HOME | DD

Description

The Tale of Igma and Claudia

Chapter 4: Understanding

Igma awoke with a start of surprise. It was just after sunrise as sunlight was starting to gleam in through the side of the shade pulled down over a window on the opposite side of the room, the other side of a room that wasn’t his.

The realization suddenly hit Igma and he leapt up from the chair he had been curled up sleeping in. This wasn’t his room, this was Claudia’s room!

Joy overtook Igma as the reality set into his mind. She hadn’t thrown him out. For once she finally didn’t throw him out!

He looked around the room, hardly able to believe where he was. It was just where he had been the night before, talking to Claudia. She must have left him be when she went off to bed.

He thought of her, just on the other side of that door. She must still be sleeping in her bed. How he wished to be there with her… But no, he must not risk upsetting her. She was only just starting to give him a chance again and he would not allow himself to do anything to ruin that. He would have to respect her distance for now and savor the moment as it is.

The morning light was setting in. Igma pulled his goggles out of his pocket and placed them over his eyes. He glanced around, taking in the surroundings. It was much like the office he himself had when he was a teacher at the Academy, just with different personal items placed about. Even after all the times he had snuck into this room before he hadn’t really looked closely at what she owned.

There were a few large paintings on the walls. They were scenic types, with large medieval castles in the backgrounds. They looked old, probably as old as the school itself. Several plants were scattered about that looked well pruned and watered. A wine rack filled with bottles of red wine was placed against one of the walls. Claudia loved red wine, but he himself never partook. Mostly from personal disinterest, but also being a magic user it would be dangerous for him to lose control from substances. Lacking full mental focus could result in a fire spell burning down the building.

Over in the corner the owl Athellion was sound asleep on his perch. Owls, nocturnal creatures, like him. The irony was not lost on him that Claudia had a night time dwelling pet yet wouldn’t give him the time of day, or in his case night, when he himself was much like an owl.

Igma walked up to the large wooden desk that served as her means for work. He knew she spent a lot of time at this desk after all the times he’s spied on her through the window while she graded papers or read books or talked with students or their parents. He looked at the items she had scattered around on the surface.

A coffee mug, a fancy quill pen, stacks of paper… the standard items one would find in an office. There were several photograph frames placed at the back edge of the desk as well. The temptation to play with the mug was strong, as no doubt her lips had been on it, but the contents of the photographs caught his eye.

Igma picked up the largest picture. A smiling adult Claudia was looking at him through the glass frame, and standing beside her was the Janitor. He was emotionless as usual. She herself looked a little younger than she did now. Perhaps it was taken right after she was hired as a teacher. Judging from the angle the photo was taken by someone shorter, perhaps Brio. That should have been me with her in that picture, he mused.

He set it back down and picked up the next picture. It was an older one. To Igma’s surprise he actually was in it! There in the photo was Claudia and him as kids. They were in the school library, not even looking at the camera while sitting at a table reading books. It must have been a candid shot taken by the school photographer for the yearbook. He didn’t know this picture was ever taken since he hadn’t made an effort to keep mementos from his childhood. It was the original photo too. Claudia must have gotten it from the photographer after it was published in the yearbook.

Igma stood there staring at the photograph for a while. He could hardly believe it, let alone understand it. Did she really care? After all this time… and still keeping something like this? It was confusing.

“What are you still doing here?”

The voice caught Igma completely off guard. He almost dropped the photo as he spun around. Claudia, looking bewildered, was standing back by the bedroom door.

Igma froze. Claudia was standing there staring at him. He just stood there in silence. He didn’t know what to do. Too afraid to say anything, scared that she might get mad, fearful he’ll do something wrong.

“Uh…” Igma couldn’t form words. He was too terrified to even try.

“You know you shouldn’t be here.”

There was a long pause before he finally answered her. “I didn’t want to leave.” Igma said, still holding the photo in his hands.

Claudia began to slowly walk towards him. Igma felt the urge to run away, but his legs wouldn’t move.

