Black Bloodstains 
Chapter 8: Dazed and Confused. 

I woke up sweating, my hands trembling; my whole body is drenched in sweat. Breathing heavily I began to take a look around. I’m back home… Apparently. Everything is about it supposed to be, everything I own is at their respective place, and it doesn’t seem that anything is missing. Action figures, comics, computers, games, everything seems to be, normal. Panicking I brutally began searching for a hole in my neck, and nothing, no mess. 

“Did that, did that happen?” I said to myself, still sitting in my bed. “That was a super good nightmare!” I began to laugh loudly, finding the perfect definition of the previous events. “It felt so real! As if someone had impaled me in the neck.” I began checking my neck, searching for some sort of hole or anything like that. But it was clean, not a single thing out of the usual — the beginning of a beard and a small Adam’s apple, like always. 

I rolled off the bed, stumbling on the ground. My general body felt, as usual, not all muscular, neither fat. I do think that I have to exercise more often, girls like very fit and athletic guys. I stood up and checked my table clock. “Hugh…” I said to myself. “Just the perfect time for me to wake up. What a rare coincidence!” I left the clock and walked towards my closet. As always my room was a mess, filled with used t-shirts and comic books. The computer on the corner was still turned on, still playing WoW. I turned it off and started my jam as I prepare myself for school. 

As for December of 63´started, I danced my way to my closet picking up my school uniform. Because I like sleeping in my briefs, making bizarre poses wasn’t very difficult for me. I danced my way to my bathroom, with my white shirt, a new set of briefs, and a pair of black dress pants. I placed them over the toilet lid, and started the warm water, as I continued to dance with my song. I’ve never been a dancer, so my ‘dance moves’ included waving my arms in the same direction, and twisting my hips around. Steam began to pop up, so I removed my briefs and di the whole cowboy scheme with them as I entered the shower. 

I continued dancing while I took a shower, putting on the shampoo and scrubbing the soap all over my body. I turn the water off and immediately grab a towel. Drying myself up I walked over to my mirror, the steam covered most of it, but you could still see the silhouette of my shaggy brown hair, all fuzzed over by the towel. I dressed myself up with the clothes I had in my bathroom, and finish my attire with what I had at my closet. Clean black shoes, stray dress pants, white shirt, red-stripped tie, and topping everything with a clean black suit jacket. “God damn, I’m handsome,” I said to myself while looking at my mirror.

“As if.” The typical annoying sound came up from the door. My little sister was standing there, already with her uniform ready, and closing a little her blue eyes. She was a lighter tone of brown, almost blonde, and younger than me for three years. “Mom says breakfast is ready, you freak.” She giggled closing the door. 

“Shut up you twerp!” I shouted at her while she walked down the stairs. She answered me by showing me her tongue and running off. Like a typical sibling relationship, my sister Emily, and I hate each other. She thinks I’m this freak who never leaves the computer, and she’s this goodie two shoes that gets excellent grades and is the captain of the soccer team. In a few words, she’s a spoiled brat. I grabbed my backpack and walked downstairs, the smell of fried bacon and eggs teased my nose. 

But somehow I wasn’t hungry, I usually eat a lot, and it gets lost in the void of my stomach. But this morning… I don’t feel like eating anything. How, how odd. Just so my mother doesn’t get all pissed off at me, I ate my usual amount of servings. But I didn’t feel anything; I wasn’t full either, I just wasn’t hungry. Whatever, I grabbed my lunch bag and headed out the main door. I live remotely close to my school so that I could walk there with no problem.

Never had the sunlight felt so good! As soon as I open the door, and the sun hits my skin, I feel refreshed, light, and fresh. Some weird sensation came over me, like if I was connected to some magical plug. I felt like running, or jumping, or anything! I secured my bag pack and ran towards my school. 

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“I hate this,” I said while picking up all of my books of the day in my locker. After killing that moron, the rest of the evening was consumed training with both Floyd and Shawn. All day. It was fun for me, I enjoyed it, but damn it was hard! I continued to train my fire magic with Floyd, and my combat skills with Shawn. And during night time, since I don’t need to sleep anymore because of the whole ‘darkness refill your energy,’ I began to train with my Dark magic. I am using a book and a clear space inside Alice’s magic house. I can manipulate this one more comfortable, so it isn’t as exhausting as with fire. 

The problem was, the journey I had to make actually to get to school. Since I’m the only one that doesn’t have a house, I needed to walk several blocks away from the school so that I can return to it like a regular student. And it was a sunny morning. I stayed as much as I could near the shadows, but I had to walk several blocks with the sunrays immediately hitting me. And when I got here, I stayed as further away from the light as possible. 

And now I’m still dizzy and tired, resting my body on my locker. Out of nowhere, my locker’s door slammed shut. Any human would have his fingers cut after this, but the thing passed as if it was nothing through my fingers. They are still inside the job, so I took them out and pretended to feel pain. “So, new meat.” A familiar tone said. 

“What do you want?” I answered back to Jack, who is now one or more feet taller than me. Jack, Jack, Jack, perhaps I can be your mortal enemy as a girl. I enjoyed destroying your jock mind and humiliating you in front of most of the school.

“I’ve heard you’re the new kid around here babe, and I can see you are of the quality that I like.” He said to me while I was still bending over in my locker, with my butt bumping outwards.

