Noah: Part 1
Noah: Part 1
England 2005
Noah Harland sat at the back of his classroom flipping through the latest comic book that he had bought and found that he was already tired of it. It was mainly just a hobby of his to pass the time of long hours in school, something he enjoyed but was never fully committed to.
But there was another reason why he couldn’t concentrate on the comic that he was reading. She was there, the girl that sat one seat ahead of him by the window.
Diana Rowena.
She held a striking beauty with black hair that stopped at the nape of her neck and ice blue eyes with such pale skin people could have sworn that she was ill, but with her partial athletic build and rather tall height of five foot eight told otherwise. She sat straight up in her chair reading a small book while remaining silent.
Diana never seemed to talk, not to anyone unless it was necessary, but when she did there was no interest in her voice, as if she didn’t want to be there, though he never tried to speak with her, not once, ever since the seating arguments changed and he was the one who had the luck and misfortune of sitting behind her.
He glanced back and forth from his comic book to Diana’s back a number of times before deciding mentally to just go for it and talk to her. What could the harm be in that?
Noah extended his hand to tap on the girl’s shoulder only to find himself pulling back with second thoughts, maybe he shouldn’t bother her, maybe she would get mad at him for making her lose her place in the book.
When drawing his hand back his elbow knocked an eraser off of his desk and near the girl’s chair, at first it looked as if the girl was going to continue to ignore it, until she reached down, picked it up and without a word, and placed it back on his desk before returning to her book once more.
“Uh… thank you.” he said to her but she gave no response back so then he asked. “What’s the book your reading?”
She glanced at him over her shoulder saying nothing.
“I mean, you don’t have to tell me it’s cool.” Noah stammered. “Really, I was just wondering that’s all.”
“Mythology,” She said causing the boy to stiffen slightly from her sudden speaking. “It’s a book on mythology.”
“Oh… you mean like the Greek myths and stuff like that?”
“In a way yes, though it’s of every kind of mythology, more specifically stories on immortality. Though as of yet I keep coming across the tales I already know.”
Noah looked to the book then back to the girl. “Then why not look up immortality online? Wouldn’t that be at all easier?”
She shook her head.
“Why not?”
She closed her book and now sat sideways in her chair before speaking. “You can make anything up on the internet and claim that it’s true. I’ve seen it done so many times that I’ve given up on the whole internet, at least when it comes to certain things I’m looking for. Besides, I rather like books, I like how they feel and even the smell.” She gave Noah a half lopsided smile, as if she wasn’t sure how to smile at him. “Although people would probably find that weird since everyone is so into technology.”
“I don’t think that’s strange.” He said. “I mean everyone has their own preferences when it comes to research right? And you seem rather old-school, rather than going with the flow of everyone else.”
She let out a slight laugh before the teacher came into the room, the girl then returned to her proper seating. “If only you knew…”
Noah sat in the courtyard underneath a tree; he kept replaying what Diana had said to him before class had started. He wanted to ask her but their teacher would have kicked him out of the class before he even got the question across.
What did she mean by that?
It was only just a response to what he had said yes, but something about how she spoke those words made him feel off, like she knew more then what she was telling. He glanced off to the side when he heard her voice, seeing her walk past towards the library.
At first Noah thought she was talking to one of the girl’s but then soon realized that wasn’t the case, she was talking to herself. It wasn’t something that uncommon to see, a lot of people did that when going over metal notes.
But how she seemed to be speaking, it almost felt like someone was there. Out of curiosity he got up and followed her as she went back in to the school.
Diana spoke softly, in a language that Noah knew of but didn’t understand. She was speaking in Latin. Odd, normally students their age tended to brag if they knew two languages or more especially in this day and age.
He listened in while reminding behind a pillar that was close by, and for a moment he heard the voice of a man, but from what he saw Diana was alone. No one was with her, so who was she talking too?
“What are you doing?” Noah turned to see Diana eyeing him; he let out a gasp of fright before falling over.
“Ah…” he quickly stood up. “Um, no reason just passing by is all…”
The look Diana gave him spoke clearly that she didn’t believe him one bit. “Right,”
A moment of silence fell between them before Diana sighed and held up the phone that she had. “I was talking to a friend; he told me that I’d have to leave soon.”
“Why do you have to leave?” she hadn’t been in the school for very long, half a year was the extent and the price to get into the academy was nothing to snuff at ether. Just up and leaving seemed rather sudden.
She looked at him with ice blue eyes before her gaze went back to her old flip phone. “I just do, staying any longer will just cause trouble.”
“Did you do something to getting yourself expelled?”
Again she eyed him. “No,” was all she said.
“Then why?”
Diana merely glared. “If a stranger kept asking you why you were leaving would you honestly answer them or tell them to get lost?”
He flinched at her ice laden words. “S-sorry, I don’t mean to be pushy, I don’t have many friends here.”
“You and me both kid.” She said softly.
“Huh?”
“Nothing, look I’m heading back to class you should do the same before the bell rings.”
