chapter 1 a real tragedy

(disclaimer!!!)

This story may contain touchy topics, such as suicide, sexual harassment, psychological horror,

smoking, foul language, demon worshiping, and more. ( also, I'm a noob at writing lol)

By: Penelope Morris

Chapter 1

A real tragedy

Have you ever thought that your best friend would turn against you? But not in the way

you would expect them to. I surely didn't. I thought he was just a normal guy with some small

problems in his life. It turns out, those problems were much bigger than I thought. Oh ya, I

almost forgot to introduce myself. The name is Hayato. At least, that's what I think it is. I can't

exactly remember. It's been too long since I ever thought about it if I'm being honest. Anyways,

why did I ask that question? Well, it's the last thing I can remember before what happened.

Before everything went to chaos. Before, he made the deal.

As I woke up from a restless night of sleep, I realized that it was the first day back to

school after the summer break. Like most days in Spokane, the weather was all over the place.

At the moment, it was luckily sunny. Not a cloud in sight, but according to the news, we were

supposed to get some showers here and there. I'm not fond of the rian myself, but my neighbors loved it. I'm not sure why they would like it so much, but they did, a lot. Maybe it was because the

rain watered their plants with natural water? I don't know, but all I knew was that I needed to get

up to get ready for school. I'm a high school student that has just moved here from new york. I

moved in with my grandma, who has been living here for the last couple of months. The reason

why I moved here is because I got into some trouble with some friends of mine back in New

York, and what ended up happening was that I had to go back to my guardian so that I could get

my crap in check. Though, I don't see why they didn't just throw me in juvie. My dad left my

mom when she was pregnant with me, and my mom died giving birth to me so all I had left was my grandma.

She's a sweet old lady. The kind that would tell you about the same old story over and

over again while knitting scarfs that seemed to never get longer. She would tell me about my

mom a lot. About how hardworking she was and how she deserved better. I don't care to hear

about her, to be honest. I would usually just walk away or put on my headphones if my grandma

started to ramble because I knew she was about to go on and on and on for seven hours. I'm

not trying to be rude, usually, she never noticed. She was a bit blind and needed to squint to be

able to see Oakley, even with her glasses, and on top of that, she was deff too. She had to wear

hearing aids that barely worked, so she would never see or hear me walk away. but, to me, she

was just your typical loving, old lady.

I get out of bed, looking at the time, it's almost six in the morning. School starts at

seven-thirty but I wanted to go on a jog before school. So I hurry and get dressed, putting on a

black sweater and sweatpants. I go to the bathroom and brush my teeth before looking at

myself in the mirror. My grandma says that I look a lot like my dad, and sometimes she would

kinda lose it and start yelling at me. Probably because I look like him. She would say things like,

"Why did you leave her you evil man!?" or, "you don't have any place in this house!" or

something like that.

I'm not all that attractive, nor am I ugly. I have pale skin with blue eyes, though my

grandma says they look more like an electric blue, but yet soft in a way. I never thought they

were too special so I never really paid much attention to them. But my hair was silky black,

which made it look like the kind that you would see celebrities having. I don't like it to be honest.

People always point out how "beautiful" my hair was, or ask me what kind of shampoo I use to

keep it so soft. I just wish people would mind their own business sometimes.

After a while of

looking at myself, I finally looked away from the mirror and checked my phone to see what time

it was. It was now six, which meant I had to get a move on.

I hurried out the door, locking it behind me, and then looked at my surroundings. It was

nice outside. The sun was rising, kissing everything it touched as the newborn baby birds

chirped from their small nests. I take a big inhale before I put on my headphones and start to jog

down the sidewalk.

The air was nice and crisp, a good way to know when fall is coming. The

leaves were already starting to change color too, so it was kind of obvious l. As I jog down the

sidewalk, I notice a disturbing detail about the neighborhood I was in, making shivers run down

my spine. I stopped for a moment just to make sure I wasn't seeing things or something. I was

sure they were, I mean, it wouldn't make sense if they weren't. I looked around me, looking at

the houses and cars, the trees and bushes, and finally acknowledged the terrifying reality.

