Eden's Gate

Chapter 1: Summer, Two Years Later

Kaitlyn had long since recovered from that accident, but she still carried the scars. A long one across her forehead, and of course there was the one in her stomach from the actual impalement. She was starting to forget it was there. Or maybe she has just gotten used to it?

Whatever the case, she certainly wasn't thinking about it now, she was thinking about her friend. Taylor, the soccer superstar!

Because Eden's Gate didn't have any other schools like it or near it to play with, a long time ago they had divided the school up into two teams - Bulldogs and Panthers. The school would have events and at the end of the year, the team who had earned the most points would be awarded the Holy Grail.

Soccer matches were a big part of that, and even if she didn't want to show her Bulldog Pride, her friend Taylor was playing and she wanted to support them.

She sat in the stands around the pitch, between her friends Edelweiss and Clifton. They were all in their uniforms today, be it their sports ones on the field or their standard ones in the boxes. The uniform for students consisted of a three piece top and a bottom. A yellow-beige vest covered a white blouse shirt and underneath that, only showing at the cuffs, was a uniquely colored undershirt. For Kaitlyn, it was purple. The girls wore a skirt and blue ribbon around their neck, and the boys a white pair of slacks and bow tie in the same blue as the ribbon. Clifton's dark skin stood out against the whites of his uniform, and it drew out the whites of his brown eyes too, not that they needed it. They were always filled with intensity. His hair was short and frizzy, and black as night - it even had the hint of blue.

Taylor, meanwhile, was also dark skinned but their complexion was much lighter. They hailed from Mexico somewhere, and that was plainly evident. He was currently dressed in the team uniform, a plain white top with two golden stripes running down the chest, blue shorts, and white knee high socks with blue stripes. The big black number "25" was on their back. They hopped between their legs while they waited for the defense to clear the ball, their cocoa colored hair bouncing surprisingly daintily as they did. Their brown eyes always focused dead on the ball.

It was coming their way. Kaitlyn crossed her fingers. They easily got it and ran, passing the defense, and they began to dash down the pitch. One of the defenders charged them, and they twirled out of the way before passing to another player further down. But they lost their footing. They ball went flying, but so did they, sliding forward on the ground.

They went for a full yard, their head slamming so hard to the ground that it bounced back off of it. The whistle was blown immediately.

A black, smokey glow came from the stands, and Kaitlyn instantly knew who it was. Everyone had their own psychic color, and only one person in the whole world (that she knew of) had a glow that looked like that. Headmistress Eliza.

Mom.

Eliza levitated herself down to the pitch, her whole body enveloped in her glow. Gently, she landed on the pitch and bent down, her black eyes looking at them with tenderness. She was dressed in her usual red suit, with the white tie and black undershirt, and of course her brown leather glove. Her hair was black, but had white growing in at the roots. She seemed to always have bags under her eyes. She looked at the back of Taylor's head, and put her hand on their shoulder. She then gently took down his sock, to see a fairly grizzly looking gash there.

"Is he okay?" Edelweiss asked.

Clifton's cheeks went red as he ran off the bleachers and down to the pitch, running up to his friend.

"Hey! Hey, Taylor! Buddy, buddy!"

"Sshhh," Eliza said in her quiet voice, "you are fine."

As Clifton charged, Edelweiss made to grab him, but she missed. "Clifton! Wait!"

He turned back to her, "what? Why? They might be hurt!"

"Let Mum handle it."

Eliza waved her hand, and a moment later bandages, covered in her glow went straight to her hand, and she wrapped the wound.

"How are you feeling?" She asked.

"Fine," Taylor responded, their voice steady, "I'm okay, mum, I swear."

"We'll see. We need you in top shape for Grading Day."

"Muuuuuuuum!" They protested.

"No buts, young one. Go see Nurse Linshell, she'll take make sure you're fine."

Taylor sighed and got to their feet, brushing their knees off and heading inside. Clifton, for his part, was having none of it.

"Oi! Mum! What the heck! Why won't you let him play!?"

Eliza's gaze tore straight over to him, her white pupils dilating as she looked at him. "Because if I do not, and your best friend has a concussion, and they continue to play, they may suffer a great deal."

'But they need to play!" Clifton protested, "their team needs them!"

"At the expense of their health? Absolutely not," she said, stepping closer to him.

"Th-hen I'll step in for them! I'll take their place."

"And since when have you played football?" Edelweiss interjected, "no offense, but you're unpracticed. And they already have back ups."

Eliza nodded. "Yes, calm down Clifton. You're making quite a scene, and Taylor would be embarrassed if they saw this."

Clifton's blush came out even stronger, and he turned towards his seat and sat down. One of the other players took Taylor's place, and the game continued. 5 minutes later, Taylor returned to the stadium, only this time in the bleachers with their friends. Richard came with them, and they sat down together.

"Nurse said I need to relax the rest of the day, just in case. But I'm good, promise."

Edelweiss patted them on the back and they all watched the game together. The Bulldogs eventually one, even without their star player - they had helped them enough in the early game, they insisted - and by the time it was all over it was time for bed.

Kaitlyn returned to her new dorm. Now that she was going into the 5th grade, they got the big kid dorms. They had just moved in a few days ago, and she was still getting used to it, but she liked the additional space and she liked having a more or less private room all to herself. She and Edelweiss were bunk mates, but she would have wanted that anyway. She would have wanted to be with any of her friends, but Edelweiss most of all.

A part of that meant she would wake up frequently in the night, unsettled and unused to her new bed and to how quiet it was.

Kaitlyn checked out the window. The monsters from the hospital had followed her home, and in that time she had learned how to deal with them. There were two. The first she called the Shadow Creeper - the first one she met. As long as she had a night light, there was enough light in the room that it couldn't usually come. Though sometimes, she had to use the flashlight she stored in the nightstand to chase it away if the moonlight was too dark to make much light, or so bright it made sharp shadows.

The sound of hollow banging on the walls alerted her to the presence of the second. It had startled her, causing her to turn towards it.

The door knob rattled in response.

She wasn't sure what would make it show up, or what it even looked like, but when it seemed to just enjoy annoying her; it would just make noise. She hadn't ever seen it, but it scratched, knocked, and rattled the doors, the windows, and the walls. It would go away if she ignored it and wished it would.

She crawled back into her bed, deciding not to get the glass of water that she thought might help. She needed sleep.