A yet-to-be-titled story

[- Kat -]

[so it came to my attention that it's been like, a hundred years since I posted a story on here. I wanted to rectify this, so I looked up my ideas for several stories that I've been plotting out for a few months now. I considered what I wanted to do with each of them, which one would be most fun and appropriate for this board, and began to flesh out the worlds and characters for each possibility.

 

And then 40 minutes ago I started slapping this down. It has nothing to do with any of those other ideas up there, I just started writing it with no plan of where it might go.

 

This is all I had time to write before my brother started whining for me to get off the computer, so I'll finish up the first chapter tomorrow .___.

 

As I tend to do, I'll probably get bored with this in a few days and then never touch it again. But until then, enjoy! Constructive criticism is welcomed and encouraged.]

 

Officer Susan Bradley frowned at the two boys in front of her, tapping her pen against her notepad impatiently. One, the shorter of the two, looked like he was about to burst into tears, while the other was eyeing her with disregard.

“You two are sure you didn’t see anyone fitting that description?” she said sternly.

“I’m pretty sure we would remember…what was it, ‘a man that appeared to have a tail and large horns?’” the taller boy said, annoyed. He gave her a condescending smirk. “So the police are starting to take those bull**** eye witness reports seriously?”

“A man fitting that description was reported to be responsible for a murder nearby,” Officer Bradley replied, ceasing her tapping. “Two young women were found dead on Ashner Parkway, and twelve witnesses all say they saw the man attack them with some sort of clawed gloves, then flee the scene once they were dead.”

The smaller boy gasped at this revelation, and let out a sob. He starred imploringly at his companion, who was still watching the policewoman, a look of concern mixing with his annoyance.

“Ryan…” the boy hiccupped.

“What?!” Ryan snapped, looking down at him. “You want us to lie? You want us to tell her we saw something we didn’t?!”

“I…” the boy sobbed again, then dried his eyes slowly with the sleeve of his hoodie before looking up to Ryan again. His older brother’s eyes were hard, almost threatening. “…No,” he choked.

“Can we just go?” Ryan muttered. “He’s gonna pee himself if we don’t get home.”

Officer Bradley considered them carefully for a moment. “Yes, you can leave. But we might be giving you a call if any further clues are found.”

“I’ll be waiting by the phone,” Ryan said sarcastically. He gave his brother a small push to get him walking, and the two disappeared down the street.

Bradley let out a frustrated sigh, checking what little she had written down. Ryan and Logan Thomas, ages seventeen and fourteen, the only people she’d been able to find on the street at this time of night. She reached into her pocket for her cigarettes as she returned to her car. Her partner, Officer Kylie McDonald, was already in the passenger’s seat.

“Did you find anything?” Bradley asked as she started the squad car up, the siren and lights still flashing.

“No,” the younger woman said sadly, pushing a lock of blonde hair out of her face. “The streets are practically empty. I only found one person, and she hadn’t seen anything.”

Bradley took a long drag on her cigarette as she began to wind around the blocks, keeping a sharp eye out for the suspect. This part of town hardly had any people in it during the day. She was surprised anybody had been around near midnight to be attacked. Then again, the abandoned buildings were becoming increasingly popular with local kids…

“This guy people keep reporting,” McDonald said, also looking out the window. “You think he’s just a nut in a costume?”

“Of course,” Bradley replied. “Why, what do you think he is?”

“Well, I don’t know,” McDonald said softly. “It’s just…people who’ve seen him, they say he can jump up about three stories, and that they’ll be watching him, and he’ll just…disappear.”

“People think they see strange things when they’re frightened,” Bradley said briskly. “Their minds exaggerate things. This guy probably knows that, that’s why he only shows up at night. People see a guy in a devil costume coming at them out of an alley at two o’clock in the morning, they’re so scared they think what they’re seeing is more extreme than it really is.” She turned the car around to start searching the other way. “It’s also worth noting that three of the five accounts came from people who were highly intoxicated.”

McDonald remained quiet, leaving Bradley to ponder for herself the recent events of Garden City. The GCPD had received their first call regarding what was referred to as “a demon” last month, and since then, there had been four more accounts. They’d come from all over the city, but they all described the same thing; the black markings on his skin, the horns, the tail, and how after a few seconds he would disappear without a trace. But this was the first time they knew of that he had killed anyone. Those who didn’t believe that there really was a monster running around the city mostly thought that it was some stupid kid acting out for the attention. Bradley had been hoping that was the case. That would have made this so much easier. But, of course, after tonight, any such hopes were dashed, and now they had a murderer to deal with, on top of a few recent missing person reports. Bradley gripped the wheel harder as the car continued to sail down the street, dreading what would be stirred up by the morning news reports tomorrow.

 

 

1

 

The commons of Garden Valley High School were crowded even at seven o’clock in the morning. Why on earth anybody would voluntarily be at school so early was beyond the reasoning of Angelica Fields, and she looked out at them with some confusion from her seat in the main office. Through the large plates of glass, she surveyed the unfamiliar faces. For the most part, the students seemed exactly like the ones in her old school. This was both a relief and a disappointment for her. It meant that her new school life would be fairly easy to adjust to, since it would be practically identical to her old one. However, her old one was hardly ideal.