It felt

like, I was being watched, but, not in the kind of sense-like way, I knew I was being watched. I

looked at a window nearby me and noticed an old woman staring at me while sitting in an old,

ragged rocking chair. It was like something from an old horror film or something, but it gets

worse. I avert my eyes when we make eye contact and look up at a tree outside of one of the

houses, and notice a crow. It, too, was staring at me. Ok, now I started to freak out. It seemed to

all of a sudden get colder, and a lot quieter than before. I couldn't hear the birds from before or

the sound of my breathing. All I could hear was my heartbeat as it slowly got fast. I was kind of

used to old people looking at me. I was young, yes, but already looked like a young, attractive twenty-year-old gang leader. Or at least that's what my friends told me. I didn't take it as a complaint or an insulate. But a crow? Now that creeped me out.

As I look around more, I only see more eyes on me. More people and animals staring straight at

me from inside their houses or sitting on wire poles. Was I going crazy? No, I couldn't have. Or

maybe this is all some kind of sick dream or something, ya, that's got to be it. Right? I tried to

pinch myself, but nothing changed. I kept pinching my arm as hard as I could, almost to the

point of making myself bleed, but still, nothing happened.

I couldn't handle it anymore and started to run home, watching as the eyes of everyone

and everything around me followed as I turned a corner, getting closer and closer to my house. I

look around me as I run down the sidewalk, wondering if they are still looking at me, and sure

enough, they were still watching me like a hawk watching their prey, waiting for the right time to

strike. But it was more disturbing than before. I couldn't see quite clearly since I was still running

but I could see a little girl in her backyard, also watching me, but with a wide grin on her face. It

was almost inhumanly wide. Do you know the phrase, "grinning from ear to ear"? Well, it almost

fit too perfectly with her. It was terrifying, watching her as it only got wider and wider.

But then all

of a sudden, I felt my body bump into something.

I fell backward as I lost balance from running too fast. The impact hurt but at least I didn't

get cut or anything. As I groan in pain, rubbing my back as I slowly sit up, I hear a voice. A soft

and gentle voice. I looked up at the stranger who was talking to me and saw a teenage boy

towering over me. He was pale. his skin almost looked like snow, but it was also very clean and

smooth. His hair went well with his skin too. It was almost completely white. It was like he had

bleached it over and over again and ended up just having white hair instead of the color he

wanted. His hair was also wavy, like mine, but the thing that caught my eye was his eye color.

His eyes were a deep blood red. Or maybe it was scarlet? I couldn't tell, I was just so amazed at

how beautiful they were. Aside from that, his expression didn't say anything less than dead. He

had bags under his eyes and looked like he could care less about anything and everything.

"Uh, hello?" he asks me, tilting his head to the side a bit. I got so distracted by his eyes that I

forgot he was talking to me.

"Hu?" I said, finally acknowledging him.

"I asked if you were alright," he replied calmly, holding out his hand for me. I grab it and

lift myself up, looking around me again, only to find that there was no one looking at me now.

Everything was back to normal. I look back at the boy, who was still standing in front of me. I

didn't realize it at first but I felt so short compared to him. I was only as tall as his shoulders, and

he wasn't even wearing any heels or big boots.

"Ya, I'm fine," I replied, brushing off my now dirty clothes.

"Good," he said before turning around and walking off. It was kind of strange, to be honest.

Usually, if I bumped into someone like that, they would ask me if I was okay and then try to start

up a conversation or at least say bye, But this guy was different. I don't pay too much attention to this fact and start to walk home, still keeping a close eye out for anyone else who was staring.

As I walked into the house, I could hear a faint voice from the kitchen. It sounded like grandma

was up and cooking. Grandma's home cooking is the best. Luckily, we have a big enough

backyard to grow fruits and veggies, so whenever grandma cooks, it's always nutritious. I

walked into the kitchen and greeted my grandma, who was surely enough, cooking. It looked

like she was making chorizo and eggs, which are my favorite. She was probably making them

for my first day of school.

"Hola Abuela." (Hello grandma.) say, kissing her on the forehead. Oh ya, I forgot to mention

that my grandma is Mexican and has a hard time with English, so she taught me Spanish so

that we would be able to communicate.

"Oh, tu espalda!" (oh, your back!) she says kindly.

