The Otherworld

01- Infereum

01- Infereum

Robin Elson slung her bag over her angular shoulder. It was Monday, one of her seven least favourite days in the week.

Her father, in one of his rare work related intervals, had once offered to hire her tutors. 'The best in the state,' he'd exclaimed, 'you'd love it!'

By that, she deducted, he meant she was an antisocial freak and he was tired of complaints from people he couldn't pay to shut up. Her father was now a business man and she was forced to learn his language.

She had politely declined, which translated to a few cusses and scowls in his general direction. She hated school but she hated people serving her even more. The maids her father hired a few years back didn't last a week with Robin as their charge.

Teachers never particularly cared for Robin, and the students mostly left her alone. She supposed school was a way to ensure social services didn't take her away from her father. She had to show her face for a few hours and then return to the safe solitude of her house.

The hustle bustle of the busy halls disorientated her in a less than pleasant way. Too many people in such a small place definitely were not her element.

She knew the people that bumped into her didn't do so purposefully. Even in her first year it became apparent that the 'Bird Girl' was not friendship material. Not even victim material.

No, Robin was simply Robin, the weird girl with no mother.

"Alright everybody, your essays are due today and if I get them all handed in we can-" Robin quickly lost her focus on Mrs. Elliott, her Latin teacher.

The little birds outside the window offered a much more entertaining view as they flitted from branch to twisted branch of the old oak. On particularly windy days the ancient tree scraped against the school building emitting a sound that reminded her of her old house, the creaky and less than reliable one-story shack that she took her first breath in.

Robin lost herself in the lives of the birds. They were infinitely more intriguing then the class. It came as a surprise to both Robin and the birds when a huge, black crow soared straight through their twittering midst to slam into the closed window. The class jolted to silence, the sound of the impact reverberating in the walls.

"Do you think it is okay?" asked one girl. Her desk-mate giggled, and soon the whole class erupted in fits of laughter. The whole class, excluding Robin.

"Alright guys, that's enough," Mrs. Elliot proclaimed, shuffling sheets in an attempt to draw the class's attention. "Now that I've got all the papers, I thought it would be nice to relax a bit."

The whole class, excluding Robin, groaned.

"Hey, it's not that bad," Mrs. Elliot reassured, "We're gonna make some Mother's Day cards!" The students erupted in mock cheers. Robin turned back to the window, watching as the birds flitted agitatedly. This activity did not apply to her.

"Hey, Elson," Alex sniggered. She eyed him and his entourage of teenage boys warily, waiting for the punch line. Robin hated people in general, but Robin despised Alex.

"Here's your sheet for the card-," he cut himself off, a look of mock realisation played exaggeratedly on his features. "Oh wait, you don't have a mother. No sheets for Elson."

She tried to brush them off, ignore their snide words. Everyone in this school knew what happened. Prescott's mother was so disappointed in her daughter that she went and offed herself. It was quite the story when she was eight. But when Robin didn't rise to his bait, Alex tried another angle. "You know, if you were a little nicer, maybe mummy-dearest wouldn't off herself to escape you."