Chapter 2- A Lone Locket
Alex ran through the alley, dampening her shoes with muddy puddles. Yelling wasn’t much of a good idea at the moment but keeping quiet won’t be good idea either.
It was gaining on her, step for step, breath for breath. Stopping and stumbling she could hear a shrill scream sound in her ears, it was coming for her. Her mind was racing as she searched the dark shadows, nothing could be seen, not even the old brick walls hidden unilluminated from the streams of moonlight hitting her and keeping her visible.
The shadows grew around her making her turn and pivot, watching every angle, every movement, every small sound. She listened and waited for it to find her and hopefully kill her quickly. The dark days were coming back, flooding her sub-conscience with memories of herself lying in the kitchen with a knife gripped loosely in one hand and a very deep cut in the other arm.
Forgetting where she was for that moment a medium sized dog figure appeared, its whole body covered in the shadows. It ran straight toward her, just when it was about to pounce on her. The figure morphed into a human shape and tackled her to the ground.
Alex’s head hit the pavement pretty hard but she was still alive and kicking. Literally trying to kick the figure off, it held on and pinned her to the ground, running one of its shadowy hands through her dark hair as it placed a chaste kiss on her cheek. It vanished leaving her in the cool night’s air, for now anyway.
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Alex trudged through the muck and mud trying to find the locket that she had lost a few hours before, thinking she had dropped it in the dark alley she was now searching. This locket was the one her mother gave her when she was a baby. It was a small silver locket that her mother had gotten from her now deceased grandmother. This locket had been passed down from her great, great grandmother and now down to her, the fourth generation.
“Ah, ha!” She declared in a victorious tone, her long straight, rich chocolate hair fell into her face as she stood up; pushing a few strands away from her dark brown eyes she looked around, it was very eerie in this alley all by yourself. Especially when you had just gone through what Alex had just been through.
Alex held the locket in her palm and gently rubbed the mud away as she stared walking home. It was getting late after all and she had to work tomorrow morning, a Sunday. When she got home and slipped the key in the lock. She opened the door and a little, ‘thudding’ noise was coming from inside the kitchen.
A tiny white and brown spotted rabbit jumped at her. She caught it with ease and walked into the kitchen and picked up a little green food bowl that read ‘Charlie’ on the front. She placed Charlie on the ground and filled the bowl with rabbit kibble.
“Here.” She loudly said to the bunny, he was jumping up and down. He dug his nose into the bowl and began munching loudly.
‘Took you awhile, I was starving.’ Charlie thought, even if he couldn’t talk he could always think. Silly little Charlie, always thought he could communicate with demons like Alex. After making sure Charlie was enjoying what he was doing she walked into the bathroom to wash her face, hands and brush her teeth.
Alex came out of the washroom with her hair up in a pony tail. She walked up into her room and lay on the bed pushing the sheets of paper off the side. She had a messy room on the weekends. Clothes, papers, assignments, books, and the usual sneaker littered the off-white carpet of her room.
“There’s nothing to do! I’m so bored.” She tilted her head to the side to check the clock; it was only 7:46pm. “Too early to go to bed and to late to go anywhere.”
Charlie meanwhile was in a slight daze staring at a painting called ‘Crazy Stairs.’ He liked looking at this painting, it was his favourite one. He broke the daze and hopped happily to Alex’s room. Charlie hopped gracefully onto the top of the blue and yellow comforter.
He nuzzled his head onto the bottom of her sock covered foot. ‘Come on let’s play fetch!’ Charlie thought.
“Stop it that tickles!” Alex giggled pushing him away.
Charlie suddenly stopped and scanned the room, feeling an unwanted presence. His little bunny nose twitched and he jumped off the bed and onto the ivory carpeted floor. He sniffed again and stuck his head under the bed, his whole body then disappeared in a flash of blue light.
