Hello again, back with more writing to assault your eyeballs! It's 'ItWasTheVoices' again :D. Still working on something with my latest story for 'Oh-My-Music-Idol'. I somehow ran into writer's block, and I don't really know how to get out of it :(. For now, if you're bored, here is a story I didn't really finish when I decided to go with 'Angels and Bloodties'. If you have any advice on writer's block, leave a comment on the review page!

Chapter One

"This can't be happening. This CAN'T be happening!" panted a terrified girl. The girl's rapid steps crunched on the grass. She runs into trees and shrubs in Evergreen Park, her eyes darting at every shadow she passed. She squeals tripping over a tree root face planting in the tall grass. The girl turns her head and shoots up from the ground sprinting again with gasping breaths. Her fear was catching up with her, her sense of calm was weaning. Wine colored irises spot the fleeting glimpse of a phantom's cape hopping from the shadows of the foliage.

The girl's chest started to tighten, her lungs starved for air, and her feet cramping from the nonstop running. She dials out on her phone again, the reception still dead like it had been for the past ten minutes. She growls in frustration over her convenient inconvenience of a cell phone. "For GOD sakes! Whoever you are, leave me alone!" The schoolgirl shouts with panted breaths.

A warmth erupts from her hands, neglected by the girl who used them to cover her head when a bizarre flash of pink streaks above her head. She hears the pained grunts of her pursuer fall backwards. The girl refuses to look back to see, her eyes focusing ahead on the park pathway and her mind replaying her recent past.

Earlier that day when she first woke up, it was like any Monday. She routinely popped her head from the pillow, at the chime of her phone playing her obligatory xylophone ringtone. One she wished she would have changed. She performed her morning routine of throwing off her oversized tunic and puts on her latest school uniform for that year. She brushed her frizzy hair into tamed short wavy curls, brushed her teeth, and shuffled her way to the kitchenette to eat a piece of toast. The young girl grumbles with restraint, cursing in her mind over why they had to go to school on a Monday. She snorts at the asinine thought of the headmaster making the students makeup one day of school on a Monday, just because they cancelled school one time over too much ice.

"Fucking school can't handle a few icicles," mumbled the grumpy adolescent.

The girl leans over the table munching on her toast, mentally psyching herself for later that day. She was looking forward to it, the first fun thing she got to do with anyone her own age since last year. "Josie said they'll be some food at the school festival later. Better not eat too much before then," droned on the girl. The food wasn't the most important thing, anyway, just being able to hangout with other people for once was just a breath of fresh air for her. The girl downs her milk in a few gulps, when she notices her mother being absent from the room. "She must be sleeping…good! Maybe I can leave here before she wakes up."

The girl's hopes were dashed when she hears the balcony door to the apartment open and shut. Her mother striding into the sitting room with an exhausted face as she rubs her eyes and yawns. The older woman's fatigue did not appear to show on her flawless bronze complexion, not even a wrinkle to show off her age. The schoolgirl briefly envies her mother's youthful appearance. The woman who was probably pushing forty looked like a younger woman no older than twenty-four. The mother's grey eyes shift studying her daughter dressed for school, the elder already showing her reservations.

"Why are you dressed so early?" Asked her mother.

"I'm not, it's almost 7:45. I need to be at school for the May Festival today. Josie invited me to hangout with Hector and Abby." The schoolgirl shuffles off from the kitchenette sink and walks back to her room to fetch her backpack. The girl is stopped by a soft hand on her shoulder from her frowning mother.

"Lydia, listen to me, I don't think going to school today is such a good idea. After what happened recently, I think it may be time for us to plan our next move." The girl responds by rolling her eyes at her mother, griping when she reaches her bedroom door. "Why can't you just let me enjoy something for once?!" shouts the disappointed girl.

"I have my reasons for this, Lydia. You need to stay home this week from school," The woman's voice commands her daughter like a Sargent commanded his cadets. The young girl groans, "You always do this! I finally make friends and you start freaking out when I want to go do stuff with them."

"Lydia, I won't argue with you about this again. You are to stay home and that's final!" The woman sees the girl step out of her bedroom still dressed up for school. Sunglasses were already on her face framed by her wavy black hair, with her small blue backpack now hauled over her slim shoulders. "Did you not hear your mother?" The woman glared. Lydia continues her defiance and glares back at her mother.

