There may have been a time when she thought her life was perfect. She lived in the perfect neighborhood, had popular friends who all attended one of the most prestigious schools around. Her parents were wealthy. Her dad was a top surgeon and her mother spent most of her time either sipping tequila from a chardonnay glass or taking expensive 'business' trips to promote another charity event under her family's well-known name.
Her name was Elyse Radner. Yes, her mother founded the Radner foundation for underprivileged teens. It was one of the many things that her mother did to bring their name out into the public eye. They were under constant scrutiny from the press. Her parents never minded. They always said that any press was good press. Elyse figures they didn't take that into consideration when the press found out her dad was involved in black market organ dealings.
From there things had gone downhill. Elyse's dad went to jail and their family's money was heavily invested in a good lawyer which proved fruitless. Mr. Radner was sentenced to thirty years in a penitentiary three states away.
With no money and bad publicity, her mother had decided to move them to another state. Here she would be starting at a remote boarding school while her mother drank her problems away. Even if this wasn't what she was told, Elyse knew it was true. So here she stood, staring up at a castle-like building. Her first impression of her new school was normal, other than a strange fuzziness in the back of her head. She wasn't sure what to think about it, so she ignored it.
As the cab her mother had paid to drop her off sped away, she walked up closer to the rod iron gates that would forever block her off from the life she used to know. If her mother had been here to drop her off, maybe she wouldn't have been so nervous. However, her mother seemed to have completely checked out on here.
A tiny blonde bounced down the stone steps of the front entrance to land in front of her. Her lips formed a welcoming smile that stretched from ear to ear as she hugged Elyse. Not knowing how to react, Elyse simply pat the blonde on the back lightly until she finally released her.
"Hi! I'm Chelsea! But please, just call me Chelse. That way I don't feel like a total loser." Elyse nodded to the small girl but wasn't sure how to take in all the energy that Chelse had. She wasn't sure why the bubbly girl had appeared in front of her, but she didn't have much opportunity to introduce herself before she was led up the steps and into the school's first building. Elyse took in the scene around her. The building was built entirely out of huge bricks. There were plenty of windows that lit up the open entryway. They turned left and went into what Elyse assumed was an administrative office.
Throughout the time Elyse filled out paperwork, Chelse talked to her. She didn't get all of what the blonde was saying, but she caught snippets of the rant. She got that Chelse was her roommate, and that she had a small tour planned out. While Chelsea had plenty of energy and seemed hard to keep up with, Elyse didn't mind her around. Plus, this way she no longer had to go through the awkward meeting of the roommate scenario. Once the paperwork was all done and Elyse had her school books and schedule, Chelse led her out the back of the building to a large open area. Despite the unkempt grounds, the area was still quite beautiful. It was fall and the multicolored leaves swept across the ground with the light breeze. A fountain sat in the centre of an open gathering area, and while it wasn't running, students still sat around it and talked or did homework.
Else say two buildings further down the grounds. The brick buildings were overrun by vines, but it gave the place a nicer feeling to Elyse; like something she remembered out of a dream.
"On the left is the boys' dormitory. They're closer to the forest. We are on the right and our room has a wonderful view of the dock and the lake." Chelse was talking excitedly about their room and Elyse only smiled as she listened. She never swam much before because her mother always warmed her it would bring a lot of unwanted attention from boys; maybe now she would get to put those early childhood swimming lessons to good use.
It took about twenty minutes for Elyse to unpack her suitcase, and by the time everything was put away she was starting to get hungry. The angry noises her stomach was making proved this, and Chelse only laughed. It took another ten minutes before they had made their way back to the main building.
Chelse had explained the basics of how the school was laid out. The main building had three levels and a basement. The main level held the main office, the gym and the band room .The second level had the classrooms and lunch room, while the third level was entirely devoted to their giant library. Elyse was never into sports and didn't play an instrument so the first level didn't apply much to her, but she was eager to check out the library when she could get a chance.
