Reanimated

Chapter 1: Events Leading

For most, death is the end of the line. Once you die, whether by natural causes or otherwise, death is the final stop on your journey. Well, unfortunately, not for me. My name's Findley Bannor, and I will be perpetually fourteen for the foreseeable future.

Sometime in early October, I was being driven to school by a personal driver my mother employed. Parking in front of the decaying and quite sad building, the first thing you'd see is "Vinyard's Middle School" written in bold metal letters. It was a Catholic school I was forced to attend by my parents. As I was exiting the car, I heard my driver, Thomas, call out to me, "Hey, Finn!"
"Yeah?" I responded, turning to face him.
"Your father told me to inform you to stop getting into trouble." He sighed, staring into my brown eyes with a tired expression, "You're a good kid. Please behave yourself."
I rolled my eyes at that, "Yeah, okay-"
"I'm serious, Findley!" He interrupted.
"I know! I get it..." I sighed, walking into the building before he could say another word.

As I entered through the old, large wooden doors, I was immediately met with crowds of seemingly millions of people. This was the usual sight, and yet it always got on my nerves. Posters for boring school clubs were taped to the brick walls. Teachers paced the halls trying to catch anyone doing anything out of order. Kids from all grades ran around acting as crazy as ever. The typical things you'd expect.

While I was walking through the corridor, I felt an uneasy feeling; as if I were about to be sick. I stopped for a moment, taking a breather. It was like I was about to pass out. I ran into the boys bathroom and stood over the sink, staring into it. I was breathing heavily. I glanced up into the mirror and jolted back when I saw one large eye peering at me. It was only there for a moment; but it was so vivid-a large purple eye with a dilated pupil and white eyelashes. Feminine looking. It also looked judgemental; as if I've done something to displease it. Everything except the eye itself was blurred and dark. After the eye disappeared, so did my sudden sickness. I felt perfectly fine. My eyes darted around the bathroom, trying to find any hints of this being some sort of prank. Nothing. After a moment, I sighed and chuckled to myself; maybe I was just going insane? It would make sense considering the horrible condition of the building I was in. I probably inhaled some sort of mold that's making me have hallucinations! It wouldn't explain the sudden stop to everything, but it was good enough for me! Especially considering this wasn't the first time I'd seen something like this...
I stood inside the bathroom, questioning what had happened, before deciding to try and ignore it. I left the bathroom reluctantly. Walking to my classroom, I still couldn't shake the feeling of dread and confusion, though I still tried to forget about it for the time being.

After a few uneventful periods, it was lunch. I was wandering around the school's yard. I was pretty bored since I didn't have any friends and there wasn't much to do. I turned to stare at the school. I was in the back, and somehow it was in worse condition than the front. The corners had huge chips and cracks. Vines and leaves from trees covered most of the windows. The bottom floor windows were cracked and surrounded by spray paint. It was hard for me to believe that the school was still open, even though I went there everyday. I stood in overgrown grass that was at my knees, butterflies fluttered all around me. I noticed that, somehow, the butterflies were the exact same color as the eye in the mirror. A weird coincidence... I tried to get my mind off of my lack of sanity by sitting down and letting the grass absorb me. I closed my eyes and fell onto my back. It was peaceful.

Suddenly, I heard an obnoxious voice yell out from somewhere in front of me. "Hey! Findley!"
I opened my eyes and sat up just to have the burden of looking at the school's over-achiever; Paul Walters. "What?" I asked.
"Oh, I thought you were dead or something." He laughed, as if what he said was anything other than pathetic.
"Honestly, I kind of wish I was!" I said, sarcastically. It was obvious he was trying to spark something. He hated everybody, but especially me. Probably because I came from an overly-rich family and he was jealous of that. Anyone who was slightly better than him had to be a target of his stupidity.
"C'mon, I just got here and you already seem sick of me!" He smirked.
"Ah, you noticed!" I forced an obviously fake smile. "Just tell me what you want."
"I heard you got into a fight just outside of the school," He grinned wider.
"Ah, so that's what this is about." I fell back onto my back, "Wasn't my fault that kid wouldn't shut up."
"Huh, I would've thought there'd be a better reason for it," He frowned, "Boring..."
"You almost sound jealous." I sighed. Right as he opened his mouth to speak, the bell rang. I stood up and smiled at him. "Ah, guess you'll have to annoy me another time!" I taunted as I walked towards the school doors and into the building, leaving him standing alone.

Last period was math. I sat and stared out the window that was two desks away from me. The wind was blowing intensely, causing the trees to shake and shed leaves. It was slightly misty, which wasn't out of the ordinary. Everything felt calm, perfect, even. That was the strange part. It was odd to me, how perfect everything felt at that moment. The teacher's words sounded like gibberish in the background as she explained something I couldn't care less about. Just then, I saw something. In the middle of the school's field stood a woman.
I couldn't make out the exact details, but she was tall-really tall. Her head was tilted towards the ground, and she wasn't moving. She wore a long, elegant white dress with gold accents and long sleeves almost covering her hands. Her white hair fell loosely over her shoulders and back. She looked so out of place, standing in that disgusting yet calming field. Despite the harsh winds, she didn't move.

"Findley, you're next; what's the answer?"
Startled, I turned to face the front to see my math teacher pointing at a question on the board. After a second or two of examining the question, the teacher sighed and called on someone else before I could even answer. When I turned back to the window, the woman was gone. No traces of her existence were left behind. For the rest of class, I was on edge. The atmosphere in the room made me feel uneasy. I dropped my head onto my desk and stayed like that for the majority of the class. Everything was suddenly becoming too weird, I was confused.

Finally, the bell rang, indicating that we were free from school.
As I exited the building, I heard the same obnoxious voice calling out to me. Of course, Paul. "What?" I turned to see him running up to me.
"I'm not here to start anything," He spoke, "I just wanted to ask if you were going to go on the field trip?"
"Uhm, why do you ask?" I questioned, "And why do you care?"
"I just wanted to know," He shrugged. "Can't a dude be curious?"
I stared at him for a moment. What is this kid on about?
"Nah, I don't feel like it's that important; so I won't go."
"Come on! We're going to a carnival! Too good for that, are you?"
"Sure. I guess I am." I gave another fake smile before turning around and walking away from him, yet again.
"Just think about it, okay!?" He yelled out to me before also walking away.
As I approached my driver's car, I couldn't help but feel on edge. Uneasy; just like I had felt in the morning.
"Hey, Fin!" Thomas called out to me from inside the car, "Are you alright?"
"Oh, yeah..." I answered, rushing towards the car.

The entire car ride home was nothing but silence. Awkward silence.
I could tell Thomas wanted to say something-maybe some wise words of advice-but he said nothing. Honestly, I was kind of hoping he'd say something. Anything. The silence was worse than anything.