I'm in eleventh grade now. I can't believe it. I thought I would never make it alive, literally. After the incident at the school that had become my second home, I moved to a new place, a whole new beginning. The first few months after the incident, reporters, newspapers, and magazines were asking questions left and right. The whole world pretty much knew the story, except for two parts; my visions, and the scene at the auditorium. I don't know what he told them, but I suspect that he didn't have much to say in the first place. We were never found guilty of the murders for many reasons. As soon as all the police matters were finished, I was gone, that school forever out of my life, or at least I thought. I kept having dreams, nightmares, and each time they got worse. Lately, it hasn't been the faces of my old friends that lie on the floor, but of ones I had never seen before.

I go to a new school now, with teachers that teach what they are supposed to, but don't get involved in anything else. It's not that bad, but when he was walking down the hall on the first day of school my heart nearly leapt out of my body. When I first found out that he lived, I thought it as a blessing that I was not the only one. I kind of felt closer to him after our experience, and I guess he felt the same way. We started going out, but never did we talk about the past, always the future. He brought me back to life with his charm and humorous self. I guess I did the same for him. We were both honor roll students, even with the past we had. I never really went back to theatrical work, but many of the friends I made were. I found it hard every time to step into the auditorium, although it looked nothing like the ancient auditorium I fell in love with, with the gargoyles and hard wood seats. This auditorium was of a modern style, with a soft look to it, which I couldn't stand. I missed the old auditorium, with all its secrets.

I heard they opened the school back up after cleaning it and checking it over for any kind of infestation or something. I always find my mind drifting back there though. Maybe I'll go back someday and see what really happened. This school has a lot more students. Easier to be left unnoticed. That's the way we liked it. After all the cameras and reporters, we both found it safer behind the windows and in the shadows where it's harder for anyone to notice.

As I walk down the halls, I sometimes see the visions of gargoyles jumping out at me. He was always there to comfort me, and so I endured, and eventually inured to the sights. I couldn't tell if they were visions, or just flashes of the past haunting me. Christmas is coming up, and we were planning on going somewhere together. I suggested the old school, to both his surprise and mine. And, to both of our surprise, he agreed. He just got his license, and one day on vacation we packed a few things and started back to the place that has haunted us for the whole summer, along with the whole school year so far. I have never told him of my ability to see visions, and at times it makes it harder and other times easier. Now, it was harder because I could almost feel the powerful aura pulling us to it. My heart lurched, and I lost my breath. My head became dizzy and lightheaded. I blinked, trying to see straight, and when I did I was looking at the school.

I stood there, the trees were full of leaves and flower petals were covering the grass from the budding baby trees around the old structure. Everything stood in black and white. Nothing moved. I remembered having this vision before. Bright red blood seeped out of the windows, from under the doors, between the cracks of the bricks. Instead of seeing those intensely red eyes, I heard the screams of children, of teenagers. I went to cover my ears, but it came from inside my head, not the school. I looked down at the sidewalk, and saw the grass, bleeding red blood. It exuded slowly around my feet, the black and white colors diminishing under the thick liquid. It formed into fingers that reached and grabbed at my ankles. I looked up at the school again, and saw him standing there, covered in blood, the skin melting off his face. I heard his scream piercing through my heart amidst the silence as he fell twitching lifelessly in a heap in the river of blood. I screamed.

The car was on the side of the road. He was hovering over me, asking if I was all right. When I looked up at him all I could see was a dripping face of skinless bone, eyes popping out from the heat. I covered my eyes with my hands, and shook my head clear of those sights of death. He was asking me over and over, trying to calm me down. After a while, the sights let me be, but I could never forget what I had seen. Never. I now had a bad feeling in my stomach. I wanted to turn around and go back home, but I couldn't form the words. We were going down the road again, and just past an open field. Lots of farms around here. I looked out the window at an old farm, and saw an image in the field. A ghost? No. Only a farmer working on a crop.

After an hour or so, we saw the first traces of snow. It was beautiful, and truly reminded me of happy times. I took his hand in mine, and felt his soft skin. It had tanned from the southern sun. I looked down at it, and saw blood seeping from a cut. My grip hardened as the vision came relentlessly. He stopped the car, and looked at me. It was time I told him. He listened to my every word, without stopping me or asking questions. It felt as if a heavy stone had been removed when he took me in his arms and said everything would be all right.

A few hours later, we entered the old city. We slowed down, and took in all the changes the summer had brought. Snow glistened on every corner, and people were out shoveling and sweeping the snow off sidewalks. It was peaceful here, much different than the city we moved to. Everyone greeted us, even if we didn't know each other. It was almost as if last school year never happened. I could see the huge tower of the old school over the houses. It stood there, like a guardian, a protector of the city.

