Prologue
"Where is that dickhole?" Sam didn't even look up from his iPhone on which he was playing chess.
"Which one?" I replied.
"Conner," He took a swig of beer.
Conner the weakest member of the school soccer team who did his training by playing FIFA with us, had gotten us invited to this party. I assumed that conversation ended in a long and uncertain "sure". My friends who surrounded me now, minus Conner, really had no idea what to do at a party, hence the iPhone chess. I believed the host only agreed to inviting us to boost his ego. I hoped that it made him feel super popular seeing us skittishly sip beer in a corner. Though this corner was exceptional for observing all the forms of high school life condensed into a living room.
Popular kids at the epicentre, each layer becoming less and less popular but striving to get to that core.
Since it was such a small town, pretty much all the teenagers in our year level were there, their little cliques mingling around, while ours stayed relatively intact. No ambition like the other cliques. That epicentre we would only watch not daring to dream of being in it, nor wanting to. Conner was the only one "brave" enough to leave the safety of the corner. This only for his one true love, Ruby Abel. However, she was over with the girls that only had their looks, a clique that would only be penetrated by boys who only had their looks and maybe a sport or two. Conner though being from a sport wasn't known for it, he actually wasn't known for anything. His popularity rank was as low as mine so Conner from the corner losers wouldn't have a chance but he didn't know that. He lingered around the edge of their group slipping from his bottle, like a fly trying to land on shit. They, of course, gave him no attention.
"There he is," I had finally caught sight of Conner, I nudged Sam.
Sam looked up from his iPhone and snickered, "Was he really wearing that the whole time?"
Conner was wearing a Sherlock T-shirt. While we loved the show it was super uncool. He was buzzing around Ruby and her friends.
"I guess he is," I said watching him.
"Such a dingus," Sam muttered.
He decided tapping away on his fancy new iPhone was more interesting than the party. I didn't blame him. Sam had been my best friend since primary school and the centre of our group. His dad had bought a huge flat screen TV so his house had become our hang out. He was downing his VB, there was a massive slack of slabs of them in the middle of the room, must have been on sale at the Bottleo. My other friends Arawn and Conley tried to have a conversation to the other side of me, though being assaulted by the Black Eyed Peas and Lady Gaga made their conversation strained.
I would much rather prefer to be at Sam's house right now. Even though it was my first proper high school party that didn't involve the boys coming over to watch a movie I was so bored.
I wandered through the crowd of drunk dancing bodies and strobing fairy lights and made my way outside. There the music was down to a headache like throbbing and the air smelt of vomit. Still, it was refreshing. I took another swig of beer and looked up. A full moon winked down at me. The night was cooler than most, though not quite enough for me to put a jumper on, it rarely got that cool here. It offered some gray light a comfort compared to the ugly neon flashes of the fairy lights. A breeze rolled in stirring up the strong scent of vomit but the scent of the forest washed it. Cleansed it. It was only a few streets away and I could scarcely make out the tops of the trees in the moon light over the many houses in the way. Most people in town were creeped out by the forest, though it's familiar smell was a comfort. Still those treetops seem to judge me for wasting my time.
I had to agree with them.
The door slid open and someone rushed to the edge of the deck leaning on the railing and threw up into the garden. In a green flash, I saw it was Ruby. She wiped her face and offered me a smile, "hey um what's your name?"
"Torsten," I replied but it seemed that she didn't even hear me, she just approached me swaying dangerously trying to stay upright in her heels.
"You're friends with Conner right?" She approached me, "well can you tell him to like fuck off? The little creep is hitting on my girlfriends."
Her pretty face was ruined by an ugly occa accent.
I nodded and she ruffled my hair with the same hand she had used to wipe her mouth, "you're a good boy."
I swatted her hand away, she just giggled and walked back inside. My eyes followed her out, she was a grade-A bitch but she also owned a grade A ass. Low-rise jeans made it all the more obvious. It was the first time I had been so close to her. Even though it was only stupid high school popularity that I didn't believe in I couldn't help but to feel a little star struck.
A few more deep breaths of Queensland forest and puke and I returned back into the armpit of hell.
My eyes instantly found Conner on the outskirts of the popular group. Eyes glued on Ruby. On the other side of the room, something caught my attention. I'd seen her around the hallways before but never had really taken notice of her. Huge soulless black eyes reflected the fairy lights like a mirror or a crystal ball. She was a living china doll with a frilly and lacy black dress on. She didn't seem like the kind of person that would like it here, yet again neither did I.
Suddenly I was pulled back by my shoulder. An icy grip. Even though my T-shirt. I turned to see William, "Hey bro what are you doing here?"
Jet black hair styled into a side fringe that covered one eye, he was tall, athletic and handsome. The school heartthrob with a group of almost equally attractive guys that followed him like ducklings. If he jumped off a cliff it would become a trend. His eyes seemed fake to me and his smile, plastic.
I shook out of his grip, "Absolutely nothing."
Run-ins with two of the most popular kids in school. It was a fateful night.
