Installment One

By Safaia

Thanatos hated coming to school. Time just seemed to drag on and on here, as if there was some outside force that wanted him to stay in High School for the rest of his life. The looks from the lower class men on the bus were really starting to irritate him. So he couldn't afford a car and had to ride the bus as a senior, he really did not understand what the big damn deal was. Still, every minute or so one of them would turn around and give him a strange look. All it took was a simple glare to make them turn back around. They were scared of him and he knew why. They heard the rumors and they believed them.

Oh well, it did not really matter to him what a bunch of fifteen year olds thought about him, not when he was mere months away from getting out of the hell hole. The bus pulled in front of the building and the lower class men slowly filed out. Thanatos waited a moment before gathering his bad and walking off of the bus. A few heads turned as he made his way up the stairs the building, but no one acknowledged that he was there. Sighing, he ran a hand through his short blond hair and ignored all of the looks he was getting. The same stupid looks that he got on the bus only now they were from people his own age. However, all it took was the same, icy glare from his sea blue eyes to send people on their way.

Pushing the doors to the school, he narrowly missed one of his smaller classmates, Owen Peterson. The kid took a step away from Thanatos, his forest green eyes wide with fear. Owen was half a foot smaller than him with a mess of red hair sitting on his head like a birds nest. He was only fifteen yet he was well on his way to being his valedictorian. If there was ever anyone in the school who made their fear of him known, it was Owen.

"I'm...sorry." he stuttered before taking off down the hallway, clutching a large textbook to his chest. Thanatos watched him run for a moment before continuing down the hall, his eyes on the floor. Looking up meant he would have to make some sort of eye contact with the people around him and glaring to make them all go away got old for even him. Make it through the school day, get home to that damn home, go to bed, repeat until the year is over. He reminded himself silently. Just the same stupid pattern until I can move out of this hell hole and go somewhere, anywhere else.

He was not expecting to hit someone as he made his way down the hallway. After a half a year of attending this school he knew that everyone got out of his way when he walked down the hallway. It made things easier for everyone; they could avoid him and he could avoid them. The system worked and it had been working for six months now. So when Thanatos slammed into the body of another person and found himself sitting on the dirty floor of the hallway he was more than a little stunned. He was also positive that the entire hallway came to a halt the moment he hit the ground. Looking down at the floor, he saw papers lying in front of him, scattered in all directions.

Sitting on the ground nearby, looking equally stunned to have made contact with the floor, was a young man Thanatos did not know. He looked older and he had a straggly ash blond hair that looked like he just rolled out of bed. He was would have judged that it was the case for this stranger were it not for the pressed dark grey suit and white dress shirt that he wore. He looked at the papers and dull cerulean eyes went wide.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, I spent all morning trying to get these papers in the perfect order and now they're all ruined, completely ruined. Now I have to reorganize the entire thing before I need to get to that room and do whatever I need to do." he moved himself to where his papers lay and spread his legs wide, pulling all of the papers toward himself. Tiny drops of blood covered all of the papers from the man's fingernails which were bitten all the way down to the wick. A few students stopped to observe this new person who had seemingly taken over an entire section of the hallway. A bell rang and students began to file down the hallway and into classrooms, but not before glancing over their shoulders for one last look.

Thanatos now found himself still on the ground in front of a man who was organizing paperwork in the middle of a High School hallway.

"Maybe college will teach you how to walk straight..." he paused for a moment as he sorted through his paperwork, "Oh wait, you have to be smart enough to go to college first." The teenager could only blink, he was not entirely sure this man was even talking to him. Feeling slightly uncomfortable, not to mention late for class, he gathered his own things to get to his feet. "Wait, what do you think you're doing?!" The man suddenly exclaimed. Thanatos blinked.

"Um, excuse me?" he asked cautiously.

"Give me that paper, I need it, I need it right now." the man said reaching for where Thanatos' foot apparently covered a very important piece of paperwork. He tried to pull it from the large black boot, but to no avail. Scooting back, the teenager lifted his foot and the man snatched the piece of paper and put it in it's proper place, muttering a few more swear words. Standing, he brushed his black jeans and long sleeve shirt off and made his way around the man to the class down the hall, checking over his shoulder just before entering to see that the man was still sitting there and still muttering things to himself.

"Weird..." he muttered, pushing the door open. All heads turned as he made his way into the room.

"Late again, are we Mr. Lao?" his teacher, Mrs. Wythe quipped. She was an old woman, pushing sixty who seemed to hate everything about teenagers and students. Her beady eyes were covered by thick classes and her hair was thin and white. She wore her normal long skirt with flowers on in, plain black heals and button up white top. "Well, I won't wait for an apology or excuse from you Mr. Lao because I know I won't get one. Take your seat." she snapped. Thanatos did not say a word as he slipped by his fellow students, taking a seat in the back. Mrs. Wythe checked her watched and glanced at the door. The door suddenly burst open and in walked the man from the hallway, carrying a slightly messy stack of papers with him. "Ah, there we are. Students, this is Mr. Damian Stoker and he is going to be our new student teacher." she said addressing the class before turning to Damian, "Mr. Stoker, take a seat anywhere and we can start." He half nodded before taking a seat in Mrs. Wythe's seat behind the desk. Thanatos could only stare at this new "student teacher's" and wonder what kind of drama this was going to bring.