Run With You
You use to hide behind a wall
The part of you nobody knows
No one ever saw it
And your flower deep down in the sea
Full of colors deep indeed
No one ever saw it before
No one ever saw it before
Your shines is leaving you alone
- Brightly Shines by Eiffel 65
"I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter." – Walt Disney
Chapter One:
Lessons In Insanity
Running. She had to keep running. It was all she could do to keep running and not obey the urge to look back to make sure that she had lost the thing pursuing her.
Because there was not a doubt in her mind that the second she did she'd find that it was still hot on her heels, wickedly sharp teeth bared into a fiendish grin as it followed the foolish human girl who thought that she could outrun a nightmare.
The girl fought back the urge to allow an uncharacteristic whimper of fear emerge from her throat as she raced along the concrete pathways of her school, the rubber tread of her sneakers slapping loudly against the pavement as she ran. She didn't want to believe what she had seen, to admit that a creature that could only have come from a nightmare had been in her classroom.
And she most definitely did not want to look back behind her. To look back would be the kiss of death, because she knew that she would see the thing that was currently chasing her. That thing was far more terrifying than any creature dreamt up in a horror movie, namely because it was real. Right now, Freddy Kruger or Jason would be an infinitely more welcome sight, if only due to the fact that she knew they weren't real.
A shrill, inhuman screech split the air behind her, and the girl shuddered as she willed herself to run even faster. She didn't want to get caught, not by the thing that had all but told her that she would never live to see the sun rise. She knew that the creatures chasing her would never allow her to escape; after all, she had seen too much. They were going to kill her, and no force on this planet would be able to stop them.
Gray eyes darted from side to side as the fleeing girl searched frantically for a means of escape, fear lending her much-needed speed as she bolted through the deserted walkways of the campus. She spotted a path veering off to her left, leading to where she knew the campus police and school administration office lay, and immediately followed it. Another one of the creatures stepped out from the shadows up ahead, effectively blocking her path and eliciting a foul curse from the hunted.
With a defiant sneer creeping across her face as she glared daggers at the creatures, she ducked off of the concrete path and into the shrubbery lining the walkways. The girl tore through the bushes and trees with reckless abandon, her messenger bag banging painfully against the back of her legs with every step as she shoved branches out of her path. Maybe if she was insanely lucky one of the whippy branches would catch the things chasing her right across the face and deter them for a few moments.
The girl hissed out a continuous litany of verbal abuse under her breath as she whipped around the corner of a building at top speed, the worn soles of her sneakers sliding across the dirt and gravel as she dug her feet into the soft soil and took off down an alleyway formed between two buildings. She was running blind, tearing through a portion of campus that she had never visited before in the futile hopes of losing the things that were currently out after her blood.
She knew that if they ever caught her they would kill her. That much had been made clear right before she had run for her life, wanting nothing more than to escape the insanity in front of her.
A furious snarl ripped its way out of the girl's throat as she came to the end of the alleyway, and skidded to a stop in front of the chain-link fence separating the corridor between the buildings from the dirt and grass field that served as a grazing area for the agriculture department's animals. It was a dead end!
Fear presented itself somewhere within her system as a leaden feeling sinking deep in her chest as she stared up at the eight-foot high fence. How in the world was she supposed to get over that?
A noise from the entrance of the corridor caught her attention and made the girl's decision for her. She didn't even bother to curse as she threw herself bodily at the obstacle, clambering up the metal links of the fence with a speed born purely out of the will to live and the stubborn determination that she wasn't going to lose.
She wasn't going to die. Not here, not today.
Muttering various curses directed at the sexual preferences of her pursuers, and those of their parents as well, the girl swung her legs over the top of the fence, wincing in pain as the sharp metal at the top dug deep into the palms of her hands, before she let herself drop to the ground with a soft thud. The soles of her shoes skidded slightly on the dry dirt as she fell to her hands and knees at the sudden imbalance before she straightened up and took off running once again. She knew that just jumping a fence wasn't going to deter the things after her in the least.
After all, she had seen too much.
A panicked, humorless laugh started to bubble up from within her throat at the sheer insanity of the situation, and the girl had to bite back on the urge, knowing that if she started to laugh she'd be as good as dead. She had just gone past a dark alleyway located between one of the barns holding the animals raised by the agricultures classes and the feed shed when a long arm snaked out of the shadows and seized her by the collar of her jacket, jerking the girl into the shadows with the arm's owner.
Just when a panicked scream was about to tear its way from her throat (and damn the consequences), a long-fingered human hand was clapped over her mouth, effectively cutting off the sound, as the girl was pressed up against the chest of the person holding her before they ducked back into the darkest recesses of the shadows. Her heart started to pound even faster as pure fear surged through her system before she was gripped tight in the person's arms as they pressed their backs against the rough wooden wall of the barn, the wind carrying the sounds of animals shuffling around inside the barn, and the chilling sounds of her inhuman pursuers searching the area for her.
"Whatever you do, don't scream," a male voice whispered urgently in her ear as he held her close to him. "Not if you want to get out of this alive."
Two Weeks Previous:
College is one of those places where learning is considered to be supreme, where thousands flock to each year and pay for the sole privilege to be allowed the honor of attending classes there. It's a shining beacon of knowledge and enlightenment, beckoning enticingly to multitudes of young people.
At least that's what it is ideally.
Right now, Corey Mathews was almost positive that it wasn't any different from high school, save for the fact that she was standing in a lecture hall filled with at least three hundred other freshmen. Paper airplanes were being launched across the room, teenage girls were sitting huddled in groups as they chatted and did their makeup, and several other individuals were texting furiously on their cell phones or jamming away on their iPods. There was absolutely no sign of the professor anywhere, and not one of the engaged students noticed the two girls standing up at the top of the tiered room.