We pulled up in front of the building, half expecting something to happen, half knowing nothing will happen. I took a deep breath and stepped out of the car into the soft snow. A shiver ran through me because of the temperature drop, but maybe there was more to it than that. I turned around and there it was, like the first day I had gone to it. Nothing threatening surrounded it, nothing out of place. He stepped out of the car, and looked at it anxiously. I could see it in his eyes. I walked up those steps, and forced myself not to remember what I had seen, forced my numb legs to carry me the rest of the way.

The white snow appeared to give it a peaceful look, almost inviting. Still, my heart thudded against my rib cage, echoing in the deserted parking lot. The building made me think of my vision. The black and white. The only color out of place was that of the sleeping tree. I looked into the window of the door, and noticed the lights were on. I could hear his footsteps crunching in the snow behind me. He peered in the other window and muttered something I didn't understand. I pulled at the door, and found it was locked. I said it might just be the janitors cleaning up. He nodded and we decided to go to the local library and read the papers, maybe find something out there.

We looked until eight that night. It was just by coincidence that he stumbled upon a small piece of folded newspaper tucked away. On it was a follow up story after we left the city. It was a boys' institution. After they found nothing wrong with the building, a rich landowner bought the building and turned it into an all boys' school with dorms for them to stay in. The boys that attended the school were troublesome students. It's a good sturdy building, so the buyer probably thought it was best to place them there. We decided to go there tomorrow and check the doors again. I missed my auditorium, I had to see it again, not as a vision covered in blood, but as the auditorium I fell in love with. That night I had a sleepless night, and when I did close my eyes I saw nothing. It was the first time in ages I didn't see those faces, the mess...

The tower loomed above us again, and the gray inscription with words of wisdom and achievement, now bore a warning to all entering. We stopped at the threshold and he peered through the window, testing the cold metal handle. Above, dark gray clouds gathered. They had been gathering all morning now, a sign snow was coming. Then my heart leapt. The door was open, not locked, but open as I now gazed into the dark foyer. The halls had always been dark, it always set gloomy shadows on every gargoyle. We entered and the door clicked behind us, echoing down the empty corridors. The chandeliers swung gently to and fro, casting dancing shadows along the wood paneled walls. Everything was like before. There wasn't any blood, no marks of any massacre, almost like it never happened. Every step sounded like an avalanche, echoing forever down the halls.

"I wonder where everyone is," he whispered to me. I closed my eyes and thought for a moment.

"Maybe they all went home..." I opened my eyes and everything was gray. Not again, another vision. I tightened my hold on his hand and looked to him. He was also black and white, but his deep blue eyes shone through as like to pierce me. No! I was seeing things, I didn't have a vision, not of a long steely dagger arched deep into his back, not of rivers of blood, not of anything! I was always told I had a vivid imagination, maybe what I experienced has just gotten to me. I can't let it get the best of me, so I fought back what I had seen and suggested we take a walk around and see if we find anyone. We walked up the stairs and down the endless hall. I could still see the blood, hear the screams, the laughter, the insanity. I had not thought to look in the auditorium, it had seemed locked anyhow.

We were heading towards the cafeteria. I remember fond memories of the cafeteria. My friends and I always hung out there. How I do miss my friends. They're all dead now. The cafeteria was quiet, too quiet to be a cafeteria. It almost seemed like someone was holding a breath, waiting to be let out. I could feel eyes on me, and I looked up to see him looking down at me. But it didn't feel like his eyes, it felt like someone looking through his eyes. I had to look away. I caught a movement off in the far end of the cafeteria, but it was too small, like a mouse. I didn't take heed to it. Then he said that he needed to use the bathroom and would only take a moment. I stood in the cafeteria alone.

A breeze whistled by me. It carried a murmur, a hushed whisper that I couldn't understand. I turned around and saw nothing, but a breeze brushed against my face carrying more whispers, louder this time. I turned again. It wasn't a breeze anymore. More and more from each direction blew my hair in a frantic frenzy, the whispers so overpowering, and yet I could not understand them. I fell to my knees, my hands holding me up. There was only one wind now, blowing directly into my face, forcing me to look down with my eyes shut. "Let me take you back." The whisper rescinded into a blood curling scream, followed by footsteps and the sounds of silverware clinking to the floor. More screams and hysterical laughter followed. I covered my ears from the sounds. Memories flooded in like the blood that ran down the halls. I couldn't go through it again.