"Estoy haciendo tu comida favorita, chorizo y

huevos." (I'm making your favorite, chorizo and eggs.) I nod at her, already knowing this, and

open the fridge to get a glass of milk.

"¿A qué hora debo recogerlo?" (what time should I pick you up?) she asks about getting a plate

and setting it down next to the pan that held the chorizo and eggs.

"alrededor de las tres." (around three.) I said saving myself the food.

"pero Realmente no tienes

que hacerlo. podría Simplemente Andar en mi bicicleta." (but you don't have to. I could just ride

my bike.) I say sitting down at our small table in the dining room.

"gracias por la oferta Abuela."

(thank you for the offer grandma.)

I quickly finish the food, not letting the taste of her homemade cooking sink into my taste

buds at all, and head upstairs to get changed for school.

It was already six-thirty and it took me

about thirty minutes or so to drive there. But my car was in a workshop at the time so I couldn't

drive there. But one thing I did have was a bike. And I'm not talking about the pedal bikes, I'm

talking about a motorcycle. I quickly wash up and change my clothes. Sadly, the school made

us wear super tight plain school uniforms so it didn't take me that long to change. The school

uniform was pretty plain and sad. They had us wear white button-ups with a dark blue vest on

top of it, the pants were gray with fake pockets. I was pretty sure the uniforms would change as

the seasons changed but all I could do for now was hope they wouldn't get any tighter. I picked

up my bag, put on my shoes, and walked downstairs again, my grandma was sitting in her old

rocking chair as always and was knitting the same old scarf she's had since who knows when.

"Me dirijo a la escuela. adiós Abuela!" (I'm heading to school, bye grandma!) I say to her kissing

her forehead one last time before heading out the door.

"Adiós mi dulce nieto. ¡Estás a salvo ahora!" (goodbye my sweet grandson. You be safe now!)

I walked outside and approached my garage, since it wasn't connected to the house, I

had to go through the front door to get there. I open the door, only to be greeted by dust and a

smell of rotting trash. I looked around the garage, still outside since I didn't want to smell that awful stench. I looked around for a while, seeing old photos of my family and friends, boxes full

of holiday decorations, garbage bags full of clothes and trash, which was probably the source of

the awful smell, old furniture that never made it to the living room, and finally seeing my

motorcycle, hidden under a plastic sheet. I'm relieved that it's still here, but the only thing that

bothered me was getting it out of the garage without suffocating from the awful smell. I sigh,

knowing what I had to do. I take a deep breath and put my shirt over my face before running into

the garage. It was pretty dark in there. There was a single light that didn't work so well. I quickly

go up to the motorcycle and rip off the sheet from on top of it, revealing a Sport Touring

motorcycle. It was a nice shade of black and still looked as new as ever. I kicked back the

rusted breaks and slowly, but surely, moved it out of the garage. Finally, I could see it in the

daylight. It was a nice soft black, shining in the sunlight with a wind gourd at the front of it. I

smiled, thinking about how I got the motorcycle before putting on my face-shielded helmet,

getting on it, and riding off to school.

It didn't take me long to get to school. Luckily, the motorcycle still had some leftover gas

in it so I wasn't late for school. As I slow down, making sure that I follow the law, I see some

girls looking in my direction. It kinda freaked me out at first, but I realize that when I turn my

head to look at them, they all look away and start to whisper at each other, giggling and

glancing back at me once in a while. They looked like they went to my school too since they

were wearing the girls' school uniform. I'm not sure if they had school uniforms before I moved

here, but they did now. I ignore them and go to the student parking lot, looking for a nice place to

park. Maybe under a tree or something. Just in case it rained. I look around and see more

people looking at me. I wasn't sure why, but it wasn't the same staring as before. It was your

typical curiosity, "who is that" type of look. I sigh, knowing that I would probably be looked at

once I take off the helmet. I finally find a parking spot under a nice big tree, getting off of it and

kicking back the brakes. I can still see people looking at me, especially the girls from before as I

take off my helmet. And that's where I messed up. Just as I took off my helmet, I could hear the

gasps of the girls from before. Hearing this made me annoyed, knowing that they would

probably be looking at me from now on. I chose to ignore this and throw my bag over my

shoulder, stuffing my hand in my pocket, and walking towards the school.

