The cold October day was long over. The sun had already set in the horizon and night fell upon the city of Chicago. Lilith Drera was hastily making her way back to her dorm. Her reading teacher had given her a long lecture about how fast she reads books. He kept accusing her of just reading the summary of the books online, to avoid actually just reading them. Lilith tried to hide her anger. She really had read the book, why had no one believed her? Books just came naturally to her. All subjects did really.

The chilling wind swayed the old tree branches side to side. Their shadows crawled over the old cobbled sidewalk. Lilith tried to avoid looking at them as best as she could; looking only at her feet, where the walkway was. Within the shadows there was movement, the clacking of feet could be heard. Lilith tried her best to ignore one of her biggest fears, the dark. Whenever she would drift into a darkly lit street, she could hear sounds that no one else could hear, see things move that no one else could. People always said that she was just craving attention when she told of what she saw, this is one of the many reasons Lilith walks alone.

The footsteps became louder as Lilith neared her dorm. She walked faster, keeping her head down. _Maybe whatever it is will go away_ she thought. When she was younger, creatures would crawl out of the shadows. She would of course tell her Mother, but she never really cared, about the monsters or about Lilith. That's why she was sent to this boarding school, that's why Lilith was being pursued by an unknown creature.

After what felt like an eternity, Lilith made her way into her dorm's main hall. She looked outside the foggy glass to see what her pursuer looked like. She wiped the fog off with her small hands. In the streak of clear glass, she saw a glowing pair of beady red eyes. Her white eyes trembled as she backed away from the glass and ran to her room. She threw her back pack onto the floor and lodged herself into the corner of her room. In her hands, she held a knife. _Not again, not again, please, not again_ .It had been a while since _this_ monster had visited her. She left her leather boots on and hoped that she would not have to make a hasty get away. _This is why I hate the dark_. Lilith tried to stay alert in her lit up corner. Snarls and hissing could be heard from below her room. The walls were being scratched. She couldn't risk the chance of the monster breaking in and finding her. But she was exhausted, and fell asleep after the first hour.

When she woke, it was morning. The sun was slowing rising onto another day. Lilith rose from her corner and looked out her cold winter. The view of the grass from her second story room couldn't hide the damage. Some of the grass was black; trails of what made the transfiguration were everywhere. She hoped no one would notice the damage. After taking a shower, Lilith went to her nearly empty closet and picked out a blue and white striped long sleeve and a pair of jeans. She always wore the same leather boots her Aunt got for her when she was younger. Every time Lilith put them on she would remember the smiling face of the person who loved her the most. It was quite sad, since Lilith would never see that face again.

Lilith didn't bother to dry her hair; she thought it was a waste of precious energy. She let her long brown hair drip when she left the dorm. The air was chilled with the breath of October, but she didn't let that get to her. She wore a large bulky black jacket to protect her from the cold. The walk from her dorm to her school building was quite a bit of a journey. It was daytime now, so Lilith wasn't afraid. She actually enjoyed the walk. The remaining leaves were stripped from the trees and danced in the chilly air, like ballet dancers. Lilith made a habit of watching from a distance; this included people and nature. She liked nature, but nature didn't necessarily like her back.

She was always first to arrive in the classroom, the teacher would always be out running errands, but Lilith didn't mind. When she got into her Greek mythology class early, she would open up her sketchbook and draw. The poor book was littered with sketches she drew. Some of the pages were crossed out, but not from Lilith's dislike of them. Her fellow students took her sketchbook once and drew all over it; she has still never forgiven them. She could not throw it away. There were more good memories in it than bad.

She often lost track of the time she spent while drawing. When Lilith had finally looked up, she saw that most of the seats were filled and that Mr. Gallo had begun taking attendance.

"Lilith Drera" Mr. Gallo bellowed across the room. His name did associate with the voice of a rooster.

"Here" she said sternly. A dozen heads turned and looked at she, their judgmental eyes followed her moves.

Lilith was always different from the rest of her class. Most of the girls obsessed over make-up and doing their hair. The only thing Lilith ever worried about was how many people were looking at her. Her bright white eyes stood out from the rest of the classes as well. People thought she wore colored contacts, but in reality, her eyes were naturally that way; she hated them with a passion. She grew out her hair to cover her eyes, but people would stare, they always stared. Lilith was also taller than most of the girls in her class; most of them standing at a petite 5' 2, while Lilith stood at an alarming 5' 6. With her height came weight; she was a bit larger than the girls in her class as well. All of her features made her more aware of her mistakes. She always criticized herself in everything she did. She built expectations that she, nor anyone else, could ever accomplish. She blamed herself for how chubby she was. Lilith hated everything about herself.

