A/N: I was trashed when I first posted this, so I completely screwed up the third chapter. It's fixed now. Special Thanks to the guest who pointed it out.

Thank you for stopping by.

I wrote this when I was fifteen. I'd normally correct that, but I think I'll keep it as-is to preserve my original vision. I didn't use my real age because I thought I'd get banned from the forum for being underage.

Instead of paying any even remote attention to my classes, I just wrote this instead.

Potential Cringe-warning, again.

Eighteen And Unusual Life

-Introduction-

The young man stared into the bathroom's mirror, meticulously observing his features before he would begin his first day as a high school senior. He spent the last few hours vigorously tending to his hygiene in an attempt to increase his chances at making good first impressions with his new teachers. Unfortunately, no matter what he tried, he was never satisfied with his appearance. His shoulder-length hair stood up in certain places, no matter how he attempted to correct the rogue strands. His brown eyes were visibly heavy with fatigue from his unhealthy habit of waking up very early to play video games, and staying up very late to do the same. His considerable height and remarkably healthy build left him with something to be proud of, however.

Having realized that any further attempts at improving his image would be a waste of his time, he departed from the bathroom to return to his room, right across the hall. The boy moved across his meagerly sized room to his opened closet, its compact dresser contained little else save for a modest amount of clothing, which were all exclusively black in color. Black denim jeans, black t-shirts, short black socks, black boxers, and hanging on the side of the dresser from a hook: his long black trench coat, which was the only piece of apparel that the young man hadn't yet adorned.

The young man put his coat without belting it, and vacated his room to leave for the main entryway. The young man reached the dimly lit entryway after descending a flight of stairs branching from the hallway, he opened the closet to grab his black boots, and put them on. The young man approached the front door of his house, and flipped the the entryway light off, standing in the blinding darkness of his house as he proceeded to review his mental checklist of things he needed for the day.

He remembered that he'd left his backpack in his room, but decided to leave it behind for today. He never needed his backpack on the first day of school, as the materials he would acquire likely wouldn't be homework, and could be stored in his locker instead of being brought home. His black, cup styled headphones were around his neck, and its 3.5mm jack was plugged into his phone like it was supposed to. The young man liked walking, walking and listening to music, both activities often went hand in hand with each other so the capability to listen to music was something's absence he'd dreaded.

Once the young man had confirmed that his belongings were accounted for, he opened his house's front door and walked outside. His first step in the outdoors yielded to him a mildly cold reminder of the current month: September The young man ignored the slight breeze and cool air, and continued walking down his driveway and into the street, surveying the darkened environment that was his neighborhood.

He lived in the woodland outskirts of town, not necessarily the poor neighborhood, but where most of the trashy, redneck families and old people lived. The houses weren't very far apart, though they had a considerable amount of foliage and trees to separate them from each other. There were also quite a few houses in the area as well, roughly seven blocks of houses lined the area that he lived in, though the considerable number of trees that surrounded the area made it appear to be an area that only a few houses would be located in.

The young man was one of the only teenagers in a mile's radius of the area, which had left him with very little opportunity for him to make friends who's ages would be relatively close to his. That wasn't to say that he hadn't made friends at school, he had around three close friends, he'd also made several acquaintances in his classes too, but he very rarely ever saw any of them outside of school. The young man had learned to cope with his loneliness by shutting it out altogether, he indoctrinated into his mind that isolation was for the best, and it kept him from getting into the trouble that some of his friends were.

Half an hour had passed since the young man had left for school, it was almost six-thirty, but the sun showed no sign of having reached the horizon line, leaving the young man in the darkness yet. He was walking on a county road now, a long one that would take him to the middle of town where his school was located once he'd walked it far enough east. The wind had also picked up in speed, causing the young man's coat to mildly fan out behind him like a wide cape, he loved it when that happened, it made him feel like one of those action hero movie stars when it did.

It took only ten minutes to reach the town's edge: the eastern gas station, opposed to the other one across the intersection. He didn't like going to that one, though, because whenever he would go there to buy a soda: everyone would stare at him, and the staff would request that they search him before he left. The young man would then open his coat and backpack for them to see that he hadn't shoplifted anything from the gas station, and then he would leave with everyone glaring at him, all-in-all it was an unnecessarily long and tedious process for a soda.

Having passed the eastern gas station, the young man stood at the the intersection's easternmost crosswalk platform, waiting for the red lit walk signs to turn green and indicate that it was safe for him to cross. Only about twenty seconds had passed before the cars had stopped in the appropriate lanes, allowing the young man safe passage across the two roads. The young man looked both ways, then jogged at a brisk pace across the roads so as to not keep the cars waiting, then stopped at the westernmost crosswalk platform to check for any cars in front of him. Having ascertained that there was no further traffic ahead, he continued to moved across the left turn lane and onto the western gas station's grassy hillside, and ascended it, bringing the gas station into his view.

