The Hidden Side... a place totally unknown and hidden from the ordinary world we all live in.
Not much is known about this bizarre place full of oddities and terrors. Only two things are known about it.
One: In this place, creatures called Spectres live, and normally, they can' t be trusted.
Second: They are able to pass into our world through what we call Cracks. The Cracks are gaps between the ordinary world and the Hidden Side, and this causes the Spectres to pass into the ordinary world belonging to humans.
This can end in tragedy as the Spectres attack defenseless humans who are unable to see them... but there is also something that can protect ordinary humans from the Spectres.
People capable of using the powers of the Dark Side to fight the Dark Side itself. The Alchemists.
People who are able to use incredible abilities and confront the fearsome Spectres.
Alchemists are the saviors without recognition for their work... but, Alchemists must help humanity.
Even though sometimes they don't always help...
...
In the metropolis of Riverstood, at 7 Woodre Street, a simple two-storey yellow house.
A boy has just had his sleep disturbed by the annoying alarm clock ringing on the desk next to his bed.
He raises his hand slowly and wearily and just by releasing his hand, knocks on the alarm clock and turns it off.
He lies there for another minute, almost falling asleep in the process, but managing to gather his courage and get up from his comfortable bed.
This is Liam Hillston, a 17-year-old boy with very dark brunette hair and dark blue eyes. He is of average height, between 1.70 and 1.75. He wears long light blue pyjamas and has the tired face of someone who has just woken up.
He takes short slow steps and walks through his room, a simple room, with a bed he just got up from, a desk next to it with his alarm clock, a square wooden table in the corner with a black backpack on top, a chair, a wardrobe and two wooden doors, one leading to the second floor corridor and the other to the bathroom in his room.
He goes into the bathroom and takes a shower, wets his face in an attempt to wake himself up, then dries off and gets dressed for school.
He puts on a white shirt, a black jacket with red details on top, blue jeans and black sneakers with white details.
He then heads for the corridor on the second floor.
The hallway has wooden floors and white walls. There are three doors in the hallway, two on the right and one on the left. The two doors on the right are the bedrooms, Liam's room and his aunt Hailey's room, and the door on the left is a small storage room.
He lives in this house with his aunt, Hailey Hillston.
He soon walks down the corridor and begins to descend the stairs to the second floor. In the stairwell there were some pictures of the family.
There were many pictures of Liam and Hailey, Hailey being a woman with very light brunette hair and always with a charismatic smile on her face.
There are some photos of Hailey with her older sister, Liam's mother. The woman who would have been Liam's mother in the photos had blue eyes like his and blonde hair, her eyes are lively and cheerful.
“I wish I'd met her...” said Liam internally. He never met his mother, she died on the day of Liam's birth.
He shakes his head and puts these thoughts out of his mind, finally arriving on the second floor of the house.
In the middle there is a wooden door, the entrance to the house. On the right is the living room with a reddish sofa and two armchairs of the same color, a bookcase, a black-painted wooden rack and a television stuck to the wall. To the left is the kitchen, where you can smell the delicious aroma of fried eggs and bacon.
Liam soon realizes that he is salivating, and swallows his saliva. He loves Hailey's cooking, she never fails when it comes to cooking.
He approaches and sees the kitchen, a small square wooden table with two chairs, on the other side is his aunt Hailey preparing fried eggs with bacon.
She's wearing a black dress with white details. Unlike the photos in the painting, she's a little older, with some wrinkles on her face and a few white hairs in the middle of her light brown hair, but she still has the same affectionate smile.
-Good morning Auntie- Liam approaches and sits down at the wooden table.
Hailey smiles, her smile like sunshine in the morning - Good morning Liam, I'm just finishing your breakfast. You can get the orange juice from the fridge.
Liam quickly gets up from his chair and goes to the fridge, takes out a carton of natural orange juice and puts it on the table. He then takes two glass tumblers and puts them on the table, then fills both glasses.
After filling them, Hailey approaches with two plates of eggs and bacon.
