Information

[Alathaea Llywenned]

Alathaea's tiny form crept slowly through the corridor. Her eyes flickered from side to side, picking up the detail of light and shadow. She stalked, feline and tensed. Her skin picked up every flicker of the light split through the blinds of the classroom behind the mirror. She ducked round the door.

She supposed it was about midnight, perhaps a little later. She'd had to hide behind an underpass throughout an entire gang meeting, slipping away as they did to escape to final sleep. She had shot with the usual dexterity towards her usual haunt, the eerie empty high school. Schools were supposed to be full of life. But like everything nowadays, it was full of death.

Alathaea found the corner of Classroom 12, a unique alcove in which you could only be seen if you were looking directly at it. Nobody walking past the classroom, or even glancing in, could see it. Thus, it was Alathaea's habitual sleeping place. She edged herself into position, coughing a silent cough and pulling the few blankets she had found around her shivering body.

[Raphael Hugo]

Raphael had fallen asleep inside the school. He didn't know why he was here; it wasn't like he ever attended class in this city or even the entire of Pennsylvania. But he had found that the school provided some sort of attraction to him, even though his high school years riddled with many unpleasant memories.

That is not to say that Raphael didn't like high school. He had pulled through the ordeal freshman year, and while his peers tended to shun him because of his new life outlook, he had remained generally optimistic. Live your life to the fullest, he would tell people. Like I would have done if I could have, he would add silently in his brain. But he wasn't one to sit around and mope; no, not anymore. Raphael was a do-er now, going out into the world to get things accomplished. So why was he at the school of all places?

Why not? His family was in Washingon. Dead. He was dead, too, of course, but he was still wandering around this planet. Death was in the eye of the beholder, he supposed bitterly. But he had found that his skateboard had taken him to the school, and he entered and walked through the once-packed halls. Now all that was left was the bodies littered near the lockers and inside the classrooms. Grotesque, twisted bodies of students who did not realize their end was so soon. Raphael's heart went out to them, and it pained him to see them so. He was fortunate that he had had family to see to a proper burial when he died.

The classroom he slept in was small and deserted, at least when he arrived. He dreamt that someone entered the classroom, but he pushed the thought aside. He had only seen two other people here in the city, and that in itself had been a miracle. His heart beat a little more loudly when he thought that maybe the crazy man had come after him, but he decided that he was only imagining things. He flipped over onto his side and fell back to sleep, his snores light.

[Alathaea Llywenned]

Alathaea fell into a fitful sleep, waking up every few minutes as the night wore on, her eyes continually exhausted. She saw blurs of the same environment; the desks which seperated her from the outside world, the windows, blinds open, slices of light smashing against the tables of the room. She kept herself in a catatonic state, not moving for what felt like an hour. She stirred slightly, ever so slightly, once or twice. Movement in millimetres.

And then, a sound. Very faint, a rustling, but it was enough to make Alathaea tense her muscles, like a cornered Jaguar. Her eyes cleaved apart the room for details, but she saw and heard nothing more. Now she was scared. Scared enough to do something either very clever or spectacularly stupid. Usually, it was something clever, luckily, but there was a first time for everything, and Alathaea knew even as she spoke it was a mistake.

"H-Hello?" Her tiny voice pierced the night like a sharpened sword, and she recoiled as if that sword pierced herself. She crushed, bunched up, against the wall of the alcove, her terrified eyes swinging from side to side, to other side. What if she had just greeted a rapist? A murderer?

Alathaea crossed her toes silently as the white hot tears began to fall, silent.

[Raphael Hugo]

Raphael was in a fitful sleep. He kept dreaming of strange things and monsters and hell. He shook himself to half-awake at many points in time, but would eventually fall back to sleep. He began to think that he was wrong in coming here, but he knew that he couldn't stay at the grungy little hotel anymore, hiding away.

