Chapter One - A New Chapter

I'm not quite sure how to start, but basically this is the story of how I ended up on the craziest adventure ever, and how I grew to become who I am today.

I guess I should start from the part where I lived in an orphanage home. I didn't know if my parents were dead or they just didn't want me, but here I was. Along with most of the other kids at the orphanage, I attended Blossom High, which was walking distance from Cresent Orphanage.

I was sixteen, and I was in the tenth grade. My hair colour was a shade of brown that most people described as golden. Golden brown hair, amber coloured eyes. I would describe myself as an extreme introvert with social anxiety. I found it really hard to talk to strangers and everyone else who wasn't my friend. I was good at academics, especially subjects that didn't involve calculation, because I loved reading. I was even nominated for the Special Student Award, along with one Austin Cooper in my year. I'll get to him later.

I knew a lot of students in my year, but most of them were just acquaintances. I had three close friends, Delilah Reed and her twin brother Dylan, and Naya Khatri.

I have sort of an obsession with twins, so it was almost impossible the Reed Twins wouldn't be my friends, although I did like identical twins better. Dylan and Delilah both had copper brown hair and green eyes, although you could say Delilah's was closer to hazel. Delilah was the fun loving twin, who liked to socialize and party, and had many friends. She had an unhealthy love of fashion. Dylan on the other hand, was the gentle but not shy twin. He was a chemistry whiz and he spent most of his time with us as a group or alone. He had quite a lot of friends too because he was so easygoing. The only times when he'd gotten really angry was when his sister was being attacked. The transformation was quite huge. They would do literally anything to protect each other, from anyone but themselves, that is. They teased and messed with each other a lot but still managed to be really close.

Naya Khatri had an Indian origin. We knew this only because of her name that had been written in a note that she came with and her features. She had light brown skin, with black hair and eyes. She was soft and kind-hearted, which gave people the opportunity to take advantage of her. But she didn't seem to mind, because all she cared about was giving. She had a soft voice that she had never raised in her whole life. I'd know because we've been friends since we could talk.

There was also Dominica Winslet, a girl who was one class ahead of me and had a lot of issues. We knew each other, but we weren't friends. I had really never had any problem with her but she had made it her life's mission to frustrate and pick on me anytime she saw me. The fact that I was an orphan was a factor, but the main reason was that despite that, I still managed to be so 'perfect' as she called it; to be able to be a good student with no single bad record, to be good in academics and to have people like me. I had honestly never felt like that in my life-perfect? Not even close. She had an expensive necklace that she wore almost everyday, and one day she'd told me that no matter how hard I worked I would never be as privileged as she was. I really didn't care about things like that, but I had cried that night at the orphanage. And now everytime we crossed paths she would touch her necklace so I'd be reminded that I'd never have enough money in my life to buy something as expensive as that. She even gave me the nickname 'Ms. Perfect' later on, and soon everyone that wasn't my friend and didn't like me began to call me that ever since just to spite me because I absolutely hated it. Sometimes I tried to look at it from a positive perspective and not really care what they thought of me but that was really hard, since I was a person that cared what people thought of me.

Now, back to Austin Cooper. To clarify, I didn't know him, although I'd heard so many rumours about him, it felt like I knew him personally. According to what I'd heard, he was mischievous, the type that put you in trouble for something you did together and get away with it himself. He was basically a social butterfly and people buzzed around him because he was charismatic and had a charming and witty personality. He had a cute and mischievous look which made a lot of girls swoon over him, but he had only ever dated one person apparently. He didn't participate in the school sports and he was really smart. The last part was the only part I personally believed since we were nominated for the same award, the award that went to the most studious student of the year. The rest were just rumors that I'd heard from Delilah and some other people so I didn't know how true they were. Our school wasn't that big, so I was sure I'd come across him at least once before, but I didn't recognise him.

***

It was a Friday, and I had assumed this day to be like any other regular day, but I was so wrong. It was after noon and the bell had just rung for lunch time. My heart beat faster with excitement like it did everytime I heard the bell ring. I kept my notes and my textbook in my bag and slung the bag over my shoulder. Naya, the twins and I normally met up in the cafeteria, but that wasn't why I was excited. I hoped to see my crush, like I did everyday, on the way to the cafeteria. He was a class ahead of me and probably didn't know I existed. He was a jock, and he and his buddies usually walked together to the cafeteria so I always hurried to catch them on my way there in the hope that one day he would finally see me and perhaps fall in love with me.

A bit dramatic and highly unlikely but I liked to believe that one day my dream would come true.

