C A R P E Ð E M O N

:Chapter One:

Pilot Episode

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“So- I get in one little fight and my mom gets scared. Says ‘I’m sending you to boarding school in the middle of no where--” Emily Asher had started to sing her own version of the ‘Fresh Prince’ theme song, and for the fourth time. Her mother was not amused.

“Cut it Emily.” Mrs. Asher said sharply.

Emily just crossed her arms and looked back out the window. While her mother went back to touching up her makeup in her compact. They sat in a bitter silence for a few minutes, the only sound to grace the back of the limo was Mrs. Asher snapping her compact shut and putting it into her Fendi. After that- they sat in further silence until Emily couldn’t take it any more.

She couldn’t be that pissed off, could she?

“So- are you just, never talking to me again or what?” Emily asked quietly, not taking her eyes off of the passing landscape.

“Why should I talk to you?” Her mother asked. “You don’t hear anything I say anyways.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Emily asked, looking at her mother inquiringly.

Mrs. Asher’s face went sour instantly.

“Joke, it was a joke.” She said smiling.

“Everything has to be a joke with you, doesn’t it Emily?”

“Only because it never is with you.” Emily replied while leaning foreword in her seat. “Mom, you never laugh anymore. You never smile even… not since dad ran off.”

“Your father didn’t run off.” Mrs. Emily replied sharply.

“Yea! He did- he ran off to Bahamas with the whore-”

“Don‘t call Melody that- she‘s your stepmother.” Mrs. Asher said that last part with great difficulty.

“She‘s a whore..”

“That’s it--just. You. Stop Emily.“ Her mother had had enough. “Stop causing trouble, stop making inappropriate jokes, stop calling women whores and stop-”

“Being me?” Emily interrupted.

“You- do not do any of those things, You do not attack boys in the hallways of your high school-”

“Obviously I do.” Emily snapped harshly- making her mother go silent. “and I am not changing, for you or for him, or for the pair saline filled water balloons he‘s married to.”

Silence, this time angry and sad at the same time echoed through the back of the limousine.

“Other schools refused to enroll you anymore.”

“I know mom.” she responded in a monotone.

The window between the driver, Mrs. Emily and her daughter rolled down with an electric hum.

“We‘re here Mrs. Asher.” The driver said glancing over his shoulder at his passengers.

“Thank you Robert.” Mrs. Asher said crisply as the car pulled to a stop.

Emily threw her duffle bag over her shoulder and stepped out of the limo before Robert had time to come around and open it for her.

Immediately she came face to face with a man in his mid fifties with a lackluster expression and wire framed glasses.

“Emily Asher I presume.” He stated more than asked.

Emily just looked up at him- slightly intimidated for some reason.

“Yah.” She said after a second and stepped away from the limousine.

His eyes followed her and then turned to her mother who got out of the car and stood with the door open.

“Mrs. Asher.” The man said.

Emily’s mother smiled and shook hands with the man.

“Hello. Robert would you-” Mrs. Asher began. But Robert, always on top of his chauffeuring duties had already gotten Emily’s suitcases out of the car.

“I’m David Chapman and I’m the Dean.” He said and then turned to Emily. “I thought I could take you and your mother on a tour of the school before she leaves.”

“Actually.” Emily’s mother interrupted. “I’m just dropping her off, I cant stay.” She said in her most pleasant voice. “I have a very busy afternoon, have to get back to the city. Be good, wont you Emily?”

“Wont I?” Emily responded darkly.

Her mother coughed and got back into the car, shutting the door firmly.

Robert sat the last of Emily’s bags down next to her and smiled sadly.

“Be yourself kid.” He said and hugged Emily. “Don’t let no one change who you-”

“Robert.” Mrs. Emily called through a slitted window.

“I’sa comin Mrs. Emily!” He replied with false enthusiasm and Mrs. Emily’s eyes narrowed through the slit of the window before she rolled it back up.

Emily couldn’t help but snort, she was really gonna miss him.

“I’ll miss you Bobby.” She said sadly.

“Don’t go trying to get me to forgive you for leaving.” Robert said- what he meant was ‘why do you have to leave me alone with the old bitch’. “You do know what my life is going to be like with you gone- don’t you?” He asked..

Emily shook her head. “No clue.”

“You ever see that movie ‘Driving Miss Daisy’?”

Emily grinned.

“Yea, glad to see you find that funny.” Robert said, walking around the car. “Bye kid.” He said and waved.

“Bye Bobby.” Emily called, also waving.

With that- he got into the car and drove off.

Mr. Chapman made a face and looked at Emily who looked up at the school- her entire expression revealed how miserable she was. He too glanced up at the Cathedral like school.

Emily sighed.

“Oh come on.” Mr. Chapman said suddenly. “Its not that bad.”

She gave him the ‘Yea right.’ expression.

He sighed. “Come on then, lets get all this to your room.” He lifted a couple suitcases and Emily grabbed the rest.

A few minutes later as their footsteps echoed through hallow hallways Emily got suspicious.

“I thought this was a school.” She said.

