Chapter 1 - The beginning of the field trip

I've always been the odd one out. Everyone I've ever met has said that I was a freak, some of them didn't even want to hang out with me because of it. I'm three grades ahead of where I'm supposed to be, I've never met my biological parents, and I'm taller than everyone around me.

If you're reading this, and you recognize yourself in what I say, please quit reading. I don't want some innocent person to have to deal with some of the things I've been through. Seriously.

I go to this boarding school in Iowa called Heartland School for Girls… I hate it. But anyways, we still got to go on field trips (I look forward to them greatly). The one that all us nutty girls went on before I got expelled, was to the Villisca Axe Murder House… Kind of a strange place to take a bunch of juvenile delinquent girls, a few of which had even killed people, but whatever. I had wanted to go there my whole life.

I sat with my friend Alyssa on the bus. Our enemy was taunting us from the back of the bus essentially by implying that we were lesbians or something (we're not). Alyssa's light grey eyes were shining with an evil light, and her arms were crossed tightly across her chest as if she was holding herself back.

"Shut up, would you?" I shouted back at Sarah and her little buddies, I was beginning to think that if they didn't shut up, that Alyssa would jump out of her seat, walk back to them and bash their heads in. She's kind of known for her ability to seriously injure people.

Sarah raised her eyebrows, glanced at her friends on either side of her, and then laughed. "What are you gonna do if I don't?"

From there I pretty much gave up, and told Alyssa to put her hood up over her head and take a nap till we got there. I thought it was pretty good advice, but she just sighed heavily and bonked her head up against the window. I laughed.

"So, now that we've escaped, what was the dream that you had last night that you didn't tell me about?" Alyssa asked after we got off the bus. We always got off last on purpose.

I grimaced. "I already told you, I don't want to talk about it."

"Why?" That was Alyssa, always wanting to know every little thing about her friends. She just cared a lot about her friends.

"Because." I smirked a little bit.

She gave me a sideways glance "Give me a hint?"

"There was a boy. He said something about how I would probably blow something up today." I didn't really want to tell her my dream, it scared me really, and I'm not scared of much. It didn't really seem much like a dream either, it seemed more like a video message or something… it was creepy though.

Alyssa flicked her long dark hair back and furrowed her eyebrows sarcastically and said, "So you don't want to tell me this dream because you just so happened to have a conversation with a cute boy during it?"

I sighed "Kind of, but no, that's not all of it. There was more to the dream, frankly, I don't remember all of it…" My eyes flitted over to her face to see her expression, she was staring at me. I smirked again, and added, "but yes, he was cute."

Alyssa then proceeded to nod approvingly and drop the rest of what I had said. She was boy crazy… It got a little annoying at times.

Ms. Sorrel, our tour guide suddenly shouted at all of us girls that it was time to begin the tour of the house. Me and Alyssa instantly became very quiet.

The house itself was rather small, so the class had to be split up into three groups of ten. Me, Alyssa, a couple of quiet kids I didn't know, and Sarah and her little friends were the first group. The first thing I noticed upon walking into the first room of the house, the kitchen, was how creepy the place was. It was the middle of the day, but the shadows seemed to engulf everybody like dark fabric. I thought I heard footsteps coming from upstairs as Ms. Sorrel was discussing how bacon had been found on the piano after the family had been murdered. I barely heard what she was saying though because I was so focused on the footsteps upstairs.

"Alyssa!" I whisper-shouted to my friend who was completely engaged in what Ms. Sorrel had to say.

She looked at me annoyed and snapped "What do you need Ebony?" She rolled her eyes. "You think you heard something?"

"Well… Yeah? So? I think there's someone upstairs… Do you want to sneak away from the group and go check it out with me?" I was going to go by myself if she said that she didn't want to go, I just figured that it would be nice of me to ask anyways.

"Um…"

"Please?" I was honestly a little scared. "Oh my god Alyssa, would you pay attention to me?" She had began listening intently to our teacher again.

"Okay fine! How exactly do you plan to get away?" The class had began to move into the living room where the piano was. I grabbed her hand and tip-toed towards the stairs leading up to the floor where the footsteps were.

I cursed as I stepped onto the first stair, which creaked loudly. Luckily, nobody in the class had noticed. "Keep going Ebony! Honestly!" Alyssa whispered to me. I took my chances and tried to bolt lightly up the stairs praying that I wouldn't be heard by the class.

The staircase was horribly claustrophobic… It was small, and it was one of those swirly staircases… I don't like those kinds of staircases. They creep me out, and I didn't feel any less creeped out when me and Alyssa arrived on the second floor.

"Can we leave now?" Alyssa asked me nervously. "No, we've got our own private mission… Let's try to find a ghost!" I grinned at her as I took off down the shadowy hallway hoping to god that Alyssa was following me. I was just acting confident, like usual.

I went into one of the bedrooms, I assumed it was a kid's room because there were dolls sitting at a table with teacups sat carefully in front of them. I glanced behind the open door, and in the armoire, just to make sure that there wasn't anybody hiding in the room. I then plopped down on the twin bed with the old covers, laid down, and waited for something strange to happen. Alyssa poked her head in the room and stared at me like a was an evil mad scientist, which I probably am.

"Now you sit next to the old dolls and make them talk and I'll jump on the bed, and we'll see what happens… Okay?" I was kidding about the jumping on the bed thing, but playing with the dolls might create a response.

She just sighed and sat down on the floor next to the bed and leaned her back up against the bed side table and stared out the window with me.

"It's kind of weird to think that somebody probably died in the bed you're laying in, eh?" She had a point. There was probably a little kid who had died in here… It was sobering. The house itself had an extremely sad energy.

"Yeah, it is pretty strange Alyssa. It's depressing."

She stared out the window for a moment longer before looking back at me and saying "Do you want to go check out another room and try to find tho-"

THUMP

I shot up out of the bed and stood with my back to Alyssa, who had jumped up as well and almost knocked the lamp off of the table that she was sitting against.

I looked back at Alyssa who's eyes were as wide as waffles and then looked at how I was standing. I had my hands up and one foot in front of the other like I was about to fight somebody. Alyssa looked at my feet and hands too, and burst out laughing. I snickered a little, but I was still so scared I could barely breathe.

"Where did that sound come from?" I realized as soon as I said it that the sound had come from right out in the hall. I marched out into the hall, and was shocked at what I saw.

What the…?" Alyssa was lost for words as she looked at the spectacle in the hallway.

"Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking." There was a boy curled up in a ball against the wall as if he was trying to hide. I cautiously approached him and then asked the big question, "What are you doing here?"

He looked up at me and his eyes got very wide for a split second "Trying to find you." I realized then with a start that this was the boy from my dream the night before.