.

"You fascinated me

Cloaked in shadows and secrecy

The beauty of a broken angel..." 

- Warrior by Beth Crowley

The sound of boots on tile echos down the hallway and I glance up from my notebook to see a blonde haired boy walk through the classroom door. I turn back to writing my essay as the boy walks closer to my teacher.

I hear my teacher, Mr. Collins, address the boy, "Do you need something?" he pauses, waiting for the boy to say something and then continues. "Come on spit it out, you're interrupting my class."

I put my pencil down and look up again. The boy's still ignoring Mr. Collins, his dark eyes sweeping around the classroom, glancing over every boys' and girls' face including mine. Mr. Collins stands up and takes a step towards the mysterious boy.

"Can I help you?" he questions, glaring with his hard brown eyes through his tiny bifocals.

The dark eyed boy straightens up and squares his shoulders defiantly to the teacher, glaring right back at Mr. Collins. He's an inch or two shorter than the older man, but about ten times more intimidating.

Shit's about to go down, I think to myself as I lean back in my seat and prepare to enjoy the show.

He takes a step closer to Mr. Collins, an evil smile on his lips, and says, "Please, sit down," gesturing to the chair behind the teacher's desk.

His voice sends chills down my spine, but Mr. Collins doesn't back down. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave my class." he says.

Blondie disregards Mr. Collins command and walks past him, dropping into the teacher's chair. He picks up a pen and starts twirling it in his fingers. "Well if you insist on standing, I might as well sit down." he sneers.

My classmates erupt in laughter around me, enjoying the way this boy is standing up to our cranky, old english teacher. 

I on the other hand, am beginning to feel a little more cautious about this strange boy. I've never seen him at school before today, so who is he? My school's big, but not big enough to hide this guy's huge ego. I would have noticed him before. Usually, I'd love a distraction coming into english class, but there's something about this boy that isn't right. Kids don't go this far when they're teasing a teacher.

A look of disbelief crosses Mr. Collins face and he grabs for the phone on his desk, dialing a number that I assume is the principal's. But Blondie just grabs a pair of scissors from the teacher's desk and snips the line of the old corded phone. 

"Who do you think you are?!" my english teacher yells, a hint of fear laced in his words.

My stomach twists as a weird feeling creeps into it and I begin to feel more anxious with this situation. 

"Your worst nightmare," the boy sing songs, spinning around in the chair while laughing to himself as if he just told the best joke that only he could possibly understand.

Mr. Collins gives him a weird look, and then starts heading to the door. "I'll be right back cla-"

"Just kidding!" Blondie exclaims, interrupting Mr. Collins. Then stage whispers towards my class, "Maybe."

Blondie stands up from the chair and tosses the pen he was twirling over his back. It lands on Mr. Collins bald head, making the old man gasp and turn back towards the boy.

A few boys from my class whistle in appreciation and one shouts, "Dude, you're such a beast!"

Blondie looks towards the boys and smiles, showing off his pearly white teeth, "Why thank you!"

The boy's back is still facing Mr. Collins and I see my teacher try to make a run for the door. Right before he reaches the door it slams shut with a loud click, as if a burst of wind miraculously came from the hallways, closing the door. 

Wow, this has escalated quickly.

"Leaving won't be necessary, I'm almost done here." Blondie says, "Oh, and don't bother screaming, no one will hear you." Then the boy flicks his wrist in a circular motion and Mr. Collins stops moving, now standing motionless in his place.

Blondie's hand goes to his hip pulling out a... sword? 

Who even carries swords around these days? 

My eyes may be deceiving me, but it looked, not only as if the boy pulled a sword out, but as if he had pulled it from mid air as well. Though regardless of where the sword came from, it appears very real. It gleams in the light, and Blondie's attention changes to focus on his sword and he trails a single finger down the side of it. 

I look around at my classmates, none blink, speak, or move. They're as motionless as stone. Just like Mr. Collins. 

Why am I not frozen too?

"This will be a lot easier if you cooperate with me." he says, still staring at his sword. "But of course most of you can't do anything anyways." 

Blondie says, "you", like he's talking to a specific person, but who?

The boy looks up towards the class, twirling his weapon in his hand, making it do a three-sixty, a sick smile plastered on his face.

The boy's feet move down an aisle between the students, looking at each kid before moving onto the next.

"You see, I'm looking for someone." he continues. "A girl."

He pauses, "She's in this room right now. I just need to see which one of you resisted my magic." My heart speeds up in my chest, does he mean me?

I try to copy my classmates, I sit motionlessly and try not to blink for as long as I can manage.

"Where are you?" Blondie calls, still making his way up and down the aisles. "You do realize I have all day and I will find you. So you can make this quick and easy for both of us and come with me or you can just sit there and make me search for you." He waves his hand in front of a girl's face, when the girl doesn't react he moves onto the next.

The fear in me makes it more difficult to control my breathing to a normal level, and my inhaling and exhaling becomes louder and more frequent. 

