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Act I Chapter I ━ Fantasy Meets Horror
FRIDAY LUNCHES WERE USUALLY THE BEST PART of Jules' school week.
She'd get to sit in the cafeteria, unbothered by any other student, and listen to music whilst eating her favorite food ━ pumpkin soup. There was also the fact that she had a free period right after. Well, technically she was supposed to be attending gym, but she'd become a natural truant for that class. Then, she'd see the counsellor for an hour, making her miss another class. So, Friday lunches were her favorite time of week.
Until the Friday she was currently on.
For three days, her head was splitting with pain. She'd thought it was because she wasn't drinking enough water and she was due her period, but no matter how much Tylenol she popped, the ache wouldn't subside.
There was also her lack of sleep. Her nightmares were sporadic ever since sophomore year but over the past few days, they'd become more frequent. More intense. She'd wake up sweating, panting. Like all the breath had been stolen out of her lungs.
So, she sat in the cafeteria that Friday, the day before spring break. She sat with her palm digging into her temple, the other trying to hold her eyes open. She'd fallen asleep in first period with her eyes wide open, which had kept her off the hook. Her headphones sat snugly around her neck, the guitar shredding of Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi vibrating against her skin.
The cacophony of voices that flooded her ears, like every other day, seemed to be even worse than before. It felt like she was at a concert, only without the euphoric feeling in her chest that she got from seeing her favorite band performing. All she wanted to do was curl up and sleep her headache away, even if sleep led to a nightmare.
Through the sea of multiple conversations happening around her, one voice breaks through, causing her head to minutely turn in its direction.
❝But as long as you're into band or science...❞ Eddie Munson, leader of the Hellfire Club. He was stood atop a table, seemingly addressing the entire lunchroom. Jules quirks an eyebrow, suddenly interested in what he had to say. ❝Or parties, or a game where you toss balls into laundry baskets...❞ His voice raises for the latter subject, projecting towards the clean-cut boys who sat at the opposite end of the room.
Jules snickers, incredibly aware of the tension between the freak club and the jock club. Dungeons and Dragons, the game that the Hellfire Club were known for, was seen as a satantic cult that lured good, God-fearing kids to the dark side. The jocks were the typical high school douchebags, looking down on anyone who didn't fit into the social criteria.
Jason Carver, captain of the team, rises to Eddie's bait. ❝You want something, freak?❞
Eddie responds with a comical impression of a devil, pointing his index fingers from his temples and sticking out his tongue. Bemused, Jules watches the interaction. She'd always been rather fond of the way Eddie never seemed to give a damn about what others think.