I sighed and rested my head on the locker. “Don’t you have a girlfriend?” I told him referring to my old sister. Now that I mention it, I wonder how they are coping with my random disappearance around town. Shit! I haven’t even thought of my previous relationships around here. Nathaniel, Bob! I need to see them at least again, even if they don’t recognize me. 

“How, how would you know that?” He answered dumbstruck. 

“Well two things, one,” I told him putting one of my fingers in the air. “You are a fucking jock; your upper body is practically a couple of balloons attached by a string. Second.” I lift my other finger and point it behind Jack. “There is an above average, good looking girl storming her way towards us. I hypothesize that she is your girlfriend and she’s either mad at you for flirting with me, or she thinks that I’m flirting with you and she wants to hang me right now. I bet you twenty she’s mad at me.” 

My sister pushed Jack away from me and put her finger near my face. Since my head was resting, I barely paid attention to her. “So you are the new one!” She said slamming her foot on the ground. “Well let me tell you something pal, this amazing piece of man is mine! And if you dare to even talk to him, I’ll make the rest of your days in this school a living hell. You understand?” 

I merely stood up, grab my bag pack, and look at her straight in the eye. “Cool,” I said coldly to her, ignoring her flinching reaction afterward. I put my palm in the air and turned my gaze towards Jack. “My twenty.” He struggled to pick out his wallet from his back pocket, but in seconds I had two ten’s in my hand. I squashed them and placed them hard on my sister’s chest. “This is for you; I think that you need a sandwich or something.” I turned around and walked away from them, heading towards my first class. I could hear her saying something to me, and I answered her backflipping her the finger. 

I walked to my first class as if nothing had happened before she and I would have this sort of conversation daily. Minus the part of me stealing her boyfriend. So I felt it like usual, no some kind of adrenaline reaction nor emotional. As soon as I arrived at my class, I sat on the same chair as yesterday and began reading the same book. Meanwhile, most of my classmates, preferably all of them, looking at me muttering something between their teeth. I can tell why not every day the new kid tells the hot chick to ‘Fuck off.’. So I pretty much ignored them and went back to my book. 

It’s a weird thing to read; it tells the backstory of magic and everything related to it. And thankfully it specializes in combat techniques. It has a drawing of how to hold your body, and how to move it, so you make a direct attack. It’s pretty much a book with the story and how to do things. I used it to practice yesterday, learning to manipulate my dark magic using only my mind. Suddenly I felt as if someone was staring directly to me, and the sound of a schoolbag being dropped forced me to look up. It was the idiot, surely surprised that I’m real. “Can I help you?” I told him as a chunk of my hair covered my eye. 

He stood there dumbfounded. He could barely speak, and only gibberish would come out of his mouth. “But, but, how?” The only thing I could understand that went out of his mouth. It’s going to be so much fun to see his reaction when we show him what is going on. If I took it at some comical level, his response would be astonishing! 

I merely raised my eyebrow and looked towards the window, letting the annoying freckle of existence left. The classroom was as always, the windows to the left pointing eastwards. I remember to like the mornings, it warmed up the room after a cold walk to school, but now it isn’t the same. Not only the light now disgusts me, but also the whole concept of being here makes me wonder. Everything still looks the same, guys on the phone playing games, girls gossiping about the latest trends, jocks and cheerleaders comparing each other sex, the leafs time to time hitting the windows due to the air, the light breeze that almost makes all paper fly away, and then there’s me, at the corner doing the same thing. 

Have you ever realized how insignificant you are? Not it a wrong way, but generally. Like when you are inside a subway, and you look around and noticing people. People were having the same problems or doing the same things as you. And they’re probably doing the same thing, but at the end would it matter? Many people die each day, being nothing to the rest of the planet than just a number. But what if we suddenly cease to exist? No one would remember us, nor we will be known. I remember sitting here and looking around thinking the same thing, trying to predict if someone around here might be worthy to be recognized. 

Some quite attractive girls might have something for a role as a model, or if lucky an actress; they’ll surely be remembered for a while, not for what they did but for what they look. Some Jocks might have a little plate with their name if they try their best at sports. And the nerds… Well, what do I have to say about them? These are the kind of people that might do something productive, or world-changing. And then there are the outcasts, the people you’d know they wouldn’t be anyone at life when you see them. 

I used to belong there, with a combination of mere accident and decision. Did I have a lot of aspirations in my life? I remember wanting to make my library or bookstore. I’ll be around what I like and do it as much as possible. But now things have changed, and already my prediction was proved, I’d be very quickly forgotten. I’m not sure what happened to my body, but I think it is in the lines of kidnapping or murder. Still, no one seemed to mind. Was I that lesser to this classroom? And how things have changed, from being a boy that smelled like onion rings, to a princess of a ghost empire. 

That title sounds weird to me; I don’t belong to royalty and never will. I don’t match with that kind of stuff. But what would that leave me with? I can’t return to have a normal life as a person; I’d never age or die in natural ways. That only leaves me as a slave for Alice, even if she called me and talked to me differently this morning. What is her real purpose? And who is she?! She had barely told me something about her past, and why is she now inside a school’s storage. 

I completely ignored the class; they were reviewing a previous topic that I saw before this happened. Only two times the teacher caught me daydreaming looking at the window. It was just so captivating the melody the wind was making through the open window. And even if I am on the third floor, the leaves from this massive tree in the garden manage to hit and or to enter the classroom. But even if I wasn’t paying attention, I could quickly answer back the simple math equations by just looking at them. 