The seventeen-year old stared at the scene before her for several seconds, her face set into a neutral mask, before she slowly turned back around to face her cousin, who looked somewhat appalled at the sight.
"Remind me again why we're forking over six grand per year for this?" she asked blandly as she cocked an eyebrow at the brunette, who shrugged and shook her head.
"Because we want to get diplomas and not work at Taco Bell for the rest of our lives?" Tessa suggested as she glanced over at the younger girl. Corey just sighed and rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest, shifting her stance slightly before she glanced back at the doorway that they had just entered.
"Ah, the wondrous world of University of Wisconsin," the younger girl drawled as she rolled her eyes. "Home to hundreds of idiotic frat boys and classes on how to brew your own beer. Talk about a stunning advertisement for quality education."
"… the Green Bay campus isn't the one where there's a class on how to brew your own beer," Tessa finally stated as she gave her cousin a long, scrutinizing look. "That's the Milwaukee campus. And besides, how do you even know that?"
Corey didn't respond, although the corners of her mouth did twitch upwards slightly into a small smile. Tessa let out an aggravated sigh as she brushed some of her hair out of her face and shook her head. There were just some moments when Corey absolutely drove her up the wall with her smart-ass attitude, but sometimes she actually had a point.
Only sometimes though. And she'd never let Corey know that, because then she'd be impossible to live with.
"Do you think we can ditch, you know, just for today?" Corey asked somewhat sarcastically before she lifted up her right hand and glanced down at the Coleman watch strapped around her wrist. "I mean, we're already over fifteen minutes late thanks to those jackasses hiding my books last period, and the teacher's not here…"
Tessa grinned as she reached over and patted Corey reassuringly on the back before reaching up and affectionately ruffling the teen's long reddish-blonde hair. Her cousin growled out a curse under her breath as she stepped away from Tessa and eyed her warily, raking her fingers through her hair, which was now sticking out at odd angles, in a vain effort to tame it. The nineteen-year old gave a little half-smile at the indignant expression on Corey's face before she adjusted her backpack.
"If we ditch class, Braden will kill us long before my mom and dad do," she stated wryly. Corey winced at this as she stared down at the long expanse of concrete steps before her like they were the stairway leading straight to Hell.
"And we both know that would suck out loud," she grumbled softly, her gray eyes scanning the classroom with what could only be weary acceptance. "Your brother has one sick mind, especially when his idea of a good prank is to put Britney Spears CDs into my stereo. The sad thing is I still don't know how he got them, much less where. So, shall we go find some seats?"
"I knew you'd come around eventually."
"Bite me."
"No thanks. I haven't had my rabies shot yet."
Corey arched an eyebrow slightly at that comment before a positively evil smirk crossed her features.
"Who said that it was just rabies?" she asked her cousin, who pretended to recoil in mock fear at the statement. "I could just be completely certifiable for all you know."
The friendly banter was interrupted by the excited gasp from a girl seated in an aisle about halfway down the stairs as she turned around and spotted the two other adolescents.
"Tessa, Corey!" she called out enthusiastically as she waved her hand above her head to indicate her position in the room, strands of her bobbed blonde hair falling into her eyes as she did so. "You guys made it!"
"Yeah, after we had to do a search and destroy mission of half of the biology classroom," Corey drawled irritably as she started down the flight of concrete steps towards her friend, rolling her eyes as she did so. "The bastards put my notebook and math book out in the hall trash can, and the only reason I was even able to find them was because Dr. Aldman spotted them when he went to throw something away out there while Tess and I were searching his classroom for the damned things. I swear, I'm putting my bag on my lab table right in front of me next time, or sitting on it, just so I can keep all of my crap where it belongs this time."
With a loud groan, she flopped down into the auditorium-style seating next to the girl and stared aimlessly up at the ceiling as she allowed the strap of her messenger bag to slide off of her shoulder. Tessa took the seat on Corey's other side, gently sliding the movable desk top up into its locked position so she could get straight to work once the teacher entered.
"Peter just needs to learn to leave you the hell alone," she pointed out as she pulled her backpack up to her legs and unzipped it, removing her binder from the canvas bag before setting it down on her desktop. "How juvenile is it for someone to carry around a grudge that they've been nursing since eighth grade?"
"Really juvenile," Liz offered as she looked over at Corey, who looked as though all of her energy had been drained from her. "Are you gonna be okay?"
"That depends. Is it Friday yet?"
"No, its still Wednesday," the blonde girl stated sympathetically, earning an aggravated groan from Corey as she brought a hand up to her face and clapped it over her eyes.
"Damn," she muttered before she nudged her gray messenger bag with the toe of her shoe, pushing it away from her legs slightly so she could have more room to sprawl out with her lanky frame. "Liz, could you do me a huge favor? Just shoot me now, please. If this is how the rest of the year is going to be, I think I'll be better off dead."
Tessa just rolled her eyes at the younger girl's dramatics, although she silently sympathized with Corey's plight as well.
"Corey, you've only been in college for a month and you're already raising the white flag?" she asked with a grin and a hint of incredulity in her voice, knowing that the slight dig at her cousin's pride would irritate the girl. Her efforts were rewarded as Corey gave a low snarl and sat up in her seat, gray eyes narrowed angrily at the hidden insinuation that she was giving up.
"Never!" she hissed defiantly. "It'll take a hell of a lot more than some stupid football players to make me quit. Besides, both my mom and dad would kick my ass six ways 'till Sunday if I never went to college!"
Tessa nodded slowly as she gave Corey a serious look, and a rueful grin flickered across the younger adolescent's face as she reached up and raked a hand through her hair. Liz arched an eyebrow as she shook her head and grinned before she decided that a change in conversation was needed. Tessa and Corey were close, practically sisters, and she had been friends with both of them for a long time. There were just some times when distractions were needed before conversations took a darker turn than necessary.
