The next morning dawned too soon.  I lay in bed, halfway between awareness and dreams, with Sean looming over me as usual.  He drew the covers back from my body and then opened the blinds, seemingly disgruntled by the fact that the sun had scratched the darkness by only a mere fraction, leaving much of the earth still steeped in grey.

“Dreary morning,” he muttered, closing the blinds.

“Ngh,” I answered, rolling out of bed and hitting the floor with a solid thump.

“Oh, dear,” he said, taking both my hands and pulling me up. “Come on, hon.”

I grumbled incoherently, pushing him out of my room weakly.

“Oh, it’s gonna be like that, huh?” he said, to which I made another ‘ngh’ sound before shutting and locking the door.

“Fiiiinnnee,” I heard him say. “Last time I help you wake up, Miss Crankypants.”

I rolled my eyes, attempting to assemble my thoughts as I dressed.  I didn’t particularly want to leave my newly formed peanut gallery here alone—especially Necavi and Alistair—but I didn’t suppose I could drag them off to school, either.  The teeth of my brush fought against my tangled locks as I descended the stairwell.  Alistair and Necavi were sitting on opposite ends of the table, their eyes bloodshot, staring intently at each other.

“What the hell are they d-doing?” I said quietly.

“Staring contest,” Sean, who had slunk up behind me in his noiseless, stalker-like fashion, responded.  “It’s a battle of dominance.”  Alistair blinked, reacting involuntarily to Sean’s voice.

“Nutbunnies!” He cried, slamming his fist on the table.

“Ha!  I triumph, weakling!  Bow to my infinitesimal superiority!” Necavi preened, tossing his multi-colored hair.

“We were interrupted!” Alistair argued. “I demand a rematch.”

“Never!” Necavi snapped. “Although, we could duel it out if you wish…”

Alistair folded his arms across his chest, turning his nose up.

“You just want to see my sword.”

“O-kay, that’s enough,” I said, holding an arm out over the center of the table. “Look…I have to go to school..”

“Yeah, hurry up,” Brandon came galloping down the steps, swinging around the corner as he called to me. “Dad’s already in the car!”

“We’ll accompany you,” Necavi said, his chair scraping tile as he moved to stand. I adjusted the weight of my backpack to my other shoulder, speaking uncertainly.

“And how do you plan to do that…?”

Necavi snapped his fingers, and both he and Alistair shrunk slightly, their features melting into visions of youth. “Glamour, darling.”

“Ooh, can I come tooo?  Pleaaase?” Sean said, putting on an imploring, child-like expression.

The howl of the car horn blasted from outside, leaving me no time to evaluate an intelligent decision. Stressed, I just nodded, already hastening towards my back door.  The smiles on their faces as they trailed behind me were as sharp as razors.

“It’s been a while since my body looked like this,” Alistair said, and I noticed that his voice was several octaves higher than its previous incarnation.

“Heh heh…were you a late bloomer, Al?” Necavi, whose voice was also somewhat higher but still unusually deep, towered over his counterpart.

“Shut up, you big meaniehead,” Alistair said sulkily.  Sean smirked.

“Keep it d-down,” I hissed. “You’re foreign, r-remember?  No hable ingles!”

Alistair blinked. “Uh.  Whatever.”

“How long will your glamour last?” Sean asked as we headed for my homeroom.  The halls were teeming with bodies, each one talking and yelling and pushing as they fought to reach their lockers (or, in rare cases, their homerooms).

“As long as I want it to,” Necavi answered, just as I saw Miriam and Kai’s faces appear in the crowd. Kai’s eyes brightened.

“Any special reason why you brought the entourage?” she smirked.

