ʙᴇꜰᴏʀᴇ ʀᴇᴀᴅɪɴɢ: ᴛʜɪꜱ ꜱᴛᴏʀʏ ɪꜱ ᴄᴏᴍᴘʟᴇᴛᴇʟʏ ꜰɪᴄᴛɪᴏɴᴀʟ. ᴀɴʏ ꜱɪᴍɪʟᴀʀɪᴛɪᴇꜱ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ᴄʜᴀʀᴀᴄᴛᴇʀꜱ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀʟ-ʟɪꜰᴇ ᴘᴇᴏᴘʟᴇ ᴡʜᴏ ᴀʀᴇ ʟɪᴠɪɴɢ ᴏʀ ɴᴏᴛ ᴀʀᴇ ᴄᴏɪɴᴄɪᴅᴇɴᴛᴀʟ. ᴛʜɪꜱ ꜱᴛᴏʀʏ ᴛᴀᴄᴋʟᴇꜱ ʜᴀʀꜱʜ ꜱᴜʙᴊᴇᴄᴛꜱ ꜱᴏ ᴛʜɪꜱ ꜱᴛᴏʀʏ ɪꜱɴ'ᴛ ᴍᴇᴀɴᴛ ꜰᴏʀ ʏᴏᴜɴɢ ᴄʜɪʟᴅʀᴇɴ ᴏʀ ᴘᴇᴏᴘʟᴇ ᴡʜᴏ ᴀʀᴇ ᴇᴀꜱɪʟʏ ᴅɪꜱᴛᴜʀʙᴇᴅ. ᴛʜɪꜱ ɪꜱ ᴀʟꜱᴏ ᴀ ꜰᴀɴᴛᴀꜱʏ ꜱᴏ ꜱᴏᴍᴇ ꜱᴘᴇᴄɪᴇꜱ ᴀʀᴇ ʜᴀʟꜰ ʜᴜᴍᴀɴ, ʜᴀʟꜰ ꜱᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴇʟꜱᴇ. ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ᴀʀᴇ ᴀʟꜱᴏ ᴄʜᴀʀᴀᴄᴛᴇʀꜱ ᴡʜᴏ ᴀʀᴇɴ'ᴛ ʜᴜᴍᴀɴ ʙᴜᴛ ᴛʜᴇʏ ʟᴏᴏᴋ ʜᴜᴍᴀɴ. ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴀʟʟ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴏᴜᴛ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴀʏ, ᴏɴᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴛᴏʀʏ!

I wake up to a dry trail of drool. Sitting up, I see I'm in an empty classroom. "Guess I fell asleep again..." Sighing, I stood up from my seat and packed up my stuff but was stopped from a slam on my desk. Tilting my head up, I see something scary. "M-Miss Chisaya!" It is Miss Chisaya, my slutty homeroom teacher who calls boys her 'test subjects'. "Your conduct is inexcusable! Sleeping in my class again, I'm going to write you up. Anyway, here is the homework and your report from last semester. Take care." She leaves the room as I look at my test scores. Hmm... better than before. "Can't believe you're doing well in school after sleeping in class so much..." A voice from behind me speaks as I jump in my place. Looking behind me, I see my best friend, Betha Caliente, the 'beauty genius' of the school. Or that is how the boys describe her. Yes, my school is full of cliches. "Betha! Don't scare me so much!" Aggressively, I take the papers off my desk and place them in my bag as she laughs. "Sorry... want to go get some food before we go home?" she asks as I nodded excitedly. Giggling, we exit the school and walk towards a famous burger joint in our part of town, Prime Aigis is the name.

All the while, the two of us were wondering who Miss Chisaya's next 'test subject' will be. Most students do this since it is the only interesting thing in school. "Maybe Sherman Irvine? I saw her looking at him at lunchtime..." Betha's suggestion sounds reasonable but I have another suggestion. "That's a good one. But what about Andre Westwood? He has been popular for a while and she scoped out all the other popular guys. He is the last one left." We continued to go back and forth in the restaurant until the sun was about to go down. We walk in the direction of our houses and once we make it to the crossroads that separate our houses. If you want more of a description of Betha, here is a doozy. We met when we were able to talk, along with this boy named, Yuuki Chevi. He still hangs out with me most of the time but he tends to stay away from Betha. She does the same and not one of us knows why. Anyway, We grew up together and went to the same school and we were inseparable. But everything changed when her mum signed her up for modeling. She has less time for school work and hanging out with most of her friends but she always saves time to hang out with me. Betha was going to stop this year but they offered a better deal for a few more years. I'm guessing that it's all her looks, her ombre green hair matched her bright pink eyes, tanned skin and her wardrobe filled to the brim with mainly purple.

