THE SCHOOL'S DARKEST LIE

Eloun's pov

"Eloun, where are you hiding?" a gruff male voice echoed off the crumbling walls, "You know I'll find you."

I measured my breath, clutching onto my childhood silver hairpin like a lifeline, and given the situation, it might become one.

Moments ago a sharp throbbing splitting my head in half had jolted me awake.

"W-where am I?" I spluttered out, my eyes giving the large building a quick sweep. I was sitting on what appeared to be a stage and curving around it were foldable blue cushioned chairs that had seen better days. "...Mom?!..Dad?!" I called out to my parents and my only response was my echoes bouncing back to me.

Panic slowly began to crawl up my spine, the last thing I recalled was dozing off on my bed in our cabin in the woods, miles away from civilization.

A sharp screech yanked me out of my thoughts and to the open double doors of the building.

"Eloun?"

Hearing my name from an unfamiliar voice made me sprint over to the ragged foldable chairs, balling myself up in the middle row and pulling out my hairpin. Thankfully, the dim moonlight spilled sparingly through broken panes and tattered curtains leaving most of the place shrouded in a blanket of darkness.

Which means whoever this person is, I'll see him before he sees me.

"Eloun..." He called me again walking up the several rows of chairs. "...come out, I've been looking everywhere for you,"

That was the moment I knew this person was a fraud. I was a social outcast and the closest thing I had to friends were my parents, whom I saw once a year.

Nobody else would care if I jumped into a lake, rather they'd look forward to it.

"Eloun!"He slammed a chair onto itself, "I'm being serious, I know you're here come out!"

The deep vibrations of his voice shook me down to my toes, I sank my teeth into my bottom lip. Crouching here like a waiting dock wasn't going to work, I had to be more proactive if I was going to make it out of this, whatever this is.

"I'm here," I called out standing up but holding the hairpin behind my back.

"What a relief," he said and he actually sounded sincere.

Could have fooled me, if only I hadn't been given a master class on trusting no one.

He started approaching me, getting taller with every step. It was still very dark, and it blocked out his facial features, so from where I stood, it felt like a large shadow was coming to swallow me whole.

I resisted the instinct to run.

"Eloun, I'm so glad I found you first-" Before he could say another word I buried the hairpin into his thigh and he screamed out loud like a wounded animal.

I didn't waste a second and ran out, his screams of ripping at my ear canal but I didn't stop, not for a second.

That was until I brushed against something soft and briefly glanced down to stare at one of my school's girls' uniforms, clean and pristine…a sharp contrast to everything around it that was piled up with dust, rot and ruin.

“Eloun!"

I started running again, but not before catching the name tag on the uniform.

Marne…Marne Cooper.

Why did that sound familiar?

I didn't have time to dwell and kept running.

Reaching the quarter-open door, I stood for a second as the cold wind whipped at my face. I gritted my teeth and ran out. My bare feet brushed against the raw grass, each step felt like blades cutting into my skin but I couldn't stop.

Running was the one thing I was good at and I wasn't going to stop now.

My breath became ragged, shivers swept across my skin and each fraction of motion sapped my strength away, adrenaline drained out of my system and just as I was on the verge of collapse-He caught me.

Against the bristle of the cold faded as the guy I just stabbed in the thigh placed his coat over my shoulders.

"Slow down you'll faint," his voice was soft, like the lullabies Dad sang me to sleep.

But trust wasn't something I gave out easily.

I clutched onto the coat but took some steps back.

"What do you want from me? Who are you?"

His face was still blurred by the darkness.

"Eloun, I really can't tell if you're joking right now, how could you not know who I am?"

He tried to reach for me and someone pulled me away instead.

"Keep your hands off my girlfriend!" Another guy's voice hissed from behind, holding me by my waist.

This voice I recognized, there's no way I could forget one of the voices that haunted my nightmares.

Jude Mercer.

He was the right-hand man to the school's Queen bee, her ever-faithful dog that carried out each of her evil bidding.

"Get off me!" I screamed, "There’s no way I would date a jerk like you!"

He didn't let go, and the shadow stranger -what else was I supposed to call him- stepped up for me too.

"She said let go, didn't you hear her?"

"El," Jude ignored him and spoke to me in this syrupy tone that almost made bile travel up my throat. "Don't listen to him look..."

He held up his phone and showed me pictures, each one made my jaw drop lower.

There were pictures of us, his arm across my shoulder. My lips pressed against his cheek and many more that turned my insides.

"Let's go... I'll explain everything to you,"

"You're not-"

"I'm going with him, "I told the stranger. I needed to get to the bottom of those pictures, memories I couldn't recall, then I handed back his coat, "Thanks,"

"Keep it," he said, then"you can return it to me tomorrow,"

Before I could insist, he power-walked ahead.

Jude escorted me back to the infirmary, a place I was more than familiar with thanks to him,

"I'm glad you're okay," he said, pushing back a strand of my hair behind my ear, I flinched from his touch, and his hand pphung mid air awkwardly.

"It looks like you need some time alone babe, I'll leave this with you," he handed me my diary and it felt like getting an anchor in a sea of confusion.

Once he left and the nurse had checked me I flipped through the pages and came to my last entry.

August 3rd, 20××

Hollow Creek High

Diary, you won't believe what happened today. I

Six months?! That's how much I don't remember? How could I have forgotten half a year from my life?

A shuffling outside stopped my panic midway made me lift my head upwards and what I saw made my heart drop to the floor.

A shadow standing perfectly still, staring straight at me.