Ah, I wish I could tell you the entirety of this tale in one sitting. But it is too much for that, woe as me and you. But despite my excitement to tell you of my life, let me pause for a few moments to tell you of when I was younger. I was enrolled in school in the early spring, and I was very, very nervous for it. Sixth grade had been one of my worst years of school when I was younger, after all.
Today was a nice day, with a few puffy clouds rolling along in the sky which was a strong, reliable blue. I was walking alongside Mr. Kurosaki who was taking me to school, picking ever so slightly at my uniform. It was my first time wearing one, after all. I had never been to a school in the states where I was required or even offered the option of a uniform… My schools were always cheap because Mommy 'had' to spend her money on medicine.
My red flats clicked quietly on the pavement below my knee-length red skirt. My long dirty-blonde hair was held up in a high behind me by a gigantic red bow, barely brushing against my white button-up shirt. But despite all of this, my brown eyes flicked this way and that nervously, the news reports about the Evolueren who had evolved near us heavy on my mind.
"Y'know, Sydney…" Mr. Kurosaki started as we rounded a corner. I looked up at him curiously. "You're awfully alert today. Is something wrong?" he asked me. I looked down nervously, trying to come up with something to say.
"Well…Sixth grade w-is scary…" Shit! I almost said was! I realized. I studied the path ahead, avoiding his studious gaze.
"I suppose being enrolled in school can be scary… But relax! I'm sure you'll meet many friends here! And you'll all be together for life!" he told me, smiling largely and trying to cheer me up. He stopped and I stopped beside him. We faced each other as my eyes widened, looking to our left to see the school doors right there.
I hummed slightly, trying to see the contents they kept hidden from me in their black doors. "I suppose… I just go in?" I asked him. He looked down at me reassuringly.
"You just go in." he said.
"And then I'll meet people…and be friends?" I asked him.
He nodded. "Yes." Admiring his confidence, I took a moment to look at the doors before turning to him.
I paused before putting my hand on the handle. I looked up at him and gave him a somewhat-strong smile. "I…I'll meet you home later?" I asked cautiously. He nodded, beaming proudly.
"Yeah." Taking the hint, I opened up the door and walked inside, not bothering to turn around and watch his retreating form... And then suddenly, I struck by an amazing fact.
Colorful paintings hung everywhere that students had done, but that wasn't what amazed me. It wasn't the expensive things that were everywhere. It was the fact that I was finally on my own, in this world. I felt fear swim around inside me for a few seconds before I beat it down quickly. Okay…come at me life! I'm ready to take you on! This randomly came out of my thinking, but I took it nonetheless. Going off at a quick pace, I started to search for my classroom.
I had chosen a desk in the far corner of the room, as far from the others as I possibly could. I have to be safe…in case I evolve! At the very thought of it a sharp fear stabbed at me. But with a few deep breaths and forcing my thinking to level out, I was calm. That was my routine whenever I got excited, sad, anything. After all… No one really knows what causes us to evolve yet. I best be careful. Deep breaths, calm thinking, calm heartbeat…and deactivate fear if it is still there. That routine had worked for some time now.
A few of the other students had gravitated towards me after I had sat down, as if they had previously known me before today and they trusted me. Curiosity taking over, I examined them.
There was a boy to my right, who seemed very calm and big-brother like, at least to me. Wearing red pants, shoes, but a white shirt, he had blue hair, which spiked out everywhere. In this fact he reminded me of Ichigo (that made my heart throb. If there was any regrets I had so far in this world, it would be that he was missing. I still don't know what happened to him… Breathe…Breathe…Don't cry in class… It's your first day after all…). But his bright yellow eyes threw off some of the resemblance. Enough so that I could look at him. Not Ichigo.
It made my heart throb whenever someone looked at someone else, but saw another person or thing. It just isn't right… I've been looked at that enough in my lifetime… I'm sick of it. I definitely don't want anyone else near me to be treated like that, at the very least.
