Heeeey you guys! Ok, so this is kind of an experiment with an idea I had a few days ago, I'm kind of excited for this story, and I hope you guys feel the same way. A little dorking around in this first chapter, but no worries, the next chapter is more serous. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Take care, and, if you manage to see that fancy new review button, you should try it out because when you click it, you become the ruler of the world! Muahahahaha! O.O
Chapter 1
In Elanay city, the sun was beginning to set. The shops began to turn on their neon signs, bars began to fill.
Demons began to prowl.
There was a certain shop with a neon sign that had a flickering D.
A man in red glared up at the flickering letter, "I should fix that sometime." He grumbled as he walked up the steps and swung the door open, letting himself in. He shrugged off his red coat and put it on a coat hanger next to his desk. He took out his guns and put them on the desk.
"Dante!" He looked up to see a woman with short black hair walk in, guns strapped to her legs. Her hetrochromic eyes landed on the man she was looking for.
Dante sat down on the chair and looked up at Lady, "What do you want now?" He sighed.
"I'm here for my pay." She said, crossing her arms across her chest.
"I just paid you last week!" Dante exclaimed,
"Well, you should know that fees don't pay for themselves."
"Well, I don't have your money." Dante told her, "And what do you even use it on anyways?" Lady placed her hands on her hips,
"I'm still in school, so I need to pay for my scholarship." Lady said, irritated.
"Drop out then." Dante said nonchalantly.
"Unlike someone I know, I actually want to go to school! I want to graduate with a degree, and as much as I love killing demons, I want a normal job!" Lady fumed. Dante rolled his eyes.
"Whatever." Lady clenched her fists, holding back from shooting him senseless. She closed her eyes and counted to ten, letting out a whoosh of air,
"Look, just pay me and I'll get off your back for an entire month." She opened her eyes and looked at him. Dante raised an eyebrow,
"Really?"
Lady nodded.
Dante stood up and walked over to her, leaning in close to her face. "And how can I believe you?" He said with a grin. Lady pushed him away, making Dante chuckle.
"I have some pretty big tests coming up and I'm going to be studying day and night with my friend. I won't have time to come harass you about payment." She told him. Dante nodded his head slowly,
"This friend of yours… Is she hot?" Dante said with a mischievous grin.
"You're such a pervert!" Lady shot at him. Dante raised his hands in mock surrender.
"Hey, guys gotta have fun somehow!" Lady let out a groan of frustration and stormed out of the building. "I guess that means I don't have to pay you?" Dante called after her. He heard the roar of a motorcycle and the screeching of tires as Lady sped away from the building. Dante turned back to his desk and sat down at the chair with his eyes closed. He then opened them and looked at the ceiling, "She never answered if her friend was hot or not." He mused.
*~The Next Day~*
"Hey, Ebony!" Ebony raised her head to see Lady looking down at her. She smiled, closed the book on her lap and stood up to greet Lady.
"Hey Lady, how are things going?" She asked her. Lady shrugged,
"Eh, frustrating."
"How so?" Ebony asked, cocking her head to one side. Lady shook her head,
"This guy is just getting on my nerves…" Ebony laughed,
"Boyfriend problems?" She asked. Lady's head snapped up, eyes wide as she shook her hands vigorously,
"No! Not like that!" Ebony shook her head and shouldered her backpack as they started to walk down the hall.
"Why were you so quick to defend yourself?" She asked. Lady sighed,
"I've known this guy almost two years; he helped me out with some problems. He owes me money though, and he doesn't want to pay it."
"So, he helped you out, and he owes you? Wouldn't it be the other way around?" She asked.
"He mostly got in the way, so in truth, I don't owe him anything." Ebony smiled,
"Don't worry about it Lady, I bet he'll pay it soon or later." She told her. Just then, the bell rang.
"Ick, I don't want to go to physics…" Lady grimaced.
"You're a tough one, you'll survive." Ebony patted her on the back, Lady laughed.
"You're right, who knows? Maybe I'll have a sub." They parted ways and Ebony walked down the hall towards her AP art class when she saw a group of girls walk towards her. An air of, 'we own this place' exuding from them made her grimace.
"Damn it…" Ebony turned around when one of the girls called out to her,
"Hey, you!" Ebony's grip tightened around her book as she turned back to the girls. One had long wavy blond hair and emerald eyes. Another had dark brown hair pulled up into a ponytail. The other had short black curly hair. They all had their heads tilted up and stared down their nose at her.
