"Okay, since we just finished a major project and you guys are probably fried out up in those little heads of yours," my art teacher said, but I was barely able to focus on her. All I could think about was how I treated Zach this morning. "Let's just do a two day sketchbook instead of a test on the artist we were mimicking.
"Draw anything," she directed as she started to pass out our sketchbooks. "It could be a guitar, your pet, a sport you love, anything! Just follow the paper I give you and you should get a high grade," she said as she gently placed my big sketchbook on my desk with the rubric. "Have fun!" She said cheerfully before going behind her desk and doing little sketches of her own.
I slowly opened up my sketchbook and turned the pages of it gently, not wanting to rip any of the pages. As I turned the pages I looked around the classroom using my peripheral vision and sighed quietly in content. There weren't many people in my art class, only about seventeen students, and thankfully all of them had there own little clique tables even when it came to a class like this. All of my friends were either in an earlier class or didn't do art, so I was stuck sitting by myself at a big table.
And I loved it.
I loved the feeling of being away from people: out of the way of drama, rumors, distractions, etc.
Especially today, when being alone is literally all that I wanted this whole entire day.
"Ok. Next," I said to myself as I found an empty page in the sketchbook and brought the paper the teacher gave out up to my face, reading it in my head.
_____________
Ask yourself:
- does my project cover at least three-fourths of the page?
- does my project have a good use of whatever medium I am using?
- is there correct shading, blending, burnishing, etc. in my piece?
- is the focal point (center of interest) obvious?
- is there a good use of craftsmanship in my piece?
- could someone else understand what the piece is?
_____________
I looked over the small, half sheet of paper with a concentrated look. I understood the rules and what the teacher wanted from me, but I didn't know what to draw, or what medium I should use. Paint? Pencil? Pen? Sharpie? Pastels?
"Michelle, is everything alright, dear?" the teacher asked in a concerned voice right behind me, making me jump slightly in my seat from the shock of her suddenly being next to me when she was ten feet away a second ago.
"Um.. Yeah, I just don't know what to draw," I replied in a calmed voice, the teacher's face instantly calming as well.
"Would you what me to give you a little nudge to help?" the old woman said with a kind smile, making me smile back and nod.
"Yes, thank you," I answered with a smile as I turned my body around to face her.
"Okay," she said, her voice turning a little bit serious. "After I leave I want you to close you eyes, and I want you to search in here," she said, tapping my forehead "and here," she said, tapping where my heart is "for the answer. Even if the answer might not be what you want to draw, draw it. Let you fingers do the work for you."
I stared at her blankly, not liking the advice she gave me. I wanted her to say something like "draw a duck", not "search your soul for the answer". I've already thought about it, but nothing came to mind.
As if the teacher could read my mind, she grabbed my shoulders with her little, bony fingers and gave them a firm and sure squeeze. "Think harder," she demanded calmly in a serious voice before letting go of me and waking away, her little four foot frame walking away and leaving me completely confused.
"Think harder," I repeated with a sigh before turning back to my desk and staring at the blank sketchbook. Everyone else was already starting there drawings, I could tell, by the laughter and the bragging I heard of there sketches so far.
"Close you eyes..." I said quietly to myself, repeating what the woman said as I did the action. "And search," I whispered to myself as I leaned back in the uncomfortable metal chair.
Blank.
My mind was completely, absolutely, one-hundred percent blank.
No thoughts, what-so-ever, even passed my mind as I tried to think and "search". It was like my mind was a computer that just got wiped out or a TV where it's not working and all you see is squiggly lines and all you hear is that irritating static sound.
But the weird thing, out of all of what just happened to me, was that even if I tried- and trust me, I tried- I couldn't do it.
I couldn't open my eyes.
My body felt paralyzed, my head felt like it was being held in place, and my lips and eyes felt like they were sewed shut. Nothing, and I mean nothing, I did was helping me out. I felt like screaming, but even if my head I couldn't scream. I was a prisoner in my own body.
"Michelle," I faintly heard someone say in the distance as I kept trying to open my eyes.
'Help! Help me!' I managed to scream in my head in a strained and whimpering voice, feeling like I was being strangled tighter and tighter with every letter I spoke out.
