Chapter Two

On the bus ride to school, I sat with my best friend Demetria. Demetria and I have been best friends for as long as I could remember. Again this brought the question of why I could not remember how anything in my life had come to be. But I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want people at school knowing me as “Eva, the girl whose childhood memory has evaporated into thin air". I tried to turn my attention to something a little less harmful to sanity. "So" I said to Demetria, “what are you doing after school?" Demetria did not even turn to me as she continued to turn the volume up on her iPod as she listened to Bass-hunter. Her dark almost metallic red hair bounced to the rhythm of the music. Demetria's style was a little out there. She had six metal rings in her left ear and four silver studs in the right. Her eyes which were a dark green were almond shaped and covered in black eyeliner. She wore skinny jeans with a black and white top and purple van. Now all this came as a shock to people usually because it was obvious she was very pretty. She was very tall, 5'11 at least with a good shape. As we took the turn that would take us to school I noticed for the first time the people sitting behind us. They sat motionless, expressionless, faces forward not talking to anyone. They could have passed as siblings if they tried. They were all pale and dark haired and dark eyed. They sat with a sublime grace that made me very interested in who they were and why in the world they were here in my little city of Augusta, Maine.

We pulled into Greenbrooke High School. Mrs. Baxley, the vice principal, was walking around on her little sausage legs stuffed into high heels, yelling at kids for staring at her wrong. Demetria and I slipped off the bus and into the school parking lot. It happened so fast that I didn’t even notice it until it had already happened. As we walked up to school one of the kids I had talked about earlier brushed past us, hitting Demetria's shoulder and pausing to look back and meet her eye. And that was where it all began, and I how I am currently bringing you into my story. For the rest of the day Demetria was odd. She was not her usual bubbly chatty self. She was quiet and alert like some kind of watchdog. I didn’t see the kids from earlier again that day. They had simply disappeared. They weren’t in the hallways between classes or in the lunchroom. They were simply gone. As we walked back to the bus at the end of the day, Demetria had grabbed my arm and was practically steering me directly into the bus. "Would you cut it out, what is with you today?!" I practically yelled to her. She simply looked at me, let go of my arm and muttered a "whatever", before she climbed into the bus behind me. Once we got to our seat I made a move to set my backpack down when Demi held her arm out and said in an urgent low tone "I need to sit by the window today." I looked at her like she was crazy. Her attitude was really making me mad now." You need to sit by the window?" I was fully aware that the bus driver was yelling at us to take our seats now and many heads were turned in our direction but I didn’t care and neither did Demi apparently. "Look, it's not a big deal, just let me sit there." I silently moved out of the way so Demi could slide in to the seat next to the window. Once we sat down and got going, Demi seemed to relax a little. "So, did you guys have a good time?" She asked almost tentatively. I tried to understand what she was talking about. When I couldn’t come up with a response, she laughed and said "DID....YOU.....AND.....DAVID....HAVE.....A....GOOD....TIME....AT...THE....MOVIES....FRIDAY?" Oh, I relaxed and simply said "Well other than the fact he talked about himself the whole time, it was fine I guess." Demi watched my face for a second before she whipped her head back to the window and peered out as if she looked away or blinked terrible things would happen. But somehow that sounded oddly appropriate. No, I shook my head. That was ridiculous, everything was fine. But that was the last time I thought that. Once we were off the bus and I was about to start walking to my house, Demi cleared away any doubts that there was something wrong. "Listen, Eva, go home. Go straight home, and don't stop or talk to anyone. I'll see you later and explain everything, trust me." And with that, Demi practically ran back to her own house. And me? I turned around to go back to my house, expecting the worse.