(This chapter may be a little darker than the previous ones, but I assure you it's for the sake of the plot.)

The Extremely Crappy Days at Ashfield High

Chappy Ten: Curiosity towards the Unknown

A fourteen year- old Joshua Townsend sat patiently on the comfortable, leather- cushioned couch. He stared curiously at a painting on the opposite wall, ignoring the bookcase behind the couch and its numerous hard bound volumes. The leather and carpet shared the same ruby shade, but the painting is what stood out from the rest of the room.
It depicted a marvelous garden; broken concrete pillars and overgrown hedges made it feel surreal in some way… like a place only found in a fairytale…
"Joshua? Joshua?"
His head slowly turned to meet the gaze of the woman sitting behind the hard, wooden desk. Her glasses reflected the room in entirety, but the lack of lighting, besides the light from the open windows, made her seem menacing in a way.
"Oh… Is it already time to start, Ms. Hopkins?"
"Yes it is; are you ready? Do you need to rest?"
"No, I'm fine; but how many more sessions do I need? This is already my fourth visit."
"I'm doing everything I can to understand what this 'puppy' is and how it's affecting you. But for now, just be patient; in all my years of being a psychiatrist, I've never heard of people claiming a puppy is stalking them."
Before Joshua could respond, however, his eyes widened in fear. The temperature dropped drastically as a pair of rough, callous hand slid around Ms. Hopkins's throat.
The teenager rose carefully from his seat, unable to shout or say anything as the woman reached for the hands, trying futilely to stop them from crushing her neck.
It was over in a few seconds however, as the hands released their victim to slump to the ground, the head and right hand still atop the desk.
Joshua backed away, his eyes locked on the shadow rising from behind Ms. Hopkins's chair. It was a man, dressed in a light blue trench coat. He wore long, beige pants from what Joshua discerned in the darkness. Darkness? Was it not in the middle of the afternoon just a minute ago…?
Faded blonde streaks stretched downward around the man's face, casting a shadow on his features. "Finally…" he said in a somewhat loud tone before starting to approach the frightened Townsend. "Finally… finally… finally…"

Joshua sprang up in his bed, sweat covering his face. "Dammit… What the hell was that…?" he muttered before glancing around the room. 'Great, it's already six- thirty,' he thought before his head fell back onto the pillow.
"J-Josh?" Myron asked as he tapped the teenager on the shoulder. Joshua stirred slightly, his head rising from his backpack. "What…?"
"Are y-y-y-you okay…? Aren't y-you g-g-g-g-going to eat?"
Joshua shook his head as Myron sat across from him with his lunch tray. "I didn't get much sleep this past weekend; plus, I had this freaky dream…"
"W-What was it a-a-about?"
"Well-,"
"Josh! I was looking for you!" stated Christian as he took a seat beside Myron. He was clutching a packet of paper in his left hand, and he seemed deprived of sleep.
"Oh, Christian… What's up?"
Christian slid the packet over to Joshua before rubbing his eyes. "I've been doing a lot of research on that town," he said as Joshua skimmed through the first page. "Silent Hill? You've been doing research on a tourist town that's been deserted for about twenty years? Why… the hell would you be doing that?"
Christian sighed as he grabbed the packet from Joshua. "While I was looking for a book to use in my History project, I found an old newspaper. There was a story there, about a fire in the nearby town of Silent Hill; it took place… around thirty years ago. I thought it was interesting, so I decided to find out a little more about; but I just kept finding out more, and more. Did you know that there was a secret cult operating within the town? The cult made use of a certain drug… I think it was called 'White Claudia'…?"
Joshua scratched his nose. "A cult? You mean like, Satanists?"
"Well, yeah…"

