CHAPTER I
CAMPING TRIP

"It was a normal day in Northern Hills High school. The boys were passing around a soccer ball on one side of the school grounds, while the girls were divided in groups, each gossiping about the other groups or gawking at the boys' sweating forms. Then there were the couples busy living in their own bubbles of teenage love and the daredevils who were running around school and attempting weird tricks that often include annoying other students. There were also those who were very serious about getting scholarships, busy studying for the tests that were due in two months' time, and those weirdos, as the other students often refer to them, as they looked like they had no care in the world as they joked around and made weird movements with their limbs. Other students would often overhear their conversations and get confused as to what they were talking about due to the excess use of code names. In opposition to the carefree appeal of their classmates, there were the sad ones, sulking around in a corner and listening to rock music.

The daredevils went to a secluded area of the school, thinking it was okay to contact the unknown. They formed a circle, holding hands and started chanting words they had found in a book, none of them had cared to translate the foreign language.

"Dies irae, dies illa

Solvet saeclum in favilla

Taste satan cum sibylla.

Quantos tremor est futurus

Quando vindex est venturus

Cuncta stricte discussurus

Dies irae, dies illa!"

They all spoke at once, their voices foreign to their own ears. They felt as if the world was spinning around them as they kept repeating the same words over and over again. They didn't notice they had closed their eyes, the words spilling out of their tongues as if they had known them all through their lives, their voices getting louder with every word they say. They all came to their senses when one of them fell to the ground. She was screaming at the top of her lungs as if someone was stabbing her continuously. Her screams got loud enough for some of the teachers to come and ask her if she was okay. Everyone was in hysterics, not knowing what had just happened. The sound of an ambulance came into the distance followed by the rushing footsteps of paramedics. Her skin was burning off her flesh, blood pouring all over the ground. No one touched her, afraid to hurt her, or worse, catch on to the disease. The paramedics lifted her into a stretcher and pushed her into the ambulance, rushing to get her into the hospital as fast as possible.

No one knew what happened to her or how she ended up like that. Doctors and scientists didn't know how to help the poor girl. Even pain killers did nothing to ease her pain. When tested, her skin cells looked normal and the burn looked as if it had come from actual fire, although burn treatments did nothing to heal her severed skin. She was kept at that state for days, even weeks, screaming at the top of her lungs for help, begging for the pain to stop until her lifeless body was found mere days later, quiet and motionless on the hospital bed.

While all of that was happening in the hospital, it was a different story at school. Students were found unconscious in the bathroom stalls, words written with their blood on the walls and mirrors. No one could understand the words as they were written in a foreign language. It was believed that the cause of all of the bloodshed was a demon summoned by a group of students, all of whom are now dead," my grandma finished the story that sends goosebumps through my body everytime I hear it. Half of her face was covered by the darkness of the night sky, while the other half was illuminated by the light of the campfire.

I have a feeling that the story that was always told in attempt to give us nightmares is true. Most people believe that it was a myth, made up to be told in the middle of the night to scare teenagers and children. It is obviously silly to think that it was true, of course, but I can't help but think that my grandmother knows something about this story.

I look up at the night sky, feeling the calmness of the nature surrounding me. Everyone went silent after the story was told, each on their own train of thought. I focus on my slow breathing and my calm heartbeat. I close my eyes, feeling complete and utter peace. I wish I could stay like this forever.

I didn't realise that I fell asleep until I felt a pair of muscular arms around my small frame. I breathe in his manly scent and sigh in content. He lifts me up at ease and walks over to the shelter of our tent. I wiggle closer to his chest on instinct and listen to his entrancing heartbeat all the while keeping my eyes closed, acting as if I was still in a deep sleep. He lowers me down into the softness of the blankets and wraps his arms around me once again after laying down beside me. I feel his soft lips press into my forehead as I fall into dreamland once again.

I pry my eyes open letting them look around me as I stretch my aching body like a cat. I then notice he isn't here with me as he usually wakes up before I do. I get up and walk lazily out of the tent just in time to see the sunrise. A beautiful array of reds, yellows and oranges start dancing around his dark silhouette once I look in his direction. He's sitting on one of the benches set up around the previously lit campfire.

"Hey," I murmur, careful not to startle him as I carefully take a seat beside him, resting my head on his shoulder.

"Hey, birthday girl," he replies, kissing my temple, "how's being eighteen changed you?" he mocks. It's my birthday and I and my family made it a tradition to go camping every year on my birthday since it's always in the summer break, and since it's my 18th birthday, we decided to invite my best friends with us to make it feel special.

