Up Above, Down Below

Chapter 1 ~ New Kids

An older teenage girl with pink hair and unique eyes; one blue, and one pink lays on her bed, eyes closed, legs dangling off the edge as she listens to the music that is blasting through her headphones. Suddenly, all the lights in her room shut off as the power goes out. She takes off her headphones and stands up confused, looking around.

'Damn it, is there some sort of black out?' She wonders to herself as she ducks out her bedroom window stepping onto a balcony outside. She looks at the other houses around the neighborhood, none having any lights on. 'It's night, but it's too early for everyone to be sleeping, it must be a power outage... great.' She thinks to herself in annoyance.

Just then, something in the sky catches the corner of her eye and she turns her head in that direction to see what it was. "Just a dumb shooting star, gave up on those a long time ago." She says retreating to her bed that reads "Scarlett" above it. "Might as well go to sleep, nothing else to do now." Scarlett murmurs as she puts her headphones back on and closes her eyes plopping back down onto the bed.

As she's about to drift off to sleep she's jolted wide awake as the room around her begins to shake slow at first and then a bit more violently. The shaking lasts a few seconds before it completely stops almost as quickly as it started. 'What the hell is going on today; first a power outage and then an earthquake? This city is falling apart.' She groans as she pulls a pillow over her head and tries once again to go back to sleep.

What Scarlett didn't realize at this point is that these were not in fact regular acts of nature, but something else.

~ The Next Day ~

BEEP!BEEP! BEEP!BEEP! Scarlett rolls over and slams her hand down on the off button of the alarm clock by her bed, muting its sound. 'Ugh, I hate getting up early.' She thinks only half awake as she crawls out of bed clearly lacking energy. She gets ready and leaves her room on her way out the house. She reaches for the handle but before she leaves she glances at the door across from hers, the one that seems to barely open. She puts her head down and sighs, then shakes her head. "I guess it's just going to be another one of those days." she whispers begrudgingly as she walks out the house.

She cranks the volume on her headphones up and sticks her hands in her pants pockets as she walks down the street towards school. Soon, she arrives at Namigama High School, where she is attending as a Senior.

She tucks her headphones into her bag as she walks into the double front doors of the school. Its the third month of school but still as she walks by other students at their lockers she hears them say things like, "Look, it's that girl with the weird eyes, do you think something's wrong with her?" "It's probably some kind of birth defect."

Scarlett shakes her head, "I'm tired of this crap." she mumbles as she pulls her headphones back out and puts them back on, letting her music drown out the sound of the gossiping teenagers around her.

She looks down at her phone as she scrolls through her music when she suddenly hits something with a 'thud', causing her phone to hit the floor and the screen to crack. "What the hell?" Scarlett groans as she bends down to pick up her phone.

"Is that all you have to say?" A rude husky voice asks from above, "Aren't you going to apologize for being so clumsy?"

"Hey, don't be so rude, how many times do I have to lecture you about your attitude?" A similiar yet kinder voice speaks to the other one. "Now, can I help you up?" The kinder voice continues as the person behind the voice reaches out a hand to her.