Crossfire.9.

Ryan
I was worried about Anna on her first day at school, but I needn't have been. By the time I met up with her for second lesson, she was overjoyed. She sat next to me for science, and completely ignored the teacher, instead telling me all that had happened. Fortunately I learned how to listen to two people at once, as I'd grown up with my mum and her sister who constantly argued, and so I was perfectly able to hear both Anna and the teacher.
Anna told me all about how she met her friend James - who she hadn't remembered until he'd called her 'Angel' while they were in form. He had said that all the angels thought she was dead, killed by the HellHound, and that currently the demons had blocked all communications to and from heaven, as well as the demons shooting down any angel who attempts to reach heaven. He hadn't told her what her real name was though, which seemed odd to me. She'd told me it was because he was 'Protecting her' but what sort of protection is keeping her in the dark? It didn't make sense.
I listened to her for a while, and after about twenty minutes she was finished telling me. By this point the teacher was directing us to collect laptops to work on, so I got both myself and Anna a laptop. Once I'd pressed the button to turn hers on, I realised that in all the time I'd spent teaching her how to act like a normal teenager, and explaining certain things - such as why many students in school didn't listen (which she couldn't understand) and television (which was a foreign concept to her, and watching it was a new experience) - I hadn't actually told her how to use these things. Like how to work a laptop. Or how to complete work in science.
However, she seemed to pick it up relatively quickly. Every so often Mrs Palmer would check on Anna - to 'see how she was doing' - and Mrs would find Anna breezing through the questions with obvious ease. I warned her off this after a while, though, in an effort to try and not gain as much attention. Which would be difficult, considering she was both new to the school and very pretty.
And yet she didn't seem fazed. When anyone made a joke at her, she laughed, and they seemed mesmerised. Nasty comments she waved away with a flick of her hand, metaphorically, and yet the insulter would still fall silent. Probably because her stare was like ice.
At the end of the lesson, Mrs Palmer decided to ask everyone a question about the science work before they could leave. However, she decided to leave Anna and me to answer last, as though sparing Anna from embarrassment should she not know the answer.
"What happens in a monohybrid cross?" She asked, giving Anna a fairly simple question.
Without missing a beat, she replied "Where two plants or animals, which differ in only one gene, are bred together."
Mrs looked surprisingly pleased. "Wow!" she said, before saying "A Homozygous gene is...?"
"When two alleles are the same."Anna said easily.
Mrs smiled widely. "What is the name of the enzyme that can extend a cell’s life, by subverting the 'normal' aging process in which telomeres shorten with each division of a cell?" It was nothing we'd ever learned about, way above our level - obviously made to confuse Anna. Maybe it was meant to be a joke. Mrs Palmer was that sort of teacher, after all.
But Anna knew the answer immediately. "Telomerase." She said confidently.
I swear Mrs's mouth literally fell open into an 0 shape.
We left the class, as it was now break-time, leaving Mrs to gawp after us. As soon as we were sat at the table Erin and I frequently used, I began whispering to Anna.
"You can't do that!" I told her.
"Why not?" she said, looking confused.
"Because your supposed to be a human teenager! They wouldn't know those answers!"
This made her pause. "Really?"
"Yes!" I whispered.
"But I thought schools were where human teenagers learned?!" She asked.
I nodded. "They are. But they learn from what teachers teach them everyday. And the questions you answered are too advanced for our age."
She thought for a moment. "Wouldn't that be a good thing?" She asked.
"Yes, but it's unexpected. It makes you more noticeable, and considering your...predicament, that isn't a good thing." I told her.
At that moment, Erin sat beside Anna, ending our whispered argument/conversation/thing.
I smiled up at Erin, who seemed to think nothing of our whispering. Not that I was complaining, but it seemed...odd. Erin was normally very inquisitive - sometimes she came across as nosy, though she isn't. Just curious. So why she didn't say anything confused me.
A few minutes later, as we were in the middle of a conversation - which was, for some reason, about what cheese was the best - a random guy sat next to Erin. We fell silent. I recognised the guys face, but it took me a second to remember. Anna had, however, remembered immediately, from the expression on her face. He was the HellHound.
He smiled, and wrapped an arm around Erin. She had gone pale, as though she might faint, though why she might be afraid I didn't know. Anna was practically growling with anger.
"Hey, Erin! Remember me?" he grinned. He then paused to whisper something in Erin's' ear, causing her to shiver. He leaned away from her to laugh heartlessly.
Anna stood, slowly. She raised her hand to point at the HellHound, and whispered, in a voice as quiet and cold as ice "I will have my revenge, creature. The floor will run with your blood, as it should have done then."
"And I shall have mine, too. Your kind were so high and mighty Anna," He broke off to laugh at her name "But what have you become? Hiding, lying? They would be ashamed. You can't even remember who you are. You are worse than he was." He snarled, as he stood too. The two of them moved away from the table, and stood facing each other in front of me and Erin - who looked positively mortified. I wondered what she knew.
"You have no reason to speak about him like that." Anna hissed. She sounded deadly. And angry.
"Oh? And why ever not?" He said in a clipped way, pronouncing each word carefully as though it might break on his tongue.
"Because he was my brother. And you murdered him." To her credit, her voice didn't shake as I was expecting it to.
The demon clapped, slowly and deliberately. He seemed very theatrical. "Yes, and how valiantly you defended him." He paused for a second, and ceased clapping. "Wait, I forgot. You didn't." He laughed in her face as he spoke the last sentence.
With a shriek of pure rage, she shoved him away from her, the force of it causing him to fall over a table behind him. He stood easily, still smiling. "Violence won't forgive what you did, Anna. He is ours now."
"How dare you!" She screamed at him, and I suddenly noticed that everyone in the dining room had shut up and turned around to watch and listen to the two new kids - who obviously knew each other - have an argument. For all the gossips, it must've been riveting.
I stood, and slowly walked towards Anna. I held out my hands in front of me, and when I was beside her I pulled her arm. She refused to move, and completely ignored me. I whispered to her "Come on, Anna. You need to calm down, or you'll kill him here in front of everyone."
She looked at me, and nodded - and only now could I see the tiny tears welling in her eyes. I led her to the doors leading into the hallway, and behind us the demon shouted "He is ours!"
She didn't turn back, though I saw the tears begin to spill onto her cheeks.