"Michelle," the same voice said again after what felt like an hour, making me want to cry.
'PLEASE! H-HELP ME!' I screamed in my head, sounding like I was about to be decapitated, and hoping somehow the person talking to me could save me and stop this.
I heard a distant, sickening giggle that sounded like it came from some demented child start to form in the back of my head. 'Do it again,' the giggling voice said, the invisible hands tightening around my throat. 'Do it again! I want to hear you scream! DO IT!'
"Michelle," the person said in a clearer and firmer sounding voice as I felt a hand touch me. As soon as the person touched me my eyes opened and the first thing I did was let out a hitched breath. The second thing I did was look at what was in front of me.
'That's not what I started off seeing,' I said in my head in a scared voice as I saw my position and the drawing in front of me.
I was hunched over on my desk- my long hair covering my face entirely- with my pencils and colored pencils scattered slightly across the table and a picture I don't remember drawing right in front of me.
Two eyes.
A blue and a red one.
Drawn with so much precision and detail that at first I thought they were actual eyes. They looked challenging, mischievous, and sadistic at first glance; and the background was shaded heavily, but I could tell as I kept looking at it that the background was a hood reaching to right above his eyebrows and the bottom of the drawing reaching to the top half of his nose, the layout of the picture being a "landscape layout".
My blood ran cold at the sight of that drawing, the eyes literally taking up more than half of the page.
That face. Those eyes. They looked familiar.
Where have I seen them?
"Michelle," they said again, shaking my shoulder slightly. It was a boy. A teenage boy. "Michelle, are you okay?" he said, before turning me to face him and picking my head up by putting his index finger on my chin.
It was Ariel.
'He's the one that saved me,' I thought to myself, wanting to kiss his feet and the ground he walked on when I realized that.
He had other plans though, I could tell, because as soon as my eyes found his Ariel's eyes widened in shock before he looked at my drawing and glared at it. "Michelle, close your eyes. Now," he said, making me nod slowly and close my eyes, immediately getting dizzy. "Don't open them, no matter what you feel or what happens," he said as I heard little clicks and clacks to my left, where my pencils were.
He was cleaning up my stuff for me.
"No, here, let me cle-"
"No," he demanded harshly making me cringe away, my eyes still shut. "Just keep your eyes shut and let me do this."
"Okay," I whimpered quietly, not liking the sudden weakness he made me feel.
'He can't talk like that to you. Open your eyes!' a voice in my head hissed.
"Don't listen to it, Michelle," Ariel automatically blurted out, as I heard a snap that sounded like my art box snapping shut. I could feel his presence next to me, his breath on my neck. "It wants to control you. Don't let it," he whispered into my ear, making me shiver.
'No! He wants to control you! Kill him!' the voice screeched in my right ear, making me slam my hands into my ears and press down as hard as I could.
"Stop, stop, stop," I changed in a whisper, feeling a hand on my shoulder again.
'NO, DON'T LET HIM TOUCH YOU!' it screamed into my ears again, sounding twice as loud even with my ears covered by my hands.
"Michelle, focus on my voice," Ariel said quickly, helping me up by my armpits. "My voice and nothing else. Block out everything else."
'YOU CAN'T BLOCK ME OUT!' the voice yelled with a cackle, making me want to cry.
"I can't block it out," I repeated, wanting to cry as he helped me walk.
"I'm leaving with her, Mrs. Waterhouse!" Ariel said to my art teacher before helping me out out the room.
As soon as we were out of the room- I could tell from the sound of a closing door- Ariel gently leaned me against the wall and held me by my shoulders.
"Deus, a daemonibus auxiliando," Ariel said in a calm way, moving one hand from my shoulder and bringing it to my forehead. "Deus, tuere caput a daemonibus," he said, his voice sounding more distant to me.
"Ariel, aren't I supposed to be in class?" I asked in a dreamy voice, sounding like I was about to fall asleep.
"Class ended. You're supposed to be in lunch right now," he chuckled as he started to continually make little plus signs on my forehead.
"Oh, really?" I asked, feeling like all power was drained from me. "That's bad."