“It is.” Mr. Chapman responded.

“Then where are all the students.” She questioned responsibly.

“Locked in their cells.” He said flatly.

“Ha.“ Emily rolled her eyes and they began to trudge up a staircase.

“Girls dormitories are in the west wing, boys are in the east- we highly discourage boys in the girls dorms.”

“What about girls in the boys?” Emily asked, folding a lock of her hair behind her ear.

“That’s discouraged too- though many of the teachers are even afraid to go in there. Library’s on the first and second floor. Cafeteria on the first, Actually there will be a map in your ‘Welcome Folder’. Just use that.”

“Welcome Folder?” Emily echoed.

“Yes, the guidance counselors thought them up.” He told her with a trace of disdain. “Your room’s on the third floor.” He stated as they began up another stone staircase. “You’ll get the room all to yourself, unless we get another student this year.”

They began down a dark wainscoted hallway, Emily read the steel numbers on the door as she passed them, 663, 665, on the other side of the hall was 664 and a unnumbered door, then there were three small steps up and no doors for about twelve feet. Then Mr. Chapman stopped in front of door 666. Emily blinked at Mr. Chapman.

“Here it is.” He stated.

Emily looked at the 666 on the door and then back at Chapman and blinked again. “You have to be kidding me.”

He responded with a ’Yea right’ expression and sat down her bags, and pulled a skeleton key from his pocket and inserted it into the door. “This is your room.” He swung the door open and handed Emily the key. “This is your key, lock your room if you want to- don’t if you don’t.” With that he began to walk off down the hallway.

“Hey!” She called after him, he stopped and turned. “Where are all the students?”

“Its Saturday, so town probably.” He responded casually.

“Students can go to town?”

“On weekends if they want to, once a parent has signed the release form.”

“Did my parent sign the release form?” Emily questioned.

“No.”

“Nice..” She said under her breath.

“Anything else?”

“My map?”

“On the door.” He pointed and Emily turned to see a bright blue file stuck to her door. She turned to say thanks but he was already walking off.

Emily punted her suitcases into her room and ripped the file off of her door. Glancing one more time at the steel 666 she shook her head and walked into her new room, kicking the door shut behind her.

For the first time Emily studied the room- it was dusty- nobody’s been in here for awhile. But the hard wood floor was scuffed up pretty bad- a long time ago maybe.

There were two identical twin beds with curvy wrought iron headboards on either side of the room, a large desk on the right side and a wooden chest at the foot of the left bed. On the right side of the room a closet- only one. And two large set out windows with dusty cushioned benches under them.

“So a duster and some disinfectant will be needed.” Emily said to herself walking to one of the large windows and standing on her knees on one of the benches, she drew a little stick figure in the grime on the window. And out of the corner of her eye she saw the twitch of something brown on the windowsill, something brown and large. She turned her head towards it and involuntarily yelped.- She wasn’t afraid of spiders, but this was one big spider. Like a bird eating tarantula spider.

Still, that fact didn’t change anything, she still felt like a coward.

She stepped away from the window cautiously.

”You leave me alone, and I’ll leave you alone.” She said defensively to the spider. Despite her composure, she still did a slight spider before and snatching the blue file off the floor. Inside it was a welcome letter- a map- a schedule of classes- information on getting to town- the school rules- list of teachers- activities- clubs and teams.

She pulled the map out of the file and threw the rest on the bed on the left side of the room- farthest from the spider. She glanced over the crisp white paper. So, the unmarked door was a bathroom-- She ran her finger down the maps hallway and then down to the second floor map where her index finger stopped on what she had been looking for. She tapped the paper.

“Janitors closet.” She said standing up- as she did the bed creaked and a cloud of dust whooshed up. She waved the air clear and glanced over the map. “Laundry facilities.”

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With an arm full of sheets and map in hand Emily trudged down the hall to the laundry room. She walked past the door without noticing and had to double back murmuring curses under her breath.

The laundry room itself seemed to be out of place in the ancient school. It was like some dirty Laundromat had been taken out of a shopping plaza and dropped right into the middle of Norte Dame. Down to the overwhelming scent of Tide and the slightly annoying flickering fluorescent lights.

The bedding was stale and dusty- a lot like the room was actually. She crammed the bedding into one of the wEmilys and poured some tide in. Trying not to think about what she knew she was going to think about- since she knew also what she was going to think about would end up being a very negative thought.-

She thought about it anyways.

The cat sized spider- the filthy somewhat bare room, the fact her mom had basically tossed her into this place the way a person takes an unwanted dog to be euthanized.

Emily kicked the swinging door of the Laundromat open and into the hallway. Feeling a slight twinge of pleasure while being able to vent her frustrations.

She only had to check her map once (something she was very proud of) to find the janitors closet. Stopping in front of the door- Emily folded the map and slipped it into her back pocket then opened the door- prepared to load up with as much scrubbing bubbles and Lysol as physically possible.

“AHHH!” Was it she that screamed- or was it one of the half naked people in the closet?

Emily stepped right back out into the hallway and shut the door as fast as she could.