Without recycling my thoughts, the class ended without any trouble or problem whatsoever. I knew that this Sam guy was staring at me most of the time, I accidentally dropped my notebook during the class, and I had to turn around to pick it up, apparently without standing up. And he was looking at me, in the same way, I was looking at the window — what a coincidence. 

Everyone began to stand up and leave the room, picking up a small bag and moving the rest on their sits. Today is P.E. how did I forget that? I rested my head on the desk and sighed loudly. I left most of my belongings and only brought with me a small towel I used to remove the sweat off my face. I stood up with everyone else and walk with them asking questions like: “Where are we going?” “What’s the class like?” “Is the teacher nice?"

Furthermore, furthermore. I sometimes forget that I have to blend in as the new kid. These are some of the few instances in which I can develop this character archetype. 

We had to walk all the way over the gymnasium, so going downstairs and walking under a small street like a hall. Praise whichever is the real god, that this part has a low roof. I don’t know what people do if they see me randomly sweating and wheezing all over. I never understood the full capacity of my weakness. Yes, the sun hurts, but what about the rest? Brightness too? Maybe I don’t regenerate, as I would do if I were in a dark room. 

I am talking about dark rooms, well shaded. I was waiting for this… The locker room. This is an entirely new thing to me. I would be dancing if I was a man right now, but somehow this is different. Girls aren’t attractive to me anymore. They don’t produce that essence of attraction anymore. I still know they are sexy and appealing to the eye, that girl over there is a head shorter than me but has double the front side than me. 

And after all, the girl’s locker room isn’t as different as the boy’s. They aren’t touching themselves around, measuring breast size, or spanking each other with towels. And to be fair, this school is not filled with supermodels. We are teens we are all different. Of course, there are outliers with unimaginable proportions. But we are generally healthy. The average bra size would be like mine, B… B something; I’m still not quite good at the measurements. Don’t get me wrong; there are beautiful girls. 

If I gave you an explanation or go into details on the looks of my school’s female percentage, we would be here for quite a while. So I walked over to my locker, which was given to me on my first day, and thankfully filled with all of the requirements by Laurie. These were very simple lockers, using a big yellow lock to lock the door. It was placed between the cabinets of Betty and Melina. Remember the girl with an outstanding set of chest meat? Why when I’m trying to sound less pervert by evading words like breasts, boobs, tits, etc. I come out much more pervert like?

Whatever, that’s not the point, Melina and Betty are like the BFF’s of the school. They are always together, and you rarely see one without the other. Melina is the cute, short one, with long hair and always wears a long frilly dress. Betty, on the other hand, has a more tomboyish style. Short pixie cut hair, a little taller than me, and most of the time wearing some jeans and a t-shirt. Both are quite the attractive ladies, but I never was interested in them, nor them with me. 

I warmly said “Hello.” While waving and opening the locker. They answered back while changing their clothing and returning to their previous topic. Melina was unbuttoning the school’s frilly shirt, and Betty pants were no more. Have I told you about the school’s uniform? Well, it’s a bizarre one, it’s a very frilly shirt with a big black bow on the chest area. Rumors say it’s a technique so even if girls unbutton their shirts, there is a big bow covering the cleavage. A white and black skirt in the borderline of presentable and slutty, thankfully black knee high socks so the legs won’t freeze to death. A black suit jacket, with fake pockets… and simple black shoes. 

I love Laurie; she’s like the most adorable girl I’ve ever met. Inside my locker, there was a t-shirt, shorts and a towel neatly folded and organized a pink soap and a regular shampoo, and a set of white panties and a sports bra. She has been buying me these clothing, and thankfully she knows my measurements. I began to unbutton my shirt after I had removed the bow and the jacket. I folded it and placed it next to the gym’s clothes. I sat down on the small bench to remove my shoes and socks, and while standing up, I lifted my skirt. 

I was now almost naked just like the other girls were; it felt weird? Yes. Out of place? Nope. I had folded the rest of my clothing and placed them on the locker, just before a light spank hit my bum. “Damn girl, you work out!?” Betty said folding her towel. I simply looked at her dumbstruck; I was shocked by her actions and couldn’t say anything. “Don’t give me that look! You have a bigger six-pack that Melina’s boyfriend!” 

“Hey!” Shouted Melina back, turning around to face us. “Leave Jimmy out of the conversation…” She stopped for a brief second looking down at my belly. “Well… For once Betty isn’t lying…” I looked down at my stomach like the other two girls did. I didn’t have a six-pack but my abdomen was looking very thin and two big muscles formed in the middle of it. “It also seems that you love to do pilates at the gym.” I looked back at my bum, and it was, more significant than the average of the girl’s locker. Not fat, just bigger. 

I think that I came up to an answer to this, as a boy I trained a lot on specific parts of my body. I think it transformed into what most girls would like to prepare too around my age. I had a very curvy body, thigh gap, and a big bum. I blushed and quickly put on the school’s gym shorts that were on the locker. The volleyball shorts to be precise. This means that there is a love/hate relationship with these things, the girls hate it, the boy loves them. It pressed quite firmly my bottom region, leaving not a lot to the imagination. 

I struggled a little with my bra, but in the end, I removed it and placed it with the rest of my clothing. While I was taking out the sports bra, I cover my breasts with my left arm. I know that girls surround me, but do I have to show these things to everyone? Melina and Betty didn’t care, Melina the bustiest of them all, had her melons freely in the air, her large pink areolas sticking out. And Betty was proudly putting on her sport’s bra, not caring to hide her bigger bust than mine. I sighed and let them hang loose, the sensation was a bit weird, but the sport’s bra was surprisingly more comfortable than the normal one. 