When Elyse asked Chelse about the basement, her roommate's eyes had clouded over with something she could only describe as unease. She seemed hesitant to talk about it, but all Elyse managed to get about it was it was storage space. Long before the place had been converted into a school, when the building had originally be been built, it was for a rick family who had owned all the surrounding land. When they renovated the building, they had found a room in the basement that had been blocked off. Apparently, they had found some pretty disturbing things in there, and students were never allowed there. Elyse had been very interested in the story but Chelsea didn't seem to want to delve any deeper into it. Elyse had reluctantly let it go, while promising herself to find out more about it later on.
The building had large iron staircases that winded around themselves, and Elyse had to focus so that she didn't slip and end up falling. All she needed was to embarrass herself on the first day. Luckily, classes had already ended for the day and there was almost nobody wandering the halls of the main building. Despite this fact, Elyse had been focusing too hard on her feet and without realizing it, bumped into what must have been the only other person inside on such a nice day. She ran into a solid chest and fell backwards. She knew sooner or later this would happen! Now she would make this huge, embarrassing fall, and there was now an extra person to witness her clumsiness.
Elyse braced herself for the fall, but it never came. Instead, and strong arm was wrapped around her waist, holding her tightly against the chest of the most gorgeous guy she'd ever seen. He had dark hair that was long enough to frame his pale face. It was cut unevenly as if he'd done it himself but it looked great. She noticed his lips next. They were full and a metal ring decorated one side. When her eyes met his, her heart skipped a beat. She was looking into a pair of piercing gold eyes, lightly rimmed with black. She had never seen eyes this color before and they were shocking. They stared at each other and while she was curious and grateful, he looked shocked. Almost instantly, he let go of her and walked off. Elyse blinked and looked behind her, but he was already gone.
"Oh, my, god," Chelse, who oddly enough had been quiet throughout this whole encounter, finally spoke up. "What was that all about? He couldn't keep his eyes off of you!" Despite Chelsea's obviously distressed tone, Elyse couldn't help but blush. Normally, her type of guy was tall, blonde and usually some sort of sport's captain. While this guy was indeed very tall, he didn't really fit into that stereotype. In fact, he was pretty much the opposite. The dark black circling his beautiful eyes, and the piercings he had proved this to be true, yet she felt drawn to him. "You have to be careful, Elyse! You can't let people see you around him!"
"What?" Elyse looked to her perky roommate to find her with a deep frown on her lips. "Why?" She hadn't really thought Chelsea to be shallow enough to be that way because of how he looked, but what else would make her say something like that?"
"He's dangerous," Chelse spoke quietly, quickly leading her off to an empty classroom to explain. "He started right after the renovating team found the hidden room. After that, strange things started happening." She must have been looking at her like she was crazy, because Chelse spoke up again quickly. "Nothing super strange, I mean, but we'd get sent back to the dorms a lot without any explanation, or have random lockdowns. Every time this happens, he's nowhere to be found. We're also not allowed to go into the forest anymore. I mean, we never were allowed to go alone, but before nobody seemed to care if we occasionally snuck in there to hang out. Now there's a giant fence surrounding the forest so that we can't."
They were now in line to get some food and Chelse was still speaking in hushed tones. Elyse was not sure what to do with the information being handed to her. Did everyone here really think that this guy was behind all this? There wasn't anything overly strange about what Chelse was telling her, and she was sure that there must be another explanation. Yet, she also felt there was something off about him, but it only drew her in more. Whatever had happened between them in the stairwell, if you could call it anything at all, wasn't over yet and she knew it. Looking back over at her new friend as she chowed down her dinner, Elyse decided she needed to know more, and that this bubbly blonde was the best and only source she had right now.
"I know you have probably a million questions still, don't you?" Elyse nodded, making Chelse sigh. "Fine, one question, that's it!" Elyse pouted but knew the first thing she just had to know.
"What's his name?" Chelse didn't look surprised by the question, but looked around quickly to make sure nobody was listening in. Leaning over, Chelse spoke so quietly that Elyse almost didn't hear her, but she managed to catch the soft spoken words, and her heart leapt.
"His name is Andy."