“S-so they wouldn’t d-decimate my house?” I muttered, continuing to navigate the hallways.  Kai and Miriam kept pace beside me, though their attentions were more focused on my three companions.  Their inquiries were lost in the steady stream of voices surrounding me, so instead of exerting the effort necessary to understand them, I focused on reaching homeroom unscathed.  I squirmed beneath the weight of my backpack, pondering briefly as to why the fates had decreed that my locker be located in the middle of nowhere, thus disallowing me from ever using it.  I glanced behind myself, finding that Kai and Miriam had wandered away—fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it), the rest of my group remained.  I noted, also to my satisfaction, that they were keeping silent.  However, it was then that Sean ran ahead, throwing open the classroom door and bowing with a flourish.

“Ladies first.”

“Oh, really?”  Necavi said, pushing Alistair over the metal threshold.  His gangly arms flailed, and he stumbled, hitting the smooth floor with his kneecaps.  His mouth opened to cry out, but I clamped a hand over his lips, glaring death at Sean and Necavi.

“What’s up with this, Sinclair?” The teacher, Mr. Randall, observed the spectacle bemusedly.

“Ummm..” I began, my words slipping back down my throat as I felt the stares of my classmates on my cheeks.

“Those are the foreign freaks staying at our house,” Brandon snapped from his seat. “They’re completely insane.”

The three smiled.  Mr. Randall shrugged.

“Whatever.  Just take a seat.”

I nodded, directing them to a set of empty desks.  My homeroom was out of the way—near the greenhouse, towards the back left end of the school, and in fact Mr. Randall was the Horticulture teacher.  He had a very hands-off approach to his job, meaning that he met each day with intense apathy.  That is, each day that he actually bothered to show up.

“So what’s up, amigo?” Sean whispered in my ear.

“How about n-not p-pulling any more st-stunts like that?” I answered through gritted teeth.

“Hey, it’s not my fault Necavi delights in Alistair’s humiliation…”

“And eventual demise,” Necavi said cheerfully.  Alistair grumbled.

“Hey, Claris,” Rachel, the girl who sat next to me, leaned over.  Her face almost dripped with dark blue eyeshadow and white face powder.  Maroon stockings with the ends cut off decorated her arms, and she wore a black Sailormoon tee with baggy, camouflage pants.  Her dark hair hung limply by her ears, done in dreds and sprinkled with brightly colored butterfly pins and tiny bows.  It was as if every fashion style at the school had collided and spawned.  I couldn’t stand the sight of her.

“Who are your friends?” she asked, jamming her thumb in the air near Sean et al.  “They look cool.”

“Foreigners,” I said, not meeting her gaze.

“From where?”

“A c-cannibalistic island t-tribe.”

Rachel recoiled. “Oh. Okay.”

The door burst open just as the late bell rang, and a short boy with spectacles dashed in, panting heavily.  I noticed his hair first—short and flame red at the tips, fading to yellow on his bangs.  That was odd in and of itself, but I felt truly disturbed as I watched him struggling for breath and noticed his tiny, sharp fangs.

“Are you a foreigner too?” Randall said pleasantly.

“Oh!  No, sir!” he cried loudly, pushing his spectacles onto his nose and smiling broadly. “I’m a new student!”

“Well that’s lovely,” Randall said, taking the slip of paper  that the boy held out.  “Everyone wlecome Mr. Lucius.  Lucius Sol.”

Lucius turned his bright, eager face to us, only to be met with nothing more than a soft twittering amongst the assembled students.  He shrugged and threw his little body into the seat in front of Sean, his eyes darting around excitedly.  These, too, were unusual: brilliant green irises with gold rims.  Suddenly he whipped around in his seat, staring directly at me.

“Hi!” He said, sticking his hand out.  “I’m Lucius!”

“Hello th-there,” I stuttered, shaking his hand uneasily.  “I’m Cl-Claris.”

“Oh, I know,” he smiled toothily, showing off his cat-like fangs. “It’s nice to meet you!”

I massaged my temples.  Necavi and Alistair shrugged as if to say “We have no idea.”

“Wh-where are you from?” I asked.

“Up!” he answered happily, his eyes squeezing shut.

“Of c-course,” I muttered. “Why not?”