The two of them sit down and start tasting the food Hailey has made.
The food she makes is delicious. She loves to make fried eggs with bacon, repeating the same dish several times a morning.
Liam always loves to eat, perhaps after eating this dish so much it has become one of his favorites.
-So, Liam, did you sleep well?
-I did, auntie, and you? If I'm not mistaken, you said you were having insomnia problems.
-Yes, I'm not sleeping very well, but it'll pass soon.
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-I hope so.
-Your birthday is coming up.
-Ah! Really! - Liam laughs softly as he remembers that it's his birthday in three days' time.
Hailey also laughs along with him and says: “How can you forget your own silly birthday? Well, if you'd like to bring some of your friends over so they can have a little party, I won't complain.
Hailey laughs softly and continues - Or if you want to bring your girlfriend, if you have one.
Liam is embarrassed and says - I'm not dating, auntie.
Hailey laughs louder- Okay, okay... Well, finish eating soon Liam, if you're not going to be late.
Liam finishes eating, puts his plate in the sink and runs to his room to brush his teeth and pack his things.
He soon comes back downstairs carrying a black backpack with his materials.
-“Love you, auntie, see you later,” he says as he walks out the door.
Hailey takes one last look at him before going back to washing the dishes.
...
Riverston High School at 472 Grut Street.
Liam arrives at his school, seeing the greenish-colored railings that run the length of the school's three-storey building.
A huge courtyard with trees that sway in the wind, a water fountain in the middle and a stone path that leads to the school gate.
He walks along this long stone path and arrives at the school, then follows the corridor to his classroom, the second year A classroom.
He enters the room and sits in his chair, which is in the corner, with a good view of the courtyard from the window.
His classmates stand around, chatting and wandering around the room, Liam just ignores them.
He doesn't have any friends, he finds it difficult to strike up a conversation with anyone.
Suddenly, he hears the voice of a boy in the class saying something that catches his attention -Hey, did you see that a really cute girl came in yesterday?
The subject of the girl being pretty doesn't interest Liam, but what does get him interested is the question of why it's not normal for someone to enter the school in the middle of school. It's already September!
The boy continues - From what I've heard, she's in Year C. Her name is... I think it's Chloe Willson.
The teacher then arrives in the classroom, everyone sits down and the lesson begins.
A history lesson about European expansion. Liam had already studied this well at home, he remembered the vast majority of the things mentioned by the teacher.
...
After the end of class and the start of the break.
Liam picks up a lunchbox from his backpack, it was a blue box.
It was Hailey's lunch. “I'm excited to see what she's prepared today.” He hadn't even seen the food yet, but he could smell a faint but delicious aroma coming from the lunchbox.
He soon left the classroom and walked through the corridors and up the three floors of the school.
He likes to eat on the school terrace, it's quieter and there are fewer people there, the most he's ever seen is three, but there's rarely anyone eating lunch there, making it a perfect place for him to eat in silence and calm.
He arrives on the terrace and is soon greeted by the calm wind that hits his whole body, swaying his clothes in a calm and good way.
He walks a little and is taken by surprise. There is a girl sitting against the wall having lunch.
This girl has dark burgundy hair and emerald green eyes. She is wearing a white collared shirt and a white sweater with black details on top, a short black skirt, long white socks and white sneakers.
They both exchanged glances, but Liam quickly looked away “Well... it's just one person, and she doesn't seem interested in talking, I'll sit further away and leave her alone” he said internally as he sat down in a corner further away from the girl.
He opens his lunchbox and sees that his aunt has prepared rice with pieces of carrot and spring onion, some meat cut into small cubes together with pieces of potato and salad.
Liam takes a fork and knife that his aunt had left with him, and then starts to eat. As always, it was delicious.
While eating, he realizes something: “That girl... I've never seen her in the three years I've been studying at this school.” He looks at her out of the corner of his eye.
He realizes that the girl is looking directly at him, she looks delicate and beautiful.
He finds it strange that the girl is looking at him, but ignores it.