Now that you know what Betha looks like and kind of know what type of character she is, you are probably wondering, who am I? What weird thing that will start everything? Well, I can answer the first question. For the second one, you have to read on to figure out. Anyway, my name is Ariadne Philia, a 13-year-old girl who goes to Coastal Linear Intermediate (CLI) . I have snow white hair, very pale skin and dark blue eyes. Anyway, I continue my walk home as I see my older brother, Owen Philia, walking home from the other way. I yell out to him as he ignores, walk into the house and leave the door open. Sighing, I walk into the house, closing the door behind me. My eyes start to droop a bit so I walk into my room to get changed. I pull out my blue pyjamas that was decorated with daisies scattered everywhere. Like a cake with sprinkles on it. I also take my ponytail and wrap it in a top knot bun then walk out. Stepping into the kitchen, I see two cases of fried rice and a tray of chicken nibbles (basically mini chicken) and chips.

My family is one of those who make dinner every day but every now and again we would get takeaways from our local Chinese takeaways. "Hey, sweety! Go and get yourself a plate!" my mother's, Nina Philia, a warm smile makes me smile back at her. Her short light brown hair fell on her shoulders, blue eyes sparkling as always on her creamy skin tone. I walked up to her and hugged her as she hugged me back. My head reached up to place my chin on her shoulder because of how short I was. I let go and start to fill a plate with mainly fried rice but a few chicken nibbles. Sitting at the table, I have a view of the T.V. as it shows the news. It must be around 8.

'Hello and welcome to the news. I am Willis and I am here at the last known stop of the disappearing school buses. As you all know, these string of events started when the school year started and the bus depot doesn't know what in the world is happening. All they tell us is that there are only two school buses for a school zone. Be careful students who take school buses to avoid this situation.'

I sigh and begin eating. These things started around the beginning of the year and they slowly grew to be a larger threat. At first, I thought it was a prank but it is getting really serious and real. This started to threaten my school so the students stopped taking school buses and getting picked up by their family. In the middle of my meal, my brother sits down across from me and starts eating. At this time, mum and dad are out of the living room and either went to their room or on a mini drive somewhere. I don't mind this and continue eating until I hear his fork clink on his plate. Looking up, he seems to be holding back tears. "Bro...?" I have a worried look on my face but instead of acknowledging me, he takes his plate and goes to his room. I know he's a crappy brother but he's still my brother. Now it's just me in the dining room, eating alone. Until a sound distracted me from eating. It sounded as if someone was scratching the glass. Opening the curtain, I see a black cat with bright blue eyes. I stare at it as it does the same. Eventually, it places its paw on the glass while I do the same with my hand.

*blink* *blink*

I give a friendly smile while it looks like it yawned. "Aria!" I hear my mum as I turn my body around. "Coming!" I turn back, "Bye little fella!" my hand left the glass as I closed the curtain and quickly walked to my parents' room where my mum was. "Get ready for bed honey. Shower and prep your lunch tomorrow okay?" She tells me as I nod. I leave to head for the bathroom, taking my towel from the rack near the bathroom door. I turn on the water while I place my towel and pyjamas on still in the room. I take the rest and place them in the hamper. After about ten minutes, I exit and wrap my towel around my small figure. Looking around, I spotted a towel turban my mum and I use so I put it on my head to allow my hair to dry. I walk to the sink and begin brushing my teeth as my mind wanders about the missing children cases. I don't know if anyone at my school was kidnapped but I hope not. I know almost everyone there because of me being bubbly and knowing that they were kidnapped, makes my stomach clench up.

