High School Story - Blog Posts

One of my fave story ideas. I hope I get around to expanding on it!

Short Story- Not Another Paranormal Romance: By Adinelle Ggreeo

'The new boy was a demon straight from hell, who came to corrupt their school and she was the only one who was trying to do something about it.'

Fourteen-year-old Gabriella Pierre seems to be the only person at her school not completely enamoured by the supernaturally beautiful Cyrus Hinds, the new boy in their year. A simple touch of hands reveals to her an insidious visage and dark designs now intent on destroying her life.

'What better way for a demon to mess with a teenage girl than to 'fall in love' with her?'

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You can also read my stories here:

Archive Of Our Own

Fictionpress

---------------

The new boy was a demon. She knew that it was hard to believe. Her friends didn't even believe her when she tried to tell them! They laughed, thinking she had a crush on the thing and was trying to deny it! The new boy–thing–creature, calling itself Cyrus was a demon straight from hell, who came to corrupt their school and she was the only one who was trying to do something about it.

He came to their school in the middle of the second term, an awkward time to transfer schools, especially secondary schools. He was placed in class 3-B as they had space from a couple of students who transferred out the years before. Gabriella was in class 3-D, so she didn't see or hear much about the new boy until lunchtime. She sat with her friends, Amaya, Kadiah and Marissa at their usual corner table in the cafeteria. Huffing softly, she listened as they gushed about him.

Amaya, being from 3-B, had all the gossip. Their usually quieter friend had a lot to say. With stars in her eyes and awe in her voice, she told them about the tall, handsome boy with deep brown skin and eyes like Brown Obsidian gems. His voice was warm and sweet like hot chocolate, his smile was as bright as diamonds and–

“He's the most beautiful boy I've ever seen!" she signed dreamily. Her wild curly hair flew around her, seeming to be taking part in her excitement and her glasses nearly fell off her face as she gestured wildly.

Gabriella huffed again.

"That's not saying much, Maya. Boys aren't that cute in the first place."

Marissa sighed in exasperation.

"Oh come on, girl. I know you have high standards when it comes to boys, but this one sounds like he would definitely surpass them!" She flicked her long plait over her shoulder, grinning mischievously.

Not this again. Gabriella rolled her eyes.

"I have zero standards for them because I expect them to always be up to no good!"

Her friends laughed good-naturedly.

"Whatever you say, Gabs," Kadiah chuckled. Her fingers were twirling one of her twists as she turned back to Amaya, who took that as her cue to continue singing praises about the new boy.

Suddenly, there was a commotion at the entrance. A small crowd was starting to form and voices were rising.

'Ahh,' she thought. 'The man of the hour is here.'

Sure enough, as the crowd parted like the red sea, the new boy came into view.

Oh wow. Gabriella felt her heart flutter a little in her chest. She frowned. It seemed Amaya wasn't exaggerating. He actually was that beautiful.

She thought he looked like one of those royal elves from the Young Adult novels the girls liked to swoon over. He was tall and trim with wide shoulders and a slim waist. The boring white shirt and purple trousers that was the boys’ uniform looked like designer wear on him. He had smooth skin with a few moles here and there and warm dark eyes. He smiled at the people around him, dazzling them with his pearly white teeth. His afro hair was cut into a fade with pentagram star designs on each side of his head. She was surprised he got away with that.

Everyone seemed to be eager to meet the new boy, practically throwing themselves in his face for him to notice them. Gabriella looked on in confusion, her face screwing up at the behaviour. What kind of circus show was this? Are they not embarrassed? These kinds of things only happened in the movies! She couldn't believe people were behaving this way. And over a boy! Sure, a very handsome boy, but still!

"Ahhhhh!" Amaya whisper-squealed. "He's coming this way!" She had latched on to Gabriella's arm squeezing and shaking her. Slapping her friend's hands away, she watched as the new boy made his way over to their table. Already a bit annoyed and not really in the mood to be nice, she spoke before the boy could open his mouth.

"What are you doing here?"

Her friends were aghast, trying to apologize to him and scold her at the same time. He waved them off, laughing softly. Her friends melted. Ugh.

"Amaya right?" he asked. Not waiting for an answer from the girl, he pulled out a sparkly pink pen from his trousers pocket, holding it out to her.

"Thanks for letting me borrow it."

Amaya took the pen reverently. Marissa and Kadiah gaze upon it as if it held the secrets to the universe. Amaya, still too shocked to say anything just nodded, still giggling.

Not missing a beat, the new boy carried on the one-sided conversation. "Are these your friends?"

That shook her back into existence. Amaya jerked, almost falling out of her chair.

"Yeah-Yes!" she almost yelled. "Th-these are my friends Marissa, Kadiah and Gabriella, who's normally really nice." She gave Gabriella an annoyed yet pleading look.

'Play nice and please don't embarrass us to death,' she seemed to say. "Everyone, this is Cyrus!"

Gabriella rolled her eyes but kept quiet. Cyrus smiled at the group and her friends visibly swooned. Honestly! She was starting to feel like she was in a teen drama!

"Nice to meet you all," he said. He held out his hand to shake. Kadiah, who was closest took it immediately, with both of hers.

"Yes, sooo nice to meet you!" she gushed.

Amaya and Marissa were more dignified, softly shaking his hand and giggling all the while. Gabriella stared at his hand for a few seconds. She looked up at him and scowled slightly when she saw that he was grinning down at her. He cocked an eyebrow in challenge. Fine then. She took his hand.

And that’s when things grew weird and terrifying.

Where their hands touched, smoke began to form and deep, nasty burns bloomed across his skin. The air filled with the stench of rotting flesh. Before she could pull back in horror, he did. He yanked his ruined hand back, cradling it to his chest. He hissed at her, his beautiful face contorting grotesquely. And not in the normal way your face goes ugly when you're angry. No, his face grew long and his mouth wide. His teeth went from perfect pearls to long, crooked, yellow daggers. His ears grew tall, long and pointed, like some kind of animal's and his eyes flashed bright and red, burning with a fire that could only be from hell.

Before she could scream, everything went back to normal.

Gabriella blinked, still frozen from the terror at what she saw. But Cyrus looked normal. Normal, pretty face and perfect smile. No pointy ears or red hellfire eyes. His hands were tucked into his pockets, but he wasn't behaving as if he had horrible third-degree burns. She slowly looked around at her friends, and at the other students in the cafeteria. No one was acting out of the ordinary. No one was acting as if Cyrus had just transformed into a monster. He wasn't acting as of he had just transformed into a monster.

Gabriella looked on as he made an excuse to leave, something about needing to head to the principal's office. Her friends cheerfully said their goodbyes. Amaya elbowed her not too gently.

"Fix your face," she hissed.

Gabriella felt the deep frown on her face. She smoothed out her expression but didn't bother to smile as her eyes met his. They were warm and brown and shining with interest. He didn't look upset but intrigued. He smiled at her, a slow, small smile that was meant to look shy.

"See you later, Gabriella?"

His eyes flashed red for just a millisecond. Her breath caught in her throat. She wanted to get up and scream at him, curse him out, maybe grab his face to see if it would burn just like his hand. But no. She would look crazy and get in trouble for attacking the new boy. So she smiled her fakest smile and said,

"See you later, Cyrus”.

Gabriella had some investigating to do.

Short Story- An 'Angel' Passing Through: By Adinelle Ggreeo

We have this saying from back in the day, for when a room full of people (usually a class full of chatty students) all of a sudden go completely quiet for a few seconds.

'An Angel just passed through!' someone would jokingly say, breaking the silence.

It's a soothing thought.

Claire, unfortunately, finds out the hard way that it's anything but an angel.

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You can also read my stories here:

Archive Of Our Own

Fictionpress

----------------

It was a regular day for the girls of class 3-A at St. Christopher Girls’ Secondary School. It was their English Language period with the well-liked teacher, Mrs Hayes. She was one of the more lenient teachers and let them get away with a little bit more. Like just then. It was fifteen minutes before the bell rang for lunch and instead of trying to cram more knowledge into their brains, she gave them a short worksheet to complete, telling them that she would be collecting them in their next class. The girls of 3-A took the wonderful opportunity given to do the one thing they like most: to talk. While Mrs Hayes took the little time left to start marking some papers, the students’ chatter filled the classroom with a low buzz.

Two girls sat at the back of the class. One with afro hair that she wore in two neat puffs at the top of her head with a navy blue headband as an accessory. The other wore her hair in long braids that she tied up into a ponytail with a blue ribbon. Their names were Claire Baptiste and Kadisha Benedicte. These best friends sat at the back of the class, to the left of the room and right in line with the teacher’s L-shaped desk. They were out of her sight behind two more desks of classmates. Perfect for uninterrupted conversation.

