The sound of hurried footsteps echoed through the night. Four panicked people were running for their lives. What exactly they were running from could not be seen, but whatever it was was extremely dangerous.
The group was doing all they could to try to throw their pursuer offtrack. No matter what they did it remained just a mere arm's length behind them. Then a shadowed obstacle causes one of them to fall upon it. This is all the pursuer needs till it is quickly upon its target. All the other three can hear is the sound of painful screams, then silence as they continue to run.
It doesn't take long for the pursuer to catch up. Two more of the group are brought down, the remaining one continues to run. The last one knows that she is alone, all she can do is run faster now that she doesn't have to keep pace with the others. Her body is exhausted, and all that is keeping her going is fear and adrenaline. Despite her determination to keep going, she knows full well that her body will wear out eventually. Though what stops her isn't her exhaustion, but a dead end. She turns around to face her fate. Then her pursuer lunges and...
Natalia woke up gasping, her right hand clutching her chest as she bolted upright. Her cat meowed in protest at her master's sudden movement, for she had been sleeping peacefully by her side earlier. Natalia brushed away the hair that had fallen into the center of her face, and tucked it behind her ear.
Taking a deep breath she pulled the covers off of her as she swung her legs over the side of the bed. She got up and stretched her arms a bit and went about her morning routine. She sat down in front of a large mirror and picked up a brush in front of it. She ran the brush through her brownish-blonde hair while humming a cheerful tune. As soon as she was finished brushing out her long hair, she pinned a dark blue bow in the center right above her forehead. There was a faint smile on her face as she looked at her reflection. She turned away from the mirror and walked over to her desk. On her desk was a essay that she had at last completed the night before. So far college was proving to be a stressful experience for her. No wonder she had a nightmare. Of course now that she was fully awake the effects of the nightmare had faded aways. After all, it was just a silly little dream and nothing to worry about. What there was to worry about was getting the essay turned in.
For the past couple of years she had been attending a college located in a secluded part of the state of New York, United States. It was a prestigious university with a diverse student body. Students from all sorts of different parts of the world attended the school.
Natalia had transferred there from an university she had been attending in her homeland of Belarus, however it was not satisfying her in the means of what she wished to do with her education. So she soon discovered her current school and without a moments hesitation transferred. At certain times she got homesick, but being a new country with a more variety of personalities and cultures it was proving to be a much better choice for her. The only problem was that she had not gotten to know any of the other students. For some reason they always gave her a wide berth. This was not a new experience for her. Throughout her life it was as if others avoided her and she could never figure out why. What she needed was to find someone or some sort of group that maybe could accept her. Then she would not be so lonely.
Natalia had turned in the essay with no problems. The Professor looked pleased as he had glanced through her work. The rest of the day she had felt calm long since forgotten the disturbing nightmare the night before. Classes were now ending and Natalia made her way down the stone halls of the older part of the university. That was when she saw the poster.
A makeshift poster that looked as if someone had used all sorts of colored pencils to get someone's attention as they walked by. On it was the title "THE NEW PARANORMAL INVESTIGATION CLUB: JOIN TODAY!". Natalia felt intrigued by the advertisement. Lately, she had been getting into such things and to see a new club that specialized in it was tempting. She scanned the details of the flier and learned just where the first meeting was being held. In fact it was starting in ten minutes.
Natalia's hurried footsteps clacked against the floor as she made her way to the club room. It was located all the way across campus from where she was at so there was no time to waste. As she reached the room she caught her breath in order to not look like she had ran there. Which in fact she had. Hesitating, she opened the door to find a group of situated young men lounging around. She recognized one of them from her art class but she did not know his name.
"Hey look a girl." One of them pointed out. "Here I was thinking this was turning into a sausage fest or something."
The one who spoke wore a small hat atop his light brown hair and had brown eyes that somehow looked more red than brown though. The other two in the room looked unamused by his inappropriate statement. Natalia was unsure of if she wanted to join the club now. There was no harm in trying a meeting though. She made her way to a seat distancing herself away from the assembled group.
