Fangs, Fur, and a Little Bit of Magic

Chapter 1: The Corpse

It's funny how seemingly boring days can suddenly turn into disastrous nightmares. There I was, a normal teenager walking to her fourth period with her best friend, gossiping about whatever drama occurred earlier that day.

"So this guy in English comes up to me and randomly asks me out, right?" my best friend Laurie says. "I hadn't shown any interest in him whatsoever, so I was really weirded out and just started staring at him awkwardly until he left! God, I was so embarrassed!!!"

"Uh-huh," I reply, pretending to listen.

"Have you even heard a word I've said? Are you daydreaming again? Leah?!?" she asks.

"No.." I say, trying to get out of the incoming lecture.

"Leah!!!! Just talk to him already!!!!" she says a little too loudly. "You've been staring at him all googly-eyed for what, six months now? You could at least say hello."

"Look, Laurie, I haven't talked to him since that one time we had to do that group project for Chemistry. I'm clearly over it!" I reply.

"You're clearly not. You wouldn't be staring at him if you didn't have feelings for him!" she says, but I'm not listening anymore. There he is, standing by his locker, talking to this girl I don't know. He seems angry, which makes me concerned that this might be a "more than a friend" fight. She's standing there beside him, annoyed and clearly not caring what he has to say. God, I wish I could stand up to her and tell her to listen because everything he says is important, but I know that I wouldn't stand a chance. Just by looking at her perfectly trimmed nails, straight brown hair, and gorgeous face I can tell that she's part of "that" crowd. In other words, stay away.

"I hate that kind of people. They always think they're better than everyone else, but in reality, no one even knows their names! Such a shame." Laurie says suddenly, snapping me back into reality.

"Let's just go to class," I say with a sigh. Just as we start to walk away, a large commotion breaks out on the other side of the locker hall. Four tall men dressed in all black march their way through the crowd of students, going into one of the girls' restrooms. All the students surrounding us make their way towards the restroom, where a girl is literally being dragged out into the hall. As soon as she makes her way to the door, I recognize her from my psych class: Anne, a very shy, short girl with short black hair and large eyes. She never wears any makeup besides red lipstick, her signature look. She's almost always alone, never talks or smiles at anyone, so what could these men possibly want with her?

"Stand back!" one man yells at the crowd as the other three manage to get Anne out of the bathroom. She looks at us with pure fear, squirming to escape her captors. Suddenly, one of the men grabs a syringe out of his pocket and injects Anne with a yellowish liquid. As soon as she collapses, they pick her up and make their way back to wherever they came from. The entire hallway of students stands frozen in shock until some girl coming out of a stall lets out a blood-curdling scream. On the bathroom floor lays the corpse of a girl named Julia.