‘Soooo,’ Kadisha drawled, grinning at Claire. ‘I have a new boyfriend! It’s Chey, from the boys’ school. Remember him?’

Claire rolled her eyes, scoffing good-naturedly. She did remember him. She was glad to know her friend’s taste wasn’t totally trash.

‘Yeah,’ she said ‘But isn’t he the third one this month?’

Kadisha looked away, slightly embarrassed, tucking an escaped braid behind her ear.

‘Well, like he’s the fifth,’ she mumbled. ‘But, we went to the mall yesterday and he bought me ice cream!’

Giving her a look, Claire said, ‘We go to the mall and buy each other ice cream all the time. He has to come better than that.’

Kadisha sighed in exasperation.

‘You don’t understand, Claire! We really need to get you a boyfriend!’ ‘Ha! No thanks!’

Kadisha sucked her teeth.

‘Whatever! Anyway, after the ice cream we...,’

Claire nodded along to her friend’s tale while she absentmindedly doodled in the margins of her worksheet. Slightly hypnotised by the squiggles and swirls she was making on the paper, she didn’t realise that Kadisha had stopped talking. Coming back to full awareness but still looking at her worksheet, she realised that it wasn’t just Kadisha that stopped talking. The buzz of chatter in the classroom had ceased. She looked up and jerked in her seat at the sight of her friend’s face. Her mouth was wide open and her eyes round with excitement. Her hands were thrown back and some of her hair was caught between her fingers. Placing her hand over her racing heart, Claire laughed softly.

“Girl, you look so stupid!”

But Kadisha didn’t respond. Actually, she didn’t move at all. Not even a twitch of her lips or fingers. She was still, like a statue. The smile slowly slipped off Claire’s face.

“Kadisha?”

Her friend remained silent.

Feeling slightly unsettled, Claire looked around the classroom. She felt her stomach drop as she took in the stillness. Everyone was frozen, posed awkwardly in their seats, with their hair suspended in the air, pens and pencils frozen in mid-drop and sheets of paper paused in their fluttering from of the tables. Clair, pushed her chair back, wincing at the loud screech of the legs dragging against the terrazzo floor. Even though there seemed to be no one to interrupt, she slowly crept on her tiptoes towards the desk next to theirs.

The closest girl, Zara Crawford, had big round glasses and her frizzy was hair in four ponytails. Her eyes were screwed shut and her hands covered the big smile on her face. Claire poked her at first, then tried to shake her when she didn’t react at all. She tried the same with the next girl, Clara. She didn’t even twitch.

Claire, starting to feel disquieted, scampered around the class, poking, shaking, flicking and pulling hair, trying to get some kind of reaction. Not one person moved. She finally skidded to a stop in front of Mrs Hayes’s desk, catching her breath. Like everyone else, Mrs Hayes was frozen, bent over the papers she was marking. Dashing the papers off the desk and banging on the wood, Claire screamed in her teacher’s face.

“Wake up!”

Like everyone else, she remained as she was.

With dread overtaking her, she slowly backed away. Her attention was drawn to the doorway and while staring at the tree in the plot of grass past the corridor, she realised that she couldn’t hear the rustling of the leaves. Actually, she couldn’t hear anything at all. No birds chirping, no insects chittering, no sounds from the surrounding classrooms. Having a bad feeling, Claire ran out the door, barging into the classroom to the left of hers. Just like her classmates, everyone was still. She ran into the class next to theirs. Same thing. The class at the far end, the same and the form four class across from theirs. All the same.

Gasping and close to tears, she stumbled back to her classroom at a loss for what to do. The whole world it seemed like, was frozen and all the sound was gone. Except for her. Her footsteps and whimpering were uncomfortably loud in the eerie stillness. She reached the door of her classroom, pausing briefly to take in the frozen forms of her classmates, dreading that she had to sit in their stillness. Sniffling, she placed a hand on the doorframe and stepped over the threshold. She never made it past the door.

She had one foot past the threshold. As soon as her shoe touched the floor, Her whole body was locked in place and the world around her began to change. The light blue walls of the classroom, the whiteboard, the lockers and the floor all began to melt, the colours and textures slowly sloughing off and sliding away. In its wake was a ghastly, roiling mass of colours that she’s never seen and a pitch-black darkness. They moved in and out and in between each other, writhing like they were alive.

With their appearance, the sound came back. And what horrible sounds they were. A thick squelching and a ringing that alternated from a high, ear-piercing sound to a low ominous hum. It vibrated around her, torturing her ears, causing goose bumps to rise on her skin and sending her heart into a panic. The strange colours and the darkness seethed around her, seeming to close in on her. Claire wanted to scream, but her lips remained firmly closed. Her eyes, the only part of her that could freely move looked on as the colours and the darkness began to churn faster, converging in the corner of the classroom diagonal to the door. They twisted and turned, the squelching sounds increasing and the ringing lowering to that horrible, low drone. They began to bulge out as if something was pushing on them and horror filled Claire’s heart when she realised that something was trying to come through.

A long black thing pushed through first, dripping with the colours and the darkness. The spindly twigs at the end of it slowly curled into themselves. It was a hand and those twigs were long bony fingers. The rest of the thing came after. Claire could barely comprehend what she was seeing. As it oozed through the rapidly distorting colours and the darkness, It began to grow and grow and grow. There was no ceiling to hinder it. It had no discernible form. There was no head and no face. It kept shifting and twisting into tattered ribbons of black and they swirled around like a mini hurricane. Pale, glowing orbs were embedded in the parts that the ribbons revealed. They moved and rolled around, leaking a thick black substance that flew off to join the rest of its swirling form. They vaguely looked like eyes pouring dark tears. The limb it used to push through into the classroom had disappeared. There was no indication that it even existed. There were no other limbs to be seen. It was a mass of swirling darkness with orbs all over its form and it brought with it such a bone-chilling dread that Claire thought she was dying. The ringing had gone high again, the shrill sound increasing her fear.

It slowly, so slowly began to move away from the corner, making its way between the desks. It did not touch the girls. It didn’t pay them any attention at all. It left a trail of the dark substance in its wake that was absorbed into the colour and darkness that was the floor. Claire watched the thing as it made its way to the front of the class, pausing where the whiteboard was and pulling one of its long, spidery limbs from the confines of its form. It was so close and Claire was so afraid. Desperately, she began to pray.

As if sensing her pleas, the thing whipped around to face her. Its form contorted abnormally and all of its orbs turned to look at her. The high-pitched ringing abruptly stopped and Claire silently sobbed. They both stared at each other for a short while. Then suddenly the thing was right in front of her. It was crouched down, so the place where its face should have been was right in front of hers. There was one big orb embedded there. It was still as it observed her. With her heart trying to beat out of her chest, Claire could only watch as it brought its hand up to her face, one of its skinny fingers held up. It dripped with the strange black liquid. A soft whistling sound filled the air around them. It rose high and loud, assaulting her already hurting ears. Its orb began to glow white hot, so bright. One moment, she was looking into the face of what she thought was death, the next, she was blinded by the expanding glow and knew no more.

---------

Mrs Hayes softly laughed to herself at the three seconds of silence from the class.

‘An angel passed through,’ she thought, remembering the old saying the adults used to chuckle about when she was a young girl.

Immediately after, a scream pierced the air. It was coming from right outside the class. She shot up from her chair, almost slipping and sliding on some of the papers that were for some reason on the floor. Some of the students followed, their desks and chairs scrapping against the floor as they scrambled out of their seats.

She almost ran her over when she shot out the door.

There was Claire, curled up on the floor right outside the door, still screaming. Her arms were wrapped around her head and she was clawing at her hair, pulling the strands out of their puffs. She knelt by her, trying to gently pry her hands away from her face and head, but her hold was like a vice. Other teachers and students, disturbed by the screaming, had come out to check.

What happened? How did her student who sat at the back of the class end up outside the door? She didn’t see her pass by. And the screaming. It was filled with genuine fear and pain. She could barely hear the other teachers as they tried to talk to her.

Her other students all huddled by the door, some starting to cry and wail at the sight of their classmate. Claire’s seatmate and possibly her good friend had pushed herself to the front of the crowd, trying to reach out to her, but was held back by another teacher who was failing to console her. Her own screaming and crying added to the utter confusion of the situation. Thankfully, someone had gotten the school nurse who arrived with a wheelchair. As the nurse wheeled the still-screaming girl away, Mrs Hayes, with a racing heart and an unnerving feeling about what happened, shook herself and breathed, turning towards her distraught girls.

It looked like lunch would be a bit early that day.

Short Story- Not Another Paranormal Romance: By Adinelle Ggreeo

'The new boy was a demon straight from hell, who came to corrupt their school and she was the only one who was trying to do something about it.'