The young man stood atop the hill overlooking the gas station, his trench coat calmly flowing behind him as the wind traveled in his direction as he observed the station. The western gas station didn't have many cosmetic differences between it and the other one, just the logo, and it's main building was maybe a few square yards larger. Both were white, with a grey brick exterior, and a red, white, and blue roof on it. Almost everything, and everyone in the store was visible at this distance, two cashiers, three customers in different places around the gas station's interior, and a considerable amount of vividly colored food and other conveniences placed against a long white canvas of shelves and glass windowed refrigerators.

It was almost forty-five after six, yet there wasn't too much traffic coming through the gas station, so the young man walked at his usual brisk pace across the gas station's fueling area, and into the station itself. He opened the door and walked in, heading straight for the refrigerated goods section, dodging and waving between the waist-length shelves that had been inconveniently placed in the middle of the aisles. Having pulled two twelve ounce cans of Mt. Dew from one of the transparent windowed refrigerator shelves, the young man made his way to the checkout counter, putting the cans on the counter for the cashier to ring up while he pulled out two dollar bills from his coat's right pocket to pay for the soda with.

"Your total comes to one-ninety-two." The cashier said as she finished scanning the soda cans, the young man had already begun to hand her the bills as she set the cans back down on the counter in front of him.

"Two ones." The cashier mumbled to herself as she opened the cash register to deposit his payment, the lady punched three numbers on the register's keyboard and no later had a nickel and two pennies come rolling out into a shallow, oval shaped tray on the side of it. The young man quickly grabbed his change and his soda cans.

"Have a nice day ma'am." He told the cashier, to which she smiled at him and nodded once. The young man put both of the cans and his change into the pockets of his coat, and began traveling his route straight to school. He crossed a road to the sidewalk of his local burger joint and gave the interior a quick glance from a distance. Young men and women who appeared to be no older than him were frantically working the milkshake machines and cleaning vacant tables while the manager shouted at them to work faster, the young man couldn't hear why, but one of the workers quickly set down his mop and threw his arms up in frustration before shouting back at the manager. The young man had already passed the building before he could see any more of the conflict between the two, though he hadn't exactly been interested in the first place.

The young man walked a bit further before crossing another traffic depraved road onto another sidewalk. This one was considerably steep, it lead up to what would be the town's larger commerce area, but it consisted of nothing more than a pawn shop, and a few bars where the town drunks could go and blow their hard-earned cash on their pointless alcohol and pull tab habits. The school that the young man attended wasn't even a half mile away, just beyond the commerce area's street of buildings.

He began to wonder about the new teachers that he would meet, what they might think of him, how un-fun the classes and their student rosters they would be. If the young man was lucky, then he would have an entire class of women. Women usually left him alone on account of his coat that he wore to class during the colder seasons. Often he would be called a "creep", or he would hear a group of girls in the desks ahead of him talking about how he looked like a "rapist", or something along those lines. It wasn't exactly the most fun thing for him, but it kept girls away, a unique luxury that he enjoyed.

Women weren't exactly something he was particularly fond of, if at all, actually. It didn't take much effort for him to avoid them, so he was rarely ever near them except for when he was in class. He was indeed straight, but he almost despised the concept of sexual intercourse as much as he despised women, which proved to be a rather ambivalent sexuality for him to deal with. The young man's friends would often tease him because of his lack of interest in women or sex, and often called him "fag" jokingly as a result. His disdain for females hadn't been caused by a traumatic event or experience, rather, it developed over time. He had seen it time and time again: the boy and girl confess their love for each other, and only a few days, or weeks later they'd be at each others necks for the most pointless reasons, and both having lost something of value to each other. Put simply, the young man had no desire to ever get married, have kids, or have sex.

The young man's thoughts had distracted him long enough that the bright lights of the town's commerce area had almost faded entirely from his view, and there was only one last intersection separating him from his school and beginning his first day as a senior. He walked across the road's right turn lane onto the easternmost crosswalk platform, and waited once again for his turn. The young man checked his phone for the time: fifty-five after six. There were considerably more cars out now than there were at the previous intersection, but the amount was still much less than there would be when he walked home. The crosswalk's walk signal had taken a bit longer than the previous one, but it was still rather snappy, almost catching the young man off guard as he looked up from his phone. He looked both ways, then ran across both of the roads, stopping on the westernmost platform again to check for any traffic coming through before crossing the left turn lane onto the school's sidewalk to continue onwards to his destination.

Walking to school was quite the adventure for the young man indeed, the route he took to get there spanned well over three miles in distance. He'd been walking this way to school for the past two years, that combined with his daily routine of spending an hour of walking laps around the varsity gym during his strength and condition class, he'd developed quite the endurance when it came to walking great distances. The young man's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a passing school bus, and he found that the high school building was now directly in front of him, he had finally arrived.

The young man approached the school from the front, there weren't any students in the courtyard yet, but the entire area would likely be crowded in no longer than ten minutes. He examined the school's outdoor billboard for any sort of noteworthy information beyond "first day of school", and unsurprisingly found nothing beyond the latter. The young man returned his attention to entering the school, and ascended the maroon brick staircase that led to the school's front double doors. He stopped dead in his tracks and froze up when he reached the top of the stairs however, there was an unusually tall, menacing looking figure looking down at him and standing in his way.

