Chapter 1

My footsteps made little noise as I walked down the hallway, so little noise that barely anyone bothered to notice that I was there. I looked at all the posters in the hallway that were welcoming the entire freshman body; I’m sure some of them would have looked better in color, but living in a parallel universe took that away from us.

            I stopped for a second to look at a particular poster that was made by the humans. It was pretty; it looked like someone had put a lot of effort into it.

            I continued on, walking until I heard a teacher’s monotone voiced coming from a classroom. I stopped in front of the classroom door and leaned against it.

            “. . . the veil is a benefit for the humans; it was created by Death, or the Grim Reaper. We are lucky enough to have him teach here at the school . . .,” I knew the speech by heart, the freshmen hear it every year; I silently mouthed along with it, “. . . The veil separates us from the humans. If the humans were to see us they would be terrified and hunt us until eventually we would become extinct. They call us monsters; however, if they knew us they wouldn’t call us that. This veil acts as a divider and we live in a sort of parallel universe as you probably saw this morning. This veil does have its downsides, for example, our universe is stripped of colors. . .”

            I felt my legs give out, and I let my body slid down to floor. I knew all of that information before I ever set foot in that school. Being Death’s son, I got a head start on my history; I guess that’s why I was sitting in the hallway alone. I was skipping class. Everyone in my class always felt the need to stare at me like I was a lab experiment. I knew everyone talked behind my back. They all wanted to know why I kept to myself.

            I felt a rustle of feathers brush my face, I closed my eyes enjoying the feeling. When I opened my eyes I was looking at my best friend, Phoenix.

            His bright eyes looked into mine, bursting with curiosity; his white hair was falling into his eyes like usual. He wore a black t-shirt and his usual skinny jeans.

            “Hey Fee.”

            “Hey Alexander. Whatcya doing out here?”

            “Avoiding my dad.”

            “Figured. He wanted me to bring you to class, but I guess I can make an exception with your gloomy face.”

            “My face is not gloomy.”

            Fee laughed and ruffled his finger through my thick black hair, his fingers lingering for a just a second longer than they should have. He was always doing things like that; they confused me to no end, but after a while I gave up trying to figure out why he did that. In the end I just made myself accept that he was always going to be that way. That it was just part of who he was.

            “So Alexander, why are creeping on the freshmen classes?”

            “I’m not creeping on them.”

            “Then what do you call sitting outside their classroom door, listening to the teacher lecture them on the history of the veil?”

            “Just listening to the same speech that we were given.”

            “Well, that works too. So I guess we’re both skipping your father’s class today. Not that I mind, it was pretty boring until he told me to come find you.”

            “Well, he’s a boring teacher.”

            Fee just looked at me and smiled. He knew I just didn’t want to get stared at. He knew everything about me.

            “Hey Fee, why did you fall from Heaven?”

            Just then the bell rang, signaling the end of the day. Students, paranormal and human, rushed out of the rooms, almost instantly making the hallways a sea. Fee looked relieved.

            It was a miracle that I even saw her. Being in a world where the colors were stripped made it difficult to tell hair color, but I was positive that her hair was jet black. It fell in wavy layers down her back, stopping at her waist. Her bangs were beginning to fall into her eyes and were obviously in need of being trimmed. Though, see was surrounded by people who looked to be popular, her eyes lacked a happy shine, but no one around her seemed to notice at all.

            I heard someone shout the name Natalie in a cheerful manner, and the girl turned around surprised, then smiled and greeted her friend.

            ‘Natalie,’ I thought, ‘that’s not a bad name. It’s not the prettiest name, but its okay.’

            I felt Fee touch my shoulder, breaking me out of my trance. I looked at him, he looked concerned. He said something, but I couldn’t hear a word he said over everyone else. I guess he noticed because he let out a sigh, leaned forward, and whispered into my ear, “If you keep spacing out like that people are going to think you’re losing it.” He pulled back and smiled at me.

            Fee stood up, and then helped me up. We walked toward the back of the building, like the rest of the paranormal students, and we excited the building. We walked toward the edge of the woods that surrounded the back of the school. We found our path and walked along it until we came to a clearing where a giant abandoned manor stood. My house.

            Fee and I walked to the front door, opened the door, and walked inside. Most would have expected everything to be broken and dusty, but it looked quite nice. It looked like it did before it was abandoned. However, if a human went inside, they would see the dusty, creepy, place they wanted to see.

            I heard a loud thump as Fee dropped his books right inside the front door. He always did that; and when dad got home he would trip over them. Then he would get mad at Fee, but Fee would pull on his angel face and he would be off the hook. It was a forever continuing cycle. It’s been this way since Fee started living with us, and Fee’s been here as long as I can remember. We shared everything; I can’t remember him not ever being here. When I was younger, I would spend hours sorting through my memories to see if I could find one that didn’t contain Fee, but they all did. After a while I just accepted it as fact and let it go.

            “I’m so hungry. Alexander, make me some food.” I heard Fee call from the living room.

            “What am I, your b***h?” I called back in a playful manner.

            “Oh course you are. Now get in that kitchen and make me a sandwich woman!!”

            I walked into the living room laughing. Fee sat on the couch laughing too.  

            It’s when I remember moments like those that I wish I had never noticed Natalie. I wish that what happened a few days later never happened.

Author's Note

So I decided to rate the chapters differntly deppending on what the chapter contained. Sorry if there is cursing in it and I didnt rate it teen. This is a fairly unharmful chapter. And does anybody know whats up with the ' Are You Human?" Test? Its annying. God, do they think Vaccum Cleaners are writing these sotries?