There was a girl sitting in front of him, diagonal of me. She seemed to be very…opinionated. When a few students had come up to her and asked if she wanted to play with them, she had turned them down rudely. By this, I could tell that she got into lots of fights. And even if she didn't right now…she would in the future. She had brilliantly red hair and eyes, which of course appealed to my curious side. She was wearing the same outfit as me; save her hair which did not have a red bow of any sort. Or any bow at all. It was so short it just barely even scraped her shoulders. It was jagged on the ends, which made me assume she had cut it herself.
In front of me there was another boy. He hadn't said anything, much like the rest of us. Actually, it would seem that this group of five had completely secluded itself from the rest of the class, even though they were all playing happily. He had brown hair and deep, black eyes. He had on the same outfit the blue-haired boy did, but for some reason he had pulled on an old-looking, probably dirty gray sweatshirt. He had pulled the hood up and seemed to be reading a book... Even though he hadn't flipped the page in about thirty minutes.
There was a girl sitting in front of him that I could barely see. She had chosen to read as well, just like the boy in front of me, and myself. She had long, sleek black-no. Not black hair. Light just reflected a deep, deep blue off of it. Hmm… That is most interesting… I obscurely noted. But back on topic, she had almost black, blue hair. She was more endowed than me, but that didn't bother me. She had perfect posture, which made her stand out in this group of slouchers. But based on when I had seen her come in and sit down earlier, she had emerald eyes that portrayed a lazy person to the common soul… But not to me. I knew that deep down she was even more alert than me. Even with that strange, red skirt thing on.
Looking at the others, I found that we had all used the same excuse of reading so that we didn't have to play. Okay…this says something about the five of us… I racked my brain. But what does it mean! I laughed quietly, thinking about one of my favorite characters I was quoting accidently… Jack from a Nightmare before Christmas. Truly a splendid movie, if you ask me.
The blue-haired boy's stunning eyes suddenly flicked over to me and when I met his gaze evenly, the laughter having quickly died in my throat, his yellow eyes widened and turned back to his book.
Just like kids when I was in school back home… My heart didn't ache when I thought of home anymore. Instead, it was more of an empty, neutral feeling I would get. I had already said goodbye to my world… I don't want to dwell on something that doesn't exist anymore.
Wait. I realized. That's it! Like the kids when I had gone to school! These people may be the same age as me! But I'm…how old now…? Quickly I did the math. 16. I'm 16 years old…okay. I got this. But how should I approach them…? I asked myself calmly, realizing this was a problem. How… I stared at the kids around me before I looked down at my lap, reading a small book.
I'm reading a book…Their all reading books…Why don't I ask them about their boo-
A blood curdling scream ripped me from my thoughts.
Instantly my head snapped towards the window that was on my front right, where the scream had come from. I noticed the rest of my group do the same. Since when were they mine…? I subconsciously asked myself as I saw a child screaming bloody murder as he held his eyes.
Almost immediately the teacher was at his side, trying to comfort him while the other students either backed away, scared of the almost inhuman screaming or stood there frozen because of it.
As I watched the teacher try to comfort him, I realized that he wasn't just sad. Taking advantage of the moment, I quickly almost leaped out of my chair onto the ground next to the blue-haired boy, gaining his attention. Another scream, this time sounding more akin to a monster, ripped us away from looking at each other. After the child was done with that one, he held his head tightly, gasping, now on his knees as the teacher stared at him, fear prevailing in her eye's depths.
"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" I made the first daring move. The boy studied me for a moment, and seemed to realize that I didn't talk like the other students. That the very way I held myself was more mature.
"Do you think he's…?" the word was left unsaid. For safety. Always for safety.
I nodded. "Of course. Does that sound human to you?" I asked him. He stared at me for a few seconds before slowly shaking his head no.
