Rae's chapters are shorter, hope you don't mind. I tried to come up with a realistic original character. As you can probably tell, I'm not that good at it.
-Chapter 2:Rae-
Today is my first day at my new school in this town called Angel Falls. We moved here over winter break. So far, I haven't met anybody my age, but I'm sure that'll change soon. As I walk to the front doors, I see a guy staring at me. He's not too bad-looking himself, but I quickly look away and keep walking, feeling my cheeks catch fire. I hope we're in the same classes. Though I doubt I would have the nerve to talk to him. I turn to walk away. Suddenly I feel a tap on my shoulder.
"Hi, my name's Dillon Sinclair, and I'm in year 12, how about you?" I look at him. His eyes are so green. Like emeralds shining in the midday sun.
"My name's Rae Garrows, and I'm in year 12 too." I respond. He grins a huge smile. It's awesome. I feel my cheeks heating up again.
He grabs my schedule out of my hands and looks at it. He smiles again, wider this time. He says to me, "We have all the same classes. You wanna sit next to me?"
"Sure, ok." I smile a little. This guy seems to be interested in me too. I haven't had any guys show this much interest in me since I was in preschool. I blush again.
"Are you cold? Your face is all red." Dillon asks me. If only he knew I was blushing. I feel my face getting even warmer, and I nod.
"Yeah. Does this school have heating?" I ask. "I didn't bring a coat. I used to live up north, but my family decided this town seemed a pretty place. I've been inside since we first got here." He nods, and smiles again. I lick my lips. His eyes focus there.
"Of course there's heating. Come on, I'll take you inside. You can borrow my coat until then." I gratefully take his coat and feel its warmth against my skin. My face is still cold though. I bring my hands up to my face and wish it would heat up soon.
The next thing I know, my hair is on fire. I get pushed to the ground and I see Dillon smothering the fire with his hands. When the fire is put out, I get up. I notice his hands are bright red.
"That was really weird, your eyes glowed pink for a moment. Then your hair caught fire. The oddest thing was that it looked like the fire came out of your fingertips." His eyes grow really wide, and he takes a deep breath. He nods to himself, and says "I'll have to mention that to Ethan later."
I cock my head to the side, and say "Who's Ethan?"
"I'm Ethan." A new person enters our conversation. He instantly notices Dillon's hands. "I'll go get Isabel." He says and runs off. When he returns with this other girl, he starts asking questions. "Dillon, what happened? Does it have to do with your hands?" Dillon nods. I notice Isabel with Dillon's hands on top of hers. I watch as within seconds his hands are fine. My eyes grow wider.
"Wow, this is all too weird." I say. "First my eyes grow pink, then my hair catches fire, and then Dillon's hands are healed. I'm confused." I really am. I mean, it's not like every day this sort of thing happens. There was one other time where my eyes glowed pink, and my dinner caught fire. That was odd. My hands weren't even burnt, even though I was holding a flaming piece of toasted bread. My arms were burnt though. Mum yelled at me for not being careful.
Another girl walks over, her brow furrowing. She whispers something in Ethan's ear, a long something. I catch the words "Guard", "odd", and "power". I hope she's not saying I'm odd. She looks at me for a moment, then continues whispering. Eventually Ethan nods, and whispers back. I catch the word "Arkarian". I wonder what an Arkarian is. I wonder who she is.
"Hi, my name is Neriah. Yours is Rae, right?" I nod, and she continues. "You can join us for lunch today if you want. We eat in the far left corner of the canteen, away from the other people. One more thing," She pauses and continues. "Don't tell anyone what happened today. I can't tell you how, but it could endanger your life." These words haunt me. I hope they aren't going to put me in the insane asylum or something. "Don't worry, you're perfectly sane, just like the rest of us." She smiles, and I feel better. These people want to be my friends. At my last school, I didn't have many friends. Everyone avoided me. They said it was because I lived in the middle of the woods. All by myself, except for my parents and brother. Tim was always around, but Mum and Dad used to work all night and sleep all day. They are often on business trips. I still don't know them very well. I mostly take care of myself. I have to take care of Tim too. Mum leaves me money for food every day, and once or twice a month she leaves me money to buy my own clothes. She does the same with Tim, even though he's only 10. She wasn't even home to celebrate his birthday. She was on a business trip that week. I hear the school bell ring, and I know it's time to go to class. Dillon guides me through the halls, showing me where all the different rooms are. I notice a room that doesn't seem to have a class in it. It has the name "Mr. Carter" written on it, but the letters are crossed out.