“What have you got there?” She asked, looking at the object in his hands.

“Oh, this…” Igma looked at the picture. He forgot he was even holding it. “I didn’t know you have this picture.” He held it out for her to see.

Claudia took the photo from his hand. His fear began to subside as it seemed she wasn’t going to kick him out the door, literally or figuratively.

“Halcyon days,” she said. Her expression was nostalgic, almost saddened while studying the photograph.

“I’m surprised you still have that after all this time.” Igma said. “I thought you hated me now.”

Without taking her eyes off the picture she raised her eyebrows. “I already told you I don’t, I just hate the way you annoy me all the time.”

“ALL of the time?” He asked.

“Pretty much,” She replied.

“Wait, is this about your puppy? I told you that wasn’t my fault. I only turned it into a zombie because Dr. Thorn’s plant ate it!”

She scowled at him, so he didn’t press the issue. Even though it was a while ago it was still a touchy subject about the german shepherd she had asked their colleague Dr. Thorn to watch, but after one of his man-eating plants ate it he had asked Igma to bring it back to life. Unfortunately necromancy only resurrects things as the undead.

Igma crossed his arms as he sulked. “Nothing I ever do pleases you.”

Ignoring him, Claudia placed their childhood photograph back on the desk where it belonged. Athellion had opened his eyes, annoyed by their banter. Seeing they quieted down again he hooted gently and went back to sleep.

Igma, without realizing she was watching him, reached into the collar of his coat to scratch at the stitching on his mouth with his flesh hand. He never truly adjusted to such an odd addition to his face since it still itched once in a while. Claudia flinched as she tried not to look directly at his actions.

“Doesn’t that hurt?” She asked, with a pained expression on her face while she stared at the stitching across his mouth. It was disturbing to look at, but a curious thing to see at the same time. Like a car accident or a circus freak show.

“What, the stitches? Yes, it does. It hurts quite often. Mostly when I eat or brush my teeth.” He thought for a moment. “In fact, putting the stitches in hurt more than when I burned my arm’s skin off with magic fire.”

“You did that to yourself?!” She was shocked and horrified at the same time. “Are you insane? Why would you do something like that?”

“Oh, I didn’t do it for fashion. You see its spell thread.” He pulled down the front of his coat collar for a better view. “It allows me to cast magic verbally.” He said it as if it were a perfectly normal thing for people to do. Like getting pierced or tattooed.

Claudia sounded disgusted. “Why do you DO this kind of stuff to yourself?”

He lifted the collar back up to cover his face again. “Not like anyone cares.”

“Maybe they would if you didn’t mutilate yourself. You know, you really should stop using magic to hurt your body like that.”

She seemed as if she were about to launch into another one of her lectures. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy the fact Claudia was showing concern for his well being, but it wasn’t like it could change what had already been done. In dire need of a distraction Igma quickly picked up the picture of her and the Janitor.

He pointed to the man standing behind her in the photograph. “That Janitor… what’s the deal with you two? Is he your boyfriend or something?” He asked.

“Huh?” It seemed to work. “He’s my friend.” She answered. “He’s always been there for me. And he looks out for me.”

“Friend... Really...” Igma remembered that she didn’t believe him before when he told her the Janitor was actually a shadow gargoyle. “Tell me, does he talk to you?”

“He talks sometimes.” She said, as she walked around behind the desk and sat in the large leather chair. “But he doesn’t really like talking.”

“Huh.” Igma wondered how much she really knew about the Janitor. “Do you… ever see him eat?”

“Hmm… No.” Claudia replied. She began straightening the stack of papers in front of her. “He doesn’t go to the cafeteria during work hours. He’s stuck cleaning all the time so he probably doesn’t get to eat until after classes are over for the day."

Igma set the picture back on the desk. So she didn’t know about it at all, as he suspected. The Janitor must have been feeding elsewhere all this time and never shape shifted in front of anyone. He wondered how Claudia would really feel about the Janitor if she knew the truth; that her trusted friend was really a man-eating monster.

