Diane lets out a sad sigh as the bell rings out above her, letting the various occupants of the school know that the day is over. She looks out at the other students while they happily put away whatever they had on her desk.

  “Okay, remember to finish up chapter twelve and fill out the questions. It will be due tomorrow so don’t forget.” Mrs. Dakota calls out to the wave of students trying to leave as soon as possible. Mrs. Dakota smiles as she herself begins to put away the various teaching material she was using. Mrs. Dakota was a tall woman, with dark skin and frizzy, graying black hair tied up in a bun. She had been teaching at the school probably longer than anyone else, and still had a youthful love of her job, despite her age.

  Diane doesn't rush to leave, because once she leaves the school the only place to go would be home. Her notebook was the first to go into the bag, with a little reluctance as the girl had barely written any of the notes, but instead just drew pictures of skulls and other edgier images. She didn't like how only two words were written today, but it was hard for her to concentrate on whatever the teacher was saying. Not like it really mattered since she had the book and she could just catch up later, which was also placed into the bag. After closing and throwing it on her shoulder, the girl nudged the chair with her foot and tossed up her hood over her dark short hair. The hood pushed her bangs lower than they usually sat, but she didn't mind it. More to hide her face with.

  “Later teach.” the girl said to her instructor with a slight smile, prompting Mrs. Dakota to look up from her desk and give Diane a smile and a little wave.

  “Goodbye Diane, make sure to get the homework done on time today.” Diane brings up a hand to her head and gives a little salute as she walks out the door.

  Diane reached into her pocket and pulls out a pair of earbuds and puts them

  into her ears, pressing play on the mp3 player in her pocket. The loud music helped to drown out the noise coming from all the people laughing about whatever they were talking about. The girl walks through the hall towards the door with her head lowered, trying not to be noticed or talked to. It’s not like she was trying to hide, it was just kinda reflexive to just hide and take up little space.

  “Diane!” a slightly taller girl in a cheerleading uniform with bright red hair calls out to her, which Diane didn’t hear due to the music. With a sigh the redhead steps up quickly to stop Diane, and taps on her target's shoulder. A little startled, Diane turns around and takes out an earbud to see who interrupted her sulking.

  “Oh, hey Hannah. What’s up.” Diane glances behind her at the door that was so close, but still just out of her reach. Diane likes her friend and all, but the high energy that practically assaults Diane while next to her is a little much. Hannah puffs out her chest with a little pout.

  “I just wanted to see if you were going to my party this weekend, I keep trying to message you but you just ignore it!” Diane and Hannah have known each other since they were five, and have been close friends ever since then, but as they grew older Hannah had developed into quite a social butterfly, much to Dianes suffering. Even now, the extroverted girl had kept trying to get Diane to come to whatever social gathering that Hannah had planned. Of course Diane never did go, but it’s the thought that counts, right?

  “Oh right yeah the party.” The raven haired girl nods “I was totally going to tell you how I would definitely not be going.” Diane tried to turn away but Hannah had stopped her retreat.

  “Come on! You have to come, everyone is going to be there, and it's going to be awesome!” Hannah pouts at Diane, even widening her eyes to plead with the unmoved girl.

  “I know, that's why I won't be going.” Diane says as she pulls away from Hannah, and once again tries to reach for freedom, finally reaching the handle and making her escape.

  “But you never come to my parties!” Hannah calls out to the recluse with a frown.

  “Why do you even try to invite that weirdo?” a girl asks rudely as she walks up to Hannah.

  “Yeah, she is, like, super weird.” another girl chimes in as a small group of Hannahs cheerleading friends approaches.

  “Oh knock it off,” Hannah defends. “You would like her if you gave her a chance. Or if she gave herself a chance.” The redhead sighs, watching as Diane escapes through the door.

  Diane walks through the park that’s in between her house and the school,

  nodding her head to the music. Not a lot of people end up at the park with the season changing to winter, so it's pretty quiet and alone. After being around all those people just being super loud and annoying, it was nice to just be alone for a bit. Not like she would get to feel this for much longer, once she gets home it would get loud and obnoxious.

