The cool morning breeze brushed past a tree and caused a soft but peaceful humming and chittering of bushes. The harmonious sound of birds squawking and the chirping of insects made the bright, warm day seem all the more cheery. It was early however, not a minute past eight in the morning and the bench that would soon be so animated and full of liveliness was now deserted, with nothing but its graphited mindless words giving up the strange personalities of those who occupied it on many a day. Footsteps echoed on the otherwise still and untouched for the day pavement as teachers arrived at the high school, the click-clack of heels on concrete and the stern tap-tap-tap of a man with a mission and a place to be.
The bench's normal occupants arrived shortly after the previously peaceful and relatively quiet time of eight o'clock. Today the first to arrive were Aidan, Tamara and Erin, whom were all seemingly too busy on their phones to interract with one another. They arrived in fairly similar time slots, so no one was alone at the bench for much time. There was something unnerving being alone at the bench, it was as if you were watching the world go on around you while you were trapped in this state of loneliness. Your senses became heightened, you were able to smell things better and you could hear snippets of conversations and shoes tapping on the pavement and you could see everything from the corner of your eye. This was because of focus of course, focussing on the world around you can be stressful, and that was why many of the bench goers weren't fond of being alone.
"Do we have anything due today?" Tamara said quietly, almost to herself as if she were unaware of the people that sat not a metre away from her.
Aidan furrowed his eyebrows as he looked up and at Tamara. He wasn't staring at her, or well didn't intend to be as he was puzzling the idea over in his mind. "I don't think we did," he said, adding with a slight laugh, "well if we did, I didn't do it."
This reply seemed to satisfy Tamara as she looked over at Erin and asked for a hug.
"Hey guys," Annalise and Cheska walked up to the group, grinning as if something were funny. Tamara turned her head, her wavy, moose brown hair fluttering in the wind and was followed by Erin, whose hair was a light shade of orange. Aidan's ice-blue eyes remained fixated on his phone.
Cheksa and Annalise took their normal places at the group and they all commenced a discussion on the topic of exams. Gradually, more people arrived until the main bench occupants had all arrived. The bench goers were those that were consistently at this particular bench before school. These people's names were: Tamara, Elijah, Zane, Garion, Erin, Aidan, Fred, Cheska, Mya, Annalise, Rachel, Abbie, Filipe, Ryan, Laura, Justin and Caitlin. The people of the bench were truly nothing out of the ordinary as of yet, they were simply a group of fifteen year olds with a common school and within that school, a common bench.
Abbie, a vibrant girl whom was known for her humour and strange mannerisms realised with a start that Laura was missing on this morning, at exactly fifteen minutes to nine. "Where is Laura?" she asked the bench goers, thinking nothing more of the simple question. Annalise, Rachel and Erin turned to each other and squinted their eyes, going through the morning's events in their minds and came up with nothing.
Erin started, "Sorry, I don't..." but was cut off by Justin's exclamation, "There she is!"
Laura slowly walked over, seeming to be carrying a rubbish bag with something odd inside. She possessed a grim expression, as if something had recently been the cause of some kind of annoyance for her and her curly brown hair was messy, a sign of stress backed up by darting of eyes. The minute she got to the bench, she sat down and put the plastic bag onto the bench top. Abbie furrowed her eyebrows before reaching over to the bag and pulling out an obscure jar with thick, rich, red liquid inside.
"What is that?" Cheska asked, mainly to herself, but she was overheard by Filipe who repeated the question.
"Yeah, what is that?"
Laura shrugged, biting her lip. "The art teachers told us that the old jars of paints in the store rooms could be taken home by students, so I picked this one..."
Caitlin laughed softly and whispered to Fred, "I bet its blood."
Fred laughed along, but shook his head in disbelief and poked the jar. "It is not blood."
Laura and Abbie looked at each other, grinning and Abbie exclaimed almost too excitedly, "Lets draw a pentagram on the bench!" Laura nodded in agreement and broke into a fit of laughter as Abbie began to unscrew the lid of the jar. Tamara fished around in her school bag, looking for a paintbrush and being her over prepared self, she sufficed and brought out a nice, new one.
Annalise looked at Mya and shook her head, "Guys, we'll get into trouble..." Mya nodded and frowned as Laura dipped the paintbrush into the strange looking paint and began the outline of the pentagram. There was an eerie silence that followed the beginning of the drawing, the bench's occupants being caught in a trance that the precise painting had cast. The pentagram wasn't large, perhaps the size of a doughnut, but once it had been drawn, they knew that it would stain the benchtop. Nothing extraordinary happened, once the pentagram had been finished, it became as if it had never interrupted the constant buzz of chatter that the bench goers usually brought to the table. All seemed well, as the bell chimed and the group departed, leaving the bench and its surroundings alone and peaceful again. A howling wind passed by, and all was quiet as the pentagram began to summon what would be the beginning of the end.
~Thankyou for reading my story! Feel free to comment and vote :)~
