The Fallen Star

The icy air seeped through my clothes and burned coldly against my skin. My breath puffed out of my mouth in a cloud of smoke. I yanked my hood over my head, zipped up my coat, and picked up my pace toward the school. I’d made it about halfway when I suddenly got the shivers. I’d have chalked it up to the fact that it was as cold as 207/695

death out here, but the flash of yellow I saw from my peripheral vision told me otherwise.

I started to jog, my eyes sca

“Oh my God,” I breathed and jetted off in mad sprint, my adrenaline pulsating like mad. The monster was back. Or maybe it had never left. Maybe it had been waiting around for the perfect moment when I’d be wandering around in a dark parking lot by myself.

How could I be so stupid? I’d been so focused on the whole Alex and Sophia thing when, really, what I should have been focus-ing on the fact that there were real-life monsters around that wanted to kill me. And now my

mistake

had

left

me

completely

vulnerable.

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My footsteps thudded loudly as I ran as fast as I could across the ice. I heard a swoosh, and I flicked a glance over at the cluster of trees just in time to see the silhou-ette of an inhumanly tall figure emerging from them.

I ran like I’d never run before. The entrance door of the school was getting closer.

If I could just make it inside the school then, hopefully, there’d be other people around, and I might be okay. But as I glanced back one more time at the monstrous creature, I saw its demon eyes blazing violently beneath the hood of its cloak, and the next thing I knew, it charged for me.

I knew I was a goner.

My skin buzzed, and then I was slamming into something solid. I screamed as I lost my balance and started to fall toward the ground. But someone caught me by the arm.

I regained my footing and jerked my arm away from the persons grip. You might be 209/695

asking, why I was being rude to the person who had just saved me from falling flat on my butt? Because I knew who this person was without even looking, and I didn’t want him touching me, even if he had just saved me.

“What the heck were you doing?” Alex asked, sliding the hood of his olive green coat off of his head.

I backed away from him, putting some space between us. But not too much space since the more space there was between him and I meant the less space there was between the death creature and me. “I was…” I shot a panicked glance over my shoulder. Nothing.

No inhumanly tall figure. No glowing yellow eyes. Even the dim lamppost had burnt out, the only light now coming from inside the school.

My legs felt wobbly and my hands were shaking. “Heading into the school,” I told him as I walked unsteadily past him.

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“But why were you ru

My heart was beating so hard that I almost wondered if it was trying to escape and free itself from this madness. I know I wished I could. I was scared. More scared than I’d ever been in my entire life. “Just leave me alone.”

“No.” He matched my pace, strolling alongside of me. “Not until you tell me what you were ru

I yanked open the door and shot him an angrily look. I wasn’t in the mood for his crap. “Are you going to tell me what you were talking to Sophia about?”

“It was nothing important,” he said indifferently.

I shook my head and stepped inside the warm and brightly lit hallway. Then I let the door go right in his face. I couldn’t deal with him right now. Not when there could be monsters skulking around outside, waiting 211/695

for the moment when they could finally kill me.

The astronomy classroom was packed with people by the time I got there. Some of the people I recognized from my class. Others I’d never seen before. Hold on. Let me take that back. I had seen them. With my town’s population being a mere glitch above 1,000, I’d basically seeneveryone who lived here. I just didn’t know most of their names.

I headed up to my table that I sat at during class. Aislin was already there, wearing a pink fur trimmed coat. The same pink fur also trimmed her gloves and the top of her boots. She kind of reminded me of a big, pink bu

I was really loosing it, wasn’t I?

She was texting on her phone, but glanced up as I sat down. “Hey Gemma.” She smiled.

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The polite thing for me to do would be to smile back. Or at least asked her if she was feeling better since she’d been out sick for the last few days, but right now, polite was not in my vocabulary. So I muttered a grumpy, “Hey.” Then sank back in my chair and stared down at the table.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

I opened my mouth to say…well, who knew what would have come out considering the mood I was in. I didn’t get a chance to speak, though, because Alex showed up and that was that.

“What took you so long?” Aislin asked him, flipping her phone shut.

Alex’s eyes stayed glued on me as he lowered himself into the chair. “I found Gemma ru

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“Yes really,” I snapped, and closed my eyes, trying to pretend he wasn’t there and that the yellow-eyed creatures weren’t real. I tried to imagine that I hadn’t found Sophia and Alex discussing…whatever the heck it was they’d been discussing. That there was no list of dates tucked away in my pocket. I tried to pretend I was just a normal girl whose life made sense.

Problem was, I’d just seen the monster right outside. And that piece of paper with the list of dates on it was practically burning a hole in my pocket. Plus, the jolt of electricity shimmying up and down my back made me hyperaware that Alex was close by.

Still, I kept my eyes closed until I heard a loud clap. Then I sighed and opened my eyes back up.

Mr. Sterling was standing behind his podium. He wasn’t dressed in his normal teacher attire, instead sporting jeans, sneakers, 214/695

and navy blue coat. A black baseball cap covered his bald head.

He quickly took role and handed out a packet of papers to each table. Then everyone filed outside to the bus.

I bounced up and down, freezing and nervous as I waited in line to get on. I didn’t see a single sign of anything yellow and glowing, except for the bus’s lights. I wasn’t going to let my guard down, though. I was going to be very careful and stay close to someone at all times.

A first for me, but hey, this was my life we were talking about here.

By the time I got on the bus, every single seat had someone in it. Great. Where was I supposed to sit?

The little orange lights on the ceiling spotlighted down on me, and I felt like such a loser, standing there searching for someone to sit by. I’d never talked to anyone besides Aislin and Alex. And Aislin was 215/695

already sitting by some guy wearing a black beanie. My only other option was to sit by Alex because, of course, he was sitting alone.

As I deliberated whether or not sitting by him was an option, I walked by Kelsey Merritt. She was sharing a seat with A

Kelsey smirked up at me. “Lost?” she asked vindictively.

I should have known what was coming next, but I was too distracted with the whole where-should-I-sit dilemma, and didn’t notice when she stuck her leg out into the aisle right in front of me. I had very little time to react. I stumbled clumsily over her boot, but fortunately, for the sake of face planting it onto the ground right in front of everyone, I managed to brace myself on the back of a seat.