"Yes, but you should be happy that I am with you," Ariel said, gently putting his hands on my ears. Almost instantly the throbbing I felt and the pain that was in my ears vanished, the only thing left behind being a little tickle before all pain went away.
"And why is that?" I asked playfully, feeling more energized.
"Because," he said as he caressed my eyelids with his thumbs, my eyes instantly feeling less heavy. "I can have you and I charmed out of a detention easily."
"That's great," I chuckled, hearing his beautiful chuckle in return.
"You can open your eyes now, beautiful," he said, making me blush a deep red and open my eyes with a little flutter. "Feeling better?" He asked, to which I nodded, not trusting my voice.
He thinks I'm beautiful.
'Oh, shut up, he's just saying that because he's a gentleman. You aren't really beautiful,' I told myself in my head as I looked down to the ground, wanting to disappear.
But based on the chin lift he did to me again with the side of his index finger and the intense look on his face, Ariel had other ideas. "You don't think you're beautiful?" he asked in a slightly shocked voice, making move my eyes to look at the floor.
"Well, obviously I've changed in appearance since the last time you saw me, b-"
"No," he said firmly, putting his other hand on my cheek. "I don't see a difference in you. You look just as amazing and gorgeous as you were last week. Never think you aren't beautiful."
"I don't want to start this conversation right now," I stated with a sigh, making him drop his hands and furrow his eyebrows.
"What do you mean?" he asked, making me look at him pointedly and sigh again.
"The conversation? You know? The ones that girls have on the Internet all the time?" I added, but his eyebrows just furrowed even more.
"I do not understand..." Ariel trailed off quietly, making me look into his eyes closely to see if he was kidding me.
"The one where a girl says she isn't pretty- and most of the time people think it's for attention, but in this case it's not- and then the best friend comes in and saves the day by lying and saying they are the most beautiful person in the world," I explained to him slowly, making his expression look slightly offended.
"I would never dare to lie," he said in a hurt voice, making my eyes widen.
Did I say something I shouldn't have said?
"I didn't mean-"
"Michelle," Ariel said sternly, cutting me off. "Please understand that whatever I tell you will always be the truth. I have never lied in my life, and I wouldn't start now just to please someone. Whatever I tell you is the truth, so when I say you're beautiful that means you're beautiful," he informed, sounding like a lecturing parent.
"I'm so-"
"And do not compare me to a lecturing parent. I'm a lot more attractive then some old man," he said sternly, adding a little wink and a cheeky smile at the end, making me laugh.
But the fact that he knew what I was thinking without me even telling him, and the fact that he came into the classroom even though there's no class after mine didn't go unnoticed with me. "Ariel?" I said after a couple minutes of us just standing in silence, staring at each other.
"I know what you want to ask," he whispered sadly, making me smile uncomfortably and rock back and forth on my shoes. "But I'm afraid I can't tell you who I am right now."
"What?" I asked in puzzlement, my rocking stopping. "Why?"
"Because it isn't the right time. I mustn't tell you yet," he said with a guilty expression, making me nod slowly in understanding. I'm a very impatient person, so him telling me that would get on my nerves for God knows how long, but I respected that he didn't/couldn't tell me. After all, it wouldn't be fair if I didn't respect that. I would be a hypocrite if I did that.
"But... If you ever need me," he said, making me quickly look up to him again. "Or... Any of my other acquaintances, just call for us."
"Call for you?" I repeated in a confused voice, not understanding what he meant for that. I don't have his number, so how can I call or text him?
"Don't worry," he said with a chuckle. "If the time comes, you'll know what to do."
* * *
"Where were you?" Stella asked with a frown, when I found them outside in the courtyard, away from everyone. "It's almost been half the period."
"Stella. Honey," Katie said in a motherly voice. "We're in high school, not middle school. Here, class and lunch periods are called mods."
"Katie. Honey," Stella mimicked in a sickly sweet voice. "No one gives a sh-"
"What are you wearing?" Breanna asked, looking at my outfit in shock and appreciation.
"How did you get so fit?" Brooke said in awe, making me roll my eyes and sit down next to Audree.
