Chapter One

Here we meet our main character, and a mysterious one?

    Delilah sat in her math class staring blankly at the board as the teacher continued to write down notes and problems. Everyone around her wrote furiously to keep up with the teacher, and those that weren’t writing were asleep. She was the only idle one of the group, her thoughts wandering around her family.
    “Delilah!” the teacher called, but got no answer from the girl. “Delilah! Answer me!” she said loudly, this time walking over to her desk and slamming a ruler on her desk.
    The sudden noise caused Delilah to jerk out of her trance. Her light blue eyes shot up to the teacher that was now looming over her. She smiled a nervous smile and scratched her head, shifting her eyes to her paper.
    “Delilah, what about you stand up and answer my question from just now?” the teacher asked, moving her hand in an upwards motion.
    “Okay,” she answered in a quiet and shy voice, standing up nervously.
    Her eyes shot between the board and where she had quit taking notes, it had been a while, she shook from nervousness as she attempted to work the problem on the board out in her head.
    “Well?” the teacher asked, becoming impatient with the quiet girl.
    Delilah let her brown hair cover her eyes as her face became flushed red from embarrassment. She stuttered in her quiet voice as she had trouble finding words, her mind raced for the answer, like her life was on the line.
    “Seventy-three minus x?” she questioned, not quite knowing if her brain gave her the right answer or not.
    “Correct,” the teacher responded, looking disappointed that she’d gotten it right under the sudden pressure.
    The class continued to drag on as Delilah frantically began to catch up with the work, not wanting another situation like that. When the final bell rang, Delilah let out a thankful sigh and ran to the door, not wanting to miss her friend.
    “Delilah!” a sweet voice called out from the other side of the hallway that was crowded with people.
    “Casi!!” Delilah responded, waving her hand rapidly above her head so her taller friend would see her.
    Casi quickly slinked her way through the crowd that was moving like a river through the halls. She found Delilah’s small hands and pulled her to the side so she could make sure she wasn’t trampled.
    “Thanks, Casi,” Delilah told her friend as they walked at the back of the crowd leisurely.
    “No problem Lila, don’t want you to get hurt going home! Especially by getting ran over like that,” Casi explained to her friend as they got out of the school building.
    Delilah looked up at her friend, and watched in awe as her blonde hair played in the crisp autumn wind.
    “Earth to Lila,” Casi chirped, having stopped walking to wave her hand in front of Delilah’s face.
    “Oh, sorry,” she responded, ashamed she zoned out so easy.
    “You’re such an airhead sometimes, you know that?” she laughed, starting to walk once more.
    “Sorry,” she mumbled, pulling her small scarf up over her face.
    “It’s okay, okay? It was a joke, lighten up Lila,” Casi snickered, pulling her scarf away from her.
    They continued their walk home at a casual pace, enjoying the leaves that floated gracefully in the wind as they fell. The colors shone brightly against the dull city buildings, the trees dancing in the wind that was blowing harder now.
    “Okay, this is where I stop,” Casi spoke up, breaking their silence.
    “Oh yeah, bye Casi,” Delilah said quickly, not wanting to make her feel like she hadn’t been listening.
    “Bye bye Lila! See ya tomorrow morning!” Casi told her, waving as she walked away.
    Delilah waved bye to her until she was no longer in her sight, and let out a small huff of having to walk alone to her house.
    “I know I don’t have that far to go… but, still, it’s so lonely.. Why can’t anyone else live this way?” she whined, continuing her walk home.
    She watched her feet as she shuffled along the sidewalk, only glancing up when the sidewalk stopped or another persons feet came within her line of sight. Suddenly, she felt herself hit a solid object, but she hadn’t seen anything.
    Looking up, her eyes met with a man’s ocean blue eyes, and there was something that seemed to register to him, as he suddenly backed up.
    “Eek!! Sorry! I wasn’t watching where I was going it’s my fault, please forgive my clumsiness,” Delilah spit out quickly, and looked away from his eyes, focusing on a tree that was close by.
    “Oh no, not at all, it was my fault for not paying attention! You see, I’m new to this area, so I had my nose shoved in a map of the area… it’s my fault, I’d like to ask you to forgive me for running into you,” the black-haired man quickly explained, holding his hand out as a sort of peace agreement.
    “Okay, I guess it’s okay since we both apologized to each other properly,” she told him, and realized he said he’d been new to the area. “Oh, where are you going anyways? I might be able to help you, I’ve lived in this town my whole life.”