"So, you guys will never guess what I got yesterday," she began as she grinned broadly at the other girls. Corey arched an eyebrow as she shrugged off her jean jacket, fully revealing the blue fitted t-shirt that she wore underneath with the words 'You say crazy like it's a bad thing' plastered across the front, before she looked over at Liz.
"What did you get?" she asked with an expectant grin, knowing that her friend was going to tell them anyways. Liz appeared to bounce up and down excitedly in her seat for a few moments before she bent down and started to dig around in her backpack, babbling excitedly at top speed as she rummaged around. Corey and Tessa exchanged twin shrugs and 'what can you do?' looks.
"Soo… any bets on when the teacher's going to show up?" Tessa asked nonchalantly as she leaned back in her seat, while Corey reached into her messenger bag and hauled out her sketchbook. The girl arched a pale eyebrow at her cousin's question as she started sketching out the basic pose of a human body before offering a small smirk.
"Never?" she offered with a grin, earning a couple of sniggers from her cousin and friend.
"Bet you anything Mrs. Gadding shows up right when people start saying 'screw it, let's go'," Liz said seriously, her voice slightly muffled by her backpack. "My math teacher does that all the time."
"You math teacher also looks like Snape reincarnated," Corey pointed out seriously. "Hell, he even has an attitude to match. The only thing he's missing is the British accent. I keep expecting him to say 'Mr. Potter, what is a bezoar?' or 'Twenty points from Gryffindor!' or something like that when he starts giving all of us the stink eye!"
Tessa blinked before she burst into giggles, shaking her head as she did so. "I forgot you two have the same teacher."
"Don't. He's evil," Liz piped up as she pulled her head out of the dark abyss that was her backpack momentarily before she returned to digging around inside the canvas monstrosity, muttering something under her breath. Tessa just shook her head and gave a small sigh at her friend's actions while Corey worked on her sketch.
"You know, I always wonder how in the world you carry that thing around," she muttered as she watched Liz. "I tried picking your backpack up once and my arm almost fell off! How do you fit all of that crap in there?"
"It's bigger on the inside," was the smug reply, resulting in much eye-rolling from the other girls, accompanied by a loud groan from Corey. That was a common comment used when Liz wanted to be 'mysterious' about something, which was quite often. The funny thing was that sometimes when she said that it led to some really embarrassing situations, or it just didn't make sense.
Just when the blonde let out a triumphant 'Ah-hah!' as she found whatever it was that she was looking for, the door down at the bottom of the lecture hall burst open and a strange man dashed in, making a beeline for the teacher's podium in the middle of the room. Corey guessed that he couldn't have been too much older than some of the older students; he looked like he was in his early to mid-thirties at the most, and his choice in clothing was definitely… different. She'd never seen anyone wear sneakers with a suit before, especially a teacher, at least if this man was a teacher. A quick glance over in Tessa's direction showed that the other girl was just as puzzled as she was.
"Did they send over one of the T.A.s to teach the class or something?" the brunette asked quietly as she looked over at Corey, who merely shrugged in response as she watched the strange man shrug out of his brown overcoat and toss it onto the teacher's chair before he started to fiddle around with the computer on the desk. He looked excited as he dinked around with the controls to the digital projector up at the top of the room, strands of his messy, gelled brown hair falling into his face as he opened up the Power Point they had been going over the day before.
"Sure looks like it," she muttered back before she flashed a brief grin over at the other girl. "Who else would be bouncing around like a deranged chipmunk on a sugar high at the thought of teaching a bunch of college kids?"
"Probably someone who had absolutely no idea what they were getting into," Tessa suggested with a chuckle just as Liz emerged from digging around in her backpack, a DVD set clutched to her chest as her short blonde hair stuck out in practically every direction. She opened her mouth to say something, only to freeze as she caught sight of the man setting up the class presentation, her mouth opening and closing wordlessly several times before coherent thought seemed to return to her.
"HOLY SHIT!" she squawked as she reeled backwards in her seat, making Corey and Tessa both stare at the blonde like she had lost her mind as a good majority of the class all looked over at the three girls curiously. Corey noticed that their substitute teacher was also staring up at them, and gave a long-suffering sigh as she rolled her eyes before she gave him a small smile and shrugged, indicating that there was nothing to worry about.
"Spider," she said by way of explanation, raising her voice slightly so that her words would reach the man. A brief flicker of incredulity crossed the man's face at the excuse, and Corey decided to follow the wonderful words of wisdom once offered to her by her high-school teacher: fake it 'till you make it. With a frown, she looked down at the cement ground and stomped down hard on a stray piece of paper left behind by a previous class. The loud sound of the sole of her shoe meeting the concrete floor echoed throughout the lecture hall, and the teen looked up to grin sheepishly at their substitute.
"It's dead now."
The man gave all three of them a very long look, his face set into an unreadable expression, before it was replaced with a smile as he nodded at the three girls.
"Well now, that's good," he said, his words twisting on a somewhat unfamiliar manner due to his accent, and Corey straightened up in surprise as she stared at the man before a small smile crossed her features as she placed the accent. Their substitute was English! "I'm sure we wouldn't want it biting anyone now, do we?"
"Nope, could've been poisonous," Corey responded with a perfectly straight face, although she did manage to send Liz a warning look out of the corner of her eye as her friend opened her mouth to say something. The teacher arched an eyebrow at their actions, but didn't say anything as he turned back around and started fiddling around with the computer. Tessa waited until the man was suitably occupied before she turned around to face Liz, who looked like she was about to go into shock.
"What was that all about?" she asked seriously, a slight frown creeping across her face as she stared at the blonde. Liz appeared to gain her bearings as she shook her head, looked back down at their substitute, who was now scrawling his name onto the blackboard at the front of the room, and froze again.