She turned around as one of the office secretaries called her name.

“Mr. Swartz is ready to see you now, honey. Go ahead on back.”

Angelica muttered a sleepy “thank you” as she passed the front desk and headed into the small office of her school councilor. Mr. Swartz was a large man with a thick beard and a receding hairline, and he smiled brightly at Angelica as she entered the room and sat down in the chair in front of his desk.

“Well well, welcome to Garden City High, Angelica,” he said, leaning on his desk. “Do you go by Angie or anything?”

“No,” Angelica answered firmly. She hated nicknames. “Angelica.”

“Alright, then. I’m Mr. Swartz, I’ll be your councilor while you’re here. If you have any questions or concerns about anything, just come in here and sign up to talk to me, and I’ll be sure to help you out.”

Angelica nodded.

He turned to his computer and quickly read over her selected schedule. “Let’s see here, looks like your first period is Orchestra, followed by AP English, then College Algebra, Latin II, AP European History, Independent Study, and Astronomy. Looks like you’ve got a pretty tough course set here, is that what you were enrolled in at your old school?”

“Yeah,” Angelica said with a yawn.

“You seem kind of tired, did you get much sleep last night?”

“Not really,” Angelica answered truthfully.

Mr. Swartz smiled again. “Excited about your first day?”

“Must have been,” Angelica shrugged. Actually, she knew that wasn’t it, but the real reason wasn’t important.

“I’ll just print this off for you,” Mr. Swartz said, clicking around a few times. “And let you go on your way, then.” He handed her the paper once it came off the printer. “And here’s a map, so you can find your classes. If you need help, just ask one of the students, they’ll point you in the right direction.”

“I will,” Angelica said, getting up. No she wouldn’t. But that wasn’t important, either. “Thank you.”

“Have a good first day!” the man said as she left. The secretary at the front desk wished her the same thing as she went into the commons and looked down at her schedule. Her first class was in room 506, which, according to the map, was on the other side of the school. There were tables set up in the commons for people to sit at while they ate something from the vending machines or chatted. Angelica knew that she should probably take one of the empty seats and try to introduce herself to a few people, but considering the morning she’d had, she decided that being sociable could wait until her second day. She instead headed straight for her Orchestra room, and was glad to find that it was empty. Even the teacher seemed to be out. The only chairs in the room were stacked in piles against one of the walls, so Angelica sat her bag and violin case down and sat on the floor next to the door, pulling out a book and waiting for class to start.

It wasn’t long before her mind began to wander, though. The cause of her fatigue that morning kept slipping through her mind, no matter how much she tried to disregard it. She had barely slept the night before due to a series of strange dreams that had kept waking her up. Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be a problem. Angelica had plenty of weird dreams, hardly a night went by without one. But these dreams were different. She’d had them before.

It had been several years. She was sixteen now, and the last she remembered having them was when she was ten. Thinking about it, though, she couldn’t really say they were the same dreams, though. They were different, different things happened and there were sometimes different people. But the setting was always the same, and there were several people who were always there. The dreams were more like episodes of a series.

She’d been glad when the dreams had stopped. They weren’t really bad, or anything, just very strange. She could remember them all perfectly, more like they were memories of what she had actually done. And she knew that, in these dreams, she was somebody else.

Her musing was interrupted by a shuffling noise beside her. She jumped, startled, and looked as a boy sat down his bag and his own violin case, then slid to the floor next to her. She blinked at him, unsure of what was going on.

“Hi,” he said, smiling slightly. “Are you new?”

“Yes.”

“I thought so. I’m Devon.” His hair was dark brown, but had many splotches of neon color in it, and stood up in three-inch-long spikes. He was wearing tight jeans and a bright orange jacket with hot pink trim and patches on the shoulders. There was a thin line of eyeliner around his large, bright green eyes, and his nails were colored with what looked to be blue marker. He was staring right back at her with a friendly smile, either not noticing her confused blinks or not caring.

“I’m Angelica,” she responded, sitting back again.

[- Kat -]

“I’m Angelica,” she responded, sitting back again. His unwavering gaze was a little…unsettling.

“Where did you move here from?” he asked. It was like he didn’t need to blink.

“Colorado. My dad’s company transferred him here.”

“Ah,” Devon replied with a nod. “I see. So how are you liking Garden City so far?”

“I’ve only been here for a few days,” Angelica said, toying with a fraying edge of her book. “But it seems alright. Apart from the costumed murderer that’s apparently running around.”

“Oh, yeah, him,” Devon said, frowning slightly and finally looking away. “Uh…sorry about that.”

Angelica could look at him again. “I doubt it’s your fault.”

Devon laughed slightly. “That kind of thing isn’t normal, I promise. But that is a pretty horrible way to be welcomed to town.” His gaze fell on her violin case, before locking on her again. She looked down into her lap. His eyes bothered her, for some reason.

