Her

Chapter 1

Genesis

"Is this real or just a hallucination? Is it really over? After everything I've gone through... this... just doesn't feel real. Hell, I don't know what is real anymore. I'm hurt, I'm afraid... I'm afraid that I'm still living the nightmare... Why did it happen to me? Now I have to live with this pain forever..." Various thoughts crossed Seth's mind as he walked through the dark hallway.

---------------

The embracing sleep and weariness had covered Seth's senses as he was woken up at 06:00 AM by the ringing of his phone. Seth, a 15-year-old boy who is usually active and athletic was rather tired that morning because of his habit of studying late at night.

Seth somehow managed to pick up the phone and put it against his ear.

"Hello?" Seth's drowsiness was reflected in his voice.

"Hey man. Just wanted to remind you that we have to get to the field for practice this morning. You're coming, right?" Asked Joseph, one of Seth's best friends.

Joseph was a 14-year-old boy. Though he was Seth's junior in school, both of them played on the same soccer team. Joseph was a sarcastic and awkward person but he always liked to think of it as a defence mechanism.

"Oh, I had forgotten about it! Thanks for reminding me." Seth suddenly felt energised.

"Okay, come over to my place and we'll go to the field together." Joseph ordered and hung up.

Jumping out of his bed, Seth rushed and freshened himself up. He dressed up, put his boots on and hastily ran out of his house towards Joseph's. As he reached his house, he saw Joseph standing outside with a soccer ball in his hands.

"We're gonna be late." Remarked Joseph just as he saw Seth, "Coach will kill us if we're late again."

"So?" Seth wiped the sweat off his brow.

"I don't know about you... but I don't plan on dying today."

"Don't worry, we won't be late. Now, let's go."

Both of them headed towards the field together.

When they reached the field they noticed that it had been slightly frosted over after the night and had snow surrounding it. They couldn't believe that they were the first to reach the field as they were usually the latecomers. Everyone, especially Peter, used to start playing even before they were in sight. Today, however, they felt odd even though they should have rejoiced to the fact that they could get more time to play soccer than they usually did.

"Where the hell is everybody?" Seth's voice echoed as it was carried by the wind across the soccer pitch. His voice was mellow and deep and his facial features were strong as were his muscles.

"How in the damn hell am I supposed to know?" Joseph squeaked.

As he was the smaller of the two, he liked to compensate his height and voice with strong words.

"What do we do now?"

Seth looked at his watch and before he could remark that the others should have been here three minutes ago, a ball hit his head. His eyes began to glow with a passion for his beloved sport and with slight fury at his shorter companion. Just then, he saw a distant figure in the winter fog running towards them.

"Jo, look!" Seth pointed to the misty figure as if to warn his friend of any potential danger.

"Who is that?" Screeched Joseph.

"It's probably Peter... He is the only person we can expect right now." Answered Seth.

"How did you guys come here so early? It isn't like you at all... and no one's even here yet. What's wrong with this day?" Peter asked with a slight chuckle.

Peter was the third member of the group of the friends, he was the perfect friend that anyone could ever ask for. However, Seth and Joseph thought that recently, he had been acting weird and was unusually introverted.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with this day but there might be something wrong with your head." Joseph smiled as he talked.

The three burst out into unending laughter. Peter's laughter slowly faded away and he had a worried look on his face. It seemed as if he wanted to tell the others something but was hesitant to do so. He looked at the ground and then up at them with a look of uncertainty. The smiles on the faces of Seth and Joseph went away as soon as they noticed his expression. An air of silence filled the surroundings which seemed cheerful earlier.

"What's wrong, Pete?" Seth asked with a tone of concern.