"That's the Doctor," she finally said, awe lacing her tone, earning a confused look from Corey, and an arched eyebrow from Tessa.
"The Doctor, isn't he that guy on that show you're always talking about?" she queried. Liz nodded empathetically, not trusting her voice. Corey blinked once, and then stared at her friend before she let out a sigh and leaned back in her seat.
"So our sub looks like some British guy from a TV show?" she asked as she crossed her arms over her chest and arched an eyebrow questioningly. "Nice."
"It's called Doctor Who, and I'm being serious!" Liz protested as she jabbed a finger down at the man, who had written out 'Dr. John Smith' on the blackboard while using some of the long-abandoned chalk in the tray to scrawl out the letters. "That's the Doctor! He's even using the same alias that he uses when he can't go by 'The Doctor'!"
Tessa cocked an eyebrow before she shook her head and let out a long sigh, reaching up and running a hand through her short brown bangs as she did so.
"It's a wonder they haven't locked you up yet," she muttered resignedly. Liz made an indignant noise in the back of her throat as she glared at the other girl.
"But its true!" she sputtered as she gestured wildly down in the direction of Dr. Smith, who for all intents and purposes appeared to be completely oblivious to their conversation. Corey stared at her friend skeptically for a few moments, a slight frown making its way across her face, before she glanced down at the blackboard and grinned. Tessa shook her head and let out a long sigh as she fiddled absent-mindedly with her mechanical pencil.
"Lizzy, you're living in a fantasy world," she scolded gently. Corey sniggered softly as Liz let out an indignant squawk at the nickname – which she absolutely hated – before she managed to regain her composure.
"No matter what anyone says, there is a way to get to your fantasy world," she stated with mock severity, somehow managing to look solemn. Corey managed to ruin the mood as she gave a sarcastic snort.
"And that way is rum," she whispered impishly, earning an annoyed glare from Liz.
"That's not funny," the blonde muttered as she crossed her arms over her chest and sulked. Corey and Tessa exchanged bemused looks at their friend's actions before Corey shrugged and returned to their previous line of conversation.
"Anyways, previous insane conversation aside, it looks more to me like his parents had a warped sense of humor," she stated seriously before she smirked at Liz. "And you say that I'm obsessed."
"That's because you're probably the only person I know who has an entire Latin exorcism chant memorized," Liz stated flatly as she rolled her eyes. "And don't try to change the subject. I know what I see."
Tessa gave a short laugh as she shook her head and chuckled.
"No she doesn't," she pointed out with a grin. "Believe me, I share a room with her, so I should know. If Corey ever did run into a demon or anything like that, she'd probably just mutter 'Christo' a bunch of times before running like hell."
"Damn straight," Corey muttered as she bent back over to work on her drawing again. "I'm not Dean Winchester, and I'm not suicidal."
Liz rolled her eyes upwards and mumbled something under her breath that sounded like either a plea to any nearby divine powers for the retention of her sanity, or a wholehearted disagreement to Corey's statement. Tessa smiled slightly as she flashed Corey a conspiratorial wink, indicating that she had successfully sidetracked Liz from her protests. Any further conversation between the three was interrupted as Dr. Smith started up the PowerPoint and spun around to face the class.
"Alright you lot, settle down. I'm Dr. John Smith, and I'll be your substitute for the next-" Dr. Smith hesitated for a second, frowned slightly as he mouthed something under his breath, and then brightened up as he returned his attention the class. "Two weeks, at the very least."
"What happened to Mrs. Gadding?" someone piped up at the very back of the room. Dr. Smith arched an eyebrow as he directed his gaze up to the top tier of the lecture hall before he flashed a brief look of sympathy towards the individual asking the question.
"As far as I know, she'd in the hospital," he said thoughtfully. "Didn't really tell me much, other than the fact that she was ill with… oh, what do you call it… that's right, Swine Flu!"
Shocked gasps erupted from half the class, and Corey let out a low groan as she shoved her sketchbook into her messenger bag and slumped back into her seat.
"Great… now the hypochondriacs are all going to go ballistic," she muttered dryly as she clapped a hand over her face. Liz and Tessa both nodded in agreement as frantic whispers flared into life all throughout the classroom. Dr. Smith appeared to be somewhat frustrated as he let out a sigh and muttered something under his breath before he straightened up and stared out at the class.
"There's no need for anyone to panic," he commented blandly, sounding almost as though he was resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "I'm almost certain that they scoured every inch of this classroom yesterday after that little tidbit of information was given out. So there is absolutely no need for any of you to panic, or try to skip out on class, or fake sick, although I don't really see why you would want to, since you're all paying to go here and if you miss enough classes you'll get kicked out…"
Corey cocked an eyebrow as their substitute started off on a long string of babble mostly centering around the fascination of college education. She gave a soft huff of disbelieving amusement as she looked over at Liz, who looked as though she was on the verge of having a fit of some kind, and Tessa, who looked mildly annoyed at the steady flow of babble.
"If he says 'kids these days have no appreciation for education', I am so out of here," Tessa grumbled as she propped her chin up on the heel of her hand. Corey chuckled at her cousin's statement as she straightened up and offered a faint grin.
"Somehow, I don't think that's gonna happen," she pointed out. "Not that that would be a bad thing. Although, I definitely think that our sub needs to cut back on the sugar. Talk about a major spazoid."
It was at around that moment Dr. Smith came to a stop on his 'lecture' on the values of a college education, paused for a moment as he glanced over at the information on the side projected up on the massive screen up at the front of the room, and then gave an enthusiastic grin . For a brief moment, Corey had the thought that when he smiled like that, it usually heralded an onslaught of bad things. That thought vanished as Dr. Smith launched into an incredibly detailed lecture on the Italian Renaissance, and the massive social and political changes that it wrought, and Corey suddenly found herself preoccupied with jotting down the notes.