I headed out of the class with purpose and noticed there were students gathered at the window and the main entrance of the school and they were all chattering excitedly. I was curious to know what had caught everyone's attention, but not curious enough to miss an opportunity to see Ace, so I continued my walk to the cafeteria. Besides whatever it was, the news was sure to spread fast. I was almost there when I heard a voice I didn't recognise call my name. I turned back and saw a boy I didn't recognize.

"Yes?" I answered, slightly panicking because he was a stranger. I wondered how he knew my name.

He took his time before answering, studying me as if he was seeing me for the first time which was highly likely because I had never seen him before either, so while I waited for him to speak I did the same. He was a few inches taller than me, and actually good-looking. He had brown eyes and jet black hair that fell over his left eye. He was wearing blue jeans and a white top with a plaid shirt.

"There are two people outside the school looking for you" he finally said.

"Me?" I asked, surprised. Nobody in this world except for the people at the orphanage and those in my school knew me, I was sure. And not even everyone in school knew who I was. Were they who everyone was watching?

I inwardly gasped. Could they be my parents? Or be related to them somehow?

"That's what I just said, wasn't it?" He asked impatiently "You're Cressida, right?"

"Yes, I am"

Without another word he turned on his heels and began walking, and I realized he expected me to follow him. I frowned and ran a little to catch up with him. I walked behind him and after a lot of internal battle, I managed to ask

"How do you know my name?" I struggled to raise my voice so he could hear me. I always had trouble being audible around strangers as it seemed something lodged in my throat whenever I was about to talk to them.

He turned back, reducing his pace, and then looked at me weirdly.

"Honestly, I'm not sure there's anyone who doesn't know you in this school" he answered.

I was confused. He said it like I was popular in school. I almost laughed at that.

Students moved to either side of us, creating a space for us to walk freely as we reached the school doors. Immediately we passed through the entrance, they gathered back around it.

A short distance away from the school, I noticed a black van parked under a tree. I saw Delilah, Dylan and Naya standing outside the car with two other people whom I didn't recognise.

"What?" I asked the boy, still thinking about what he had said earlier.

"Okay, so not everyone knows your name, but everyone knows who you are and for some reason you're acting like you didn't know that"

"What?" I repeated, because I found it odd that he thought I was popular. Butt then I regretted it because he replied by saying

"Are you slow or something? That would be weird and hard to believe since we're competing for the award"

I took that in. I ignored the fact that he called me slow and then thought about the latter part of his sentence.

Then it clicked.

"Excuse me, but are you Austin? Austin Cooper?"

We were almost at the tree now and his pace slowed.

"Yes" he said and then looked back at me "Glad you figured that one out"

I rolled my eyes when he turned back. So he was the Austin everyone talked about. The popular, mishevious yet mysterious boy. I'd never really heard about his behaviour, but he didn't seem nice. He had actually called me a slow person! That was even worse that Dominica saying I was poor, because at least that was true.

I was so deep in thought that I almost crashed into Austin when he stopped in front of the van, but thankfully he didn't notice.

I moved over to where my friends stood and took my time to inspect the people who had called me.

There was a man and a woman. The lady was about half the height of the man. She was wearing a white jumpsuit with black polka dots. Her blonde hair was tied up into a bun. She had quite a lot of make-up on, so much that it was disturbing but she still managed to look pretty. But it was quite obvious that she was Asian.

The guy on the other hand, was wearing a long black trenchcoat over his black outfit and a black hat that brown hair peeked through at his neck. He had dark tinted sunglasses on although it had just rained and the sun was currently hidden behind a cloud. It was hard to tell where he came from.

Then I turned to look at my friends, Delilah, Dylan and Naya. They all looked scared and worried.

"Allow us to introduce ourselves to you" the female said.

"I'm Momoko and this is Ryder" she introduced herself and her associate.

I heard Austin chuckle. He didn't seem at all worried or concerned as to why these people had gathered us here

"What kind of name is Momoko?" He asked

"It's a Japanese name, Austin"

His smile vanished "That's creepy, how do you know my name?"

"Right now, Austin, that's the least of your problems"

"I don't understand" Delilah remarked "What's wrong?"

"Ryder and I were sent to take you back to Trevia. It is of absolute urgency that we go now"

My fear heightened. How did they know us? Did they plan to kidnap us? Where the heck was Trevia and why are we going back when I've never been there before?

I looked at the man. He still hadn't said anything. He looked so calm it was annoying, because I was freaking out inside.

"You're not making sense" Austin said what I was thinking "I don't know about them, but I'm not going anywhere with you guys until something makes sense"

Momoko sighed in exasperation "We really don't have the time, something is coming after us and we need to go far away from here before we can face it, far away from witnesses"

Far from witnesses? Isn't that what murderers do when they want to kill someone, take them far from witnesses?

