1 Chapter 1: Ooh, nice outfit you have there Mister!

There are some mornings when you just wake up on the wrong side of the bed, and then there are some mornings when you are violently shaking in your sleep and you wake up thinking your house is attacked by terrorists. I woke up, only to find myself in my bed, with my sister, violently shaking me to wake me up.

Knowing myself, I knew that I would have chased her continuously around the house but today was not any normal day, but it was the first day of high school. My dad had a transfer due to which we had to shift and I and Lavender had to join this new school. Well after that, our parents died in a car accident. But what about the fee? Who's paying the fee, you ask? Well... we don't know either! We think

it's some kind of pension being paid by the bank.

And, I forgot to introduce myself. Hi, my name is .... you know what, just call me 'Jay', cause my name is just too long for anybody to remember. The last time I gave someone my entire name, he got migraines for about a week (at least that's what he told me)!

And my sister, yes how could I ever forget to introduce her. Her name is Lavender, a black-haired sweetheart, but she is opposite to what lavender is described to be. The flower lavender can be described as pale, sweet, and cute, but my sister can be described as mischievous and adamant and the very incarnation of the opposite of cute, not that I'm saying she isn't cute, just that her way of speaking takes her away from the cute and brings her closer to the mature side.

Surprisingly I found something she's good at, stealing books from the library. Yep, you can call her a biblioklept. We have, like, 10-15 stolen books at home and I have just given up trying to tell her not to steal books from the library.

We sat down for breakfast, only to realize, nobody had made breakfast or even their lunch box. With only half an hour left to prepare food, I got to work. I made noodles for breakfast and again noodles for our lunchbox.

I saw my sister walk over to me while I was waiting for the noodles to cook. She said, ''Wow! that smells good. You're the best when it comes to cooking.'' Not at all flattered by this comment, I replied, ''Ummmm... thanks. So... what's going on?'' She became numb and had her mouth open so wide, a fly could potentially go in. ''Why the sudden change of heart?'' I asked.

''W-what do y-you mean?'' She stuttered

''You know, we weren't at the best of terms until now, so, I was wondering, why the compliment?'' She fidgeted with the spoon in her hand and finally said,'' Ok fine!'' She continued,'' Well... I forgot to keep an alarm and... we might have... kind of... um... missed the b-bus!'' And somehow, I started to subconsciously multitask. I knew coming to school late on the first day is bad for my impression.

'' Ok, '' I said,'' now, get ready as quick as you can, cause now, I'll have to drop you!'' We got ready, ate breakfast, and I rode my bike as my life depended on it. There were only 5 mins left and I still had, approx., 97 steps left to school (yeah, I measure the length with steps. it's not weird at all, right?).

I reached my class and at the same time, the bell rang. My ears were on the verge of bleeding as the bell was too loud. I looked around the class with interest to find any familiar faces but none were detected. At the teachers' desk, sat a middle-aged lady (who I strongly believed is my class teacher), motioned me to enter. Believe me, that was the most awkward situation I've ever faced.

Guess that's what Lavender is facing as well, but not as severely as me. I'm kind of a 'you do you, I do me' person but my sister is like the total opposite. She is a very open, yet dishonest girl and her reply to that is, 'I don't like to tell the whole truth, that's all.'

My footsteps echoed around the class, and I, with immense difficulty, reached the teachers' desk. A teacher, with blond hair and the dark eyes of the void, gets up from her chair and introduces me,'' Students, can I get your attention please, this is J-'' She stopped to read my immensely long name from a form of some sort. '' Just call me Jay. My name is too long for a sane person to remember.'' I interrupted. ''Thank you, Jay. Would you like to go ahead and take your seat or do you want to share something with the class,'' the teacher said, clearly filled to the brim with relief that she didn't need to pronounce that long of a name.

''No thanks, I'd like to take my seat. But before I get seated, can I ask you your name? ''The teacher was taken aback. I quickly took up the conclusion that never has a student asked her name. '' Well, I'm Grace Stewart. But for you, it's Miss Stewart or Miss Grace.''

"Thank you,'' I said and looked for a seat. In my few minutes of seat-hunting, I found 2 empty seats and thought of going towards the first option.

'' Hey, Jay, would you care to sit with me,'' came a statement from the last bench. A boy with blond hair called me, so I went toward the boy, who was near the second option and I said,'' Sure, why not,'' and sat next to him. ''Hey, I didn't quite get a name, you know,'' and it made the blond boy laugh, ''Well, you got me there. My name is Daniel White. But people call me 'Dan', just like how you call yourself 'Jay'.''

"I'm surprised your surname is White...'' I said,

''Yeah? Why?'' Dan inquired.

"Because your hair is blond!" I replied. We both were giggling at this cringy joke when we heard someone clear their throat loudly. It was none other than Miss Grace (I've decided to call her Miss Grace and not Miss Stewart).

After a long time of 'whispering between lectures', we finally made it through the first day of school. There, I reunited with Lavender. We had some pep talks about how we perceive life. When we finally dispersed, Lavender, Dan and I, decided to meet again tomorrow.

We started to cycle back home when the sky started to turn red and black. Thinking that we are late, we continued the journey when we spotted an ugly humanoid figure in the middle of the road, blocking our path. It had veins sprouting out of its body, a pair of very sharp teeth and claws sharper than a bald eagle's talons. We stopped and looked closely, directing our attention towards the creature.

Lavender, with no fear at all, exclaimed that'' Ooh, nice outfit you have there, mister!'' But I was 110% sure that it was not a costume and the 'night sky' was not the night sky we thought it was. The sky was as black as Batman's Batmobile, basically matte black, but the sky had a red finish to it (I get talkative when there is scary stuff going on).

Then with a roar, it came at us with razor-sharp claws and fangs, its long, tangled veins flying everywhere. And then, for the first time, we agreed on something, and we ran, as fast as our little legs could take us. In the middle of our adrenaline-filled sprint, Lavender falls over and hits her shoulder, now overflowing with blood. At the same time, the monster closes in on us. It picked up its hand and was about to slice my sister into pieces!

Without thinking through the situation, which I usually do, I jumped in front of her and took the blow myself. As blood dripped from my spine, through my shirt, and on Lavender's face, she stared up at me, stained with terror. With all the strength I could gather from every corner of my body I didn't even know existed, I whispered,'' Run...,'' She got up and ran, far away from me, I could feel the blood dripping through the wound, making me feel warm and cold at the same time.

The creature looked over me, with its claws and teeth along with its hanging veins, only an inch away from my face, thinking about ripping me to shreds. But before that could happen, a person (and with the body outline, I could make out that it was a girl) came and sliced the daylights out of the creature, but I already could see light at the end of the tunnel. And then...the world around me faded... and I died... I think.