Alex, being worried looked under the bed to see a trapdoor open show the image of a town engulfed in red flames. She wanted to go after him but was having second thoughts on going in. Soon she slide under and in a blue flash she was gone.
“Alex! There’s a phone call for you! Alex?” Her mother’s voice came drifting up the stair case, she was sounding worried, and as worried as a mother should when her daughter doesn’t answer her calls.
Chapter 3- Quietly Painting
“Grrrragh!” Tiny growled he had seen an orange bird fly past Jark’s window. Tiny hated the colour orange, he had never liked it.
The tiny liger jumped around the bed and purred very loudly, causing Jark to return from his sleep. Jark opened an eye and flipped the covers over his body and to the other side of the bed.
“Okay, hurry up.” With that he jumped out of bed, a toothy grin plastered to his lips. Tiny raced out the door, down the stairs, and into the kitchen to get to his little food bowl before Jark had to leave.
Jark pulled on a plaid shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans, combed his short sunny blonde hair and raced out his bedroom door, back pack in hand.
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“Bye mom!” He had finished his breakfast just on time as the school bus pulled up out front.
Jark jumped on and went straight for the two backseats like always. The bus stopped a few times and then it stopped at Sage’s house.
Sage ran out the door, trying to keep her pink and black hat on her head, climbing up the stairs. She scanned the seats until she found her spot, she walked to the back of the bus and sat down beside Jark.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hi.” Sage said quietly, Sage was unusually shy around everyone, even if she’d known them for her whole life. Jark on the other hand was super out going.
“Did you do the math home work?” Jark asked.
“Yeah, it was easy.” Sage smiled shyly and pushed her back pack to the floor of the bus.
Jark stared at her; she seemed to have something on her mind, something important. Jark scooted a little closer to her like he always did every time he wanted to talk seriously.
“What’s up?” He asked in a soft gentle voice. She loved it when people spoke quietly.
“Nothing, mom and dad are just fighting again.” Sage said with a sigh. Her parents usually fought when they were all together. Jark was very aware of this and was always trying to comfort her.
“And?” He asked giving her puppy eyes.
“Nothing, that’s it,” She giggled at Jark and his slightly funny expression. The bus stopped at the front of the school and everyone pilled out.
Sage walked down the hall and up to her locker turning the spinner gently she gave a tug and the lock clicked open. Jark was right behind her, his locker was to the right of hers. Sage put her jacket, back pack, and hat on the hooks and grabbed what she needed for the morning, pencil box, markers, pencil crayons and two small binders.
“What do we have this morning?” Jark asked knowing that they had the same time tables.
“Art, Math and Science.” Sage replied art was her most favourite subject ever.
“Math!” He looked a bit sick and shocked.
“I thought we didn’t have math, so I left my binder at home!” Now Jark looked gravely ill.
“It’ll be fine Mrs. Sunning Dale is one of the nicest teachers here.” Sage was not always shy, most of the time she was optimistic and as giddy as a four year old in a toy store.
“Okay.” He said unconvinced.
The bell rang and Sage and Jark hurried off to the art room. Once they got there Jark went straight for the closet to get paint and paint brushes. Sage chose a spot beside one of the windows.
She had gotten the papers they had used last class and she was now sitting in her spot waiting for Jark to come with the paints and brushes. Two minutes later she got up and walked to the art closet, everything was fine when she opened the door. But when she had gotten in, the door slowly creaked closed. It was sort of eerie when there was only one light bulb lighting the tiny cube of a room.
Sage looked around and she saw Jark crouched down looking at the paint. A door to the left of the room caught her eye, there was light coming from under the door. Jark looked at her questioningly as he always did.
“Are you done picking?” Sage asked.
“Almost...” Jark answered looking back to the shelves.
Sage walked up to the door and gestured for Jark to come over. He came by her side and looked over her shoulder to see what she was doing. Sage opened the door, there was a light so bright it could blind anyone. She walked into the light holding onto Jark’s hand which led him behind into the closet.