Fourteen-year-old Gabriella Pierre seems to be the only person at her school not completely enamoured by the supernaturally beautiful Cyrus Hinds, the new boy in their year. A simple touch of hands reveals to her an insidious visage and dark designs now intent on destroying her life.

'What better way for a demon to mess with a teenage girl than to 'fall in love' with her?'

----------------

You can also read my stories here:

Archive Of Our Own

Fictionpress

---------------

The new boy was a demon. She knew that it was hard to believe. Her friends didn't even believe her when she tried to tell them! They laughed, thinking she had a crush on the thing and was trying to deny it! The new boy–thing–creature, calling itself Cyrus was a demon straight from hell, who came to corrupt their school and she was the only one who was trying to do something about it.

He came to their school in the middle of the second term, an awkward time to transfer schools, especially secondary schools. He was placed in class 3-B as they had space from a couple of students who transferred out the years before. Gabriella was in class 3-D, so she didn't see or hear much about the new boy until lunchtime. She sat with her friends, Amaya, Kadiah and Marissa at their usual corner table in the cafeteria. Huffing softly, she listened as they gushed about him.

Amaya, being from 3-B, had all the gossip. Their usually quieter friend had a lot to say. With stars in her eyes and awe in her voice, she told them about the tall, handsome boy with deep brown skin and eyes like Brown Obsidian gems. His voice was warm and sweet like hot chocolate, his smile was as bright as diamonds and–

“He's the most beautiful boy I've ever seen!" she signed dreamily. Her wild curly hair flew around her, seeming to be taking part in her excitement and her glasses nearly fell off her face as she gestured wildly.

Gabriella huffed again.

"That's not saying much, Maya. Boys aren't that cute in the first place."

Marissa sighed in exasperation.

"Oh come on, girl. I know you have high standards when it comes to boys, but this one sounds like he would definitely surpass them!" She flicked her long plait over her shoulder, grinning mischievously.

Not this again. Gabriella rolled her eyes.

"I have zero standards for them because I expect them to always be up to no good!"

Her friends laughed good-naturedly.

"Whatever you say, Gabs," Kadiah chuckled. Her fingers were twirling one of her twists as she turned back to Amaya, who took that as her cue to continue singing praises about the new boy.

Suddenly, there was a commotion at the entrance. A small crowd was starting to form and voices were rising.

'Ahh,' she thought. 'The man of the hour is here.'

Sure enough, as the crowd parted like the red sea, the new boy came into view.

Oh wow. Gabriella felt her heart flutter a little in her chest. She frowned. It seemed Amaya wasn't exaggerating. He actually was that beautiful.

She thought he looked like one of those royal elves from the Young Adult novels the girls liked to swoon over. He was tall and trim with wide shoulders and a slim waist. The boring white shirt and purple trousers that was the boys’ uniform looked like designer wear on him. He had smooth skin with a few moles here and there and warm dark eyes. He smiled at the people around him, dazzling them with his pearly white teeth. His afro hair was cut into a fade with pentagram star designs on each side of his head. She was surprised he got away with that.

Everyone seemed to be eager to meet the new boy, practically throwing themselves in his face for him to notice them. Gabriella looked on in confusion, her face screwing up at the behaviour. What kind of circus show was this? Are they not embarrassed? These kinds of things only happened in the movies! She couldn't believe people were behaving this way. And over a boy! Sure, a very handsome boy, but still!

"Ahhhhh!" Amaya whisper-squealed. "He's coming this way!" She had latched on to Gabriella's arm squeezing and shaking her. Slapping her friend's hands away, she watched as the new boy made his way over to their table. Already a bit annoyed and not really in the mood to be nice, she spoke before the boy could open his mouth.

"What are you doing here?"

Her friends were aghast, trying to apologize to him and scold her at the same time. He waved them off, laughing softly. Her friends melted. Ugh.

"Amaya right?" he asked. Not waiting for an answer from the girl, he pulled out a sparkly pink pen from his trousers pocket, holding it out to her.

"Thanks for letting me borrow it."

Amaya took the pen reverently. Marissa and Kadiah gaze upon it as if it held the secrets to the universe. Amaya, still too shocked to say anything just nodded, still giggling.

Not missing a beat, the new boy carried on the one-sided conversation. "Are these your friends?"

That shook her back into existence. Amaya jerked, almost falling out of her chair.

"Yeah-Yes!" she almost yelled. "Th-these are my friends Marissa, Kadiah and Gabriella, who's normally really nice." She gave Gabriella an annoyed yet pleading look.

'Play nice and please don't embarrass us to death,' she seemed to say. "Everyone, this is Cyrus!"

Gabriella rolled her eyes but kept quiet. Cyrus smiled at the group and her friends visibly swooned. Honestly! She was starting to feel like she was in a teen drama!

"Nice to meet you all," he said. He held out his hand to shake. Kadiah, who was closest took it immediately, with both of hers.

"Yes, sooo nice to meet you!" she gushed.

Amaya and Marissa were more dignified, softly shaking his hand and giggling all the while. Gabriella stared at his hand for a few seconds. She looked up at him and scowled slightly when she saw that he was grinning down at her. He cocked an eyebrow in challenge. Fine then. She took his hand.

And that’s when things grew weird and terrifying.

Where their hands touched, smoke began to form and deep, nasty burns bloomed across his skin. The air filled with the stench of rotting flesh. Before she could pull back in horror, he did. He yanked his ruined hand back, cradling it to his chest. He hissed at her, his beautiful face contorting grotesquely. And not in the normal way your face goes ugly when you're angry. No, his face grew long and his mouth wide. His teeth went from perfect pearls to long, crooked, yellow daggers. His ears grew tall, long and pointed, like some kind of animal's and his eyes flashed bright and red, burning with a fire that could only be from hell.

Before she could scream, everything went back to normal.

Gabriella blinked, still frozen from the terror at what she saw. But Cyrus looked normal. Normal, pretty face and perfect smile. No pointy ears or red hellfire eyes. His hands were tucked into his pockets, but he wasn't behaving as if he had horrible third-degree burns. She slowly looked around at her friends, and at the other students in the cafeteria. No one was acting out of the ordinary. No one was acting as if Cyrus had just transformed into a monster. He wasn't acting as of he had just transformed into a monster.

Gabriella looked on as he made an excuse to leave, something about needing to head to the principal's office. Her friends cheerfully said their goodbyes. Amaya elbowed her not too gently.

"Fix your face," she hissed.

Gabriella felt the deep frown on her face. She smoothed out her expression but didn't bother to smile as her eyes met his. They were warm and brown and shining with interest. He didn't look upset but intrigued. He smiled at her, a slow, small smile that was meant to look shy.

"See you later, Gabriella?"

His eyes flashed red for just a millisecond. Her breath caught in her throat. She wanted to get up and scream at him, curse him out, maybe grab his face to see if it would burn just like his hand. But no. She would look crazy and get in trouble for attacking the new boy. So she smiled her fakest smile and said,

"See you later, Cyrus”.

Gabriella had some investigating to do.

Short Story- An 'Angel' Passing Through: By Adinelle Ggreeo

We have this saying from back in the day, for when a room full of people (usually a class full of chatty students) all of a sudden go completely quiet for a few seconds.

'An Angel just passed through!' someone would jokingly say, breaking the silence.

It's a soothing thought.

Claire, unfortunately, finds out the hard way that it's anything but an angel.

----------------

You can also read my stories here:

Archive Of Our Own

Fictionpress

----------------

It was a regular day for the girls of class 3-A at St. Christopher Girls’ Secondary School. It was their English Language period with the well-liked teacher, Mrs Hayes. She was one of the more lenient teachers and let them get away with a little bit more. Like just then. It was fifteen minutes before the bell rang for lunch and instead of trying to cram more knowledge into their brains, she gave them a short worksheet to complete, telling them that she would be collecting them in their next class. The girls of 3-A took the wonderful opportunity given to do the one thing they like most: to talk. While Mrs Hayes took the little time left to start marking some papers, the students’ chatter filled the classroom with a low buzz.

Two girls sat at the back of the class. One with afro hair that she wore in two neat puffs at the top of her head with a navy blue headband as an accessory. The other wore her hair in long braids that she tied up into a ponytail with a blue ribbon. Their names were Claire Baptiste and Kadisha Benedicte. These best friends sat at the back of the class, to the left of the room and right in line with the teacher’s L-shaped desk. They were out of her sight behind two more desks of classmates. Perfect for uninterrupted conversation.

‘Soooo,’ Kadisha drawled, grinning at Claire. ‘I have a new boyfriend! It’s Chey, from the boys’ school. Remember him?’

