Darkness Falls - 2

I ran into Ms.Ruberts class and looked up to whispering. People were staring at me and talking to one another. I felt uncomfortable so I quickly walk to the back of the room in the corner desk. Today is not a good day.
"Alright class listen up! Being that it is your first day of school I want everyone around the room to stand up and introduce yourself. Lets start with Mr. Thomas." Ms. Rubert points at Danny Thomas who immediately stands up. He is a football player.

"Hi. My name is Danny Thomas!" he says smiling. A few people mumble a hello while he sat down and Lars Fresky stood up. I shut them out of my mind concentrating on my thoughts. Why had Etienne talked to me? And why did he say I was gorgeous and mysterious? This guy is completely weird but somehow I'm attracted to him. Curse his model like figure.
I stop when I recognize a voice right next to me. "My name is Etienne Anderson." I look up and see him. I didn't even see him walk into the door let alone sit by me. Every girl in the class says a peppy little hello to him and a few try to catch his attention by waving but as he sat down Etienne stared at me. I couldn't help but stare back.

"Miss Brighton?" I look up and realize that everyone was staring at me. I noticed a few girls glaring. I stand up, "My name is Elysant Brighton." I say and quickly sit down,open my notebook and pretend to write in it. I hear a few hellos and felt relieved that my introduction was over.
A minute or two pass by when I feel something on my hand. I look away from my notebook and see a folded piece of paper on my desk. I open it up. 'So tell me about yourself. I'de like to get to know you. Say at lunch today?'

I flip the paper open and start writing. 'I sit with Lexi and a few others. Sorry. All full.' I hand him the paper
He takes the note from me and smiles. He looks at me and nods. I turn towards the front of the room to listen to the stupid rules that all the teachers give every year when I notice Lesley glaring at me.
I am shocked that I'm getting glared at by Lesley. She was one of the nicest girls here at Mellsview High but there she was, looking like she wanted to strangle me. I glare back at her knowing that she would turn away eventually. She did.

Etienne laughs quietly and then coughs trying to cover it up. I look back down at my notebook and write random words in there pretending I'm paying attention to Ms. Rubert. When the bell finally rings.
I jump out of my seat and out the door so fast that nobody even got out of they're seatsby the time I was out the door. "Ely baby!" I hear Lexi's voice down the hall. I wave at her and notice that Karter is next to her. I wave at Karter also. They rush over to me and Karter puts his arm around my shoulder. "So babes Lexi here has told me that your this new kids Etienne's eye candy. Is that true?" He asks.

I laugh, "Of course not!"
"Then why did he just ask me if he could sit by us at lunch?" Lexi asked.
"HE WHAT?" I yell.
"Yeah, he went right up to Lexi and I quote 'May I sit by you and your friends at lunch seeing that I'm new in this school and have only really talked to you and Elysant it would be very helpful to me.'"
"Well, he did ask to sit by me but I told him that we were all full." I admit.
"Your so bad!" Lexi smiles at me.
"Good! Nobody's going to take my baby cakes from me." Karter says and pulls my closer to him. I shove him away.

Karter is my best guy friend. He doesn't actually have a crush on me but its funny when he pretends too because of some of the reactions we get although people started to catch on that we weren't actually dating its still fun to joke around. Karter has dark hair and green eyes. Hes tall and is also in the football team. Hes actually not bad looking with muscular arms and a six pack. He also has big eyes and full lips. Hes pretty tan which makes him look model like.
Some people don't understand how we are all good friends because all three of us are so different but people tend to only look on the outside not on the in.

"Look you two I've got to go talk to the coach about my uniform so I'll catch up with you at lunch!" Karter says and starts walking down the hall towards the gym.
Lexi and I wave at Karter and then make our way towards Math. "So why don't you want the hottie to sit by us?" Lexi asks me.
"Are you kidding me? I feel like I'm going to throw up everytime he talks to me. Any boy for that matter!" I say.
Lexi stares at me. "You don't get that way with Karter." She says to me. "Yeah but I know Karter! That is totally different!" I mummble and walk into our math class. Taking a seat towards the back of the room again.

