As the minutes went by, the hallways filled with rushing students. The sound of synced footsteps reverberated on the walls, blending into a symphony in his ears. A drumming contest to see which rhythm was faster than the other. The noise drowned his thoughts, keeping him from focus. He desperately wanted a silent, safe place, where he could hear his own brain working a thousand miles per second, his synapses breaking every spec of reality into logical and predictable outcomes. Yet, here he was.
In the middle of chaos.
& in other terms, a high school.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't quite figure out why there was such a commotion, how could this grand number of teenagers be talking all at the same time, without being annoyed by the noise around them.
Who are these people?
The lockers, the walls, the floor, seemed to be made out of a gentler version of the sun. It was all painted in a dull yellow, a color that had turned beige in the corners, eaten away by the droplets of occasional rain seeping through the walls. Or so the boy guessed.
The smell of shampoo hit his nostrils as soon as he blended in the mass of high schoolers. Clean robes, newly washed hair, a uniform differently styled by each one of them, smiles that reached all the way to glittering eyes, burning with a light he did not recognize. That was all it took to divert him from his mission. He watched as they proceeded with their ceaseless chatter, unfazed by the cold weather, freezing their bones underneath those layers of coat. The girls should have been dead by now, given their bare legs, covered only by thin opal-colored knee-high socks and boots that barely reached their ankles. Was this a new form of torture? Imposing a dress code only for females that could freeze them to death? The leftover snowflakes on their long black hair remained untouched, waiting for the heat of the inside to melt it into nothingness. From the outside, the school looked like an old castle, one you can only see in fairytales. To someone who gazed at it from a faraway distance, it seemed like it was built out of stone. However, if one touches the walls, the disappointment will be crystal clear on their faces when they find out that the stones were only painted to look that way.
Like the owner was doing a huge prank and still getting away with it.
Cylinder-shaped buildings with worn-out windows stood on the roof of the main building, while others were built right next to it, with different sets of spiraling stairs connecting them all. A hard-tiled yet slippery floor supporting the grounds left him walking in extreme caution, in fear of the inevitable fate of falling on his buttocks or hurting a leg in the process.
A pair of irises gleamed red in the middle of a dark, dull world of mundanity. The eyes did not stop going back and forth, following every move, every gesture, interpreting every expression, every change in the bodies they were able to see. Confusion gave way to anger. The eyes, devoid of color a minute ago, gained a shade of blood.
It was Noah, the boy with changeling eyes and midnight hair, made out of darkness itself. He was fuming. Noah had very little knowledge about the variety of emotions, but he knew this one very well. It was the feeling he had whenever something didn't go his way at home, or whenever his father asked something impossible of him.
Like this instant.
It was his first day at school, and he was supposed to study the humans, his victims, so he can start thinking like them, guessing their deepest desires, thus controlling their frail souls and making them, literally, his puppets.
It's all my fault, Noah thought.
He didn't do well with his training that night. A week ago, he stayed up until three in the morning, trying to master the one skill he couldn't fully comprehend. He didn't understand the urgency in his father's voice, the fear in his mother's words, her eyes wide and alarmed, looking like her own human victims whenever they were brought to the basement to get the Treatment.
YOU ARE READING
The Voodoo Doll
Fantasy[COMPLETED] Noah is a boy who was raised by demons all his life. He has the ability to commit perfect crimes by using voodoo dolls and killing with them. He was taught ever since he was young to show no mercy to his enemies. Yet, because of his unu...
