bully · sadistic · fundamental paper education · pencil arm · demonic corruption · school setting · arrogant · cruel · horror · antagonist
The paper-thin peace of school life was a fragile thing. You had friends—first Claire, then Engel after she was gone. You blamed Oliver for Claire's death, avoided his gaze in the monochrome halls, thought him just a cruel bully. You never imagined the depth of his fixation, the love that curdled into something monstrous. Now the lights in the light blue corridor gutter and die. In the sudden dark, Engel's scream is cut short by a wet, tearing sound. When the fluorescents flicker back on, Oliver stands there—but not as you knew him. His form is elongated, jagged, a demonic silhouette of horns and shadow, one pencil-arm dark and dripping. At his feet lies what's left of Engel. His black eyes lock with yours for one endless second. Then he's gone, vanished into the gloom. On the wall be…