Chapter Tres! A New Start! (Katrina's POV again)
"Ack I'm late, I'm late! Why did today have to be the first day of school! It should've been two weeks from now!" I stopped and bent over to try and catch my breath.
I took so long getting up and then there was that talk with Tai and Sora. I took off the goggles to take a closer look. The rims were white and the plastic within them gleamed in the sunlight. I couldn't keep the grin off my face. These were very important to Tai and Sora so I had to be extra careful not to lose them. I unhitched my bandana as well.
The familiar print was scrawled across it. Carson.
A tiny spark of hope flickered within me. Maybe today would be the day where I could actually see him. I heard the echoes of a bell ringing not too far from where I was standing. When I realized they were coming from the direction of my school I put the bandana and goggles on quickly and began sprinting towards it.
I finally found the front gates of my school. It was a classic white building with a huge cherry blossom tree at the front. To my unfortunate luck there was nobody standing around at the front of the school anymore.
Darn! That meant everyone was already inside and class had started! I opened the gates and was about to run up the front steps when I heard an eery whisper. I stopped mid step and looked around. I was about to just let it go and walk inside when I heard it again.
"Is that you? Are you the one I've been looking for?"
I turned around about to rage at whoever was playing tricks on me. But I froze completely still my eyes wide. Oh no not this again. There wasn't another person behind me but some sort of thing, which didn't look like it was completely there. It was really hard to explain. I could see the outline of it but the inside was invisible. It looked like it was a see through drawing that came to life. This wasn't the first time I saw or imagined these strange creatures.
I turned around quickly pretending I hadn't seen anything and walked into the school building. As I paced through the halls I wasn't even focusing on where I was going. My thoughts were consumed on that creature which must have been a hallucination.
I thought I had finally gotten over these episodes but it looked like I was wrong. I used to see creatures like that when I was younger. But whenever I had asked anybody about it they told me they couldn't see anything and thought I was a freak. They would avoid me like the plague and call me a witch. Even when I asked teachers or my foster care hosts they would tell me to stop imagining things. After awhile I kept it a secret not wanting anyone to think I was mentally unstable. Once Tai and Sora adopted me I hadn't even told them about it. I thought I had found the solution to getting rid of these weird beasts but it looks like my three years of luck were over.
"Hey you! Why did you walk away from me?"
A chill went down my spine. It was still following me! I started speed walking down the hall.
"Wait up! I know it's you. You're my guardian!"
I changed my pace to a full out sprint. This is not happening, this is definitely not happening! Why couldn't this thing just leave me alone? I kept on sprinting until I had a full on collision with someone. We were both sprawled on the floor.
"Hey watch where you're going loser!" The familiar nasally voice screeched.
Oh wow, today just kept getting worse. I looked up and saw familiar long blonde curls, and green eyes traced by thick black liner. Great I was right, old raccoon eyes was back to torture me. When she looked up and saw it was me an evil grin played on her lips. Here we go again.
"Well, well, well if it isn't little miss team captain Katrina. Are you going to finally give it up and let the superior player take her rightful place as captain?" I groaned.
"The soccer season's over and like I've told you a million times, raccoon eyes, no."
She got up and started brushing the dirt off her clothes. Of course she was wearing a sparkly pink top with the world's smallest miniskirt. She was probably breaking a record.
"I told you to stop calling me that! The names Alexia, and you should know since I've been kicking your but on our national soccer team for the past three years." I bit my lip in frustration.
It wasn't a lie she was the best player on the team. Even though I worked ten times harder she always managed to overcome me. I found it unfair that girls like her who cried if they got one spec of dirt on their way to expensive clothes, were also given natural talent at soccer. As amazing as she was I was always the one voted and chosen to be team captain. Because of that she worked hard to make sure my life was miserable. She ignored my glare and pulled out her pocket mirror checking herself out.
"So what class are you in Katrina?" My mind blanked. I quickly rummaged through my bag.
"Uh.. ah I think it's room 107-"
Once I finally found my time table and pulled it out she grabbed it away from me.
"1176, looks like you're in the same class as me." She rolled her eyes and made a face like she was about to puke.
"Now you know that you can't even speak to me in class because I don't want my reputation getting ruined by a bug like you and.." She droned on and on. I was used to all her monologues about herself. The only reason I was still here was to follow her to class since I had no idea where it was.
