|
CHAPTER 1 - Exploration Of The Unknown.
Hanako tugged at her short and pleated navy-blue skirt and sighed. For the
third time she had been sent to the principal's office for being late. It
wasn't even as if she was that late. Fifteen minutes at the latest. But
that's what happens when you have just moved cities. Your internal body
clock gets all screwed up. To make things worse...much worse... she had
transferred to the new boarding school which was particularly up-tight,
probably because it was a catholic school. It even had masses with a church
and everything.
"But Auntie!" she had bawled, "I don't even believe! Why are you sending me
to that stupid school!"
Her Aunt Erika just rolled her eyes and carried on washing the dishes.
"I told you, Hanako. It's an extremely good school, just look at the
national records. It's extremely hard to get in. We were very lucky to enrol
you, so you should thank God, whether you believe or not."
Hanako growled and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her. A
moments silence past and she reappeared again, waving a stiff
catholic-school girl uniform.
"And look at this!" she waved it furiously. The dark blue blazer and white
shirt flapping as she shook it.
"Yes, Hanako. It's your new uniform. Now put it back before you get it
dirty."
Hanako stamped her foot and whined.
"It's pervy!! Look how short this skirt is! It's half way up my thighs! And
knee high socks? And a tie!!? Give me a break!"
Erika slammed the cup she was cleaning into the sink full of soapy water.
White foam burst into the air and dissolved into colourless liquid onto the
kitchen floor. She turned around and advanced fiercely on Hanako. She
grabbed her wrist and dragged her toward the door, forcing her out of the
kitchen into the hallway. Erika stood in the doorway, her yellow
rubber-gloved hands resting on her hips.
"If you think that, Hanako, you are the only pervert! Now you are going to
that school whether you like it or not! So go and get the maid to help you
pack! You are leaving in two days time, and I, for one, will be glad to see
the back of you if you are acting like this!"
Hanako snapped back to the present. She huffed, chagrin overflowing, and
crossed her arms. The secretary eyed her from across the room.
"Please go on into Mr. Staffs office. He's waiting for you."
Hanako gave a final yank on her skirt and opened the door, stepping inside.
The room was large and the walls were suprisingly bare, holding only a large
crucifix and the occasional painting of an unknown saint. All the clutter
seemed to have a home on the principal's desk. Random sheets of paper and a
few coffee cups formed a layer on the desk, hiding the brown shading of the
wood.
"Ahh! Hanako. Back again I see."
Hanako didn't respond and shifted her weight onto her other foot.
"Sit down." he gestured to a leather bound chair opposite him. Hanako
accepted his invitation and eased herself into the seat. She crossed her
legs, but her skirt slid up, revealing the majority of her flesh. She
uncrossed her legs and adjusted her skirt. Annoyance seeping out of every
pore, she looked steadily at the principle, awaiting what he had to say. He
ignored her and began ruffling the papers on his desk, adjusting his files
and rummaging around in his drawers.
"Was there a reason you wanted to see me, Sir?" she asked impatiently.
"Oh!" he said nonchalantly. "I wasn't prepared! I didn't think you'd mind if
I kept you waiting. I mean after all, you do it to us."
Hanako sighed and leaned forwards.
"Sir, it was an accident. I still haven't adjusted to the early mornings."
He frowned at her as he stood up and paced the room, avoiding her gaze.
"Four times is not an accident, Hanako. It's sloth."
Hanako smiled inwardly.
I wondered how long it would take get down to the seven deadly sins rubbish.
"Sir," she replied condescendingly "It was only three times. Are you really
not organised? Because I thought you were just acting like that to prove a
point."
The principal span around, severely angry. He reminded Hanako of a large,
brown bear, right down to his hulking figure and thick gingery moustache.
"Listen to me, Hanako! You have four weeks detention! One week for each
tardy and extra for your rudeness!"
Hanako stood up, aghast.
"But Sir! That's way too harsh!"