“Same place as him,” Lucius said, pointing to Sean.

“I don’t know where I’m from, but it sure as hell doesn’t have anything to do with you, buddy,” Sean said, pressing back against his chair.

“Yay!  We’re buddies!” Lucius purred, taking Sean’s hand.

“I thought foreign people didn’t speak English,” someone whispered.

“I happen to be from Britain,” Sean said, roughly withdrawing his hand from Lucius.

“S-so that’s why you’re a-always affecting that phony accent,” I said, just as Lucius shook his head.

“No, that’s not it at all!”

“What a strange boy,” I thought, watching Lucius pet Sean’s hand.  I wondered if he was from some other dimension completely different from not only mine, but Necavi and Alistair’s as well.  Maybe he had fallen from somewhere and landed here?  I realized that this hypothesis was rather flimsy, but I couldn’t fathom any other explanation.  And that left the matter of his saying he was from the same place as Sean…so was Sean from another dimension as well?  It certainly wouldn’t be surprising.  The four of us moved in a cluster through the halls, with myself in the center.  I figured the only reason why I was able to keep them from running off was that the layout of the school was still foreign to them.  Actually, Sean had been in the school once before, but that was an incident I didn’t particularly want to get into.  I supposed he’d blocked it from his memory, since he acted as though every location was new to him.

“This is boring…” Alistair whined as we squirmed through the corridors.  I pushed through the thickly peopled walk, managing to make it to my next class intact.  We dragged ourselves in, and I attempted to ignore the stares of those already present.

“And there’s too many people,” Necavi spoke through gritted teeth, and I noticed that his fingers were flexing, as if he longed to grasp the hilt of his sword.

“It’s not like I p-put a g-gun to your h-heads,” I answered moodily.  Before either could respond, Lucius bounded in, pouncing on the seat next to me.

“Hii!” he cried, hugging his chair.

“L-Lucius,” I said, flustered by his abrupt entrance.  Sean, his annoyance evident, took the seat behind me.

“U-um, I th-think s-someone sits there, Se-Sean…”

“So what?” he scowled, hunching over and glaring at Lucius.  “It’s not my bloody fault he took the seat next to you.”

The bell rang, and I noted that my teacher’s desk was empty.  Talking and yelling echoed off the cinderblock walls as my classmates enjoyed a respite from the silence he typically expected.  About ten minutes passed, and we still found ourselves without a teacher.

“What’s going on?” Alistair blinked.

“I dunno,” I said nervously, pushing my seat back. “M..maybe I sh-should l-look for him…”

“Aw, don’t do that, Claris,” Taylor called from the back. Taylor was an enormous slacker.  He also happened to be class president.  Go figure. “We want a free day.”

Ordinarily, I would have complied with his request.  However, in light of recent events, I decided that finding my teacher was a bit more important than a day without classwork.

“Wait a little while,” Lucius said pleasantly, crawling up on top of his desk.  His swung his short legs over the side as he sat, smiling. “Maybe he’ll show up.”

I quivered, turning to him slowly.

“Wh..what?”

“Wait,” he purred.

“Listen to the new guy,” Taylor said.  Torn, I took my seat, my eyes focused on the door.  Lucius hummed to himself, and the growl forming in Sean’s throat was suddenly audible.

“Whoa there, sonny,” Alistair said, setting a hand on Sean’s shoulder. “Happy thoughts.”

Sean clamped his hand over Alistair’s, pressing his nails into Alistair’s flesh.  Squeaking, Alistair struggled for freedom as lines of blood ran down his palm.

“I was just trying to help,” he mewled, cradling his hand.

“Do you want me to kiss it and make it better?” Necavi snickered, taking Alistair’s fingers and healing the little wounds.  Alistair lowered his head, causing his thick, blue spikes to hide the scarlet blush on his cheeks.  Meanwhile, Sean’s aggravation at Lucius’s humming was reaching critical levels.  He jumped from his desk, grabbing Lucius by the back of his shirt and shaking him violently.  The movement was so quick and sudden that the rest of the class fell silent, awed by the outburst.