He thought for a moment. And then realization dawned on Igma. He remembered what the other shadow gargoyle who lived at the school named Lockbolt told him before about another of their kind who had taken in a human child. The one Lockbolt called their leader, Chainhinge. And the Janitor had told her that his name was Chainega… And everything began to make sense to him; about Claudia, about the Janitor, and the shadow gargoyles disguised as humans at the school.

“Claudia, can I ask you something?”

“Make it quick, classes will be starting soon.” She was looking up at the clock mounted on the wall.

“Why are you scared of the dark?”

It was something he had always known about her since they were kids. He had even asked her about it multiple times, but had never gotten a straight answer. It was something she didn’t talk about to anyone at the school. Seeing her relationship with the Janitor, it now began to make sense.

She looked up at him. “That’s an odd question.”

“C’mon, I’ve asked you a thousand times but you’ve never told me. And I really want to know.”

“Forget it. I’m not going to tell you.” She started rummaging in one of the desk drawers.

“Why don’t you want to talk about it?”

“Because, you’ll think I’m crazy.” She found the pen she had been looking for and closed the drawer.

“Please.”

Igma was still standing in front of the desk before her and wasn’t going to let this subject drop. Claudia paused for a moment, contemplating to herself. She figured she may as well pacify him. Plus it wasn’t like she didn’t think the things he told her were crazy either.

She leaned forward as she propped her elbows up on the desk. “You know I lived in an orphanage before I came to this academy.”

“Yeah?”

She rested her chin on her hands. “Well… The reason they sent me here to the Evil Academy is because people at the orphanage thought I was crazy.”

“I never thought you were.”

She let out a sigh. “That’s because you didn’t know why. You see, when I was at the orphanage I knew there was someone watching me from the shadows. I didn’t know who or why and I couldn’t prove it, but I just knew. I was at that orphanage since I was a baby, but it was like that the whole time I was there. It stopped though when I was sent to this school, and I never mentioned a word of it to anyone here.”

“Someone was watching you from the shadows since you were a baby?” He found this bit of information quite interesting.

“Yeah, when it was night time it felt like I was being watched. It terrified me. But no one believed me.”

“I do.”

Claudia smiled to herself.

She was just about to speak again when the bell rang, signaling classes would be starting soon.

Igma wanted to hear more. He was genuinely interested, but also just to have her talking to him. It felt like old times again.

Claudia stood up from the chair. “You really should get going, Igma. You teach at the other evil school, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“You should probably hurry then.”

Igma felt like leaning over to kiss her, but after her reaction to his mouth stitching he didn’t want to push his luck. “Um… So, I guess I’ll be… going… now…” He slowly started to back away.

“Alright,” She said as she was picking up the graded papers from the night before.

He paused. “Maybe I’ll... see you again sometime.”

She was staring at the opaque green lenses of his goggles, unable to see his face behind them and the coat. Behind them however he had a faint smile of hope.

He stretched his flesh hand out to her.

Cautiously, Claudia shook Igma’s hand. “Sure.” She said, as her eyes darted between his hand and his face, as if to make sure he wasn’t going to pull any stunts.

Igma didn’t want to let go. He savored the warm gentle feel of her hand in his. Her hand was so much softer and more delicate than his. When he finally let go he backed away towards the door. It wasn’t until half way across the room before he finally turned around. As he opened the door he took another look back at her. She was still standing by the desk, watching him. For once she didn’t look angry or was shoving him out the door.

“I’ll never stop loving you, you know.”

Claudia raised an eyebrow. “There’s a difference between love and obsession.”

“Either way it’s why I keep coming back to you.” Igma said with a smile.

Stepping out into the hall, he gently closed the door behind himself with a click. Elated with joy, he proceeded to walk down the hallway towards the exit.

Along the way he thought about what Claudia had talked to him about. The Janitor watching over her, feeling like she had been watched in the dark when she was little, and the shadow gargoyle leader having raised human children. It all had to be connected. But the real question was why is the Janitor so attached to Claudia? It couldn’t have been the same type of situation as Lockbolt, who followed Nina Cortex around out of gratitude, since Claudia doesn’t even know about the shadow gargoyles. The only way to get the real answer would be from the monster itself; the Janitor.