Claire rolled her eyes, scoffing good-naturedly. She did remember him. She was glad to know her friend’s taste wasn’t totally trash.

‘Yeah,’ she said ‘But isn’t he the third one this month?’

Kadisha looked away, slightly embarrassed, tucking an escaped braid behind her ear.

‘Well, like he’s the fifth,’ she mumbled. ‘But, we went to the mall yesterday and he bought me ice cream!’

Giving her a look, Claire said, ‘We go to the mall and buy each other ice cream all the time. He has to come better than that.’

Kadisha sighed in exasperation.

‘You don’t understand, Claire! We really need to get you a boyfriend!’ ‘Ha! No thanks!’

Kadisha sucked her teeth.

‘Whatever! Anyway, after the ice cream we...,’

Claire nodded along to her friend’s tale while she absentmindedly doodled in the margins of her worksheet. Slightly hypnotised by the squiggles and swirls she was making on the paper, she didn’t realise that Kadisha had stopped talking. Coming back to full awareness but still looking at her worksheet, she realised that it wasn’t just Kadisha that stopped talking. The buzz of chatter in the classroom had ceased. She looked up and jerked in her seat at the sight of her friend’s face. Her mouth was wide open and her eyes round with excitement. Her hands were thrown back and some of her hair was caught between her fingers. Placing her hand over her racing heart, Claire laughed softly.

“Girl, you look so stupid!”

But Kadisha didn’t respond. Actually, she didn’t move at all. Not even a twitch of her lips or fingers. She was still, like a statue. The smile slowly slipped off Claire’s face.

“Kadisha?”

Her friend remained silent.

Feeling slightly unsettled, Claire looked around the classroom. She felt her stomach drop as she took in the stillness. Everyone was frozen, posed awkwardly in their seats, with their hair suspended in the air, pens and pencils frozen in mid-drop and sheets of paper paused in their fluttering from of the tables. Clair, pushed her chair back, wincing at the loud screech of the legs dragging against the terrazzo floor. Even though there seemed to be no one to interrupt, she slowly crept on her tiptoes towards the desk next to theirs.

The closest girl, Zara Crawford, had big round glasses and her frizzy was hair in four ponytails. Her eyes were screwed shut and her hands covered the big smile on her face. Claire poked her at first, then tried to shake her when she didn’t react at all. She tried the same with the next girl, Clara. She didn’t even twitch.

Claire, starting to feel disquieted, scampered around the class, poking, shaking, flicking and pulling hair, trying to get some kind of reaction. Not one person moved. She finally skidded to a stop in front of Mrs Hayes’s desk, catching her breath. Like everyone else, Mrs Hayes was frozen, bent over the papers she was marking. Dashing the papers off the desk and banging on the wood, Claire screamed in her teacher’s face.

“Wake up!”

Like everyone else, she remained as she was.

With dread overtaking her, she slowly backed away. Her attention was drawn to the doorway and while staring at the tree in the plot of grass past the corridor, she realised that she couldn’t hear the rustling of the leaves. Actually, she couldn’t hear anything at all. No birds chirping, no insects chittering, no sounds from the surrounding classrooms. Having a bad feeling, Claire ran out the door, barging into the classroom to the left of hers. Just like her classmates, everyone was still. She ran into the class next to theirs. Same thing. The class at the far end, the same and the form four class across from theirs. All the same.

Gasping and close to tears, she stumbled back to her classroom at a loss for what to do. The whole world it seemed like, was frozen and all the sound was gone. Except for her. Her footsteps and whimpering were uncomfortably loud in the eerie stillness. She reached the door of her classroom, pausing briefly to take in the frozen forms of her classmates, dreading that she had to sit in their stillness. Sniffling, she placed a hand on the doorframe and stepped over the threshold. She never made it past the door.

She had one foot past the threshold. As soon as her shoe touched the floor, Her whole body was locked in place and the world around her began to change. The light blue walls of the classroom, the whiteboard, the lockers and the floor all began to melt, the colours and textures slowly sloughing off and sliding away. In its wake was a ghastly, roiling mass of colours that she’s never seen and a pitch-black darkness. They moved in and out and in between each other, writhing like they were alive.

With their appearance, the sound came back. And what horrible sounds they were. A thick squelching and a ringing that alternated from a high, ear-piercing sound to a low ominous hum. It vibrated around her, torturing her ears, causing goose bumps to rise on her skin and sending her heart into a panic. The strange colours and the darkness seethed around her, seeming to close in on her. Claire wanted to scream, but her lips remained firmly closed. Her eyes, the only part of her that could freely move looked on as the colours and the darkness began to churn faster, converging in the corner of the classroom diagonal to the door. They twisted and turned, the squelching sounds increasing and the ringing lowering to that horrible, low drone. They began to bulge out as if something was pushing on them and horror filled Claire’s heart when she realised that something was trying to come through.

A long black thing pushed through first, dripping with the colours and the darkness. The spindly twigs at the end of it slowly curled into themselves. It was a hand and those twigs were long bony fingers. The rest of the thing came after. Claire could barely comprehend what she was seeing. As it oozed through the rapidly distorting colours and the darkness, It began to grow and grow and grow. There was no ceiling to hinder it. It had no discernible form. There was no head and no face. It kept shifting and twisting into tattered ribbons of black and they swirled around like a mini hurricane. Pale, glowing orbs were embedded in the parts that the ribbons revealed. They moved and rolled around, leaking a thick black substance that flew off to join the rest of its swirling form. They vaguely looked like eyes pouring dark tears. The limb it used to push through into the classroom had disappeared. There was no indication that it even existed. There were no other limbs to be seen. It was a mass of swirling darkness with orbs all over its form and it brought with it such a bone-chilling dread that Claire thought she was dying. The ringing had gone high again, the shrill sound increasing her fear.

It slowly, so slowly began to move away from the corner, making its way between the desks. It did not touch the girls. It didn’t pay them any attention at all. It left a trail of the dark substance in its wake that was absorbed into the colour and darkness that was the floor. Claire watched the thing as it made its way to the front of the class, pausing where the whiteboard was and pulling one of its long, spidery limbs from the confines of its form. It was so close and Claire was so afraid. Desperately, she began to pray.

As if sensing her pleas, the thing whipped around to face her. Its form contorted abnormally and all of its orbs turned to look at her. The high-pitched ringing abruptly stopped and Claire silently sobbed. They both stared at each other for a short while. Then suddenly the thing was right in front of her. It was crouched down, so the place where its face should have been was right in front of hers. There was one big orb embedded there. It was still as it observed her. With her heart trying to beat out of her chest, Claire could only watch as it brought its hand up to her face, one of its skinny fingers held up. It dripped with the strange black liquid. A soft whistling sound filled the air around them. It rose high and loud, assaulting her already hurting ears. Its orb began to glow white hot, so bright. One moment, she was looking into the face of what she thought was death, the next, she was blinded by the expanding glow and knew no more.

---------

Mrs Hayes softly laughed to herself at the three seconds of silence from the class.

‘An angel passed through,’ she thought, remembering the old saying the adults used to chuckle about when she was a young girl.

Immediately after, a scream pierced the air. It was coming from right outside the class. She shot up from her chair, almost slipping and sliding on some of the papers that were for some reason on the floor. Some of the students followed, their desks and chairs scrapping against the floor as they scrambled out of their seats.

She almost ran her over when she shot out the door.

There was Claire, curled up on the floor right outside the door, still screaming. Her arms were wrapped around her head and she was clawing at her hair, pulling the strands out of their puffs. She knelt by her, trying to gently pry her hands away from her face and head, but her hold was like a vice. Other teachers and students, disturbed by the screaming, had come out to check.

What happened? How did her student who sat at the back of the class end up outside the door? She didn’t see her pass by. And the screaming. It was filled with genuine fear and pain. She could barely hear the other teachers as they tried to talk to her.

Her other students all huddled by the door, some starting to cry and wail at the sight of their classmate. Claire’s seatmate and possibly her good friend had pushed herself to the front of the crowd, trying to reach out to her, but was held back by another teacher who was failing to console her. Her own screaming and crying added to the utter confusion of the situation. Thankfully, someone had gotten the school nurse who arrived with a wheelchair. As the nurse wheeled the still-screaming girl away, Mrs Hayes, with a racing heart and an unnerving feeling about what happened, shook herself and breathed, turning towards her distraught girls.

It looked like lunch would be a bit early that day.

Not Another Paranormal Romance- Artwork 6

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I had another idea for the cover, style-wise. I was thinking of clean, detailed line art with flat colour (possibly pastels or desaturated).

I love this sketch so much. I did this when I was still struggling to draw character art that I was happy with and is one of the few good pieces from that period.

