If you ever felt invisible, then you know everyday for me.
Name's Belle Elizabeth Hill. I was in twelfth grade,when it happened, and I had two friends. One boy and one girl, Lukas and Clare, respectively. I had class with one of them, everyday. I'm pretty smart, so everyone needed to copy from me. I didn't talk back when they took my homework. I don't like to talk to people in general. Then one day I had to.
It was in December. Snow was falling, everyone was hoping to get out of school, everyone, but me. I scribbled down answers to my English homework,before the teacher collected it. "What's number six?" I heard whispered behind me. Lukas poked me with a pencil tip. I spun around.
" 'A' ," I circled the letter in his paper. "And nine is 'D' ." I circled letter after letter on Lukas' half finished homework. I whipped around as the teacher walked by.
"Ell, what's number twenty?" Lukas poked me again. I tried to ignore the stabs. I couldn't stand it anymore. I whipped around.
"NO!" I screamed. I never screamed before. One by one heads turned. I looked out the windows. We were three stories up, but a man looked at me through one, eye to eye.
"Belle? Would you like to go to the nurse?" The teacher asked. Dumbfounded, I nodded. I left without so much as a smile to Lukas. I thumped down the big cement stairway. I walked myself there many times. I opened the door to the nurse's office.
"Hey, Belle. What's wrong this time?" The nurse looked up to ask.
I answered in German, "I screamed."
She answered back in German, "I see. Lay down. I'll get you some water." The nurse was the only adult that I felt knew me. We would talk all the time in German, just her and me. Besides me, she was probably the only one in the school who spoke German. "Why did you yell?"
"Lukas kept poking me. He annoys me so much. Sometimes, I just wish..." The nurse brought back a paper cup with water. "Sometimes, I just wish I could disappear." That's when stuff got weird.
The man I saw before appeared more often with less and less time between each visit, until it became almost constant. With that, though, my skills improved exponentially. Everything became almost too easy to comprehend. My German, in particular, gained a new variety of words. Calculus became as easy as "2 + 2 = 4".My social science became as easy as "Do we live in Montana?"; and my physics became as easy as "If I drop a brick, will it fall?" (both are yes). I was able to read Shakespeare with ease. I could easily read thousand page books in just under two hours. All because of my one rash decision.
The man also affected me negatively. I hardly slept. Everyone avoided me, even Lukas and Clare. My body would ache randomly. That meant the mutation was coming. I would gain claws and wings, temporarily. I knew that the man needed me for something.
One day, I was sitting on my balcony, when the man greeted me. The rain made wonderful music on the metal roof hanging slightly too much over the balcony.
"What do you want?" I shouted.
"Oh, nothing really, just your cooperation." The man floated near me.
"For?" I looked away. I couldn't look at the man who destroyed my life.
"Oh, not much. I need a new partner." The man said. I studied his face. He looked maybe twenty-four, or so, but his face had many more years. It looked like he had seen many deaths over the course of a hundred or so years. Don't ask me, but I just could tell.
"For what?"
"I need a new guardian to train."
"Guardian?" I said, almost curious. I pushed myself closer to the edge of the railing.
"Come with me, if you want to learn." He held out a hand. I grabbed it.
He pulled me off the raining, into the rain. After, that I became a guardian. It's code to not speak of the ceremony to non-guardians.
Now, after like six years, some major crap happened.
I sat like I always did on a balcony railing, right leg curled up against my chest, right arm around my right leg and my left side limp. I looked up into the night sky, wondering whose balcony I would land on next. I had almost spent an entire night on this balcony. Whoever owned this balcony, it was nice to get a cold metal railing.
"Who do you think is out on the balcony?" A female voice spoke. "Do you think that they're dangerous?" I spun around to face a sliding glass door and cream-ish curtains. I couldn't see any figure.
"If they are, I'll take care of them." A male voice spoke. He seemed older than the female voice. "Don't worry 'bout me. I'll take care of them now." The curtain moved aside to show a well-lit room with a teenage girl and man, maybe in his late twenties. I slid off the railing, curious of the man and girl. The man opened the door. "What are you doin', sittin' on the railin' like that?" The man stepped out of room, into the cool night air. His long black hair was swept up by the wind. The curtains behind him danced in the wind, just the same. "I'm gonna ask one more time. Why were ya sittin' on our railin'?" He stepped closer until he was less than two feet away.
"I... I needed... the... um... rest." I spoke slowly because of fear and hesitation.
"You rested enough. Now leave." The man shooed me away.
"Um... okay." I climbed back on the railing. I was about to jump, when the man grabbed my arm.
"Just 'cause I said leave, doesn't mean I meant leave the world."
"Huh?" The man pulled me away from the railing, my favorite way to leave.
"I don't want ya jumpin'. Ya'll die, for sure." The man dragged me inside. "Hey, Ellis, can you make sure she doesn't jump, while I go get her help?" He released my wrist. The man closed the sliding glass door and locked it. He crossed the room and left.