Moments later, I was out of the lockers with my white shirt and running shoes on. Most of the class was already gathering up around the teacher, so I usually joined them. I completely ignored whatever comment the boys said to each other, most of them referring to my curves or ‘ass’ in a very impolite manner. But of course, I felt nervous! What kind of emotionless monster would I be if I didn’t blush, or tried to lower my shirt on the backside? Do girls talk like boys do? The closest I got from the locker room was from two girls goggling over Shawn. Do they rate the boys? I do wonder what my final score on their grading method was. 

There was quite the circle gathering around the gym teachers, we do share this class with the guys of the other classroom, around forty kids were on the gymnasium at the moment. As I always did, I remained outside the circle and waited for whatever the teacher wants us to do. This time a much taller person stood up next to me. “How’s your day going Betty?” Shawn said mockingly. I slowly turned myself around to face him directly.

“Isn’t Betty the short usage of Beatrice?” I ask him while my hair continued to cover my left eye. This thing is getting annoying, even if I’m getting used to it. “Shouldn’t it be Beth? Because you know, Eliza-Beth?” Never in my life have I thought that I would casually chat with this guy. The only reason I’m even standing close to him is that I now know him better before we would cross glances and ignore each other. “Now I know how you managed to keep up with me all this time. The gymnasium is pretty lighted up you know.”

“It was an easy advantage. And what are you going to do now? Cry?” He started mocking me and laughing lightly at me. I answer with a grin and stepped on his foot. “Fine, I get it. Too childish for my taste whatever.” He paused and sighed for a while, he then turned his body and faced towards someone else. “What are we going to do with him? We have to tell him somehow.”

I bend over to see past his body. “To whom you are referring? Oh….” I said as I saw Mr. Strawberry ice cream jumping around with his group of friends. “It is not our responsibility, or is it? I already made my part of the job.” I now walked next to Shawn and continued looking at Sam, who was showing up his strength? Maybe? I don’t know what those guys usually do, but it isn’t normal. 

“Well, we do have to tell him. He has to come with us after school.” We both remained quiet for a second, trying to come up with a plan. “Oh yeah!” He snapped out of nowhere. “You have dark powers right?” I simply nodded and turned my head towards him. “You guys have powerful psychic abilities, so maybe you can…”

“ … Hypnotize the teacher, so he stays after hours… We both said at the same time. “ Then you can talk to him after class ends.” We now both looked at each other's faces. “ No!? Why should I? You do it! “ 

I shivered at the weird interaction we just had and waited for him to be quiet. “Look, I already did my share wouldn’t it be fair that you talk to him?” I said poking at his chest. “Besides, I’ll also hypnotize the teacher to make him stay a bit after this class ends. You’ll have to wait probably at the lockers, and tell him the whole scenario.” I paused and looked at Sam again. “Knowing him he might not believe it. If that’s the case, I’ll help you to force him to come with us.” I extend my hand towards Shawn. “Deal?” 

“Fine…” He said answering my shake of hands. “Just remember to not overdo the whole hypnotic thing.” He began to walk away from me, walking towards his group of friends. “Oh and remember, today we have our sports tests, we’ll see if you managed to beat me this time.” 

I chuckled at the sound of his words. I love these days! You don’t have to interact with anyone, and you are by yourself most of the time! I sighed and continued standing up, with my arms crossed, waiting for the instructions. It is pronounced that someone else is going to interact with me. So without having to wait more than a minute, another taller figure than me walked close to me. “Shawn high… you go tigress.” Diana said pressing her head over mine. 

I trembled by the simple statement of me doing anything with Shawn. I don’t even see what girls see on him, and I am one of them now! “Diana… Don’t start, you know for what we came for.” Lizzie said walking closer to me and grabbing my hand. “Elizabeth, we are so so sorry for what we did yesterday. We didn’t even think that you might have passed through all of that.” 

Immediately I felt another presence hugging my torso tightly. Penelope had somehow managed to embrace me in less than a second. “And we like you, and we also want to be your friends!” She said burying her face on my arm. “Please forgive us!” Too much contact, I need personal space, I quickly nodded and stammered some words. “Yay! Group hug!” No…

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“Okay, definitely something is going on,” I said to myself as I continued doing the sit-ups. Today has been a glory! I’ve run, I’ve jumped, I’ve done everything I couldn’t even imagine doing before! For the first time, I was at the top of the P.E., competing with Shawn and all of those sport-junkies. No, correction, I was at the same level as Shawn. I barely did get tired, I barely sweat, and I could continue doing this forever! 

Oh! I forgot, I also saw Ms. Elizabeth in the school’s tight shorts! Her ass was simply am-ass-ing. I could watch it all day with absolutely no trouble. And I was also lucky to be behind her most of the time while doing the test. I was behind her while doing the sit-ups; I saw the borderline of her breasts while doing the push-ups; whenever I did a sit up I saw the special place between her tights; and she was before me while climbing the rope, so…. Booty booty booty booty everywhere! 

Oh, and she was too one of the best in the class, the generation instead. Shawn levels of athletic skills! I remember someone else who managed to not only keep up with Shawn but to beat him! What was his name? Gerry? Garran? Oh! Geoff! The bookworm weirdo, haven’t seen him in a while. But who cared about him?! Aside from Lizzie who clearly showed having something for him. Back to a more appealing topic, Elizabeth passed several tests higher than Shawn, and boy that guy does sports.

