Chapter 4
White-faced, I walked into the building.
"Are you ok bro?" Sam asked.
I took a while to process and respond "you know how we think the people who wear spiked collars and green hair are weird?" Sam nodded, "Well I disagree, William has started a cult."
Sam burst into uncontrolled laughter, "You know what, you're fucking right about that."
I smiled, his laughter snapped me out of my malfunction. "The strangest thing just happened, they were all connected like a machine."
"Hmm yeah, I guess they just copy everything he does," Sam was still giggling "I've kind of known it this whole time but no one has put it into words so brilliantly."
"No no, like their moments were in sync."
"Creepy," Sam chuckled then added, "also a new level of sad."
There was a flash of hot pink in the corner of my eye. I felt myself come alive. Curiosity overwhelmed me, I wanted answers from that hot pink and I wanted them now!
I walked away from Sam ignoring his questions and followed it down the hall.
But it turned out to be just some stupid bitch's crop top that was brimming with cleavage. She was going for hot but it was just gross. Tempted to wash out my eyes and scrub my brain I continued on in search of Juno.
After looking around the school in all the places I thought those strange people would loiter I stood there at a loss. Maybe Juno doesn't come to school until later..... I don't even know what class she is in. I really don't know that much about it and I instantly felt bad about that. If I just knew more...
I sighed, disappointed and started to made my way back to my locker.
I looked to the ground but something caught my eye at the end of the hall. A girl with dark purple hair in a punk outfit leant against the wall as she was on her phone. That had to be one of Juno's friends. Her style was alternative but not in the way that matched anyone else at the school, much like those two I met at the party. And Juno of course. I quickly walked towards her, I'm a lot faster now which is actually awesome. She didn't look up completely oblivious of my presence.
"H-hello," I stumbled intimidated by the dragon lip piercing she had. It was glaring at me with its angry beady onyx eyes.
She looked up at me, her irises were completely black and so much larger than a normal person's, just like her little lip friend's. Her gaze quickly became a judgemental one upon seeing my blonde hair. Normally I'd be pissed at that but this girl was terrifying.
"What do you want?" I swear it sounded like a hiss of a snake.
"Do you know Juno?" I asked in a small voice, her eyes told me that was a stupid question, "Do you know where she is?"
She sighed and became a little more relaxed, her focus had fallen on my teeth, "you're that guy Juno was talking about huh?" Juno was talking about me... "Yeah I'll take you to her, I was just about to join the others myself. By the way, I'm Ilona."
She stuck out her hand adorned with nails sharp enough to rip out my beating heart, and an aggressive smile with rows of teeth sharp enough to eat it. Nervously sweating I shook her hand "I'm Torsten."
"Cool," she hissed and started to walk, gesturing with her claws for me to follow. I did as she told me. Many people cast judgemental glares at both of us, mainly girls though. I see they are jealous of Ilona, almost made me want to hold her hand. Almost.
Ilona lead me to a spot under the stairs where all of Juno's group were sitting. All of them so uniquely dressed yet they fit in with each other under the common theme of black. They all looked up at me, a foreigner. My eyes instantly found Juno and she smiled sweetly back at me. "Thank you, Ilona," she sang with her high pitched voice, glided to Ilona and hugged her.
"You're welcome," Ilona hissed back.
I saw the doll looking girl from the party and her friend in the group. A feeling shot through me that this was all connected. A look of recognition flashed through their eyes but before I could say anything -
Juno then turned to me "Come on I have to take you somewhere!"
Her tiny hand grabbed my own, it was cool and I could feel the even colder rings she wore kiss my hand. She then pulled on it and she quickly started to walk, her little hot pink and black skirt flowed around her legs and her bright hair brushed my arm. Even though it had probably been dyed many times it felt so silky and so soft.
"Torsten walk faster!" she called and I did as she said.
"Where are you taking me?" I asked as she headed for the door.
"To a person who I think can answer some of your questions, I hope you don't mind missing a bit of school," she explained.
Honestly, I was a bit disappointed that she herself didn't know but I was glad that she could at least help me.
Juno took me out of the school, we then proceeded to walk around the town. She seemed to have a sense of her destination but I was hopelessly lost. If she was taking me to be killed I wouldn't know which way to run as the school seemed so behind us, behind us where? That I had no idea. I had thought that I was familiar with the whole town, it being so small and the surrounding being only farms for days. But she had taken me to a part of town I had rarely frequented, and as we delved further in, a part I had never been. I wondered why my parents had never taken me here but as I looked around an answer was obvious.
The buildings around us were old, lots of cracks and peeling paint clearly showing despite pathetic attempts to hide them by owners. The footpath was older too, cracks everywhere it made it difficult to walk. Juno, however, seemed to know every crack and stepped over the rising waves of concrete without even glancing down. Vines and other creeper plants grew up the walls of these buildings to strangle their bricks and smother them in a leafy blanket. Dropped branches of trees lay in front gardens, seemingly carelessly chucked there and left to rot. The scent was like a forest, rotting leaves' and branches' fumes filled the air. Many weeds grew through the cracks in the pavement of the footpath, showing that not many people came here.
"We are getting close," Juno told me as she skipped over a weed with sickly common yellow flowers sprouting from it.
"Good," I grunted accidentally stepping on and crushing the weed. It's pollen and plant blood gave the sun paled concrete a sickly pee-like a stroke of colour.
I noticed on one of the wooden telephone poles used to hold the cables up there was a large scratch that only some really big cavernous animal could have made. Possibly the same large animal that attacked me. I filled with dread.
"Juno, what was that?" I asked.
"Don't worry about it Torsten," she dismissed it. Seriously though that's not reassuring. Maybe if we get into trouble I can bite it with my pointy teeth.
A ridiculous idea...
Looking around I could see more and more things that had been attacked and mutilated by possibly the same animal. Was this the same animal that attacked me? Or was there a whole group of the same animal, a pack?
Though fear lingered in my mind like a bad smell this was a great indication that we were headed in the right direction to get my questioned answered. That at least was a comfort to me.
There were fewer and fewer signs that people lived in the houses that surrounded the street until I looked around and all of the houses seemed to be abandoned. That was exactly the point when Juno stopped.
"In here" she muttered and looked to a particular house that stood in front of us.
I looked at it and honestly, it was terrifying. There was black smoke pouring out of the chimney and every now and again a few red sparks. The house was covered in creepers but there seemed to be a failed attempt to get rid of them as there were some laying on the ground seeming to have been ripped off. The windows were lazily boarded up however most of the boards were barely hanging onto the window frames by a few nails. Inside however heavy black curtains hit the interior of the house. The house was made of huge bricks of old blue-black stones that reminded me of what a castle would have been made of. The house also had a large hexagonal room all the windows were covered just like the rest but it just added to the castle feel of the house. The garden, if I could call it that was covered in the strangest and most vicious looking plants. Big thorns beckoned threateningly.
"We're going in there?" I asked kind of scared.
Juno nodded and skipped into the garden, pulling me along the overgrown path, the wicked barbed vines attempting to trip me up. Juno stepped up onto the front deck and knocked on the door. Cold sweat was pouring down my back. What kind of person lives in this house.
I heard movement from inside and I felt like I was going to throw up.
Then the door started to move.
First edit - 1/4/2018
Spelling and grammar check 1 - 25/6/2019
Workshopping edit - 24/7/2022