Real[m]ity

The ground was stained with black blood and littered with bodies that had no souls. The sun had barely broken free from the horizon, but its warm, radiant ways were already bathing the darkest corners of the alleyways with light. It chased away the shadows and dissolved its ghosts into thin air, but two remained amongst the chaos as the sun crept ever closer.

The taller one stood straight, her shoulders relaxed as she kept the gun in her hand trained flawlessly on the smaller girl's nose. Their eyes were locked in an intense gaze, but neither of them gave any indication of fear or hesitation.

"I'm the bad guy here, but those people will stop at nothing to kill you." The gunslinger broke the silence first, her voice stoic and cold.

The girl remained crouched down on her knees, eyes steady as she observed her enemy from beneath her fine lashes. She blinked when the sunlight finally hit her auburn fringe and when she opened them again, the gun was gone and the gunslinger had turned to leave.

"Wait," The girl's voice held just as much warmth as the shade of her hair. "What's your name?"

The gunslinger paused mid step and turned her head a mere centimeter.

"Cordelia Wolfe," She said, unhurried.

"I'm Scarlett," The girl replied, a small smile blossoming on her lips as she recognized the mild accent in Cordelia's manner of speaking.

Cordelia could not seem to find a proper reply to her proper introduction and they lingered there for a while longer, both poised for the next move. Since when did the wolf make acquaintances with it's prey? She asked herself with a slight tilt of her head.

"Let's go."

Scarlett obediently rose onto her feet and stepped gingerly over the hollow shell of a Lurker, just before it seemed to fade in the sunlight and dissipate into a fine dust that was light enough to ride the still air.

Cordelia led the way confidently and Scarlett traced her path without question.

By the time the sun had risen, the alleyway was void of any evidence that anything out of the ordinary had occurred overnight.

---

If there was any strange phenomenon going on at Kirkland High School, it would have to be in the form of Cordelia Wolfe and Scarlett White. It was a mystery as to how the two remained such good friends when they each seemed to hail from opposite sides of the spectrum. Cordelia was taciturn and seemed to lack any ounce of empathy while Scarlett was much likened to the sweet girl next door that had the most enchanting smile. Cordelia rarely said anything in the spoken word, but Scarlett seemed to hold one sided conversations with her as if it were second nature.

One thing that the girls shared was the fact that they were always, always in each other's company.

Landon Doyle’s hazel eyes lingered on the mismatched pair as he followed his daily route to his locker. Today they were lounging around on a cluster of picnic tables in the courtyard and Scarlett's lips were moving with her usual string of words that often filled their silence. He hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary until Cordelia shifted slightly, her black hair being raked from her face by a passing breeze as her lips conjugated a minimal response.

The incident was so noteworthy of attention that Landon had to do a double take, which lead him to nearly crash into a poorly placed column. He stopped just short of smashing his nose and took a short step to the side to continue on. Landon was abruptly halted once again, however, when he found himself staring into a pair of sky blue eyes.

He leapt back an entire stride when he realized they to belong to Kelsey Thomas.

"Quit ogling the new chicks, Landon,” she said.

Landon almost flushed, but he managed to keep it to a minor tinge as he glared at the platinum blonde with a surly frown. He and Kelsey had never been much on good terms, but it was only recently that she had taken it upon herself to call him by his first name. Landon didn't know why she had suddenly decided that they were friends, but whatever the reason was, he simply could not trust it.

"I'm not,” he deadpanned, stepping around her and taking the last five steps to his locker.

Kelsey's mouth turned up in a humored grin as she spun around on the balls of her feet and followed, perching herself at the dial right next to his to input her combination. It was an unfortunate incident at the start of the year that brought Kelsey all the way from C-hall to B-hall after her old locker was infested with a poisonous mold from its previous owner.

"But you do it all the time," Kelsey insisted, switching some of her books out.

Landon's frown deepened as he dropped the last of his textbooks into his own and swung it shut with an irritated flick of his wrist. His eyes found Kelsey's as she finished her deposit soon after and looked over to him with a questioning gaze.

"How would you know anyway?" He asked, turning away and heading on to class. "Do you watch me all the time?"

It was Kelsey's turn to blush as she startled and started to sputter incoherent denials of such a ridiculous accusation. Landon was only satisfied to have her off of his back as he turned his eyes back to look for Cordelia and Scarlett, only to find that neither of them were there. He sighed, shaking his head from side to side as he slid his hands into his pockets and looked forward.