"So what's your name?" Ellis asked me.
"Um... I don't think that's a good idea." I sat down in a chair on the hardwood floor. "I'm not staying long, so..."
"Well, if you're wondering", the girl interrupted, "my name is Kayla Ellis."
"Okay... that has nothing to do with my captivity." I stood up. "And if you don't mind, I shall leave." I walked up to the sliding door. I flipped the lock.
"You can't just leave." Kayla said. I looked at her. Her short blonde hair cover most of her face on her bowed head. I had never stayed more than one night; I had no reason to. A deep feeling, I hadn't had since before my change, compelled me to stay and help.
But firm in my decision, I said "Watch me." I opened the door; and closed it once I left. Perched like a bird, I sat on the railing, spotting my next night stay. That's when the man had come back.
From inside, I heard the man shouting. "Why did you let her leave?" Then a loud smack. "Ellis, I told you to watch her. I needed her to exp..." The man stopped. I quickly turned invisible. The man ripped the curtains down. I had a clear view of the man and Kayla. And once more, a loud smack. I couldn't resist anymore. I ran, or jumped, through the glass door. Kayla was staggering around.
"There you are. I was hoping for your cooperation." The man smiled a sadistic smile. My mind flashed back to my senior year in high school. Oh, nothing really, just your cooperation. The words rang in my ear. Since that day, I couldn't live any normal life. I went berserk. I screamed and tackled the man to the ground. I kicked him several times over in the ribs.
"I won't go!" I screamed. Tears clouded my vision for a second. I stopped, blinked away the tears, and dragged Kayla out of their apartment and upstairs to the roof. "I'm sorry." I said as I caught my breath. Kayla nodded, as she caught her breath. I materialized a small room equipped with a couple of chairs, a table and my backpack. I opened the door and motioned Kayla to enter. Once we had sat, lifted the room into the sky. It safely landed on a cloud. "Got any questions?"
"Yeah. Like a million." Kayla rolled her eyes.
"Okay, shot."
"First, why did you beat up Chris?"
"I'm a guardian. Next one."
"What's a guardian?"
"It's just like its name implies. I guard people."
"Guard people from what?"
I sighed. "A lot of things."
"Like?"
"New question."
"Why won't you answer that question?"
"I can't answer it at this time." I grabbed my backpack. It was a small one, but it had a black gate in it. A black gate is kind of like a contained black hole. I reached inside and produced a turkey sandwich.
"How did you do that?"
"Black gate."
"What's that?"
"Do you want a sandwich? It's turkey."
"Um... okay." I produced another sandwich. I passed it to Kayla.
"Next question."
"Umm... what's your name?"
"I guess I can tell you that. It's Belle, but call me Ell."
"Okay, Ell, why are we floating in the middle of the sky?"
" 'Cause I want us to. And you know, now as I think about it, I shouldn't have told you my name."
"Why?"
"Guardian code."
"Okay..."
"My turn. Why did your 'boyfriend' want to experiment on me?"
" 'Cause of his obsession."
"Obsession?"
"Yeah, with like ghost and imaginary stuff like that."
"Uh huh." I nodded slowly, mouth full of sandwich.
"But you don't believe that child stuff, right?"
"I can't say I don't."
"So... you're a ghost, then?"
"No, well, yes and no. Some say yes, some say no, Sam said yes and no."
"Who's Sam?"
"Hopefully, no one you will meet."
"Oh..." Kayla looked down at her sandwich.
"What?"
"It's just..." Her head moved up. "AH!" Kayla screamed. I whipped my head. Sam was making faces against the glass of the only window. I opened the door. Sam floated into the room. I closed the door as he stole my seat.
"Okay, um... Sam, Kayla. Kayla, Sam." I took the chair next to Kayla. "Sam's my, um..., partner. Is that the correct terminology?" I turned my head to see him stick his arm into my backpack. "Sam!" I pulled my backpack away from him. I made the room free fall for about a hundred or so feet. I slowed it to a stop. "Just because you're the senior, doesn't mean you can snoop in my pack." I sighed. His long blonde hair fell in front of his face. "You need to at least comb it to the sides." I motioned my hands and his hair parted in the middle of his head. "Better, and now you can see." I laughed. Sam and Kayla sat in silence. "Okay. Fine. I laugh and make things awkward." The room began to free fall.
"Ell, stop it," Sam shouted. "Make it stop." The room slowed to a halt. I closed my eyes, and squeezed them tight. A few seconds later, I opened my eyes to see my living room of my apartment. Everyone teleported out of the room to my apartment.
I felt a tear roll down my cheek. Surprised, I wiped it off with my finger. That's when reality hit me like a brick. Everything, the emotions I had for Sam, the lack of hope, and knowing that there was a slim possibility of being with him, started to flow out as tears. I collapsed to my knees. Sam was born a guardian; I wasn't. The chance of us together were as slim as his parents, Beetlejuice and Lydia Deetz.