The Dark Eye Chronicles: Silverstone

The Day It Started

Chapter 1

It's 3:03 p.m. Just 42 more minutes and Derek Sage would be out of school. This was his last period - Social Studies. He hated it. While his friends kept getting A's, he was struggling to even get B's. Barely anything went well his first year of High School, but he did nothing to change it. He was not cool, he was not a nerd. He was not muscular, but was not too skinny. He was tall, but not abnormally. He was not a bully and he wasn't bullied. He had short, curly hair, which people often found weird, but he got used to that. When people would ask what he considered himself, he would often call himself an "Inbetweener" or a "Nobody", but it did not matter. Whatever he was, he wouldn't care, because he believed that life was too short to care about things. This day, like most other days, Derek sat on his desk, barely aware of anything happening. His mind was filled with thoughts about truth and thoughts about fiction. He dreamed of places where he could be free and live a carefree life without worries or fear. Of course this was a stupid thought, but, as his grandfather always told him: "One may have dreams that seem stupid. But don't we all?". And this was true. What may seem like stupid dreams may lead to great success. Derek always dreamed of being important. This was another one of his stupid dreams.

"Psst!"

Derek quickly turned around. Of course he wasn't even paying attention to anything before he heard it, but, to avoid any trouble, he just quickly turned back around and stared at the pictures of the Great Depression in his textbook (a unit he wasn't even supposed to be on)

"PSSST!"

He saw who it was.

"That's not what we're on, smart one!" Leena whispered to him, pointing at his textbook. She was a red-haired girl with bright blue eyes. Although she was pretty, many guys stopped liking her after learning about her crazy personality. This was usual for her.

Derek nervously turned the pages embarrassed that she had noticed. "Oh yeah I know. You know I was just..."

"Hey!" Leena quickly cut him off. "Calm down Derek I was just messing with you! I don't care about this class either. I mean seriously, why would we learn so much about Columbus? He killed so many innocent people but we praise him for that!? Why do we even..."

"Leena!" Mrs. Hartman yelled out. "If you have something to say, tell me or talk when school is over."

"Yes ma'am." Leena responded in a soft tone.

Mrs. Hartman turned to Derek "And you too, Derek! Turn around!"

"Y-Yes...ma'am", Derek stuttered.

Class was just seconds from being done. 5...4...3...2...1...

"No one leaves yet!" Mrs. Hartman quickly said after the bell rang. "There have been some news lately...about many strange disappearances. So I would suggest you all be careful everywhere you go. Police have said that in most of these cases, a lot of damage has been found, meaning that whoever or whatever has been causing these is very destructive, therefore dangerous. Please be careful." There was a long pause. "Ok now. Class dismissed." She teased her hair as she walked back to her worn-up wooden desk.

Derek walked down the hall, remembering Mrs. Hartman's worried face as she told the news in class. He somehow felt that he should be worried about the situation too, not knowing exactly why. Was it the fact that Mrs. Hartman was so worried or was he just worrying too much about what could just be some kidnapping case like any other? After six consecutive tries to open a wrong locker from not paying attention, he noticed that the locker said '1453' when his was '1381'. "Seriously?!" Derek muttered with frustration.

"Who are you talking to?"

"What the...?! Leena! What is wrong with you!?"

"Oops. Sorry." She laughed. "I just saw you talking to yourself and I found it kinda funny." She chuckled at the thought of it. She knew he was a weird guy since the start of school, but she had just actually tried to talk to him.