As I walk through a pair of double doors, I'm greeted by a dimly lit room with enclosed

desks oblong the side of a poorly painted wall. It looked like an office to me. I walked towards

one of the ladies sitting behind one of the desks and waited for a while. She was old and

wrinkly. She had blond curly hair with leopard print glasses. You know, the kind that looks like

cat eyes but are way too big for their face. I waited for a while, watching her type whatever she

was typing on her computer, before clearing my throat, trying to get her attention. She looked up

at me and frowned. Right at that moment, I knew we were going to have a problem.

"You must be the new student, yes?" she asked, her voice very croaky. She sounded like a chain

smoker that has five grown kids that don't love her. It bothered me that she used such a

sarcastic tone with me, but I didn't want to make a bad first impression.

"Ya." I replied casually, trying to keep my cool as she started to chew gum with her mouth open.

It was bad manners to chew with your mouth open, especially if you were chewing gum.

"Well, here you go," she said, handing me a piece of paper. "This is your schedule and class

numbers, as well as a map of the school."

"Thanks." I said, smiling at her sarcastically as she did to me before walking off, knowing that

she wouldn't direct me to my homeroom.

As I walk down the crowded halls, see more people

looking at me and whispering. I couldn't care less about what they said about me until a boy

with blondish, reddish hair walked up to me with a big grin.

" hey new kid!" he said as if we have been friends since the first grade. Everyone in the school

was wearing the same old school uniform, but this guy was a bit different. He was wearing the

school uniform but was also wearing a red hoodie instead of the wight button-up. The boy

approached me and held out his hand, smiling as if he had just found out he was going to be a

father.

"The name's jake!" he said to me with enthusiasm. It sounded like he had a bit of an accent, but I

could exactly put my finger on it. It wasn't a southern accent, but it didn't sound like an accent

that you would find in America at all. It sounded a bit like a British accent but also like an

Australian accent. If that made sense.

"What homeroom teacher do you have?" he asked, not bothering for my name at all.

"Um, I have Miss. Andrade. " I replied, looking down at the paper the lady in the office gave

me before.

"Oh cool, me too! What a coincidence!" he said beamingly. I had a feeling it wasn't a

coincidence, to be honest.

After a while of annoying me and acting like we've been

friends forever, we finally got to homeroom, where my eyes caught a certain someone.

In the back of the class, in the farthest corner, sat the wight-haired boy. I think Jake

caught my gaze because he started to ramble on about him.

"That's Haruki," he started to explain. "He's a sophomore, but never seems to know

where the classes are. He's almost always late for class, but the teacher always forgives

him because of his looks and his dad's money." I wouldn't blame the teachers. He looked so soulless and

sad, but the money? Now I that seemed kinda stupid in my opinion.

"He's the quiet kid in the class," Jake continued. "Whenever I try to start up a

conversation with him, he always ignores me and walks away like he has something

else better to do. Maybe that's why all the girls fall head over heels for him. The more mysterious, the more fans." He said with a sigh. To be honest, Jake was pretty annoying but seemed

trustworthy enough. We took a seat in the far right of the room and sat down our bags

as other students entered the room. I couldn't help but glance back at him every once in

a while. He just seemed a bit off to me.

"Alright, class!" Miss Andrade called out, making the room fall silent. "Welcome to the

first semester guys! I will be your homeroom teacher, miss Andrade." she looked young

and not like your average, ombre dirty blond, blue-eyed teacher. Other than her tan skin

and clothes, she looked like she could fit right in with all of the rest of the students in

the school. She had emerald green eyes with long dark brown hair. Although, it looked

like there was some dark blue fading on the tips of her hair, which made it look like she

died but eventually it faded out. She was wearing a striped button-up shirt with tight blue

jeans, which made her look even younger with her hoop earring that hung down to her

shoulders.

"Ok, so, I have a fun project for all of us to do to start this semester." she said, yawning,

grabbing something from off of her desk.

She began to stick blank sticky notes on each

one of our desks, as well as a pen.

"Write one thing about you on each sticky note. But it

has to be something no one knows about because we will be trying to guess which

sticky note belongs to who. And whoever wins, gets a prize." she said walking back to

her seat. She set a timer on her desk for five minutes before looking down, probably

playing on her phone. Some people started to write stuff down, while others were still

thinking of what to write down.

