Okay so bear with me... This is my first story I've written on here, and I'm sort of a noob at these forum posts. I'm not gonna do anything fancy with the letters either Let me know what you think! ~~~*~~~ The freezing sleet cascaded down in needles, but Bristol didn't seem to mind. She liked the rain. It reminded her of the pain she no longer felt, because she no longer felt anything. She wished she could feel again. But her body was so cold, and mentally, her brain had shut down. Eat. Sleep. Walk. Eat. Sleep...Walk. Over an over she's repeated those words, force herself to preform actions that those around her found thoughtless and effortless. She was hollow inside. A shell of what once was a beautiful life, one that glowed with vibrant colors, that laughed when she woke up in the morning, that found fascination in the small things. She was nothing. And she couldn't remember why. --*-- She stopped walking at a little pond on the side if a road. She didn't even remember turning onto the road. She couldn't recall what state she lived in or where she was. It was quiet though... Peaceful... And she liked that. Bristol took a step towards the bank, her worn white tennis shoes, now stained with unidentifiable stains, sinking deep into the brown mud. It would feel good to feel. She thought. She sat down without even thinking, and then in fascination... She began to remember why she was like this. It came in snippets at first and then it all can rushing back, like the tide at sundown. And she gasped as her hands burned with pins and needles. She was beginning to feel again, and she wanted to laugh that pain would be the first thing she's remember.
~~~*~~~ She was standing outside of an old red brick house, the kind with the black rotting iron gates surrounding the property and the dying tree in the front. Only now, as she peered up at it, the iron was still a sleek black, and the tree was growing luscious summer peaches. "Bristol dear? What are you doing outside?" A warm comforting voice washed over her skin and she turned around. "Admiring the tree," she responded and then walked slowly towards her mother. Marisa Patterson was a beautiful young woman. Her golden blonde hair hung in long brilliant tresses down her back, and the sapphire dress she wore set off her cerulean blue eyes with a dancing light. "You have to get ready for school," her mother insisted, handing her a black backpack, no doubt filled with books and papers that were irrelevant to Bristol. "Come home right after school," her mother said, as she always did before Bristol left to meet up with her best friend Matt who lived down the street. "I will Mom," she promised and then shut the door, not knowing that she would not see her mother's eyes dance with light for a very long time.
~~~*~~~ Matt was waiting on the front steps of his house. His black jeans fraying at the ends from stepping on them too much. He was wearing the same exact sweatshirt that Bristol had bought him last year; the one that was one size too small. Slung across his shoulder was a book bag that made him look like a nerd, and aviator glasses perched on his nose that were crooked on the left side. "We're going to be late!" Bristol said standing at the end of the walkway that led up to his house. Matt looked up and through his glasses, she saw him squint and then gather his things. "It's barely 7, we have lots of time," he said when he reached her. He stood about 3 inches taller than her, but was just as lean, though far more clumsy that he would like to admit. "I have make-up work," she shrugged, and he snorted. "Make up work? You're kidding right? Since when does The Great Bristol Patterson do make up work?" He playfully gave her shoulder a shove, which forced a smile across her lips as they crossed the street with a group of classmates that were going to Lexington High. "Since my mother's been on my case," she grumbled, shoving him back. There was silence until they arrived at the courtyard filled with congregating high schoolers. "Can you believe that this is our last year?" Matt blurted at the same time Bristol asked, "So how's your band going?" She motioned for him to repeat his question and he did, "never would I think we'd make it to the top," she said and then turned towards the science wing, "see you at lunch?" She inquired, but Matt's attention had shifted elsewhere, and the point of interest had left a wide eyed almost stunned mask of disbelief across his face.
Thanks! I'll be trying to post two portions a day. We'll see how that goes though but I will do my very best
~~~*~~~ In the middle of the courtyard was a group of five students dressed in black. Three boys and two girls who all radiated a glowing bubble around them. They seemed distressed and Bristol thought she would be too if she showed up to school glowing. "They're glowing....that's not normal" Matt said, adjusting his glasses. Bristol punched him lightly and he closed his mouth, "shh" she snarled. It was as if the entire world had gone silent as the five students glowed in the middle of the courtyard, and everyone stared. The light slowly began to fade, but people's fascination didn't, even as the kids split up and walked to their classes. "What the hell?" Matt practically shrieked, "did you-of course you did! How could you not? Oh my gosh! Aliens!" He was beginning to ramble, and as he rambled, he started to hyperventilate. Bristol stood, patted his back a few times and began walking towards her class. It was a good thing she had arranged to do the make-up work during lunch not the morning like she had told Matt. He soon followed and they made their way to the science wing. She didn't bother to tell him that his class was in the history wing across the courtyard, he'd figure it out sooner or later. All she could think about was the way the dark haired, blue eyed boy had looked her in the eye. Stared straight at her. There had been something feral there, something that gave a hint of danger. She knew he was the kind of boy her mother warned her to stay away from, minus the glowing aspect, and probably with the glowing aspect too. That boy made her want more from life. He made her feel, and it hurt like crazy.
~~~*~~~ When school was out, she still hasn't seen any of the five glowing students. None had been in her classes and Matt agreed that it was strange none had been his class either. "Everyone saw them," Matt reasoned, "we couldn't have all had the same vision," "Vision? Is that what we're calling it now?" Bristol asked skeptically. "It is if they didn't exist in the first place," He reassured. As they walked, they became so absorbed in their conversation they missed the turn onto Oak Street, walking all the way up to Kentucky. "Crap," Bristol groaned, "I'm going to be late coming home," "What is with you and being late all of a sudden? You use to leave me waiting on the steps for hours," he said, Bristol rolled her eyes at the exaggeration. "I have to call my mom," she sighed. Matt stopped her from dialing the numbers. "You'll only be a few minutes late, I know a shortcut," he said with the half smile, Bristol recognized as his "I'm determined" face. She huffed and replaced her phone in her back jean pocket and followed her best friend towards a shadowed alley that cut across Kentucky and Jepson Way, back towards Oak. ---*--- It turned out, Matt didn't know how to get back to Oak. He took a series of wrong turns and suddenly they were more than two miles away from Oak. "Ugh," Bristol groaned in frustration. By now it had grown darker, the sun was starting to set and her mother hasn't sent a single text to see what was wrong. Bristol had sent her one saying Matt had gotten them lost and she'd be home soon, but there was no response. "There's a police station over there," Matt said, pointing a block away and she eyed him closely. "We can cross the street without getting lost right?" She asked with sarcasm. Matt looked at her like she was insane. "Of course Bristol, it's just a street," he'd completely missed the second meaning to her question, but she didn't push the subject. Matt didn't handle pressure, panic or shock very well. It didn't take much to make him hyperventilate and stop breathing. One time, in fifth grade he had thought he'd lost the classroom hamster an instead of looking for it, he sat with his head between his knees not breathing and then gasped for air a few moments later for about an hour and a half before Bristol had walked in and pointed out that the hamster had burrowed into it's plastic igloo and was perfectly safe. As they crossed the street, Bristol noticed a dance club. The sign was lit with black light letters spelling out "Demons at Dusk". The closer she walked towards it the stronger the pull, that she felt in her soul, grew. "Let's go in there," she said, motioning towards the black barred doors and the burly bouncers who guarded it. Matt took one look and started to breath quickly, "It looks dangerous," he said, "besides, I thought you said your mother was going to be worried," "I should have been home over an hour ago, I haven't heard from her, she must have final realized I'm capable of taking care if myself," Bristol snorted, "now come on, or are you chicken?" She taunted, arching an eyebrow, her eyes glittering with mischief.