The Unknown Heroes

Chapter 2

          Andrew jumped when he felt the hand. He looked up and saw a tall, dark figure standing over him. At first, he couldn't tell who it was. They were standing in front of the sun, and all he saw on the face were a pair of glowing yellow eyes. The rest of the figure was pitch black, and their limbs looked like they were twisted. He heard them, no, IT say something in a whisper, but he couldn't make out what it said. Then Andrew blinked, and he breathed a sigh of relief. It was Ashley. The figure that he saw before had disappeared.

          "Man, are you alright?" Ashley asked. "I called out your name like, ten times, but you didn't answer. What happened? You look like you've seen a ghost."

          He scratched the back of his head. "No," He said. "I don't think so. Do you know if they allow animals on campus?"

          She shook her head. "No, they don't. Why do you ask?"

          "Uh, it's nothing. You ready for Black Castle?" He asked her.

          Ashley nodded her head and turned to look over her shoulder. Now that the sun was hitting her, Andrew saw that she was wearing her usual  black khakis, light blue dress shirt, black sweater vest, and dark blue bow-tie. She also had a small blue hairpin on the right side of her head and a pair of blue earrings. People are always asking her why she wore clothes like that, and she would always give them the same answer. "Because."

          She started walking towards the gates, and Andrew followed. They pasted by other soon-to-be fellow students. Some were on benches reading, and others were throwing a football back and forth to each other. It made him think about if he was going to join the football team. His mom had made him join back in middle school so that he would get out of the house and off the video games. It wasn't until high school when Ashley joined the team. Though, he had a lot of fun in high school, so maybe it would be fun in college...

          Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his head. It only lasted a few seconds, but it was strong enough to make him stop in his tracks. Not hearing his footsteps behind her, Ashley turned around.

          "You're SURE you're okay?" She asked in a concerned voice.

          "Sorry, just another headache. It's gone now." He reassured her.

          This wasn't the first time he had a small but powerful headache. Ever since he was about ten years old, he would get these sudden headaches. When he was younger, they would last for maybe five or six minutes, then they would just disappear like it was never there. His mom had taken him to multiple doctors and pediatricians to try and find out what was causing them. None of them found anything. The only thing that they could tell his mom was to give him some pain killers. Luckily, as he got older they started to go away, but recently they were showing signs of coming back. This time, they usually didn't even last a full minute.

          "Well, in that case, hurry your cute little butt up! I'm hungry, and I'm in the mood for some burgers." She called out, while she walked a little faster towards the parking lot.

          "Alright, I'm right behi.... DID YOU SAY I HAVE A CUTE LITTLE BUTT!?" He called back to her.

          As they got to the parking lot, Ashley got out her car keys. She unlocked the doors to her red 2015 Subaru Impreza. She had won it about a year ago in a bet. The guys face when he was handing her the keys was as red as the car itself.  Her and Andrew slid into the two front seats and buckled their seat belts. Ashley pulled out of her space, and made her way through the lot.

          As she started to leave the campus, Andrew saw it again. The black figure with yellow eyes. He blinked his eyes, but it what still there. But this time was different. Out of nowhere, a large knife was thrust through the back of the figure and out the front. It burst into a black cloud of what looked like smoke. Then, he saw something behind the smoke. No, someONE behind the smoke. Before he could get a good look at the person, they started to run behind a building. The one thing that Andrew did notice was the long, purple hair that they had.

          When Ashley passed by the building, he tried to see if they were still there. But they were gone. Ashley looked over to him and notice him intently starting out the car widow.

          "What? You see a squirrel?" She joked.

          "No, just spacing out again." He told her.

          He wasn't sure if he should tell Ashley about what he saw. He didn't think that she would believe him, not that he blamed her. None of this was making any sense to Andrew. The headaches, the black figure, and the mystery person who destroyed it. He couldn't be the only one who was seeing this happen.

          As him thoughts turned in his head about what to do next, Ashley turned into the Black Castle parking lot. Though it had been a while since either one of them had been there, they both could remember the amazing smell of burgers from outside the building. She turned off the car and opened her door and Andrew did the same. She locked the car and headed towards where the smell was coming form.

          "Man, I'm gonna get one of everything!" She exclaimed.

          "I think I'll just get two burgers." He told her.

          "Pffffffft, wuss. Hm, I'm probably going to get four..... DOUBLES!" Ashley said as she ran to the doors.

          Andrew went to go and get them their seats and Ashley went up to order their food. A few minutes later, she came back with the food. They both started to tell each other what they had done over the summer. Ashley lived farther away from Andrew, about a four-hour drive, so they didn't usually hang out over summer break. Now that they were going to College together, they would be able to hang out more. While they were talking, Ashley excused herself to the bathroom. Andrew finished up his last burger and wiped his hands.

          Then, it happened again. The headache. This time was different though. It was more intense, more intense than it had ever been before, and it didn't show any sign of stopping.

          Andrew grabbed his head with both hands, and then collapsed.