Not a single one of the three hundred students sitting in the lecture hall noticed the silvery, pen-like device that sat innocently on the table next to the computer monitor, a bright blue light flashing up at the top in a sequence that only its creator could ever possibly understand.
Over the next several days, Corey soon came to the conclusion that Dr. Smith was possibly one of the best teachers that she had ever had. He not only knew his way backwards and forwards through history, but he also had hundreds of amusing anecdotes about various incidents for almost every topic that they discussed. He had a way of making the past come alive, making it real, tangible for everyone in the room. To put things simply, Dr. Smith made history class fun, especially since Mrs. Gadding had been one of those teachers who possessed a dry, nasal voice that droned on endlessly, renowned for unwillingly sending many of the occupants in the lecture hall off into the Land of Nod.
To be more precise, she practically made Professor Binns and his lectures on the Goblin Wars seem downright riveting in comparison.
Right now, Dr. Smith was going over the Industrial Revolution, and the numerous effects it had on countries worldwide. And he was making the entire lecture absolutely fascinating.
"So, thanks to Guttenberg's invention of the printing press, as well as the invention of the steam engine – quite a marvelous thing really if you think about it. I once knew this chap who was convinced that a steam engine actually ran on ghosts, of all things…" Dr. Smith trailed off as he blinked, apparently realizing that he had been going off-topic once again. "Anyways, the start of the Industrial Revolution came about with the mechanization of various trades, such as the paper mills, steam-powered looms, and other such things. Unfortunately, no one was particularly interested in the idea of recycling back then, so you lot can probably only imagine how nasty things got from the refuse produced by the factories. Can anyone tell me who were the worst offenders on the bit with the pollution?"
Corey, who had been hastily jotting down notes during the course of the lecture, absent-mindedly raised her hand up halfway, not looking up from her notebook as she did so. In all honesty, she didn't really realize that she had done it; it was more of a knee-jerk reaction from high school that she had adopted whenever a teacher asked a question.
"Ah, you there, up in the middle. What can you tell me?"
It took a few seconds for Corey to realize that Dr. Smith was talking to her, and she jerked her head up with a classic 'deer-in-the-headlights' expression on her face. The substitute offered her a knowing smile as he arched an eyebrow. Crap, she'd been caught.
"Umm… the paper mills?" she offered hesitantly with a somewhat sheepish grin. Dr. Smith made a 'go on' motion with his hand, and Corey rolled her eyes upwards when she heard Liz and Tessa start snickering at her embarrassment. Some help they were. Fighting the very strong urge to mutter 'traitors' under her breath, she took a deep breath and glanced down at the passage in her textbook before she spoke.
"The paper mills were the source of many of the toxins found in the rivers at the time mainly due to the chemicals they used to treat the mass-produced paper," the girl recited with a slight sigh. "And since the mills were always located next to rivers due to the massive amounts of water they needed for the production and treatment of the paper, as well as creating water or steam power to run the machinery, the rivers were also used as a convenient dumping ground for any unwanted by-products, such as the used chemicals and leftover paper pulp."
"Well said," Dr. Smith chirped brightly as he spun back around to face the screen at the front of the room and use the laser pointer her had somehow acquired last week to point at a copperplate image of one of the infamous paper mills. "Now then-"
Any further words on the subject were cut off as the bell signaling the end of class rang out, and the entire lecture hall erupted with a flurry of teenagers and young adults all packing up so that they could leave as soon as possible. Corey yelped as she was forced to duck in order to avoid being smacked in the face with the bottom of someone's backpack, and Liz snickered as she stuffed her book and binder into her own backpack.
"Heads up," she quipped brightly with a smirk, giving Corey more than enough cause (in her humble opinion) to roll her eyes upwards and let out an annoyed groan.
"Yeah, thanks for the warning by the way," she drawled sarcastically as she gave the older girl an exasperated look. Liz grinned as she hefted her backpack up onto her shoulders and reached over to ruffle Corey's hair affectionately.
"I aim to please," the blonde offered with a cheeky smirk. Well, at least until Tessa reached over and soundly smacked Liz upside the head. The blonde let out a loud yelp of pain as she spun around to glare indignantly at Tessa, who just shook her head and sighed.
"Alright you two," she admonished in a falsely weary tone, "Play nice now. And Liz, must you harass my cousin?"
"Well yeah, it's fun!" Liz chirped eagerly as she reached over once again and ruffled Corey's hair, earning a weary sigh from the lanky teen as she hooked an arm around Liz's neck and held her in a headlock. "Who else do I know who can flip a full-grown man over their shoulder?"
"Aoshi," Corey and Tessa both replied simultaneously, and Liz shook her head in response as best she could while still in a headlock.
"No offense Corey, but I think your jujitsu-"
"Judo," Corey corrected automatically.
"Whatever. Anyways, your teacher is completely nuts if he can do that. Not to mention the fact that he taught you how to do it too," the blonde offered with a smartass grin. Tessa made a low noise in the back of her throat as she jerked Liz out of Corey's grasp and gave her friend what could only be described as an 'Apocalyptic Noogie'. By the time Tessa was finished, and once Liz was done squalling as she squirmed about in a frantic attempt to get out of the brunette's iron grip, the other girl's short blonde hair stuck up in practically every direction. You could almost see the sparks dancing about on Liz's statically-charged hair.
All it took from Corey was to glance in the other girl's direction before she burst out laughing hysterically.
"Nice hair," she chortled. Liz scowled at her.
"Shut up."
"Sure thing, Naruto."
"I said shut up."
"Dude, you have a cat-fro!"