A giggle escapes my lips, "It's just a number, Xavier," I mock him back stressing on his name.

His deep chuckle vibrates through my body, sending goosebumps coarsing through it. "I love you Aria," he whispers in my ear making me shiver in content.

We soon hear the distant laughter of our friends as they make their way toward us. "Happy birthday Aria!" They all cheer, each sitting on one of the benches.

"Thanks guys," I reply shyly already feeling my cheeks heat up into a blush. They all chuckle and soon we're in a conversation about some random topic.

"Oh, Ari, I just remembered," says my bestfriend and favorite cousin, Bryn knight, as she brushes loose strands of her silky brown hair off her face. "Remember that story grandma always tells us? With the weird Latin and the burning girl?"

"Yeah, she literally told us yest-" I begin replying before she rudely interrupts me.

"Well, I happened to be looking in her attic and found a book with those words in it, but I couldn't read the book because it was all in Latin or some other weird language," she rushes her words since she's excited to tell us what happened.

"Ooh, like the book in the story," my other best friend, Matthew Henderson, says in a weird tone he hopes to sound creepy.

"Okay, we'll get to that later, but first, why were you in nan's attic again?" I ask my cousin, suspicious of her actions. She loves throwing pranks all the time that I wouldn't be surprised if she was looking in our grandma's attic for something to inspire one of her new pranks.

"Yeah, about that...," she trails off, looking around her for an exit from this conversation. "I was umm, uh, you know, just looking around," she's stuttering at this point which makes me even more suspicious. "Okay! I was looking for ideas of pranks I wanted to throw while we were here!" she finally gives up, throwing her hands up in exasperation.

"Who is it?" I give her a pointed look so she would know not to lie when she tells me who she decided to prank this time. Every year, she would prank at least one person and never repeat her prank ever again saying that it had gotten old and used. She even decided to write a book to keep record of her weird and creative pranks 'so one of her grandchildren would get inspired by them'.

"You'll have to wait to find out," she says with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"I hope it isn't me," Mia Dawson mutters. She is the shy one out of all of us as it surprises me that she is still quiet and not as loud as we are after spending years hanging out with us.

Although I realised that she isn't even listening to our conversations most of the time. She usually has her nose tucked in a book or is just day dreaming about who knows what. When I ask her what she is fantasizing about, her cheeks turn a bright shade of pink and she mutters a 'nothing!' before going back to day dreaming.

Minutes pass while we are talking about senior year and where some people travelled for the summer as seen from their social media. Suddenly, a scream startles us and I nearly fall from the bench as I jump from surprise. We rush to the source of screams and now the loud and colourful array of curses to find my grandma jumping up and down, flinging her hands and legs here and there with cockroaches hanging on her skin for dear life.

Bryn bursts out laughing at the sight in front of her, holding her stomach as she feels her muscles contract. We all soon follow suit while Mia goes to aid grandma get the insects off of her. Xavier high fives Bryn while wiping tears off of his wet cheeks while Matt, on the other hand, is rolling on the ground choking onto his laughter, trying to get some air to fill his poor lungs.

"Good one Bryn," Xavier says after calming himself down.

"Oh hell yeah, that was great!" Matt soon exclaims, he then stops smiling and a look of horror crosses his handsome features. "Oh shoot, guys run!" I turn around to look at what he saw and instantly panic. There, in all her glory, stands my grandma glaring daggers in our direction, now cockroach-free. I can just imagine smoke coming out of her ears.

"Bryn Annabeth Knight!" My dear grandma screeches, making me wince from the loudness of her voice. I give her a sheepish smile as I turn around, holding Xavier's hand in the process and bolting through the woods for somewhere to hide. I start laughing as I enjoy the feeling of the wind whizzing past me, a good feeling of adrenaline coursing through my veins.

"Woohoo!" I shout for the world to hear me as we slow down to a jog. A giggle escapes my lips as I remember my grandma's red face. Tears start forming in my eyes as my laughter intensifies at the image of my grandma trying to throw the cockroaches off of her body.

We spent the rest of the week like that, laughing and having fun as much as possible before school starts. Bryn pulled up a few more pranks that got us cracking up. She never pulled any pranks on me when we went camping since it's my birthday and I'm incredibly thankful for that. She also promised to show me the book she found in the attic when we go back home, and we all decided not to tell grandma about it.

"She would flip out on us if she knew that we went through her stuff," Xavier had said in attempt to convince us to 'shut our mouths' as Matt put it. We had all agreed to his statement and kept the book a secret between us.