Dr. Thorn had just exited his own room as Igma was approaching. He stopped in place once he saw the albino, who had a smug grin across his face, coming near.

“Wait… Igma?” He looked confused. “What are you doing here? Was that Claudia’s room you just came out of? Do I need to kick your-”

Igma didn’t stop or look at him as he made a shooting sound with his mouth while his hand, in a gun gesture, was in Thorn’s face as he passed.

Thorn’s mouth was agape with utmost confusion as he turned to watch the other man leaving. He made a rude gesture with his hands but Igma’s back was turned as he was walking down the stairs. “What the heck was that about- AAAHH!” He realized his hair was on fire.

Igma laughed as he headed out the front door.

The end

--------------------------

And so Igma accomplished what he'd set out to do, finally getting closer to Claudia. Is it love or is it obsession? (It's actually both.) He says one thing but she believes another. Either way as they learn about and understand each other Igma is progressing towards rekindling what they once had.

That's the end of The Tale of Igma and Claudia. But it's not the end of the stories at The Academy of Evil! It's just the beginning of another phase for the lives of the people there as Igma finally gets Claudia to accept him again, and Igma gains some interesting information about his hated rival, the Janitor.

More chapters of The Tale of Igma and Claudia:

Chapter 1: jenl.deviantart.com/art/The-Ta…
Chapter 2: jenl.deviantart.com/art/The-Ta…
Chapter 3: jenl.deviantart.com/art/The-Ta…
Epilogue: www.deviantart.com/jenl/art/Th…

-JenL

Necros Igma, Claudia, Lockbolt and Chainhinge (c) Me
Dr. Thorn (c) Turquoisephoenix
Nina Cortex and Academy of Evil (c) Activision

Disclaimer: You may reblog, use, display my art. Just please link back, give credit, etc.

Description

The Tale of Igma and Claudia

Chapter 4: Understanding

Igma awoke with a start of surprise. It was just after sunrise as sunlight was starting to gleam in through the side of the shade pulled down over a window on the opposite side of the room, the other side of a room that wasn’t his.

The realization suddenly hit Igma and he leapt up from the chair he had been curled up sleeping in. This wasn’t his room, this was Claudia’s room!

Joy overtook Igma as the reality set into his mind. She hadn’t thrown him out. For once she finally didn’t throw him out!

He looked around the room, hardly able to believe where he was. It was just where he had been the night before, talking to Claudia. She must have left him be when she went off to bed.

He thought of her, just on the other side of that door. She must still be sleeping in her bed. How he wished to be there with her… But no, he must not risk upsetting her. She was only just starting to give him a chance again and he would not allow himself to do anything to ruin that. He would have to respect her distance for now and savor the moment as it is.

The morning light was setting in. Igma pulled his goggles out of his pocket and placed them over his eyes. He glanced around, taking in the surroundings. It was much like the office he himself had when he was a teacher at the Academy, just with different personal items placed about. Even after all the times he had snuck into this room before he hadn’t really looked closely at what she owned.

There were a few large paintings on the walls. They were scenic types, with large medieval castles in the backgrounds. They looked old, probably as old as the school itself. Several plants were scattered about that looked well pruned and watered. A wine rack filled with bottles of red wine was placed against one of the walls. Claudia loved red wine, but he himself never partook. Mostly from personal disinterest, but also being a magic user it would be dangerous for him to lose control from substances. Lacking full mental focus could result in a fire spell burning down the building.

Over in the corner the owl Athellion was sound asleep on his perch. Owls, nocturnal creatures, like him. The irony was not lost on him that Claudia had a night time dwelling pet yet wouldn’t give him the time of day, or in his case night, when he himself was much like an owl.