She never paid attention in class, she was always either looking out the window or day dreaming. She had already learned about all of the material, but this was the most advanced class their school could offer. She was always far ahead of the other students.

At this moment, Lilith was writing a song in her notebook.

_Perfect Imperfection_

_How can it be?_

_You could be a girl like you, but I turned out to be me?_

She was always comparing herself to the other girls. They all thought that she was far behind them with the way she took notes, but looks can be deceiving. Lilith was at the top of her grade. She grew bored of the classroom and longed to venture outside the walls. Other students were allowed to during the holidays to visit their relatives, but since Lilith's mother didn't want her to come back, she never left the school. Sure, Lilith had dreamed of skipping class and exploring the "Windy City", but never had the courage to do it. She knew that if she made any trouble for her mother, that she would never hear the end of it. Dreaming was all she had really.

The school day dragged on as usual. She sat with no one during lunch; no one dared to sit near Lilith, weird thing would happen if someone did. No matter how many students were in the lunch room, they would all squeeze into the remaining seats to avoid her. Lilith munched on an apple as she entered the cafeteria. All eyes were on her. She didn't try to stand out, but with her features, it was hard not to stare. It wasn't that she was ugly, rather, the opposite. Lilith was quite beautiful, but came off as a cold wall. Her hard exterior prevented people from talking to her. In a sense, she was creating the problem herself.

She pulled out the green plastic chair and sat down. As usual, the table was empty. The last time someone had joined her for lunch was a disabled girl named Lyra. She was wheel chair bound and only joined her because everywhere else was full. The next day, she was found lying at the bottom of the stairs, she was knocked unconscious. Ever since then, no one dared to even speak to Lilith, until this day.

Lilith was almost finished eating her apple when a girl, wearing a too-tight shirt and a mini-skirt, hopped over. Lilith thought how weird it was for someone to be wearing a skirt on such a cold October day. The girl's hair was bouncy, curled, and blonde; not a single strand was out of place. The girl's make-up was even more perfect. Lilith wondered why such a beautiful girl would sit next to plain old her.

"Hi there!" the petite girl squeaked.

"Uh, Hello?" Lilith said questionably. She hadn't socialized with another girl in a very, very long time.

"What's your name?" the girl's bright blue eyes stared into Lilith's soul, her body shivered at the sound of the girl's voice.

"Lilith" she responded bluntly. People all over the cafeteria whispered to each other.

"I'm Lamia. Nice to meet you!" she stuck her hand out. Lilith stared at it for a moment before slowly shaking it.

"Nice to meet you to?" responded a confused Lilith.

The rest of lunch, Lamia talked to Lilith, if someone could really call that talking. Lamia just kept going on and on about the importance of conditioner while Lilith patiently listened.

Over the course of the next month, Lamia and another girl, Bernice, joined Lilith's new table. Lilith felt over joyed at the thought people actually wanted to talk to her. Every night, she would still hear the clacking of feet as she rushed back to her dorm room. She wasn't about to tell her friends about her pursuer, it was too soon, they would think she was weird.

Lilith walked into her English class, expecting to talk to Lamia and Bernice about what she could do to style her hair, when she walked in on a devastating scene. Lamia and Bernice were sitting in the middle of a group of people who were watching a video of Lilith, changing. All around, the girls were laughing and the guys were hooting. Lilith's faced was flushed with anger. She ran and shut the laptop down, hard, hard enough to break the screen. Everyone was laughing at this point. Lamia snapped out of it long enough to ask Lilith why she had broken her laptop. Lilith's eyes burned, her palms grew sweaty, and she planted her feet firmly on the ground.

"How could someone be so stupid?!"

_Stop it_

"Post it on Youtube!"

_Don't_

"Let's send this to our principal!"

_No_

"Do it! Do it!"

_shut up_

Lilith couldn't take the anger anymore. The walls were creaking, wind rocked the school building, but the foolish students did not pay attention.

"Honestly, you thought someone would want to be friends with you?" mocked Lamia. The world went silent when the students finally looked out the glass windows.

"SHUT UP" Lilith screamed at the top of her lung. She closed her eyes and clutched her head. The glass windows behind her had erupted, a howling wind swept across the room. Glass shards as sharp as knives were hurdling towards the students. A mixture of wind and rain brought endless piles of glass burrowing themselves into her classmate's flesh. The students had realized their mistake too late.

When Lilith opened her eyes to examine the damage, she saw blood.