"Are you okay?" Audree asked, making me look over to her in curiosity.
"Why do you ask?" I questioned cautiously, retracing everything I did in my mind to make sure I didn't do anything stupid or weird.
"You look a little... Pale," Audree said, using the back of her hands to touch my cheeks and forehead.
"Oh, that?" I asked, thankful that it wasn't anything bad.
"Yeah. Are you sick?" Audree asked with a frown on her face, my friends looking at me in concern.
"I'm fine," I said with a smile, hoping they would believe me.
"Excuse my French, but bullshit," Alivia said as she crossed her arms across her chest.
Kill. Me. Now.
"Really. I'm fine," I said in a careless sounding voice as I looked around the room, searching for a pair of eyes.
"Oh, really?" Alivia challenged, making me roll my eyes.
"Yes," I said slowly as I swept my eyes across the room to where he usually stood with his "acquaintances".
"So you aren't worried about anything?" Alivia questioned, making me want to twitch me eye.
'I'm having a very low temper today, Alivia. Quit it,' I wanted to growl out, but thought against it, knowing that comment would get get me nowhere today.
"No," I said sharply as I slammed my hands on the lunch table and stood up swiftly, knocking the chair I was sitting in over.
"Then what was that?" she said, motioning to my stance, making a low animalistic growl rumbled in my throat.
"That was me leaving, because I'm done with your questions," I growled, almost tempted to throw the table across the table.
"Michelle, calm down," Brooke said softly, putting a hand gently on my forearm.
"Just tell us what's going on," Alivia said stubbornly, making me grit my teeth and square my jaw
"Bye," I snapped, not even bothering to pick the chair up before I left them, stocking over to the exit to get into the school.
"Michelle!" I heard some of them say at the same time, but I blocked them out, my anger consuming me at an abnormal pace.
"Come back!" I heard someone say remorsefully as I opened the exit and slammed the door to get into the school shut. No one cared or noticed me come into the room, so without a care I stalked out of the cafeteria and into the hallway.
'That's right, get angr-'
'GET OUT OF MY FUCKING HEAD OR I'LL FUCKING SNAP YOUR NECK WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, YOU PLEASE OF FUCKING SHIT!' I growled at the voice, my own voice sounding animalistic and like a monsters instead of my actual voice.
I faintly heard a whimper come from my right before it vanished completely, but when it vanished a pounding started in my head. "Shit," I hissed out in pain, my footsteps faltering causing me to stagger into the wall.
I grabbed my forehead and winced, closing my eyes. Whatever was going on with me, is too much for one day. There has to be one good thing that will happen me today.
Slowly, I opened my eyes and looked around the hallways. Everything was moving at a weird pace. It would speed up rapidly and then slow down to the point where you would think it was barely moving. Things would zoom in and out of focus, twisting and turning in different ways in an unusual rhythm.
It's like I've been put on some type of drug or something.
"Damn it," I whispered to myself as I tried to stand up from the wall and walk. I needed to get to the nurse so I could lay down or something.
As I started to walk down the hallway I was starting to notice something unusual. Little thumps were being emitted from everyone that passed me, some quicker than others.
Thump... Thump... Thump...
Thump, thump, thump... Thump, thump, thump...
The sound of it was making me very hungry.
I licked my bottom lip as I tried to keep my eyes down and on the floor, the thumps and the urge for something to eat getting bigger.
'You need it. You'll need to feed off of it soon. You'll have to,' a deep, male voice cackled somewhere in the back of my head, making my vision blur and then clear rapidly in a mind numbing pattern.
"I need to sit down," I said to myself, sounding like I had in my mouth, looking for the nurse's office or a bathroom.
"Michelle?" I heard a familiar husky, baritone voice say behind me.
"Sit. Yes I need to sit," I repeated to myself, wanting to laugh hysterically suddenly. "Yes. A seat. To sit on. That's it," I cackled, almost falling over, but catching myself last minute.
"Michelle, stop," the rough voice said, making me want to grin.
"Will you chase me if I say no?" I yelled back as I closed my eyes and threw my head back to face the ceiling. No one but us were in the hallway. I could feel it. The thumps were gone. My thirst was gone.