Oh yeah, where am I at the moment? Well, we’re doing the last test of the day, a cardio test. It’s straightforward and comfortable; the teacher puts up a radio that every once in a while peeps, the whole point is to reach the other half of the gym before the glance comes out. The time, between each peep, shortens, so as time passes the faster you’ve got to be. And let me tell you, it is heaven to see all of the girls’ breasts bouncing around as they run. Mainly Melina, oh how I have drooled each time I look at her melons jump around. Her boyfriend must be the luckiest man on earth!

Boy, how I get distracted whenever I talk about female attributes. Where was I? O yes, yes indeed. There are only four people still holding up in the cardio test. Shawn, Elizabeth, yours sincerely, and… Oh, make them three! Only three are now holding up the cardio test! We are in that point that just professional athletes can hold up; the peeps are coming in quicker by the moment. We started with a light jog, and now we are furiously running to the other half of the gym. It has come to the point in which the only thing that matters is how fast you are if you can reach the other side before the peep comes up. 

Shawn has always been the fastest on the class; no one has ever even reached him while running. Except for Geoff who managed to do it, twice. And now Elizabeth might be the one who beats him; they are neck to neck, you’ll need a slow-mo cam to see who is winning. For me I’m just a bit behind, enjoying the view of Elizabeth’s ass once again. She might have the greatest back in the whole school! 

I was so distracted that I didn’t notice that I haven’t reached one half in time. I slowly walked outside where most of the students are, to wait up for the rest to finish. It didn’t take long for them not to be able to reach the other side; you’ve got to be unbelievably fast to be able to reach the other hand in time. I’m not even sure if professional athletes have been able to do so, but both Shawn and Elizabeth had the best time in the entire school. Both came out sweating, breathing heavily, Elizabeth sat on the floor and stretched herself, while Shawn rested on his knees while trying to catch his breath. 

“Since when have you been able to do that?” Steve said hitting me in the back. “Last time I think that you couldn’t go further than what I did. And I barely pass this test.” He now stood up next to me, while we watch the rest of the class. “So you have the hots for Elizabeth, she reminds me of someone, whatever, I don’t know your plan, but bro stops dreaming you have zero chances with her. “

“Yeah? Well, at least I’m not a faggot like you! Remember when ‘that’ website popped up when we used your computer?” I told him, bothering of the old times when a gay website showed up at his chrome web search. “And I know that we won’t even be friends, we are completely different and from completely opposites worlds. She’s a nerdy bookworm; I’m a geeky loner; We don’t match.” 

“Yes, yes, continue with your little act.” He said turning around walking towards the shower. “I’ll head on now, see you where we always meet.” I continued looking at Elizabeth, her beauty. Am I honestly in love? Then, what was the whole dream I had yesterday? I mean, who dreams that his crush kills you? It usually gives life to another member… But what does she have that no one else does? She’s pretty, but there’s nothing out of typical of her. 

She’s just…. Different. Right now she’s only talking with the teacher, her puffy lips slowly forming words, her posture accentuating her figure, the dark aura coming out of her hand grabbing the teacher’s face, her toned juicy WHAT? I cleaned my eyes to make sure that I didn't see things, but no. There is some energy that is coming out of her hands and is currently grabbing the teacher’s head. The worse part is that no one seems to care, there’s even a girl standing next to them while that happens. The aura like energy slowly returned to Elizabeth’s body, she then just walked away as if nothing had happened. 

We then stared at each other, does she know that I was staring at her rather knowing what she was doing? I just saw her chuckle and give me a weird expression. She then turned around as the teacher began to approach me. “Johnson, I need you to take all of the equipment back to the storage. They’re over there at the ball cages; I’ll also need you to move those boxes to the storage.” She said doing some things on her charts, probably taking notes. “You should try the track team if you run like that, nice work today.” 

I sighed and relaxed my shoulders; the whole storage place isn’t far away from the gymnasium, is in fact in front of the boy’s locker room. The problem is that it usually gets locked when you are inside. The doorknob is old and rusty, as well as most of the slide metal material. One or two students had been locked inside accidentally for a day; it’s weird that they only call me to do it. Usually, another student is outside if the door manages to lock on you. 

I lifted the bag filled with sports equipment and placed it over the metal cage filled with most of the sports balls. It wasn’t such a heavy burden since the pen has little wheels on the side, some of them are getting a little bit rusty so from time to time I needed to give a bigger push than usual. I proceed to open the storage’s room door as most of my classmates run to get into the showers. It is weird how some of them even if they sweat like beasts in heat, ignore the fact that they smell as such and only put some deodorant to hide it a little. 

I opened the door as much as I could and then walked back to the cage. The room was rather cold and had this little essence of musk in the air. To be fair some of the equipment are things such as football gear, so sweat is pretty much in contact all the time. I could barely see a job, but I knew that this cage, as well as the bag, go on the furthest side of the wall. So I walked between the stands and placed the thing in its place. Turning around I heard a loud crash of the door locking itself; then I saw the silhouettes of two persons. 

“I told you this was the best way to tell him, rather than doing your other idea on the changing rooms.” A male voice spoke up; his voice echoed through the walls of the room. Moments later the other figure turn around, it was, he? Who had closed the door then? Surprisingly this person stood up by having two red glowy eyes, like the ones you’d see on a vampire. “I simply wanted you to do it, rather than both of us.” The other person spoke up, this one porting a somewhat more feminine voice, perhaps I heard it before. 