Igma walked up to the large wooden desk that served as her means for work. He knew she spent a lot of time at this desk after all the times he’s spied on her through the window while she graded papers or read books or talked with students or their parents. He looked at the items she had scattered around on the surface.

A coffee mug, a fancy quill pen, stacks of paper… the standard items one would find in an office. There were several photograph frames placed at the back edge of the desk as well. The temptation to play with the mug was strong, as no doubt her lips had been on it, but the contents of the photographs caught his eye.

Igma picked up the largest picture. A smiling adult Claudia was looking at him through the glass frame, and standing beside her was the Janitor. He was emotionless as usual. She herself looked a little younger than she did now. Perhaps it was taken right after she was hired as a teacher. Judging from the angle the photo was taken by someone shorter, perhaps Brio. That should have been me with her in that picture, he mused.

He set it back down and picked up the next picture. It was an older one. To Igma’s surprise he actually was in it! There in the photo was Claudia and him as kids. They were in the school library, not even looking at the camera while sitting at a table reading books. It must have been a candid shot taken by the school photographer for the yearbook. He didn’t know this picture was ever taken since he hadn’t made an effort to keep mementos from his childhood. It was the original photo too. Claudia must have gotten it from the photographer after it was published in the yearbook.

Igma stood there staring at the photograph for a while. He could hardly believe it, let alone understand it. Did she really care? After all this time… and still keeping something like this? It was confusing.

“What are you still doing here?”

The voice caught Igma completely off guard. He almost dropped the photo as he spun around. Claudia, looking bewildered, was standing back by the bedroom door.

Igma froze. Claudia was standing there staring at him. He just stood there in silence. He didn’t know what to do. Too afraid to say anything, scared that she might get mad, fearful he’ll do something wrong.

“Uh…” Igma couldn’t form words. He was too terrified to even try.

“You know you shouldn’t be here.”

There was a long pause before he finally answered her. “I didn’t want to leave.” Igma said, still holding the photo in his hands.

Claudia began to slowly walk towards him. Igma felt the urge to run away, but his legs wouldn’t move.

“What have you got there?” She asked, looking at the object in his hands.

“Oh, this…” Igma looked at the picture. He forgot he was even holding it. “I didn’t know you have this picture.” He held it out for her to see.

Claudia took the photo from his hand. His fear began to subside as it seemed she wasn’t going to kick him out the door, literally or figuratively.

“Halcyon days,” she said. Her expression was nostalgic, almost saddened while studying the photograph.

“I’m surprised you still have that after all this time.” Igma said. “I thought you hated me now.”

Without taking her eyes off the picture she raised her eyebrows. “I already told you I don’t, I just hate the way you annoy me all the time.”

“ALL of the time?” He asked.

“Pretty much,” She replied.

“Wait, is this about your puppy? I told you that wasn’t my fault. I only turned it into a zombie because Dr. Thorn’s plant ate it!”

She scowled at him, so he didn’t press the issue. Even though it was a while ago it was still a touchy subject about the german shepherd she had asked their colleague Dr. Thorn to watch, but after one of his man-eating plants ate it he had asked Igma to bring it back to life. Unfortunately necromancy only resurrects things as the undead.

Igma crossed his arms as he sulked. “Nothing I ever do pleases you.”

Ignoring him, Claudia placed their childhood photograph back on the desk where it belonged. Athellion had opened his eyes, annoyed by their banter. Seeing they quieted down again he hooted gently and went back to sleep.

Igma, without realizing she was watching him, reached into the collar of his coat to scratch at the stitching on his mouth with his flesh hand. He never truly adjusted to such an odd addition to his face since it still itched once in a while. Claudia flinched as she tried not to look directly at his actions.

“Doesn’t that hurt?” She asked, with a pained expression on her face while she stared at the stitching across his mouth. It was disturbing to look at, but a curious thing to see at the same time. Like a car accident or a circus freak show.

“What, the stitches? Yes, it does. It hurts quite often. Mostly when I eat or brush my teeth.” He thought for a moment. “In fact, putting the stitches in hurt more than when I burned my arm’s skin off with magic fire.”

