This book seems to be a spiral notebook one would buy for school. However, it is fairly old. Many pages have been torn out, and the rest appear to be simple writing assignments for class. One page has been preserved with extra care.
I've been told to write about a friend. It can be anything I want: a true story about us or one where we interact in a fictional setting…but I don't know if I can do either. I don't have many friends here. Most of the other students seem to avoid me because I don't do so well in school. There is one girl who is nice to me from time to time, though, which is strange because she's the top student! Her name is Xandra.
I don't know if I'd call her a friend yet, but I can still tell a story about us.
Back when the disappearances were still happening. I was sitting alone at lunch like usual. We have lunch outside when the weather permits it, and that day, it was cloudy but overall nice. Looking back on it now, it seems reckless to have continued to have lunch outside, but the disappearances were few and far between and only seemed to happen at night. So life went on like normal.
I was eating underneath a tree near the forest line when Xandra came and sat next to me. She didn't say much, then got up and walked into the forest, waving for me to follow. I shouldn't have followed, but I did. The forest was especially dark due to the cloudy weather, and it was hard to keep up with her, but eventually, we stopped.
We had come upon a small open patch in the middle of the forest. Even with the lack of trees, the open area was still fairly dark. I watched as Xandra placed odd trinkets along its edge. I also stood off to the side and asked her what we were doing here, but she never responded. Eventually, she stood in the middle of the clearing, and her eyes began to glow.
The trinkets lit up in the same bright light as Xandra's eyes. They were shining so much that the clearing had to have been visible for miles. I wanted to run, but I was unable to. All I could manage was moving my arms to cover my eyes, and that's when I noticed I was shining too, brighter than any of the trinkets around. Though we both were training in magic, none of this was under my control. It was my power but all her doing.
Soon, I heard rustling all around us. The once quiet forest now echoed with noises that sounded far too large to be anything good. For a moment, I wondered if this was her magic as well, but then I saw it. A massive creature dripping an odd ooze with multiple eyes and rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth. It rose behind Xandra, its terrifying jaw wide open as it stared right at me.
Xandra's arms rose and pointed at me at the same time the creature lunged forward. All I could do was scream and close my eyes, cursing myself for falling into her trap. Yet, when I opened my eyes, I was on the ground, unharmed. The glowing had stopped, and the terrifying creature lay off to the side, covered in the odd trinkets that were previously on the ground. They seemed to now form a sort of cage around the thing. Rendering it immobile.
Xandra helped me up but I am uncertain what happened next because I fled as fast as I could. But after that, the disappearances stopped completely, and Xandra moved up in the school. I have the odd sensation that I had been used as bait, but I am not necessarily upset about it. Maybe I will ask her about it over tea sometime…I think Xandra will really be something special one day.