"I'm sick of fricking hiding at home every time you start to have an anxiety attack. He would have let me go!" cried the aggravated girl.

"Well he isn't here is he?" replied the exasperated mother. The girl lowers her head hissing at her mother, "Liar…"

"What was that?"

"I said I'm late for school! You might be fine with hiding from the world, but I for one want to live like a normal person. I'll see you tonight," the girl starts walking out the door with her mother chasing her to the elevator. "Get back here, young lady. I forbid you from leaving this house!" The girl's mother could not catch up to Lydia as she briskly walked out the sliding door down to the elevator. "You need help mother! The sooner you realize that the better!" The door slides shut to the elevator with the woman holding her hands to the door, gawking at her daughter's willful defiance.

The girl was quickly on her way to school, pushing her way through the crowded streets of the metropolis. She nearly blended into the crowd of civilians, with wine colored eyes hidden from the world through her dark shades. The teen adores the stylish shades covering her eyes, adding some sense of edge to her dorky school uniform. The girl enjoying the idea of school, but never seemed to enjoy the uniforms she was forced to wear. This uniform was her latest fashion tragedy every day she left the apartment on a school day. It wasn't bad in her standards of school uniforms, just reeked of the most basic, milk and toast blandness of an outfit, that barely even flattered her. Her skin felt drained of color wearing her tan sweater vest and short white collared shirt in the humid May, showing off her school logo on the chest pocket. The grey pleated thigh length skirt billowed at the lightest breeze.

"Forget Mom, Liddy. Just think about the festival today. You can always apologize later," Lydia mumbles to herself. She walks forward into the train, speeding off four more miles to her now temporary school. The girl could see other students riding the rails as well as the usual stiffs that worked near or at the military facilities. Many were in their own cookie cutter uniforms with their own arbitrary color combinations. One that stood out to her was a clean uniform combination of the scientists in crisp white and royal blue, who were chatting up on the train like the average shmuck. Lydia glares at them with some disgust at the pretentious looking men and women riding with them, mumbling about the rich engineers from that company headquarters acting all humble that they took the train today. She snorts and looks away spotting another one of them with some brief intrigue.

He looked like he belonged with those smug ingrates, clean cut in his white and blue lab uniform. The length of his coat looked like he was a supervisor or a Chief of his department, with a stern R.B.F. to match. His hair was a dirty blonde that was spiked at the ends, sea blue eyes covered with a pair of studious square glasses. The scientist and the girl share a few minutes of direct eye contact when she feels his eyes upon her with a curious gleam. She makes a face at the man and breaks eye contact when she moves closer to the train doors. The girl glances back to see the man gone, brushing it off as the guy moving back into the crowd. The train itself then comes to a slow stop, bringing her closer to her destination.

After she got to school on foot, she shuffles into the building with the other students. The mass of high schoolers looked zombified like a mob of hibernated bears forced to wake up. Lydia admits she must have been the ONLY kid in the entire school who wanted to come that day. Even if this whole thing was for stupid reasons. The only thing that made it bearable was just the festival itself, which was basically a bribe to get people to show up. She sighs at how the bribe certainly worked on her and her new easily amused group of friends. Lydia herself just couldn't wait to see how fun the festival would be, this supposed school carnival the talk of the neighborhood when kicking off the two-week break from school. The still intrigued girl hums with excitement in the sea of still zombified teens already planning her afternoon of fun. The girl reaches the doors of the school with her ankle boots touching the threshold, suddenly overwhelmed with an odd sensation.

The sensation, a feeling that stops her in her tracks by the door, compelling the girl to figure out where this odd feeling came from. She felt it before, felt it creep up her spine several times in the past, like she somehow had an ice cube touch the back of her neck. This odd feeling, she had known, and yet…she couldn't place where it was coming from. The girl stands there frozen with concern, the unshakable impression that something or someone had their eyes on her. The feeling follows her when she shakes her head walking up to the third floor of the school. The feeling follows her all the way to her desk, following her eyes to the board, the teacher already droning on about the newest debate in the science world.

The feeling pesters her thoughts, the girl silent throughout class not even paying attention. Instead she starts to listen to this feeling, this odd sensation that was annoying her. She listened, and she listened quietly focusing on what it was.

