Chapter 1
It was dead. Whatever it was, the girl had killed it. He let out a breath, he was safe. The boy, almost sixteen, looked over both embarrassed and awed at the girl in front of him. She stands up, slowly brushing her bangs out of her face.
"You just killed that-that thing! By yourself! And with your bare hands!"
She laughed and his face reddened in embarrassment, "No, my trainings not that advanced, he's just…knocked out for know." She hesitated for a second, "uh, we should probably go before it wakes."
Slowly she starts to pick her way through the debris, not sure what to do, the boy follows, jumping when the beast moved slightly and let out a sigh. Quickly he hurries to catch up with the dark-haired girl.
"Hey! Aren't you in my math class?" he said recognizing her and she waved her hand, as if to say yeah whatever.
"What's that on your wrist?"
She paused slightly, "A tattoo. I've had it for as long as I can remember."
"What does it say?" the boy asked trying to form out the plain, black letters on her wrist.
She paused again before answering, "Stella, daughter of Hades."
"Oh. Is that your name?"
"Yes and your name is Zephyr, correct?"
"Uh, yeah," his ears burned red and he asked himself how did she know his name?
"You're in my math class remember? And I know everybody in our class's name."
"What?" Zephyr asked confused.
"You asked me how I knew your name."
He laughed embarrassed, how could he have said that out loud without knowing?
They continued on till they reach the door, but instead of opening it, Stella held up her tattooed wrist towards the wall. A small light flashes and she reaches for the knob.
"Come on, we have to find Pus and the rest of our class," She looks behind her to make sure Zephyr's following, then walks through the door, "come on, hurry up." They take a left, then a right, walk through an archway, take another left, and walk through a long dimly light hallway.
"We have to go up three sets of stairs and there are no lights, its pitch black, so stay close to me, Okay?" Stella looks over her shoulder at him.
"Okay," he says moving a little closer to her. She looks over her shoulder again and, seeing the amount of space still between them, grabs the hood on his hoodie. She opens a door and drags him in. the door slams shut and it becomes pitch black. She drags him up the stairs and nearly chokes him. Zephyr trips, trying to keep up so he can breathe.
"Almost there," she breathes under her breath, "one more set and that's it."
She sprints those last few stairs, as well as the four steps it took to get to the door, all the while dragging and choking Zephyr. Stella grabs the doorknob twisting it and breathing a sigh of relief. And twisting it again. And more frantically, a third time. She continues to jiggle the doorknob and push on the door for a couple of minutes before giving up and slumping her shoulders.
"Great, just great. Oh well! Let's see if we get service in here!" Stella mutters to herself. As she starts to dig through her book bag, "I know I put it in here somewhere,"
She was still holding onto Zephyr's hoodie and he was becoming annoyed.
"Can you let go of my hoodie?" he asked
"No."
"What are you searching for?" he asked now irritated.
"Ah-Ha! This!" she said pulling something out of her bag. Zephyr squinted trying to make out what she was holding up. He signed, "Okay, I give up. What is it?"
Stella flips it open and it glows to life, "My cellular device." She starts to press several buttons and mutters to herself, "Hmm… I do get service, its bad service but at least its service." She sighs before pressing several more buttons and pressing it up to her ear.
"It's ringing. He better answer i- Pus! You answered!"
"Yeah so?" Zephyr could just barely make out the faint voice of a tired sounding boy talking on the other end, "do you have him?"
"So impatient! But yep I have him, bu-"
"So where are you guys? He's getting suspicious," "Pus" said, he meaning the teacher.
Stella let out a nervous laugh, "Yeah well this is where you get to be the hero of the day."
He sighs, "Okay what's the problem."
"The problem is we're locked in the staircase."
"What?"
"You heard me. We're locked in a pitch black, damp, kind of smelling like mold staircase and we need you to come and "rescue" us."
"What about the teacher and the rest of the field trip?"
"I say we ditch the teacher and this creepy place and get as far away from it as possible." Something brush's against her leg and she shivers.
"Alright," he pauses, "you're on the west side entrance staircase, right?"
"Yepp. Third floor. Hurry cause I think I just felt another rat." She shivers slightly again.
"Awesome. See you in a bit."
"How is that awesome?" she mumbles to the beep of a deadline and hangs up, throwing the phone into her book bag. "Now we just wait." She starts humming
Zephyr clears his throat, "So uh, you said to this "Pus" kid that were not going back to uh, join the rest of the class, right?"
She stops humming, "Yep. Do you have a point?"
"Well, uh yeah. It's not that I'm complaining or anything, but I'm not about to skip school to go with a bunch of strangers, no matter how boring this field trip is,"
She tilts her head to the side, "well aren't you the same kid who skipped school last week to go to the arcade with a bunch of seniors?" she mused.
"Well uh yeah but, um," he sounds almost defeated before muttering, "If my mom finds out she will kill me."
"If you even ever see her again," Stella says only half paying attention as she listened for the footsteps of her best friend.
"Wait? What?"
"Nothing. You're coming with us. Get it, got it? Good"
"Why?"
"Uh," she glances over at his face, "well I do not at all think now is the best or even a good time to tell you…"
"Tell me what!" he says stubbornly.
"Nothing, nothing at all, that's what." She sighs silently to herself, "I shouldn't have even told you anything, not yet anyway."
"No tell me or-or," he pauses, thinking for a second, "I'm not going anywhere with you, unless you tell me!" he says trying to yank himself from her grip. She held on and laughed.
"Don't worry, you silly boy! You will find out soon, when we tell you!"
"Yes and so you'll tell me now?"
"Nope. I'm pretty sure Pus told me not to." She said smiling, "And speak of the devil, I think I hear him coming." Her smile widened.
They heard the sound of a lock unlocking and the door slowly creaked open, spilling dim light onto the two of them. Zephyr squinted and blinked furiously, trying to see the person standing there.
"Uh guys I think we might want to hurry and get the hell out of here," the boy says slowly lifting up his hand to point behind them.
Stella whirls around and gasps.
She stands, shocked and stuck in place, staring at her worst nightmare…
Herself.
R&R