Phantom : City Of The Faded

Chapter seventeen

Numbers and numerals, life really sucked.

I hated Mrs Philadelphus.

She was a teacher with that wierd a name. She was my Algebra teacher of course, and the feeling was mutual.

   The kind where she knew you didn't have an answer to a problem and would just smirk and say in that fake ass voice "Why Karissa, would you like to come and answer question five?"

It was always question five.

While Cindy Coleman got to answer the square root of twenty five, I always had the Pythagorean theorem.

   Of course, when she was knocked down by a car it wasn't like I was happy or anything but my friends did confirm that I had a happy and radiant glow on my face.

    The woman didn't die though, she came right back to work the next month- The persistent witch!

All those thoughts crossed my mind as we continued trekking down the last hill. By now we could see a lake, a lake so beautiful that it hurt to watch.

    I never imagined a place this beautiful could exist. I loosened up my crumpled face.

    "Might you want some?" Philip eyed me cautiously, nibbling on an Oreo bar.

    I ignored him completely. I stopped to tie my converse lace and dusted it a bit.

After the argument I had with him,  I decided I was done with everyone. I couldn't wait till I got back home so I could go back to school and Mal.

  Once again, we walked in silence except from when Kyle would occasionally pick up a random topic and discuss.

   I didn't even utter a word to any of them, narrowing my eyes as much as possible.
 
     Kyle had made it quite clear which twin he'd chosen. And it was definitely not me.

    "What do you think is happening back at home?" Kyle wondered while pausing for bit. He turned at me nervously, noticed my piercing glare and looked the other way.

   If looks could kill. Il'd be a serial killer.

    "Probably freaking out by now" Paris answered him quietly picking on her red 'Wild style' oversized hoodie.

The hoodie I bought her.

Heck, he wasn't even talking to her and she answered. Talk of rude!

   "Just a few yards more" Philip told us reassuringly.

    To ignore them  I  looked intently at my Reeboks finding them surprisingly interesting.

   "Thanks" fifteen year old smiled when I was given a scoop of food at lunch.

I don't know the stuff it was but it was gross enough.

  My eyes scanned the whole cafeteria, searching for the place we usually sat but was disappointed by the empty seat she had not yet occupied.

    "Where's Pari?"  I asked Malory who had just joined me at my table. She picked on her lunch.

   "Heck, this stuff ain't even food" she groaned slamming her head on the cafeteria table repeatedly.

   "That's for sure"

"Oh my gawd your brother's coming this way" she straightened her flannel shirt and curled her hair.

   He only nodded in my direction,  grabbed an apple from a boy's tray and chomped on it... Without even saying Thanks.

She sighed "He's dreamy"

   "Pari?" I got irritated at her stating the obvious.

   "Oh .. she's over there" she pointed to a table usually occupied by Simone Addams.

Maybe Simone and her squad sat somewhere else?

I furrowed my eye brows..

Simone was there alright and  whenever did Pari sit with anyone else during lunch?

   I walked up to her table with my tray "Hey, Mal and I are over there" I pointed to our usual table.

    "So?" Was all she said.

Present day me looked back at the girl in contempt. This was supposed to be my other half.

Not ever.

"We now need to get across it, Einstein!" My brother complained to Philip when we reached the crystal lake.
  
  
  Yes, the new problem was we needed to get across the lake.

    I heard a noise.

From the way Everyone turned back they had probably heard it too.

Creatures- These were not human crawled out of the water with deep sea blue eyes, long, thick blue black hair and pale skin, there was only one word to describe them; These were monsters.

Not the stuff you saw in the little mermaid or sleeping beauty.

He'll, these were the type of monsters you saw in nightmares and horror movies.

   "Cabin! Now" someone shouted. I didn't even turn to see who.

They all run to a predestined place, leaving me behind.

    My feet were rooted to the spot as dozen monsters surrounded me.

   My mind wanted me to shout for the rest but my wounded pride kept me mute as I locked eyes with one of the monsters.

    It's talons grew to full length as he cocked an eyebrow.  Then, he stared into my eyes  as recognition went through them. The monsters pale features relaxed as he transformed into the most beautiful creature I had ever seen.

No words could describe him.

    "Go away creature! I'm warning you, I know Judo and Karate I have the karate kid movie all memorized!" I threatened.
   
   "Really?" He said flicking imaginary dirt from his fingers.

    "Wait..You can talk?" My mouth fell open. Okay, I was sure if it, I died and went to heaven.

The rest of the insanely beautiful creatures stood behind him, unsure of what to do and scared of displeasing their master.

    "Nobody touches her" He ordered to the rest of his army. "So.. beauty what brings you to this side of the universe?"

    "You don't want to know" I remembered all the circumstances that led to my being in Highpeaks and sighed.

    "You seem ... Sad?. Do you want to talk about it ?" He offered.

  A handsome stranger creature was being nice to me. What had the universe come to?

    "Why are you being nice to me?" I wondered aloud staring straight into his deep blue eyes.

A lop sided grin etched into his face  "No reason"
   
   He held my back and led me to the lake "Now come let's have a talk"