    “That’s great! Would you mind helping me then? Unless it’s a burden that is,” he answered back, giving a nervous laughter.
    “I don’t mind helping you, but only on one condition, what’s your name?” she asked, pointing her finger up at him.
    “Ah, I forgot to properly introduce myself! Oh, I’m an idiot,” he scolded himself, before answering, “My name’s Hagar Nichol! Pleasure to meet you.”
    “Pleasure to make your acquaintance, my name is Delilah Luna,” she responded, smiling slightly as she waited for him to tell her where he was going.
     “Okay, so back to me being lost,” Hagar said, laughing as he looked around for a landmark.
    “Right, where ya trying to go?” she questioned, grabbing the map from him.
    “There,” he responded, pointing his finger to a small cluster of buildings on the map.
    “Ah! You want to go there?! Why?!” she asked, backing up in shock.
    “Why? Cause that’s where my house is of course, but, this map isn’t helping me at all… I only see squares with spots of green,” he responded.
    Delilah took a closer look at the map and noticed that it was hand drawn, and as he had said, was only squares with words and spots of green to symbolize grass. She shook her head at this, but grabbed his arm and began to drag him down the sidewalk.
    “Wh-what are you doing!? Trying to kidnap me? Help!!” he began to panic, waving his free arm frantically.
    “Shush,” she hissed, not wanting to have unnecessary attention drawn to her, “I’m not kidnapping you, I’m taking you to your house! You live in my neighborhood.”
    “Really?!” his face lit up automatically, glad that he knew someone now.
    She nodded her agreement as she turned the last road until the neighborhood, her brain was working quickly to process what had happened. She couldn’t believe that she’d managed to bump into such a nice guy who lived in her neighborhood.
    When she got to her house she turned around and said, “Well, here’s my stop, you’ll want to go down this road, take a right, and then your house is on the left! Bye now!”
    “Thanks again Delilah!” he yelled, waving as he walked away, he added, “See ya tomorrow!”
    “Uh-huh!” she responded, only half-listening to what he was saying.
    When she got inside, she yelled that she was home and went to her room to begin the homework her teachers had assigned her. Then it hit her that he had said that he would see her tomorrow.
    Confused, and her brain overworked from everything that had happened, she brushed it aside and finished her homework as fast as she could. She fell asleep at her desk, pencil and paper in hand.
    When she woke up, she realized that she hadn’t ate supper with her family, and that they were probably worried about her. She changed into new clothes and charged out of her room, bursting into their kitchen.
    “Mama! Papa! Sorry I didn’t eat supper with you last night!” she apologized, grabbing a piece of toast that popped up in that moment.
    “Oh, it’s okay Delilah,” her father responded, and her mother added, “We figured you fell asleep at your desk from homework again, you’ve had so much of it recently, you worry us sometimes.”
    “Sorry, Mama, Papa, I’ll try to finish it faster next time,” she answered, swallowing the last piece of toast rapidly and drinking her glass of orange juice set out by her mother.
    “Okay, and have a good day at school,” her parents said together as they waved her off.
    “Mama’s always felt lonely ever since big brother left for college,” Delilah sighed, not paying attention to the man who was quickly catching up to her from behind.
    Suddenly, a pair of hands grabbed her from behind and pulled her back, covering her mouth so she wouldn’t scream. She began to kick at the person hard, hoping to hurt them enough to make them let her go.
    “Whoa, whoa, calm down Delilah!” a voice laughed.
    Delilah looked up and met Hagar’s ocean blue eyes, she bit his hand to get him to let go.
    “Hagar, you scared me! Don’t do that again!” she scolded, calming herself down in the process.
    “Sorry, I won’t do it again,” he apologized, letting his eyes wander to the ground.
    “Hmph, I accept your apology this time, but what are you doing here?” she asked him.
    “Oh, I’m going to school! Since we live in the same neighborhood, I figure we probably go to the same school!” Hagar responded with a smile on his face.
    “Fine,” she answered, “Just don’t let yourself get carried away, okay?”
    Hagar smiled as she turned back around and walked away, glad that someone so nice was the one who he’d accidentally bumped into. He followed her quietly until they got to Casi’s house, where Delilah randomly stopped.
    “Eh? Why we stopping here?” he asked, a frown forming on his smiling face.
    “Why? Cause this is my best friends Casi’s house! She so nice and beautiful too! You’ll love her!” Delilah explained, not thinking about anything she said.
    “I see,” he responded halfheartedly, not entirely listening himself.
