What Lurks in The Dark

Chapter 1: First Contact

It burned; everything burned. Everything hurt. Every muscle in my body was either torn or strained. All I could see was the light of the moon shining down on me as the foreboding figure tossed Thomas away like a broken toy, laughing maniacally. Camelia weakly clung to life as she clutched the arrows impaled into her stomach, frozen in shock as she lay against a wall and blood seeping from her mouth. No matter what we tried, nothing worked. Despite how much everything hurt, I struggled to my feet as I picked up my sword and got myself ready for one last stand, with a soft glow coating the edge of the blade. And as I rose, they turned to face me, and their black eyes focused on me, and a demented grin streaked across their face.

"Come on... I still got a bit left in me."

12 hours earlier...6:30 AM

I woke up from the alarm I had set, and upon getting out of bed, I stretched my arms and back, "Alright, fellas, get up. Another day starts now!" I walked around the room, patting the beds of my teammates to shake them awake, causing one, in particular, to groan in annoyance groggily. "Uuuuuugh, it's too early for this!" He groggily sat up from his bed, with his hazel skin matching his messy bedhead hair. "It's only 6:30, Tim. Breakfast opens at 7 AM, and today's special announcement will begin at 8:30." I reprimanded, to which he softly glared, narrowing his brown eyes, "I swear, you got my name wrong on purpose! It's TOM! You know, like Thomas! And yeah, I know the times!"

"Yet you still complain about it. But on the bright side, you're finally awake now!"

Thomas rolls his eyes as he gets out of bed and gets his uniform. When I turned around, Camelia was already out of bed with her uniform in hand, a bright smile shining on her face. Her hair was a bit messy, but nothing some water can't fix. It was primarily brown with blonde streaks, "I'm awake, team leader!" Camelia excitedly announced. "Yeah, we can see that, Miss Suck Up," Thomas snarkily remarked, only to get a book thrown at his face, "..Ow."

I laugh at the display before checking the last bed, only to see Nathan already getting up. His hair was unnaturally gray for his age; either that or he used hair dye. No one knows. "Don't worry. I'm already up." Nathan's voice was as deep as the ocean. You'd think it was because he just woke up, but this was his natural voice. I nodded in approval, "Good on ya. Let's get ready for breakfast."

Once we were all dressed, we headed to the cafeteria for some breakfast. As we ate our food, we noticed the famous Team Rwby enter as well.

"Hey, look, it's them!" Camelia couldn't take her eyes off them. Nathan raised an eyebrow, "They're not icons. They're just like us." Camelia scoffed, "They've been standing up to the White Fang! Didn't you see the news?? Even from initiation, everyone knew they were special!!"

"Oh yeah, the news." Thomas gets his scroll and sees the reports footage of a mech running through the city on the freeway and suspiciously placed rose petals. "Weren't they also seen at the dock?"

Camelia nodded excitedly, "Yep! They're so cool, and I wish we could fight alongside them one day."

"You know you can talk to them, right?" I softly chuckled. Suddenly she got flustered, "Nooo, I'm sure they already got enough friends... They probably don't want people just walking up to them."

"Hey, another group is sitting with them." Nathan pointed out team JNPR joining them along with a couple of others. Camelia got even shyer, "See? They already got so many people, and I don't want to overwhelm them."

I roll my eyes with a smile before getting up and getting Camelia up as well, pulling her by her wrist. "Come on. We're gonna go say Hi." She would quietly protest, digging her heels into the floor as I dragged her to their table, "Hello, everyone! I hope we're not interrupting anything."