Book 1: When Death Comes Near (#Wattys2015)

A Noted Future

        I am is still trying to get over what happened a few days ago.  With Jay, the bird, and Jasper not being shocked at all.  I think May and Kate were still trying to get over it too.  The day after the inccident, Jay and Jasper weren't at school.  So we couldn't confront either one of them.  Honestly, I was a little scared.  How is that humanly possible?  What if there are others?  What if there were other in this class?  That night, I had a literal mental breakdown.  I don't understand life anymore.  The worst part was that this happened in a matter of 2-3 weeks, when I was still trying to figure out this town.

        On Monday, Jasper finally came back to school, and so did Jay.  At lunch, we decided that we were going to confront Jasper.  "Hey guys," Jasper said sitting down with us.  He had a confused look on his face, "Why are you guys looking at me like I'm some alien?"

"I don't know, are you?" Kate said in a sad but angry kind of tone.  May and I just looked away.

"What is going on here?" he asked as calm as possible.  At that moment, I wanted to shout at him.  Scream at him for not telling us what was up.  How could he be so confused?  I hated myself for wanting to scream at him, but I was also mad because he didn't tell us, like he never saw what happened, he never would. 

        "I'm sorry, Jaclyn, you said to play it cool, but I can't stand eating lunch with a liar," May said, glaring at Jasper as she got up to leave. 

"I'm going with her, sorry Jackie," Kate said, doing the same.

"Okay, then.  Don't know why they are so ticked off at me.  What did I do?" Jasper said calmly.

"You really don't get it do you?" I said, full of rage, but also still trying to keep my cool.  Jasper shook his head.

"I really thought you were different, that you wouldn't keep any secrets from us.  I'll talk to you later.  Just think about it for a minute.  Let me give you a hint, think of two days ago," I said as I got up and left.  Jasper all of a sudden grbbed my arm and I turned around, suprised.  He had a strong grip.

"You saw that?" he said worriedly, like something clicked.

"You know what I'm talking about?" I said with a little hope as I sat down again.

"Jackie, no!  You, May, and Kate are in big danger now.  What you saw seemed really cazy I know okay?  It's impossible, I know, but you are in great danger," Jasper said with a look of alarm.

"Explain, please.  I am so confused," I said, and I was.  Jasper shook his head and just then the bell rang.  He got up and walked away, looking at something.  I pinpointed where he was looking, at Jay.  Jay was snearing, leaning against a wall with his arms crossed.  He pointed to himself and mouthed the words me to Jasper.  Jasper shook his head violently and kept on walking. 

        I told May and Kate what happened.  The rest of the day, we didn't talk to Jasper.  Then school let out.  May, Kate, and I walked out of school as fast as we could without running.  Jasper came out behind us and when he saw us he raced over and tried to talk to us.  Telling us that we were in great danger and all that.  We were right outside the forest when it happened.  Jay stormed by.  He pushed something into my hand as he walked past me.  I saw him look back at me with a glare, then exchanged a feirce look with Jasper.  I stopped walking.  "Jackie, you coming," May said.

"Yeah I'll be right there.  Go on I'll catch up to you in a minute, I need to rest for a minute, my bookbag is killing my back," I lied.  I looked around nervously, looking for jay, but it almost seemed like he disappeared.  I uncurled my hand.  It was a slip of crumpled up paper. 

        I unfolded it.  It had a not on it that looked like the devil wrote it himself.  The words I read from it scared me o badly.  The note said: Watch your back, in scrawled handwriting.  Then I started feeling light headed.  Then I blacked out.  I had a vision or a dream, or I don't even know what to call it, but it was horrible.  I was running in a forest.  It was very dark and very spooky.  I heard voices all around me, speaking some foreign language.  Then I heard their voices.  Small at first but then all of a sudden they got so loud, they almost made my eardrums bleed.  It was May and Kate.  "Help! Jaclyn, help!" I heard them cry.  Their voice seemed like it would come from every direction.  I ran forward in a clearing.  I was now encircled with trees.  Jay appeared, "You'll see," he said and then disappeared.  I saw the scene at lunch replay.  Jay's look, that snear, it was awful.  Then a new scene appeared. 

        May and Kate were up against a tree, holding each other, and staring at me like I was some type of murderer.  But then I heard a voice behind me and I realized they weren't looking at me, they were looking at the real murderer with the knife in his hand, Jay.  He slashed it and it went right through me, but I felt no pain, there was no blood, and I was still alive.  I realized I wasn't apart of this.  I stood back.  Jay raised his knife and I screamed, "No!"  He was going to kill them.  Then he laughed his evel laugh and threw the knife away from them.  I relaxed, but just for a minute, because next came the impossible.  Jay stood there, but then all of a sudden, he turned into a big, mean, snarling, black, wolf.  He was about to attack May and Kate.  I screamed and ran in front of May and Kate as he pounced on them, but he passed right through me.  I turned around just to find May and Kate, dead on the floor.  I bent down over them and started crying my eyes out.  This wasn't real.  Then I just heard that snicker of Jay's.  I turned around, full of rage, but it was just darkness.  Then his voice boomed throughout the forest, "You're next!"

        I heard the sirens.  I opened my eyes.  May, Kate, and Jasper were standing over me.  I looked over across the street as I was being hauled onto a stretcher.  Jay was leaning against the lampost and pointing to himself mouthing the word me.  Then a bus passed by and he was gone.  It was just a dream.  May was crying, Jasper was holding my hand, Kate was telling me, "Hold on! Hold on!" and shedded a few tears and then I closed my eyes and fell asleep as an ambulence took me away.