Liz let out a distinctly inhuman growl at this comment, which prompted further snickers from Corey as she grabbed her messenger bag from the ground and flung the strap over her shoulder. She glanced back over at Liz and smirked, her gray eyes shining with an impish light before she let the final verbal bomb drop.
"So, feeling 'charged' yet?"
Liz growled out a curse as she lunged for the younger girl, who nimbly ducked underneath her friend's outstretched arms and clambered over the row of seats to the aisle behind them. Her actions startled the blonde long enough for her to race over to the stairs and run up them. Once she had reached the top, she turned around and grinned cheekily down at Liz and Tessa, who were only now starting up the stairs. They were among the last ones to leave the classroom, but there were still a few people left behind in the room, Dr. Smith being one of them.
So, Corey decided that one more static-electricity inspired pun was in order before she left for the day.
"See ya tomorrow, Sparky," she quipped before she bolted out the door and headed for the school library, leaving Tessa behind to deal with an irate Liz. Approximately ten seconds later, Tessa came running out the same doors in a frantic attempt to get away from the fuming blonde herself.
Apparently she couldn't resist making a joke or two either.
Corey made it to the library and soon commandeered a spot at one of the open computer terminals. Midterms were next week, and she had a paper due for her English class. It involved a detailed review of The Book Thief, and the general symbolism found within the book. The good news was that she had about half of her paper already typed up. The bad news was that she still had to finish it.
Corey was almost positive that the sacrifice of her sanity would be required as well when she turned in the paper next week.
With a soft sigh the teenager pulled her MP3 player out of her backpack and slipped her headphones on before she inserted her jump drive into one of the ports on the computer and allowed the small device to boot up. While she was waiting, she turned on her player and set it on a loop for one of her favorite albums, Burn Season. Humming happily along with the music, Corey pulled out her copy of The Book Thief and set to the annoying task of finishing up her paper.
They had been expected to select a certain aspect of the book, such as point of view, characterization, scene, setting, things like that, and write about it. Corey had decided that the best thing for her to do was point of view, if only by virtue of the fact that it was pretty weird. In all of the books that she'd ever read – and she read a lot – she'd never come across another author using Death as the narrator of a story while watching the protagonist. It was really kind of creepy, in a cool way.
She had been plugging away at the assignment for at least a good twenty minutes when someone very large and very muscular plopped down in the seat next to her, and Corey automatically tensed up as she glanced over at the person out of the corner of her eye. When she realized just exactly who it was, she let out a soft sigh before she returned her attention back to her computer screen. She really did not need this right now.
And she definitely would not start banging her had against the table. To show weakness would just give this bastard an advantage.
"So, what's the psycho freak up to this week?" the boy – he was too much of an immature asshole to qualify as a man – sneered as he stared at Corey. The seventeen-year old schooled her features into an impassive mask as she continued to type away at her essay and focused on the music coming from her headphones instead. She was rudely interrupted when a large hand was thrust in front of her face, blocking her view of the screen. With a mental roll of her eyes, she hit the 'save' key and glanced over at the object of her irritation with a lazy look on her face.
"What do you want, Pete?" she drawled as she arched an eyebrow. The red-haired football player frowned at her tone, obviously expecting her to be defensive or angry, before he smirked arrogantly.
"I just suppose that I'm surprised to see you here without one of your bodyguards," he remarked scornfully. Corey's expression didn't change as she rolled her eyes upwards.
"And I'm absolutely stunned to see you here without any of your muscle-bound lackeys," she commented with a slight smirk when Pete twitched at the remark. "What happened, did they finally start questioning why their buddy was hell-bent on harassing a girl two years younger than him, and half his size?"
"Shut up."
"You first, junkless."
Pete clenched his hands so hard that the tendons stood out visibly, and Corey had to bite back the shit-eating grin that threatened to break over her face at the sight. It was amazing that it only took three words from her to absolutely piss Pete off. But it was to be expected; after all, she had been taking lessons in sarcasm from Dean Winchester for quite a while now, and he was pretty adept at pissing people off himself.
It was kind of sad though that one of her biggest role models aside from her parents was a fictional character.
"You need to learn to watch your mouth, bitch," Pete finally hissed, and Corey rolled her eyes yet again.
"There's stupid coming out of your mouth-hole again," she pointed out offhandedly as she returned her attention back to the computer screen in front of her. "Now why don't you go away and do something constructive, like kick puppies or whatever it is you do in your free time? Leave me alone, I've got homework to do."
The older boy opened his mouth to say something, only to be interrupted by a cold voice that would have made the Devil himself piss his pants in sheer terror.
"Peter Benson, how many times do Braden and I have to tell you to leave Corey alone?" Tessa hissed acidly as she stalked up to the football player, her pretty face twisted into an expression of unmistakable contempt. Corey inwardly flinched at the murderous expression on her cousin's face, and not-so-subtlety scooted her chair away from Pete so that the football player would be at the epicenter of the nuclear blast that was soon going to be directed his way. To give Pete credit, he only paled visibly in the face of the only woman that had ever threatened to castrate him with a melon baler the last time she had caught him harassing her younger cousin.
"No need to get your panties in a wad," he sneered as he hurriedly stood up and pushed his way out from between the two females, trying his best to not look like he was freaked out. "I was just about to leave."
"Damn right you were," Tessa growled warningly as she glared darkly at Pete. "Now leave, unless you want me telling my brother that I caught you within ten feet of Corey… again."
Pete managed to sneer at the shorter girl, but he still beat a hasty retreat nonetheless as he sauntered out of the library in an attempt to look like he wasn't running away. Corey watched him leave as she cocked an eyebrow before she looked over at her cousin and gave her a knowing smile.
"Feel better?" she asked patiently, and was rewarded with an irritated growl from Tess as she sank down in the seat next to her – the one opposite from where Pete had been seated.