He could tell that the figure was a woman, an immediately visible characteristic considering that her chest was rather...unconcealed. The woman's skin was unnaturally pale, and her hair was white as snow, the length of which was almost exactly the same as the young man's. She also appeared to be only a few years older than the young man was, around her early twenties if he were to make an honest guess. She too was also dressed in a black trench coat, hers was made of cotton, buttoned up to just below her chest. Her coat was also built from a significantly thinner material than the young man's and lacked the furred collar as well. There was one trait of hers that stood to him, far above the rest of her physical abnormalities: her eyes. Her irises were glowing a dim, yet vibrant shade of crimson, it was almost as if they had been made of naturally luminescent and flawlessly trimmed rubies. Alan didn't know who, or what she was, but he knew for certain that she wasn't from around here.

"It's not polite to stare at a woman for so long, Alan." the tall lady said, her voice was soft in its tone, but it also held a pinch of annoyance, making it clear that she found the young man's examination to be particularly bothersome.

He shook his head a bit, and cleared his throat. "Don't flatter yourself, there are several other things I can set my eyes on around here, and looking at a specific few of might actually not be a waste of my time." He countered bitterly. He had been known around his school for his tendency to be incredibly caustic towards girls, and the way he spoke to the ones he especially hated was subtle, but appallingly cruel.

The mysterious lady's attitude suddenly shifted sharply, and matched Alan's in response to the insult, except she was much less considerate about how she used volume and a "respectful" vocabulary to express it. "You think you're funny you little shit? If it were my decision to make, I would beat your disrespectful ass all the way up and down this courtyard instead of escorting you to your new school!" the lady shouted at the young man in a fit of sudden anger.

His eyes had gone wide at this point, out of both disbelief and curiosity. "New school, what the hell are you talking about, lady?" he said. The young man stared at the woman with furrowed eyebrows, it had taken her only about a minute's worth of conversation to accomplish what took most other women months to do: make Alan Dervoda hate your guts for any reason other than being a woman.

The lady glared some particularly sharp daggers at Alan, then raised her hand, and then her index finger. "First, I am not "lady" to you, I will have you address me as either Mistress Pierla, Mrs. Preivishkka, or ma'am, am I understood?" Pierla's attitude had audibly returned to its normal calm and authoritative state. Alan was dangerously close to experiencing the exact opposite change, however. He was fast becoming considerably annoyed by her high-horse behavior, and made a mental note that he would definitely show her who's boss one day.

Alan wasn't sure if he could stand interacting with this woman any longer, so he decided that he would discard his resentment for her, and play along with her instructions. If this strange woman was telling the truth about him being transferred to a new school, then it was his only chance at escaping the unpleasant experience of attending the same school that the shit-faced drug addicts, and scrub garbage lower grade students that lived in town did. "Yes Mistress Pierla, I understand. If I may make a request, you mentioned earlier that you were to escort me to my new school, may you please do so for me, ma'am?" Alan asked in the most respectful manner he knew. He'd had plenty of opportunity to practice his mannerisms, Alan spent a good deal of time around his antagonizing, and painfully devoted Catholic grandparents whom demanded nothing less than exemplary-grade behavior and beyond from him.

Pierla flashed a rather toothy grin at Alan, visibly pleased with his prompt behavioral adjustment. "That is much better Alan. Now, I believe we should be heading off as you requested, make haste now, we're almost late. The duo then walked around the to the side of the school, and ventured beyond the back parking lot and headed straight for the woods that resided nearly side by side to the football field behind the school. Alan had no idea where exactly she was taking him, how they would get there, or why he'd even agreed to follow her, but judging from the person escorting him: Pierla, that this was definitely no ordinary school he would be attending.

The two had traveled through the woods for no longer than a minute when they had reached a very small clearing in its trees, in the center of it, something that Alan thought that he'd never see for real in his entire life: a Fairy Ring. Fairy Rings were a thick grouping of mushrooms that grew in a ring, often leaving room for one person, or many to stand in the middle of, depending on the ring's size. European folklore often stated that Fairies or Elves could use it to teleport to different mythical realms and kingdoms, Alan didn't think Pierla was a Fairy, glowing eyes or not.

Pierla entered the ring, stood in the middle, and then motioned for Alan to do the same. Once the both of them were positioned in the ring's center, Pierla put her hands together as if she were praying, and began to mutter a strange incantation in a language that Alan couldn't understand. No later than after she'd began her incantation, the fairy ring's interior had begun to glow with a brilliant light that startled Alan, causing him a fair deal of anxiety, but not enough to prevent him from keeping composed and completely still. Soon, Alan found his eyes to be almost completely blinded by the white light as it engulfed him, and Pierla's strange words steadily became more and more quite and distant with each passing moment. He could barely keep his eyes open, he felt very tired, but wasn't sure if succumbing to the intense drowsiness was an entirely good idea, which was, ironically the last he thought about before he did. Alan's vision flashed from white to black in an instant, and Pierla's voice ceased to reach him any longer as he passed over into the unknown realm.