"We'll probably get outta school once he's changed." A voice next to me startled me. I looked over to see the brown-haired boy who had on the gray unzipped sweatshirt kneeling by my side. I stared for a few seconds.
"And that's if we survive." Another voice said on my other side. I looked over to see the girl that had been sitting in front of him kneeling on my other side and watching the almost satanic-like child scream and terrify everyone.
As he screamed again my eyes flew to the last one I had been studying earlier, the one with the red hair. She out of her seat and crawling towards us. As she looked over the blue-haired boy's desk on the sweatshirt's other side, she spoke. "Don't worry. I'll pulverize him if he tries anything!" she said bravely, and I noticed her fists tighten. I reached a hand over and put it on the fist that was closest to me. Everyone looked at me, surprised.
"Stay calm." I said, putting a finger on my lips. "Also…" my eyes got a sneaker, more treacherous light as I tried to confirm something. "Would you happen to be sixteen or older?" I asked her.
Everyone's eyes widened unceremoniously large at this. The red-head I was originally speaking to was the first one to speak. I could barely hear her quiet whisper above the other child's terrified screaming. "How'd you…"
"So I'm right." I quickly drew the conclusion. Knowing we didn't have long left, I started to point to people, starting with sweatshirt. He nodded. The girl with the almost black blue hair nodded. Blue hair nodded. And I pointed to myself, also nodding.
"So I believe we've all established that we aren't human?" It slipped out easy enough. Their eyes widened at this.
"She says it so easily…" Blue hair mumbled.
"Because it is that easy." I told them as the group continued to be semi-frozen. "Now I believe we don't have much time left. Please tell me your name when I point to you." I practically ordered them. Surprisingly, they followed through with my order efficiently.
First I pointed to the girl with red hair. "Brianna."
Next, sweatshirt. "Damien."
Next, the girl with almost black blue hair. "Sophie."
Next, blue hair. "Brian."
And finally, myself. "Sydney."
They all took my name in before quickly glancing at each other. Suddenly the child across the room let out a cry like no other, and everyone whipped their heads toward the child. Now he was retching everywhere. Disgusted, I covered my nose and tried to avoid looking at it.
Seeing something out of the corner of my vision, my focus shot towards the door, realizing that people were gathering outside of it. "Hey!" I quickly said, poking everyone to gain their attention. I pointed to the door and they realized that people dressed like they were from a very important part of the Japanese government, like SWAT or homeland security from America, were gathering outside of it. What made me pause in slight fear was the fact that they were handling assault rifles. The group looked back at me with wide-eyes.
Putting a finger to my lips to make sure they are silent, even though there's little to hear outside the child's screaming which had reached something akin to a… A hollow?! I realized as the poor boy let loose another one. Why does he sound like a hollow?! I screamed inside myself. Quickly Brian nudged me, breaking me from my trance. I nodded at him and made a gesture for everyone to follow me as I dropped to all fours and made my way to the corner where the rest of the students had somehow gathered.
Glancing behind me, I saw that they were all following me, just as stealthily. Quickly I had wormed my way to the middle of the students and stood up, the rest of my group following my example once they were around me.
Taking each one by the shoulders, I put them at different points in the crowd, making it seem like we were (although perhaps not completely) unconnected. I shushed them each individually as the boy slowly grew quieter, and just as I was done, a gigantic light started to emanate from him. I immediately turned to squint as hard as I could and still watch. I wanted to know what kind of a threat he was. This is when we evolve. I realized. I almost want to know what will become of me someday…
The light seemed to take shapes on his being and slowly fade. My eyes widened as the light faded, revealing he had eight tentacles coming out of his back, waving around casually as if he had had them since birth. The boy himself was staring blankly at the floor, but I somehow recognized that thoughts were flying around in his mind. It showed in his eyes, at least to me. What is it…? What is he wondering…? I suddenly noticed that his eyes were roving the room, as if searching for something.
