They called my Mom.
I should have guessed that they would, but I just didn't know what to expect since this was the first time I'd ended up inside the principal's office for something like this.
I had ran in the hall, that was true.
But lying about Cindy having drugs was a lie, and I was surprised how quickly she had lied to Mr Robinson, barely five minutes after she left.
Being slandered was the least of my problems since hitting Bradley, who had amnesia, meant I had physically assaulted a disabled student.
To say I was in trouble would be putting it mildly, and understating it.
I sat outside the principal's office, listening to my Mom arguing with the principal and watching Miss Charlie typing at her computer at a snails pace. A living fossil, she had faded green glasses, a curly red wig, hot pink lipstick and a smell like a wet burrito.
Looking at her was all I could do to not think about the bleak outcome to arrive any second now.
"...bet I will!"
The door opened and Mom stormed out with a furious scowl that made me remember that time I tried stealing candy from the top cupboard and dropped everything inside.
"Mrs Bucklehim, this is the best we can do he says," Mom muttered indignantly," Sarah, get up, you're going straight home and I'm going back to work. We'll talk about this as soon as I get back and sweet fudge, you are in so much trouble."
I nodded my head and followed her like a chastised puppy.
We walked in tense silence and I didn't know how to apologize without lying or making her more mad.
Outside the sun was shining above like a golden white drop of glee, no clouds around but birds flying whichever way they pleased, seemingly carefree.
"Sarah," Mom said in a serious voice," Did you do all those things they said?"
"No. Only the running thing and... hitting thing." I replied and she took a deep angry breath that made me curl my toes.
"Go home, and stay home. No going out until I get back or you will be grounded for a month with no treats aswell." She said and I knew she was serious.
"Okay, I'm going."
I started walking home, feeling the bitter sour taste of being at fault and being accused.
Running in the halls might have been my bad, but how could anyone believe I'd lied about Cindy? Why did Mr Robinson not ask anyone and just say that infront of everyone?
Now everyone would think that it was true and nobody would believe me or defend me.
I raised my hand and looked at it, remembering the feeling of slapping Iazel, his split lip appearing in my mind.
How did I do that? I wondered, does this have something to do with Bans?
The internet didn't provide anything for this, so what was I to do? I needed answers again and couldn't get them. Asking Iazel was out of the question after I'd just slapped him infront of the school like that.
The impulse just came over me as he pointed at me, licked the cupcake frosting after wiping it and calling me 'Love'.
I had dreamed about being with Bradley for years, he was the ideal guy I'd always wanted and when Iazel did those romantic things, it felt like he was insulting me, my feelings and Bradley.
Maybe I shouldn't feel that way, but I just couldn't help it.
Also, there was no way he meant it, that cold bastard, he had been as harsh to Cindy like he'd been to me when we first met.
"You still won't forgive?" Iazel's voice sounded.
"Ugh, get out of my head." I moaned in irritation.
"I'm not in your head, I'm right here."
A figure stepped out of the shadow of the tree near me and smiled slightly.
"Why are you here?" I asked him without stopping.
"We were supposed to speak during lunch but we could not because of Sandy." He replied following me.
"Her name is Cindy and what makes you think I want to talk to you after everything that just happened?"
He took his sunglasses off and looked at me in confusion," I don't understand why you are angry. What did I do wrong?"
"Seriously? How can you not understand what you did wrong?" I waved my hand at him," All of this is so wrong! Why are you inside Bradley and what did you do to him?"
"I am in this body because you can not stand conversing with me in my other form, and because I don't want you to feel uncomfortable near me. I am glad you're telling me what irks you, it will help me understand you better without having to glance at your thoughts."
"Stay out of my head, just talk to me with your mouth." I told him," You also didn't answer my other question. What did you do to Bradley? Did you possess him like a ghost?"
"Ghost cannot possess living people." He replied and sighed to the side," And to answer your question, it is hard to explain without explaining Wardens and the Codex of Death."
"You mean your God book?" I asked him and he spat on the ground.
"Don't call it a God book, that's disrespectful." He said softly," The Codex of Death is an ancient manifestation of the Order and function of Creation through death. All things living, material and immaterial behold its power and will behold it at the end of all things. It sees all, knows all and oversees all death throughout Creation on all planes of existence."