Blondie cups his hand to his ear, I'm not sure if he's doing that to improve his hearing or just for the theatrics, but seconds later he whips around and stares directly at me. "Found you." he whispers gleefully.

I give up my act and respond, "Who are you?!" 

I hold eye contact with him, trying to keep my tone firm and not let any fear creep in. My heart is racing in my chest, I wouldn't be surprised if this boy, whoever he is, can hear it.

"I'm Da-" he shakes his head, "No that doesn't matter. You need to come with me. No tricks, sweetie."

"No." I speak, the rebellious side of me holding its ground.

"Yes." 

"No!" I say, I'm not going to go with this creep.

The boy walks over and yanks me by the arm with his sword free hand, pulling me violently from my seat. My chair makes a screeching sound against the ground as I wrap my feet around its legs in an effort to stay put. My efforts prove to be worthless as Blondie pushes the chair farther away from me, making me fall to the ground. 

I thrust my hands out in front of me just in time to have them crash into the thinly carpeted concrete floor instead of my face. Then Blondie clasps his fingers around my wrists, pulls me up, and starts dragging me by my arm towards the door. His fingers dig into my skin as I struggle, but I quickly give up. His tight grip giving me no choice but to follow him.

How has no one else figured out what's going on? There's classes right next door, if I scream they'll hear me.

I open my mouth to scream, but right before I emit any noise Blondie's hand smothers my lips and it comes out muffled.

"Screaming won't do you any good, sweetie, they can't hear you."

I huff and slowly start to accept my fate, there's no way I'm going to get out of his death grip. 

We approach the door, my wrist still in his grasp.

"Where are you taking me?!" I yell, looking up towards him. Blondie ignores me, his face showing no signs that he even heard me. 

As a last attempt to escape, I dig my fingernails into his wrist and pull them downwards. He gasps and lets go of my arm, inspecting the nasty cuts that my nails left on his forearm. 

Deciding not to cut my nails this morning, despite their disgustingly long appearance, is the best decision I have ever made. 

As soon as the realization reaches my brain that he let go of me, my legs take off sprinting as fast as I can-which unfortunately is not very fast, I'm in terrible shape-towards the opposite side of classroom, as far away from him as I can get. 

It would have been better if I ran out the classroom door, but I have a feeling that Blondie locked it in some way and I don't have any time that I can waste to find out if he did. 

I crouch down in the corner and rack my brain about a way to escape Blondie, but it's kind of hard when I know I pretty much stand no chance against him and his razor sharp sword. You still have to try though, my subconscious tells me.

Thoughts about my next move are rushing through my mind when I hear a huge boom as a window explodes and someone flies in. Shattered glass goes everywhere, but before the glass can hit any defenseless students it begins hovering mid-fall. Then suddenly the glass drops to the floor right in front of the window, a safe distance from the students and I. What the hell?

A boy with black hair swept to the side stands to the right of me, a golden sword in hand. He turns his head to the side and his wild eyes meet mine, something that looks like relief floods through his eyes and his gaze shifts back to Blondie.

His eyes are a dark blue, but at the same time they're extremely bright and intense.

Please be a good guy, please be a good guy, I hope.

The new boy, who I'll just call Blue, turns his back to me and moves towards Blondie who, sadly, has quickly recovered from his minor arm injury.

"You." Blondie snaps, menace dripping from his voice.

Blue smirks, leaning on a desk, "How unfortunate that we always seem to meet in such dire situations." His voice is smooth and strong, and he carried an air of superiority around him.

Blue advances towards Blondie and stops when he's several feet away from the other boy. Blue reminds me of a lion stalking his prey, about to pounce on it. I shift over a bit so I can get a better view of the boys. I see them circling each other, swords drawn and raised.

"You might as well give up now, we both know how this ends." Blue remarks, then adds, "I'll let you go freely if you do."

Blondie hesitates, probably weighing his options-fight or flee. I'm not sure if it's the glint in Blue's eyes or his tone, but something tells me that he's not to be trusted.

I imagine Blondie is wishing that Blue could be replaced with Mr. Collins right now, it wouldn't be a fair fight but Blondie would surely win with no problem. But Blue versus Blondie... I can't tell who would win. Sure, Blondie looks quite scary with his raging dark eyes and shimmering sword, but there's something powerful about Blue.

I see Blondie slowly start backing away, lowering his sword and moving towards the door. It seems he has made his decision: flee.

I quietly laugh to myself, I see you're not such a bad boy anymore.

Then, as quick as lightning, Blue leaps out and drives his sword into Blondie, penetrating his stomach, twisting and then thrusting it in further. I can see the golden tip of the sword protruding from Blondie's back. I scream, my hands flying to my mouth in disbelief, I've never seen someone die before, but I feel like this is quite an unusual and gruesome way for someone in this era to die. Though I don't know what I was expecting since they were circling each other with swords.

Blue yanks his blade free, and as Blondie's limp body falls to the floor, his appearance flickers for a second. Seconds later Blondie disintegrates into a pile of black ashes. Just like that. Poof. Gone. What?

---------

Thanks for reading! I'll update with the second chapter soon. :)