I turned to walk off but the doll girl from before was right behind me, if she had been taller she would have been breathing down my neck but she barely reached my shoulder. Her brow was creased and her pure black eyes bore into mine. Concern. It froze me to the spot and all the music melted away behind me. I had no idea what the girl's look meant but every fibre of my being wanted to find out for my own safety.
"Vlasic!" the girl's friend pulled her away, he was wearing a long black matrix looking coat, "focus."
The girl made no reply, she just stopped looking at me. I backed away. Whatever that girl was on, I wanted no part of it. William was gone too. Scanning the room it seemed as if he and his ducklings were never here.
The girl's friend approached me, insanely bright blue eyes met mine. He offered a hand "Orvar, I don't believe we've met."
"Yeah I'm Torsten," I agreed with him, I don't think I'd ever seen him before.
"You wouldn't happen to know where William and his friends went?" Orvar leaned in as if it were some great secret.
I shook my head and he gave me a friendly smile and walked away pulling the girl by the arm. Returning to the corner beside Sam who was now bordering on drunk I could see the last of William's group slipping through the front door. Strange, so unlike William, the first invitee to any social event, to leave a party so soon.
***
"Torsten get over here!" Sam yelled, the rest of our friends laughing at nothing and 'playfully' pushing each other. They were all drunk. Me, however, I was the responsible one tonight. I had to take care of their drunk asses. We were walking in the middle of the street on our way home. In such a small town you could do things like that.
I looked up from my phone, my mum had been texting me like crazy. It was around 2 AM and we still weren't back from the party, no wonder she was so worried. I didn't even want to stay that long but Sam and Conner were "having fun" only because their drunken haze allowed it. Lucky for them the popular kids were drunk enough to let them enter the inner circle if only for that night I guess they felt like kings. Arawn, Conley and I just wanted to go home. We indulged them maybe for a little too long.
At the age of sixteen, I couldn't even drive them home. Even if I had a licence I didn't trust myself to drive.
So we were walking.
I slid the vibrating phone into my pocket and ran to catch up to the rest of them.
They were all crowded around something. I pushed a few of them out of the way to look at it, hoping it wasn't one of them on the ground. It was a rabbit that had been hit by a car, blood caked its fur and its organs were hanging out of its body. I could only tell it was a rabbit because of it's little fluffy white tail had been kept intact, the rest of it was smeared. Conner was poking it with a massive stick causing a strange fluid to leak from an organ. I sighed deeply.
"Come on, keep going, I want to be back home before sunrise and before my mother has a heart attack!" I called out to them while leading the way before one of them dared another to eat the rabbit.
Gradually we made our way through the town, I split off from the rest of them because my house was in a different part of town. I felt kind of bad about it but I had to be home .... Like four hours ago. I watched them all walk down the street staggering around, I really needed one of those kindergarten walking ropes with the loops on them. Even then they needed a leader. They were possibly more hopeless than kindergarteners.
I lived on the street bordering the forest. As I walked past it I wasn't scared, don't get me wrong, but I was a little cautious. All because of what happened about nine years ago. A boy wandered into the forest and went missing for the whole of winter but the first day of spring the police found his dead body completely ripped to shreds. The thought of it sent shivers down my spine. Why we haven't moved a little closer into town because of that is beyond me.
Despite that story, the forest seemed to have a mysterious allure to it. The wind that wandered through the trees seemed to whisper to me, daring me to step foot inside it and explore its secrets. It would show me things that would blow my mind and tell me things that would shake my world to its very core.
It was a school night so I didn't listen to a word.
The street light above me was flickering which made the forest seem all the more creepy. I glared up at the street light.
Just then it went out leaving me completely in the dark.
Great.
I continued walking using the light of my vibrating phone to guide me. It didn't make a very good torch though. I relied on my ears for direction. Hearing the wind rustle the trees that I now couldn't see, I could hear the tall ones creak like an old door being opened. It sent a cold sweat down my back.
I heard a branch snap. My heart leapt into my throat along with acid that curled my tongue. I looked around but that obviously didn't help me in the slightest. I couldn't see in the dark. But something sizable was there. It's presence wasn't something easy to disregard, I could smell blood and the musky scent of a large creature.
Suddenly I felt something bite into my neck. I dropped my phone. Cracking the screen, the light blinked and back to total darkness. Pain erupted from my neck. Canines tore deep into my flesh as if a lion struck. It's hot breath blew into my ear. I tried to scream out but my throat was so badly damaged I could barely breathe. Panic whirled around my head and I didn't want it to be my last thought, but I wasn't in control. I didn't have a choice. My blood splashed onto the ground and I could feel a warm puddle forming around my feet.
It then pulled me towards the forest. I didn't have enough strength to fight against it, I was at its mercy.
I would say I faded away into darkness but I was already in darkness, my consciousness drifted away, along with any hope of leading a normal life.
First edit - 2/4/2018
Spelling and grammar edit 1 - 25/6/2019
Spelling and grammar edit 2 - 16/7/2019
Workshopping edit - 4/7/2022