"So whats up with you and that Etienne guy?" I look up and see Lesley glaring down at me. "Nothings up with the two of us hes yours now if you excuse me I have something better to do then sit hear listening to a whiney, desperate girl who needs to back off." I snap at her.
She slams her fists on my desk causing the whole class to look at us. "What did you say?" Shes asks.
"Are you deaf? I told you to back off before I make you back off." I growl at her. Standing up so I'm facing her now. The whole class is getting excited about our little verbal fight that nobody in the room is moving. Just staring at the two of us.
"Try too, fatty." She pushes me. I quickly recover and push her back. "Look who's talking. Gain a few pounds over the summer Lesley?"

Lesley looks down at herself and back up at me. Her eyes are blazing now. "You'll pay for that." She takes one step towards me then stops. I notice she is looking behind me. I turn around and see Etienne and Lexi stanind guard behind me.
"What is this?" Lesley asks confused.
"You won't lay a finger on her." Lexi says and steps in front of me. Etienne is right by her and they look like they are protecting me. "Will you guys move I've got this." I say to them.
Etienne looks at me and smiles. "Violence is never the answer." He says and turns to look at Lesley again. I'm dumbfounded what do they think they are doing?
I shove past them and walk towards the door right when Ms. Jones walks in. "Elysant. Going somewhere?" She asks me. I look back at Etienne and Lexi who are staring at me. "Yeah, away from here." I say and walk past her.

I go to the bathroom on the third floor and walk straight to the sink. "What the hell are those two thinking? I can take care of myself I'm not a baby. And Etienne has no right protecting me like that!" I yell to myself.
I sit down against the wall taking in deep breaths. I don't know why I got so upset. Especially since I don't know if it was because Lesley being so mean to me or the fact that she was so interested in Etienne. Could I be jealous? Psh..of course not thats just ridiculous. I only met the guy three hours ago and sure hes totally hot but that doesn't mean that hes a nice guy. Although he did protect me but that makes him protective and I don't know if I want a guy like that.
I take two more deep breaths and stand up retrieving my backpack from the sink. "Off to math again." I say and walk back to Ms. Jones room.

I open the door and shut it as quietly as I can then head to my desk. I notice Ms. Jones and a few other classmates glance at me but they turn away. Good thing I don't have to explain myself. What am I supposed to say? 'Oh but I was just upset because I didn't get to punch Lesley in the face and those two treated me like a baby?' Right...
I walk to the other side of the room from Lexi and Etienne and notice that Lesley has taken a spot right in front of Etienne who is chatting away with him right now. Etienne looks up and holds my gaze. My breath catches in my throat again and I realize that I can't look away, or don't want to.

Etienne smiles and looks down at his notebook. I quickly look down at mine but can't help smiling myself. Wow, I can be such an idiot.
I look back up and catch Lesley's gaze instead of Etiennes who is now talking to Lexi. She flips me the bird. I mouth 'You want too.' and laugh on the inside because of how childish I am.
The bell rings ten minutes later and I get out of my seat, quicker then I did the last period. Lexi walks over to me, "I'm sorry. I know how you hate it when I do that but I swear you two were going to get into a fight."
I smile at her, "Its okay. Lesley has turned into a real bitch over the summer."
"Yeah she has. I can't believe she would pick a fight with you! After what you did to Amber last year I can't believe anyone would." Lexi says and smiles. I smile back.

Last year Amber thought that I made Karter break up with her when actually she was just an obsessive freak who needed to lay off of Karter. He broke up with her and a week later after sending him a million texts and trying to call him and leave notes in his locker she walked up to me and demanded why he wouldn't talk to her. I told her that he just didn't see her as girlfriend material and she flipped out on me yelling at me and calling me an evil whore. So I punched her in the face a few times. Broke her nose. There are still blood stains on the floor in the cafeteria carpet. I saw them this morning.

I turn around and see Etienne smiling like hes trying not to laugh. I still don't know about him. One minute he seems okay and the next I want him to stay away. Why do feelings have to be so complicated?
"Lets hurry! I want to get a good spot in the cafeteria." Lexi says and pulls me towards the cafeteria. We wait in line and after about five minutes are finally through the line and going towards the window table in the cafeteria. We see Karter waving at us and we run over to the table.
"You guys are slow!" He yells and gets up to retrieve his own food. "Oh what a baby." I mummble and laugh. Lexi joins in on the laughter. She looks up and quickly looks away. "Guess who's coming.." She says and smiles at me.