For the second time that day, she performed the spider dance, only this time much more violently. Ugh- she’d just interrupted a couple of hormone crazed teenagers playing doctor. Way worse than a spider.

“Gross.” She exclaimed. After her initial shock passed, she turned and began banging on the door. Not really caring if she disturbed them, they‘d already disturbed her plenty after all. “Hey!” She knocked rapidly. “Hey, fornicators!! I need to get in there!”

Suddenly the door opened and a thin blonde girl stepped out and closed the door behind her- It took less than a second for Emily to size her up. Freshman. Not only a freshman- but one of those freshman’s you’d see on that bile causing ‘My super sweet 16’ show. Where spoiled daddy’s girls will shell out thousands of their parents hard earned money on a party which could feed a country in Africa for a year.

The girl narrowed her eyes at Emily, as though in return- sizing the older girl up.

“Impure.“ Emily stated, lifting an eyebrow.

“You- did not see me here.” The girl said sharply and then walked off down the hall- straitening out her skirt.

Emily made a face, and chose to ignore what she would usually consider fighting words.

The door on her left clicked open and a tall guy about her age with dark brown eyes and shaggy brown hair smiled at her in a amazingly smug way.

Emily’s asshole alarm went off.

He opened his mouth to say something but Emily held up a hand.

“I don’t want to know.” She told him flatly and moved past him into the closet, switching the light on.

The guy nodded to himself- though Emily didn’t see it. She was too busy rummaging around through cleaning materials.

“You new?” He asked casually and leaned against the doorframe.

“Yup.” She responded, grabbing a white plastic bucket and throwing a role of paper towel in it.

“How new?”

“Very new.” She stated, grabbing Windex, a duster, and a box of trash bags.

“What grade?”

“Eleventh.” She told him while walking past into the hallway. He followed.

“Do you have a name?” He questioned in the same, absolutely annoyingly casual way as he’d asked the rest of his questions/

“Yes.” Emily said- “Do you?” She added in a patronizing way.

“John.” He said- stepping in front of her and holding out his hand.

Like that could keep her from going where she wanted to go.

Emily stepped around him and continued walking.

“Bitch.” She heard him sigh.

She immediately stopped and looked over he shoulder.

“Did you just call me a bitch?” She asked, lifting her eyebrows.

He just turned and looked at her. Then smirked. “Maybe.” As though cursing at someone was a cute thing to do. It was like he were pleased to finally get her attention in some way though, his eyes softened a little and even though his eyes were focused on her- his mind probably was miles away.

“Hey.” She said sharply- to get his attention. It worked, he snapped out of his haze. “I’m sorry I interrupted you when you were playing ‘doctor’ in the custodians closet- wait no, actually I’m not because it was gross.” Emily continued- wrinkling her nose in disgust. “And not… sanitary.” John’s smirk faded. “And you are rude.” She finished

John’s eyes hazed over again.

Realization dawned on Emily.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” She said darkly. “You’re high.”

John snapped out of it a little and looked at her lifting his eyebrows “Huh?”

Emily did the only thing she could think of- she walked away.

“Whores and dopers.” Emily murmured to herself. “How much worse could this possibly get.” Emily turned and kicked in the door to the Laundry room.

“AHHH!”

“O, sorry…”.

No, she hadn’t walked in on another couple of randy teens going at it- she’d kicked the door open into someone’s face. A guy, only a bit taller than herself with jet dark brown hair and glasses.

My life, is ridiculous, she thought sourly and sat her bucket of cleaning materials down.

“Ouch.“ She heard him groan now holding his nose in hi s hand.

“I am so sorry.“ Emily apologized once more, patting him awkwardly on the shoulder, hoping that, in some small way it would comfort him. “Let me see?“ She requested moving his hand away.

What she saw made her cringe, his nose was turning purple swelling, and a steady stream of blood began to steam out of his nostrils.

“Shit.” Emily snapped and he jumped startled. “Not shit you, shit me.”

She poked the bridge of his nose inquisitively.

“Ouch!” He yelped.

“Shit. Shit. Shit.” She chanted as more blood began to come from the nose. A lot more blood.

“How bad is it?” He asked.

“Pretty bad.” She said. Blood was beginning to dribble crimson onto the floor now. Emily grabbed the role of paper towel from the Janitors closet and unraveled a lot of it- probably way too much. And, ignoring his whimpering, put it over his bloody nose. “Hold this here.”

It was about then John decided to remind her he was still in the room, he cleared his throat and leant against the stone wall lazily. His head was now beginning to clear up and he was finding this whole scene extremely entertaining.

Emily saw him peripherally and sighed in frustration. “Go away.”

“So.” He began- ignoring her request. “First you rudely barge in on two people who are trying to make love.”

“God that’s so disgusting.” Emily exclaimed.

“And then you start beating up the local nerds.” He finished- ignoring what she had said for the second time.

The blood was quickly beginning to seep through the paper towel and Emily groaned.

“Its really pumping it out- I think it might be broken.” John said casually.

The nerd let out a whiney groan.

“I’m so sorry.” Emily breathed.