It was silent, taciturn, almost bearing into her soul. She felt like a specimen under its gaze, studied to fulfill its own curious purpose. Her ears subtly pick up something from the odd sensation, something she didn't think was possible. Tapping, she could hear something tapping on another surface. The tapping almost as annoying as the eerie sensation she felt linger with her that whole morning.

Geez, it was annoying!

The tapping was coming from outside. The girl's eyes twitched thinking about that annoying light tapping, entertaining the idea that she was starting to go crazy when she sees nothing. The girl's wine-colored eyes glimpse out the window, a vision of someone tapping his hand on a hard surface, sitting with the gaze of a fascinated cat. Watching, waiting, sitting, observing something. Just what were they observing?

"So, do you always have your head in the clouds, or are you just that bored?" The girl with dark black hair jolts back from her daydream to look at the face of her peeved friend. Josie sat across from Lydia in her maroon desk with a playful pout. She twirled the contents of her bento box with her chopsticks, eyeing the inattentive girl's untouched tuna sandwich and juice. Lydia didn't realize she had daydreamed her whole morning away. She didn't even realize she had gone through the motions of preparing and sitting down for lunch.

The girl in front of her pouts in her matching uniform and twirls a few strains of black hair from her ponytail. The short Asian girl keeps eyeing her peculiar looking friend with brown eyes, studying the girl's withdrawn behavior that morning.

"Let me guess, you had a fight with her again," suspected the pouty Josie.

"What, no! It wasn't a…okay we had another fight." Lydia crosses her arms when she is welcomed into the embrace of reality.

"What was it about this time?" Josie muffles after she pops another rice ball into her mouth. Lydia sighs at her friend welcoming the chance to complain.

"My mom, my mom has gotten back into her weird habit early this year. Before we move off to the next place, she always has me stay home from school for about a week before the move happens. Then suddenly we pack up and leave."

"Bitch, that sounds awesome. I can't even beg my parents just to stay home," gawked a jealous Josie.

"Yeah, well, your parents at least don't force you to fricking move every year," glared Lydia. Josie waves a hand at her fuming friend and smiles.

"Come on, girl. Isn't that part of your mother's job moving around a lot?"

"Well yeah, but…it feels like something more than just that." The dark-haired girl stares out the window, intently staring at a spot on a neighboring rooftop beside the urban school. She looks at the spot she thought she felt that odd presence. The girl turns over to Josie with an uneasy frown.

"Josie, do you ever feel like you're being watched?" Josie rolls her eyes at Lydia and scoffs, "Yeah. Right now, I'm being watched by that fuck tard Ricardo from his group of merry nerds."

"I'm serious, JoJo! Ever since that party I had at my Mom's place, I've been feeling like someone is following me everywhere. Hell, I even made myself look like an ass in front of my mother today, calling her out on her paranoia. All that just to hide the anxiety I had about someone watching us," Lydia frowned. Josie sighs and pats the girl with her chopsticks giving Lydia a pitying smile. "You sure you wanna stay later for the school party then? It's early release today for the holiday break, so you can go home if you have to," Josie asks. Lydia looks at her with a determined stare.

"No, I planned on staying for the festival today. Besides, if I leave after school, I'm worried it may be the last time I see any of you guys." Lydia frowns before finally eating her lunch.

"Right, I get it. So, your mom isn't going to freakout about you coming home late again?"

"Let her freak," sneers Lydia. "I'm not going to let her issues ruin my last day before the break." Josie begins to grin mischievously. "Good, because I got a few things planned for the five of us when the festival comes around. This is going to be sweet!"

The schoolgirls sat close to each other during their lunch period with her mind clearing about the spine-tingling sensation she felt that morning. The festival later she looked forward to had lived up to her expectations. She had raised hell with her four friends running around the school festival eating junk food, playing carnival games, and flirting with the somewhat cute looking boys in her class. It was what she needed, fun. Something that didn't seem to happen much these days. Lydia remembered leaving her friends laughing and parting ways close to Kuffner street when they all left to go goof around at a tea shop. She looks through the pictures on her phone giggling at the selfies she took with Josie and Roslyn, cracking up at the surprise photo of Hector messing with Abby. Lydia smiled walking down the street feeling thrilled for that afternoon.

