It's been weeks ever since the start of high school, I'm in math class along with Evan. I just yawned as our math teacher, who's also our homeroom teacher, Mr. Square scolded Tae at the front of the class for forgetting her textbook, this is the 4th time she forgot to bring her textbook.
Mr. Square, with a real name of Henry, had always been strict with his students, earning him the title of "Mr. Square" as a mocking nickname as he's always wearing a shirt patterned with squares. Mr. Square had white skin with a clean face, black hair, and blue eyes, which is quite a rare combination. He said that he's from a very far village in Russia, while he is half-Russian and half-Asian, probably Korean judging from his face. Despite his face being handsome, he's still a scary math teacher. Making the subject itself which is already scary, scarier.
"What did she even bring to school with that big bag she always carries around?" I huffed in a whisper, talking about Tae, only enough for Evan to hear me.
"I don't know, some rumors said she opened some sort of shady business, some also rumors her bag is filled with drugs or some shit. No one knows" Evan shrugs as he continues to doodle in his notebook. He's always so up-to-date on these rumors.
"You really are invested in these rumors huh? Do you know any rumors about yourself?" I answered, rolling my eyes.
"I haven't heard any rumors about me," he said, not looking up from his notebook, "or about you" he added.
I just sighed as everyone —else than me and Evan— laughed when Tae got sent to stand outside of class as her detention. Tae can be heard grumbling as she walks outside of the class while scratching the back of her head that's not even itchy, she doesn't look guilty at all.
But the laughter of the class stops and turns into a disappointed groan as the teacher announces there'll be a test next week and continues to teach.
It only took around 30 or 20 minutes until the bell rang, indicating the start of recess time. Evan and I then decided to go to the cafeteria, if you ignore the noises and Tae who's currently fighting a group of seniors in the corner, the cafeteria is quite more peaceful than usual.
"Is she really fighting a senior?" I ask as I squinted my eyes, watching the fight from afar.
"Yeah, just act like you didn't see anything so you won't be her next target," Evan said half-jokingly.
"Is fighting like that is even allowed? She could end up in jail" I huffed as I took a bite from my sandwich.
"Well, she's the one going to jail. Not us" Evan shrugs dismissively.
I just grumbled in annoyance as my friend didn't seem to care, the problem is, if the police were involved, it could disturb our learning process. But then again, this is not the first time she's fighting somebody, and so far the police haven't been involved, so I'm not that worried.
I shouldn't have cared so much and mind my own business. I should've just mind my own business. Who would've thought that I would be dragged into a whole mess because of it.
***
The bell rings, indicating the end of school and it is time for us to go home. Students laughed and chuckled, chatting happily with their friends, as they started to make their way to the school gates. Tomorrow is going to be a nice weekend, a rest from all of the studying and drama that happened at school. Some are planning to go out with their friends, some just want to lazily lay all day long.
"Hey, maybe we should go out tomorrow?" Evan asked as the two of us walked home together. "There is a new haunted house near the park," Evan said, half-jokingly, Evan is not the type to enjoy haunted houses, he hated them, in fact.
I just answered with a laugh, "You really wanted to go to a haunted house?" I ask teasingly, knowing how much of a scaredy-cat he was when he last visited my house to watch some horror movies and play some games. Evan just rolled his eyes, annoyed at me for teasing him.
Our house was in the same direction so we could always walk home together. We walked towards the nearest bus stop and took the bus to our neighborhood, we hopped off after three stops and continued our journey by foot.
We walked passed the woods that covered most of the outskirts of the town, it's a small town we live in. The only thing that's keeping the wild animals away from us is just a tall, rusty, metal fence.
I chatted with Evan as we made our way home until I saw someone in the corner of my eye from afar. Is that… Tae? What is she doing? I frowned as I grabbed Evan's wrist immediately, stopping him in his tracks before pulling him to hide behind a trash bin nearby.
"W-What are you-" Evan is about to protest before I shush him.
"Look," I pointed as I peeked a little, followed by Evan.
"Isn't that… Tae?" Evan frowned, confused at the sight he was seeing.
It is Tae, that messy hair, baggy clothes that don't seem to even be ironed, black eyes that shine like obsidian, and the big bag she always carries around, that got to be her. It's either her or some crazy woman who just escaped the asylum.
"What the fuck is she doing?" Evan asks in a whisper.
"I don't know, but it doesn't seem good" I answered.
And I am right. We watched as Tae suspiciously looked around her, checking left and right, before climbing the fence. What?! What the fuck is she doing?! She's gonna get hurt with the electrical wires up above! But she managed to go through it without a scratch and disappear into the woods.
"What are we gonna do?"Evan asked.
"We follow her" I answered as I was about to climb the fence too.
"Wha- are you crazy?! We have nothing to do with this! Might as well act like we saw nothing" Evan said, as he watched me climb the fence.
"If she gets into trouble with the police or authorities, our study process will be disturbed" I answered with a hiss as I continued to climb up the fence.
"You know, you're taking your education too seriously, school is not everything" I can hear Evan complain but he follows me to the other side.
I hopped down from the fence and landed safely on the grass.
"The electric wires up above seems to be broken," Evan said as he landed beside me.
"Either it's broken or someone purposely turned it off" I huffed as I made my way into the woods, following the same track that Tae took.
"Hey! Milo!" I can hear Evan call for me before groaning and following right behind.
The woods are dark, it's like entering a whole new world of darkness. We heard wolves and other wild animals from afar, once or twice as we went deeper.
"D-Don't you think we're going too deep?" Evan asks as he stays close to me.
"It's fine, Evan. We won't go too deep" I assured him as we went deeper into the woods.
It didn't take long for us to find Tae's bag, but not Tae. Her bag is just left under a tree, beside some weird-looking gadget. Great, she's not even here. I just wasted 5 minutes of my life to search for her this far, who knows where is she in this place now?!
"Hey, M-Milo. Look" Evan said as he tapped my shoulder quickly, I just groaned in annoyance.
"Oh for fuck sake, what is it now-…. Woah" My words were cut off as I looked up to the tall trees around us.
Else than just leaves and branches, giant claw marks are all over so many of them, its like as if a giant and angry bear just walked past this place, lashing out all of their anger on the trees around us. But no bear will have a claw this big.
"What kind of creature has a claw that big?" Evan asks, his voice trembling a little.
"A giant monster. Probably" I answered as I scavenged the area.
I looked around in between the fallen leaves below and accidentally stepped on something. What's that? I looked down to check what it was. It's… a crystal? I picked it up and examined it for a moment.
"What is that?" Evan asked as he walked over to my side.
"A crystal, probably made out of plastic" I answered as I showed it to Evan.
The texture of the crystal is weird, it's light just like plastic, but it's made out of glass, it's just hard to explain. I rub the crystal a few times with my hand and a fog starts to form inside of it.
"Hey, did you see that?" I ask as I show the crystal to Evan.
"See what?" Evan asked back, "there's nothing there" he added.
"No, there is a fog forming inside of it, can't you see it?" I asked again and Evan just shook his head.
As the fog inside the crystal continues to form, a cold wind blows through us, a cold winter wind, but it's currently spring. Evan shivered due to the cold, while I just frowned, what just happened?
MILO
I jumped in surprise, as I heard someone call my name.
"Evan! Don't call me like that! You're gonna give me a heart attack!" I huffed, annoyed.
"Called you? I didn't say anything to you" Evan answered, confused. Now I'm also confused.
"Then… who?" I ask as another cold wind blew through us.
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Word count: 1660
Continue to Chapter 3