Five hours.
Twenty nine minutes.
Fifty six seconds.
Luis took slow, shallow breaths from his perch at the top of the bleachers. With each inhale however he felt
he was only being tainted
more by the sprawling jungle around him, the jungle these beasts called high school. He released the air in an
angry puff as he scribbled
furiously in his strange little book. Writing as if no one and nothing else existed. Imagining the world
away.
Five hours.
Twenty nine minutes.
Fifty three seconds.
He counted down the time as he wrote. Home was little better but it was quiet and calm, like a short reprieve
while his invisible tormentor
took a break to piss. Some days it felt like the world was out to get him. Luis was a freshman, perhaps
smaller and scrawnier than your average freshman and definitely weirder. He
lacked a crowd to call his own, being a bit of a social mutt. He wore skinny jeans and scene band shirts like
Asking Alexandria and a few bracelets but still never made it in
with that crowd because of his general... creepiness. He was dark and brooding most of the time and loud and
immature others and always writing god knows what. He was an author
who enjoyed writing dark shit but no one bothered to try to discover much beyond that or look into what made
him this way. The answers probably scared them. Back at home
he had nothing. At sixteen his American mom fell for a Mexican man who made her feel special but when he was
deported she was left
with nothing but his child. Now working around the clock to support Luis by herself she had bece bitter with
him, projecting her hatred for
his father on him whenever she was around. Luis brushed his long dark locks from in frog of his eyes and kept
writing, it was the only way
to stay sane.
"Sup emo-bitch what are you writing?" The deep voice of David, one of the school's senior soccer jocks, made
Luis look up in fear and
loathing. "Gym isn't for your creepy faggot stories" he mocked, ripping the book out of Luis's hands "go do
something normal for a
change.". Luis just stared without saying a word. David was the exact opposite of Luis. He was built,
handsome, popular and smart. Standing at about average height but fairly broad with a good build from soccer.
He had short blond hair and not a single stray hair on his face. The image of clean cut jock. He
came from a wealthy and loving family that has catered to his every need yet instead of making him a good
person it's made him cold,
condescending and given him a sense of entitlement. He knows how to play the social game though, sucking up to
those above him while
stomping those beneath him, like Luis. "What kind of fucked up book is this anyway?" Luis just stared sadly.
"Oh don't cry emo, just go cut yourself, we all know you do." David opened it to a random page.
'and as the jock read from the book he stole he began to notice a hot breath on his neck and even though he
knew he shouldn't he turned
around anyway and what he saw...' David DID notice a breath on his neck, he turned back around to see what
that faggot was doing
breathing on him. Instead of Luis, two monstrous red eyes ripped into him and he beheld a beastly monster
shrouded in black were the boy once was. The features were human but so grotesquely distorted the resemblance
was null. Terrified, David lost his
balance and fell down the bleachers. He felt every hit as he rag dolled down, his bones smashing against the
wood and making horrible
sounds until he finally landed in the court. Nothing seemed broken but his legs were bleeding pretty badly and
he was covered in bruises.
"David! What the hell is wrong with you?" David cringed at the sound of the coach's voice. "Get your butt in
the locker rooms and clean
yourself up! You have a game this Saturday so for gods sake try not to kill yourself." David tried to point
out Luis in the bleachers, still
stuttering from whatever he saw... But the bleachers were empty. Trembling, David realized he was still
holding the book. He knew he
should throw it away but something was keeping him from letting go of it. Confused and in pain, David headed
towards the locker rooms
still carrying the book. Once in the locker rooms David opened the book again, there had to be an explanation
for what just happened.
He opened to the same page as the book described all the events that had just transpired. David flipped back
through the pages an saw
they detailed everything that had happened to him today from the time he woke up. Had that faggot been
following him all day? David
turned ahead in the book to after the fall.
'Confused, the jock turned to the book for answers but the book only tells him he's about to cut himself just
as the kids he steps on do from
his torment. He doesn't believe this, he thinks he's reading total bullshit...' David dropped the book. Cut
himself? Fuck that. He walked
over to the mirror to check on his injuries. He turned on the water but hen he looke up he saw Luis'
reflection instead of his. It followed
his every movement, smiling, frowning. Then the face started laughing. Luis's weird laugh rang out in the
bathroom, David looked
around before clasping his neck and realizing the laughter came from him. The reflection began contorting in
unimaginable ways. The
already tan Latino skin darkened more an more to night black as the eyes rolled insanely and drew back further
and further into their
sockets. The hair flew in an unseen wind as the visage turned ghastly. Great arms emerged from the mirror and
grabbed David's, pulling
them over the sink, palms up. David couldn't move his arms, they were paralyzed. The shadowy appendages
meanwhile conjured razor
blades which they slowly lowered onto David's wrists. Pain exploded in him and he screamed, feeling his voice
get higher and stranger as
he began bleeding all over the sink. He continued screaming in Luis's voice as the blades cut deeper and the
blood flow increased. The
room began fading out and a dull ringing overwhelmed his sense until everything was black and silent...