“You did that to yourself?!” She was shocked and horrified at the same time. “Are you insane? Why would you do something like that?”

“Oh, I didn’t do it for fashion. You see its spell thread.” He pulled down the front of his coat collar for a better view. “It allows me to cast magic verbally.” He said it as if it were a perfectly normal thing for people to do. Like getting pierced or tattooed.

Claudia sounded disgusted. “Why do you DO this kind of stuff to yourself?”

He lifted the collar back up to cover his face again. “Not like anyone cares.”

“Maybe they would if you didn’t mutilate yourself. You know, you really should stop using magic to hurt your body like that.”

She seemed as if she were about to launch into another one of her lectures. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy the fact Claudia was showing concern for his well being, but it wasn’t like it could change what had already been done. In dire need of a distraction Igma quickly picked up the picture of her and the Janitor.

He pointed to the man standing behind her in the photograph. “That Janitor… what’s the deal with you two? Is he your boyfriend or something?” He asked.

“Huh?” It seemed to work. “He’s my friend.” She answered. “He’s always been there for me. And he looks out for me.”

“Friend... Really...” Igma remembered that she didn’t believe him before when he told her the Janitor was actually a shadow gargoyle. “Tell me, does he talk to you?”

“He talks sometimes.” She said, as she walked around behind the desk and sat in the large leather chair. “But he doesn’t really like talking.”

“Huh.” Igma wondered how much she really knew about the Janitor. “Do you… ever see him eat?”

“Hmm… No.” Claudia replied. She began straightening the stack of papers in front of her. “He doesn’t go to the cafeteria during work hours. He’s stuck cleaning all the time so he probably doesn’t get to eat until after classes are over for the day."

Igma set the picture back on the desk. So she didn’t know about it at all, as he suspected. The Janitor must have been feeding elsewhere all this time and never shape shifted in front of anyone. He wondered how Claudia would really feel about the Janitor if she knew the truth; that her trusted friend was really a man-eating monster.

He thought for a moment. And then realization dawned on Igma. He remembered what the other shadow gargoyle who lived at the school named Lockbolt told him before about another of their kind who had taken in a human child. The one Lockbolt called their leader, Chainhinge. And the Janitor had told her that his name was Chainega… And everything began to make sense to him; about Claudia, about the Janitor, and the shadow gargoyles disguised as humans at the school.

“Claudia, can I ask you something?”

“Make it quick, classes will be starting soon.” She was looking up at the clock mounted on the wall.

“Why are you scared of the dark?”

It was something he had always known about her since they were kids. He had even asked her about it multiple times, but had never gotten a straight answer. It was something she didn’t talk about to anyone at the school. Seeing her relationship with the Janitor, it now began to make sense.

She looked up at him. “That’s an odd question.”

“C’mon, I’ve asked you a thousand times but you’ve never told me. And I really want to know.”

“Forget it. I’m not going to tell you.” She started rummaging in one of the desk drawers.

“Why don’t you want to talk about it?”

“Because, you’ll think I’m crazy.” She found the pen she had been looking for and closed the drawer.

“Please.”

Igma was still standing in front of the desk before her and wasn’t going to let this subject drop. Claudia paused for a moment, contemplating to herself. She figured she may as well pacify him. Plus it wasn’t like she didn’t think the things he told her were crazy either.

She leaned forward as she propped her elbows up on the desk. “You know I lived in an orphanage before I came to this academy.”

“Yeah?”

She rested her chin on her hands. “Well… The reason they sent me here to the Evil Academy is because people at the orphanage thought I was crazy.”

“I never thought you were.”

She let out a sigh. “That’s because you didn’t know why. You see, when I was at the orphanage I knew there was someone watching me from the shadows. I didn’t know who or why and I couldn’t prove it, but I just knew. I was at that orphanage since I was a baby, but it was like that the whole time I was there. It stopped though when I was sent to this school, and I never mentioned a word of it to anyone here.”

“Someone was watching you from the shadows since you were a baby?” He found this bit of information quite interesting.