"Only once I'm actually allowed to punch that smug asshole's face in," Tessa muttered darkly. "I don't know how you can be so calm when he comes up and tries to pull this crap with you."
"I'm calm because it pisses him off," Corey pointed out with a small smile. "And as satisfactory as it would be for me to flip Pete over my shoulder and into a pit full of rabid hedgehogs, I have to be the better person. So, verbal barbs are okay, but breaking his nose again is not."
"You still shouldn't have to put up with that kind of bullshit from him."
"I don't. I honestly hope that he drowns in a bucket of ferrets, but I try not to let him get to me."
"But-"
"Tessa, he managed to make me lose it once, and I'm never going to give him the satisfaction of doing it again," Corey stated seriously as she looked over at her cousin, a frown making its way across her face as her gray eyes darkened slightly at the memory before she returned her attention back to the computer screen. "Besides, Aoshi-sensei would have my head on a pike if he ever caught wind of me using what I know for something other than self-defense."
"And that would be a bad thing," Tessa agreed reluctantly. Corey sent her a look that plainly said 'no shit' before she picked up her copy of The Book Thief and started paging through it, obviously looking for something.
"Yeah, it's definitely a bad idea to piss off the man who started my first lesson off by flipping my scrawny ass over his shoulder and into the wall," she retorted dryly with a slight roll of her eyes.
"I thought that it was his student teacher who did that."
"Nope, she just did it to me every day after the first day until I caught up with the rest of the class."
"Fun."
Corey surprised her cousin when she glanced over at her out of the corner of her eye and offered a knowing smirk.
"Y'know, actually, it is," she quipped brightly. Tessa merely stared at her for several long moments before she let out a low groan and slowly started to bang her forehead against the wooden surface of the table.
"Why me?" she moaned in mock exasperation. "What did I ever do to deserve this?"
"Probably assassinated someone in your past life."
"Gee, thanks. That makes me feel so much better now."
"That's what I'm here for."
Silence fell between the two girls as Corey returned to working on her essay, and Tessa bent over to rummage around in her backpack for one of her own assignments. The rapid clicking of a keyboard was the only sound that filled the quiet void between the two girls before a faint buzzing came from the pocket of Tessa's jacket. With a slight sigh, the nineteen-year old reached inside her jacket and pulled out her cell phone before flipping it open.
"Braden says that he's staying behind to work on class work until after six," the brunette commented wearily as she snapped the phone shut after reading her brother's text message. Corey glanced over at Tessa out of the corner of her eyes and offered a faint grin.
"Hey, that just means we have more time to get our homework done before we go home tonight," she suggested. "We'll even be able to watch Supernatural tomorrow once we get back."
"Corey, it's on at ten."
"So? That's what TiVo's for."
Tessa let out a low groan and slowly smacked her forehead against the table once again, although the smirk on her face this time detracted from the dramatic act significantly.
By the time six o'clock finally rolled around, the sun had already set, and Tessa and Corey were both more than ready to leave the library. Corey had finished her book report about an hour after she had arrived in the library, as well as the fifteen math problems that her teacher had assigned her class to do that day. Yes, she was that bored. While Tessa waded her way through an English project (a completely different one than what Corey had to do), the younger girl occupied herself by surfing the Internet, mostly by looking up reference pictures for her drawings.
When Corey's cell phone rang, she and Tessa both jumped, having gotten used to the heavy silence that hung about in the library. The girl glanced at Braden's text message and grinned before she looked over at her cousin.
"Your brother's done with class and wants to know where we are," she said with a grin. Tessa rolled her eyes a she unceremoniously stuffed the worksheets that she had been filling out into her English textbook.
"Tell him the library, as usual," she grumbled good-naturedly. "I swear, sometimes that boy doesn't think."
Corey smirked as she typed in 'Tess says 'in the library', duh. We'll see you in a few' and hit send. Once this task was accomplished, she set about cleaning up her workspace and stuffing her own books and notes into her back pack, at least until she realized that she was missing something important.
"Hey Tess, have you seen my notebook?" she asked hesitantly as she looked around the library, almost as though she expected her notes to have grown legs and walked off somehow. The older girl quickly glanced around as well; a slight frown on her face, before dawning realization became evident on her features.
"Didn't you leave them on your desk in Dr. Smith's class?" she asked quietly, and Corey immediately paled before she reached up and clapped a hand over her face before dragging it down as she let out a low growl of irritation.
"Crap," she muttered as she glared down at nothing in particular. "Hey, I've gotta go run back to the classroom and grab my notes before one of the janitors makes off with them or something. I'll meet you and Braden in the parking lot, okay?"
Tessa nodded in agreement, and Corey flashed her cousin a grin before she shouldered her messenger bag and headed back over in the direction of her history classroom. There were fewer people wandering around the campus now since it was after dark, but there were still those with night classes walking around. The girl let out a soft sigh as she made her way across campus to her history classroom and mentally grumbled over the fact that she had been so occupied with teasing Liz that she had forgotten her notebook.
As tempting as it was to mutter 'idiot' under her breath in every language that she knew, Corey refrained from the action, if only because she knew that talking to yourself in public usually never went over very well.
With a roll of her eyes, the teen quietly pushed open one of the doors that led into the lecture hall and poked her head in to see if there was a class taking place. To her surprise, and luck, the room was dark, and no one was in the room. Corey grinned silently at her luck, and resisted the urge to start humming the theme to 'Mission Impossible' as she started down the stairs towards where she had been seated earlier. She didn't know why she was sneaking around in an empty classroom, but it was fun. If she really wanted to, she could pretend that she was accompanying Sam and Dean Winchester on a hunt of a haunted college campus and that they were looking for clues to-
WHAM!
