Infernal Woods

{[Prologue]}

Tick... Tick... Tick...

The clock slowly ticked as every second passed, the room was silent, still, almost dead if it wasn't for the non-audible scratches of pens against papers. It was a classroom. With a perfect square shape, a couple of old wooden desks, a newer desk at the front and a board on the wall for a teacher to write on. The only light came from the large windows on the left side of the room, while the right had small high windows.

Knock... Knock...

A knock was heard from the door. Surprised, most of the students looked at the door while the teacher simply stood up, long expecting the unknown visitor waiting behind. The door led out a semi-loud screech as the teacher pulled it open, and a boy stepped in.

The boy stood there in front of the class, smiling, seemingly not feeling the harsh penalties of life, he stared at a particular girl. The teacher cleared her throat.

"Please welcome your new classmate, please step forward and introduce yourself."

The boy obediently followed her orders, he had been practicing for this moment. Taking one step forward, his mouth stretched into a wider grin and his eyes lit up with a suspicious joy.

"Hello everybody! My name's Hanzo Lilim, and from today on I will be attending this class! I hope we can all be friends!"

His jolly mood seemed to lighten the deep atmosphere. However, one student's head shot up at the mention of the boys name. Usually she would mind her own business and continue with her work, but his voice sent a shock through her entire being.

She examined the boy, and it was exactly who she thought. The familiarity of his messy white hair and pale skin sent a shiver down her spine as she remembered her young days of playing in a forest. As if to confirm her suspicion, his eyes told her it all. It was unmistakable, his unique demonic red cat-like eyes stared straight at her.

The boy looked as if he hadn't aged a day since she last saw him, the only change was his height, but other than that, he was exactly the same boy that she met in the woods outside her house. His skin still almost as white as paper, like he had never seen the sun.

The girl looked down, trying to forget the sight of the person before her. A boy wanted for murders that cops just called 'accidents'.

"Alright Hanzo, please take a seat next to Miss Gibson over there in the back."

Hanzo smiled and skipped over to his new seat next to a long lost 'friend'. Rachel Gibson shivered. He just had to sit next to her. On the inside, she was panicking, afraid of what the boy would do to make her 'happy' again.

On the other hand, Hanzo just shifted a carefree smile in her direction, observing how much she had changed over the years. She still had the same blueish white hair, but it was in a different style than he remembered. It was cut short from what it used to be, and now barely reached past her chin, and the top right part of her face was covered by the hair, shielding her eye from visibility.

Her eyes glistened with the purple night sky, betraying her emotions. The bandage still wrapped around her neck from bruises of long ago. She had gotten used to the aching feeling of the bruises that never healed, and the small pain that came along when a gentle breeze would push against them.

Rachel gripped her pen tightly as Hanzo was close. Deep inside, even though she would never admit it, she was happy to see him again, but she was also scared.

And then...

The bell rang.

Rachel swiftly and quickly grabbed her stuff, hurrying out of the classroom, trying to get away, but when she looked back, she was surprised. He wasn't following her. Just like a normal student, the infernal child normally blended in with the other students.

Or he would have if he didn't leap over the tall fence that stood more than a foot higher than him. Barely anyone noticed, and the few that did just shrugged it off and kept making their way to the parking spaces, others hopped on a bus and took off, while few stood at the gate waiting for their parents to pick them up.

Without waiting, Rachel hurried home, walking, no, running to her destination. But she wasn't going home. She was going 'home'. To where it all started. The small two-story house next to the large and mysterious unexplored forest of Overton Park.

Or as Hanzo called it...

The Infernal Woods