Chapter 2 - Trance

Ariel seemed like she was transformed to another dimension. Darkness all around. She's running to the mysterious light that she sees from a far distance. Running, trying to reach the right, she notices bright, lipstick-colored rose petals leading to the light. She notices the light getting dimmer. Ariel starts to sprint, trying to catch the light. After running for a minute, she sees the same painting of Aphrodite that she saw when entering Mr. Doda's classroom.

All Ariel can do is stare in a trance. Compelled, she was looking at the painting, admiring every paint drop on the canvas. She can feel like something is wrong. She spots a black shadow coming to her. She can't run, the painting is making her rooted. The shadow opens its mouth. Almost devoirs her, before transforming back into class. Ariel can feel Jacob shaking her.

"Ariel, are you okay, you seemed compelled. Your eyes were pink for a moment?" Jacob said, relieved that his method actually brought Ariel back.

Ariel had this feeling that she shouldn't tell anyone what happened, not even to her best friends.

"Yeah, I'm fine. What happened?" Ariel asked.

"No, you're not fine. You were stunned and compelled by some force. I don't know what's going on, I've seen something like this years ago, but I can't remember what happened. You should see the school nurse," Mr. Doda yelled while running to Ariel. She can tell it's going to be a rough year with Dr. Doda.

"I'm fine Mr. Doda. Maybe it was a lack of sleep? It's the first day of school, cut me some slack," Ariel begged.

"Alright Ariel, but if anything happens or if you're compelled again, report to the school nurse and tell me immediately," Mr. Doda demanded,his hatred coming off of his eyes. At this point, the whole dilemma wasted half of the period. Mr. Doda sighed in frustration and started to describe the Aphrodite painting. All Ariel wanted was to go back to that place, to get away from Mr. Doda's boring Greek Mythology lesson that he managed to cram in half of the period.

For what it seemed like forever, the bell finally rang and it was time for break. Ariel couldn't be more elated. She was embarrassed about what happened earlier. There's no way that experience was going to slip her mind. She was especially embarrassed about was that Jacob having to shake her away from the trance.

Ariel quickly ran away trying to avoid Jacob. She eventually went to the soccer field to try to find her friends. She saw a crowd of people surrounding what seems to be her friend, Sarah.

"SARAH!" Ariel yelled with a shocked factor to her voice. She pushed through the crowd. Only to see the school nurse grabbing her arm and checking for a pulse.

"She- she has no pulse," the school nurse said, with a defeated voice.

Everyone gasped. Some tears ran through everyone's cheeks.

Ariel felt like something's wrong. She opened Sarah's eyelid and saw her eye. It was pink, but Sarah's eye color was brown. Then it hit her. Ariel ran and ran away from Sarah's body, crying from frustration.