    “Lila!!! You’re here!” Casi called out as she ran over to her friend and tackled her in greeting.
    “Hi Casi! This is Hagar, he just moved here, be kind to him,” Delilah said, introducing her new friend.
    “Hi Hagar! I’m Cassandra, but call me Casi!” she told him as she began to drag Delilah off.
    “Okay, wait, wait up you two!” Hagar cried out as he began to follow the increasing speed of Casi.
    “Don’t wanna!” Casi yelled to him as she sped ahead.
    “Casi?! What’re you doing? Hagar’s our friend!” Delilah complained as her feet struggled to keep pace with Cassandra.
    Once Hagar was far behind and well beyond ear-shot, Casi stopped running and let Delilah catch her breath, patting her on the back slightly as she struggled to keep her breath even.
    After waiting a few minutes, Casi explained, “Lila, I don’t trust him, he just doesn’t seem trust-worthy to me. Like he’s some sort of monster or something just waiting to hurt my poor innocent Lila!”
    “Casi, aren’t you over-worrying? Besides, I’m not technically yours… just a good friend,” she answered.
    “No, you are my most precious friend, and I won’t let him take my place… I mean! I won’t let him trick you, yeah, that’s better,” she responded, lowering her voice as she went on.
    Hagar caught up a few minutes later, after Delilah had managed to convince her friend that he wasn’t a bad person, but in fact very nice. They spent the rest of the walk to school discussing the new schedule of running Delilah would be taking up in a few days.
    Delilah jogged everyday in hopes of one day becoming a world-record marathon runner, and occasionally, Casi joined her on her runs. She explained carefully the stretching procedures she would use to warm-up and how she used not to even run a mile-a-day.
    Once she reached the end of her explanation, they arrived at the school grounds. They walked slowly inside, not wanting the school day to start after such an awakening morning, which was rare for Casi and Delilah.
    A loud ring came from the bells set up periodically in the hallways. They were old and broke constantly, but the school refused to get rid of them, claiming they were preserving a piece of history. The crowd began to shift and became like a sea in an instant. The powerful currents of the crowd impossible to get free from unless you used a wall for support.
    The halls were too small for the number of students, and it looked like a can of sardines. The walls were cracked from age and door hinges broke a lot. The doors were unmarked as to what class they were, and the numbers worn away from constant touching. Administrators promised that it’d be fixed soon, but students were doubtful.
    Delilah remembered all of this as she wormed her way to her first class of the day, history. As she was about to walk in, a strong grip grabbed her arm and pulled her backwards, dragging her against the crowd. She followed the hand to the face of her captor, and found it to be Hagar.
    She was about to ask him what he was doing, but they walked into a small guidance counselors room. Hagar left her at the door and went to the desk, whispering frantically to the frustrated lady.
    After what seemed like short arguments back and forth, the woman finally handed him a small piece of paper and pointed to Delilah.
    “Okay! Let’s head to class!” Hagar told her happily, smiling a cheeky smile.
    She nodded and took a quick glance at his schedule, and much to her surprise, it looked just like hers. She was glad she had someone who she knew in her classes now, she was too shy to make friends on her owns. Delilah hoped that would change now that she was friends with Hagar and he seemed pretty sociable.
    She led him to class quickly, and a feeling of panic washed over her as she realized they only had minutes to make it to the other side of the school. The bell rang once more just as they stepped into the door.
    Whispers erupted as soon as they walked in, some loud enough to be heard, and most about Hagar. They commented on how serious he looked, and why he was with someone like Delilah. Her face was red from her quick sprint to the class. Delilah had always had a problem with her face flushing whenever she ran, no matter how short the distance.
    “I wonder what they were doing?” a girl commented on one side of the room.
    Another girl responded with, “I dunno, but, by the way Delilah looks, must’ve been something big!”
    Rumors were created instantaneously about the new guy and Delilah, she just wanted to die. She quickly covered her embarrassed face with her hands, and briskly walked to her desk. Once there, she sunk as low as she could while still able to see the board.
    That class went on for what felt like forever to Delilah, the whole class excited from the entrance they made that morning. When the bell came for them to go to the next class, Delilah was the first one out the door. She didn’t bother to help Hagar out, not wanting to embarrass herself once more. Rumors would definitely fly faster if she went to her second class with him too.
    “Ah, Delilah, you’re here earlier than usual,” the teacher commented as she was the first one in.
    “Oh, yeah, my mom told me I should try to work harder at school,” she lied, hoping the teacher didn’t ask for more information.
