Chapter 3

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I stood in front of my locker that morning in a terribly foul mood. It had started when i left for school this morning and had gotten this churning queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. The feeling had only intensified as I had walked to school and now it had become almost unbearable. Was it something I ate? This was strange for me since I was the type of person to almost never get sick. I was perfectly healthy. I was debating whether I should go ask the school nurse for medicine when I felt a small tug on the back of my jacket. I turned to see three freshmen girls standing behind me. One was a perky blonde with long braids wearing a pink dress with black tights. The second was a shorter girl with short brown hair wearing skinny jeans and a leather jacket. The third was a slim girl with black curls wearing purple legging and a black sweater. The blonde girl, the leader of the group, smiles at me.
"Good morning, Akira~."
"Good morning?" I say. I don't know these girls. They aren't in my class. Why are they talking to me. I feel a small pinch on my right arm as the girl with the black curls wraps her arm around my own.
"Do you mind coming with us for a bit? We need to talk to you."
Is this bullying? Am I going to be bullied? I had never been bullied before and while I knew it wasn't a good thing, part of me still wanted to see what these sissys were capable of. The blonde looked like she could be a hair puller while the girl with the black curls just looked mean. I bet she would yell insults while the brunette just stood there laughing.
"I actually have somewhere I need to be." I say with a smile as I try to pull my arm away. The raven haired girl however refuses to let me go as she holds onto me tightly.
"It will only take a second." she says. The brunette comes over and grabs onto my other arm and the three girls lead me away from my locker. They are smiling but they don't feel friendly. For awhile I allow myself to be dragged as we walk down crowded hallways and towards the second floor fire escape, a small flight of stairs where kids often go to ditch class or smoke cigarettes away from the eyes of the adults.
As we exit the crowded halls and enter the stairway I turn to raven haired girl and snarled.
"Let go of me." I growl while giving her my best death glare. Normally that would have sent a student running but this girl just stares at me completely unaffected. I look down at her feet and notice her open toed sandals. A sly grin creeps on my face as I stomp my thick soled boots down on her foot. She yelps and lets go of me. Once I am free of one I reach with my free hand and grab the wrist of the brunnette still holding onto my other arm. I twist her hand and she cringes in pain but surprisingly refuses to let go. At this point the fight has become obvious and the blonde that was following behind us rushes forward to grab me. I let go of the brunettes wrist and dig my pocket knife out of my jacket, flipping it open, I shove it towards the blondes face where she stops and steps back hesitantly.
"Not. One. Step. Closer." I growl as I point the knife towards her pretty little face. She takes another step back but does not run away. Can I get expelled for this? Threatening a fellow student with a knife, yes I can get expelled. But who would believe these pricks? I had every teacher here wrapped around my pinkie. They wouldn't believe them.
I elbow the brunette in the gut and she lets me go. I giggle as I run past them down the stairway, stopping at the landing to turn and gloat, but as I turn around I am stricken by horor at what I saw. All three girls stand still at the top step, their eyes glazed over and dull, their shoulders slumped, and their heads tilted down. A shadowy black mask envelopes the three of them and raises up becoming humanoid in appearance. It has arms and a head and beady black eyes that pear out of the smoke. I immediately turn and run down the stairs but don't get far as a run into something hard. I stumble back and look up to see a man standing in front of me heading up the stairs. He had messy brown hair and deep brown eyes. He appeared to be in his late thirties and was dressed entirely in black. A tall red headed woman in similar clothes followed behind him.
Upon seeing me the man looked shocked as he grabbed hold of my shoulders to keep me still. I let out a small noise in surprise and kick him in the leg by reflex. He lets go of me and I run past him and his female friend. I hear them yell at me to stop but I don't care because I'm so freaked out. I run out of the building and dont stop running till I'm at the park.
"What the hell was that!?" I pant as I rest against a tree to catch my breath.

"Was that her?" Philip groaned as he held up his injured leg.
"Looks like it." Wendy said.
"Well why'd the hell she kick me!?" He asked. Wendy said nothing but pointed at the stairs behind him. Philip turned to see the three girls and the billowing smoke monster heading down the stairs towards them.
"It appears we were a little late." Wendy said as she pulled the hand gun out of her pants and aimed it at the monster. The monster saw them and stopped, growling deeply as it slowly tried to crawl back up the steps.
"You take care of the monster and I'll go find the girl." Philip said. Wendy nodded as she stepped forward to face the monster while Philip took off after Akira. As he exited the building he could hear the muffled pops of the gunfire from inside. He could only pray that no one else would hear the fight as he took off down the street towards the park.

I'm sitting on the park bench trying to catch my breath while my head is running at a hundred thoughts a minute. Just then out of the corner of my eye I see my spider stalker scurrying around in a nearby tree.
"I blame you for this." I mutter, not entirely sure if it could hear or even understand me. "Before you showed up everything was normal. I was normal."  I go on a little rant about how all humans are idiots and how monsters only belong in fairy tales. My attention is drawn away when I hear someone calling my name.
"Akira!"
I look over and see the same man from earlier running up to me. I can only assume he is a teacher from school who tracked me down to scold me about ditching class so I quickly get up and start to run but the man is faster and is able to catch up to me and grab hold of my wrist, stopping me. I immediately try to push him away but the guy is incredibly strong and doesn't budge.
"Akira. Please calm down." He said as I pound my fist against his chest, trying to worm myself away.
"I don't know you." Is all I can say as I give up on fighting and instead just stand there waiting for him to let go. He doesn't.
"I know you are probably confused right now but if you give me time to explain then you will understand."
I look at him confused. Is he not going to ditch me for skipping class. Just then I catch a glint of something metal near his belt. I lean in slightly to get a better look and then immediately shrink back. Yep, this guy is dangerous. He has a gun! The man sees where I'm looking and panics.
"No. No. No. It's not like that." He says, pulling his jacket forward to conceal the weapon. I recognize the look of concern in his eyes and realize I can use it to my advantage. Turning away from him I concentrate and clench my teeth. When I turn back to face him I have big fake crocodile tears streaming down my cheeks. The man looks at me surprised.
"Please let go!" I cry. "You're hurting me!"
He immediately lets go of my wrist and I pull it to my chest, rubbing the spot he held me as if it was injured.
"I'm so sorry! Please don't cry! I swear I'm a good guy!"
Just then the red-headed woman with the curls comes running up from behind him.
"I'm glad you caught up to her." She says, running to stand between us. She takes one look at the guy and one look at me and then turns and whacks the guy on top of the head.
"OW!" He cries out.
"What. Did. You. Do?" She snarls as she turns away from him and gently takes my hands.
"I'm very sorry if he scared you." She says in a soothing tone. "I assure you that you have nothing to worry about. We are here to protect you."
"Protect me?" I asked confused. The woman turns away from me and back to her partner.
"Did you explain absolutely nothing!?" She yells.
"I was getting there." He mumbled as he scratched at the sore spot on my head. The two continue to argue back and forth between themselves and I realize that this is the perfect time to slip away. I walk across the park and dart through some bushes to the other side of the street. I'm less than five minutes away from my house but when I get there I'm all tuckered out and panting. I turn the key and go inside, exhausted by the days events. I place my book bag on the coffee table and turn to look at the kitchen clock. Its 10:00, how did time pass by so quickly? I give the room a quick glance over before slumping down on the living room couch. It's not long before I close my eyes and fall into a deep sleep.

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