Lydia strides down the sidewalk feeling nothing different going her typical route home from school. She then feels a warm breeze tickle her face, the teen standing calmly about to cross the street on that late spring afternoon. The girl crosses the crosswalk with over a dozen pedestrians rushing through the streets of the metropolis. Her dyed black hair felt slightly windblown as she rushed across, her strides slowed by a gust of wind billowing her pleated skirt. Her shoes clicked while her small blue backpack pulled on her back like a miniature anchor. Liddy glances down at a phone gripped tight in her hand. Her faded reflection reflects a pair of sunglasses back at her, the petite feminine frame forced into her tan sweater vest and a white collared shirt.

She looks down at her girly ankle boots and grimaces when she hears a car horn honk at her to hurry up. The girl moves out of the way of the impatient driver and continues walking down the sidewalk. She flips through her phone noticing the time as she scrolls down to her mother's phone number. Lydia hesitates to press the dial button on her phone, a shaky thumb pressing the button after a minute. To the girl's disappointment, the phone gives off a no dial tone, acting as if the signal in the area was lost. In fact, the phone signals were terrible there for the past three days since she walked that area. "Figures," grumbles the schoolgirl as she walks. Lydia leisurely goes down the sidewalk glancing behind her when she spots a black shadow dash from her peripheral vision. A sudden eerie feeling of dread takes over her again, the teen turning around to walk with quicker strides away from the shadow. She almost walks past the gate to a lush park walking down the sidewalk, her mind acting quickly with an idea. The girl was running late getting home, and lucky her, the park had a shortcut to get to the train faster.

The schoolgirl enters the park without hesitation with such sound logic over her alternate route. She hums softly an old metal song, tapping her fingers on her blue backpack strap. A rush of cold air blows past her sensing the shadow again. Lydia instinctively began to walk faster through the park with steps clicking like an increasing metronome. The miniature backpack attached to her back hung looser as she lost focus on holding onto it. Something billows in the wind like a cape as the black shadow passes her for what was the sixth time walking through the park's path. Each time she saw the shadow dash past her behind trees and corners, her heart raced with built up anxiety.

This feeling overwhelmed her. She felt unsafe, and whatever it was, it made her want to run, somewhere, anywhere. She needed to escape!

The metronome of her steps quickens when the black shadow is merely a few feet from her, reaching for her. Lydia's wide eyes looked startled as she holds her hands out to defend herself, a pink light flashing briefly across her vision. She blinks and sees the man fall back to the ground, wearing the most bizarre getup she had ever seen. His entire body was covered from head to toe in black, his outfit adorned with a hooded black cape and an unsettling black mask befitting an old-fashioned plague doctor. Lydia screams and runs off the path with the black clad man briefly stunned.

So, there she was, the teen cutting through trees and shrubs before stumbling into another walkway leading towards a stairway. Her boots clicked rushing down the stairs with the black clad weirdo surely on her tail. Indeed he was, Lydia glimpsing him again trying to dodge some swirling pink lights. The girl shakes her head trapped in panicked bewilderment at the whole scene, wishing her cell phone was working. "Did-did I eat something drugged?!" scoffs the skeptical girl.

"I-I got to keep running. Keep running, go get help. Oh my GOD where is anyone when you need them," yelled Lydia. The girl reaches the end of the stairway panting when she spots a man by the park fountain standing leisurely. His back was turned away from her unaware of the scene that was occurring near him.

The panting teen scrambles to the innocuous bystander, her body getting a second wind to run up to him. The girl has a feeling of embarrassment build up in her, acting like a helpless maiden. She couldn't help it, everything just built itself up around her, suffocating her. She needed help, help before something terrible happened.

Please someone help her.

Lydia reaches the man dressed in dark business attire; the girl touches his slender blazer not caring how crazy she probably looked. Her voice cries out when she tried to speak in a hurried panic to the white-haired man, "Sir, please! Please, you must help me, there's a man tryi- "

There was that feeling again. That pesky, annoying, eerie feeling that followed her that day. It followed her when she left her mother for school. It followed her throughout her class day, it followed her with her friends. It followed her when she said goodbye and walked home. It followed her when she was being chased by the masked man. It followed her when she touched his shoulder, red eyes following her every move. Her frantic cry for help cut off by that brief glimpse of red eyes, that eerie feeling pulling her down, down into a quick, spotted, swirling black oblivion. Even then the red eyes followed her, leaving her this odd feeling. This feeling that left her…cold.