“Who are you and what do you want with me?” I try to sound as confident as I could, but when you see two demonic eyes in the dark, it is tough to act casual. Both of the figures now appeared to look directly at me; two blue eyes now showed up as it seems to be coming from the male one. “What are you rather? You don’t appear to be human…” 

I heard a facepalm noise coming from the red-eyed figure, parts of her eyes seemed to be obstructed by her hand as well. “That’s how you talk to a possible encounter with unnatural things? I tell you this is a former case!” She spoke up, sounding a bit mad and groaning. Then the figure appears to be moving towards… somewhere. It just disappeared for a moment, and then the lights came on. 

“Shawn and…. Elizabeth?! What are you guys doing here? And why are your eyes glowing?” I shouted as the lights showed Shawn with his hands in his pockets standing over a shoulder next to Elizabeth, who had her arms crossed and looking away to the ground. “What, what is going on!? Why did you guys lock me in! What ar…” I couldn’t talk anymore as I felt some hand shutting my mouth closed, thankfully I didn’t have my tongue out. 

“Shh!” Elizabeth said to me with her left hand, while her other was opened and letting out some black tentacles? Which was the cause for me to close my mouth? What is going on? What is this? “We need to be quiet and fast; we don’t have much time before they notice we are missing. I’ll stop shutting your jaw close if you promise to keep quiet, as we are going to explain everything as simple and fast as we can. Afterward, you’ll be able to ask questions. Agree?” I nodded as hard as I could, this thing in my mouth began to feel weird on me, and I was indeed curious. The thing flowed back into Elizabeth’s hand and completely disappeared. “Hit it, Shawn.” She said as she rested on the nearby door. 

“Look, Sam, I know this will sound weird but whatever she did to you yesterday was real and happened.” She said pointing at Elizabeth as well as moving her arms towards me. Something in his body language was odd, attractive in a friendly way… I know for sure that this guy is one of the most, or even the most, popular guy at school, perhaps this is why. “So…. Yes, you are dead.” I was about to react loudly when Elizabeth quickly reacted, and the black energy tentacle appeared from her arm again. I closed my mouth immediately, and she returned to her resting position. “Do you picture the gardener’s small storage on the main garden?” I nodded as he moved toward the door. “Meet us there after school; there is no but’s or anything. You must be there. Understand?”

“Yes!” I immediately reacted, still a little bit in shock with the whole black tentacle thing. “But I do have a question, how will we get…” They suddenly managed to pass through the closed door, like Copperfield with the Chinese wall, those two took a step or two and puff! Now they are on the other side, not leaving behind any clothing or object. Seconds later the door crashed open, letting the light enter inside again, giving me now a more clear view of Elizabeth and Shawn. 

“You must not tell anyone about this, no one. Not your family or friends, and you can only discuss with us if no one manages to hear it. And be there, you get it?” Elizabeth said before walking away from the door, Shawn behind her entering the boy’s locker room. After they left, I fell on my butt, almost knocking my air off. I sat looking around, not believing what was going on. Dead? But I’m here. Shouldn’t there some heaven or hell? But I’m here, what is going on?

Was that the reason for my unbelievable energy at P.E. today? I’ve, as I said, never been a bit athletic at all. I’ve always been the first ones to become tired and rest on the nearest bench or grass. But if I’m dead, that must mean, that I still have the hole that Elizabeth had done to me yesterday. I began to search all over my neck, trying to find any trace of a breach or abnormality. At first, there wasn’t anything special, but after searching for a while, I came across with a hole, more likely a tunnel. Starting near my Adam’s apple and ending precisely on the other side, the exact form Elizabeth stabbed me yesterday. 

I didn’t panic; I was in a complete shock, I couldn’t do anything radical at the moment. Neither I had the energy or the spirit to do so. I now could move my throat muscles, and I felt how the saliva was coming down the trachea. It was amazingly discussing, yet fascinating. With my other hand, I began to touch my fingers together, using the little tunnel. I played with them for a while, I was expecting to have some asphyxiation reaction, but nothing, air passed usually reaching my lungs, and it came out in the same manner. It didn’t come out or in from any of the holes, as if they didn’t exist. 

I remove my fingers after a while, amusing as it was I began to feel a little nauseous. I started to move more my fingers inside and probably made my gag reflex react in some way. “This is weird…” I told myself as I began to stand up, my head a little tired but normal. This time I tried to do something different, I walked towards the ball cage, and I thought hard that my hand could pass through the enclosure. It worked at first, but then I remember that it is a fucking cage, and the pen had holes more significant than my hand. I tried to facepalm myself, but instead of the palm hitting my face, it passed right through it. It is making me fall to the ground on my back. 

On the ground I looked up at the ceiling, the lamp moving from left to right due to the sudden shake. I put my hand in the air, or where it should be because there was nothing, I continued looking at the lap even if my hand was there. I thought hard enough to bring my hand back, and it suddenly reappeared. I kept doing the same thing for more than I should have done. I somehow know the rest of the day will get weirder…

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“Agh…” I said as I laid down most of my belongings on the table, with them came Lizzie’s and the other two’s backpack. We had found a table near the place we were yesterday, so there wasn’t a lot of sunshine hitting us. I took out my book and a small orange to eat. Lizzie quickly took out a small notepad from her backpack, fiddling with a pink pen she sat alongside the other two. Penelope eating a new package of pink frosted muffins, or are they called cupcakes? Never was into those but you’ve got the idea. And Diana, towering all of us, was probably playing with a game on her phone, loud 8-bit sounds were coming out of it, and she was really into whatever was going on in her game. 