“Yeah, when it was night time it felt like I was being watched. It terrified me. But no one believed me.”

“I do.”

Claudia smiled to herself.

She was just about to speak again when the bell rang, signaling classes would be starting soon.

Igma wanted to hear more. He was genuinely interested, but also just to have her talking to him. It felt like old times again.

Claudia stood up from the chair. “You really should get going, Igma. You teach at the other evil school, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“You should probably hurry then.”

Igma felt like leaning over to kiss her, but after her reaction to his mouth stitching he didn’t want to push his luck. “Um… So, I guess I’ll be… going… now…” He slowly started to back away.

“Alright,” She said as she was picking up the graded papers from the night before.

He paused. “Maybe I’ll... see you again sometime.”

She was staring at the opaque green lenses of his goggles, unable to see his face behind them and the coat. Behind them however he had a faint smile of hope.

He stretched his flesh hand out to her.

Cautiously, Claudia shook Igma’s hand. “Sure.” She said, as her eyes darted between his hand and his face, as if to make sure he wasn’t going to pull any stunts.

Igma didn’t want to let go. He savored the warm gentle feel of her hand in his. Her hand was so much softer and more delicate than his. When he finally let go he backed away towards the door. It wasn’t until half way across the room before he finally turned around. As he opened the door he took another look back at her. She was still standing by the desk, watching him. For once she didn’t look angry or was shoving him out the door.

“I’ll never stop loving you, you know.”

Claudia raised an eyebrow. “There’s a difference between love and obsession.”

“Either way it’s why I keep coming back to you.” Igma said with a smile.

Stepping out into the hall, he gently closed the door behind himself with a click. Elated with joy, he proceeded to walk down the hallway towards the exit.

Along the way he thought about what Claudia had talked to him about. The Janitor watching over her, feeling like she had been watched in the dark when she was little, and the shadow gargoyle leader having raised human children. It all had to be connected. But the real question was why is the Janitor so attached to Claudia? It couldn’t have been the same type of situation as Lockbolt, who followed Nina Cortex around out of gratitude, since Claudia doesn’t even know about the shadow gargoyles. The only way to get the real answer would be from the monster itself; the Janitor.

Dr. Thorn had just exited his own room as Igma was approaching. He stopped in place once he saw the albino, who had a smug grin across his face, coming near.

“Wait… Igma?” He looked confused. “What are you doing here? Was that Claudia’s room you just came out of? Do I need to kick your-”

Igma didn’t stop or look at him as he made a shooting sound with his mouth while his hand, in a gun gesture, was in Thorn’s face as he passed.

Thorn’s mouth was agape with utmost confusion as he turned to watch the other man leaving. He made a rude gesture with his hands but Igma’s back was turned as he was walking down the stairs. “What the heck was that about- AAAHH!” He realized his hair was on fire.

Igma laughed as he headed out the front door.

The end

--------------------------

And so Igma accomplished what he'd set out to do, finally getting closer to Claudia. Is it love or is it obsession? (It's actually both.) He says one thing but she believes another. Either way as they learn about and understand each other Igma is progressing towards rekindling what they once had.

That's the end of The Tale of Igma and Claudia. But it's not the end of the stories at The Academy of Evil! It's just the beginning of another phase for the lives of the people there as Igma finally gets Claudia to accept him again, and Igma gains some interesting information about his hated rival, the Janitor.

More chapters of The Tale of Igma and Claudia:

Chapter 1: jenl.deviantart.com/art/The-Ta…
Chapter 2: jenl.deviantart.com/art/The-Ta…
Chapter 3: jenl.deviantart.com/art/The-Ta…
Epilogue: www.deviantart.com/jenl/art/Th…

-JenL

Necros Igma, Claudia, Lockbolt and Chainhinge (c) Me
Dr. Thorn (c) Turquoisephoenix
Nina Cortex and Academy of Evil (c) Activision

Disclaimer: You may reblog, use, display my art. Just please link back, give credit, etc.