I decided for Gabriella's pose to have her leaning towards Noah. The arm near Cyrus is held up as if she's carrying a shield. She's shielding herself from him (it) and leaning towards Noah as he's going to be a big help to her against Cyrus ( I love coming up with the hows and whys for what I do!)

I think I might stick with the more cartoony illustration though. I have been developing a more cartoony style for my other stories and I prefer drawing in that style overall.

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Art post #5 || Here

Not Another Paranormal Romance-Artwork 5

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The first sketch is what gave me the idea for the name of this story, though I may change the name in the future as I'm not sure if the fake romance will be a large part of this story.

What better way for a demon to mess with a teenage girl than to 'fall in love' with her? This time, SHE doesn't fall for it. She KNOWS he's a creature of darkness and is immune to his charm.

The last two are more cover art ideas. I wanted to add Noah to the possible cover and keeping with the idea of it looking like a cute romance cover, I made it look as if she has to choose between the boys (well, the one boy and the demon pretending to be a boy)

The boys mirror each other for that balanced look and to show off their intentions. Noah has a Bible and Cyrus has a deformed heart. Gabriella's pose is a work-in-progress. I'm not sure yet how she's going to stand.

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Here || Art post #6

Not Another Paranormal Romance- Artwork 4

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Here are some finalised drawings of all of the main and supporting characters.

Below the picture, I will list them from the top left to the bottom right.

Cyrus Hinds/The demon- In the first sketch, I made it look more like a 14-year-old boy, more human and with a softer face. In the second sketch, I made it look more creature-like, basically how I described it in my short story. I gave it more elf-like features and a sharper face. It doesn't look like a 14-year-old boy, but that's the point.

Gabriella Pierre- Her original design featured a short afro and a flower in her hair. I wanted to be more creative with her hair and decided to give her four smaller afro puffs. I also love how her face came out. I think she looks quite cute.

Amaya Graham- Her design stayed the same. Amaya is the sweet, harmless-looking, quiet friend. I did very loosely base her off an old friend from my school days. They share large spectacles and the long hair.

Marissa Ramdin- I wanted her to be very pretty with an elegant look to her. She's the effortlessly pretty friend that everyone's a little bit jealous of. I may work on her design a bit more.

Kadiah Toussaint- I'm quite happy with how she turned out, especially her hair. Back in my school days, I used to wear my hair in small twists and I hoped to recreate that style in drawing. I think I did quite well!

Sasha Antoine (pronounced Ant-wine)- Yes, Sasha is our 'mean girl'. I based her design on how I see the current high school girls styling themselves for school. I went for that cute, YK2 look with the baby hairs.

Noah McKenzie- He's a newer character I decided to add as support and a new friend for Gabriella. He's named after Noah from the Bible (I also just think Noah is a really cute name). I wanted him to physically contrast Cyrus. A lot about him is very soft and comforting while Cyrus evokes the opposite.

All characters except Cyrus and Noah are 14 years old. They are all in their 3rd year of secondary/high school (we have 5 years of secondary school in my country)

Cyrus is masquerading as a 14-year-old and Noah is 15 and in his 4th year of secondary/high school.

Art post #1 || Art post #2 || Art post #3 || Here ||

Art post #5 || Art post #6

Not Another Paranormal Romance- Artwork 3

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More cover art ideas and a couple of sketches from when this story had a lighter tone to it.

Gabriella was a very brave (in a stupid way) character who had great confidence in her protection from GOD and openly taunted a demon with it. At the time, I didn't know that you could still experience demon possession and oppression despite being an obedient Christian.

Gabriella is NOT an obedient Christian! I mean, who is when they're a teenager. That's very rare these days.

The current Gabriella takes this entity more seriously as throughout the story, she will learn more about what demons are really capable of.

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See below for more about the cover designs.

I wanted to do a minimalistic cover with just Gabriella and Cyrus. She would be outlined in white and him in black. I was thinking of pink or lavender for the background. I wanted it to look like it was hinting at a cutesy romance.

I also wanted little hints of Cyrus's true nature in his design. His back is to the audience to symbolise him hiding said nature. His slit pupil and the pentagram in his hair (he has it as a fade design) hint at that. My other sketch has a typical devil's tail and a fireball in his hand, but I thought that was going overboard.

The last two sketches are Gabriella taunting and triumphing over Cyrus. Don't taunt demons in real life, please. They're not like how they portray them in the movies. They are NOT nice. You WILL be hurt BADLY.

Art post #1 || Art post #2 || Here || Art post #4 ||

Art post #5 || Art post #6

Not Another Paranormal Romance- Artwork 2

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On these pages, I was writing the story. I made little sketches throughout. I was visualising how they would interact and also sketching out possible cover art ideas.

This story was originally a cutesy, light-hearted story where the protagonist cleanly defeats the villain, but now that I know the REAL truth about demons, this story will have a more serious tone.

The villain (Cyrus) is going to be so much more insidious.

Art post #1 || Here || Art post #3 || Art post #4 ||

Art post #5 || Art post #6

Not Another Paranormal Romance- Artwork 1

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These were my initial doodles of some of the characters for my story. This is how I usually start, so I can get an idea of how I want them to look. Some of them change in future artwork.

Gabriella (Denise) is the protagonist, Amaya is one of her friends, Cyrus is the demon/nephilim and Sasha, who has not been introduced yet is a minor antagonist.

Denise's name was changed to Gabriella, because the name Denise is connected to Diyonisus, a greek 'god' (more than likely one of the fallen or their offspring).

Here || Art post #2 || Art post #3 || Art post #4 ||

Art post #5 || Art post #6

Short Story- Not Another Paranormal Romance: By Adinelle Ggreeo

'The new boy was a demon straight from hell, who came to corrupt their school and she was the only one who was trying to do something about it.'

Fourteen-year-old Gabriella Pierre seems to be the only person at her school not completely enamoured by the supernaturally beautiful Cyrus Hinds, the new boy in their year. A simple touch of hands reveals to her an insidious visage and dark designs now intent on destroying her life.

'What better way for a demon to mess with a teenage girl than to 'fall in love' with her?'

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The new boy was a demon. She knew that it was hard to believe. Her friends didn't even believe her when she tried to tell them! They laughed, thinking she had a crush on the thing and was trying to deny it! The new boy–thing–creature, calling itself Cyrus was a demon straight from hell, who came to corrupt their school and she was the only one who was trying to do something about it.

He came to their school in the middle of the second term, an awkward time to transfer schools, especially secondary schools. He was placed in class 3-B as they had space from a couple of students who transferred out the years before. Gabriella was in class 3-D, so she didn't see or hear much about the new boy until lunchtime. She sat with her friends, Amaya, Kadiah and Marissa at their usual corner table in the cafeteria. Huffing softly, she listened as they gushed about him.

Amaya, being from 3-B, had all the gossip. Their usually quieter friend had a lot to say. With stars in her eyes and awe in her voice, she told them about the tall, handsome boy with deep brown skin and eyes like Brown Obsidian gems. His voice was warm and sweet like hot chocolate, his smile was as bright as diamonds and–

“He's the most beautiful boy I've ever seen!" she signed dreamily. Her wild curly hair flew around her, seeming to be taking part in her excitement and her glasses nearly fell off her face as she gestured wildly.

Gabriella huffed again.

"That's not saying much, Maya. Boys aren't that cute in the first place."

Marissa sighed in exasperation.

"Oh come on, girl. I know you have high standards when it comes to boys, but this one sounds like he would definitely surpass them!" She flicked her long plait over her shoulder, grinning mischievously.

Not this again. Gabriella rolled her eyes.

"I have zero standards for them because I expect them to always be up to no good!"

Her friends laughed good-naturedly.

"Whatever you say, Gabs," Kadiah chuckled. Her fingers were twirling one of her twists as she turned back to Amaya, who took that as her cue to continue singing praises about the new boy.

Suddenly, there was a commotion at the entrance. A small crowd was starting to form and voices were rising.

'Ahh,' she thought. 'The man of the hour is here.'

Sure enough, as the crowd parted like the red sea, the new boy came into view.

Oh wow. Gabriella felt her heart flutter a little in her chest. She frowned. It seemed Amaya wasn't exaggerating. He actually was that beautiful.

She thought he looked like one of those royal elves from the Young Adult novels the girls liked to swoon over. He was tall and trim with wide shoulders and a slim waist. The boring white shirt and purple trousers that was the boys’ uniform looked like designer wear on him. He had smooth skin with a few moles here and there and warm dark eyes. He smiled at the people around him, dazzling them with his pearly white teeth. His afro hair was cut into a fade with pentagram star designs on each side of his head. She was surprised he got away with that.