Corey almost let out a yelp as she instinctively ducked down behind a row of seats and looked around the corner of one of them with wide eyes at the door down at the bottom of the lecture hall, and almost burst out laughing when she caught sight of the familiar lanky form of Dr. Smith striding out into the room after someone. That laughter died in her throat though when she actually saw what was accompanying him.
It looked like someone had combined a rougarou with an overgrown lizard, and it had nails that looked sharp enough to make even a pissed-off grizzly think twice about tangling with this thing. And something told Corey that there was no way in hell that this was a costume. It was too realistic, too tight. And those fangs the thing was sporting looked way too sharp to be fake.
"Again, I demand to know what you're doing here!" Dr. Smith snapped as he glared at the thing, his usually cheerful expression replaced by one of extreme anger and outrage. "Under the Shadow Proclamation, you are specifically forbidden from even landing on this planet, much less punching holes in reality just so you can bypass the rules!!"
"That is none of your business, Doctor," the lizard-thing hissed, its voice harsh and gravelly as it focused its day-glow yellow eyes on the teacher. "And you have broken those selfsame rules as well."
"Only because a huge gaping hole in the middle of the Void is rather hard to ignore," Dr. Smith retorted darkly. "And I was rather curious to see just who or what was so desperate to claw its way out of one dimension and into this one. I just never expected to find a Quisforth roaming around on an American college campus."
"Quisforth?" Corey mouthed quietly as her eyebrows drew together and she frowned in confusion before she peeked back down at the scene. This just kept getting weirder and weirder. The lizard-thing let out a low noise that sounded like some kind of growl, and the girl shifted slightly in her spot so she could get a little more comfortable and get a better look at what was going on without being spotted. Unfortunately, her movement sent an abandoned pen skittering across the concrete floor and down one of the stairs with a loud clatter. Corey cringed at the noise, and managed to bite back the curse that threatened to fall from her lips.
"Who's there?" Dr. Smith called out as he turned around to face the seats in the lecture hall. The lizard-thing also turned around to stare at her, its eyes narrowing at it focused its gaze right on her hiding place. Corey swallowed nervously as she stared right into the things slitted yellow eyes, and felt her stomach twist into a very uncomfortable knot as a chill ran through her entire body. Somehow, in the part of her brain that was still functioning on all cylinders, something screamed at her that she was looking a predator right in the eyes and that was a very bad thing.
Forgetting all about her notebook, Corey silently counted to three before she straightened up and bolted for the door, running into it full-force with a loud 'clang' and barreling outside into the cool night air. She silently prayed that it had been too dark for the substitute, or whatever was in there with him, to see anything other than a vague shape before she took off towards the library.
Once she reached the library, she stood outside for a few moments and tried to stop shaking as she went over what she had just seen. It was impossible, and yet there was also no way that it could have been fake either. Corey swallowed nervously as she glanced around her, gray eyes wide with fear, before she shook her anxiety off and headed in the direction of the parking lot as normally as she could.
There was no way in hell that she was hanging around there for a second longer than she had to.
The sound of squealing breaks. The acrid stench of burning rubber. The tortured shriek of metal colliding with metal at high speeds.
Blood.
God, there was so much blood.
A small hand gripping hers tightly as familiar gray eyes looked back at her with weary acceptance.
"It's okay Corey. We'll be okay."
Corey's eyes flew open as she jerked awake with a sharp gasp and shot up into a sitting position, her right hand flying up to rest over her heart as she sucked in deep, shuddering breaths. Sweat dripped down the sides of her face as she stared down at her covers and tried not to burst into tears as she had so many other nights after waking up from the same nightmare.
The worst part though was that it wasn't just a nightmare. It was a memory too.
"Damn it," Corey hissed as she flopped back down on her bed and glanced over at the alarm clock that rested on top of the large dresser on the other side of the room. The clock's glowing blue numbers showed that it was after two in the morning, far too early for anyone sane to be awake. The girl let out a long sigh as she listened to the rhythmic snores that came from the bunk underneath her as Tessa snoozed away, and silently wished for once that she was as heavy of a sleeper as her cousin was.
Five years.
For just two words, it sure signified a hell of a lot more. In some ways, it was practically a lifetime ago, and in others it only seemed like it had happened not even a month ago.
Over five years ago she had been living a normal life in Kingsford, Michigan with her mom and dad. She had a twin brother, Danny, who she had loved more than life itself, and a cat. Her mom worked for a local law firm as a paralegal, and her dad taught chemistry at the local high school. All in all, her family was nothing special, but they had been tight-knit.
And all it had taken to rip them apart were a couple of drunk college students out driving around one Saturday night at the end of June.
Corey let out a low growl of irritation as she sat up and shook her head in an attempt to remove the morbid thoughts from her mind. The last thing she needed to do right now was brood. And she definitely did not want to think about what she had seen in the history classroom either. If she did, and if she tried to comprehend it at all, she'd probably go insane. For now, as far as she was concerned, it hadn't happened.
She hadn't mentioned what she had seen to either Braden or Tessa, and in all honesty, it was probably going to be a secret that she took to her grave. Aliens didn't exist, and monsters weren't real; well, at least ones of the non-human variety.
With a soft sigh, Corey lay beck down on her bed and closed her eyes, silently willing herself to fall back asleep. Something told her that tomorrow was going to be a long day.
Unfortunately, every time she closed her eyes that night, she was haunted by images of what she had seen in the classroom. And every single time, the lizard thing kept getting closer.
Okay everyone, welcome to my first Doctor Who story. I've been working on this for the past four months and I was orginally going to post it after I finished the whole story. However, after a rather disasterous few weeks (those of you who have read my Fullmetal Alchemist story 'What One May Never See' know what I'm talking about), I decided that I needed to post something. So, fun stuff will abound... well, it's not exactly fun per say, at least not for Corey, but it is interesting.
This is my first time writing anything for Doctor Who, so if I get anything wrong, please feel free to tell me.