Mirror, Mirror (Book 2)

Sneak Peak: Welcome to Hellstone Academy

Oliver Harper's day turned to Hell right in front of his eyes.

Hideous smells of dark sewer water floated inside his nostrils as Oliver climbed down the rungs of a sewer ladder. The cool metal burned his hands, grasping what little warmth he had left.

His black beanie stayed on his dark brown curls, his green eyes searched for the bottom of the sewer, and his scrawny body is clothed with a black t-shirt and skinny black jeans.

As his feet pressed against the warm ground, Oliver reached into his pocket, pulled out what it looked like a sword, and proceeded into the darkness.

The putrid smells of trash, rats, and piss all clouded into one bad odor. Brown stains make up the ceiling and the floor. Small, hairy rats squeezed their plump bodies into the cracks, shook away the smelly water, and scampered past Oliver's black sneakers.

"Oh, geez!" he moaned.

He shuddered at a huge, brown vermin walking by him. Its eyes were as red as cherries, its snout is wide, and its tail length matched the width of a jump rope. 

Paralyzed by its appearance, the boy waited until the massive rat jumps into the water, sending drops flying in Oliver's direction.

Dark brown puddles splashed on the concrete floor, creating another grimy stain on its gruesome canvas.

Seeing this made Oliver regret coming here. In fact, he vowed never to miss class ever again. But since Esterville High is rehearsing for their shitty 100th annual pep rally, he was glad that he'd faked a doctor's note to his teachers.

To him, pep rallies are another way of saying 'fuck you' to nerds, Goths, and other lame cliques that make up the school. Like many kids, Oliver hated Esterville High.

He didn't understand what his mother was thinking; sending Oliver to a building filled with random kids is bullshit.

Not only did he have to deal with three, arrogant football players: Max Fields, Adam, and Jim Chang, but mostly the entire school, especially a school counselor Oliver has to see throughout the week.

Moving forward, Oliver shined his flashlight over to the unsteady water, praying that something wouldn't leap out and scare him to oblivion.

Oliver's breath is steady as the warm breeze, but his green eyes flicker for any sudden movements. The sound of dripping water ceased when a white apparition crept behind him and touched his shoulder.

In an instant, Oliver's hand shot through his pocket, pulled out a small, silver dagger, and swerved around to find a fifty-two-year-old ghost wearing a sweaty, orange jumpsuit with ripped brown men's boots. His skin had a sick, pale yellow color, his eyes were as big as marbles, and there wasn't any meat in his bones.

Lowering his dagger, an embarrassed Oliver let out a relieved sigh then said, "what the fuck Todd? You scared the shit out of me!"

"Oops, sorry bro." the ghost chuckled. "Didn't mean to scare ya."

The boy released a sigh, then dropped his blade inside his left pocket. "No worries, it's fine."

Todd Matthews is—or was—a mentally unstable fifty-two-year-old man with an unhealthy addiction to meth.

He served five years in the account of violating his neighbor's house, robbed twenty pharmacies, and starving his pit bull to death. However, three months after he was placed in jail, Todd became hysterical.

He claimed that he has weird dreams of himself getting mauled by a bear with haunting red eyes.

Todd tried asking the guards for any medication, but because of his history, they send him to either a doctor or a therapist, who both had thought he was crazy from his meth withdrawal.