"That statement really didn't help your case" Delilah pointed out.

"We need you to trust us, okay? We need to leave as soon as possible so that in case we have to face it we can do it away from civilization"

I had so many questions, but I was too shy to voice it out. What's it? How in the world were we going to face it? And why did she use the word 'civilization' out of all the other available synonyms in the dictionary? Oh, and the most basic question, who were they? If she was trying to convince us to go with them, she wasn't doing a good job.

When they saw that we still weren't convinced, Momoko tried again "Please kids..."

Then surprisingly, the man in black, Ryder interjected "How about this? You have phones, right? You can call an emergency number if you feel unsafe or we if we make any inappropriate move"

For some reason I felt that they were telling the truth, but I wasn't a 100% sure. What if the van dampened the phone signal? What if there was a gas that could drug us and make us unconscious inside the van? That and whole lot of other possibilities.

But this whole situation didn't make any sense. You couldn't just come to fetch kids and expect them to go with you without question. We could just turn around and pretend like we never had this conversation.

We looked at each other, unsure of what to do. Then Austin said "I'll go with you if you answer my one question"

Only one?! I shouted in my mind What about the remaining ninety-nine?!

"What exactly is coming after us and why?"

"That's two questions" Dylan said.

Momoko answered "It's a human-like bull. A very dangerous one. And it's after us because... well, let's just say it wants to kill us"

"When you say 'us' you mean you and Mr. Ryder, right?" Naya asked

"My name is Ryder." Ryder corrected coldly "Just Ryder"

"Not even a surname?" Austin asked and then looked at Momoko "I'm guessing you're Just Momoko, right?"

She managed a small smile "Right"

Suddenly Ryder rose to his full height and said "This is a waste of time. I didn't want to have to do this but..."

He looked at Momoko, giving her some kind of signal and then next thing I knew, we were inside the van, all using seatbelts. Austin, Delilah, Dylan, Naya and I were at the backseats, Momoko was in the passenger seat and Ryder was at the wheel. I tried to open the door and realized it was locked.

Great. They were not only kidnappers, they were also witches.

"Are you kidnapping us?!" Delilah shrieked "Let us out now!" She ordered them.

Ryder started the car and shifted the gear to drive. He made a sound that sounded like a laugh, but I was sure it was not "Or else what? You kids ask too many questions and we're the ones that will get in trouble if anything happens to you"

"These guys are not making any sense" I muttered quietly.

"We can still call the cops" Austin reminded them, raising his phone.

"Please put that away dear" Momoko said casually, as if she wasn't actually kidnapping us.

"I'm not your dear" Austin retorted and tried calling the emergency number but his phone just went off completely.

"I swear my battery was just more than half full" he said, looking confused.

I gulped, fear creeping into my heart. I looked out the window at the students that had gathered to watch. They were reliable witnesses. But as we moved farther away from the school I didn't see anyone panic for us or run to call help. They all strolled back into the school like nothing happened.

"Help!" Dylan screamed. "Someone help! There are some crazy people trying to kidnap us!"

There was a brief silence and then we all joined in screaming, with me hitting the window of the car.

"Dears, the windows are soundproof. And please refrain from calling us crazy" Momoko chided us calmly.

They were both behaving as if they weren't committing serious criminal offences.

"Where are we going?" I asked, making sure to raise my voice so they could hear me in front.

The van remained silent for a few seconds and I wondered if they had heard me. Then Momoko said

"Oh, so you talk. We're going to Trevia, I think I've mentioned that before"

We were entering a forest with scanty trees that I had never noticed around this place before. The tension from the front seat increased. I could sense that Momoko was getting restless, but why...

Just then, in a way that was completely unexpected, something hit the car from my side, which caused a dent that pushed into my side and hurt me a great deal. I didn't know what had hit the car but I had a sinking feeling it was the 'it' that Momoko had talked about. Ryder sped up the car trying to outrun it and for a brief while I thought we were safe but the thing struck again, sending the car flying into the air and spinning around a few times before it crashed to the ground, landing upside down. My side and my head hurt and I felt sick, but it wasn't that bad. The seatbelts made it worse though, because they were cutting into my skin. I was afraid the car would explode or something. The glass windows had cracked but weren't shattered.

I waited for someone else to make any sort of movement. My heart was beating so fast that it was the only sound I could hear and I wasn't in a position to look around.

"Ow" I heard someone say. At least someone else was still alive...

Then Momoko said from the front seat "Is everyone okay? We need to get out of this car immediately. The bull has arrived"

###

Hey! I'm Ember and I'm new to Webnovel. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I hope we get along just great. See you next chapter!