the exit.

  "We're leaving already?" Kaisaa asked, putting down some junk he was looking at.

  "Yeah, we have some things we need to work out with Aku."

  He sighed, "Fine, but we should really come here more often! This stuff is all so awesome."

  "Yeah, fine." I opened the door, letting Kaisaa out.
  "Be careful!" I stared over at her for a moment then left.

"Okay, Kaisaa. While you were playing with all the toys in the store, I did learn a few things... sort of." I explained to Kaisaa as we walked back to the school. "Aku isn't necessarily evil. So I'm not supposed to make any rash decisions."
  "Hmmm. So we're not going to banish him, I'll assume."
  "Well, we can't totally rule it out yet, but we have to be a little more clear on all of this before we do anything."
  I could tell by the blank expression on Kaisaa's face that it had been pointless bringing him with me. But I guess I just needed somebody to be there with me. Somebody who would listen to me go on about Aku. Even if Kaisaa was a tiny bit of a drag sometimes, at least I was never alone when I was with him.
  "But anyway, what do we..." Kaisaa stopped dead in his tracks. "That's weird. I feel kind of like... I'm being watched or something."

I looked around. One person in particular caught my eye. A woman in a black dress, wearing a black veil, was walking steadily in our direction. She stopped about ten feet away from us, before pulling off her veil, revealing her face. There, standing directly in front of us, was the Death Queen.
  "Haru. I've been watching you, waiting for an opportunity." She said, her voice blunt, lacking any emotion what-so-ever.
  I stood there in shock for a moment. Sweat began to form on the back of my neck. "Y-you're Aku's mother..." She was the woman from the book of notes. The woman I'd been warned about.  

She rolled her eyes at me. "Well, well. Aren't you just a smart one."
I stood there for a moment in sheer terror before I fully understood what was happening. "Kaisaa... run!" I yelled, and we both began sprinting in the opposite direction.
"DISTINCTIO!" The Death Queen bellowed. My knees suddenly buckled, causing me to fly across the road and skid across the pavement. Onlookers now began to panic, calling out for a policeman. All I could do was lay there as she walked over to my frozen body.
"Aww, did that hurt?" She knelt down and put a hand on my shoulder.
"Hey! Don't you dare touch him!" Kaisaa pointed a shaking finger at her.
She looked up at him with a sneer, "Sectilic apurtum."
In an instant, the flesh of Kaisaa's cheek was sliced through, blood pouring out like a waterfall. He began to scream, but quickly put a hand over his mouth to stop.
"Now, we shall leave, my darling." She smiled a wicked, evil grin before whispering in a barely audible voice, "Ego voco vox of bonus quod malum efficio meus bidding. Teleport mihi ut home."
Fear coursed through my body as we both burst into flames, but they were gone quickly, and I was in a whole different place, with the woman who was about to take my life.

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