I sat with my legs crossed, with one hand I was holding Alice’s book of movements and ancient methods, and with the other, I was struggling to remove the peel of the orange. I sat there for a while; the wind hasn’t had ceased yet, so it drifts through my hair, gently pulling it back and at the same time cooling my face. I ignore whatever they were doing. I didn’t feel that they are my friends yet. I do like them and consider them great friends, but I’m not into socializing right now… I sighed and looked away from my book for a moment, the wind hitting my face felt awesome, I just felt the need to handle it. 

I returned to my previous activity moments later, I like what this book is telling me, and I want to do all of those movements and techniques with Floyd and Shawn. Suddenly Lizzie slammed her pen in the table accompanying it with a loud “Done!” as she almost made me fall off my seat. The other two surround her, looking at whatever she had made on the notebook. With words like ‘Oooh this is your best one yet.’ And ‘You have quite the gift to do this.’ Augmented my curiosity. Even if it was none of my business, I still tried to have a small peek of whatever she had made on her notebook. Lizzie looked at me and said. “Look! I draw you!” As she handed me her laptop. 

It was a standard notebook, nothing out of the typical, it was just a bit smaller, and the pages changed color as you pass them. What she showed me was a picture of… me? Wow, I had no idea Lizzie knew how to draw. It was brought from her perspective, so it was me with my hair being pulled by the wind as I ate and read. It was drawn on a gray piece of paper, with an odd type of red pen. It looked perfect, with shadows and proper lighting, even the little letters of the cover of my book, inside the cover of my magazine! I struggled a bit to talk, as I was surprised and had in my mouth a little piece of orange. “Wow Lizzie, this is amazing! I didn’t know that you draw.” 

“Yes, I do! I’ve been drawing since I was a little girl.” She answered me excitingly. “I like to draw everything! My friends!” She said hugging Diana and Penelope. “My cats, since they don’t move a lot. And everything I like.” Interested I began to flip the pages over, but before I moved to the previous page I looked at Lizzie, maybe she doesn’t like people seeing her drawings. “Yes, you can take a look at it silly! Stop giving me that puppy look.” I chuckled at her comment and began to look at drawings inside. 

I was astonished at the amount of detail she puts to her drawings. Lines, mark, face details, details, everything seemed to be of one great painter. I could see she had them ordered by colors; grey meant friends with drawings of Diana, Penelope, and many more classmates of our school, most of them I didn’t know, some I would prefer not to. The green section was filled with food, ice cream, fruits, chocolate, etc. Some of them had cute captions, like ‘muffins are just ugly cupcakes.’ Purple was of animals, sorry, of cats and dogs. But mostly cats. Light blue was the landscape part, mountains, skylines, houses, and even the school. “Wait! Before you start looking at that section…” Lizzie blushingly said before I entered the pink segment. “Don’t tell anyone what you see on that part, promise? Pinkie promise?” She placed her right pinkie in the air, blushingly looking at the ground. 

“Pinkie promise,” I said as friendly as I could. I was also blushing, never in my life have I ever done this and I bet I sounded as nervous as her. I flipped the first page, and with big flashy letters said, ‘Crush.’ I chuckled at those words, but I was speechless as I turn the page. Pictures of me, but not me right now, pictures of old me, of male me. Me reading a book, me eating, me working in class, me exercising, me working? I had no idea of what to do, in social terms I didn’t know who I am, but yet this is so weird. I gulped and looked at Lizzie, trying to hide my weird out face. “Um… Who is he?” 

Lizzie’s heart almost stopped of the sudden realization that I don’t ‘know’ him. She rests over Penelope’s shoulder taking a bite of her cupcake. “His name is Geoffrey Scott,” Diana said hugging Lizzie. “He is the smartest and nerdiest guy in our generation. He rarely talked to anyone, he read a lot, had his grades at the top of our class, and he was also a weirdo. And our little Lizzie over here has a huge crush on him.” 

“He’s more than he looks! And he’s a nice person!” Lizzie said sitting up straight. “And he’s been missing for a while; there are rumors that he was kidnapped, or even killed…” She said now hugging Diana. What do I do? I must not tell her who am. Not that I was planning to do so, but now I have to be more cautious. I am not the same person, I am a new one, and I must act like one. 

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“So this is the place…” I said to myself waiting outside the small shack. It was already late afternoon; the sun had the yellowish orange tone that impregnated the clouds around it. The wind was stopping, slowly breaking down its speed; it now carried only some leaves and some patches of grass. Most of the students were gone, just the ones who stay for some instrument or sport. You could hear the splashing sounds of the water over at the pool, and the sound of almost coordinated violins from the main building. 

I was the only one in the garden, football and cheerleading training had already finished. And now I’m standing near the door of the shack, no one knows what is inside there, the door is jammed and beyond unlocking situation, and the windows are few and barely visible. And I was supposed to get there, somehow… Shawn and Elizabeth told me to get there, but not how. Do I pass through it? I’ve been using this invisibility thing for quite a while now, with pencils and boxes while I waited for this time to come. I left my backpack near the door and tried to walk inside. 