"But nothing, Hanako! You must learn! All you will do here for four weeks is
attend classes. For each break-time and lunch time, you will report to the
detention hall. At the end of the school day, you will not be dismissed. The
same for the weekend days. You will report to the detention hall and do
homework and you will not be attending the Autumn formal. You are lucky your
grades are well above average, if not, you would of been expelled. Maybe
then you will develop some respect. You are dismissed."
Hanako's mouth hung open.
"But Sir! You can't ground me! Especially at the weekends!"
"I said you are dismissed Hanako. Now go to class."
*
Hanako looked up from her biology workbook and eyed the clock impatiently,
while the rather garish crucifix stared at her from the front of the room.
She didn't even know why she was so impatient to leave. All that awaited her
this Friday was a weekend in detention.
This school is insane she thought. Why are they so obsessive? And besides,
what type of sister would sit in the detention room with me all weekend
long? Its pathetic.
She would of given anything to go back to her home, even if she had to stay
with her strict and controlling Auntie while her parents where missing. She
had no more tears to shed for her lost parents. She didn't even know if they
were still alive. All she knew was that they weren't around, and that there
was nothing she could do about it.
She felt frustrated and tired, not to mention extremely bored. Three hours
ago the church bells pealed for the end of the day. While the other pupils
charged towards the sunlight, laughing and smiling, Hanako trudged to the
barren detention hall. A few people, at that time, were present in the hall,
but they were long since dismissed. Hanako guessed that she had to stay
extra because her reputation as an argumentative trouble-maker was famous
throughout the whole faculty. She looked over her shoulder and a strange
sense of embarrassment overcame her. She was the only person in detention
hall besides the elderly sister that sat at the front of the room reading
the bible and occasionally glancing up to check on what exactly Hanako was
doing.
"Excuse me, miss. Eyes on your work please."
Hanako rolled her eyes and carried on making notes in her text book. Out of
the corner of her eye, she noticed a flash of red shimmering through the
glass of the detention window. She turned her face slightly behind the book
so not to be noticed by the sister. She glanced out the window and noticed a
red-headed boy looking at her, one hand placed on the glass. His head was
cocked slightly at an angle, making him seem inquisitive. Out of impulse she
looked the opposite way to see if it was really her who the boy was looking
at. It had to be as she was the only person in his line of view. Her eyes
flicked back to the sister, then back to the boy, her face twisting slightly
in anxiety. The red-haired boy smiled knowingly, his eyes boring into her.
His hair was short, yet boldly coloured against his pale skin. Hanako
frowned at him, feeling naked under his gaze. He smiled, lopsidedly,
exposing a few white teeth. This made him look sinister, like a predator
with an intense gaze. She shuddered. In her daze, her pencil dropped to the
floor, clattering noisily against the tiles.
"Hanako. I told you..."
"Yes... sorry, sister."
She smiled innocently and the nun stood up, her chair scraping on the floor.
Hanako looked back at the boy through the window, but he had disappeared,
leaving only in her view, a yellow-orange sunset and the branches of the
trees framing her vision.
The sister sighed tiredly.
"Okay, Hanako. Return to your dorm room. Be here tomorrow at 9 o'clock
sharp. If you are even a second late, I will extend your punishment further.
Do you understand?"
Hanako stared at the grey and wrinkled face of the spectacled nun and
smiled.
"Of course sister. Wouldn't dream of it."
*
The moon light filtered in through the curtains of Hanako's dorm room on the
first floor of the east building, glazing the floor with an egg-shell white
sheen. Hanako's eyes fluttered open and she groaned, rubbing her eyes with
the fingers. The shadows scaled her room, darkening the corners. Hanako
located her electronic clock in the dark and she sat up, listening to the
silence, confused about why she should be awake at this ungodly hour of 4
o'clock in the morning.
A crunching noise outside the window caught her attention and she flicked
her head towards the sound, uncertain of whether she heard something, or
whether she had just imagined it.