“Lucius,” Sean said, his voice low and steely, “if you hum just one more bar, I shall rip out your vocal chords with my own fingers.  Is this clear?”

Lucius petted Sean’s hair.

“Okay!” he said, disengaging himself from Sean’s grasp easily.  I blinked, wondering if what I had witnessed had actually happened. Lucius’s body, for just a fraction of a second, had dissolved into mist—and then re-formed only inches from Sean’s clutches.  Befuddled, Sean backed into his desk, apparently trying to comprehend the situation.

“What are you?” he said, eyes narrowed.

“Just me,” he said happily. “Listen, I think I hear your teacher!”

Someone gasped as a familiar head rolled over the classroom threshold.  My teacher’s blank, glassy-eyed face stared up at me, his cheeks and forehead spattered with blood. Severed bones and veins poked from the end of his neck, and his mouth was open wide, his lips stained with red. The crimson stump of his neck sickened me, and I turned away as bile rose in my throat.  Lucius picked up the head and set it on the teacher’s desk.

“Now we can start class,” he said, skipping back to his seat.  A girl burst into tears.  Even Necavi showed signs of shock.

“Are you mad?” Sean said.  “He’s dead, you imbecile.”

“I know,” Lucius said calmly, licking a bit of excess blood off his fingers.  I covered my face, disgusted.  Most of the girls were crying by now, and (to their own surprise) some of the boys as well.

“Come on, Claris,” Sean said, taking my arm. “We’ve got to find out what’s happening.”

“I d-don’t w-want to know,” My voice was broken and miserable.

“Well, I want to know, and we’re lost here without you.  Besides, what if whatever to decided to decapitate him is planning to relieve a few more people of their heads?” Sean answered, already dragging me forcibly from my chair.

I trembled, knowing he was right.  Rubbing tears from my eyes, I stepped back into the hall.

“Come on,” I said throatily. Spatters and tiny pools of blood stained the floor, running in rivulets down the cracks in the tile.

“O-oh G-god…” I whispered, leaning against Sean.  The hall was devoid of life, and all the classroom doors were shut tight.  I tried to ignore the fact that all of the windows were dark.

“Um, Claris,” Alistair said.  I turned to see the door to the Latin room swinging closed.  Alistair reached for the knob, but in vain—it shut with a clap, and inside, the light disappeared.  Fear swam in my brain, changing my limbs into something resembling unusually soft gelatin.  Before then, the most frightening events in my life usually concerned grades, or whether or not Sean had incurred major property damage to someone’s house.  The fear I experienced at those times paled in comparison to the intensity of my present feelings.  Sharp and blinding, it stung at my eyes and in the depths of my stomach like a spiked ball.  Air refused to lend itself to my lungs, and I was sure that the emotion would send me into a faint at any moment.  But I had little time for dealing with the thought, since Lucius chose that moment to speak almost into my ear.

“Gee, I wonder what’s going on?” he said loudly, jarring me from my catatonic state.

I nearly shrieked, unnerved by his interruption of my panic, but Sean clapped a hand over my mouth before I was able.

“You seriously need to chill, dude,” he said, frowning down at me. “Don’t you trust me to protect you?”

“Wh-what?” My voice was scarce.

“Well, don’t you?” he seemed truly perturbed by my ignorance.

“O…of course I do,” I blinked.

“Then there’s no need to fear,” he smiled. “Come on, then.”

“Aww, how sweet—“ Necavi began, but his taunt was quickly silenced by a jab to the ribs from Sean. “Urk…brat..”

“Prat,” he answered placidly. The calm way in which they all dealt with the blood around us (and the occasional scream from the locked classrooms) baffled me.  Did they just not care?  Or were they somehow desensitized?

“Where should we go?” Alistair asked suddenly.