  Diane walks up to a set of swings next to a light pole, the snow crunching beneath her boots. She steps onto the swing, leaning forward and grabbing the chain. She sighs and rocks back and forth on it for a few minutes before hopping off. She didn't want to go home yet, but she had no excuse to delay so if Diane did get home late, she would be in trouble. She only hoped that her dad wouldn't be home yet, if he wasn’t then she would probably not get in trouble. She would have to clean, and make dinner for him and hope he was in a good mood. She kicks a can that was on the floor continuing on her walk home.

  Diane pushes the door open and looks around inside, and lets out a smile. Her father wasn’t home, thankfully, so she could take care of her chores without getting yelled at. The girl quickly threw her backpack into her room and began to clean. There were beer cans scattered around the floor, dirty dishes in the sink and paper plates all over the place. When Diane was finished with the cleaning, she made a large sandwich and put it on a plate and into the fridge. She didn't need to make space for it, as the fridge was practically empty, only having the stuff she used to make the sandwich, a few fruits, an onion and half a slice of pizza. Also lots of beer. She puts the sandwich away, grabs an apple and heads to her room. She was tired, not getting a lot of sleep the night before. Or before that. Or ever really, It was a problem but she got by.

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  “Hopefully I actually can get this stuff done today.” she says to herself, pulling out her homework and taking a bite out of the apple. Diane read the rest of the chapter that she couldn't get done in class, if she did any actual work that is, so all of it and answers the questions. She was almost done with the paper when she heard the front door slam open.

  “Hey girl, bring me my dinner and a drink!” A drunken voice yelled from the living room. Diane got up from the desk and quickly rushed to the kitchen. She pulled out the previously made sandwich and a can of beer and brought it to the drunk that she had to call her father. He had already slumped onto the recliner and was clicking through the channels. Her father might have been handsome at one point, but years of drinking heavily and less than recommended personal hygiene would get to anybody. He was starting to bald, and with a bad comb over to try and hide it. His face was covered in scruff, not kept like the rest of him. He worked as a construction worker after getting laid off from his previous, more important construction job. He had thrown his hardhat and belt to the floor near the door, as he was working his way out of his shoes. His white shirt was stained with some new liquid and smelled of liquor. He must have gone drinking with his work buddies before coming home.

  “It better be good.” he said, not looking up from the screen. Diane brought the plate over to the table next to the seat, and handed him the can. Without even a word of thanks he popped open the can with a grunt, took a drink and picked up the sandwich. Not like he ever said anything nice, so Diane was just used to it. He took a bite, slowly chewed, and after an agonizingly long while for Diane, he swallowed.

  “Good enough. You can go.” he says, finally deciding on a channel and taking another swig of beer. He just waves his hand dismissing her.

  “Yes sir.” Diane says before leaving back to her room. She lets out a sigh and flops onto her bed. The smell of alcohol coming off of him was almost suffocating, which was something she had not gotten used to.

  “Ugh!” Diane says into the pillow, pressing her face into it. She turns her face looking over to the door, and blows some hair out of her face. Just living with her father was a constant nightmare, just dealing with all he does gives Diane a headache. Not to mention him spending all the money on booze, and if he even let her get a job the drunk would probably spend that money too. The agitated girl sits up, sending a glance over to the desk, but she just sighs and turns off the light. She takes off her old boots and hops onto her bed, not bothering to take off the rest of her clothes. She wraps the blanket around her hoping to get some actual sleep. Thankfully her exhaustion let her pass out almost as soon as her head fell onto the pillow.

  Diane was standing in the middle of a black void, with the only light seeming to come off her. It was hard to tell how big the area she was in was, so she tried to call out for anyone else.