Soon after another boy came into the room. He had striking blond hair and piercing green eyes that gazed around the room as if taking note of his inhabitants. A smile came to his face, pleased with what he saw. This was the club leader.
The talkative one of the group spoke up.
"Wait aren't you the one who tried to open the Magic Club?"
"Why yes I am, but I'm sure that you know it didn't work out considering you were a member." The Club leader said.
"Alright I must thank you all for coming and by the looks of it I finally have a club with any people to make it official. So without further adieu how about you all introduce yourselves and share why you are interested in the Paranormal. I'll go first I'm Arthur Kirkland and originally being from England I have my own share of supernatural experiences, hence why I have started up this club."
When Arthur finished the talkative one decided to go next.
"My name is Vladimir Diaconu. I'm from Romania and as you probably know there are a lot of stories that deal with the supernatural especially stories of vampires."
Next to introduce himself was a boy next to Vladimir had blonde hair and dark blue eyes. He betrayed no expression.
"I'm Lukas Bondevik and I'm from Norway, I just like Paranormal stuff..." His introduction was short, monotone and not very descriptive the others noted.
The next one was almost as expressionless as Lukas. He had black hair and dark brown eyes.
"I'm pleased to get to meet you all. I'm Kiku Honda and my home country is Japan. I've found fascination is such things such as spirits and other supernatural entities." Kiku finished his introduction with a stiff nod in a show of respect. As blank as he was, he was not as monotone as the one before him, in fact he sounded genuinely glad to introduce himself.
Natalia felt hesitant about bringing attention to herself but all their eyes were on her, waiting for her to tell them about herself. Sighing she spoke up.
"My name is Natalia Arlovskaya and I am from the nation of Belarus. I suppose I believe in ghosts and whatnot." As soon as she finished what she had to say she sat down quickly.
With that Arthur clasped his hands together and smiled.
"And so I welcome you all to the official first meeting of the Paranormal Activity Club." Arthur said. Afterwards discussions began to be shared around the members all except for Natalia who was keeping her distance. From her position she observed them with a calculating stare. Arthur, Lukas, and Vladimir seemed to be the most open about ghost stories or other related stories. Kiku on the other hand sat there in silence. It was then that she noticed he was holding a camera in his lap which he was stroking as if it was his way of distracting himself from his nervousness. He soon turned from the chatting group and sat by Natalia.
Natalia was surprised by this action not expecting him to try to get close. Neither of them said anything to one another and instead watched the others.
"I don't really believe in spirits." Kiku said in a barely audible tone. It was enough for Natalia to respond.
"Then why did you join then?"
"I was curious, that's all, and I have nothing better to do."
She deemed that as a reasonable enough answer. Then the two wallflowers were approached by Arthur. He looked irritated at the two of them.
"What are you doing back here? The rest of the club is over there. Now get off your sorry bums and join us." Arthur rambled at them as they stared back. Obliging to his order, they walked towards the table with the others who were in the middle of a conversation about fairy sightings.
As soon as they sat near the other two they stopped talking and thus awkward silence ensued. At the same time a dark haired boy with long hair tied into a ponytail came into the room. Arthur went up to speak with him. From what Natalia could here the visitor had come on the orders of the headmaster. His job was to make sure that Arthur had enough members to officialize the club. Arthur was all too proud to say that he in fact did have enough club members. The messenger turned away and Natalia thought she heard him mutter about getting involved with otherworldly things was unlucky or something of the sort.
With the errand boy's departure Arthur turned his attention back to his assembled club members and announced, "So where should we investigate first?"
I really shouldn't be writing more fics when I have so many unfinished ones. However, I could not resist to write this. I've always been interested in writing horror so this is one of my practice attempts at it. It may seem a bit innocent now (excluding the dream at the beginning.) But trust me this is going to get rather gruesome later on.