"Okay…"
"But I think… that the cult was behind the fire. I can't really say why, but I'm going to visit the library again, to see if I can find anything else useful."
Myron had been listening to all this intently, and he looked up at the now standing blonde. "W-W-Why w-would you devote s-so m-m-m-m-much time t-to this…?"
Christian shrugged. "I guess it's really just curiosity towards the unknown…"
"What are you all looking at?"
The three of them looked up to see Mr. Wells standing near Joshua, his brown coat waving ever so slightly. He was looking at the packet of papers lying on the table curiously. "Oh, it's no-," Christian stopped when the Mathematics teacher grasped the papers in his right hand and brought them up six inches from his face.
All was quiet between them as he read the contents of the first page. He cocked his right eyebrow up before dropping the packet on the cafeteria table. "If I were you, I wouldn't delve too deep into what you're trying to unearth. Silent Hill is a forgotten place; don't allow people to remember it."
With that, Mr. Wells walked away and out of the cafeteria, leaving the confused three to stare at each other. "Okay, it's confirmed that Mr. Wells is weird, really weird…" Joshua stated as he stood up. "Well, I'm going to start getting to my next class; there's only three minutes of Lunch left, anyway." He slung his backpack over his shoulders and began to walk to the exit. "Okay, see you later," Christian remarked as he gathered up the papers and placed them in his backpack.

Nicole slid the bookmarker between the two pages and closed the novel. 'Why'd you have to move away, Uncle James…? You'd always pick me and Michael up after school… but I guess after Aunt Mary…' she thought while looking up at the many cars and students around.
She sighed before putting the book away into her bag and leaning against the bench… but a finger suddenly tapped her left shoulder.
Nicole, startled, stood up and spun around to see Joshua standing behind the bench. "Whoa, are you okay?"
She nodded quickly. "Y-Yeah, you just scared me… What is it?"
"Oh yeah… um… do you know where Christian is? I have to talk to him about something."

Nicole thought for a moment before answering, "I think he went to Ms. Mason's class; he said that when he went to her class to ask her for something, he left something there, but I don't know what."
"Did he go to ask about the author project?"
"I think so…"
"Okay, thanks!"

Ms. Mason pushed the power button on her computer monitor and watched the screen fade into black as she slid her purse over her arm and stood up. Everything in the classroom seemed fine, but a packet of about five pages was apparently on top of a desk in the corner of the room.

She swiftly walked out from behind her desk and over to the packet. Ms. Mason picked it up and flipped through the pages. A few had been, presumably, printed out from a computer printer, while the two others had been typed.

From just reading the first paragraph, however, she cringed. 'Silent Hill… Dammit…'
"Uh, Ms. Mason? I think that's mine…"
Christian had just gotten to the classroom and was now standing in the doorway as he saw his teacher read his packet. She looked up at him, theirs eyes making contact.
It was as this moment that the blonde teenager was left speechless. He saw something peculiar in the eyes of his English teacher; it felt familiar, yet at the same time, it frightened him. 'Is this… fear…?'
After a moment though, Ms. Mason backed away. "Oh, I'm sorry; here…" She handed the packet of pages over to her student, and he slowly snatched it away. "Yeah, thanks…"

"Do you think Jeremy knows exactly what he's doing? This Zeik doesn't sound very trustful at all…"
The nineteen year- old male shook his head as he sat in the farthest pew near the entrance of the church. "That old fool knows nothing," he replied coldly. "He is much too loyal to his 'God' and his faith…"
He stood and looked up at the podium before the altar and the large, wooden cross hanging from the ceiling. "A simple little trinket to represent what? After that pathetic occurrence so many years ago, that cross means nothing… absolutely nothing…"
The black- haired woman stroked her chin thoughtfully. "So then, Noah, what do you propose we do?"
"We wait until the time is right," Noah began, "and then we can strike those fools down with the very tool they search for…"
"The boy?"
"Yes… but we must be wary…"
"For what?"

The darkly haired adult walked to the exit of the building, his black coat swaying behind him. "There are other forces present… and they all present a threat…"
Noah then opened the door and walked out.