    “I see, did you hear we got a new student?” she asked.
    “Oh, yeah, I did, but, I don’t think we’d get along,” she lied again, sitting down to indicate she was done talking.
    The teacher took note of this, and when Hagar came in she put him to the right of Delilah, claiming she wanted them to become friends, much to Delilah’s horror. When people got through the doorway, no one made any comments out loud, but people were giving Delilah a few looks.
    She decided to go to sleep in that class, not wanting the students to question her about the morning’s events. Her decision on going to sleep didn’t go well as the teacher kept calling on her to answer questions, seeing she was falling asleep. Delilah half-heartedly took notes the rest of the class, eyeing the clock like it was telling the future.
    Lunch time finally hit, and she rushed out of her second class quickly. Somehow, Hagar had managed to get a schedule that matched hers, so every class she was stuck with the rumors. They had grown quickly, and now they were beginning to question her morals.
    “Lila!” Casi called, waving from the other side of the cafeteria.
    Delilah waved exhaustedly back, inching her way over to her friend slowly. She sat down and sighed as if she had the whole worlds weight on her shoulders. Casi smiled gently and rubbed her back, giving her a quick massage to relax her nerves.
    “Go to sleep, ‘kay?” she whispered, feeling Delilah’s muscles relax under her fingers.
    “Mm-hmm,” she responded, already half-asleep.
    Hagar sat quietly and watched the two friends, observing them as if they were mysterious unknown creatures. Delilah quickly fell asleep, silently breathing with her eyes shut tight over her crossed arms. A jacket had been put over her head so the light wouldn’t bother the girl.
    Casi ate in silence, not daring to start conversations with the boy who dared to make friends with Delilah. Her sandwich was simple, only peanut butter, and she had some chips. Her choice of drink was water with flavored powder. Hagar had brought some rice and a cut up apple, he ate quietly, trying to think of something to talk about.
    “Bell’s going to ring soon, Lila,” Casi said, breaking the eerie silence that had fallen around them.
    The girl stirred gently from under the blanket and stretched as she yawned. Rubbing her eyes, she glanced at the clock on the wall and moaned, not wanting to go to class. The days had been long, and they wouldn’t get any shorter, she could figure that out herself.
    Much to her general surprise, her last class went by quickly, but the walk home dragged on, Casi giving Hagar a death stare the whole way.
    “Casi, he’s not that bad, really,” Delilah tried convincing the girl, to no avail.
    “I don’t care!” she responded stubbornly, crossing her arms and turning half-way away from her friend.
    They continued to debate how nice Hagar was until Cassandra had to go to her house, after-which, a long silence fell over Delilah and Hagar.
    “Wanna go for a run with me?” Delilah offered, trying to break what she considered an awkward silence.
    “Really?” he asked eagerly, having never been invited to do something like that before.
    Delilah nodded quickly, “Plus, you’ll get to know the city a bit better.”
    Smiling, he answered, “I can change, right?”
    Once again she nodded, but this time she stopped walking while he kept going. She was already in her jogging clothes, but she figured an inexperienced jogger like him would want cooler clothes.
    She waited patiently on a bench, making a map of her route in her head, she figured she’d go past the school, probably to the small train station in the middle of town, then turn around. She thought about how Hagar might not be able to run that far, and debated cutting the route in half. She figured jogging just to the small corner store past the school would be far enough.
    “I’m back!” Hagar called from afar, wearing gym shorts and a light t-shirt.
    “Great! Ready to go?” she asked, standing as he paced towards her.
    Nodding, he readied himself to jog when he got beside her. Smiling, Delilah counted to three, said to follow her, and ran. The jogged at an even pace till they got to the school, then she quickly picked up speed.
    “A race?” he asked, huffing from being out-of-shape.
    She nodded, not wanting to waste her breath on speaking, and charged forwards. Hagar quickly picked up speed himself, not wanting to be left behind and lost. He was examining his surroundings the whole way, trying to remember the spots and what it looked like. A small grove of apple trees lay between an open field and the school.
    A man was walking up and down between the lines mowing the grass quickly, rushing to get the job done. He kept missing spots occasionally, and Hagar slowed as he missed the spots. Hagar almost yelled to the man, he had raised his hands up to his mouth so his voice would resound better, but Delilah yelled for him to catch up or she’d win.
    They ran into the corner store quickly and without caring about the old man behind the counter yelling for them to stop running.
    “Water?” Delilah asked, grabbing a couple of water bottles out of a cooler.