I spit out the toothpaste out of my mouth and go into a drawer only mum and I know of. It is a drawer filled with stuff we need and it includes undergarments. I take mine and begin to dry off and put them on along with my pyjamas. I leave, still the towel turban on my head, to the kitchen to make me some sandwiches. I take the bread and hazelnut spread and all together make four sandwiches and place them in my lunchbox. Along with those, I grab a juice box and place it inside with a few nectarines on the side. Yawning, I go into my room and face plant onto the bed, covering myself with my duvet.

Meanwhile...

??? POV

Really? It had to be this girl right here? You've got to be kidding me... eh, whomever I'm protecting doesn't matter as long as I do my job. I have to do it quickly then...

Ariadne's POV

I wake up to the soft sun rays on my eyes. Fluttering my eyes, I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I get up and walk to my mirror and see my hair is everywhere. On my face, sticking up, this happens every time I wake up early in the morning. I take my brush and begin brushing the lion's mane down. Afterward, I take my pale yellow scrunchie and tie up my hair into a ponytail. Looking behind me, my uniform lays messily on the ground. I take it and start changing into it. It was a classic white, short sleeve blouse, a yellow necktie, a yellow plaid skirt and a pair of fishnet stockings along with normal black shoes. The school allowed for the uniform to be altered as long as we either had a classic blouse or a dress shirt. I walk out to see my brother, still in his pyjamas. "Tell mom and dad I'm sick." He orders me as he walks back into his room. He has been missing a lot of days of school lately and giving the same excuse every time. Sighing, I got to the kitchen to see my mother frying up pancakes and my father sipping coffee and reading the newspaper of the week.

"Mom, dad?" I quietly asked as they looked at me. "Owen says he's sick again..." Trailing off, they look at each other and nod. "Here is your breakfast honey. I'll inform the school so I don't get a call from them." My mother grits her teeth while leaving a plate of stacked pancakes. I ate in silence, only the sounds of my father sipping coffee and flipping newspapers. In the background, I faintly hear my mom in the other room talking through the phone. I finish eating and take my bag on the couch and set off to leave. "Bye, everyone!" I yelled out and left the place. On my driveway, I see a familiar black jeep just resting there. I look on the plate and recognize it immediately. Just then, someone calls from the passenger's window. "Are you going to jump in or walk to school?" It was Yuuki Chevi, my other best friend. With a chuckle, I opened the door behind Yuuki and sat inside. On the driver's side was Yuuki's dad and behind him was a cage that held his cat, Peach. Through the bars, I pet his orange-colored fur softly as she purred. "Peach is going to the vet today. We want to see if she's pregnant yet since we've been breeding her to a white cat." Yuuki's father informed me as I nodded.

He started breeding her to this other cat for about a month I believe. They promised to save my family the lightest peach-colored kitten. "Aria, how good have you gotten?" Yuuki's father asked me and I instantly knew what he meant. I'm in the school choir and is currently the fourth best girl in the whole group of twenty-one. He wants me to sing. "I'll let you be the judge of that if Yuuki performs a duet with me," I say with a smirk as he groans. "Fine... what song...?" Yuuki reluctantly answers as his father and I chuckle. "All we know" Telling him as he coughs to get ready. 

https://youtu.be/O6fhUy_U4z4

Connor Maynard= Yuuki                            Harper= Ariadne

We finish the song and my face begins to flush. This happens every time I finish singing a song. My choir teacher says it might be that I put my heart in singing that it leaves me a little breathless. I shake it off as Yuuki's dad looks taken aback. "You have improved, better win the trophy!" This makes me smile. We reach the school and exit the car while waving goodbye. "Riad!" A female voice calls from within the school. They run out and I know who exactly she is. It was Sachya, a girl from the school choir who was the third best girl. She had indigo hair tied into two space buns as it matched her glowing silver eyes. "We have a meeting NOW!" She pulls my arm into the school. I look back and see Yuuki just laughing. I flipped him off and continued being dragged. It was annoying but I felt lazy. She took me to the music room, where we always held meetings, and I saw the teacher, Mr. Kawa, and all of the other members. Once we got inside, I decided to count everyone for some odd reason. One, two, three. They are the worst bunch. Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. A group of friends who talk about weird stuff. Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen. GAH! STOP MOVING! Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty. Wait, twenty? I count again and it is still twenty. There is usually twenty-one at every meeting...