I looked down at the tree sticky notes that sat on my

desk and began to think. There was a lot of stuff about me that the people here don't

know. There is stuff that my grandma doesn't even know.

I looked over to my left to see that Jake was having the same difficulty as me.

Then I look to my right, to see that Haruki was already done and staring back out the

window again. He seemed on edge a bit, I wondered why as I started to write down

some things about me on the piece of paper. On the first sticky note, I write, "​I've worked

five jobs before." ​I used to work at a nice restaurant back in new york when I was

sixteen. My good friend ran the place so I got paid extra. I also worked part-time at a

warehouse. My job was to ​ensure that all the merchandise is safely and securely

packed and labeled for shipping. Other than that, I worked at gas stations at night.

On the second sticky note, I wrote, "I can speak fluent Spanish." Luckily for me, I

hadn't used Spanish outside of the house since I moved here, so I don't think

anyone would guess it would be me first thing. And finally, on the last sticky note, I

wrote, "iv broke almost every bone in my body." and it was true. I almost broke every

bone in my body once. I got into a really bad car accident once and nearly shattered my skull. I had to stay in the hospital for almost a whole year. I still have one of the

scars from the surgery on my back.

I look up to see that everyone was almost done, though Jake was still having

trouble with the last one. After a while of waiting, the alarm finally rang and was shut

off by Miss Andrade.

She began to go around the classroom to pick up the stick notes

without looking. After taking them all, she sat back in her chair and started to draw at

random. She picked one and started to read it out loud.

"My spirit animal is a panda." she said before looking up at the class. I looked around

me to see if anyone was acting weird and chuckled. I could see a short boy who was

sitting in front of me start to fiddle with his thumbs. It was almost ridiculous how

obvious he was making it, but I didn't raise my hand, only to see if anyone would catch

on. Everyone looked around and started to call out names, though no one picked the

boy. Eventually, I raised my hand and said it was him before we moved on to the next

one. Miss Andrade pulled out another sticky note from the jar that she had put them in

before and, again, read it out loud.

"I have an older brother." she read before looking up

again to see if anyone would guess who it was. I looked around me to see if anyone was

acting strange again, but everyone seemed normal enough to me.

"Kang-soo?"

someone asked, and a boy with black hair like mine shook his head no.

"Is it Jennifer?"

someone else asked, and a girl with short pink hair shook her head no as well. It

seemed no one could get it until I noticed that no one had called on a girl with long

black hair yet. She was drawing on her hand and didn't seem to be paying attention at all

to what was going on around her.

"Is it her?" I asked, pointing at the girl. She didn't seem

to notice until the girl next to her nudged her, which made her look up and say the first

came to her head.

"I don't know the answer." I could tell this was embarrassing for her

because she then turned bright red, realizing her situation.

"is it you?" I ask again, raising

an eyebrow. She turned her head towards me with an angry expression. It was probably

from embarrassing her.

"Ya, it is, wise guy." she said sassily. I tisk at her before she

goes back to not caring about what the teacher is saying.

Miss Andrade picked up another sticky note and began to read out loud once

again. ​

"I know everyone in this school." ​and almost immediately, I could hear Jake

giggling next to me. I thought that the reason why he was giggling was that he thought

no one would guess him, but the actual reason why was because everyone shouted out

his name all at once. I was surprised really, I thought that he was trying to make it so

that no one would guess him but I guess it was the complete opposite. Miss Andrade

sighed before putting her hand back into the jar to pull out another sticky note.

I could

see her expression change from, ​let's get this over with, ​to, ​what the hell?​ She hesitated for a second before reading it out loud to the class. And I could see why her expression

changed like that.

"We are alltrapped." she said before looking up at all of us. The whole

class looked confused, whispering to each other like a pack of barbastelle. I looked

around, trying to see who wrote that, and then, as I turned my head, my eyes locked with

his. Haruki was staring right at me, not making a sound, not even moving. I didn't know

what it was, but I couldn't look away from his deep, gloomy eyes. Through the

composition of the class, I could hear his voice, softly whisper out to me. And as he

spoke these words, I knew that he was the one to write that.

"We can easily forgive a

child who is afraid of the ​dark​; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the

light."