“Well, following that trail of blood on the floor is my best plan,” Sean replied, gesturing.

“Ah.  Yes.”

I stifled a groan.  The spatters ran in an odd sort of line, with a splash on the tile for every few steps and a steady, drying line in between.  It was as if the head had been carried through the school and then purposefully rolled into the classroom.  The trail came to a stop in front of one of the darkened rooms.  A red card carved with the white numbers 126 adorned the door’s top.  A long window ran along next to it, wherein only a few shelves full of boxes and trophies could be discerned against the darkness.

“Should we knock?” Alistair asked. A scream from next door punctuated his question.

“N-no,” I managed, grasping and twisting the knob. “…it’s locked.”

Sean knocked on the door.

“Hellooo?  Anybody IN THERE?”

A folded slip of paper shot out from beneath the door.  I picked it up, opening it to the read the words.  “NO” was printed in thick, block letters, and to my dismay, the paper was soiled with red, bloody marks.  Sean knocked again.

“Are you SURE?”

Another slip of paper emerged.  This one, upon closer inspection, has “YES” written on it in the same style.  Blood, more fresh than on the previous sheet, smeared across the paper.

“Are you killing someone in there?”

For a while, there was no response.  Finally, a third slip, this time almost drenched in crimson.  Feeling ill, I read it, but there was only word printed. “MAYBE.”

“Perhaps we should try to find your friends first?” Lucius suggested.

“My f-friends?” I answered dumbly, until realization struck.  “Oh… O-oh my God!  K-Kai.. Alexis.. M-Miriam..”

I sputtered their names, clenching my fists.  What if they were dead or maimed or worse?

“Wh-what if they’re in th-that room?!” I cried, prompting another slip of paper to shoot from under the door. This was unfolded, clean, and had “THEY’RE NOT” written across it.  Blood oozed out after the note a moment later, and I jumped back as it swallowed the message.

“Obviously they aren’t,” Lucius said cheerily.

“I..I don’t know what class they’re in,” I mumbled, wringing my hands. “It’s only s-second period..”

“None of them?” Lucius said, hovering close to me.  Sean glowered, looking as if he were ready to make good on his promise to deprive Lucius of his vocal chords.

“Well…” I said slowly. “I think K-Kai has French..”

Lucius was already walking.

“Y’know…there’s something odd about that guy,” Alistair mused, prompting a ‘No, really?’ look from Necavi.  Lucius stopped at the foot of the entrance to the stairs, waiting.  I followed him, trying to ignore the screams and cries emanating from the locked classrooms.  He took the rear as we ascended the steps and moved back down the hallway.  Just before we reached our destination, Lucius skittered up to the front of the party abruptly, opening the door to the French room easily.  The screaming ceased and Lucius hit the light switch.

“O-Okay…” I whispered. “I’m re-really going to faint now…”

The entire class was dead.  The most profound body for me was Kai’s, naturally. Three long claw marks raked across her neck, and she sat with her head at a disturbingly unnatural angle.  Blood pooled in her lap and streamed down the sides of her chair, gleaming on the chair’s metal legs.  Miriam’s body was splayed out on the floor, her clothes torn and stained at the edges with crimson.  Claw marks similar to those on Kai’s neck ran across her midsection.  Strands of hair that seemed to have been pulled from her scalp lay across her wounds, their once blond roots now a horribly brilliant red.  The other students and even the teacher bore the same slashes, though some were more battered than others.  The sight was like a razor—it took the remains of my calm and shredded them, scattering the pieces into miniscule bits.  I burst into tears.

“Here they are,” Lucius said, alarmingly nonchalant.  He petted Kai’s hair.

“What is wrong with you?” Sean cried, his features taut as he stared at Kai’s corpse. “They’re dead!”

“I’m sure it’s only temporary,” Lucius answered pleasantly, poking at Miriam’s gashes.

“Even I have more respect for the fallen than that,” Necavi muttered.  I clung to Sean, sobbing miserably.

