The Prince of Darkness was dressed in a designer suit and black tie. He strode to the front of the class room and shrugged off his tailored jacket and began to write on the board. I watched him in surreal disbelief unable to comprehend that he was actually really here, in front of me. He then moved out the way of the board revealing his name.

‘Luc Ashe’

“My name is Luc- pronounced Luke, not Luck, or Lack, but Luke. I am standing in for your seminar tutor until he returns, which I am hoping will be soon. Today we are going to go over the reading you were assigned to do. Please raise your hands if you have not done the reading,” He said.

A few hands reluctantly lifted into the air.

“If you have raised your hand please leave the seminar, and for future reference please stop wasting your parent’s money and do the damn reading,” He said curtly.

Luc waited a few moments as the students who had not done the reading gathered their belongings and left the classroom in disgrace. The rest of us stayed glued to our seats suddenly feeling like we were back in high school under the thumb of a tyrannical teacher.

Luc prowled up and down the classroom before suddenly stopping and pointing his finger at a student. The student sat up in his chair nervously as Luc proceeded to grill him.

“Tell me which scholar had an influential part in the shaping of the policy mentioned in paragraph five ,” Luc said.

The student froze then began fumbling through the pages of his article. Luc rolled his eyes and moved onto the next student.

“What post war changes are described by the scholar on page 10?”

The second student flailed and Luc moved onto the next student.

Numbly I remained at my desk watching the academic massacre. Luc was killing these students with his nasty questions. It was a complete contrast to the gentle voice I had heard in my head last night and this morning. Part of me was shocked that Luc could be so cruel.

“It looks like we really pissed him off,” Jacques muttered to me in a low whisper.

“Excuse me?” I said.

Suddenly Luc slammed his fist against the white board, “Mia! Jacques! Is there something you want to share with the rest of the class?” He yelled at us.

Both Jacques and I shook our heads, but Luc was not satisfied. In fact he was furious. Standing at the front of the class he opened the reading and began firing questions at me, “Okay Miss Hayden, if you feel that you do not need to listen to my class because you are much cleverer than the rest of us, then you will find these questions easy to answer,” He said pulling a large text book from his bag.

“Now enlightenment us Mia about the Neoliberal policies of the late seventies,” he said.

Stumbling I replied, “But that is outside our set reading list-”

“Come on Mia you are a clever girl. I am sure your new boyfriend can help you.” He said glaring at Jacques.

Jacques protectively put his arm around my shoulder and said, “Sure, I can tell you all about the neoliberal economic policies of the late-”

“Shut up Jacques!” Luc yelled, “And take your hands off of Mia.”

Jacques arm fell from his shoulder and he whispered, “Sorry Mia, looks like you are on your own.”

I sank further into my seat wishing I could just disappear, but Luc had not finished with me yet. In front of the whole class he began asking questions that I had no idea of what the answer was. Everyone watched me with a sad sympathetic expression as Luc tore me apart.

When Luc had finished with me, I felt tiny.

Luc turned to the class and said, “Now I want you to write a brief summary of how you could have answered those questions correctly.”

Everyone pulled out their note books and began scribbling away.

Numbly I sat at my desk staring at the years of doodled graffiti.

This was a nightmare, a horrible dream that I would wake up from any second. Suddenly a wave of emotion overcame me and I felt like I was going to cry.

‘Mia?’ Luc’s unexpectedly softly spoke from inside my head.

I lifted my head and looked directly at him. My eyes were now fuzzy with tears and I replied mentally to him, ‘Please stop this.’

Luc’s expression softened when he saw the tears in my eyes, and I heard him mutter a curse under his breath.

“Everyone except Mia and Jacques get out now! Go and do the reading properly, and pray that your seminar tutor is better next week so you do not have me to answer to!” He yelled at the other students.

The other students cleared the room in ten seconds flat leaving me, Luc and Jacques alone. When the last student had left Jacques shouted at Luc, “Well done Romeo, you actually managed to make her cry.”

Luc crossed the room at an unnatural speed that made me nearly jump out of my chair. He knelt down beside me and spoke softly, “I am sorry Mia. It was never my intention to upset you.”

Using the sleeves of my hoodie I dabbed my eyes trying to catch the tears before it made my mascara run. I did not want to cry in front of him or anyone. Luc reached out to touch me but I quickly pulled away.

Pain flashed across Luc eyes and he moved away from me muttering “Shit- I really fucked this up.”

“Come here,” Jacques said softly opening his arms to hug me.

Luc quickly turned on him.

“I swear to God Jacques, if you touch her again I will rip your fucking arms out of their sockets!” Luc yelled.

Jacques rolled his eyes, “And now you know why they call him the Prince of Darkness,” he said flashing a smile at me, “Luc is not that bad really. His bark is worse than his bite- he just has problems with his temper.”

“This cannot be happening, this isn't real,” I murmured.

Luc studied me and said, “I screwed up, but this,” he said pointing to me and himself, “This is not going to go away. So you better get used to it-”

“Luc, remember that little talk we had in the car about being nice?” Jacques chided.

“I am being nice- she is the one who is being difficult! We are mates Mia, we are destined for one another. If you could accept that then we could move on with our lives.” Luc said angrily to me.

Jacques groaned, “Luc you are making things worse for yourself buddy, Mia is not like the girls at court. She is not going to throw herself at you because of who you are.”

Suddenly I had had enough. Standing up I picked up my bag and said, “Listen Luc, I do not know who you are or what you are, but I am telling you now that there is no way in fresh hell I am going to ever be your mate. You are an arrogant pig headed bully and I refuse to be intimidated by you any longer! Please do me the enormous favour of never bothering me again!”

With that I slipped my bag over my shoulder and calmly walked out of the classroom.