KNOCK, KNOCK.

The whole group looks over to see a girl. She had indigo hair with navy blue streaks which were tied into a side ponytail with a beaded hair tie and a side bun on the other side with a ribbon. It looks like she tried the space buns look but it didn't work. She also had a sleeveless, black and white striped blouse and the school skirt along with purple diamond design socks and black shoes. "Sorry I'm late..." her soft voice fills the room as she walks in. She is Sachya's twin sister, Sachyko Eastwood and soon to be head of the family. Rumours says she's a witch but I don't think so. "It's okay Sachyko, we didn't start yet anyway..." The teacher told her as she walked towards the group. "Okay! Now that everyone is here, I'm going to inform you all that we are in the finals and going up against Coastal Gradient Intermediate!" All of our eyes widen at the fact. What he's talking about is that our school signed up for the 'International Choir Championship' and this is our first time going into finals. "The items we have to perform are 'Men's solo, Women's solo, Men's duet, Women's duet, Mixed duet and finally, Whole group'. Next meeting we'll do sign-ups."

We disperse afterward and I just look at Sachya while she looks to explode. I sigh, I ask her what's up. Wrong move... "YOU NEED TO DO THE MIXED DUET WITH ANDRE!" Her ear-piercing scream makes me cup my ears with my hands. "Why do you do this? And why would I do a duet with Andre when I barely know him?" Uncovering my ears, I fold my arms with a tone of annoyance. She breathes and begins to speak, "Because you are the ones improving the most in the group! Plus you both have chemistry, remember the duet you both did back in middle school?" "That was the worst excuse ever. Yeah, we're improving the most but he has many admirers who would rip me apart. For the other one, one duet in the past doesn't mean anything." I bluntly tell her as she sighs and drops the subject. She's always been like this, shipping the two of us together. It does get annoying but Andre and I learned to deal with it or at least I have. If I'm being honest, I actually will be okay to have another duet with Andre but the thing is that he has a harem that is ready to kill on sight. I haven't talked to him ever since then but I think he forgot about me anyway so I don't care either way. The bell rings and I go to my first class.

~Time Skip To After School~

The last bell rang. I couldn't do much work since I was thinking about this morning. Both the choir stuff and Owen. Should I sign up for it? Why is my brother acting weird? My head is spinning. Soon after I bump into something and fall on the ground. I look up to see I didn't bump into something, but someone. It was a girl for sure. She had indigo hair with navy streaks in a side bun and side ponytail. Oh wait, it's Sachyko. She sits up. "Oh my life, I'm so sorry Sachyko!" I stand and offer my hand. Cautiously, she takes it and I help her up. "Thanks. Riad, right?" her monotone voice asked and I just nod. After her dusting herself off, she bows slightly and leaves. "D-Do you know her?" A boy said behind. I jump and see Yuuki. His stutter threw me off since he never stutters. "Um, yeah. She's in choir and Sachya's twin? Why you ask?" With a smirk on my face, I see his face heat up.

Confirmed, Yuuki likes Sachyko. "Just admit it Yuuki, you like her. I'm gonna play matchmaker." As I finished, his face was bright red. Chuckling, I take his arm and lead him out of the school. We stop at the fountain because I see Betha, just standing there. She looks at us, smiles and waves. With a smirk, I rush and grab her arm. I continue running until we make it to my house. Looking behind me, Yuuki looks out of breath and Betha almost about to fall. Chuckling, I open the door and see Owen on the couch. He sees us and leaves. "Dinner is on the table. Mom and dad are out again for a month..." were his last words until we heard his door shut. So mom and dad aren't here? I shake it off and walk to the kitchen. On the table is a big bowl on the table, filled to the brim with mom's tuna egg salad. Guess she made this before she left. "Yo, we got food!" I yell out and the others walk in and grab a bowl.