“I think that’s about enough,” he muttered. He hugged me gently and then pulled away, stalking back down the steps.

“Wait!” Lucius cried. “It’s not time yet!”

“Shut up,” he growled, ignoring us as we tailed him back to room 126.  Enraged, he punched through the glass of the door’s window.  A little squeak sounded from inside, and the door unlocked.  He stormed into the darkness, followed closely by the rest of us.

“What the hell?” Sean turned on the lights. “There’s nothing here.”

I glanced about myself. He was right—the room was devoid of life.  The only unusual thing was that the floor appeared to be covered in a thin layer of blood.  I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, neeping when the door slammed shut.

“I told you it wasn’t time,” Lucius said mournfully. “Now I’ll be beaten…”

A stack of boxes in the room’s corner came crashing down, and the lights flicked off.  The last thing I saw before I passed out was a set of claws.

When I returned to consciousness, I was in a bed in the nurse’s office.  Sean, Necavi, and Alistair were all sitting in chairs around me, and to my surprise, Kai and Miriam were leaning over the bed’s edge. Frightened, I pushed away from them, almost hitting my head on the wall.

“Wh-what are you guys d-doing here?!” I squeaked.  I noticed that Alexis was behind them, which was slightly less disturbing since I hadn’t seen her torn apart corpse, but it shook me all the same.

“Uh, we heard you passed out so we came to check on you?” Miriam said in a ‘duh’ sort of voice.

“B-but..” I stammered.

“It was an illusion,” Necavi hissed, his voice trembling with anger.  “All of it.  I can’t believe I didn’t know.”

“S…so..it never happened?  Where’s Lucius?”

“No, and gone,” Necavi replied bitterly. “I think he caused it..that wretched brat..”

“It was a pretty good illusion,” Alistair said gently.  Necavi glared at him for a moment.  Alistair smiled weakly, and Necavi’s eyes softened. Marginally.

“I think you guys are just nuts,” Kai said. “They found you in the storage room, all unconscious.  They’re still trying to figure how you got in.”

“Wh-what time is it?” I murmured.

“Almost four.”

“You st-stayed after s-school for me?”

“Today was the anime club meeting, remember?” Kai said, exasperated.

“That’s what I was here for,” Alexis said.

“And I had band practice,” Miriam shrugged.

I sighed.

“Fine then.”

“Hey, we could have not come at all,” Miriam reminded me, pursing her lips.  Sean coughed.

“Can we go now?  This has been a really embarrassing day.”

“Yes,” Necavi grumbled.

I pulled myself up.

“I’ll c-call mom…”

“So, what did we learn today?” Sean said, curled in the corner of my couch.

“Little boys with small glasses should die,” Necavi hissed.

“I f-felt a little b-bad for him…” I muttered.

“Why?!” Necavi stared at me as if my brain had suddenly jumped out the side of my head and smashed itself against the wall.

“Well, he s-said he was going to get beaten..” I said, picking at my hands.

“And he’d bloody better,” Sean grumbled.

“Thoroughly, I hope,” Necavi added.  It seemed the only subject thus far that they had agreed upon.

“Where do you suppose he’s from?” Alistair wondered aloud. “I don’t think he’s from our world.”

“I d-don’t know…but I’m exhausted,” I answered, yawning.  “And th-there’ll be school again tomorrow.”

I paused, and then added quickly,
“None of you are coming.”

“Aww,” Sean sniffed. “Claris doesn’t love us.”

I rolled my eyes, choosing not to dignify that remark with a response.  Instead I left them sitting in the den, where the conversation had turned to whether or not Alistar was taking the guest room’s bed.

Two more days left~ I know you're excited.  Lucius is a happy hyper freak, is he not? :B This chapter is really short...I feel there was too much dialogue, even for me. xx; I need to get my description groove on. :B; And in case you were wondering..the illusion started the moment Claris left homeroom. :B; But none of that business will be explained until later^^;
What do y'all think. :B