The Book of the Faithful

It first began with Katie during English class. The teacher was droning on about the dangers of under-preparing for our senior exams when Katie stood up and ran to the bathroom.

"Think she's preggers." Ned laughed. So disrespectful! God I hated that guy.

I was also annoyed because all of my friends had decided to go to a shopping trip to Ios City this weekend even though I told them I would be busy babysitting my neighbour's kid. We didn't know exactly what was happening especially on our sleepy little town of Gestern, 2 hours from any city, where nothing major ever really happened. I wish that I acted sooner, but by the time we knew what it was, it was already too late.

By lunchtime, Katie still hadn't come out from the bathroom. We heard that she was still vomiting like crazy but some people that saw it said wasn't real vomit that was coming out of her. It was actually paper.

"Paper?" I asked.

"Yeah, she just started spewing chunks of paper out of her." Patty replied.

"Did she eat a book or something?" I frowned.

"Dunno." She shrugged. "I just saw this scrap of paper come out underneath the bathroom door." She proudly held up a piece of paper to show me but I looked away.

"Eeewwww! You got that from the floor of the bathroom?" I turned away. "You're disgusting!" I shrieked.

"Hey wait! There's writing on it!" She squealed. "Oh my god! I got to tell Amanda! She's got to hear what Katie wrote about her boyfriend!" She got her phone out and started texting.

"I don't want to hear any of this!" I said shaking my head and made my way to 5th period.

Halfway through class Patty threw up on her desk too and I saw that it was real. Instead of the usual lumps of carrot that you expect in vomit, there were clumps of paper that unravelled as soon as they fell onto the ground.

The teacher was shocked at what was happening. Too shocked to notice that the other people in the class were picking up Patty's paper vomit and reading the notes. Instinctively, I knew to not touch anything and to not read anything that came out from her. But the people in my class weren't so lucky. Those who read those notes grimaced, some screamed, and some fell from their seats shocked at what they were reading. They pointed at each other and flung themselves at each other. Nails, fists and legs all being thrown in every direction.

It was precisely at that point that Amanda started to projectile paper vomit all over her desk too and something clicked in my brain. I jumped up, feeling the blood rushing to my head, and started running out of the school.

The world outside of the school was eerily quiet and calm. There were no birds, no cars, and no people. I bathed in the sun, but felt cold and surprisingly lonely. My instinct was telling to run, and my burning legs were bringing me to safety. Down the long bitumen road that separated the school from the town.

I arrived in the middle of the town and found it awash with paper notes. There was no more shouting, or fighting. People lay together hugging. Some of them were deliriously babbling. Others were singing songs in an alien language that I couldn't understand.

Paddy and Amanda showed up behind me. They were saying something in an alien language too and I saw that they were happy. Happier than I'd ever seen them and I instantly relaxed, knowing that they were okay. They must have known that I was freaking out and upset before they hugged me. In that moment, I saw a slip of paper. It was fleeting but enough.

"Know that you too are loved, and we will never forget you."

I turned to my friends and finally understood them.

"Help me! I'll never become one of you!" Someone screamed! A boy. How unpleasant! Gosh it was that Ned again! I turned to my friends. My dear friends. My dear hungry friends. We gnashed our razor sharp teeth and we knew what we needed to do for this ingrate.