He finishes eating, closes his lunchbox and puts it in the corner, then picks up his cell phone.
When he picks up his cell phone and looks at the black screen, he is startled to see the reflection of someone next to him.
He turns away abruptly and realizes that the girl has sat down next to him.
-Ah... what a fright, it was only you.
-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you- -Her voice is calm.
-“It's okay...” He straightens up again, and realizes that she's standing very close.
He sighs and puts his cell phone back in his pocket -Why did you sit next to me?
-"Well... I don't know, I wanted to talk to someone, and there was only you.
-I see... hardly anyone wants to talk to me... you know, I'm a bit of a loner...
-Please, I'm Chloe Willson, what's your name?
“She's actually the new girl who joined in the middle of the year...” He says internally and then says with a smile - Nice to meet you, my name is Liam Hillston.
Liam then continues - I've heard some people talking about you, it's not very normal for someone to join the school towards the end of the year.
-What was the reason for you moving to this school so unexpectedly?
Chloe observes the landscape of clouds that hide the sun and prevent many of the sun's rays from passing through, and then says - I've just moved town, and I needed to get into a school, so they put me here.
Liam nods - Moving is quite boring and complicated, I've only moved house once, and it was a really bad time.
Chloe laughs softly and maintains a warm smile - True... it's really boring, you're someone who's a lot of fun. I'm glad to have talked to you.
Liam ends up feeling happy too, it's been a long time since he's had a conversation with someone like this.
Chloe then says: “When I arrived, lots of people came to talk to me, mainly girls, they wanted to be my friend.
-“Did you accept?” he asked curiously.
-"Some did, some didn't. You could say I'm good at identifying people's good and bad intentions.
Liam nodded.
The two continue chatting until the break is over, they say goodbye and each go back to their room.
Liam feels happy, he's got a friend! It had been a long time since he'd had such a good chat with someone.
He sits down in his chair, and suddenly someone nudges his shoulder.
He turns around and sees a girl with long black hair wearing a white dress shirt and a long black skirt.
-Excuse me... You and Chloe...- Liam notices that behind the girl there are several other people, both of whom seem to be smiling and laughing softly.
-“Are you and Chloe boyfriend and girlfriend?” asked the girl.
Liam is a little embarrassed and shakes his head in denial: “We're not dating, we're just friends... I guess.
-"It's just that we saw you two together on the terrace, and the terrace is famous for couples meeting up there to spend time together.
“What kind of story is this that I never knew about?! A, it makes sense why one day I ended up catching a girl and a boy kissing up there” He nods and says - She and I aren't dating, we met today, it would be strange if we were already dating when we've only known each other for a day.
People soon spread the word, some boys seemed happy with Liam's answer, and some girls were sad that it hadn't become good gossip at school.
...
The lessons go by, and everything's moving along naturally... how boring.
It's 2:23 p.m., classes are almost over and I can go to class.
Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, everyone in the room has disappeared.
Liam is astonished, then gets up from his chair and looks around - Guys? What happened? Where are the others?” He walks around the room.
He realizes that only the people have disappeared, their belongings have remained.
He leaves the room and, just like the room, the corridor is empty and silent.
He had never seen this school corridor so empty before.
Suddenly, he hears the sound of something hitting the ground hard from behind him at the end of the corridor.
He turns around and is startled.
A being appears and walks calmly towards him.
A being with a humanoid form, but... she's floating! This being wears a long white dress similar to wedding dresses, with a skinny body and wrinkled, gray, rotten skin, with some slivers of skin sticking out and showing the being's flesh. She had her head down, letting her long, disheveled black hair fall to the ground.
She raised her head, and the sight startled Liam. The woman had a huge hole in her face in place of her cheek, from which oozed a black and a crimson liquid.
“WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?” Liam thought as he took a few steps back.
That woman lets out a strange and frightening laugh even though she has no mouth, and the black and crimson liquid splashes out as if the woman had sneezed.
That certainly isn't human!
To be continued.