Everyone seemed to be eager to meet the new boy, practically throwing themselves in his face for him to notice them. Gabriella looked on in confusion, her face screwing up at the behaviour. What kind of circus show was this? Are they not embarrassed? These kinds of things only happened in the movies! She couldn't believe people were behaving this way. And over a boy! Sure, a very handsome boy, but still!

"Ahhhhh!" Amaya whisper-squealed. "He's coming this way!" She had latched on to Gabriella's arm squeezing and shaking her. Slapping her friend's hands away, she watched as the new boy made his way over to their table. Already a bit annoyed and not really in the mood to be nice, she spoke before the boy could open his mouth.

"What are you doing here?"

Her friends were aghast, trying to apologize to him and scold her at the same time. He waved them off, laughing softly. Her friends melted. Ugh.

"Amaya right?" he asked. Not waiting for an answer from the girl, he pulled out a sparkly pink pen from his trousers pocket, holding it out to her.

"Thanks for letting me borrow it."

Amaya took the pen reverently. Marissa and Kadiah gaze upon it as if it held the secrets to the universe. Amaya, still too shocked to say anything just nodded, still giggling.

Not missing a beat, the new boy carried on the one-sided conversation. "Are these your friends?"

That shook her back into existence. Amaya jerked, almost falling out of her chair.

"Yeah-Yes!" she almost yelled. "Th-these are my friends Marissa, Kadiah and Gabriella, who's normally really nice." She gave Gabriella an annoyed yet pleading look.

'Play nice and please don't embarrass us to death,' she seemed to say. "Everyone, this is Cyrus!"

Gabriella rolled her eyes but kept quiet. Cyrus smiled at the group and her friends visibly swooned. Honestly! She was starting to feel like she was in a teen drama!

"Nice to meet you all," he said. He held out his hand to shake. Kadiah, who was closest took it immediately, with both of hers.

"Yes, sooo nice to meet you!" she gushed.

Amaya and Marissa were more dignified, softly shaking his hand and giggling all the while. Gabriella stared at his hand for a few seconds. She looked up at him and scowled slightly when she saw that he was grinning down at her. He cocked an eyebrow in challenge. Fine then. She took his hand.

And that’s when things grew weird and terrifying.

Where their hands touched, smoke began to form and deep, nasty burns bloomed across his skin. The air filled with the stench of rotting flesh. Before she could pull back in horror, he did. He yanked his ruined hand back, cradling it to his chest. He hissed at her, his beautiful face contorting grotesquely. And not in the normal way your face goes ugly when you're angry. No, his face grew long and his mouth wide. His teeth went from perfect pearls to long, crooked, yellow daggers. His ears grew tall, long and pointed, like some kind of animal's and his eyes flashed bright and red, burning with a fire that could only be from hell.

Before she could scream, everything went back to normal.

Gabriella blinked, still frozen from the terror at what she saw. But Cyrus looked normal. Normal, pretty face and perfect smile. No pointy ears or red hellfire eyes. His hands were tucked into his pockets, but he wasn't behaving as if he had horrible third-degree burns. She slowly looked around at her friends, and at the other students in the cafeteria. No one was acting out of the ordinary. No one was acting as if Cyrus had just transformed into a monster. He wasn't acting as of he had just transformed into a monster.

Gabriella looked on as he made an excuse to leave, something about needing to head to the principal's office. Her friends cheerfully said their goodbyes. Amaya elbowed her not too gently.

"Fix your face," she hissed.

Gabriella felt the deep frown on her face. She smoothed out her expression but didn't bother to smile as her eyes met his. They were warm and brown and shining with interest. He didn't look upset but intrigued. He smiled at her, a slow, small smile that was meant to look shy.

"See you later, Gabriella?"

His eyes flashed red for just a millisecond. Her breath caught in her throat. She wanted to get up and scream at him, curse him out, maybe grab his face to see if it would burn just like his hand. But no. She would look crazy and get in trouble for attacking the new boy. So she smiled her fakest smile and said,

"See you later, Cyrus”.

Gabriella had some investigating to do.

Short Story- An 'Angel' Passing Through: By Adinelle Ggreeo

We have this saying from back in the day, for when a room full of people (usually a class full of chatty students) all of a sudden go completely quiet for a few seconds.

'An Angel just passed through!' someone would jokingly say, breaking the silence.

It's a soothing thought.

Claire, unfortunately, finds out the hard way that it's anything but an angel.

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It was a regular day for the girls of class 3-A at St. Christopher Girls’ Secondary School. It was their English Language period with the well-liked teacher, Mrs Hayes. She was one of the more lenient teachers and let them get away with a little bit more. Like just then. It was fifteen minutes before the bell rang for lunch and instead of trying to cram more knowledge into their brains, she gave them a short worksheet to complete, telling them that she would be collecting them in their next class. The girls of 3-A took the wonderful opportunity given to do the one thing they like most: to talk. While Mrs Hayes took the little time left to start marking some papers, the students’ chatter filled the classroom with a low buzz.

Two girls sat at the back of the class. One with afro hair that she wore in two neat puffs at the top of her head with a navy blue headband as an accessory. The other wore her hair in long braids that she tied up into a ponytail with a blue ribbon. Their names were Claire Baptiste and Kadisha Benedicte. These best friends sat at the back of the class, to the left of the room and right in line with the teacher’s L-shaped desk. They were out of her sight behind two more desks of classmates. Perfect for uninterrupted conversation.

‘Soooo,’ Kadisha drawled, grinning at Claire. ‘I have a new boyfriend! It’s Chey, from the boys’ school. Remember him?’

Claire rolled her eyes, scoffing good-naturedly. She did remember him. She was glad to know her friend’s taste wasn’t totally trash.

‘Yeah,’ she said ‘But isn’t he the third one this month?’

Kadisha looked away, slightly embarrassed, tucking an escaped braid behind her ear.

‘Well, like he’s the fifth,’ she mumbled. ‘But, we went to the mall yesterday and he bought me ice cream!’

Giving her a look, Claire said, ‘We go to the mall and buy each other ice cream all the time. He has to come better than that.’

Kadisha sighed in exasperation.

‘You don’t understand, Claire! We really need to get you a boyfriend!’ ‘Ha! No thanks!’

Kadisha sucked her teeth.

‘Whatever! Anyway, after the ice cream we...,’

Claire nodded along to her friend’s tale while she absentmindedly doodled in the margins of her worksheet. Slightly hypnotised by the squiggles and swirls she was making on the paper, she didn’t realise that Kadisha had stopped talking. Coming back to full awareness but still looking at her worksheet, she realised that it wasn’t just Kadisha that stopped talking. The buzz of chatter in the classroom had ceased. She looked up and jerked in her seat at the sight of her friend’s face. Her mouth was wide open and her eyes round with excitement. Her hands were thrown back and some of her hair was caught between her fingers. Placing her hand over her racing heart, Claire laughed softly.

“Girl, you look so stupid!”

But Kadisha didn’t respond. Actually, she didn’t move at all. Not even a twitch of her lips or fingers. She was still, like a statue. The smile slowly slipped off Claire’s face.

“Kadisha?”

Her friend remained silent.

Feeling slightly unsettled, Claire looked around the classroom. She felt her stomach drop as she took in the stillness. Everyone was frozen, posed awkwardly in their seats, with their hair suspended in the air, pens and pencils frozen in mid-drop and sheets of paper paused in their fluttering from of the tables. Clair, pushed her chair back, wincing at the loud screech of the legs dragging against the terrazzo floor. Even though there seemed to be no one to interrupt, she slowly crept on her tiptoes towards the desk next to theirs.

The closest girl, Zara Crawford, had big round glasses and her frizzy was hair in four ponytails. Her eyes were screwed shut and her hands covered the big smile on her face. Claire poked her at first, then tried to shake her when she didn’t react at all. She tried the same with the next girl, Clara. She didn’t even twitch.

Claire, starting to feel disquieted, scampered around the class, poking, shaking, flicking and pulling hair, trying to get some kind of reaction. Not one person moved. She finally skidded to a stop in front of Mrs Hayes’s desk, catching her breath. Like everyone else, Mrs Hayes was frozen, bent over the papers she was marking. Dashing the papers off the desk and banging on the wood, Claire screamed in her teacher’s face.

“Wake up!”

Like everyone else, she remained as she was.

With dread overtaking her, she slowly backed away. Her attention was drawn to the doorway and while staring at the tree in the plot of grass past the corridor, she realised that she couldn’t hear the rustling of the leaves. Actually, she couldn’t hear anything at all. No birds chirping, no insects chittering, no sounds from the surrounding classrooms. Having a bad feeling, Claire ran out the door, barging into the classroom to the left of hers. Just like her classmates, everyone was still. She ran into the class next to theirs. Same thing. The class at the far end, the same and the form four class across from theirs. All the same.