Before I could even respond Etienne is sitting in the chair right next to me. "Wheres your food?" I ask him. "Not hungry. Wheres your table full of people?" He asks me teasingly. I blush and quickly bite into an apple so I don't have to answer his question.
"So are you still having those nightmares Ely?" Lexi asks me after a few minutes of awkward silence. "Shush!" I say and throw a noodle at her. She picks the noodle from her hair. "Sorry." She grumbles and keeps eating.
"What nightmares?" Karter asks as he sits down next to Lexi on the other side of the table.

"Its nothing." I say quickly while casting an evil look towards Lexi. She looks down at her tray again and keeps eating.
"I'd like to hear about this nightmare." Etienne says and smiles down at me. I can't tell if hes making fun of me or not but then I look over at Karter who seems genuinely interested.
I sigh. "The past few nights I've been dreaming about people chasing me down an alleyway. When I get down the alleyway I realize to late that its a dead end and am trapped by the people. I only say people because I can't tell if they are women or men." I say.
Etienne looks at me confused, "Is that it?" He asks. I shrug, "Well, kind of. Except last night it was a little different. When I got to the end and realized that I was trapped I felt this kind of sensation over come me. My nails seemed to grow longer, sharper and my vision became perfect. It was like I could see in the dark. I also felt stronger, more alive."

Etienne kind of chuckled and then stopped himself when he realized what he had done. I bit into my apple again. "I'm sorry. Please continue." He says. I look up at him mad that I could be so stupid to tell such a private thing in front of a guy I don't even know. He was a jerk. "No thanks. I lost my appetite." I say and stand up to throw away the trash.
Instead of walking back to the table I walk back to the bathroom I was in before on the third floor. I know it seems stupid that I always go to that bathroom but no one goes there. They are either too lazy or think its too dirty. Janitors are too lazy to come up and clean from the first floor to the third floor so they tend to stay away from this bathroom. Same as everyone else.

I walk in and head to the sink again. I put some cool water on my face and look up and gasp. Written in red on the mirror is a warning. Join them and see what happens.
I look at the floor and see a red trail leading to one of the stalls. I slowly make my way over to it trying to be as quiet as possible. I reach the stall and slowly open it. I gasp and cry out. On the floor is a dead deer. Its stomach is ripped open and its insides are spilling out of it onto the floor. Its terrified eyes looking at me accusingly.
I fall back on the ground and crawl towards the bathroom door. When I reach the door I stand and run out to go catch the principal but run into Etienne instead.
"Whats wrong Elysant?" Etienne asks me. I'm to stunned and upset to care. I bury my face in his chest as he puts his arm around me and tries to calm me down. My sobs finally die down until I'm able to talk. "There is a deer in the girls bathroom. Its dead." I say sadly.

He looks at me with a confused expression, "A deer?" He asks. I nod and walk towards the bathroom. I open the door for him as he walks in to see the writing on the mirror and to see the dead deer in the stall. He walks out and mumbles something. "Whats that?" I ask. "Why would they kill a deer and not a person? That's not like them." Etienne says.
"Them? You know who did this?" I choke out. Etienne looks at me with a sad expression. "Yes I do. They are dangerous people and they are afraid of you Elysant." Etienne says.
"Of me!? What did I do to them to make them so afraid?" I ask as the tears start spilling from my eyes again. "You almost killed them all. There are only a few remaining left but you almost killed them all. The Ronchers I mean." Etienne says.

I look at him confused. "Are you mad? I never killed anyone and I have no idea who the Ronchers are!" I yell.
Etienne walks over to me. I take a step away from him. "I'm not crazy Elysant just listen to me. That nightmare you were telling us about at lunch today was a memory. That actually happened to you. The people that were chasing you were demons called the Ronchers. They shape shift into different things and they kill people. A lot of innocent people." Etienne says.
I take another step away from him. "You are mad! Yes they are demons for killing such a poor creature but they are definitely not shape shifters! I don't believe in that stuff." I yell at him.
"Ely listen to me-"
"No! Stay away from me and my friends! Your insane." I say and walk back down the stairs to get the principal.