Euphoria Leak: The Heaven Called Hell: Chapter 5

Chapter 5: New Students...

- 651:11:02 (10:49:58 P.M. Day 1)

Kiara flipped the pillow onto its other side, willing the coolness to ease her into sleep, but it didn’t seem to be working. Sweat beaded on her brow from the fever that had arisen a few hours after her headache had miraculously melded away, but she pulled the cover closer, freezing on the inside. She clenched her eyes shut, her memories pressing forth unto her. She rolled over, willing them away, and then rolled over again, unease and tension filling her muscles.

Kiara eased the tension in her forehead by not squeezing her eyes so tightly, and that helped relax her a bit. She tried not to try to sleep. Willed it to come on its own. That never worked.

She decided just to think. That usually helped sleep ease up on her.

Her thoughts wandered to her friends immediately, and the strange way they had been acting recently. How Phantom had reacted to herself and Elena, how Braeden's hair and eyes turned red today, and had that day, how she got these odd headaches every time Malise had a dream, even before she knew she had a dream, and how Jasmine had been acting strange. And, come to think of it, so had Valerie and David. She mentally shuddered.

What the hell was going on? And why was she suddenly sick?

- 642:00:02 (7:00:58 A.M., Day 2)

Arania walked delicately through the door of her bedroom, entering the main body of her quiet house. The light outside hadn’t yet permeated the walls of her refuge, leaving her cold and hollow. She hugged herself and walked to the door, glancing out the window. There were people already outside. She sighed.

Arania walked back to her room and picked through her wardrobe of unique and flattering pieces, selecting by instinct which one she wanted. She frowned at herself in the mirror, thinking it might be a bit much, but then shrugged. ‘First impressions are the most important. And I want to look elegant and upper class,’ she thought, wrinkling her nose at the thought that coalesced her mind. ‘This is exactly the kind of outfit that Torin would have selected for me.’ She shrugged again and left her room, flitting across the hardwood floor to the door, flinging it open and almost sprinting to the edge of the porch. She took a deep, composing breath and walked lightly down the first step. She was standing on the edge of shadow and light, and the energy from the light tingled along the edge of her senses, warmth, like a hand almost touching her. She breathed deeply, contentedly, taking in the feeling of being on the edge, and finally jumped down the remaining steps, flitting to the edge of her lawn, where the sunlight was the strongest.

She basked in the light for a few more moments when a familiar voice sounded. 'Ahh… nothing like morning light to wake me from a brilliant sleep.' Torin commented lightly. Arania smiled, knowing the feeling of which she was speaking.

"Glad to hear you're awake, Torin," Arania commented and opened her eyes again. She sighed and wrinkled her nose. "Time to finish getting ready for school."

-641:04:42 (7:56:18 A.M. Day 2)

Malise walked quickly down her street to the school. Arden hadn't sent her her awakening text message, so she awoke late, and then after she got ready she decided to wait for him anyway, just in case, and then when it was apparent he wasn't coming she decided to go to him. When she knocked on his door and no one answered. Malise got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. Had something gone wrong? What if she had damaged his soul somehow, and now he was in the hospital, or worse, dead.

She shook herself silently, coming to the intersection where she crossed. Cold ice slid down her back as she saw how eerily deserted the sidewalk in front of the school was. Dammit! What was going on? She glanced quickly up and down the street and ran across when no one was looking.

She got to their normal place and saw none of her friends. No Elena, no Kiara, no Arden. She shook her head, looking around. "Where are they?" She said quietly to herself. Everyone started shuffling into the building so she decided to follow them, perhaps her friends were inside.

But no one was there. When she got inside she didn't see anyone. She went through all of her classes, all day, and none of her friends were at school. Throughout the day her sense of unease got greater and greater, until at the end of the day the skin between her shoulder blades were itching, as if someone was watching her back, trying to pick a decent time to jump her.

She breathed deeply, calming herself of her anxiety. She jumped when the bell rang and cursed herself mentally, getting up quickly and heading out the door as fast as she could.

Her mistake was not taking the feeling seriously, and not being as cautious as she should have been. If she would have looked around, she would have noticed something was amiss, and she might have seen the new students lurking among her, all radiating energy that the naked eye couldn't see, but Malise felt nonetheless.

-634:49:44 (3:11:16 P.M. Day 2)

Her calves tinged with effort as she climbed the hill to get to Elena's house at the break neck pace she was climbing. Her heart was still troubled, even though she had allayed her guilt about Arden, his mom had said that he felt nauseous and had passed out last night, and Malise breathed a sigh of relief. Of course he had, it is to be expected after having your body and soul invaded by another and meddled with. But she was still uneasy about her other friends being out, and even a few that weren't her friends, but she had noticed had been acting a bit weird lately.

Spurred by her thoughts, she increased her pace and reached Elena's house in about half a minute. She jumped up the stairs to her porch and then knocked on her door. Thirty seconds, no answer. She knocked again, this time longer and more insistent. Still no answer. Her heart grew sick as she thought of the possibilities until a few moments later the door opened, revealing a flustered woman in her mid-thirties looking extremely annoyed with Malise. Malise shifted her weight nervously. "Is Elena here?" she asked tentatively.

"Yes, but she's ill," the woman answered reproachfully. A cold chill slid down her back again as tension curled into a tight ball in the pit of her stomach.

"What's wrong with her?" Malise asked, displaying her deepest concern.

The woman sighed, exasperated. "We don't know, she feels nauseous and she's experiencing … strange hallucinations."

This peaked Malise's curiosity. "What kind of hallucinations?"

The woman made a frustrated noise, "I don't believe that's any of your business, young lady," she huffed. Malise shrugged.

