((hEY GUYS SORRY I WAS INACTIVE FOR LIKE YEARS im so sorry but here is my apology chapter hopefully ive gotten  better at writing ooof))

As soon as my alarm went off,  I slammed the snooze button. I was so exhausted, which would be what I normally described as my mood, but this time, it was actually true. I wanted to stay home, but I knew Jay would worry, especially since he was there when it happened. What would have happened if he wasn't there? I guess I would have been dead, but according to what that monster said, I was going to die anyway.  

I sat up, looking down at the blood on my shirt. It seemed like a longshot to say this was a symptom of something killing me from the inside. Maybe it was just my mom's bad cooking, even if there was blood. I'd just absorbed a monster, or it's essence I suppose, but that didn't mean I was dying. But what reason would the nailimp have for lying? How would Jay react? Jay wouldn't react. There's no way I'm going to talk to him about what happened. It was already too much for me to comprehend, I was never going to put that on his shoulders.

So that meant I was going to school. Unfortunately.

I peeled the bloodied clothes off me, the entire front of it and sticking to my chest since it had previously dried. There was a big blood stain on the sheets, but I decided to just cover it with my blankets and take care of it later, as well as the blood on the floor I'd also covered before. I slipped on clothes for the day and leaped across the narrow hallway and into the bathroom, staring at myself in the mirror. Blood and vomit was smeared down my neck and around my mouth, though it was dried and brown, cracks like veins shining through whenever I moved slightly, revealing the skin underneath the layer of filth. I snatched the towel from off of it's hook, soaked it in water from the sink and wiped it off of me. I quickly got ready for school afterwards, the basic routine of brushing teeth and deodorant. The normal things. 

I walked out of the bathroom and ran straight into my sister, knocking me down with the abrupt force of our collision. She panicked, helping me up.

"I'm so sorry, are you okay?" 

"Yeah, of course, it's fine."

Scarlet stood there awkwardly, and the memories of our previous fight flooded my mind. No wonder she was so panicky right now. I'd nearly forgotten about it already in light of what had happened. 

"I still need to talk to you," she spoke, breaking the silence between us. 

"I have school to go to"

I squeezed past her and out into the living room, my dad half asleep on the couch. He looked up at me as I made my way to the kitchen.  "Andy," he said groggily, arching up to look at me and rest his head on the armrest. "You sure you want to go to school?"

I froze. Did he know? Had he seen me sneak out? Had he seen the blood? My hands rushed to my face and neck to check if I'd left any remnant of evidence behind on my person, but there was none. He looked at me puzzledly.

"You're sister is here, so if you want more time to visit her, you can stay home."

Part of me wanted to, but I knew I should go to school. I needed to get my work, since all of my papers have been thrown into the abyss. I should probably ask for a new backpack. "I'll just go to school. I'll see her after and I can't risk my grades dropping even more than they already are." Dad nodded, and went back to watching whatever was on the TV, and I turned and walked into the kitchen, grabbing two muffins from the counter. I walked out into the dining room and pulled out my phone, turning the screen on and checking my messages. I only got one from Jay, but as soon as I hit the notification my phone buzzed and turned off. Not surprising. It had lasted a trip through the sinkhole, and I had a feeling it would short circuit eventually. More surprised that it didn't do that right away. I left it on the kitchen table, sitting back to eat part of the muffin, watching as Scarlet walked into the kitchen as well. We locked eyes for a brief moment, but we both looked away, going back to what we were doing. 

The door slammed open violently, making everyone in the house jump in fright. "Andy!" Jay's voice. He slammed the door shut, the loud sound making us jump again. He bounded into the dining room and saw me, his face lighting up. He pulled out a chair and sat next to me, grabbing the other muffin I'd wanted to eat. The ultimate betrayal. He ate it right in front of me. 

"How are you?" he asked, more genuinely than usual. Every fiber in my being wanted to tell him what had happened last night. He was the one person I confided in for everything. I couldn't now. I needed to let there be time. I was still trying to process everything myself. 

"Fine," I replied, finishing the muffin. I pointed to my phone. "But my phone didn't survive." Scarlet picked up the phone, inspecting it. "Survive what?" she asked, looking from the phone to me. Jay, who hadn't even noticed her presence, froze, his mouth in the shape of an 'O'.

"Is this your sister?" he asked. Scarlet smiled, setting the phone down and sticking her hand out towards Jay to introduce herself. 

"Yeah, I'm Scarlet," she said, and Jay shook her hand excitedly. "Heard of me, have you?" I hated every second of this. 

"The  Scarlet?" Jay replied, drawing his hand back and sitting back down. Scarlet smiled appreciatively and nodded.

"Jay, can we go, please?" I interjected, silence hanging in the air. Jay nodded and waved to Scarlet as I got up from the table, tucking the wrappers of the muffins in my jacket pockets. Jay and I left the house, my sister giving her goodbyes, and my father giving a small grumble from the couch as he got up, following us out the door to give us a car ride.

As soon as I left the house, I regretted it. There were creatures everywhere. One was on my front lawn, another on the roof of the house across the street. There was even a small, goopy creature shaped like a ball rolling around the porch, leaving a trail of black sludge. Jay put a hand on my shoulder to see if I was okay. He clearly couldn't see anything that was happening, at all. I looked around frantically. My dad pushed past us to get to his car, also not seeming to notice in the slightest, nearly stepping on the goop ball.

