Sweet Death

Part 1: The friendship begins

Hadeon couldn’t sleep, she was having another one of her episodes. She breathed heavily as she tossed and turned in her bed, tears running down her face. Her panic attacks happened often, but it never got better. A small whimper escaped her lips, and sweat ran down her brow. All of a sudden, there was a rustling noise and she felt a cold hand on her forehead. Hadeon calmed instantly, her breathing steadied, and she relaxed. The cold hand gently wiped the tears from Hadeon’s face and she opened her eyes. Her savior was a boy. A boy with dark hair and amber eyes, Hadeon could also see black wings protruding from his shoulder blades. He looked no older than she was, 15 or 16. His eyes twinkled in the darkness as he gazed down at her. “Who are you?” Hadeon whispered to him. The boy smiled but didn’t answer, he merely kissed her hand and disappeared into a puff of black smoke.

Hadeon woke up screaming. She pushed back her long brown hair from her sweaty forehead. Hadeon was decent looking, with dark brown, almost black eyes and an alright figure She looked around her room, everything was the same. The drab grey walls, the threadbare carpet, and the broken window letting in a glacial breeze. Hadeon got up, taking her blanket with her. She walked into her kitchen, making a sad bowl of oatmeal and sitting down at the battered dining table. Her mom rushed in, quickly giving her a kiss on the cheek. “ Honey I gotta go to work, like usual I will be home late, so don’t wait up.” Haedon’s mother spoke to her while putting on her worn coat and gloves. She continued, “ your dad is already at work, but he’ll be back by midnight.” Putting on her shoes, Hadeon’s mother grabbed a somber piece of bread and headed toward the door. “ Bye mom i lo-” Hadeon started to say as her mother slammed the door shut. She sighed and dumped her bowl in the sink.

Walking to school was the worst.It was a thirty minute walk past dark alleyways and sketchy gas stations. And after all that, she had to endure school. Hadeon’s teacher was the meanest person to have ever lived. He does not like Hadeon one bit. Always keeping her after class for no reason, lecturing her for falling asleep in the middle of the lesson. Because of her panic attacks at night Hadeon rarely got enough sleep, so she sleeps in class. After half an hour, Hadeon finally got to school. She walked through the doors to find that the whole school was buzzing with excitement. When she asked someone what was going on they replied, “ There’s a new guy! We never get anyone new, this is so exciting!” Hadeon furrowed her brow in confusion. In her little town of Mortem, no one new ever moved in. Most people who lived in the country of Maeror doesn’t even know about Mortem.

Mortem was founded by a colony of demons who were banished from the underworld. They found this place and claimed it for their own, a place where they could live in peace. However, things went wrong. The demons lived in peace for many years, but eventually humans killed all the demons off. The humans took over the town and eventually, the demons faded away into legend and folklore. The humans who killed off the demons seemed to have at least a little respect though, they kept the name that the demons gave then town. Mortem means death in latin. Having been banished from their homes, the demons thought that they would never be redeemed. They thought that everyone they knew thought them dead, so the demons named the little town as such.

Hadeon moved toward the gathering crowd of girls. They all seemed to be surrounding someone. As she pushed through the crowd, with girls grumbling and shrieking as she pushed them aside. When Hadeon finally got to the center of the crowd, she gasped. Standing there, in the middle of all the flirting, heavily-makeuped girls, was the boy from her dreams. His amber eyes found her brown ones and he smiled, raking a hand through his dark hair. He looked exactly the same as in her dream, the only thing missing was his large, black wings. Her view was blocked however, as Kaitlyn Scott knocked Hadeon to the ground and latched herself to the dark haired boy. He didn’t seem to notice Kaitlyn as he rushed over to Hadeon, helping her up. She took his cold hand and, looking over his shoulder, she saw Kaitlyn looking furious. “Are you alright?” The strange boy’s deep, melodic voice brought Hadeon’s attention back to him. “ Um, yes I think so” she responded. Hadeon took back her hand, she felt his hand tighten on hers for a split second, then released it.

Hadeon looked up at the boy with curiosity. She asked him, “What’s your name?”. He started to walk through the crowd and Hadeon followed him unconsciously. “ My name is Ralth, and you are?” he told her. She replied, “ I’m Hadeon,”. Ignoring all the stares from the flaunting girls, Ralth snatched up Hadeon’s schedule from her backpack pocket and exclaimed, “ Wonderful! We have almost all our classes together!” she smiled at his enthusiasm and started toward her first class, though she thought it was a little weird. Was it a coincidence that they had most of their classes together? Ralth followed her in the door. Hadeon sat down at her usual seat in the back. The only free seat was in the front row, so Ralth sat there. Throughout the lesson Hadeon caught Ralth looking back at her. Every time her saw her looking back at him, he smiled and turned back to the lesson.

During seventh hour, Kaitlyn came up to Hadeon. Kaitlyn wasn’t the basic popular girl, with her posse of loyal followers and every boy in the school gazing after her with puppy dog eyes. But for some reason she hated Hadeon.Kaitlyn slammed Hadeon’s book out of her hands and got dangerously close to her face. Hadeon looked up at Kaitlyn and said “ What do you want?”. Kaitlyn gave her a sickly sweet smile and said “ Just so you know, that new boy is mi-”, Hadeon cut her off,” take him, we’re not in High School Musical, I don’t care.” Kaitlyn looked like she was about to argue, but she thought better of it. Hadeon grabbed her books as the final bell rang, and started home.