“So, violin, eh?” He motioned toward his own case. “Me, too.” He smirked. “You any good?”

Angelica quirked an eyebrow at him. What kind of question was that? “I like to think so.”

“I’m first chair,” he said, in what would be a casual voice, but his proud smirk gave him away.

As they had been talking, several more people had entered the room. Angelica heard all of them open the squeaky door, though. Though some people were glancing at her or pointing her out to their friends, nobody else had approached her yet. This was pretty normal, so she didn’t really care. Really, Devon’s approach had been an abnormality. She also noticed that everybody else had pulled a chair off of one of the piles to sit on. He could have told her that’s what they were supposed to do, instead of sitting on the ground looking stupid with her.

“Do you play anything else?” Devon asked, drawing her attention back to him.

“I play a little piano,” Angelica replied. “And I’ve got an electric violin at home, but that doesn’t really count as another instrument.”

“An electric violin?” Devon repeated with a hint of amused disbelief.

Angelica frowned slightly. “Yes. Is there a problem with that?”

“No,” Devon said innocently, looking away again. Angelica took this opportunity to stare at him reproachfully.

A short silence fell over the room as the teacher, a thin man with short black hair, walked in from his office, and then conversation resumed. He spotted Angelica by the main door, checked one of the papers in his hands, then motioned for her to come to him. Angelica put her book away and started to gather her things when Devon suddenly put a hand on her arm to stop her.

“Angelica, can you do me a favor?” he said, any playfulness in his voice gone.

She paused, looking down at her bag for a moment. “Umm…alright.”

“Look at me.”

“Just tell me what it is.”

“That’s it. Look at me.”

She knew it was stupid, how much she didn’t want to turn to face him. She took a moment to prepare, then lifted her face to meet his. He held onto her arm and looked into her eyes intently, as if he was expecting something from her. His own eyes became suddenly sharp, flashing as they seemed to pierce into her. She wanted to blink, or look away, it was like his eyes hurt.

He stopped suddenly. He let go of her arm, grabbed his belongings, and stood up as if nothing had just happened. She blinked hard, then stood up, looking at him. His eyes were back to normal. Or, rather, as normal as they were before, which was still oddly bright.

“What was that about?” Angelica asked, hoping she didn’t sound as nonplussed as she was.

“Nothing,” he said, a second too late to be believable. “You know, your eyes are gorgeous. Talk to you later!”

With that, he bounced off to go get a chair. Angelica watched him with confusion and slight alarm as a blush crept up into her cheeks. She’d never really thought much about her eyes. They were just a light, grayish blue. Nobody had ever said anything about them before. She hung her head slightly as she approached the teacher, letting a curtain of long, dark brown hair cover her red face.

 

[Alex went to bed around 3:00 and I was still up so I finished it .___. It's 4:11 now. I should go sleep or something.

 

I don't even know if this is any good. Mainly, it kept me entertained for an hour or two. If anybody likes it, I might try to continue. It seems kind of weird to me, but as I said, it's now 4:11 (well, 4:12 now). My judgment is likely impared.

 

Also, in case it wasn't painfully obvious, I know absolutly nothing about highschool orchestras. Excitement is bound to ensue!

 

PS I didn't really spell/grammar check any of this thing so there's probably a lot of mistakes.

 

PPS Don't ask me why I included orchestra if I know nothing about it because I don't know, it just seemed like a good idea at the time.

 

PPPS I think the formatting looks weird. I might fix that in later posts that aren't made at 4:16 in the AM

 

PPPPS Hi.]

[Arkcher]

[Alex went to bed around 3:00 and I was still up so I finished it .___. It's 4:11 now. I should go sleep or something.

 

I don't even know if this is any good. Mainly, it kept me entertained for an hour or two. If anybody likes it, I might try to continue. It seems kind of weird to me, but as I said, it's now 4:11 (well, 4:12 now). My judgment is likely impared.

 

Also, in case it wasn't painfully obvious, I know absolutly nothing about highschool orchestras. Excitement is bound to ensue!

 

PS I didn't really spell/grammar check any of this thing so there's probably a lot of mistakes.

 

PPS Don't ask me why I included orchestra if I know nothing about it because I don't know, it just seemed like a good idea at the time.

 

PPPS I think the formatting looks weird. I might fix that in later posts that aren't made at 4:16 in the AM

 

PPPPS Hi.]

[-awards the Arkcher seal of Approval-

 

S'good so far. I think it could get somewhere.

 

Yeah, there were a few speellng mistaeks, but its all good so long as SNAP IS REALLY SNAP IN DISGUISE-kind of thing doesn't happen.

 

And I don't know anything about orchestra or any other high school [or any school, for that matter] conduct. So don't ask me. D:

 

Yes, the lack of inserts and divisions bothers me. D: Format makes things much more readable.

 

Hello.]

[Horatio]

[ Outstanding! I'm in agreement with Arkcher... this could definitely go somewhere. ]

[dog lover]

[Cool...I'm enjoying it.

 

~Liz]