"That's where Mr. Carter used to work." He whispers in my ear "till he was killed by demons." Demons? Does this guy think I'm an idiot? I don't believe in demons. But, then again, I didn't believe a lot of other things, like what happened with my hands, until this morning. These people might have answers for me, and I could really use them. Noting my expression, he continues. "Don't worry, I didn't believe it either, but there's no way out of the demon pit except for wings, and Carter didn't have his." He frowns. "I was put there once, but I escaped. It's one of the worst experiences I've ever had." Is this guy crazy? And what was that about wings? Wings? I'm confused. Dillon frowns, and sees that I don't believe him. "Oh well, I've been telling you too much. Isabel's supposed to be the one telling you all this. She doesn't know it yet, but Arkarian told me." Well, there's "Arkarian" again. I'm starting to think Arkarian is a person, not a thing. At this point, we arrive at the classroom. I sit near the guy named Ethan, and this other guy named Matt. Apparently, he's Isabel's older brother. She's in year 11.
"Good morning class, I see we have a new student. Would you please introduce yourself?" I twirl a strand of my now singed hair around my finger. It's not likely anyone will notice, my hair was already brown anyways, and it's not like anyone really looks at me. I head to the front of the class.
"My name is Rae Garrows, and I'm in year 12. I recently moved from Northern Australia, from a small town none of you would have ever heard of. I have a brother named Timmy in year 5. I really enjoy sports, and having fun with friends." Not that I ever had any friends since year 6 when we moved before. I frown, but quickly change it back into a line. I'm kind of shy, so I'm not going to smile too much. I take my seat between Matt and Ethan, with Dillon right behind me. His demon notions creep me out, but I feel myself drawn to him like a magnet. It's as though I'm supposed to be with him. He slips me a note.
Hey Rae, what's up? Meet Isabel and me by the front gates tomorrow after school's out, ok? I write back, you kinda creep me out, but ok. Ethan looks at me, and whispers, "well, you give me the creeps too. With those eyes. I haven't seen eyes that odd except on..." He cuts off, and bites his lip. I'm not sure if I want to know. Whoever it is must have nice looking eyes, like mine. They're gold, though most people refer to them as "yellowish brown". Matt looks at Ethan and shrugs.
"I've seen eyes as 'odd' as that. You guys are forgetting my dad. His eyes look kind of like that, only more gold, and less brown." I frown at this. The teacher, Mrs. Duglas, looks at us, and we shut up before we all get detention. I don't want to get detention in my first class at this school.
As we leave class, Isabel catches up with me. "Don't you think Dillon is a little odd?" I ask. "I mean, he talks about demons as if they're real. Is he sick?" I make my finger spin in little circles around my right ear. Isabel's eyes get really wide.
"Then you really don't know?" She asks. She's confusing me, just like everyone else here. "Well, today is just a half-day, which is good. I really need to talk to Arkarian." There's the name "Arkarian" again. I wonder who they are.
"Who's Arkarian?" I ask. She puts a finger to her lips, and makes a "sh" sound. I wonder why she's "sh"ing me.
"Don't say his name loudly!" She hisses. "People might hear you!" Ok, so these people are all nuts. I'm not sure I should be near them, but they are being nice to me, unlike most people. Either that, or they're doing it to make fun of me. Then what about this morning? I frown a little. I go through the rest of my classes and head home to my house near the falls. Apparently, most people around here call it "the mountain." It looks kind of like a mountain, I'll give them that. When I get there, I eat my lunch and go into my new bedroom. Tim's school has a full day today, so I'm all by myself this afternoon. I lay on my bed and think about all the odd events. I take my comb and run it through my hair. I plait it neatly down my back. Even in the plait, it's longer than most people's hair. It goes about halfway down my back. I get bored and decide to take a walk. I follow a well-worn trail up the mountain until I get to a rock wall. There's not much of a view here. I wonder why people come all the way up here for this. I see someone walking up the path. It's Dillon.