Someone bumped me, and I felt a sticky substance against my forehead. I knew what it was, I didn't need to open my eyes, nor did I want to. It was all just a dream. I didn't feel the blood trickling between my eyes, down my nose, down my temples. I wanted to cry and pull my hair out. I couldn't do this again! Someone was screaming right behind me. I needed to move and hide. Find a safe corner and shut it all away. I opened my eyes slowly. The first thing I saw was a trail of bloody finger marks across the floor, and a few feet away a severed hand still twitching, grasping for something that wasn't there. I bit my lip and looked around for someplace to run. They were everywhere. With knives and forks, broken plates. It was too vivid to be a dream.

I saw one of my close friends lying on a table nearby, pinned to it by forks that ripped through her hands. I could see pieces of plate dug into her sides and someone was using a spork to dig out her intestines. I felt like vomiting. I never knew what my friends went through before they died, and I don't want to know. I wanted to help, to somehow free her and put her back together, but at that moment I saw another go up to her and slice her throat, her back arching in agony and blood flowing fast and free as her life left her.

I ran. I ran past the kitchen. Inside I could see two stabbing one another with knives, both covered in so much blood I couldn't tell who they were. On the counter there was a head staring at me, without eyes. The face was bloodied by the scratches surrounding the eye sockets, the tongue nailed to the platter. Blood ran down the counter into puddles that seemed to snake together in a maze of redness. Where was he? Was he all right? I needed to find a way out of here. A way back to the reality I belonged to. Then it hit me like I ran into a wall. Another vision.

As I ran into the hallway, out of the cafeteria, everything became black and white. At the other end of the hall I could see an old man sweeping. A poster was on the wall. "Romeo and Juliet: One Night Only." Am I back here? Back to that night I had nightmares about every night? I started towards the janitor, but someone stepped out from the stairway blocking my path. It was him. Except it wasn't. No blue eyes looked back at me, but a bright hellish red dug deep into me. There was no sound. I couldn't hear anything, I had no footsteps, but I knew I was moving away from him. I was stopped when at another staircase someone else walked out in front of me. It was him again. Those red eyes glaring at me. I turned to run again but ran right into something and fell to the floor.

I held my head as the pain rushed forward. I blinked and tried opening my eyes, but my headache only got worse. I lied back down on my back and let my head rest for a minute. It was the only thing I could do. I opened my eyes and saw the ceiling. It was normal. Not black and white, not spattered with blood, normal. I sighed. I was in the hallway across from the cafeteria. Nothing moved around me, and I slid myself into a sitting position. I was at the base of the stairs that led up to the second and third floors.

An echo of footsteps resounded from what seemed to be the third floor, and I slowly got up, resting against the wall for support. By the stairs was a door that led to the outside. I walked over to it, no longer wanting to see the school or nightmares that had haunted me for so long. I pushed on the door, but it didn't budge. Through the window I could see it had begun to snow again. I tried again, and found the door as stubborn as the first try. I could hear the footsteps again, closer to me. Maybe it was him, coming back from the washroom. I headed up the stairs and looked down the second floor hallway. The lights cast dim shadows upon the bare walls. Nothing stirred in the quietness that surrounded the entire school.

I walked up to the third floor and saw the hard wood door to my right was slightly open. I remembered that it led to the attic that was above the third floor. No one but the janitors was allowed up there because of the fire hazards. And yet, the footsteps returned, sounding on the floor above me. I peered into the door eerily, looking up the narrow steep steps, too afraid to call out for him. Where did he go? Shouldn't he have been back by now?

I felt an urge to go up the narrow passageway and explore the ancient corridors that tunneled above the ceiling. Not many were allowed to view the internal workings of the large structure, and many times I wondered what was up above in the skeleton of the school. The old graffiti on the wall were remainders of those who had snuck up these old stairs years before. I looked up and the light of day lit the stairwell for me. I took a step on the first metal stair, and the sounded reverberated down the hall I left behind. A strong wind ran through my hair as I walked up the windy staircase. A large fan sat at the top of the stairs, the windows behind it covered in graffiti. Another large wood door faced me and I turned the handle to be encompassed in pitch black.

I searched for the light switch and flicked it on to see dust particles the size of marbles floating in front of me. I stepped down the concrete stairs, and gazed at the hollow tunnels before me. Behind me the door slammed shut, and I could hear the lock being turned. I ran down through the dust to the end of the hall and opened the next door to be surrounded by more blackness. Fumbling for the light switch again, I ran down another long tunnel, the walls covered in the old names and dates of long forgotten students. I saw an opening to the left that was a large hole. Two planks were use to connect to a platform that turned around the corner. I quickly turned and was hit again.