Just when he was drifting off to sleep once more, he heard a voice in the dark. His eyes opened wide and he rolled on his side to face the rest of the room, peering into the darkness for whatever spoke. I must be dreaming, he told himself, closing his eyes. But now, as he was able to keep his pounding heart under control, he thought he heard breathing. Panicked, rushed breathing. He was afraid to sit up. The dark brought out so many unspoken terrors, and even someone who had nothing more to fear in life could be humbled with the whispers of the night.

He gulped. "H-hi," he responded, his voice sounding obscenely loud in the darkness. He closed his eyes, listening carefully and willing his heart to stop pounding.

[Kathlena Smithson]

Lena walked through the empty corridors of her once belved school, her black boots ehoed off the bare white walls. Sh was dressed in jeans, a white shite and a black hoodie. A black leather backpack hung from her right shoulder, filled with food, a knife, TP, her portable cd player, head phones, a small cd case, a flashlight, a dozen batteries, candles, a lighter and a couple of books; one of them hr bible. Her long black hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail and she wore a black baseball cap pulled down to covr her eyes.

Before.. before.. before the goverment took her family, she use to dress in vibrant colors pink, blue, red, but now her world was full of moving from one place to another never in the same place twice and dark depressing coloors as if she was in mourning.

Lena was waiting, waiting for her brothers to return so that she could go back home and wake from this horrid nightmare. They had left when they had gotten word that Paris was still alive, but like their Father, their Mother died in a matter of moments.

Lena never really understoon, why she and her brothers had survived, she wa glad they did, but was heart broken when she came upon her Father, dead at his desk in his office, in that small room in the back of the house.

The house, the house that Lena worked hard to create a loving and beautiful place to live. She planeted the flowers, the lemon tree, her garden patch. All gone. She hadn't been back since or at least inside, her Father still laying on his desk as if napping. Once a day she'd walk by, maybe grab a lemon to suck on or just stand in the front yard and remember the laughter, the good times. Then she'd move on, always wanting to sleep in her own bed but afraid that she'ld never wake up.

Lena came upon the room she was looking for and opened the door, bfore stepping in, she lookd both ways as if checkig to make sure she wasn't being watched and closed the door behind her.

The room before her was a small room with a black piano, a small grey couch and one table. Moving quickly Lena dumped her back pack out, found a pack of crackers and a bottle of water, she sat down at began to eat her dinner. Noticing the table was a shelving unit, Lena forgot her dinner and knelt before it and opened it, a gasp exscaped her mouth, for inside was a 2 large quilts and several pillows.

Thank you God she whispered pulling one out and laying it on the couch, never really caring that there were blankets and pillows stuffed away at an old mpty high school. Standing up, Lena picked up the boox of candles and her lighter and began setting them up around the room and lighting them.

After she was finished Lena sat at the piano and softly started playing. Losing herself in the music that she once use to take for granted.

[Alathaea Llywenned]

The darkness choked at Alathaea, despite the rays of light that filtered through. She moved very slightly, her ears pricked for any sound, her pale pinched face (as it had lost a lot weight and bone showed through) showing a look of absolute terror. She shifted again, faint noises in the background keeping her on knife's edge. Faint footsteps, doors opening. There are people here. The darkness never seemed so terrifying. And suddenly, a voice.

"H-Hi."

She jumped, smacking her elbow against a wall, the echoing sound clattering through the room. Alathaea knew she had been found. She jumped up, grabbing a makeshift knife from underneath her blanket. She stepped, shaking, out of her alcove, holding the blade just above eye-level. Her pupils were tiny, within huge eyes which stared, protuberant and obviously petrified.

It was then that she heard the music. The soft tunes of a piano flowed through from another room, an eerie ethereal sound which terrified Alathaea even more.

She stood, stock still, and began to cry with fear.

[Raphael Hugo]

Raphael's heart nearly stopped not when he saw the figure with the knife but when he heard the eerie chords of the piano music. He loved to listen to music, alright, but there was something creepy in the way it echoed in the empty school, like memories of the previous inhabitants floating throughout the halls, unaware that they had died and moved on.