"Oh, hi Dillon. Why do people come up here? There's not much of a view." I smile a little, and tuck a little curl of hair behind my ear. Dillon touches my arm.
"You'll find out soon enough." He says. "Why are you up here?" And you're not even wearing a coat again!" I shiver a little. He's right, I should be wearing something other than my school uniform. I heard that for a while, there was no dress code. Apparently, about a year ago they made everyone wear a uniform. My mum picked some uniform clothes up while on a trip to England.
"I was curious, and kinda bored. My little brother doesn't get out of school until 4:00. I decided to take a little hike."
"Well, watch out. One time Isabel, Ethan, and Matt got lost while hiking in the park. They were lost for ten days. I got lost around the same time, and they found me. Isabel saved my life, not to mention Arkarian." Apparently I'm going to be meeting this person soon. I'm still unsure whether Arkarian is a boy or girl, young or old. Oh well. Dillon looks at me for a moment, and I blush. "Let's get you back to your house before you catch hypothermia. You're already turning red again." It's nice that he notices I'm cold, even if he is kinda creepy. He still hasn't realized I'm blushing though.
I tuck some hair behind my ear. "OK." I say. We head back down the mountain to my house. Dillon's eyes grow wide.
"That's where Roh lived!" He turns to me. "She died about a year ago. She was shot by Mar...I mean an idiot who was trying to murder Ethan." Ethan was almost murdered? "But then he died that evening. Some say a curse was put on him for killing Rochelle." So, this girl's full name was Rochelle. "Ethan and her were in love, and Ethan was devastated when she died. They had just kissed for the first time. We were wrong not to trust her. We should have accepted her. They were more accepting of me, even though I showed a bit too much of my strength in public." I remembered how he had shoved me to the ground and had beaten my hair until the fire went out. I hadn't realized how strong he was. "After Rochelle died, her caretaker moved away. Rochelle's father had beaten her mum to death, and had almost killed his girlfriend before Rochelle stopped him and he went to jail. She loved Roh like a daughter. There was a time when Matt loved her too. She was using him though to hurt Ethan. It was her job, but she hated it. That's why she defected." Apparently this Rochelle person had a tough life, but was loyal to those she loved after she defected. Who knows what she defected against, but I'm guessing it was a good move. "She was even the idiot's favorite except Lathenia. She's dead now too. Her brother killed her, and she killed him at the same time. I knew both of them. I was Lathenia's favorite for a while, but I'm not bragging. She was an evil idiot too." I can tell there's a lot more he wants to say, so I invite him inside. He shakes his head. "That place still gives me the creeps, even though nobody's lived in it for almost a year." So we say goodbye and he leaves. He certainly had a lot to say. I notice he's heading back towards the mountain. I take some money and head to the store to buy a coat, since I don't already have one. When I get back, Tim's already home. He hears me come in, and runs over.
"Hey, how was your first day of school?" I ask him. He looks up at me with his large brown eyes. He seems a little tired.
"It was a lot of fun." He replies. "People around here are so nice!" I nod in agreement. "It's so cold though, I wish I had a coat!" I smile, and tell him to come with me. We go and buy him a coat as well. We eat dinner when we get home.
A little while later, I see Isabel and another woman heading up the mountain. I decide to follow at a distance, watching them. Isabel keeps turning around, as if they're doing something they shouldn't be. Whenever she turns around, I hide behind a tree. After a little while, it gets dark. Isabel and the woman get out torches and keep going. I follow far behind them, staying in the shadows. I keep trees between us whenever possible. When they get up to the top, I watch as the wall disappears and a small doorway opens. The woman appears almost as stunned as I am, but Isabel urges her to come inside. I catch a glimpse of a person at the doorway. I especially notice purple eyes, staring directly at me. They wall reappears behind them, and I'm left outside, in the cold and dark, without a torch. I huddle inside of my coat, but I still feel the cold affecting me. My body starts shutting down. My eyes close, and I can't fight sleep.
In the next chapter, Isabel has her first of quite a few visions to come, and the hounds appear.