This is dedicated to dahliasoul for being absolutely awesome ❤️😝

1

Time seems to drag endlessly as I sit in the slightly crooked chair at my chipped school desk. The monotonous voice of my history teacher falls upon the unhearing ears of the class - all of us are too fixated on the plain white clock that's situated above his head which seems to be stuck at the time of 2:48pm - two minutes before the final bell.

After a couple seconds of watching the brittle crimson hand moving slowly around the plain face, my eyes drift towards the window to my left. The sky is a solid deep, dark grey in colour, which dims the brightness of nature below it and appears to be ready to explode. The few trees that are scattered around the school field are shaking violently showing just how brutal the wind is today. The whole scene gives me a bad vibe.

That paired with the lanky, shadowed silhouette of an inhumane being which hovers at the very corner of my vision, but disappears when I blink.

Snapping out of my daze, I look back at the clock, realising that class has now finished. Quickly, I jump up from my seat and grab my belongings before leaving the classroom.

I advance down the corridor and out the schools main doors when I hear my name being called.

"Haven!"

I look to the left and see a tall blonde girl, with large framed glasses rushing my way. I instantly recognise her as Olivia - my best friend. As always, her uniform is precise and neat - the simple grey skirt has it's perfect pleats, her off-white blouse tucked neatly in all the way around the top of her skirt, her plain grey tie that has the logo in the centre is at a length where it reaches the top of her skirt and her black school blazer is held over her thin arm. As she reaches me, I notice a slight sparkle in her large green eyes. "There's going to be a storm later." She says, excitedly. She's always been fascinated with storms whilst I'm the complete opposite. I hate them - It's when most unpreventable accidents happen.

I cringe, "thanks for the warning" I say as I turn towards the main road with her in tow, as she animatedly talks about the upcoming storm.

That's when I notice him.

The familiar taller than humanly possible, dark cloaked figure, who's face is completely invisible. He is stood to the left of a petite girl with a mass of crimson curls that fall around her heart-shaped face, over her shoulders and down her back.  One of his weightless bony hands rests gently on her shoulder. She looks a couple years younger than myself - no older than thirteen or fourteen. Currently she's stood, talking to a group of three other girls that are all around similar heights and wear the schools compulsory uniform exactly the same way. Each of the girls looks different to each other - the tallest girl has straight platinum blonde hair which almost reaches her thin waist, another is a brunette whose hair is in a loose wavy ponytail, and the final girl has sleek raven black hair that gives off a slight blue shine which is tied into a perfect messy bun. All of them look carefree. None of them notice him. None of them know what's about to happen.

But I do.

I turn back to Olivia, my expression probably one of extreme panic as I quickly make up an excuse to leave. "Hey, Liv, my dad is over there, I'll see you tomorrow?" I rush out pointing in a random direction. I don't bother waiting for an answer, as I turn and sprint in the direction of the girl.

He senses me. As soon as I get closer to them, his head snaps up and his shadowed features lift look at me. His brittle skin which I know to be whiter than a sheet of paper is slightly clouded by shadows stretches over his yellowy bones, creating awful dimensions on his face. I look straight into his intimidating hollow, red-tinted eyes, which are glaring hatefully at me, and send him a challenging glare of my own - he should know by now, if I can, I will save those around me, even if I don't actually know them. I've seen what my mother's death did to my father - It devastated him. I don't want anyone's families to go through that, and they won't - not if I can help it anyway.

Noticing that I'm not going to back down, he looks away, back to the road. I follow his gaze. A dark blue Ford Fiesta ST seems to be speeding down the road. Turning back to me, he gives me a victorious smirk before gently pushing the girl, who is stood at the side of the road, looking the opposite way to the car, forward into the path of the Ford. I sprint forward, pushing people out of the way as I run towards her. Just as she takes a second step into the road, I grab her wrist before roughly pulling her back onto the path. Literally a second later, the car zooms past.

The girl looks at me with a shell-shocked and grateful expression. She moves a lock of her crimson hair out of her eyes. "Thank you." she stutters. "I swear, that car wasn't there when I looked."

That's because he blocked it from your view. I think to myself bitterly.

"No problem, and I believe you, just be more careful, okay?" I say with a small smile

She just nods, clearly still speechless from her near-death experience. I smile at her as she walks over to her friends who are all checking to see if she's okay.

I look over at him. Livid doesn't even describe how angry he looks right now. His hollow eyes are now a shining red in colour, and his bony hands are curled in tight fists. He lost another soul. I give him a triumphant smirk before turning and walking away, knowing just how much he wants me dead.

But he can't kill me if I can see him coming.

He could kill me in my sleep, but that's an unfair fight - something even he wouldn't go as low as to do.

He is death, and death plays fair.

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