"Andy?"

"They're everywhere, Jay," I whispered to him. There goes my chance at keeping this a secret. I had to try to pretend they weren't there. Last time I'd stopped to look at them, one of them had noticed and attacked me. Had these nailimps always been there? Right under our noses? I started walking, Jay following in suit, and we both got into the back of my dad's car.

"What's going on?" he asked, worry seeping into his voice. 

"I'll tell you everything when we get to school," I whispered, trying not to panic. 

The ride was long and silent. My dad didn't want to talk, nor did I, as I stared out the window at the occasional monster messing with someone in someway, like tripping a woman and stealing lightbulbs. They didn't seem like a big thing to be scared of, but after last night, and the way these things looked, I wouldn't put it past them to kill. 

Once we got to school, we thanked my dad, and walked up onto the steps that led to the main entrance.

"Andy! Jay!" Nancy called out, coming out from her corner of the steps to greet us, Roger following her like her own personal shadow. He didn't talk much, but he was tall, built, and very threatening, almost like a bodyguard, but he was good friends with us, so we had nothing to fear. Unless we hurt Nancy emotionally or physically, then he really became the bodyguard he seemed to be. We'd felt the wrath of his many a time. One time we pranked her by throwing water balloons, and Roger was there instantly, chasing us away with threats. Since he's on the football team, he got everyone to join in and throw water balloons at us the next morning. Don't get me wrong, he certainly could've beat our asses in two hits, but he had the resources to take us down completely, and that's what makes him even more scary. I just prayed he didn't have the knowledge of Jay and I ditching Nancy, because I'm sure he could snap our fingers and send us straight to a hell of his own making. 

Nancy trotted over to us and gave Jay and I a hug. Jay didn't seem to care though, and neither did I. I was looking around, but there didn't seem to be a lot of monsters. Only one I saw, another gloop ball that grew arms and legs just to push over a girl's backpack. Jay was focused on me, and was more than ready to hear the explanation I had. 

"Hey, Nancy. Roger." I replied, and Nancy let go of us. Jay waved. 

"So, Perkings, huh?" I asked. She grinned. 

"Yeah! Oh yeah, by the way, he's joining us at lunch. I invited him over. Especially since I'm gonna see him tonight," Nancy winked at me, hinting at our plans. "Just want to know if he's really the one for me."

"You're so cheesy."

"Well, at least I'm not throwing myself at every boy I see, I have self control," she defended herself. We nodded. 

"I need to go to my locker. Let's go, Jay," I said, starting to walk away, but Nancy grabbed my arm and dragged me over to her. 

"Don't think I forgot. You better tell me what was up with you last night," she said threateningly. I ripped my arm out of her grip and scowled. 

"I think you forgot that I told you nothing was wrong," I retorted, dragging Jay into the building and leaving Nancy pouting. I could feel Roger's gaze boring a hole into my skull even from inside the building. Jay leaned on the lockers as I opened mine, trying to piece a proper sentence together to explain what was going on. I told him about the night before, leaving the house, running into the monster, talking to it, almost getting shot. The teleporting. The vomiting. But I left out the part about me dying. It was already worrisome enough, and it probably wasn't true. I'd take care of it. Jay seemed blown away with the information he had, and was practically speechless for a few minutes. When you looked him, you could see the gears in his head turning. 

"So, those monsters, do you see any right now?" I looked around, shutting my locker to get a better view of everything around me. I walked up to the window and Jay did the same. I pointed to the roof of the building across the street, crawling over the tiles.

"There's one," I said, and he looked, unable to see it, but still bewildered at the chance that there was something there. 

"What does it look like?"

I squinted, looking more closely at the creature. 

"It doesn't have any legs, and it's using it's really long arms to drag itself. But the arms are sharp, like giant claws, so it's using them like picks to stab into things. I can;t really see the details from here, though," I explained, and Jay looked up at me in amazement. 

"Are you going to fight it?"

"It's not doing anything wrong, it's just....terrifying to look at," I said. "So, no I'm not going to leap into action, man" Jay groaned, and I guessed he was still one for this whole superhero gig thing now that there were monsters in town. But he just shrugged and went back to the lockers, leaning against them and looking at me from across the walkway. 

"What are you going to tell Nancy?" he asked, looking at me sympathetically. I shook my head.

"I have no idea. Probably nothing. I have bigger things on my mind than telling Nancy about whatever this might be. Like getting a new backpack. A new phone. Maybe trying to reverse whatever this is."

"Why would you want to reverse it?" he asked, frowning. 

"It's just stressful. And makes me vomit blood. I'd rather not live being the only one that can see all of the nailimps and whatever else, I'm just afraid they could kill me. I told you about the first one that saw that I could see it. It knew me. It could sense something of itself in me, and I know that at some point another monster is going to notice."

"But didn't you say that the people in that house saw the one that attacked you? Before you atomized it?" Jay asked. I nodded. "What if you're not alone?"

"If they were something like me, they wouldn't have shot at me."

"Maybe we can only see them when they're injured?" Jay asked, making a suggestion. I blinked, trying to think of another explanation. That might just be it. 

"I have an idea," I said. "We're testing this out."

A surge of energy rushed through Jay, and he hyped himself up. "Are you going to fight one?"

"A small one. We'll see if you can see it."