When I got up continuing my fake head nods pretending I was listening to her, I saw something strange. This time when I looked at her she was surrounded with this dark aura. It was like one of those T.V shows where the villain is about to show his true self and he is surrounded by darkness. Chills ran up down my spine. I could almost feel the negative waves she was giving off. The more her evil smirk grew the greater the aura grew. When I looked down beside her I saw an odd looking creature.
It looked like an imp with a red scarf and gloves. Its body was a dark purple and it was grinning from ear to ear. The insanely happy look in its gleaming green eyes made me feel unsettled. I suddenly realized that all that dark light, aura or whatever it was, was being absorbed by this little guy.
"Hurry up loser or you're going to be even later then you were before." She said before stalking off around the corner.
When I looked back to see if the monster was still there it had suddenly disappeared. I decided to ignore it and ran after raccoon eyes. But the picture of that creepy creature was permanently implanted in my brain. How many more of these things was I going to have to deal with? When I arrived the class was in a state of chaos. I looked at the front and noticed there was no teacher in here. I looked around for the teacher.
"The teachers not here yet." The boy who was sitting in front of me going through weird playing cards said.
"The grade 9 teacher hasn't shown up yet either so our classes are mixed for now."
After taking a double take of my surroundings I realized he was right.
Some of the kids looked way too old to be in our grade. The classroom looked like it was split up into different sections. At the front were boys my age scribbling all over the board and yelling at each other. In the mid section were the quite kids who all looked bored and tired. Most of the class was gathered near the back corner of the classroom. When I looked closer I noticed two guys sitting on top of the desks. It looked as if they were the center of attention.
One of them had caramel colour hair that was short and spiked. He had gentle grey eyes and wore an easygoing smile like he was used to being surrounded by tons of people. I couldn't get a good look at the other one. I tried moving a little closer but as soon as I did raccoon eyes caught me watching. She wasn't surrounded by that weird aura anymore but the words that came out of her mouth were no better than they had been before.
"Ew who let in the 5 year old who still wears goggles?"
All at once everyone's attention was directly on me. I stood there feeling as if someone had paralyzed me from my head to my toes. Raccoon eyes evil smirk grew as she started pacing around me like a loin does with its prey.
"Ever since she walked in her eyes have been glued onto you Josh. What a creeper."
Everyone giggled. My cheeks heated up like a train engine. But I couldn't move my mouth to utter a reply. The grey eyed guy gave raccoon eyes a disappointed scowl.
"Eh knock it off Alexia. That's not a nice thing to say to a newbie."
His smile was aimed in my direction. "Hey cutie, what's your name?"
I couldn't hold in my extreme happiness as raccoon eyes jaw dropped at him calling me a cutie.
"I'm Katrina, It's nice to meet you." His smile grew wider.
"The pleasure is all mine. I'm Josh, and my friend behind me goes by the name of Caleb."
He moved so I could get a better view.
"Oh hey I'm-" My voice broke off as the realization and horror settled through me.
"Eh? Uh Katrina something wrong?" But I couldn't hear Josh's voice at all.
The guy behind him had jet black hair and dark onyx eyes. His skin was as pale as moonlight. But that's not what was freaking me out. What was horrifying me was that dark aura like raccoon eyes had but 10 times more powerful. I stepped back a couple of steps. It was almost like it radiated off his body.
"Is everything ok …. Katrina?" His voice was deep and sounded dark as if he were the evil lord over the underworld. He took a step forward coming near me.
"No get away!" I cried out but as I walked backwards I tripped over a chair leg and fell down.
My mind started flashing with terrible images. Cries of agony were ringing in my mind. It felt as if they were coming from another world. When I looked up I could barely hear what was going on around me. People were shocked and appalled at what I had just said. The faces that were surrounding me were filled with rage. When I looked past everyone he was sitting behind them wearing a smirk like he was enjoying my pain. An evil glint shone in his eye and the negative aura increased causing pain to shoot up my arms.
My arms flailed and something from my sweater pocket flew out. It was beeping loudly and each time the volume grew. It landed in front of the evil overlord and a huge burst of white light began to shine. The light became a beam and blasted the guy in the face almost blinding him. He was so startled he fell off the desk. As soon as he fell the pain and visions stopped immediately.
Everyone there ran to him to make sure he was alright. I quickly grabbed the electronic device and ran out of the class. I ended up outside behind the school. My back was pressed up to a tree and beads of sweat fell down my face.
What had just happened? It didn't even seem real anymore. It felt more like a nightmare I had just woken up from. Why was I so afraid of him? What was all that pain I had suddenly felt? Why was nobody else freaking out like me? Did they not see the negative energy? Millions of questions like these flooded through my head. But one thing was for sure.