A deep grumbling noise rumbled in her ears, a guttural growl with tones of
warning. Despite herself, she crept to the window and peeped out of it,
keeping herself crouched low behind the curtains. The moon was full and
beautiful as it shone like a pearl. It lit the courtyard as well as any
street lamp. She stared out of the window, her eyes flowing over the gravel
path and over the leafy bushes. Below her to the left she heard a snarling
noise, echoed by a rough rustling sound, the sound of dry leaves being
disturbed. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she caught sight of a hulking
creature bathed in shadow. She couldn't make out any intricate details
except that it was a mass of fur and muscle, with two cold eyes that shone
with a heated fury. Hanako gasped and ducked down low, her heart pounding in
her chest. The growling continued, only quieter this time. Hanako eased
herself up and spied out the window. The creature had changed position and
was standing squarely below the window, looking up at her fearlessly. It had
a snout, broad and powerful. It's ivory teeth protruded, slick with saliva
as it heaved in the darkness. It was the size of a horse and twice as
muscled, yet it resembled a dog with it's dense fur and sharp, straight
ears. It was too shadowy to decide upon the colour of it's canine fur, but
Hanako detected a slight chestnut gleam in the light of the moon. It
snarled again, strings of drool splashing the ground. It's huge tail slashed
and flicked, kicking up rubble and dust as it stood up on it's sturdy hind
legs. It's back paws were dog-like in every sense, wide and clawed. They
spanned the ground, larger than a man's head, and, without a doubt, the
ability to crush one. Strangely, the creature had the arms of a human, only
layered with fur. The shape of it's biceps where clearly visible through the
matt. Unlike it's back paws it's front paws were identical to a human hand,
only the fingers were extended in length, tipped by claws protruding through
the hair, razor-like and slick with a dark liquid.
It's amber eyes shone in the moonlight, examining her closely as she did the
same. Oddly, the fear was beginning to drain away and Hanako straightened
herself. In her chest she felt an inward yearn to run outside and fight in
the moonlight with the creature, feel her fists collide with the solid
muscle and her nails rake the flesh. The walls seemed to close in as the
moon hung in the sky and the night was illuminated with a silver sheen. Her
chest tugged with a longing as the shadow of memory clouded her eyes.
She emerged from the dark woods onto her street, lit well with lights
humming and glowing amber.
Her heart was singing with freedom as she glanced up to the full moon, round
and pure.
"Hanako! Get in this house now!! What do you think you are doing?"
Hanako twitched in shock as her Auntie's shrill and disgusted voice sliced
the midnight air. "Oh my goodness! Please, Hanako! Not again!"
Erika rushed from the house over to Hanako and grabbed her by her face. The
smears of mud and sweat showed up clearly in the combination of moonlight
and streetlight.
"I...just wanted to..."
Hanako froze mid-sentence as Erika's stinging slap connected with her cheek.
"You have go to stop this, Hanako. You're scaring me."
Erika had tears in her eyes, her lip quivering slightly. Hanako, shamefaced,
looked down at her muddy hands. She wanted to hug her Auntie and tell her
everything was all right, that she just went into the woods at night for a
science project on beautiful night flowers. But the truth was much more
darker. Alone in her room, when the shadows awoke, she felt a pulling. As if
an invisible string was attached to her soul. She ached for freedom and
action. Her senses felt alive in the midst of her desperation. So she ran,
like a thief in the night into the woods, feeling the energy in her limbs
and the force in her heart. She ran, laughter bubbling out of her like lava
from a volcano, and rolled in the mud, smelling the plants and the wood.
"I'm sorry, Auntie. I wont do it again."
"Okay, Hanako." She sobbed. "But you will anyway, wont you?"
For a moment, time seemed to stand still. Hanako's eyes scanned the beast
and she noticed the torn pants the creature wore, pulled tight across his
girth. They were men's jeans. But who's? What was this monster and why did
it come to her? Was it once human? Was it still?
The thing looked at her and bared it's teeth, its lip curling and snout
creasing. It snarled again, a liquid-filled noise, and returned to it's
stance on all four limbs. It turned around, it's long, muscular back shining
in the moonlight over the belt on the jeans. Over it's shoulder it glanced
at her, exposing it's knife-sharp fangs, before it tore off into the yard
disappearing into inky shadow.
|
