Chapter 1

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                      -  C H A P T E R      O N E -

You hear the bell, as you walk thorough the gates of what you call hell but what most people call school, you start to feel anxious, worried and dreading what the day might bring you.

You see your friend Caitlin standing at her locker. As you make your way over to her, you hear in the distance behind you, “Oi bitch!” You keep on walking pretending you didn’t hear. When all of a sudden you feel a sharp pain in the back of your head and the next thing you know you’re on the ground. You look up to see Bernadette, the school bully, towering over you like a giant wave. She spits in your face.

“Where’s your English essay?” she asks, “give it to me now. I haven’t done mine and I want yours. Go get it.”

You stay on the ground, still processing everything that has just happened,

“NOW!” she yells.

3 years, 3 years now you have been putting up with this. But not today. You feel rage and adrenaline run through your veins as you stand up, confronting her.

“No.” you whisper”

“excuse me?” she says, with a look of shock horror on her face.

“Did I stutter? I said no Bernadette! Not today! I’m so sick of everything. 3 years  I have put up with you and all your crap! But not today!”

she takes a step back, as the other students gather around like ants. No one has ever confronted Bernadette until today. All the students start cheering. Bernadette starts to withdraw from the crowd and walk away.

In an instant you’ve gone from being a no body, to a some body.

people you’ve never even spoken to start coming up to you like you’re some sort of celebrity. You could get use to this you tell yourself.

Later the day, you walk into the school toilets. When all of a sudden you hear crying.

“hello?” you ask,

The crying stops and there is silence. You hear the door slowly creak open and you see Bernadette walk out. With no emotion she slowly starts walking towards you. You start to walk backwards until you’ve reached the wall. She keeps on moving forward until she gets right up in your face. And then whispers in your ear

“you will pay for what you have done today. Do you hear me? Or did I stutter? I will make you suffer.”

You do a nervous laugh and try to act not scared when deep down you’re petrified.  You walk out of the bathroom though, thinking not much of it. It wasn’t until later on you realize how wrong you were.

As you walk through your room door later that afternoon you get a text from Caitlin saying “hey darl! Can you please meet me at Lemont avenue at 8pm, please. my parents are fighting again, I cant handle this by myself. Xx”

You find this a little strange, as Caitlin never goes out this late but you don’t ask why, you just do what she wants.

You reply with “okay honey! Course! Ill see you there”

As the sunsets that afternoon you start to make your way out. You grab your torch and phone and sneak past your parents who are watching tv.

The cold breeze hits your face and you’re questioning yourself as to why you didn’t wear warmer clothes. you reach Lemont avenue at about 8:05pm, Caitlin’s no where to be seen so you take a seat at the bench under the street light.

You look at your phone, its now 8:30pm, you’ve tried calling but she wont pick up. You look around but all you see is blackness, you take two steps forward away from the bench and away from the street light to try and find Caitlin, but  its like the darkness swallows you up, so you quickly move back under the light. You feel safer there for some reason.

Its now 9pm and you decide to call it a night when all of a sudden you hear a twig snap. You turn around sharply and freeze. Your eyes moving slowing around, trying to find the slightest movement. All you can hear is your heart beat and your breathing getting faster

your phone goes off, making you jump and place your hands on your chest. You laugh at the thought of yourself getting all worked up about a twig snapping.

you look down at your phone to see a voicemail from a private caller. Thinking it must be Caitlin you listen.

“hahaha” it says. “I hope you said goodbye to everyone you knew. Because the place you’re about to go, you will never return. Or see the sun of a new day”

You’re frozen. You can’t move. You’re finding it hard to breath and you start to feel light headed.  you try to grab ahold of the bench but as you go to do so you hit something or someone with your hand. You turn around to see someone, towering over you, wearing a mask and holding a baseball bat.

You turn and start running. You don’t know where you’re going but you just run! You run for your life. You don’t even make it 20 meters before you feel what feels like a cannon being fired into the back of your skull. You’re teeth gam together, almost biting your tongue off.  You go hurdling towards the ground. The bat gets dropped next to your face. As you slowly drift out of consciousness you feel yourself being dragged across the rubble and you hear a voice laughing. Not just any laugh, but ones that you only hear in nightmares,

Everything is fuzzy but you look up with all the energy you have left. You see the back of stranger as they drag you by your right foot. You’re too scared to feel any pain and the next thing you know the darkness in your eyes gets bigger and you black out…   

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