Subterfuge

Chapter 1 - Memories

Chapter 1

The sound of my footsteps rang in my ears as I sprinted down the dank corridor. They would soon notice I had escaped and the alarm would sound, leaving me only minutes to escape... A door closed. I lost my concentration and tripped, scraping my face onto the rough cobbled floor as I tumbled down... I grunted. Bad move. More footsteps... this time, not my own... they knew. They knew I had escaped. Cursing, I scrambled upright and felt the blood oozing from the gash on my face, trickle down my cheek. I shook it off. I'd had worse since my time here. 

I thought about him a few weeks ago when this all started... I remember sitting there, just staring and swallowing each movement he made as he tapped his feet against the ground: the sound softly echoing off the walls. I couldn't not stare at him. It was as though my eyes were permanently glued to his body and this was when I drifted off to my world of perfection: a world that contained just me and him, together. I sighed.  

As I continued to stare at his elegant movements, his footsteps slowed and he took off his hat; swirled it onto his fingers, then threw it up in the air, caught it on his head. Tap: the last footstep: beautiful.

"Daisy, Emily, Becca, Anne!" called Esme and I jumped three feet into the air, i completely forgot where I was and was mentally in daisy dream land.

"You're up next!" called Esme. Esme was our dance teacher; she despised us calling her Miss or Mrs Newly so we didn't, even though we knew she would never shout at us or moan about it. She was like that; never moaning, never shouting, hard to dislike with her golden hair: tidily scraped back into a ponytail, pale skin and electric blue eyes that held the most peculiar tinge of a creamy white colour I had never noticed before. She always wore grey, three quarter length tracksuit bottoms and a black vest top when she came to teach us at the studio. She was young: about 25 and we loved her from the moment she arrived, all those months ago.

"Come on! Into positions," she called again from the side of the room. All four of us ran into the centre of the room giggling, but ready to perform, focussed.

To my right stood Becca, she was my best friend. Still is my best friend. We used to do everything together: shopping, hanging out at school, bunking off school, going down the park: everything. But since this all started, well... I guess I’ll get to that. 

I remember that as our feet tapped against the floor and our bodies twisted and turned just as Alistair’s had so gracefully moments before, I caught a glimpse of something out of the window. Snow had begun to fall but amongst that was something else. Someone else: someone pale and... I froze. It was a girl and she was almost... see-through. I looked around her and saw another figure: this time a boy. I continued to question what was happening and as the music blaring out from the stereo began to quieten I thought I saw the boy beg. Wait… beg? Why would he- and then it happened. A great beam of white light and the boy sank to the floor; another beam of light swept across the snowy field and swept the once peaceful blanket aside to leave a clear circular patch of grass uncovered. The girl shrieked and the sound was so piercing the windows shattered and screams echoed around the studio. Everyone fell to the floor, shielding their heads from the debris. The screaming had stopped and the two mysterious figures had gone. I frowned in disbelief at what had just occurred.

The sudden touch of a hand softly but firmly gripping my arm snapped me back to civilization. Other members of our class had begun to stand up, wearily looking around the room for anymore danger. Alistair pulled me away and as we reached the door, I stopped. I looked up into Alistair's gorgeous but peculiar brown-white eyes and frowned at him.

 "It's time you knew the truth," he sighed, and pulled me out into the snow.

-4 weeks earlier-