The entire time I was serving them food, there was this aura of uneasiness. I know why the two stopped hanging out with each other after the 4th grade. Four years with zero contact with each other? Sounds rough. That is the reason for dragging them here so that they can be friends again. I don't know what happened between those two but they need to make up. I miss hanging out with just the three of us, together. I finished serving us and we went into the living room, putting on cartoons that were on. Wasn't important, all about that time that was important, was that the aura was still there. The sunset an hour ago and Betha got a text from her mom, saying she would pick both her and Yuuki up. The aura was so strong. It was intense awkwardness, and I knew they felt it too. I was saved by a knock on the door. Jumping over the couch, I go to the door and see nothing. Just then, something grazed against my leg and I looked down. It was a black cat with bright blue eyes, looking at me. This was the cat from last night. I awed at the site and picked it up.

Hmm, no collar. Can't be a stray, they don't go up to humans. Must be an owned cat that doesn't have a collar yet. "Is it mom?" Betha's voice broke me out of my daze. I guess I was out for a moment since they were looking at me weirdly. I turned around and they saw the cat in my arms. "You got a cat now?" Betha asks as I shake my head. "This one just came to the door and came rubbing against my legs." I respond as they give an 'oh' expression. Yuuki looked like he had something to say until a car horn sounded from outside. It was Jenna, Betha's mom. In a flash, Betha grabbed Yuuki's arm and ran to the car, shouting bye to me. They wave from the car window as they drive past. Smiling, I walk back into the house, close the door, and let the cat run free. "You can stay in here for a bit but you have to go to my room soon," I tell the cat as it just meowed and laid on the couch. Ugh, it's gonna be a long night. With a sigh, I flipped onto the couch and turned the T.V to my favorite anime, Persona 5 ~ Fallen Trickster. It's about a girl named Akano transfering to a school in the city because of a criminal record and becomes a Phantom Thief with her new friends to fix the broken society they live in. It's amazing! I'm up to the episode when Akano and her obvious love interest, Ryuji are out looking for clues.

~Time Skip To After The Episode~

Holy shit! I can't believe this... I mean we knew he was an evil little shit but not THIS evil. My lord, this changes everything. Anyway, it's late and there's school tomorrow. Standing up, I pick up the cat and walk to my room. Letting the cat down in my room, I closed the door, off the light and changed into my pajamas and walked towards the bed. Just before I jumped into bed, something stopped me. Something, that no one would have ever thought.

"Wait."

The voice was cold. I turned around to see no one but the cat. I must be hallucinating.

"You're not hallucinating."

There it was again. Sound like it was coming from... the cat? I must be going crazy...

"No, you're not."

Just then, a flash of light engulfed my room. Once it faded, a boy that looked around my age was where the cat was. He had shaggy black hair and light blue eyes, like the cat. He was also wearing a grey sweater and blue jeans. Two more things that stood out to me. One was his set of black cat ears and the other was a black tail. With this shock, I backed up to the wall too much that I slid down to the ground. Fear was dominant on my face. "Ariadne Phila, right?" his question rang in my ears and I nodded. With a nod of certainty, he bends down to level and is close to my face. This makes me go into more of a panic. His face grows closer to mine and I sit there, frozen in shock. He cupped my cheek and drew ever closer. It was only a matter of time until our lips met. It lasted for five seconds until he pulled away. Blinking twice, I finally got a grasp of the situation and began yelling at him. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!? I SWEAR I-" I was cut off by intense pain in my left shoulder. It then spreads to my head. Due to the immense pain, I fell on the carpet. All I saw was that boy above me. All I heard was him saying something along the lines of, "Got that thing out of the way..." My vision became black and my hearing was muffled to the point where I couldn't hear anything. 

ʜᴏᴘᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ɢᴜʏꜱ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ! ɪ'ᴍ ꜱᴏ ʜᴀᴘᴘʏ ɪ ɢᴇᴛ ᴛᴏ ᴘᴜʙʟɪꜱʜ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴀɴᴅ ɪ ʜᴏᴘᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ɢᴜʏꜱ ʟɪᴋᴇ ɪᴛ ᴀꜱ ᴍᴜᴄʜ ᴀꜱ ɪ ᴅᴏ. ᴀɴʏᴡᴀʏ, ɪ ʜᴏᴘᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴇɴᴊᴏʏ ᴛʜᴇ ʟɪꜰᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴀʀɪᴀᴅɴᴇ!