Chapter 1: Unseen

DUSK

“Where is he? “ The question leaked out of the mouth of a large, pimple-faced planetoid of a middle schooler named Reese Crow.

Flanked by his ever-present cronies on either side, Dustin roamed the 7th Grade hallway of Taylor Middle School. The school day had officially ended several minutes ago. However, Reese and his crew had unfinished business.

“He pushed me, and he thinks he’s going to get away with it?” Reese gurgled, continuing to speak even though his goons didn’t answer him.

They’d made the mistake of volunteering their thoughts before and got slapped for it. They continued to back him up, but they only spoke when he spoke directly to them or said their names. They weren’t that bright, but they knew talking was not part of their job.

“That little weasel ran this way I know it,” Reese muttered. “Where the heck did he go? There’s no one else here! “The goons remained silent.

"Hey, Lee! Roy! Are you both deaf? I’m talking to you!”

The goons jerked their blocky oversized heads to attention and slowly rotated them towards Reese.

“Uh...” Said Lee.

“Dunno Reese,” said Roy the talkative one, “I don’t see him either.”

Reese growled in frustration and swung his meaty slab of a fist right into the nearest wall.

He howled in pain and stormed off, holding his fist close to him and using language that was not age-appropriate. Lee and Roy lurched behind him, trying to catch up.

The 7th-grade hallway became silent again.

Just below the freshly scuffed section of the wall, the late afternoon light cast a large amorphous shadow.

The shadow shivered slightly. An observer seeing this might have thought they were seeing things and rubbed their eyes before they took another look.

This was certainly not the way a shadow was supposed to move. It shivered again slightly, billowing like a sheet caught by a sudden breeze.

It shivered once more. This shiver was more violent and sudden, like a blanket falling off of the head of a child trying in vain to hide from the monsters in their room. When the shiver ended, the shadow was half of its original size.

The area the shadow previously covered now held a short, slight teenage boy. His blond hair hung low over his eyes, making a stark contrast with his shapeless black hoodie and nondescript off-brand jeans.

Darryl (that was the boy's name) pushed the hair out of his eyes and darted them back and forth down the two adjoining hallways several times. He took a breath to steady himself. Then he ran in the opposite direction of Reese and his goons.

The hallway he chose was slowly darkening as the sun began to fade. As he ran, the darkness in the hall suddenly deepened and the boy could no longer be seen.