Like Raphael. No, not like Raphael; he hadn't moved on. Death was with him, but at the same time it was so far away. He swallowed hard.

But he pulled himself back to the here and now, focusing on the girl with the knife. That's all she was, a girl. And now she was a crying girl. The noise hit Raphael's ears and reminded him of his own little sisters, who were probably crying only a few days ago when they realized that death was upon them. He immediately felt bad for the girl and stood up, ignoring the knife (it can't hurt the dead anyhow) and moved over to her. His hands were held in the air, palms open to show her that he had no more weapons.

"It's okay," he said in a calm, soothing voice, the fear that he had--even for the piano--immediately smothered with his sadness. He moved close to her and said, "It'll be alright."

[Kathlena Smithson]

Lena didn't know that there were others in the two story building, but as the music filled her soul, she began to feel like her old self again. As she sat there, hre loong fingers moving over the ivory keys perfectly a soft voice escaped from her lips...

You and I
long to live like the wind upon the water.
If we close our eyes, we'll maybe realize
there's more to life than what we have known.
And I can't believe I've spent so long
living lies I know were wrong inside,
I've just begun to see the light.

Long ago there was a dream,
had to make a choice or two.
Leaving all I loved behind,
for what nobody knew.
Stepped out on the stage, a life
under lights and judging eyes.
Now the applause has died and I
can dream again...

Is there anybody listening?
Is there anyone that sees what's going on?
Read between the lines,
criticize the words they're selling.
Think for yourself and feel the walls
become sand beneath your feet

Feel the breeze?
Time's so near you can almost taste the freedom.
There's a warm wind from the south.
Hoist the sail and we'll be gone,
by morning this will all seem like a dream.
And if you don't return to sing the song,
maybe just as well.
I've seen the news and there's
not much I can do...alone

Is there anybody listening?
Is there anyone who smiles without a mask?
What's behind the words--images
they know will please us?
I'll take what's real. Bring up the lights.

Is there anybody listening?
Is there anyone that sees what's going on?
Read between the lines,
criticize the words they're selling.
Think for yourself and feel the walls...
become sand beneath your feet.

As she say the last notes, Lena began to cry. She put hr face in her hands and wept for deep down she knew, knew that her brothers and sister would not being returning to her.

Wiping her eyes, Lena stood up and with all her strength pushed the piano bench in front of the door before locking it. She quickly blew out the candles around her except for a few and got ready for the night. Sh had enough food and enough faith tolast her a couple of days in her tiny little hole.

Silently she knelt after trying to make the couch as comfortable as possiable, and in that postion she began to pray her rosery clasped tightly in her hands.

[Alathaea Llywenned]

Alathaea's eyes scanned the room, the sound of the piano still resonating eerily within the confines of her mind. She saw the shadow and the light as beings, monsters, animals; fighting and swiping within the walls of a house of teaching. Alathaea was scared of this places history. Did people ever learn here? Did they come here every day, have friends here, do sport here? All she felt and smelled and saw was death. And all those kids, well, likely all those kids, dead. It chilled her bones.

The man had come closer, assuring his harmlessness to her. She stared into his eyes, any vestige of bravery or standoffishness gone. She trembled, and dropped the blade, which landed on the floor with a thud.

She began to hear singing, eerie and detached. It reminded her of a ghost, chorusing into the shadow. With a deep breath and a flicker of eyes to the wall, she admitted a truth spoken to nobody in the entire world, and whispered croakily. "I'm...scared."

[Raphael Hugo]

Raphael stopped. "So am I," he admitted. He glanced away to the knife on the floor. The singing only made it worse. It was beautiful no doubt, but at the same time it filled up this building with memories of the past, majestic and tortured now. Maybe one day he would look back on his fright and laugh at how foolish he was, but for now the terror was alive and tangible in his mouth in the form of stomach acid. He swallowed to make it go away.

"I'm Raphael," he said, his voice still quiet.