Gasping and close to tears, she stumbled back to her classroom at a loss for what to do. The whole world it seemed like, was frozen and all the sound was gone. Except for her. Her footsteps and whimpering were uncomfortably loud in the eerie stillness. She reached the door of her classroom, pausing briefly to take in the frozen forms of her classmates, dreading that she had to sit in their stillness. Sniffling, she placed a hand on the doorframe and stepped over the threshold. She never made it past the door.

She had one foot past the threshold. As soon as her shoe touched the floor, Her whole body was locked in place and the world around her began to change. The light blue walls of the classroom, the whiteboard, the lockers and the floor all began to melt, the colours and textures slowly sloughing off and sliding away. In its wake was a ghastly, roiling mass of colours that she’s never seen and a pitch-black darkness. They moved in and out and in between each other, writhing like they were alive.

With their appearance, the sound came back. And what horrible sounds they were. A thick squelching and a ringing that alternated from a high, ear-piercing sound to a low ominous hum. It vibrated around her, torturing her ears, causing goose bumps to rise on her skin and sending her heart into a panic. The strange colours and the darkness seethed around her, seeming to close in on her. Claire wanted to scream, but her lips remained firmly closed. Her eyes, the only part of her that could freely move looked on as the colours and the darkness began to churn faster, converging in the corner of the classroom diagonal to the door. They twisted and turned, the squelching sounds increasing and the ringing lowering to that horrible, low drone. They began to bulge out as if something was pushing on them and horror filled Claire’s heart when she realised that something was trying to come through.

A long black thing pushed through first, dripping with the colours and the darkness. The spindly twigs at the end of it slowly curled into themselves. It was a hand and those twigs were long bony fingers. The rest of the thing came after. Claire could barely comprehend what she was seeing. As it oozed through the rapidly distorting colours and the darkness, It began to grow and grow and grow. There was no ceiling to hinder it. It had no discernible form. There was no head and no face. It kept shifting and twisting into tattered ribbons of black and they swirled around like a mini hurricane. Pale, glowing orbs were embedded in the parts that the ribbons revealed. They moved and rolled around, leaking a thick black substance that flew off to join the rest of its swirling form. They vaguely looked like eyes pouring dark tears. The limb it used to push through into the classroom had disappeared. There was no indication that it even existed. There were no other limbs to be seen. It was a mass of swirling darkness with orbs all over its form and it brought with it such a bone-chilling dread that Claire thought she was dying. The ringing had gone high again, the shrill sound increasing her fear.

It slowly, so slowly began to move away from the corner, making its way between the desks. It did not touch the girls. It didn’t pay them any attention at all. It left a trail of the dark substance in its wake that was absorbed into the colour and darkness that was the floor. Claire watched the thing as it made its way to the front of the class, pausing where the whiteboard was and pulling one of its long, spidery limbs from the confines of its form. It was so close and Claire was so afraid. Desperately, she began to pray.

As if sensing her pleas, the thing whipped around to face her. Its form contorted abnormally and all of its orbs turned to look at her. The high-pitched ringing abruptly stopped and Claire silently sobbed. They both stared at each other for a short while. Then suddenly the thing was right in front of her. It was crouched down, so the place where its face should have been was right in front of hers. There was one big orb embedded there. It was still as it observed her. With her heart trying to beat out of her chest, Claire could only watch as it brought its hand up to her face, one of its skinny fingers held up. It dripped with the strange black liquid. A soft whistling sound filled the air around them. It rose high and loud, assaulting her already hurting ears. Its orb began to glow white hot, so bright. One moment, she was looking into the face of what she thought was death, the next, she was blinded by the expanding glow and knew no more.

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Mrs Hayes softly laughed to herself at the three seconds of silence from the class.

‘An angel passed through,’ she thought, remembering the old saying the adults used to chuckle about when she was a young girl.

Immediately after, a scream pierced the air. It was coming from right outside the class. She shot up from her chair, almost slipping and sliding on some of the papers that were for some reason on the floor. Some of the students followed, their desks and chairs scrapping against the floor as they scrambled out of their seats.

She almost ran her over when she shot out the door.

There was Claire, curled up on the floor right outside the door, still screaming. Her arms were wrapped around her head and she was clawing at her hair, pulling the strands out of their puffs. She knelt by her, trying to gently pry her hands away from her face and head, but her hold was like a vice. Other teachers and students, disturbed by the screaming, had come out to check.

What happened? How did her student who sat at the back of the class end up outside the door? She didn’t see her pass by. And the screaming. It was filled with genuine fear and pain. She could barely hear the other teachers as they tried to talk to her.

Her other students all huddled by the door, some starting to cry and wail at the sight of their classmate. Claire’s seatmate and possibly her good friend had pushed herself to the front of the crowd, trying to reach out to her, but was held back by another teacher who was failing to console her. Her own screaming and crying added to the utter confusion of the situation. Thankfully, someone had gotten the school nurse who arrived with a wheelchair. As the nurse wheeled the still-screaming girl away, Mrs Hayes, with a racing heart and an unnerving feeling about what happened, shook herself and breathed, turning towards her distraught girls.

It looked like lunch would be a bit early that day.

Josh and Summer❤️ Josh set up the laptop and Summer lay on his bed, flicking through his iPhone. She giggled at the selfies Josh and his best friends Ronan, Caolan and Zeke had taken. “You guys sure love yourselves,” smiled Summer as she uploaded one of the selfies to Instagram. “It’s for the memories,” shrugged Josh as he glanced over at Summer. Summer smiled to herself. Wait until everyone saw that picture she posted! “Time to watch some Doctor Who!” Grinned Josh as he flopped down beside Summer on the bed. “I’ve never watched that ever so how am I supposed to keep up?” Asked Summer. “Ask me,” smiled Josh as he put his arm around her and gently kissed her on the lips. They sat back and watched and Summer was shocked how quickly she became engrossed. They watched episode after episode cuddling the whole time. Hours flew by like minutes and eventually Josh’s Dad came in. “How long have you two been on that laptop?” He asked. Josh glanced at the time and gasped. They’d been watching Doctor Who for hours! Summer was amazed at how rapidly time had past but she had enjoyed it a lot. “I better go but don’t you dare watch on without me,” smiled Summer as she got up to go. “Wouldn’t dream of it,” winked Josh as his Dad strolled off. Josh let his hands drop to Summer’s waist and he leant in and kissed her as she cupped his face in her hands.

Another photo shoot for Careless Reaction only this time they got classy😉 Caolan- I've been wearing suits my whole life so it was no big deal and I'm used to classy places so for once the photo shoot and party were perfect for me Josh- come on! A party the day before halloween without halloween costumes! Sucks man! I'm glad though that my outfit was still kinda casual cos I hate suits. Ronan- I must say I suit class. The classy place was pretty sweet and my outfit attracted a lot of female attention. Not that I acknowledged it or anything... Zeke- the halloween costume with the tie was one thing but then I had to wear a full blown suit! A white one too! The whole time I was terrified of getting it dirty and the classy place made me uncomfortable.

Josh and Summer went on a spooky date😱❤️ Summer really didn't want to go into the forest that stood in front of her. It looked like something straight out of her nightmares! She wasn't a chicken though and she didn't want to let Josh down so she knew what she had to do. Cautiously she stepped into the gloomy forest. At first everything was fine and she was laughing at herself for being so stupid. Suddenly a twig snapped behind her. She turned around but nothing was there. She walked on but a little faster this time. THUMP! That was definitely a footstep! She turned around but there was still nothing there. She shook her head and turned back in front of her. Somebody jumped out in front of her screaming! She screamed and fell backwards. She covered her face, terrified but nothing happened. In fact she actually heard laughter! Confused she sat up and caught sight of Josh sitting on the ground in front of her laughing his head off! She got up and angrily kicked him. "Ow! Your face!" He laughed. "You are so immature! Why am I dating you?" She yelled even though even she found it quite funny. Josh grinned and pulled her down beside him by her leg. "Your dating me cos you love me," he grinned and pulled her onto his lap. "No actually your dating me cos you love me," she smiled. "Maybe," he laughed. "Maybe?" She asked in mock horror. Josh grinned cheekily and pulled her closer and kissed her. Summer smiled to herself and ran her hands though his hair as she kissed him back. "Does that answer your question?" He asked her after they pulled away. She shrugged. "I must say though you do look really good in a zombie costume," she winked. "You too, you should be a cheerleader all the time you look beautiful," he beamed. They both blushed. "So why did you pick the creepiest place ever for a photo shoot?" Asked Summer. "Cos I love halloween, it's my favourite holiday!" Grinned Josh his eyes lighting up. "You are such a big kid, it's adorable," she laughed and hugged him.