*Thunk* 

I crashed into the door bouncing back to the ground. Okay… not all walls are passable… I rubbed my forehead as I slowly stood up from the field while using my other hand to brush the grass off my pants. While I was standing up the door abruptly open, and with it, “Elizabeth thank gods I was…” R-R-Rosie Floyd was standing on the doorframe, wearing her sports clothes and a towel around his neck. “Oh… It’s you…” She said when she looked at me. 

“Let her pass, let her pass! I haven’t had Jim’s for days!” A lighter voice spoke up, and moment’s later cute blonde girl appeared right next to Rosie. “Oh! You must be our pawn!” She roared afterward. She was also wearing the school’s sports clothes, with her blonde hair tied up in a ponytail, and on her shoulder was resting a big white sword that was almost as tall as she is. “Alice and Laurie will tell you everything, so come inside.” She then looked at Rosie. “Now you missy, what sort of battling technique is to disappear as I was swinging at you!? I lost my balance and fell to the ground!” 

I heard some murmuring coming over Rosie as she brushed on the blonde’s hair. I grabbed my stuff and stepped inside, closing the door behind. The place was… Rather… How is this even possible!? I can see a vast room light up by a fireplace, an extensive library right next to it, and leather-like sofas all surrounding a glasslike table. Only that was bigger than the actual little shack; it was pulling some Tardis shit in here! Rosie and the other girl walked over what seemed to be a large gymnasium or some arena! A girl around my age, with green hair, was carrying a small tray with a full tea set on it. “Leave your stuff there and follow me.” 

I did as follows, leaving my backpack near a corner and I support her over the living room. She moved the tray over at the table, and before she went, she pointed at a couch. I walked directly there and sat down on the comfy leather couch. In front of me was one of those large single chair sofas, the fireplace only showed one half of a ten-year-old wearing what looked like a fancy dress drinking a cup of tea? “You must be Sam.” She said coldly, as her eyes lit up purple. I cringed at the look of that, grabbing my ever-shaking leg I nodded almost immediately. “Good, I knew she wouldn’t fail me.” 

She stood up, her light gray almost white hair moved along with her. She was small, barely hitting the 5-foot mark, her bright blue dress with some black stripes in the bottom looked too mature for her age. What is a girl as young as her doing here? “I presume you are filled with questions at the moment.” She said before taking a sip out of her tea. “Delicious.” She said placing the cup on the tray. “Feel free to drink some; it’s peach flavored.” She turns around giving me her back. “Let’s start with what you already know, you are dead, yes.” 

That sentence said so coldly and directed made me jump on my seat. I’ve never thought that I’d hear the words ‘you are dead’ aside from video games. “You were killed by one of my servants, in my name, which means you are a servant now too.” She turned around and before I could say anything she spoke up. “Now-now-now, let me continue. You are still free. Are you only at my command for the moment okay? So let me…”

“No!” I shouted at her. “It has been enough ‘ I’ll explain later ‘ type of situation! I want answers!” I stood up slamming my foot on the ground. “I want answers! Why did you, quote on quote kill me? I have experienced many different situations today! My hand passed through a fucking door! Who did this to me and why!” I heard some noises over the main door, with it came Elizabeth, carrying some bags. “And you! What’s your whole deal with this thing?! Aren’t you the new kid in town? Why did you stab me right in the fucking throat!? What are you even doing here!?” 

She coldly pointed at the bags. “Bringing dinner…” 

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“So let me get things straight.” The idiot one began talking. “You, Alice Monique Ruplant of Winterhail, are what humans like to call ghosts.” Alice nodded while she continues sipping on her tea. “Everyone around here is ghosts also, however, the difference is that you own us in a slave manner.” She continued with a big grin and a slow nod. “Okay, but we still can go to school and have are human lives keep on going?”

“Yes and no.” She said leaving her cup of tea on the tray. “You see, I need you guys to be smart, and at the same time, I don’t want any huge investigations of murder and kidnapping to be happening around here. Hence the reason of you continuing your classes.” She walked towards the library and returned with a big light blue book. “However, I do need your help regarding something…” Slamming the book on the table, she opened it up and searched between the pages. She stopped at one with a huge big white castle that expanded on both pages. “You’ll help me with political stuff.” 

The castle wasn’t very detailed, it barely looked like one, and it had that ancient map like texture that blurred several of the borderlines and details of it. “In my home, we currently have a pest issue. Something needs to be destroyed for good. And you, my team, together we will get rid of the monster lurking that place.” She sat once again on her leather sofa and her teacup. “Any questions?” 

Knowing that the doofus would talk first, I remained quiet and relaxed on the sofa. “So you are pretty much hiring a group of sixteen-year-olds, give take a year, to eliminate a pest?” He stood up and shouted annoyingly. “Why don’t you hire a much better team? I don’t know you guys must have an army or something?”

“First of all, I can’t,” Alice said sassily. “I don’t have the money to ‘hire’ an elite squad or anything. Secondly, are you going to get annoyed by this? I mean, I gave you the gift of eternity, you’ll never fear death again! You have amazing powers that you don’t even believe! And thirdly… I believe in you….” The place remained quiet for a moment, only Alice sipping on her tea could be heard. 

“What’s the next step then?” I asked her patiently. “We have the team, we know our mission, what’s the plan ‘boss.’” I stood up and grabbed some lucky Chinese cookie, never would I think that those guys from that store are dead! And that they can sell energy within their food!

“Simple. We need to get you fully undercover. This means you need a house to disguise yourself as a normal teen for now.” She looked at Sam and crossed her fingers. “You, Elizabeth, from today will hide as the former cousin of Sam Johnson.” 

To be continued…