"Woah, that was heavy stuff." I said and he chuckled softly.
"I just told you that everything and everyone is being overseen by an unseen force incharge of their deaths and you just say 'Woah'. That's rich." He said mirthfully.
"I get its a big deal but it kinda seems beyond me to question it, you make it sound like some Big macho mega something and I'm just a teenager, so yeah." I shrugged," But what does it have to do with Wardens and you being in Bradley?"
"Wardens are a duo species of Widowing Wardens and Reaper Wardens, both are created by and at the whim of the Codex of Death. I was created from it, as were all Wardens and so will others." He sighed heavily," Widowing Wardens deal with natural deaths, born from the flow of nature and in accordance with the life given to all things living."
A chill wind blew along the path and the light from the sun seemed to grow dimmer.
"Reaper Wardens deal with the unnatural deaths, those that go against the flow of nature and that desecrate the life given to all things living. Regardless, collecting souls remains our imperative and it is with our Vessels that we can do this. A Warden without a Vessel is a half dead, tool with little reason to exist other than as said tool."
I noticed Iazel's hands were clenched and I remembered that he had been a Warden without a Vessel.
"A Pariah." I said quietly and he nodded his head.
"Now, I'm sure you've seen me and other Wardens use our ERA Codex, and I wonder if you know what it is." He asked me and I shook my head.
"I don't really have a real clue, you guys just say it and then something else and crazy stuff happens afterwards " I said remembering when Bans had used it back in New York.
"The ERA Codex is a collection of techniques that Wardens can use to defend and protect themselves. They're too complicated and too many to count, requiring years of study and practice, so I won't bore you." He raised his hand and the shadows shifted on his hand," Regardless, it is a gift given to all Wardens by the Codex of Death and it is not a generous existence. The Codex of Death possesses power far stronger than anything The ERA Codex can accomplish, as it is a part of the Codex of Death."
"Okay, and this has what to do with Bradley?"
"Everything." He closed his hand and we vanished in a swirl of darkness and appeared in my room.
"Ha! Warm me when you do that!" I shouted at him as I moved to the bed feeling nauseous.
"The Codex of Death is an impartial existence that only believes in equal exchange. In exchange for creating us, all Wardens are required to function to its will. In exchange for using the ERA Codex, a Warden must possess a tool to use its power, never owning the power themselves."
Iazel took his sunglasses off and raised his hand and his obsidian black scythe appeared with its ivory blade.
"Transcripts is what we call them, they allow us the ability to use the ERA Codex, but we can never use it without one or risk destroying ourselves. I once only had a single Transcript but then I had three."
"I'm confused, what does this have to with Bradley?" I asked him again.
"One of the many rules of being a Warden is that we cannot be seen by the living mortals of your world. Our Vessels can, but no one can or would try to be seen without risking the Codex of Death descending upon them and dragging them back to their Dead world for penance."
Iazel sighed as he stroked his scythe and looked forlorn and melancholic.
"You had Bans in you so you could see me, but you didn't want to. Bans didn't wish to see me after I failed her. I needed to reach you and her but I was trapped between helplessness and circumstance. Until, I read your thoughts one night, seeing you cry over a lost love you had for a mortal boy. Bradley Quincy."
"It didn't matter to me then, and I almost missed it but was reminded of something I learnt a long time ago. This was in the last centuries of Faith and Divine acts, but I had been assigned guardianship over a condemned prisoner near the cell of one of Twelve Saints of The Christ. One night, I saw a Warden speaking to him, a man touched by holiness but untouched by death was speaking to a Warden."
I stayed quiet and waited for him to explain more, feeling he was getting to a point.
"I checked the Wardens aura to see whether he was a Widower or a Reaper and to my surprise, he was neither. His essence had been merged with the pure light of a mortal soul making him into something not quite human and not quite a Warden. It took me centuries to see that Warden again, and I found out what he was and how he became that way."
"He had called upon the Codex of Death and sacrificed two things; His immortality and his most prized Transcript. All to be merged with body of a man who had been lost at sea and stranded on the beach at night, about to die from the cold, sickness and wounds. That Warden became a hybrid of Death and Mortality, a Death Walker, A Pale Wanderer or as they're known in my world."
He looked at me as his eyes turned to their pale yellow colour, with duo coloured irises.
"A Psychopomp."