Everything started turning to black and white. I continued running, making sure not to slip off of the old planks. Below me rested an empty pit of endless blackness. Around the corner there was a brighter light, but something sat on a large fan. As I neared it the hairs on my neck and arms began to prickle and I stopped in full force as I could start to make out what I was seeing. It was him, except in six pieces. His arms and legs were dismembered and wire cut into his still bleeding skin. His head had been decapitated, but it was not clean, for skin was ripped and flapping as the air ventilated through the fan.

I could feel lumps rise in my throat as I tried to hold on to whatever food I had left in me. Tears rose in my eyes as I looked in horror at the dripping blood and the head pinned to the fan by the ears elongated by the weight of the skull. I put a hand to my mouth and choked back a sob when suddenly his eyes opened and stared at me with those bloodied sockets. "Come to me, it is your turn to know your fate." Red blood rushed out of his mouth in the black and white background as he spoke, and I doubled over wanting to turn back. "You cannot turn back now. I have called you back to me so I can be with my love once again. It is you whom I have chosen to reunite us. You."

I felt confused and nauseated at the same time. Was I having yet another vision? "Why? Why was I chosen?"

"Because you could see. I went with you that night to claim my love once again, but you were too strong. I followed you and wouldn't let you forget. I made you come back." The bleeding body started to shrivel before me, and the face melted away and dried into an old mummy, the bright eyes looking into me. "I was brought to life once again a long time ago, and now I will take my love with me. Leave. Go to the auditorium."

My head felt dizzy and I didn't know what to do. Could he have just been doing this to me the whole time? Why? I felt so hurt and afraid. I turned away and saw the light hanging above swinging in the wind. It was changing from a white to a dim yellow, and I started back the way I came, not caring if something awaited me. I could not take another minute looking at what I had seen.

I got to the door that had slammed shut and tested to see if it was locked. It opened before me and I could see a mob of boys standing on the other side, a look in their eyes that I never wanted to see again. I tried to go back, but a tall boy near me caught my arm and the mob enclosed me. I could feel bodies pressing against me and then a hard knock on my head, then total darkness as I drifted into a black sleep.

I awoke to find myself on the stage, tied and bound to a chair, wearing the old medieval garb I remembered seeing the last time I was in the auditorium. As my head cleared I looked out into the audience. In the wood seats sat the boys, about two hundred of them, fighting over knives and blood spraying everywhere. A strong wind blew in through the sides of the stage and immediately the boys sat down, blood dripping from their bodies. I could see apparitions floating in through the doors as well, wearing clothes that were long ago outdated. I wriggled in my chair, pulling at the ropes around my wrists until they were red and sore. A spotlight hit me then, and I could no longer see.

I looked to the right side stage and saw him walking out, not a scratch or mar on him, wearing the garb of Romeo. I struggled harder against my bindings, breaking the skin around my wrists. He walked up to me, the bright blue eyes shining as if renewed. "I shall lay thee to rest, my Juliet, for thee has not yet slept." I couldn't move or speak, it was as if something other than the ropes bound me. Hot tears rolled down my cheeks as he untied me and lifted me up. I tried to move, to speak, but I could only choke a muffled sob as my body lied limp in his arms. I could feel the cold table under me, and I knew I had to do something fast.

He stood over me, looking at me with those bright blue eyes, the crooked dagger glistening in the spotlight. "With your life, I bring life to my lost love." He raised the dagger above my chest and I could see a bright light emanating above me. An angelic face formed above mine and looked at me with its ghostly eyes. Time stopped in that short second that I saw the dagger stop high in the air above my body, as the ghost peered into my reddened eyes. She looked away towards him.

A soft voice clung to the silence. "No, you cannot do this. It is not right that you take her life for our love. We will live together forever in another world. Here, we wreak havoc among the living. Let us leave together and be one once again." The voice faded and the apparition stole into his form. The dagger quivered in his hands, and it came down into his stomach. "Now we will be together forever." Mayhem circuited the boys in the audience as he fell to the floor. I could hear yelling and screaming from the audience, and I could feel the warm liquid of blood under my fingers. I closed my eyes and ears to the ruckus, and fell into a deep black sleep.

I opened my eyes and felt ice cold. I was in the snow, somewhere in a field. I still wore the medieval dress, the blood crusted to it. I looked around and saw a house not more than a half a mile from me. I started my long trek in search of some warmth. I vowed to myself then that I would never return to this city again. Never would I see the visions that haunted me, the dark apparitions that had surrounded me most of my life. I was free. The sky hung in gray clouds as another snow began to fall. Everything seemed so white. I looked down at my messy form. Everything was black and white.