Welcome to Winterclear

Crumbling is as bad as we thought and much much worse

Crumbling is as bad as we thought and much much worse

The first thing I became aware of was the pain. My entire body ached, but my head was the worst. A headache like I had never experienced in my life. It left me breathless and crying, wishing to die just to escape it.

The second thing that penetrated the pain to reach my awareness was the dark. Oppressive and endless, the sheer loneliness of it choked me.

It was like I was disembodied and not real in the richly vile black. The only thing keeping me tethered to any sense of reality was the pain, and the smell of roses.

Time had lost all meaning so I don't know how long it was before I remembered myself. Then remembered Winterclear. Then remembered how I came to be there, in The Black. In The Black, there was no time. There was only the blinding desperate pain, and then there was less dull but maddening pain. It was when the pain settled a little that I remembered that I had been crumbled.

In The Black, it didn't take long to start to go insane. After all, I was in pain and yet I had no body. I was being punished, and yet I had done nothing wrong. I was involved in a game but had not been told the rules.

When the pain did begin to ease, the loneliness of The Black began to frighten me. I would've even taken the company of a vambie just to know there was someone out there.

But then, company showed up and I regretted wishing for it. Regretted that very much.

Somewhere from inside The Black, I heard the distinct sound of a ball chain pulling to turn on a light. Dirty dim light appeared somewhere distantly, and suddenly I could vaguely make out where I was. There was a small square directly in front of me with bars in it. Like a window inside the door of a cell. And the cell was tiny; too small for me to move at all.

Then, on the other side of the bars, only inches from my face, his face appeared. Baz Greer. Angry, snarling, wicked.

I cried and squirmed, wanting nothing more than to get away from the young man. But of course, trapped in The Black, I could not move.

Then I heard the pull chain again and Baz disappeared back into The Black.

For what seemed like ages, it went on like that. Long periods of empty rose scented darkness. Then dingy light and glimpses of his evil furious face.

Then, just like that, I was back in my seat in the conference room with Mr. Carlyle at my side.

Abruptly returning to reality like that was mighty unsettling and I lurched, almost falling out of my chair. The conference room was now full of other Winterclear High staff as well, so being forced to quickly gather my wits was both difficult and embarrassing.

"Good of you to join us, Principal Breckenridge," Mr. Carlyle said with a smile. "We decided to postpone our meeting a day so that you could still be part of it."

I gave a weak smile and peered around at the others. But then my mind wandered involuntarily back to The Black as Mr. Carlyle droned on. After the meeting dispersed for the start of the school day, I hurried off to be alone in my office.

Once again, I found myself completely zoning out. I sat down in front of my computer and turned it on, but then I just sat there staring blankly at the screen. Time dragged on and nobody bothered me. I was haunted by memories of The Black. Even though I had escaped it, it felt like part of me had been left there. Alone in the dark with Baz Greer.

I didn't move a muscle until I was roused from my reverie by a rumble of my stomach. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was lunchtime and I was hungry.

I drifted out of my office and joined a sea of students in the hallway as they made their way to the cafeteria. Normally, as principal, I would chat and interact with the student body. But, The Black had left me feeling isolated and apart from everyone else.

I wandered into the cafeteria and fetched myself an apple and a bottled water. Still feeling unnerved, I took a seat at a distant table where nobody else was sitting. My mind immediately wandered off as I mindlessly nibbled on the apple.

"I heard you might have a broken cell phone?"

A deep voice snapped me out of my imaginings and my eyes snapped up to meet his.

I had never seen this man before in my life, yet I was swept with the overwhelming feeling of knowing him. The feeling was so strong that once again, I squirmed in my seat, uncomfortable with the inner workings of my own mind. I knew I didn't know this guy. Why did I feel like I knew this guy?

"Er, uh. Excuse me?" I stammered.

He smiled, a slow easy thing that transformed his tanned face into a happy memory of summer. "Assistant Principal Carlyle mentioned that you broke your phone," the man said. He extended his hand for a shake. "I'm Tim. I'm the tech teacher."

I stared at his hand for a long time, like an idiot. My brain just couldn't quite compute what I was supposed to do next. Tim... Tim? Why did I know this man? And how the heck did Carlyle know my phone was broken?

I was getting sick of all the mystery. I was exhausted.

Finally, I took Tim's hand. Electricity shot up my arm and my eyes locked with his. In my mind's eye, I saw little snippets of holding his hand before. Shaking it. Grasping it. Fingers interlaced. I gasped and snatched my hand back.

His handsome smile slipped ever so slightly, but then he recovered it and smiled even wider. "So, would you like me to have a look at your phone?" he asked politely.

I was staring at the floor now. For some reason, I couldn't bring myself to look at him again. I fumbled in my pocket for my phone and handed it over to him with a mumbled thanks.

After that, I practically ran back to my office to grab my purse. Then I left the school to take the rest of the day off without saying so much as a word to anyone.

Back at home, I changed out of my clothes and then collapsed into my bed. Some tears were shed, I'm not going to lie. Life in Winterclear was really getting to me. Especially The Black. I was desperate to find answers to my scads of questions, but I was also desperate to avoid The Black. I had to behave, that much I knew.

I awoke much later, disoriented once again. It was dark outside my bedroom window and I knew I'd accidentally slept much longer than intended. When I looked at the clock, I saw that it was stopped. At 10:30.

I was sometime inside the stolen hour.

My mind snapped to wakefulness and I slipped out of bed, determined to find out more about this hour of the night that disappears while Winterclear's residents are in a drug induced sleep. I didn't know how much of the hour had passed, so I felt I had to hurry.

I slipped downstairs and quietly out of my house. Sticking to the shadows behind bushes, cars, and houses, I stole out into the neighborhood. No one was about, not even a vambie. I dashed next door and peeked inside the closest window. All that was revealed was an empty room.

I checked several windows, quickly. Dashed from house to house. I kept seeing more of the same; nothing. In one house I finally spotted a person. A man, sound asleep on his couch. Still nothing out of the ordinary.

It wasn't until I was two blocks away and had snuck a look into more than twenty homes that I spotted something amiss. And by amiss, I mean horrific.

I'd apparently by chance found the home of Penelope Read. She was asleep in her bed, and there was a man in her room. Awake. And standing over her. He had her arm stretched out to the side and it was bleeding from the wrist. He was capturing the blood in an ancient looking goblet.

I wanted to run, but I was frozen in spot, looking on in horror. Finally, the man delicately lifted Penelope's wrist. With a flourish of his hand, the bleeding stopped. Then, he lifted the goblet and drank.