As they landed on the group of kids, studying all of our faces, they stopped dead on my face. I felt myself freeze. What is it…? Why me…?! I wanted to run screaming from the suddenly heavy pressure on my shoulders. What does he want from me…? He's obviously expecting me to do something… But what?!
Just as the other students started to realize he was staring at me, the door was kicked down. It was sent flying, and the boy looked at the soldiers now to assess this new threat (as the door almost landed on him).
He was suddenly still, and I was afraid to even breathe. What is this…? This feeling of complete dread..? Is this what it's like…to face a hollow unarmed? Or even without power? This new fear rivaled my own of evolving.
Hell, it beat my fear of evolving. Ever since those reports started flying in by the hundreds…I just… The images they had…the blood…the lost limbs…the teeth…pictures of the dead…the shredded… They had been allowed to show those reports uncensored. The government had given them authorization. It had been and was still an active ploy to try to chase out Evolueren like me, who were hiding in the general public, in plain sight.
The fear of evolving still rocks me to my very core, at this very moment. I don't want to kill everyone around me…I don't want to hurt anyone… Hell I don't even want to kill anyone! It truly made me terrified. As terrified as…if you were forced to face your worst fear for eternity, and there was no escape. That was how I felt. It was an indescribable fear…so strong, it had no other. But not now. Now there is the fear of-
What am I afraid of? I realized. There's just pressure on my shoulders. That's just me being tense. Remember. Breathe. Barely audible, I started to do my exercise. I felt my heart rate calm down. There's nothing to be afraid of… There's just an Evolueren over there… Images of the people they killed flashed across my mind. No! There's nothing to be afraid of… Don't be afraid of yourself, Sydney…
But this child, in front of me… He was making me face myself. Even a little.
And I completely hated it.
I don't want to be come this way! I screamed inside myself, tightening my fists and scrunching up my face as I put my head down, my calming exercise going to waste.
And suddenly I wasn't alone. There was a hand on my shoulder. Looking over, completely shocked, I saw Brian. He was there, and grinning at me like I could achieve anything. I stared as he let his hand travel to his mouth to silently shush me. I nodded as he smiled again.
That's right. I'm not alone now. I can do this.
The boy was eyeing the guards as if they were tasty morsels. It's like he thinks their food… He really is like a hollow… I noticed, remembering his screams from earlier. Wait.
Like a hollow? Evolueren used to be humans… Well, that was at least what I've drawn. I mean, we were all in the same world together, blowing shit up. You'd think we would know about this if it had been happening then. Obviously something happened to us as we passed the dimension border… Otherwise there's no way people could be transforming like this in such great numbers…
Now…what do hollows have to do with it…?
My thoughts were drawn out from myself as one of the guards, the one in the front, started to speak from behind a mask that shielded his face from view.
"You thought you could get away from us, you dirty monster. You have any last words?" the guard spoke confidently as he raised his arm in a gesture I recognized as one that meant 'fire on my command'.
The Evolueren was silent as it studied them for a minute. The guard shifted slightly, putting off a lazy air and seemed to be preparing a speech of sorts inside his head before the boy growled lowly in his throat. He lowered his head, his golden blonde hair falling over his beautiful blue eyes as I noticed his teeth getting sharper. He's going to attack! I realized.
My gaze was unable to follow what happened next. I'm sure that no one could follow the boy's movements in the entire room... But I was sure of some things. There's was tortured screaming that made me flinch. There was a drop of blood that hit me on the face. There was wasted ammo. One of the students was shot in the stomach and rolling in pain next to me as everyone else screamed. And the window was broken, blood on some of the now sharp glass that no longer kept out nature. A piece of glass had flown and apparently cut my cheek. As I had now raised my hand to touch it, and then looked at the blood.
And suddenly everything was almost silently. My being came back to me and I realized that there was a dead child lying at my feet, along with the bodies of all of the guards lying dead by the door. The carcasses reached to about halfway into the room. I was in the way of the teacher, who shoved me out of the way to get to the phone to call 911. Again. She had done it earlier?