"Michelle, just stop walking," he said in a harsh voice, making my cackles stop abruptly and my head lower.
"Are you... Trying to force me to do something?" I asked the man like I was a five year old, my head tilting slightly as I stared straight ahead. "That's not nice," I said with an emotionless voice.
"Michelle, turn around. Let me see your eyes," the voice said softly, making my eye's twitch.
"My eyes?" I asked slowly, my vision getting a lot clearer than it was seconds ago.
"Yes, your eyes," he said, his breath now on my neck. "Let me see them."
"Hmm..." I said, leaning into him and closing my eyes, my hand going behind him to the nape of his neck. I felt his body stiffen under my touch, but he did and said nothing about my actions. "How about..." I said slowly, my voice getting lower as a brought my hand up to the top of his hair. In one swift motion I grabbed a handful of his hair, brought his head towards mine, and whispered, "No" into his neck before using his hair to push him away from me, and walking into the girl's bathroom that was two feet away from us.
I opened the bathroom entrance's door with extra force, stalking over to bathroom mirrors.
"What's so special about my eyes, huh?" I growled as I stomped towards the mirror. "Why does he need to see my eyes, huh? What's the b-" I muttered, but when I got up to a mirror and looked up at it I froze. "Oh my gosh," I managed to hitch out shakily.
My eyes were pitch black. Completely black. No white anywhere, what-so-ever.
"Crap," I said, my own personality coming back to me as I stared at the mirror, my eyes slowly going back to their normal dark brown.
"Michelle!" I heard the man say before slamming open the door with a lot of force, shaking the whole bathroom. I jumped from fright, scurrying quickly towards the back wall to distance myself from the man. "Never do that ag-"
Rahab stopped mid-sentence when he saw my face, his mouth staying open and his body seemingly frozen. I stared at him the same way, my body and nervous face not moving a muscle or changing a bit. Both of us just stared at each other for what felt like hours, both in shock and both nervous.
I just didn't know why he was the one looking nervous. He isn't the one that had demon eyes two minutes ago.
"Shit, shit, shit, shit," he groaned out after what felt like hours us us staring at each other. I watched him cautiously as he started to pace, scratching the back of his neck. "It's too early. How did this happen? We haven't even trained her yet..." He muttered to himself as he walked the with of the bathroom repeatedly.
"What are you talking about?" I asked, my voice cracking. Great. Just what I needed.
"I can't. I haven't even-... This wasn't supposed to be-..." Rahab said, but then he froze and I could tell that something in his head clicked, like in cartoons when they put u lit lightbulb on top of the person's head. "Samael," he growled out, his fists clenched. "God, I'm gonna-" he said, cutting himself off by punching the wall of the bathroom.
"Stop!" I screamed, running over to him. "Your knuckles will-" I said, grabbing his wrist and bringing his fist towards me. But when I looked them over they looked fine.
Not even dead skin was on them.
"No need for the caring attitude," he said passively before pulling his hand out of my grip and grabbing me by the shoulders.
"What are y-"
"We need to get you out of here," Rahab said just as I heard that voice in my ear scream, making my knees buckle- a scream almost slipping from my mouth. If it weren't for Rahab's grip on my shoulders I would've been on the cold floor.
'Ring around the houses! A CASKET FULL OF DEAD KIDS!' multiple voices in my head screamed out, making my ear literally bleed. My eyes rolled to the back of my head, nothingness taking over my vision as my body struggled not to go limp.
"Damn it," he muttered, helping me walk over to the sink so I could get paper towels for my ear.
'Ashes! ASHES!' they screeched, making tears slip out of my eyes as Rahab quickly ripped some paper towels from the machine and gently placed them on my ear, the blood covering the whole towel in a matter of seconds. 'They all... Fall... DOWN!' the demon sounding voices screeched out right before my legs gave out and I felt like I've been pushed to the floor- my body sailing a couple feet away from where Rahab was.
Rahab Immediately ran over to where I was and scooped me up with ease, but the speed at which he did it making me want to throw up.
"We need to get you out of her. Now," he said urgently, looking me over in concern and hatred.