"Give Elena my regards," Malise recited in a practiced manner. Elena's mother nodded her acknowledgement and closed the door again, leaving Malise in a heap of curiosity.

-634:44:02 (3:16:58 P.M., Day 2)

Again Malise was confronted with the illness of the heart when faced with the prospect of a friend's apparent demise. Her third knock was still wholly unanswered. Cold sweat began to creep down her spine. There was something largely unnerving about all three of her best friends being out on the same day. As Malise began to abscond from Kiara's porch, the door to her house opened revealing, this time, her friend.

A wave of relief washed over Malise's features as she looked behind her and then returned to the entrance of her friend's domicile. Kiara squinted down at her and opened the door when she identified her friend.

"What do you want?" Kiara asked.

"I just wanted to know what's wrong with you." She replied.

Kiara squinted at Malise for a moment, and then replied, "I have a migraine."

"Oh."

"Yeah, and it kills."

Malise nodded and started to leave, feeling a bit guilty, when Kiara stopped her with a question, "Did you have another dream last night?" Malise turned around and looked at her, trying to decipher what she could possibly wish to gain from this tidbit of information. Kiara looked generally curious, so maybe she didn't have any ulterior motive except to satisfy her own curiosity. Malise nodded, and an idea seemed to slide behind Kiara's eyes. Kiara nodded.

"Alright, see you around," Kiara bade her. Malise nodded and was off again.

-634:41:59 (3:19:01 A.M., Day 2)

Malise walked up the hill that was an alley behind Kiara's house, heading back home with her fears partially allayed. They had all been okay, right? There was nothing too strange about them all being out... it was just a coincidense, right? Malise sighed.

The feeling that she was being watched had dissipated the moment she left school grounds, or maybe she had just imagined that because she was worrying so much, but nonetheless it was back again, possibly because she was now clear-headed and not rushing to assure herself her friends weren't in any mortal doom. Her neck ached with the effort of not turning around to look behind her, for she was sure when she did there wouldn't be anything there- there never was, when you looked. But you were sure there had been something there just a moment ago- probably which had just ducked behind some stationary automobile or shrubbery- ehich only seemed to further the paranoia.

Perhaps she had a stalker. Perhaps it was an enemy from school. Perhaps it was her mom!- A chorus of inharmonious ululations filled the air with an eerie and frightening feel. Malise had been so wrapped up in her paranoid musings that she hadn't realized she was passing the mongrel menagerie- that was the nickname for the cluster of houses in the alley that all seemed to have dogs of different sizes and vocal chord range that went stark raving mad everytime you neared their viscinity. She hadn't been expecting this interruption and she almost jumped out of her skin.

Malise looked at each dog in turn and glared at them. They went almost silent. When she had passed them completely and her mind was free again her paranoia came back at a level that had been increased tenfold since before. It was so bad that she didn't even think before she spun around to face her foe- there or not, she decided, and was literally face to face with her foe -who was decidedly most definately there. Malise took a few stumbling steps backwards up the hill and fell, landing in a sitting position.

"Wh-wh-what the FUCK do you think you're DOING?!" Malise shouted at the girl who it was now apparent was a couple inches taller than Malise (hence, the reason they were face to face on an incline). She was dressed in a dainty girlish outfit that made Malise's eyes water from sheer brightness. "Who the hell are you?" Malise asked with a bit more composure this time. She made no move to stand up since she was practiacally on eye-level with the girl.

"My name's Arania. What's yours?" She asked with this enigmatically annoying smile permanantly plastered on her frozen face. She didn't fool Malise for a second.

"None of your damn business," she spat.

The girl now known as Arania had the nerve to start laughing. She wasn't just laughing, she was going into hysterics. She acted like it was the funniest thing she had ever heard. It really pissed Malise off. "You're funny!" She declared after her joviality wore of for the moment. "Wanna be friends?" She asked.

Malise snorted and got to her feet. This chick just wasn't worth her time, Malise began to walk away, and truth be told Malise was a little embarrassed the girl had managed to follow her like that and put so much paranoia into her normally stoic demeanor. "Leave me the hell alone, kid."

"M'name's Arania." She said, "And I'm in your grade, so there's no need calling me kid. I saw you in class today."

Malise stopped and Arania, who had been following quite close behind stopped too. Malise whirled around, again face to face with Arania, but this time it was Arania who faltered and took a step back, her smile wilting a bit. "It was you who was fucking following me today, wasn't it?" She whispered maliciously in a voice that inflicted enough hate the girl's smile faltered even more, almost completely dissappearing before the girl could stretch it again with some other nonsensical thought.

"Follow you?" Arania asked. "I wasn't following you. It isn't my fault if we share the same classes."

'Dammit,' Malise thought. 'How did I not notice this annoying...child?' She still insisted. Malise and Arania kept eye contact for a few more moments, Malise trying to be intimidating and Arania feigning innocent stupidity and staring right on through.

"Tch." When it became apparent her evil glare wasn't working Malise turned around again. Arania persisted persuing. "Fine, leave me the hell alone, /Arania/." She inflicted about a gallon of malice in the girl's name.

If she noticed it didn't show in her tone. "Thank you, now that wasn't so hard, was it?" She was still following her, as if the only thing she had heard was her name. "Where are you going, Ms. Noname?" She was being childish again.

"Noneya."

This gave the girl pause, if only for a moment, and then she started laughing again. "OH, I get it! Ahahahh! You're really funny! We should be friends!"

'My lord this chick is persistent,' Malise ground in her mind. "Seriously, k- /Arania/, No good can come of being my friend. It's a fact. Now seriously, leave me the /fuck/ alone."

Arania stopped walking and Malise ran towards her home. Lord did she hate new students. Arania's enigmatic smile was still on her face as she stared after Malise's retreating form.