  “Hello?” She yells out into the abyss, looking around the empty space. Her voice echoes and extends throughout the empty expanse. Normally she would feel some sort of panic, but the emptiness felt familiar. But it was still unsettling, the vast expanse of emptiness. Only silence replied to the girl, so she picked a direction at random and started to walk. As Diane makes her way through the void, she notices the dark smoke that seemed to follow her. “Um, hey? Anyone there?” She calls out to the approaching blackness with a hint of fear in her voice. She looked behind her while stepping back, but quickly stopped moving when she noticed the almost wall of smoke coming from behind her. Panic was starting to fill Diane as she looked around as the smoke came ever so close to her, before it stopped moving with a little less than a foot of space between the girl and the mass of smoke.

  “Are you afraid?” a deep voice came from the darkness, making Diane almost yelp in surprise.

  “Who are you?” Diane almost shouts at the strange voice.

  “I’m not sure. Am I fear? What is fear? You know fear, why are you scared?” the voice asks, a little closer than the last time. Diane tries to reply, but the fear only causes her to choke. “Oh, I see. You are scared of me. I'm sorry.” the voice seems to step away, with a hint of concern that could be heard.

  “No, wait.” Diane says, putting a hand into the smoke. She didn't know why she did this, just a moment ago the girl was almost paralized from the fear that she felt, but after hearing the mystery person feel sorry, it made her less scared. It has been a while since somebody has apologized to her after doing something to scare her.

  “You aren't scared anymore? No, you are still scared. But not of me.” Diane retreats her hand from the smoke and looks at her feet, trying to avoid the question. The voice lets out a little chuckle.

  “‘W-what?” Diane defends, a slight blush on her cheeks.

  “Nothing. It is just funny how humans hide their feelings. Honestly, that's probably what I miss most about being huma-... That's interesting.” Another, stronger chuckle comes from the apparently not human in the fog.

  “You were a human?” the now nervous girl asks.

  “I guess I was human. It seems I have forgotten that. Thank you for reminding me.” The voice starts to appear from different directions, giving the girl a slight sense of nervousness as the noise almost surrounds her.

  “Um okay. Who are you?” Diane looks around, trying to find the source of it.

  “I don”t know. I forget a lot of things apparently. I don’t think I know anything actually. Well, about me. I know lots of things, especially about you.” Diane gulps. Why did this thing know stuff about her? Was she being watched? A myriad of confused thoughts fills her head, yearning for answers.

  “You know stuff about me?” Diane asks, followed by a pause from the thing, almost as if to choose his next words carefully.

  “You are the most interesting person I've seen. Or maybe the only person, I forget.”

  “Oh, um, okay.” Diane shifts her feet awkwardly, this has been one of the weirdest dreams that she has had in awhile. Wait, dream? Was this a dream?

  “Oh, it looks like you have figured it out.” the voice chuckles again.

  “So, I'm asleep?” Diane asks, very confused. “Does that mean I made you up?”

  “No, I'm pretty sure of that at least. I was here before you were, but I don’t know where I was before. Who I was before.”

  “Well what are you now?” It probably wasn't the best thing to ask, but her curiosity got the better of her.

  “I don’t know. But maybe you do.” Almost as soon as they say that, a shifting mass can be seen in front of Diane. The smoke parts away, making room for a large figure to suddenly come up in front of the scared girl. She gasps and takes a step back, almost falling on her rear. Her eyes quickly look at what is the thing she was talking to. He looked like a tall human man, still towering over the short girl despite his slouched posture. His lower half was still covered by the smoke, which Diane appreciated because it didn't appear that he was wearing clothes and she didn't know if there would be anything if she looked down. His skin was an onyx black and quite shiny, almost as if he were made of crystal. Well defined muscles lead up to his head, but his face was covered by a skull with large sharp teeth. The skull was missing its jaw, but Diane couldn't see the thing's mouth. The eye sockets of the skull, while not moving, still felt like they were pointed right at her. But it wasn't a malicious feeling she got from looking into them, but one of concern. “Oh, I didn't mean to startle you.” He said, looking down at her. “Maybe I am fear.” he said with a somber tone before Diane's vision started to darken, until finally all went black.