When Hadeon got home, she laid down in her bed. She was planning on laying down for a minute and then getting started on her homework but despite her best efforts, her eyelids slowly drifted closed and she quickly fell asleep. When she woke up, the blacked winged boy was sitting on the edge of her bed. She quickly sat up. The boy looked over at her, smiled, and got off the bed to kneel by her side. Hadeon asked him, “ Is your name Ralth?” The boy, Ralth, nodded. She continued, “ Do you talk?” Ralth laughed and said “ Yes, I talk.” Hadeon smiled. “Are you the new boy at my school?” she asked. He looked at her in deep concentration for a moment and then replied “ I see you have many questions, and I promise I will answer them, in time.” Hadeon noticed he didn’t answer the question, but she set it aside for the time being. She nodded and said, “ Will you be back tomorrow?” Ralth smiled and “yes” before disappearing in a black puff of smoke.

When Hadeon woke up the next morning, she realized that she didn’t have any panic attacks during the night. For the first time in five months, she got a full night’s sleep. It felt wonderful, getting up in the morning feeling rested and relaxed. Hadeon practically skipped downstairs and grabbed a slightly stale bagel for breakfast. She turned around and her good mood flickered and died. There was a note on the counter. It was from her mother and father, saying that they went on another work trip. It happened quite often, they would go on business trips for weeks on end, always leaving Hadeon all alone in the drafty, creaking house. It used to scare Hadeon as a child, the unexplainable creaks and moans of the house, the wind throwing her broken windows open. Now, Hadeon was used to it but she still got lonely.

Walking to school was worse than usual. It was raining and cold, Hadeon knew that, because of her broken window, her room would be soaked when she got home. All of a sudden, she couldn’t feel the raindrops falling on her face. She looked around and saw that Ralth had put an umbrella over her head. “Well hello there, Hadeon” he said. She brushed a lock of her hair behind her ear and replied softly, “Hi, Ralth. How are you?” Ralth replied “good” and gently tugged on her arm to indicate that they should start walking. Hadeon started walking and Ralth stayed close behind her, holding the umbrella. She asked him, “Do you live around here? There weren’t any houses for sale for you to move into.” He said, “No I don’t live around here but I was buying an umbrella at that grocery store over there. Hadeon nodded and they kept walking in silence. When they reached the school, Ralth said something about needing to go to his locker for a second and he left, leaving the umbrella with Hadeon. “Wait, you forgot your-” she started, but he had already left.

Hadeon didn’t see Ralth for the rest of the day. He didn’t show up to any of the classes they had together. She didn’t question it, however she had no right to meddle in other people’s business. When she opened up her locker at the end of the day, a note fell out. Hadeon picked it up. It reads, To Hadeon, I said I will answer your questions and so I shall. Starting tomorrow, write a question on a piece of paper, and put it in your locker. I will give an answer by the end of the day. There will be rules however. Rule #1: Only one question per day, I wouldn’t want to overload you with information. Rule #2: You must put a question in your locker before noon, so I have time to answer it. Sincerely, Ralth.

Hadeon read the letter over and over again. It just didn’t make sense, the Ralth from her dreams should not be able to contact her in the real world, much less her school. Hold on, she thought, what if the Ralth from her dreams is the Ralth from school? But then why does the Ralth from school act as if he’s never seen me before? A loud “BANG!” sounded and Hadeon flinched. One of the freshman girls had let off a confetti popper for her friend’s birthday. Hadeon scooted past the laughing crowd of girls and headed out of the large school doors and started home.

The damp weather had cleared and Hadeon let out a happy sigh as the warm rays of sun fell on the back of her neck. All of a sudden, she saw a dark form as she passed an alleyway. She started walking faster, the figure followed. She tried turning down an alleyway to get rid of the dark figure but it turned out to be a dead end. Hadeon turned around and she saw that the dark figure was a filthy looking man. He approached her as she started backing up to the back of the alley. The repulsive man grabbed Hadeon’s arm as her back hit the cold brick wall behind her. She wanted to scream for help but there was no one on the street and you cant see the back of the alley as it was shrouded by shadows from the building on either side. The man got close as he whispered in a raspy voice, “ you better give me your money, sweetie, or things will go veery badly for you.” He started stroking Hadeon’s arm and she tried to yank it out of his grasp. “Let go of me!” she shrieked. The man started to inch closer to Hadeon when suddenly, he was wrenched off of her. She saw Ralth, bringing the man close to him as he whispered dangerously, “If you ever, touch her again, I will find you and I will give you pain that you have never felt before,” Then Ralth threw a ferocious punch right at the man’s jaw, knocking him out immediately. The man’s body crumpled on the hard ground, making a sickening noise as his head made impact.

Ralth turned to Hadeon, looking at her shocked and scared expression. He walked toward her, lifting her chin when he got to her and whispered softly, “Are you alright? Did he hurt you?” Hadeon shook her head no, even though she was trembling fiercely. Ralth apparently saw her shaking hands and took them in his own. “Its okay,” he reassured her “ he won’t touch you anymore” When she still looked terrified, glancing at the man’s unconscious body, Ralth pulled her into a comforting hug. Hadeon stiffened, then eventually melted into his embrace. "Ralth," she started, "I think we are going to be good friends" He nodded and they split off their embrace. They walked to Hadeon's house together and for once in a long while, everything was right in Hadeon's world.