"Careful, you might get a kink in your neck if you keep doing that." Ebony told them. The one with blond hair smiled and sauntered forward, her dangerously high heels clicking against the floor.
"Watch that tone little missy." She sneered at her.
"Jeanne, you should teach her a lesson!" The one with short black hair chirped. Jeanne looked back with a wicked smile,
"You're right, Naomi." She looked back at Ebony and reached out and grabbed her pure white hair, "You see, we're running low on money, so we were thinking that you should give us some." She said to her face. Ebony scowled and slapped Jeanne's hand away,
"I don't have any money for people like you." She snapped, Jeanne gasped and gripped her 'wounded' hand.
"How dare you! You little emo brat!" She cried out, tears rolling down her cheeks. Ebony rolled her eyes,
"I hope your makeup smears." She muttered as she tried to push past them. The one with brown hair stepped in front of her,
"You need to apologize for hurting Jeanne!" She demanded. Ebony glared at her with her icy cerulean colored eyes.
"Stop being such brats and I might consider it." She said as she tried to walk past her. At the last moment, she stuck out her foot and tripped Ebony. She cried out as she fell to the ground, her book flying out of her hand. She picked herself up and glared at the three girls.
"Good work Sarah." Jeanne said with a smile. Sarah beamed,
"Thank you Jeanne!" She exclaimed. All three of them looked down at her,
"Aww, are you gonna cry?" Jeanne taunted.
"What a big baby." Naomi sneered.
"You should stop trying to look like an old lady; no one thinks white hair is pretty." Sarah sniffed. Jeanne flipped her hair and turned to her friends,
"Our job is done here girls, let's get to class." Ebony sighed and stood up, wiping the dirt off her black clothes. Then, she bent down and picked up her book and continued to class. The bell rang right as she walked into the talking classroom and she let out a sigh as she set her book on the table and sat down in her seat.
"Hey," Ebony's friend, Kayshia, said, "Something wrong?" Ebony shook her head.
"Just tired." She answered.
"Aren't we all?" Kayshia laughed, she pushed back her burgundy hair. "How are you doing on your art project?" She asked.
"It's going pretty well; it's in the drawer right now. What about you? Have you even started your project?"
Kayshia shrunk back in the stool and chuckled nervously. "Kayshia!" Ebony exclaimed, "We're starting a new project this week!"
"I can't help it! I procrastinate so freakin' much." Kayshia sighed, "I really need to start working on that though…"
Ebony rolled her eyes and shook her head with a slight smile, "You're such a dork."
"You still love me." Kayshia pointed out,
"Tis true…"
"Ebony Witmann?" She heard Mr. Jackson call out,
"Present!" Ebony responded. Mr. Jackson finished taking roll and stood up to walk around the class, "I should probably pull out my project." She threw a look over at Kayshia, "And you should start yours." Kayshia waved her away,
"Yeah, yeah, sure." She laughed. Ebony walked over to her drawer and pulled it open when she felt a chill run down her spine. She shivered and looked over her shoulder to see nothing was there. She pulled out her painting and walked back over to her seat.
"Is it just me or is it cold in here?" She asked Kayshia. Kayshia turned her milk chocolate eyes to her and shook her head,
"No, I think it's actually pretty warm." Ebony furrowed her eyebrows. "Why is something wrong?" Ebony shook her head,
"Nothing, I felt cold, that's all."
"You're not getting sick, are you?" Kayshia asked, trying to touch her forehead. Ebony sighed and pushed away her hand,
"I'm fine, Kayshia." She told her with a smile.
"Kayshia, where's your project?" They turned around to see Mr. Jackson looking over their shoulders.
"I left it at home." Kayshia told him. Mr. Jackson raised one blond eyebrow,
"You don't say? Like the other times before?" Kayshia nodded. Mr. Jackson patted a calloused hand against her back, "You better start that project soon if you want to keep your grade up Kayshia." Kayshia slumped forward as he left,
"Looks like that won't work on him anymore." Ebony laughed, "He knows you too well." Kayshia's head fell on the table as a groan left her.
"Freakin A… I don't even know what to do for the project." She mumbled,
"You'll come up with something, you always do." Ebony reassured her. Kayshia turned her face on the table.
