Angelus Agrum Prologue

The air ghosted itself over my face so I pulled my jacket closer to me, and quickened my pace as I scurried through the almost empty streets of Lima Ohio, the streets here made no sense which made me feel like I was stuck swirling around in circles, my friends had been to a party and completely left me on my own as they decided that they had met sufficient dates for the night. I wasn't mad that they were happy with people, I was mad that they had abandoned me in a town that I did not know. That is what had gotten me in this situation in the first place. My phone told me that it would be pointless to even try and walk home, so I was looking for a hotel. When several strange things happened, a small owl flew in front of my face, it stopped me in my tracks, it was light brown and had the bluest eyes in the world, it was surprising that there was an owl in this part of Lima and even more strange that it had come so close. I put it down to one confused owl and a weird part of town and continued my search.

Then as I was ambling down the quiet street, still not quite sure where I was going, an alley cat walked in front of my path, its fur was blond and it had brown, I silently thought to myself how weird the eye colours were around here and their eyes looked almost human, I shook my head and laughed at my own thoughts. 'It must be the night affecting my brain.'

The lights in the lampposts starting flickering furiously until they finally went out with one final 'Pop!' and I was left to venture the desolate town in complete and utter darkness. The breeze picked up and I realised how cold it was getting, for the middle of May it had been surprisingly chilly and it wasn't getting better anytime soon. I could've thought of a million ways to get back at Wes and David some involved getting eaten by a lion; others involved shopping trolleys and a very steep hill. I shook my head and laughed at the utter stupidity of my thoughts. I had no idea of the time anymore but I knew that it was definitely closer to the morning than it was the evening, I could have easily knocked on someone's door and asked where I was or for help of some sort but I always worried that I'd knock on the creepy slasher dude's house and knowing my past record of luck I would. I at least wanted to come out of this night alive so I stuck to the sidewalk and continued on my way.

The night felt strange somehow, admittedly I didn't usually walk around at night so I had no idea what the night-time atmosphere was supposed to be like but for some reason I knew that it was not supposed to feel like this, it was almost lie, someone was watching me, but a quick glance around and squinting to see though the darkness told me that I was completely and utterly alone. Which felt like one big metaphor for my entire life, (even though at my new school Dalton I had friends, but even they seemed to like to keep their distance as tonight had proved) though out most of my life I had to get by on my own without friends or family, my parents hired a nanny as they were "hard working citizens who don't have time to take care of a child" as Maria, my fifth nanny, had so kindly put it. I realised that this was not the time or place for a little self pity party so I decided I would save my thoughts for later when they could actually be thought through properly with a clear head.

I felt something buzzing in my back pocket which made me jump before I realised it was just my phone so I pulled it out, hoping that it was one of the guys coming to rescue me, only to realise that my dad was calling me. My father and I did not have the best relationship so I already knew that this wasn't going to end well, I hit the accept button and pulled my phone to my ear anyway.

"Hello dad." I said politely.

"Son where are you? It's almost two am now and curfew was way over an hour ago!" He sounded angry and frustrated. "You better not be out gallivanting around with some boy!" My father also wasn't very accepting of the fact that I was gay.

"Yeah well what if I am?" I lied mainly to frustrate him, he didn't have to know that I was lost and on my own, it's not like he would care anyway. "What are you going to do about it?" You could practically hear the smoke coming out of my father's ears as I said it and it gave me a rush to wind him up. I had stopped in my tracks, not really being able to see where I was due to the lack of street lights in the weird and deserted neighbourhood. It felt like some sort of stress release drug as I spoke and it was too addictive to give up.

"You know what? Until you change your attitude towards me, don't even think about coming home young man!" He shouted down his phone which made me have to move my ear away a bit due to the volume.

"That's fine by me because you've practically abandoned me at Dalton anyway, so why don't you take that information and shove it up your-" I was about to finish my argument with my father and then hang up, but I never got the chance.

What I hadn't realised throughout this whole slightly terrifying ordeal was that I was being followed, not by a nice little stray kitten or anything like that, but by a rather large jock with a baseball bat. I still didn't realise who was behind me until it was too late.

All I heard was a loud crack as the world faded into blackness.