Clearly Misunderstood

One: The One In Black

"Look at that place, dude," Charles said pointing at an enormous building.
More of a private school of some sort.
We kept walking down the sidewalk and turn at the corner.
"You know, I heard that lots of weird people are in there, like freaks. They never come out, they probably have dormitories or something."
I grin and look at him. "Sounds like the kind of place you should be." I laugh quietly. "Don't say that! Again, I am not some sort of freak, stupid."
"Hey!" It was a girl in a black dress. She had black lip stick and black eye shadow. A little too young for using that much make up in my opinion.
Charles leaned over and whispered, "Uh oh, goth alert." I bumped his elbow. "Hi," I said, "can we help you or something?"
"Disrespect," she said. "Uh, what?" I said confused.
"You disrespect mother Arachnid. I don't take lightly to people like you."
Charles began to laugh. "You... There are two of us and one of you. What are you going to do? Plus, maybe you should go back to your 'mother Artichoke' or whatever." The girl began to get angry and she walked up to us and put one finger on Charles' chest. He gasped and his skin began to turn completely pale and dark veins began to appear on his body. He then fell to the ground. He was having some sort of seizure. He stopped and I knelt down and started shaking his shoulder trying to get him out of what ever this was. "Hey. Come-on, wake up." His heart stopped. I could hear the girl crying. I turned and she was on her knees starring at the ground. "You're a crazy little bitch. You killed him, you maniac," I yelled. "I'm sorry. I didn't think he would go this far. I... I have to go." "Wait!" I grabbed a part of her dress. "Who?" She looked at me and kept trying to get away. "It's none of your business, let go! He'll hurt you too." I let go of her dress. And I watched as she ran away. All of a sudden people began to gather around us. "Oh my God, are you okay, what happened to him? Someone call for an ambulance! Hurry!" "No," I said, "he's dead already. He can't be saved, it's too late. Someone was just here. They ran."
...
"So let me get this straight. You can't remember a single thing about the killer who attacked your friend?" The police officer did not seem convinced that I didn't kill Charles. "Look," I sighed," I don't know what happened. All I can remember is that we were walking on the side walk. Everything else is just... blank. But after that, I'm here at the police department being interrogated. I've already told you what I know. Can I go home or do I have to stay here and answer more pointless questions? You do realize that, the more time you spend asking me these questions, the killer could be killing other people!" He sighed. "That's the other thing. We have absolutely no leads, we can't just send officers out to look for someone when they don't know what they look like." I slumped back into the chair and stared at the metal table top. "Can you at least tell me what caused him to die?" The detective sighed and looked to the ground. "We aren't sure what the cause was. We were hoping you would know after you woke when you passed out. But, obviously, what happened was not expected." I began to chuckle, "Really? How would you not know how he died? You performed an autopsy didn't you?" My eyes began to fill with tears. "The doctors have never seen this before, it's frightened them, really. Charles Cara's parents want to talk to you but I don't think it would be a good idea to confront them in a situation like this. Angry people do things without thinking sometimes. I'm telling you this for your own safety. Do you understand?" I nodded my head yes. "We've contacted your family and they are on their way here.
I walked through the big metal double doors. My mom was holding Dad's hand sitting in the waiting room. She gasped when she saw me. I then got a lump in my throat felt very sick. "Oh, my baby," she said with her voice breaking, "please tell me you're okay. Did you get hurt? Are you okay? Oh, Daniel, come hold your son." I began to feel horribly desolate and my eyes filled up with tears. This time I couldn't stop them. "Mom," I said with a breaking and shaky voice, "I'm okay. I didn't get hurt." Then, I began sobbing quietly. And Mom said, "Oh, Liam, I'm so sorry about Charles. We should have taken you two to the library. Oh God, imagine the pain that Margaret and Ben are feeling right now."
...
The thought of funerals and a dead person laying in a casket always made me sick. I stayed in the car during the entire ceremony. At times, I felt Charles' mother giving me dirty and angry looks. She blames me, I thought. Why would any of this be my fault!? I had nothing to do with his death. She never approved of me as a worthy friend. I couldn't help but feel aching guilt.
Once Charles was lowered into his hole of perpetual rotting, his mother began to sob like crazy. I wouldn't blame her. No one would.
I watched people proceed to their cars and then I saw a girl in a black dress, black shoes, black lipstick and eye shadow. She seemed to know I was looking at her. She was staring at me. A person intercepted our visual contact, but as they passed, she was gone.
I sighed, then I sat straight in my chair. And that's when I realized that she was in the car with me.
"Holy shit! Who are you? What are you doing in here?!" I was beginning to breathe heavier as she just starred at me (much scarier up close.)
"I take it you don't remember me," she finally said. "Am I supposed to?" She shook her head. "No. I hexed you. My name's Annie by the way. The spell erased your memory. Causing you to not remember what happened to your friend. He told me to kill your friend. Well, technically, I didn't know what I did would kill him. I have no power unless I obey --"
"Wait, wait. Who is this 'him' you're talking about?" She looked down and looked back up. "Look, that isn't important right now. You have a gift, Liam," she said. "How do you know my name?" She groaned,"like I said, none if that is important. Will you let me talk?" I nodded. "Okay. Look, Mother Arachnid didn't have you killed because you have a gift. She could see it." I looked at her confused. "What 'gift', I don't have anything special about me." She shook her head. "On the contrary. I can help you awaken that gift, but only if you're ready to leave your whole life behind." "What do you mean? You mean like disappear and run away for ever...? No. No. I can't leave my parents. They mean too much to me." She leaned in close to me and marked my forehead with something. "Give me your hands." I held them up and she marked both of them. Both had a strange mark: a U-shaped mark with a line above it. I figured she wrote the same thing on my forehead. "So what no--" I began to groan loudly from the pain. My hands and forehead seemed to be burning like hellfire. "Why is it hurting so much," I asked with a strained voice.
"Just do as I say. And it will end shortly."
I stopped panicking and sat up straight. I wanted to talk but, no matter what, I couldn't do anything.
The only thing I felt like doing, strangely, was to await a command from this stranger.
"Follow me. And don't worry about your parents."
What do you mean?! I thought. You can't just do this, I can't believe this is happening.
We began running across the cemetery. I could hear my mother calling me to come back. And her and I both knew there was no chance of her catching up. Her sobs began to fade the farther we got.
I couldn't help but feel extremely guilty for doing this.
Well, it is against my own will. Why should I blame myself for it? Oh. That's right. Because I allowed this to happen.
Beside the fact I was still feeling guilty, I felt I needed answers.
I needed this. I will come back. I hope.