Noah remained where he was still feeling slightly confused as Diana walked away; they were around the same age so why in the world would she even call him kid like he was much younger?
Something about her was definitely strange.
Later that evening Noah was in the library, everyone had long since left, leaving him to be in darkening silence. Some people would have found it completely disturbing but by now Noah was so used to it that it didn’t bother him. In fact he rather liked the quite solitude which allowed him more time to study and finish class assignments.
Though it was probably one of the reasons why he didn’t have many if any friends, since he had only gotten into the school through a scholarship, something that at the beginning he was proud of having, but now with half a year done he found it harder then he originally imagined. There were those who looked down on him since Noah was from a middle class family, hardworking sure, but because he wasn’t from the same social standards at everyone else here he became somewhat of a social outcast.
He was just glad that he lived in a time where internet was accessible to everyone, that way he could talk to his old friends from his original school, chatting with them made him feel like he was back there with them and not here with those who only cared how much money one person had in their family. He was starting to get sick of it.
Though his thoughts soon changed to Diana, recalling the words that she had spoken to someone over an old flip phone that Noah had been surprised that still worked.
Recalling the words that she had spoken he went searching for a Latin to English dictionary, and began searching for the words, writing down what he believed she had said and began to look them up finding many that he had written down was not correct but sounded right.
Part of him was glad for the distraction from his studies, and another just felt extremely intrigued by what she might have said.
It took him over two hours to find all the correct words and place them in the right spot from what he could remember, when he finally finished he looked at what he translated.
“You were right, he’s here on the grounds I saw him early today. No I don’t know if he saw me but he knows we’re here. How do you think he found us? You’re right I suppose it won’t matter. We’ll have to leave before he does or else he might…”
It was all he got since he had interrupted it with his eavesdropping, though looking at the sentence he couldn’t help but feel even more confused, what was she talking about? Who had she seen and why did she have to leave before this other guy realized that she was at the school?
Noah leaned back in his chair with his arms folded across his chest as he tried to think of a reason as to what Diana had meant but kept coming up empty. He could just ask her but since he didn’t really know her all that well it’d be like trying to pry into someone’s life who didn’t wish for it. It was the last thing he wanted to do since he had dealt with it so much during his first week at the academy.
But what she said to him and even how she acted seemed odd too.
“In a way yes, though it’s of every kind of mythology, more specifically stories about immortality. Though as of yet I keep coming across the tales I already know.”
Why look up a book on immortality, even one that she already seemed to know?
His thoughts were soon gone when he heard some kind of dispute in the hallway, frowning he went to the library doors, it was a girl yelling, the voice sounded familiar but it was too muffled to really tell who it could have been.
Why would there be someone in the school and not in their dorms this time of night? Sure he wasn’t but he was in the library at least which was logical.
But when he heard gun shots everything inside him turned to stone before he rushed out of the library to see what had happened. The hall was dimly lit; almost black from the lack of light but even with the lack of light he could still make out things around him.
The only real light that was offered to him came from the dimly lit streetlamps outside and a quarter moon, but even that did little good in assisting his sight through the darkness, being able to see was the least of his concerns at the moment for a strong overwhelming stench of copper hit his nose. He used the back of his sleeve to try and mask the smell but it did little good.
He knew what that smell was right away, it was blood, a whole heap of blood, but where in the world was it coming from?
When his eyes finally adjusted to the darkness he could make out a figure in the distance. Against his better judgment, he called out. “Someone there?” but only silence greeted him.
At first.
Faintly, he heard a noise, a strange slicing and tearing sound that he wasn’t sure what to make of, but the closer he got the clearer his vision to what he saw became something he wished he had never seen.
There was a tall hulking beast of a man with white hair like freshly fallen snow that stopped just passed his collar bone. He wore nothing but black underneath a black trench coat, the smell came strongly in the man’s direction, hadn’t it been a girl’s voice that Noah heard and not a man? And where was the gun? He had heard shots going off not long ago.
Just then white haired man looked at him; he had the same pricing ice blue eyes as Diana, only his face, which could only be described as almost peaceful, was obscured with blood. His face remained blank, emotionless as he stared at Noah.
Noah found himself unable to move from this man’s stare, like a frightened mouse being watched by a deadly viper. He couldn’t even breathe with the way the man stared with such intensity that would leave anyone frozen in place.
But soon his gaze averted to what lay at the man’s feet when he heard strangled coughing and wheezing breaths. There on the floor coated in blood was Diana Rowena, her uniform and skin completely torn apart revealing some of her internal organs from the knife that the man held in his right hand as she lay on her back looking at him. Noah felt the urge to vomit but was too frightened to do it; his entire body had been gripped with fear. He couldn’t look away no matter how hard he tried. His heart hammered wildly in his chest, unsure as to what to do. He saw her lips move, mouthing something to him.
Run… a… way…
He did, a sudden spark ran through his brain causing everything from him to move as quick as he could away from the white haired man and the dyeing girl.
A dying girl who expelled her final breath shortly after.