"Thanks." She said to her with a smile. Ebony nodded her head and looked out of the large windows in front of her.
"Pretty nasty weather, huh?" Ebony slightly jumped and glanced over to see Zack standing next to her with a wide smile, his cobalt blue eyes sparkling.
"Don't do that." She scolded him. Zack laughed as he ran his hand through his black hair.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to." He apologized with a smirk. Ebony felt her cheeks grow warm.
"It's fine," Ebony looked back out the window, "It is pretty ugly today." She said quietly as she stared at the black clouds rolling in.
"Do you think it'll rain?" Kayshia asked,
"I don't know, maybe." Zack responded.
"Aww, I don't want my hair to go all curly." Kayshia pouted.
"Why would it go curly?" Zack asked.
"Her hair is naturally curly." Ebony explained.
"Oh."
"Yeah, I hate it. I love the rain though." Kayshia told him. They continued to talk about the weather but Ebony didn't hear them; she was off in her own little world now.
It had been two years since she woke up from a coma. She couldn't remember anything about her past life. Her mother was with her when she awoke; she had to explain to her who she was because she couldn't remember her own mother. A few months after they had moved into town, she had gotten in a terrible car crash with a semi, 911 had been called, and she was rushed to the hospital. She had died twice on the way, when she was once again revived the second time, she fell into a coma. The doctors told her mother that it was a miracle that she had survived. Now, she lived alone with her mother and started going to this public school, despite her mothers pleas to go to an expensive boarding school. She tried to remember her past, but it was almost like her amnesia had built a solid steel wall around her memories before the crash. And every time she tried to chip at that steel wall, terrible pain brought her rearing back.
Then she saw it, a black form coming out of the clouds, then disappearing back up into them.
"Hey, Earth to Ebony!" Ebony blinked and looked back at Kayshia.
"Hmm?"
"I'm glad the aliens didn't manage to abduct you." Zack laughed. Ebony rolled her eyes at him,
"Ha ha, I forgot how to laugh." She shook her head. Zack grinned,
"Well, I'm gonna go back and print some references, I'll be back." Ebony watched as he walked away from then when she felt a sharp jab in her ribs.
"Ow! What was that for?" She hissed, she looked over at Kayshia to see her wiggle her eyebrows,
"He's hot isn't he?"
"What are you talking about?" Ebony asked.
"Don't you dare pull stunt on me! You think he's cute and both of us know it! I mean, just look at that whole cute emo look he's got going on, and that taught, controlled body, and that butt..." Ebony smacked her on the arm.
"What the hell Kayshia!" Ebony said, exasperated, "You know I don't want a boyfriend, why do you keep trying?"
"Come on! We're seniors and you haven't even had a first kiss!" Kayshia put a hand on her shoulder,
"Kayshia, stop it. I don't want a boyfriend and that's that."
"Come on Ebony! Please just go out with the guy! It's obvious that he likes you! And that girlfriend he has now is a total slut, she's gonna break his heart! Pleeeeeeeese! Go out with him!" She begged. Ebony looked down at her artwork.
"Shoot, I forgot to get the materials." Ebony said, avoiding Kayshia's gaze. She shrugged off Kayshia's hand as she placed her work down on the table and went back into the "Cave of Wonders" aka, the supply room. She pulled open a drawer of colored pencils and filtered through it searching for the right colors. She suddenly froze when she felt something brush by her. She looked around to see no one in the room. She shook it off continued looking through the colors when the lights flickered out. She let out a groan and straightened up, glaring at the light bulb. "They need to change that light." She grumbled. She went to go walk out of the room when she heard a scraping sound behind her. She spun around, squinting her eyes to see in the dim room.
"Hello?"
Nothing.
Her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to make out the shapes inside the room with the light coming in the door.
"Ebony..."
"Who's there?" Ebony demanded, slowly moving towards the sound. There was a soft clink off to her left she turned towards it when something leapt out at her. She screamed as it fell upon her, making her fall back onto a pile of canvases. She felt something cut through her left hand and something cut across her chest.
Dazed, she sat up and shook her head, the light in the room came back on.
"What happened back here?" She looked over at the entrance to see Mr. Jackson with a frown on his face.
"I- the lights went out and I tripped." She stammered.
