• Thornelis
    Preface:
    In that moment, they knew they weren't safe. They knew they had to go, to get away from that awful thing that had lured them there against the gut feeling that they had buried deep in the abysses of their minds, where they'd hid all the secrets they never would admit to themselves, never thinking they even existed. But somehow, they couldn't move. They were paralyzed by all the memories that had suddenly resurfaced to the top of their minds like a wave that pulls away a shell, only to resurface it a few moments. Only this wasn't a shell, this was an awful truth that would ruin them, destroying them forever.

    Chapter One: Eve and Odd
    "Bye!" the children screamed as they ran down the sidewalk, away from the large home that sat at the corner of North 16th and Corridor Street. It was a curious house, really. To passerby's, it had a disturbing, almost evil aura that seemed to secrete from it. It looked abandoned with its cracked windows, wooden beams and porch, and the paint chipping off the siding. Not that you could even tell it was painted in the first place, with how weathered it was. The old -time shutters hung off the hinges and sayed back and forth incessantly. Most people just didn't visit and tried to look onward as they went past. But to the children who lived there, it was literally home. Most of them had all lived there usually starting at the age of five, sometimes eight or nine. They'd all had so many good memories there and the owners of the house, Dr and Mrs. Simon Chelting, we're always very loving and kind to them. They were basically like their foster parents, since they ran a home for orphan's but never gave them away, but all the same, they were just like all their parents. They all remembered every broken floorboard for the things they'd hidden under them, every creaky door for the imes they'd hidden behind them and acted as if they were the ghosts of the person they were trying to scare' parents. Quite morbid, if you thought about it, but to them it was nothing. To them in was everyday life in their home.
    They were a family in some aspects, they got along mostly like a family, they often got into petty little fights about some things, they'd stand up for each other if someone at school was picking on them, and they'd make fun of each others flaws. However, they were more like their own little school. They had their own cliques. There was the popular kids, who claimed the Cheltings loved them most and most of their allowences on their appearances. Then the geeks, who weren't as fashionable as their roommates, but often the tutors of them. Then their were the wannabe's, who had a new identity every time they left their rooms where they sat making themselves over every three seconds. And then there were the two nobody ever wanted to be seen with, let alone let it be known they lived in the same home as them.
    Eve and Odd.
    That wasn't their real names.A least, not their full ones. They were really named Eveline Veronica And Oddyseus Garret, but they just went by Eve and Odd. They were called that or two reasons. one was because it represented that they were always up staying up late into the EVE-ning and they were increasingly ODD. And they went together like even and odd. They completed each other. They were best friends, confidants in each other, and, though they were oblivious to it, meant to be together. It was like they were designed for each other.
    Eve and Odd walked along the sidewalk to Starvale Junior High together bantering about the usual. Last nights homework, their teacher's, how stupid the kids at the house were, new bands they'd found.
    "I have something to talk to you about," Eve said as she pulled up her hoodie, which had cat ears sewn to the top. Eve's trade mark was animal ears. headbands, hoodies, anything.
    "You're finally going to stop trying to be a cat?" Odd asked, obviously entertained by his witty comment.
    "No, that I'm still trying at," Eve giggled "something different, something i really think is important."
    "Oh my god, Eve. Are you finally going to admit your freakishly short? I've been waiting for this day!"
    "No!" Eve laughed and pushed him into Ms, O' Vairo strange poodle shape shrub, which she immediately regretted when Ms. O' Vairo poked her head out of her screen door and yelled "Git you rotten kids! I'm calling the police!"
    "Run!" Odd yelled and took off down the street as Eve took off to catch up with him, running through large groups of Starvale students, some her housemates, in an attempt to catch up to Odd. Good Lord, there was no doubt the popular kids were going to rat her out to the Chetling's now.
    Eve caught up to Odd about a half block from school, huffing and puffing and the laces of her converse untied and soaked with mud, her hood thrown off to show her bad hair day.
    "does this not prove your increasingly short? Your legs are too short to keep up with the average human being? Nice hair, by the way." Odd laughed, clearly out of breath, too.
    "Did you ever think that maybe you're just too tall?" Eve replied, yanking her hood back up.
    "No, it has not. Now lets go." He answered with a smile pushing her by the backpack down the street to school.
    In Starvale, Eve and odd Had three friends in total. There was Charlande, an awkward girl who had a strange obsession with the twenties. She wasn't visually awkward, she was actually a very classic beauty with curly black hair tha she wore like Marilyn Monroe, but of course black. She had vivid blue eye's that could grasp your attention like nothing else. She had amazing pale skin, but it only made her more beautiful. She was more awkward in the way of she was so unsure of herself that she never let her beauty really shine through. Otherwise, she could've been extremely popular. Then there was Othello, named after a brilliant work by Shakespeare. He didn't talk much, except when he was singing a song. He loved to play guitar and write songs, but somehow they'd forged a friendship with him through his music. He had sandy blonde hair and smiled a lot, especially at Eve. She always wondered if he liked her, and once went through his song book to find out, but came up short. Lastly, there was McCormick. He was the new kid in school, and he had a kind of a different personality. He never really told anyone his first name, he just said was pretty heinous and to just call him by his last name, McCormick. He was really curious and asked far too many questions, but they found him interesting. Though everyone at their home thought their friends strange, they found them to be interesting. Fun.
