《Contempt》 Prologue ¡°Where is she, where has she gone!¡± The man bellowed, tears welling up in his eyes. ¡°How could you let her die?¡±A question he had asked with his mouth but one his eyes did not seem to care to know the answer to. All I could do in that moment was simply stare at him as he raised his fist and threw a punch, one which was so fast that I couldn¡¯t even remember the direction it flew before I passed out. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. Chapter 1 Friday October 13th, 1952. I had just woken up and was getting ready for school. I was greeted to cold, dark weather as I opened my front door, weather which was quite unusual for North Zealandia. The day was also something to note as it was a day which is considered an extremely bad omen in our culture, one which some not-so-savory people seem to come out of hiding to do some not-so-savory things. I tried to ignore those bad omens as I entered my car though. I was making my way to my friend¡¯s house to pick her up to go to school with me. As I was approaching her neighborhood and cruising down the main road to her street I saw brief glimpses of figures moving in the dark, they disappeared as quickly as they appeared. I dismissed it as just kids playing around and continued toward her house. I knew I was near her house the moment the bright red mailboxes that lined the corner of her street appeared, it was quite the odd arrangement of mailboxes. After about another minute of cruising I came to a stop right by her house. I got out of my car and knocked on her door three times, no answer. I knocked again, no answer. I decided to just let myself in since their door was unlocked. The house was dreary, quiet too. It wasn¡¯t normally loud since my friend¡¯s dad had always left for work ridiculously early, what he did that required him to work so early was a mystery to both my friend and I. I couldn¡¯t find her downstairs so I walked up to her room, going up the stairs was quite nerve wracking, as the only thing accompanying me was the creaking of the steps and the lack of light her house had. I came up to her door and knocked three times, ¡°Charlotte wake up, school¡¯s gonna start,¡± I hollered, there was no accompanying reply, I knocked again even louder, four times this time, no reply. I knocked again, six times, then seven, then eight before I started pounding on the door. I stopped eventually and looked at the door, gathering up the courage to open it, I placed my hand on the doorknob, turned, and pushed. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Chapter 2 The door had swung open and the first sight I was greeted with was the body of my closest friend, hanging bloodied and bruised. I felt nauseous the instant the image of her body registered in my mind, I had no words to say and I wasn¡¯t able to scream either, I just walked up to her corpse and shook her body, hoping that she would somehow wake up, hoping this whole thing was just a weird nightmare. The situation seemed to finally connect to my emotions then and there, and tears started flowing. At that moment I saw her closet open and out walks Charlotte, with an angering sheepish smile. ¡°Surprise,¡± she half muttered. The situation took me a few seconds to register in my mind, but I just stayed silent for longer because I wanted Charlotte to realize how stupid what she just did was. I saw how uncomfortable the silence made her but all I could think was how funny seeing her like this was, like karma I could control. Eventually I spoke, ¡°What was the point of that,¡± I said, trying to hide my emotions. ¡°Just a little Friday the 13th prank, you know, to lighten up the day,¡± she said sheepishly. I just looked at her with a blank face and motioned for her to follow me to the car. ¡°How did you even create a body that realistic?¡± I asked her. ¡°It was a project that I did for biology class, our teacher let us create a version of the human body in different states, so I decided to do one that was heavily injured, I also made it look like me as well because pranking you was always part of the intention.¡± She said sheepishly. I didn¡¯t reply to that just to let her know how annoyed I was over what she did, but I couldn¡¯t help but say ¡°Of course it was¡± in my mind. Charlotte¡¯s an extremely upbeat and energetic person. It makes hanging out with her quite pleasant in the majority of cases, except for ones like this. She has a tendency to go too far with jokes, but this occasion was bad even for her. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Chapter 3 By the time that we had arrived at school and it had started I had gotten over her not so funny joke. I sat on my chair, took out my homework, and put my head down like I always do. My mind couldn¡¯t help but wander back to Charlotte, despite her little habit with jokes, she was generally a good and charming person. She was pretty much the opposite of me, always cheerful to a fault. She never seemed to have bad moods, she was motivated and friendly and most of all, pretty. She had the type of brown eyes that seemed to captivate you more than any other color could even begin to, despite them being a relatively common color of eye. She had freckles all over her face and what seemed to be perfect features. All of this is what makes her so charismatic. I couldn¡¯t never stay mad at her because of that. My mind eventually ended up wandering from Charlotte and back to the body. It was too real. Something about the liveliness of the body didn¡¯t sit right with me. You can kind of tell when something is fake or real with a glance, and that supposedly fake body didn¡¯t feel fake at all. I hung onto this thought until class pried my attention away from it, but it still lingered in the back of my mind. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Chapter 4 I was extremely drowsy when period one started, I was surprised I was able to drive to school at all. Eventually I laid my head down on the desk and tried to let my drowsiness drift me off to sleep, the ramblings of the teacher prevented that though. ¡°If fifteen is x and twelve is y what would you divide 4 by to get z.¡± I wasn¡¯t even sure if that was the sentence that I had heard, my mind seemed to be in 4 places at once, yet absent at the same time. I eventually drifted off to sleep. I woke up 30 minutes later to the sound of the bell and, to my horror, my teacher standing above me. He had a concerned look on his face and whispered into my ear, telling me to stay after class. ¡°You know this is why you¡¯re failing my class right, you keep drifting off to sleep and blowing off all your work,¡± He said. ¡°I know this isn¡¯t the only class you¡¯re doing this in either buddy, are you doing alright?¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡± I said. What I said was the reality of the situation, I¡¯ve never really cared about school, or family, or my appearance, or anything really. Things had been like that for as long as I can remember, I had never really had a reason to care about any of those things at all. The rest of school seemed to just fly by, not a single memory of was made that day, I couldn¡¯t remember anything significant for the life of me. "¡°Riiiiiiiiiiiiingggggggggggg,¡± The bell went off at 2:20 like it always did. I walked towards the school exit and was about to open the gate before I heard some light footsteps hitting the ground behind me. ¡°HEYYYYY!¡± Charlotte yelled out at me, before jumping on my back with her full body weight, it took all I had not to topple over. ¡°What¡¯s up Ms. Mannequin,¡± I teased her. ¡°Very funny,¡± she said, sarcastically. ¡°You wanna watch me play tennis we¡¯re going against Viper Valley it¡¯s gonna be a fun watch, trust me.¡± ¡°Sure why not,¡± I said. There wasn¡¯t much for me to do in the after school anyway so watching her wouldn¡¯t be very hard to do. I walked across our campus straight into the Tennis courts and sat on the little bleachers that they had next to the fence. I scrolled through my phone until a cold breeze got my attention, it had been 20 minutes and not a single person had even stepped into the bleachers, let alone the tennis courts. Something was off and I wasn¡¯t sure what it was. Before my mind had any time to wander I saw a little humanoid shadow scurry through the side of my vision. I was getting bored waiting for everyone to come so I followed it. I moved 20 meters and turned the corner, there was another flicker of a shadow, another 20 meters and a left and I saw the shadow again, but it was a little longer than the other brief flickers I had seen of it. I kept following it for what felt like ages. I checked my phone, I checked my phone. I checked my phone? I had blinked for a moment when I went to reach for my phone in my pocket and was back in the bleachers of the tennis court, this time full of people cheering and Charlotte going against the Viper Valley player, I was stunned for a long period of time but just chalked it up to some kind of daydream. Charlotte then scored at that moment and I cheered. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Chapter 5 Chapter 5 The game had ended, Charlotte had won every set like she always did. The school¡¯s star athlete and the pride of everyone''s lives. The girl of every guy¡¯s dreams, at least that was what it seemed. I was waiting for her in the entrance of the tennis court and watched her as she walked toward me, sweaty and beaming. ¡°Did you see I won! I won!¡± She had her usual energy and positivity. ¡°Yeah I saw, I still don¡¯t get tennis to be honest, it was still impressive though.¡± I said. ¡°That''s just cause you¡¯re stupid.¡± She said in a joking tone. ¡°Not as stupid as the mannequin was.¡± I joked back. ¡°Ok ok I get it you don¡¯t have to keep bringing it up.¡± Her tone souring a bit. ¡°Maybe don¡¯t put a hanging body on a fan next time.¡± I soured my tone to match hers. ¡°Alright fine I messed up, I¡¯ll win the rest of my tennis games this season to make it up to you." She said that so confidently, as if it were just a guaranteed future. I wondered how she could always keep up an attitude like this, it seemed so tiring. I brushed the thought away a second later since she had been like this for as long as I can remember, the Charlotte I had always known was still the same one I knew today, it was quite endearing. ¡°Fine, but if you lose a single game you have to do my homework for the rest of the week, I don¡¯t feel like doing it.¡± I said, trying to match her confidence in my tone. ¡°You already don¡¯t do your work.¡± She said, joking again. ¡°Shut up.¡± The only insult I could muster since I knew she was right. ¡°Well I¡¯m heading back home if you want me to drop you off you can come with.¡± ¡°Sure just give me a few, I need to talk to my teammates a bit before I go.¡± She said, ¡°Alright I¡¯ll be in the car,¡± I replied. I walked over to the parking lot and sat in my car for what seemed like ages, I was getting deja vu. I checked my phone and realized it was 3:45 pm, the exact time I had walked away from the tennis court. The thing that had happened to me before the game started had happened again, and the shadow was there as well, standing on top of my trunk. It wasn¡¯t moving at all which gave me a good chance to stare at it. It was completely jet black and the size of a small house cat on its hind legs. Its color reminded me of my own hair color which I found strange. I moved slowly to get out of the car so I could get a little closer to it but the moment I opened the door it scurried off in the direction of the tennis court. I chased it right as it started running and as I was about to turn the corner, it stopped dead in its tracks and stared at me, its eyes were just as black as its skin, I could barely make them out of its face. The monster disappeared after a few seconds and time seemed to unpause again. I looked at my phone and it was 3:50 pm. The chase felt longer than 5 minutes to me but at this point I didn¡¯t really care to understand what was going on with time anymore, it all made no sense to me. I overheard Charlotte¡¯s voice as I was trying to figure out what was going on, ¡°Yeah they are, so gloomy too.¡± She said, I decided to keep listening. Another voice spoke right after ¡°Why do you even hang out with that person, they seem like such a loser,¡± the voice was one of her teammates. ¡°Honestly I just feel bad, they don¡¯t have any friends here because of how little they take care of themselves. They¡¯re kind of annoying though, at this point I might just cut them off entirely, I¡¯ve known them for 10 years and I¡¯ve never once enjoyed spending time with them.¡± Charlotte said. ¡°You should, you¡¯re so popular hanging out with a loser like that is only gonna make you look like one too,¡± her teammate said. ¡°I should, they really are a loser.¡± They both laughed after. I just walked back to the car, I couldn¡¯t even think that was probably for the better too, I didn¡¯t want to think about what just happened. Charlotte walked in not long after me, ¡°Ready to go.¡± She exclaimed, with more of her energy. ¡°Sure.¡± The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.