"You just destroyed over a dozen canvases!" Mr. Jackson's voice started to rise.
"Hey, Mr. Jackson, chill man. It was an accident. That light has been flipping out the past few weeks." She heard Zack say behind Mr. Jackson. He looked back and sighed,
"You're right. I should probably organize the room as well, considering a lot of the things are just kind of left out." Mr. Jackson rubbed his forehead. "Clean this up and get back to work." He turned away and Zack walked in,
"Are you alright?" He asked as he knelt down next to her. Ebony nodded,
"I'm fine." She told him.
"No, you're not." She looked up at him.
"Huh?" Zack reached out and grabbed her left hand,
"Ebony, you're bleeding." He said, holding it up for her to see. Ebony blinked at the continuous stream of blood running out of the wound, down her arm.
"Wow, that looks really deep..." She said mused.
"Come on, I'll take you to the nurse." Zack offered.
"No, I'm fine." Ebony told him.
"Ebony, I'm taking you to the nurse. You might need stitches." Ebony gave up and let Zack help her up and walked out of the supply room, he turned towards the sink and grabbed a large amount of paper towels and pressed it onto the wound. "Keep pressure on it." He instructed. She nodded, pressing down on the paper as Zack went to Mr. Jackson to tell him where they were going to go. They left the room and walked down the quiet hallway. Ebony felt the awkward silence and tried to fill it.
"So... How did your morning go?" She asked glancing over at Zack.
"Eh, slow going." He shrugged. He turned his head towards her, "What about you?"
Ebony looked ahead, "Well, I've certainly had better." She said with a slight chuckle.
"How so?" She heard him ask.
"Well, I tripped in the hall this morning. That's why I was almost late to class." She explained.
"How did you manage that?"
"I don't need to explain."
Zack eyed her skeptically, but decided to drop it. "Ok."
They arrived at the nurse's office and walked in. The nurse, who was dark skinned with black hair, turned her almond eyes towards them.
"Is there something I can help you with?" She asked them.
"Yeah, my friend tripped in the art room and managed to cut her palm open with an X- Acto knife."
"You don't say. Those things can be dangerous." She said as she stood up and walked around the desk. "May I see the injury?" She asked, holding out her hand. Ebony nodded her head and took the paper off and showed it to her. The nurse took her hand gently and her brow furrowed, "When did you say this happened?"
"Not more than 20 minutes ago." Ebony told her.
"And you cut yourself with an X-Acto knife?" She asked incredulously.
"Yes, why? Is there something wrong?"
The nurse looked up, "You're hardly even bleeding."
"What?" Ebony pulled her hand out of the nurse's grasp and stared at her hand open mouthed. Zack looked over her shoulder,
"How's that possible? We both saw it, and there's blood everywhere." Zack pointed out. The nurse shook her head,
"Well, maybe from all the pressure she kept on it, it started knitting back together. Who knows? I'll go get a bandage to prevent it from re-opening or getting infected." She turned and left a bewildered Ebony and Zack by themselves.
"Well, I guess I didn't need to come here." Ebony said, looking up at Zack. Zack took her hand in his, his head bent down.
"That's so weird though, it was bleeding so much." He said quietly.
"Well, at least it healed nicely." Ebony said happily,
Zack let out a soft chuckle, "You're right." He dropped her hand. Ebony looked at the faint scratch and clenched her fist. The nurse came back out with a white bandage. Ebony opened and held out her hand as she wrapped it up.
"Be careful in the art room." She told her. Ebony smiled and nodded, thanking her as they both left.
"So how exactly did you trip in there?" Zack asked, "I know it's messy, but there isn't any stuff on the ground to trip on."
He looked over at a silent Ebony.
'Should I tell him?'
...
'No, he would probably think I'm imagining things.'
"I really did trip, Mr. Jackson left an extension cord lying around and my foot got caught on it." She said lamely.
She heard no response from Zack, "You don't say, you need to be more careful then!" He gave her a playful shove. Ebony sighed,
"Yeah." She mumbled as she absently rubbed at the sore spot on her chest. She gasped loudly when a roar of thunder shook the entire building, the lights flickering off.