Zeke and Alexis went on a spooky date😱❤️ Alexis couldn’t believe Zeke had talked her into doing this. A photo shoot! How could she do that? Especially dressed in pyjamas! She couldn’t get the blush out if her cheeks as she strolled across the green lawn of the mansion. It didn’t help that she hadn’t caught sight of Zeke either! Suddenly someone covered her eyes and she nearly screamed before she recognised Zeke’s laugh. She pulled away and hit him but couldn’t stop herself from laughing too. “You scared me!” She laughed. “Well it is halloween,” he grinned. Alexis was suddenly in awe of how good he looked. Damn he really suited classy looking outfits! Suddenly she felt even more embarrassed at her own outfit. “You look so cute,” smiled Zeke. “Easy for you to say looking like that,” she giggled. Zeke just raised his eyebrows and took her hand and pulled her in front of the mansion. “What do you think?” He asked. “It’s not as creepy as I’d imagined,” she replied. “You should see it at night,” laughed Zeke. “When’s the photo shoot?” She asked. Zeke looked at her and saw how nervous she looked, he knew that feeling. The first time he’d had a photo shoot with the band he was shaking! Zeke pulled Alexis into his arms and held her close. Alexis snuggled into his chest, the steady beat of his heart calming her somehow. “It’s ok, you look fantastic this photo shoot will be a breeze,” he assured her. “I hope,” sighed Alexis. Zeke suddenly pulled her head up and held her face gently in his hands. “Really don’t worry just stay close to me the whole time and I’ll look after you,” smiled Zeke. Alexis believed him and she did feel less nervous. She smiled and gently kissed him on the lips before taking his hand and wandering off with him around the mansion.

Shay and Caolan went on a spooky date😱❤️ Shay stepped nervously into the forest and caught sight of Caolan standing looking over the bridge in a king costume. He looked so cute! She took a deep breath,adjusted her crown and strode up to him. “Hey you!” She beamed. Caolan turned around and his big blue eyes lit up as he saw her. “Wow you look amazing,” he gasped. Shay giggled nervously and flattened down her dress. “You look adorable as ever,” she smiled at him. Suddenly Caolan launched himself at her and her eyes grew wide as he kissed her. She closed her eyes and kissed him back, her arms slipping around his neck. Eventually they pulled apart both of their hearts beating faster then ever before. They both stared at each other and burst out laughing and blushed. “That’s to you know make up for last time,” blushed Caolan. “Don’t worry about it,” she smiled and gently stroked his cheek. They stood staring into each other’s eyes for a few moments. “This place isn’t really spooky,” smiled Shay. “Yeah I know it’s more magical,” agreed Caolan as he slipped his hand into hers. “I can’t believe we’re going to be in a proper photo shoot,” sighed Shay. “Well I’ve been in a few,” laughed Caolan. “Yeah your lucky I’m so nervous,” half smiled Shay. “Don’t be you’ll be great,” smiled Caolan squeezing her hand. “Only because of you,” she smiled.

Ronan and Koh had a spooky halloween date😱❤️ Koh- do we really have to get a picture? Ronan- well duh! Koh- fine but I'm not hugging you or anything like that! Ronan- your my girlfriend! Koh- so? Ronan- can I kiss you though? Koh- not unless you want slapped Ronan- but I'm your superhero Koh- did you really have to dress up? Ronan- yes! It's halloween! Koh- who cares? I'm so over dressing up! Ronan- you still look cute though Koh blushes. Ronan- so what do you think of me? Koh- you look lame Ronan- lies Koh blushes again and Ronan grins. Koh- ugh can we just get this stupid picture over and done with? Ronan- so we can get on with our date? Koh rolls her eyes.

Careless Reaction halloween photo shoot😱😍😃🙈 Josh- BRAINS! Haha more like candy brains😂 Caolan- This costume was called The Lion King so come on I HAD to buy it❤️ Zeke- Sophisticated just got sexy... Ok who wrote that?😳😂 Ronan- I'm the only hero you'll ever need😉

Lamar and Kalea❤️ Kalea’s POV Before we started dating, I’d known Lamar since we were kids cos I’ve been best friends with his sister Nikki for years and years. At first though I didn’t take much notice of him but then I started secondary school and everything changed. He was a year ahead of me at school and one day we just got talking in the dinner line. One day I came home from school with Nikki and we went to her house and when we walked in Lamar was only wearing a towel! He went bright red when he saw me and sprinted off but not before I got a good look at his six pack. I found myself giggling and I went red when he came back in fully clothed. Every time I saw him after that I felt awkward and shy and I went red. One day I called over to his house looking for Nikki but Lamar answered the door and told me she wasn’t there. I turned to go but he grabbed my wrist and my heart nearly exploded it was beating that fast. “Look Kalea do you not like me? Cos everytime I see you and try to talk to you, you hardly look at me and you make up excuses and hardly say a word,” he sighed looking hurt. I could have hit myself then. Oh god I made him think he didn’t like me! I felt like crying. “Of course I like you Lamar!” I burst out. “Then why do you act so weird around me?” He asked. Now or never. “Like I said I like you,” I mumbled and glanced at him quickly before staring at the ground. He probably was going to shut the door in my face and laugh. I sighed. Suddenly his hands gently grabbed my head and tilted it upwards so I was looking at him before he leant in and gently kissed me. I could have died with happiness! All too soon it was over and I stared at him dazed. He gave me a shy grin. “Good because I like you too,” he smiled. That’s how we started dating.☺️

This is Nikki Jones✌️ She is above average height😜 She’s a slacker😏 She is 15😊

She is crushing on Kurt😘 She is best friends with Kalea😃 Her older brother is Lamar😎 She loves drawing, mostly just random doodles. She reads when she can be bothered and she reads fantasy and horror. She loves converse. She listens to music a lot and loves a real mix of genres. She hates school and most of the teachers in it.

Lamar and Kalea Fav couple in the game❤️ I ship them so much omg why aren't they real?😘😭 Kamar for the win💖

Koh and Ronan’s first date❤️ “Ronan you cannot be serious!” Groaned Koh as she stepped into the mini golf course with Ronan by her side. “Relax babe mini golf can actually be pretty fun,” smiled Ronan. “Call me babe again and I’ll hit you with my golf club,” snapped Koh as she glared at Ronan. Ronan just laughed, he loved Koh’s little ways.

Koh didn’t want to like mini golf but she couldn’t help herself. She’d played it when she was little and she remembered how fun it had been. Ronan was making it all the better too. He was so funny and he was pretty hopeless at mini golf. Koh was going easy on him, she wanted him to win. She had thought this date would be a flop but she was actually really enjoying herself and she realised that Ronan actually was pretty cute.

Ronan grinned as he watched Koh barely hitting the golf ball. She was so cute even though she was pretty horrible at mini golf. He himself was amazing at it! Ronan hadn’t even realised he was that good but he was! Just another sport that he was awesome at to add to his list. Koh was laughing too which made Ronan happy too.

The day drew to a close and both Ronan and Koh were sad to see it go, it had been a great day. “Wow that actually didn’t totally suck,” laughed Koh as Ronan walked her home. “I know that really means you loved it so how about we do something else sometime?” Asked Ronan staring into Koh’s eyes. Koh found herself unable to look away from Ronan’s beautiful light brown eyes and she even felt a blush creeping across her cheeks! “Yeah sure,” mumbled Koh as she finally broke the look and turned away so he wouldn’t see her pink cheeks. “Awesome it’ll be another surprise Koh,” grinned Ronan who could have jumped up in down in glee. They were nearly at Koh’s house now and suddenly Ronan stopped her again. “Do you like surprises?” Asked Ronan. “Depends,” shrugged Koh. Suddenly Ronan leaned in and kissed her! Koh was shocked and kissed him back for a moment before pushing him away. “Did you like that surprise?” He winked. Koh bashed him on the head in answer. “I swear if you ever do that again,” she growled. “You’ll murder me yeah yeah but I know you liked it,” grinned Ronan. “Don’t be stupid!” Snapped Koh. However Koh knew her cheeks were pink and her heart was beating fast and she half wished he would do it again but there was no way she was telling him that! “Well I’ll see you around Koh,” smiled Ronan. “If you’re lucky,” laughed Koh as she waved at him and went inside her house still not believing what had just happened.

This is the band I created for a story I’ve been meaning to write for a while😊 Meet the guys of Careless Reaction: Ronan- Rebel and ladies man plays bass Zach- Nerdy but cute musician on vocals Zeke- Quiet punk rocker with a passion for art plays drums Caolan- New to town and posh and trying to fit in glee club member on guitar