    “Sure,” Hagar huffed, having trouble catching his breath.
    “Here ya go,” she responded, laying coins down onto the counter to the grumbling man.
    “Thanks,” he answered, catching the bottle as she threw it to him.
    They stood around for what felt like hours, talking about whatever came to mind. They sat casually at a small table the owner had in a corner, and kept their voices low so that they wouldn’t bother anyone who came in. After a bit, the old man behind the counter became frustrated with the two, and threw them out of the shop, telling them they were loitering.
    “Oh well, grumpy old man, he was mumbling the whole time,” Delilah laughed.
    “I guess,” Hagar agreed cautiously.
    She shrugged it off, and looked at the sky, it was getting dark, she’d spent more time there than she’d thought.
    “I think we should head home, it’s getting kinda late,” Delilah suggested, turning to face her friend.
    “Yeah, I hope my parents aren’t mad at me,” he told her, worry filling his voice.
    “I’ll tell them it’s my fault, I am the one with a watch after all,” she explained, turning to jog away.
    “Okay, you sure?”
    “Yeah, it’ll be fine, trust me.”
    “Okay… let’s go!” he finished their conversation, jogging ahead of her this time.
    Together, they began their jog to the small neighborhood they lived in. Patiently waiting for traffic lights to turn on cue, and for the crosswalk to become available for them to use.
    The night life in the city was bustling, cars sped up and down the narrow, winding streets, headlights on their brightest, music blasting from the occasional car. Delilah smiled at this life, one that not many saw for themselves, as many went to sleep to early to see this bright city.
    “Almost home,” Delilah called behind her, looking backwards as she began to walk across the crosswalk.
    “Yep!” a voice answered, but it wasn’t one she recognized, and for a minute, she stopped, turning to see who it was that answered.
    All she saw was Hagar staring at her wide-eyed, a look of horror crawling slowly onto his face. His mouth was moving as if he was yelling something, but no sound came out, not that she heard anyways. He began to move, but it was as if he was crawling, she couldn’t figure out why.
    For a few seconds, she felt lighter than she’d ever been in a long time, and then a crashing pain hit her. As if a whole ocean sat on top of her, crushing her lungs and holding her still so she couldn’t move. Thoughts flashed through her mind, and adrenaline began to pump through her.
    Barely moving, another round of pain shot through her body, but she turned enough to see Hagar running towards her, a crowd gathering, and a car zooming away. It was a small car, but the color was hard to make out, she couldn’t even tell anything else around her either.
    She shut her eyes, letting her breathing calm her down. She felt hands move her slightly, and she cringed in pain, not wanting to move from her comfortable spot. Delilah opened her eyes for a split second, enough to see her arm was in an odd position, and she shut her eyes once more.
    “Delilah! Delilah! Please, answer me!” Hagar cried out once more, lightly touching the broken girl with his finger tips.
    However, he got no response, she was already turning pale, the color draining quickly. People were gathering and the car was long gone, no one had even gotten a glance at the license plate number, it was too quick. They were close enough to their neighborhood for them to start running out of their houses.
    One of the people who arrived on scene quickly was Cassandra, and she pushed her way aggressively through the crowd. Casi finally made it to the front, but fell to her knees, tears overtaking her. The wind blew gently, as if to try to calm the girl from the horrific scene in front of her.
    There Delilah lay on the ground, broken and fragile, like an old porcelain doll. Her arms were contorted and her legs splayed, blood was seeping quickly into the cracks of the road, and began to pool. Her eyes opened partially every now and then, but fluttered quickly once more, she didn’t respond to a word anyone was saying.
    When the cops got there, they were given a vague description of the car that had hit her, and the paramedics immediately checked Delilah for any signs of life. They lifted the girl carefully onto a stretcher where they quickly began to give her CPR. After several tries of that, plus a defibrillator, they pronounced her dead.
    “Delilah Luna, just seventeen years old, has died. At seven o’clock and fourteen minutes. Cause of death, heart failure and internal bleeding,” a paramedic announced, having found her wallet, and needing to record this information.
    Cassandra watched in horror as they put a sheet over her friends body, and she turned around in time to catch Hagar running off, with what looked to be fear spread over his face. Casi was sure he hadn’t done it, Delilah had trusted him, so she did too.
    “He’s horrified, he watched her die right before his eyes,” she told herself, gasping for air from the sobbing she had reduced herself to.

Author's Note

Oh, I hope that wasn't too long and terrible! This is just a huge draft of our book in progress, so any minor errors aren't fixed.