Eyes locked onto dented metal, hand already caressing the locker. Paint already dried days ago.
'The previous owner was quite wild with it?'
The caressing hand stopped, next to the figure was a window. Ahead of its glass, rose the sun above the clouds, dripping light like dew.
Shadows stretched the more the sun's streams of light grew pronounced.
"Quite the scene"
The owner of the voice ruffled his hair, agitated by the events that occurred beforehand.
'Almost lost the bus'
Huffing a breath, chuckles of students echoed off the walls and reached him. He ignored them and focused on himself.
'Can my bag even fit in there?'
He didn't know, so he checked, opening the locker that carved resistance the more he tugged on it.
It eventually blew open. The space barely allowed the entry of his backpack.
However, the sound of wrinkling paper made Cale Dice stop dead in his tracks.
'The hell?'
Head tilted as brows rose when faced with an astonishing presence.
'An Envelope?'
He wanted to say 'along with a white hair strand?' but seeing himself oddly focused on that placed an odd eeriness inside his heart.
Fingers crackled to reach the envelope and unveil its secrets it wanted to hide away.
'Could it be a love letter? Perhaps some secret message?'
Many thoughts conflicted and converged as to what the contents the envelope held. Cale didn't feel guilty about opening it up. The janitor didn't do his job, and the one who sent this envelope had their person of interest long gone from Parrot High-School, the most prestigious in this backwater town, he didn't think much of the title itself however.
'Top or not, it's just a school with basic needs'
If a school couldn't give the most basic of basic needs….well someone's greed had to be at fault for that, right?
Cale first picked up the hair strand.
Nothing much came to mind when looking at it. Just a unique strand of tough monkey hair.
"It's quite durable"
Despite wrapping the strand with two fingers and trying to snap it in half, it remained proud and standing.
'Ah, not the point'
Shooing away distracting thoughts and seeing that he had much time before introductions, he decided it wouldn't be such a bad idea to spend some time reading embarrassing texts.
Yet as he reached out to the envelope, the hairs on his arms tingled. A cold chill enveloped him despite the rising sun.
'Is it because it's morning?'
A cold bead of sweat trickled a warning.
He didn't heed it.
Step
Behind him, a step faintly came from behind, like another warning, jolting his entire body to twist and turn to the sound.
"Oh"
"....."
Cale blankly stared at the familiar figure who was obviously preparing for a scare, despite this, the thudding inside him didn't fade, it stayed as a warning.
"What are you doing?"
Ignoring the thumps, he addressed Gabriel. His childhood friend after transferring out of primary school.
"Nothing"
Taking a step back, Gabriel locked eyes at the locker.
"What's in there?"
Pointing at the locker. Cale pondered whether to tell or keep it for himself.
In the end.
"Nothing much, pretty empty overall"
He decided against it.
Shoving his backpack in, the envelope wrinkled more as it deformed slightly.
"What are you doing?"
Closing the locker, he pressed his broad back onto it as he questioned his childhood friend.
"Finding you I guess?"
Gabriel pressed himself close to the pane of the window.
"Why me? Isn't Catrina here by now?"
Cale yawned, still drowsy from sleeping late. Gabriel coughed once, making him start to furrow his brows.
"Why….me?"
He asked again, gaze locked to the stammering Gabriel actively pushing the corners of his lips down.
"I….don't remember the class number and thought you might know"
He forced a smile, even after the threatening gaze his friend gave.
'No, still why go to me?'
"Why are you so disorganized?"
Muttering under his breath, Cale spoke further.
"Classroom 17 is where we get the introductions, call our names once or twice, talk a little with the teacher and that's it. While classroom 23 is where we get our books, simple?"
Gabriel nodded, kicking the wall and proceeding to leave.
"Still…"
"...?"
Mumbles reached Cale's ears.
"Why can't they just do it all in one class and be over with it"
'Good question, not like I care about it of course'
He wasn't friends with the principal after all.
Gabriel finally left, and Cale was left all alone with the ominous envelope making itself home in his locker.
'Seriously wonder what this envelope is'
To the point of wanting to tear it apart right this instant. But patience told otherwise.
After snatching the backpack away, the envelope could be seen, though slightly more wrinkled than it should.
For some reason, it seemed more yellow than before, Cale didn't think much of it.
On it, there wasn't anything written to it, just an old red, wax seal holding it down together.
"Hm?"
Or at least there shouldn't have been anything written.
"Have I....lost it?"
On the new ink wrote a single name in neat calligraphy.
Olive Gardenia.
'Someone seems to have wanted to set the mood well'
Looking at the old school envelope, it appeared more and more like a love letter.
Fingers brushed against yellowed parchment, and for a few seconds.
Nothing seemed to happen.
However, there was a subtle change that Cale noticed.
Everything seemed to gradually darken, as if the surroundings were holding in their breaths.
And the envelope in his hand.
"Ah?"
Turned a stained red.
Only when looking at the envelope did Cale realize that he was sitting on the floor.
He couldn't see really well, but he did notice many strange things.
For example, his hands appeared as dark strings tightly knit together in shape.
'Must be my imagination...'
Cale didn't pay much attention to what he looked like or the strange clothes he now donned, he only glanced at the envelope before his very eyes.
His fingers flexed and moved to tear it open, as they did, a voice rang out.
"So....This was always my fate?"
A chuckle flowed through bloodied lips.
"I see.....What a cruel joke they puppeteer me into..."
As Cale's vision blackened when he tore the envelope again.
It was then that Cale realized that the voice awfully sounded exactly like his own, only just a little more mature.
The voice rang out again.
"Cale Dice....Has to die to survive...."
With those words that were whispered. Everything turned dark, sound disappeared, bleeding in the corner as the surroundings disappeared along with it.
It didn't even feel like Cale was standing into solid ground anymore, just space.
His sense of direction distorted, he couldn't see where his arms and legs were anymore.
It felt maddening, like any longer and he'd 'crack', but it was brief.
The darkness was there only for a few, dragging and mindful moments.
Despite swearing it felt like an eternity passed, such eternity never passed in the stream of time.
"Eh?"
Vision returned, but the surrounding greeted him a new greeting, old wood creaked and reeked from every direction, completely different from modern.
'Just, what happened?'
His mind was a fog. Unable to recall anything prior.
"What in the…"
Outside, torn earth, trees and pavement filled the entirety of the area.
Upon closer inspection, it was a school, an old one at that, but it didn't take a genius to know that.
Not a single thing in this school was ordinary.
Old murmurs whispered and anxiety crept.
"Ah"
Finally, the situation dawned on this buffoon.
One peek at shattered glass made his heart drop a few degrees.
What reflected back wasn't his usual appearance, but a mass of dark strings trying to draw a silhouette of his origin.
He wasn't in his world anymore, he was in another, different from his in every way.
Birds chirped, but were they really birds?
Heart beat more and more as fear pressed and gripped it hard, breaths turning ragged by the dragging second.
"I.."
Breath hitched as his thoughts wrung the sentence themselves.
'Seriously don't like this at all!!'
Under the numbing fear, he vowed to survive….if he could even be allowed to do so.