And I was being caught by someone. Looking up, I faintly recognized it to be Sophie. "Sophie…" I mumbled as she helped me stand up. I shook my head as my senses came back to me. "What happened?" I asked her as the group seemed to almost huddle close to me as soon as I had put a small distance away from the rest of the students who were crying over the deceased child, each of us feeling the same. Scared, desensitized, and as if we were underwater.
"The boy, he growled and attacked them." Brianna supplied. "It was hard to follow, he was so fast…" It looked like she was going to say more, but thought better of it. I let it go.
"The guards shot at him afterwards, when they realized he was attacking." Damien told us.
"He ripped out their throats with his mouth…" Sophie supplied, looking at the carcasses as a sick expression came over her face. My eyes traveled over them, and I instantly regretted it as the sensation of desperately needing to puke came over me.
"You're bad with blood too?" I asked her, turning around with her as we each held our mouths and watched each other.
"Yeah." She said, holding up her hand like she wanted to high five. I let mine touch hers as they wrapped around each other.
"I have a feeling we'll be good friends in the future." I said, breathing deeply and starting to calm down. I noticed Sophie watching me very curiously.
"Yes. Yes we will be." She said almost absentmindedly as we let our hands drop and we turned around.
"You're both bad with blood?" Damien asked as Sophie nodded. He studied us for a second. "You'd both best take care of that. I have a bad feeling we'll be seeing a lot of it in our future." He said, looking out the window. This time, I didn't follow his gaze.
Rukia… Where are you…?
"I'll try to take care of it. I know it's a bad weakness for someone like us to have." I supplied for both Sophie and I. Brianna nodded.
"That's good. Tell me if you need any help." She told me. I nodded, thankful.
"Thanks so much."
We lapsed into a seemingly unbreakable silence.
"We need to be more careful from now on." Brian started. We all looked up at him, since he was the tallest (second tallest was Damien, then Sophie, then Brianna and I was the shortest). All of our gazes mirrored our sudden seriousness, our will to live and escape the government, which would've completely shocked anyone if they a) would've been paying attention (everyone was crying over the dead child who somehow hadn't registered in my system yet) or b) would've known who we are.
"I say that if any of us change, we immediately kill them." Brianna supplied much to my surprise. I nodded slightly, nonetheless.
"I don't want to be dragged down by losers." I told them outright. "We're putting our faith and our lives in each other's hands. Someone fucks up and we're all dead." I told them, to which they all nodded.
"So don't fuck up guys. I'm killing anyone who I even think is close to evolving." Damien gave us a dangerous warning, which we all took silently.
"I saw we create a Pact." I said suddenly. Everyone's eyes shifted to me as I felt myself start to fill in the leader role in our group.
"A pact?" Brianna asked, and I nodded.
"A Pact. We don't have to seal it with blood or anything, though…" I told them, sharing a slightly queasy look with Sophie. "All we have to do is promise that we got each other's backs, we'll kill anyone who evolves and we'll stick together forever." I told them, pretty sure I had accidently put an oxymoron in there.
The group exchanged looks within itself.
"Why not?" Brian asked and I smiled lightly.
"Whatever will keep me alive.." Sophie commented.
"Seems good to me." Damien commented.
"You guys look like good friends, anyway." Brianna commented last and we all smiled.
"Then," I started. "We're officially the Pact." I told them as I comfortable silence fell over us, each to their own thoughts.
"So we all got each other's backs?" I eventually asked to be sure. They all nodded bravely, studying each other. Memorizing each other. "That's good. Cause school's out." I said, watching as medics ran down the hallway, full speed to our class.
And that is how it all started. With a blonde boy, books, and a Pact of people who banded together in order to live. This is the true start of the story. This is…well…the beginning of my life, as one could say. As I sometimes say.
This is the beginning of the end.