I looked down at the electronic which had gone back to normal. This thing was the cause of all my visions but it was also what had saved me. I stuffed it in the back pocket of my bag. I let out a depressed sigh. Well that had not gone as well as I hoped it would.
The rest of the day was a blur. Nothing creepy or weird happened but everyone avoided me. Apparently word spread about the incident this morning and everyone knew me as the
"Crazy Spaz".
It was near the end of the day. I had started packing my books up. Everyone else was gone already but the teacher kept me after class to clean up the classroom.
"Oh I finally found you!' I almost jumped.
I looked beside me and saw that same weird hallucination from this morning.
"Why me!" I shouted in frustration.
The voice answered back. "I told you already! I was about to explain the rest but then you rudely started walking away."
I could feel my annoyance level hit an all time high.
"I'm sorry but I'm not going to stand here like a moron talking to an imaginary creature that doesn't exist." I started walking away.
But when I looked down the hallway I froze on the spot. Only 3 feet away from us was a large beast. It was glowing purple with that dark aura and it did not look happy.
"I-i-isn't that a Triceratops? They're supposed to be extinct! What's one doing at our school?"
"It's not it's a monochromon and I have no idea how it got here. Just stay quiet and stick with me." I looked back at the little creature outline and whispered frustratingly
"How am I supposed to stick with you when I can barely see you!"
"Stop talking you're just getting him angrier."
"Me? What if it's you who's getting him angrier?"
The monochrom thingy let out an enraged roar and was charging at us.
"RUN!" The hallucination cried out.
We both ran down the hallway and headed down the emergency staircase. When we were out of the school we ran to the back so it wouldn't find us. Our backs were pressed against the wall.
"I think we lost him." I breathed out huffing and puffing.
A loud crash startled us and glass began falling down. We ran out from under it, but thanks to our great luck the monster had jumped out the window and appeared one foot away from us. The little hallucination stood its ground.
"Stay behind me I'll take care of this numbskull."
I looked at the huge dinosaur then to the tiny creature standing in front of me. The size difference wasn't very good on our side.
"Come on! We can still get away."
"No" He cried in protest.
My jaw dropped. "What you're really going to stand here and fight this thing."
"Yes."
I looked in the other direction which was scot free and back at the crazy thing in front of me. "But he'll crush you like a pancake!" I almost yelled.
The beast was in position ready to charge at us again.
"It doesn't matter what happens. It's my duty to protect you."
That touched somewhere very deep in my heart. This little guy was going against an impossible beast in yet he was still willing to fight him.. just to protect me? I was startled back to reality by the monster roaring and charging at us. The little guy never left his position. Once the Triceratops was only a couple inches away from us the little guy jumped up into a battle position.
My heart almost leapt out of my chest. All I was thinking was, he's going to die. I jumped after him as he jumped and screamed "Nooo!"
It was almost like one of those slow motion scenes you see in an epic movie. Once I jumped I felt something in my backpack. That weird high pitch sound blared in the alleyway. Distracted by the sound I fell to the ground away from the little creature that was still running at the monster head on. I looked into my backpack and found the same electronic device. It was going ballistic again. The screen was flashing and the volume was increasing every second. I heard the monster roar again.
I had no idea what this thing could do but right now it was my only chance. Just as the little guy was about to attack I screamed "DUCK!" and threw the electronic.
It just missed the little creature but once it made its way to the dark glowing Triceratops it froze in mid air. If that wasn't weird enough a huge light beam blasted from it heading straight for the evil beast. It began running in the other direction like a huge chicken but it wasn't fast enough. Once the light beam hit the Triceratops roared its final roar.
I rubbed my eyes to make sure what I was seeing wasn't fake. I looked again and saw the Triceratops' body break down into little almost digital looking pieces. The electronic fell to the ground. I went to go pick it up.
"Wow if I knew it could do that I would've used it on raccoon eyes a long time ago."
Suddenly it started blaring out noise again. Another flash blasted from it. This time it morphed into a huge wave. The wave started sucking in all the Triceratops' remains and started becoming bigger and bigger. I could feel it start sucking me in.
"Oh my gosh! What's happening?"
"You found a portal to the digital world!" I looked at the little creature in disbelief.
"The digital what?"
But it just ignored me and said "Oh finally I can go home again." And the insane thing that it was jumped into the wave.
I watched in horror as the wave started falling over me. But for some reason I couldn't move a muscle. So I ended up being sucked in. All I remember is screaming as loud as I could and then everything went blank.