"This doesn't look good." She head Zack mutter beside her. Ebony started to tremble and he looked over at her. "Hey, what's wrong Ebony?" There was a flash of lighting quickly followed by the sound of thunder. Ebony whimpered, Zack looked out of the glass walls to their right, "Are you scared of storms?" He asked quietly. He looked back to see Ebony's eyes widen as a flash of lightning lit up her terrified features. Zack reached out towards her. "It's ok Ebony." He said in a soothing voice. The sound of thunder filled the air and Ebony cried out, falling to her knees, her hands over her ears.
"Make it stop, make it stop..." She whimpered. Zack knelt down beside her and pulled her small, trembling frame into his arms.
"It's ok, Ebony. It's not going to hurt us, the storm is outside." He whispered soothingly into her ear. Ebony's shaking lessened, "Come on, let's get back to class." He said, standing up and holding out his hand. She looked up at his hand, uncovering her ears, she took his hand with her uninjured one. She jumped slightly at the sound of thunder and looked outside the window fearfully. "Do you have your music with you?" He asked. She turned and blinked her eyes at him and nodded wordlessly. She grabbed the earbuds around her neck and put them in her ears, taking out her iPod and putting on some rock music. She put it back in her pocket and they walked back to class together. Kayshia looked up as they walked in,
"That took a while." She said to them. She looked over at Ebony, knowing her fear of thunderstorms and saw her ear buds were on. She mouthed, "Are you ok?" Ebony nodded and pulled out an ear bud.
"I'm going to go back in the Cave of Wonders and clean up the mess I made." She told Kayshia.
"I'll help you!" Kayshia said, jumping out of her seat.
"You," Ebony pointed at her, "need to get to work." Kayshia's shoulders slumped.
"Okay..." Zack laughed,
"She has a point, if you want to pass; you need to start working diligently." He said with a grin. Kayshia made as face and sighed,
"You're right." She looked like a rejected puppy, and Ebony couldn't help but sigh as she walked to the back. She placed the ear bud back in her ear as she started to sort things out in the Cave of Wonders.
After that, things went back to normal; the lights came back on later in the day. The storm was still going on, but Ebony would keep one ear bud in her ear to distract her throughout the day. Finally, the last bell rang. She picked up her backpack, turned in her work and walked out into the hall where a crowd of people swallowed her up. She made her way through the crowd and towards the exit.
"Ebony!" Ebony looked over to see Lady shove past people towards her, "Are we still planning on studying today?" She asked. Ebony blinked,
"Oh yeah! You can come over now if you want." She told her as she shouldered her backpack.
Lady nodded, "We should hurry though, if we don't want to get soaked." She said as she jabbed her thumb in the direction of the door. Ebony smiled,
"Agreed." They ran outside to where their motorcycles were parked. Ebony put in her other ear bud, and then she got on her motorcycle and turned it on, Lady did the same, and they sped off in the direction of Ebony's home.
Ebony's mother worked for some sort of high top, fancy government stuff, that despite Ebony's prodding, she's never told her, thus, she was a millionaire. Ebony didn't enjoy the wealthy life, in fact, she was rather disgusted by it, but she knew it was better than nothing. The camera pivoted down to look at them and Ebony looked up at the camera, the gates opened silently and they drove up the long driveway and into the open garage where they parked and got off their bikes.
"Nice to see you two survived another day of school." Ebony's mom said as they walked in, her blue eyes looking them over, "You're soaked!"
"It's nothing mom, just some rain water." Ebony told her.
"Don't want you catching a cold though. Desmond?" She called, a young butler with neat black hair that fell around his face walked in,
"Yes My Lady?" He asked,
"Would you mind grabbing some towel to dry these girls off?" She nodded towards Ebony and Lady. Desmond bowed slightly,
"Of course My Lady." He straightened and turned back around, leaving the kitchen. Her mom sighed and turned to the girls,
"Hello Lady, it's nice to see you." Ebony's mom said with a warm smile, her kind eyes sparking.
"Hi Mrs. Witmann." Lady said happily.
"Well," Ebony clapped her hands together, "let's get crackin'! We need to dominate those books!" She ran into the next room, "Bow down to your master, 10 ton books!" She yelled.
"She'll be out before she knows it." Mrs. Witmann sighed, shaking her head, making her permed blond hair bounce.
"No doubt there." Lady said, rolling her eyes.
Soooo... What do you guys think? Oooohh, look at the pretty blue review button... Leave a review and it'll make me a happy girl! :D