    "Hey guys," Odd said to their friends.
    "Hi Odd,Hey Eve," Charlande replied. She usually greeted for the group since Othello usually had his nose in a lyric book and McCormick usually in some kind of deep thought process over some question that captured his attention too much to reply. they never did mind, though. It was peaceful between their group.
    "So, did you understand that one problem we had on our math homework last night? I think it was number twelve that i didn't get," Odd asked.
    "Yeah, I got y equals three times x. How did you not get that?" Charlande replied, showing her notebook, written in the mos graceful print possible, to Odd as he opened his, covered with ugly scrawl and games of tic- tac- toe and hangman he'd played against Eve. Funny how friends could be so different, but yet still so alike.
    Eve and Odd split from the group as they approached the four way branch off to their lockers. Eve and Odd had lockers in the east wing of the building, while Charlande, Othello, and McCormick had their lockers on the north side of he building. So they said their goodbyes and trudged down the hallway to their homerooms where their dictators- excuse me- TEACHERS awaited.
    Eve and Odd were always the last ones to homeroom. This was probably due to the face that they never left each others side, not even to go to their lockers seperately, which made them excruciatingly late all the time. Maybe it was because they liked to sit around the fountain and talk for a while. But they didn't care. Starvale never punished them, anyhow and the less time they had to spend with those stupid, ignorant kids the better. They could deal without he coos of Miranda Harte and her stupid popular clique, some even their housemates going ' Eve and Odd sitting in a tree,' or commenting when the teacher scolded them for being late to class with 'Maybe they were too busy making out to notice the time. don't punish them Ms. Ericcson. There as one time that they said something about how heir baby was doomed to look like some sasquatch, and Odd flipped them off and Eve went into a terrible fit of laughter. That as the only time they got sent to the office. And the only time the Chelting's grounded them.
    "But Odd, what I was saying on the way to school about something i had to tell you.." Eve said, unsure of ha she was about to mention.
    "Yes?" Odd asked.
    "I saw something last night outside my room. I don't know how to explain it. It was like this orb of white light.outside my door." Eve sighed, leaning against the locker next to Odd's, clutching her binder to her chest as Odd pulled various books out of the top shelf of his locker, which was rather low for him.
    "It was probably one of the younger kids trying to scare you by pretending to be your parents ghosts. No big deal."
    "It was an orb of light, Odd, not one of the little kids hidden under a blanket making weird noises. Besides, you know Mrs. Chelting makes them go to bed by 8:30."
    "Oh come on, Eve. You can't possibly think that they ALWAYS are sleeping by then. You were always up to like eleven when you were their age."
    "That was different," Eve answered " I was smarter than them. I knew how to get around the Chelting's. They don't."
    "They could have learned somehow. Eve," Odd said, turning away from his locker and taking Eve by her shoulders, pulling her head up so she was looking at him." Just don't worry about it. If it happens again tell me. We can go figure out what it--"
    "Um, Odd? LOOK!" She said in a loud whisper, gripping the sleeve of Odd's shirt.
    Odd spun around to the direction Eve was staring at. Floating down the hallways littered with old worksheets and pencils was exactly what Eve had described - a pristine white orb floating silently and gracefully right in front of their very eyes. And, as scary as it was - it was beautiful. simply breathtaking.
    "Come on," Odd said, taking Eve's hand and pulling her down he hallways, tiptoeing so they would scare whatever it was away. They needed to figure out what this thing was, and what it wanted with Eve. Eve trembled with fear, and Odd grasped her hand more tightly. This was scary. Was it the ghost of one of her parents? She barely even remembered them. She had a few memories of when they taught her to ride her tricycle when she was for, and when her mom read her a book. She didn't even remember her last name, or how she became orphaned. She thought she was an orphan because her parents died because their house burned down and they'd gotten stuck inside, but she wasn't sure. The Chelting's preferred not to talk about them out of fear that the children would become depressed. As for her last name, she was almost positive it started with a P, but she never really bothered to figure it out. All she knew as that she had parents, and then lost them. So then why would her parents try to find her? It was something Eve knew she had to find out, as awful as the results could be. What if this orb wasn't her once loving parents, what if it was something that could destroy her?
    As Odd proceeded to lead the way down the familiar halls, Eve in tow, the same thought struck him. Eve never spoke about her parents, and he knew that not remembering them would be the reason? Why come back for her? And if it was something evil, he couldn't bear to lose his best friend. He was very confident that if Eve was taken away from him, he wouldn't be able to live... and i'm sure thats plenty obvious what that meant. But on another hand, he was jealous. If it was her parents, why did his parents never come back for him? What made Eve so special? Though, he knew he shouldn't feel that way. He should be happy for his best friend, no matter what the circumstance.
    Eve and Odd continued to creep down the hallways until they turned a corner after the orb, reaching a dead end. And at that dead end sat a woman, pristine white, hovering peacefully in the stale air of Starvale Junior High.