Chapter one

A car arrived at the parking lot of Crystal Coast High. A teenage girl wearing a dark green dress and black flats with golden flowers, alighted. She said her goodbye to her father and immediately ran into the school building.

In the hallway a boy wearing a plaid shirt, a jean and walking shoes, called out while approaching her.

“Ruby!” 

She turned around to see a colleague of hers, holding two large items.

“Happy Birthday.” He said stretching two large dairies to her.

“Thank you Urie.” Ruby replied while observing the two large books in her hands.

After a few moments of admiration, they both walked to class, having a little chat on the way.

Ruby was greeted by her classmates who sang her a happy birthday song. She smiled ear to ear and made a slight bow.

“Happy birthday.” Tessa, one of Ruby's best friends said, gently carrying Ruby's birthday cake towards her.

“Wow, this is so nice of you guys.” From amidst the small crowd of students, Tony singled Ruby out of the crowd holding her by the wrist.

“What was that for?” Ruby rubbed her wrist searching for answers on his shy face as the whole class looked on.

“I have something for you.” He brought out of his trouser pocket, a small black box, containing a silver chain with a gold heart pendant.

“May I?” He asked, holding up the chain.

“OK.” Ruby turned around, allowing Tony to put the chain around her neck. 

“All done.” He said.

Tony hardly talked to anyone, he might be one of the most handsome boys in class, but also the one who had the highest degree of shyness.

They have all observed the way he looked at Ruby, but they would bet a lot of money that he wouldn't be able to tell her.

A clap echoed through the class starting from a blond boy named Andrew, who seemed the most astonished. Soon the whole class picked it up, excluding the two, Ruby and Tony who looked like he was having a cold.

Mr Tapper the class teacher walked in, restoring order in the class. He walked to the chair with some books in hand, standing for a brief moment, he smiled at Ruby.

“Happy Birthday Ruby.” He said, maintaining his smile before sitting.

--•

11:09 Pm.

Ruby was laying on her bed, reviewing how her day went. She smiled, remembering the gifts she had received. 

The only thing left for her to do, was sleep. 

She had said her good night to her parents an hour ago, but was a little late to bed, mostly because She was unwrapping gifts and designating them for their different purposes. 

She heard a knock on her door and sighed in frustration.

“Who's there?” She waited for a response, but what she got was a harder knock.

“Who's there?” She asked, getting more irritated. She asked herself why the person at the door refused to say anything. 

“You know I'm not too patient, stop playing with me, I want to sleep... I know it's you Dad, so I'm coming out there.” She said, trying to give the person a little scare.

 She walked sluggishly to the door and on opening it, saw no one. 

“No one! No one!! Classy. In fact, you deserve a handshake, I like your pattern, I'm going to pull it on you next time with a little child's play theme.”

Thoughts of anger streaked with confusion, filled ruby's mind as she gave a small clap to her misconceptions of a prankster.

She suddenly heard something drop behind her.

She turned around to see what resembled a chain with a pendant, in the middle of her room. 

Furthermore, she picked up the object.

'You have to do something'

A voice whoosh past her ear, causing a tingling. She looked around, sweat forming on her forehead. 

The object she held was a very old locket with a chain attached to it. 

It was also very cold and that bit at her skin.

She opened the strange object and examined it curiously. 

On the inside of the locket, there was a carved symbol. A square with four triangles on its four sides and four others on its edges. 

She glared at the object that fell out of nowhere more stunned than earlier and took a deep breath.

“Don't be paranoid.” She said as she dropped the object on her desk. 

Ruby moved speedily to her bed to begin her earlier quest, ignoring the voice, too faint to be real. It might just have been her mind, reading the wrong meaning to everything.

Sleep couldn't come easy when an object Ruby did not remember putting in her room was lying on her desk.

The strange knock from earlier made her think they were linked and not one of her parents knocked.

“Don't be paranoid.” She whispered to herself. 

'It shouldn't seem stranger than I want it to be.

But where is the locket from?

My Mom or Dad could've put it in here, but why?

I never wanted an old, strange looking locket as a birthday gift, I already got that, so why this? Where did it drop from?

Right in the middle of my room, when I have no hole in my ceiling, it's just the straight ceiling so where was it hung?' 

These questions flooded her mind as she began to lose herself to sleep.

Ruby heard a creak beneath her bed.

It slowly began to move forward in utter darkness, she tried to feel for her lamp, but it was not there. 

Suddenly the bed moved backwards, hitting the wall and jolting her painfully. 

She once again felt for her lamp and tried switching it on but the lamp didn't go on. 

Again the bed slowly moved forward and began to turn, getting faster with each passing second.

“Dad!!” She couldn't help but cry out at this horror.

She hid herself under her blanket in hopes that the horror will end, but it continued.

'Can't they hear what's happening?' She questioned with a disoriented mind.

She slowly became unconscious, even if the room was lit up, she wouldn't see anything.

Her head spiked with pain, and she lost the feel of her body. 

The loud creaks from beneath her bed were now very faint, till she couldn't hear the noises anymore.

'You have to help my people'.

It stopped abruptly, almost throwing the lifeless girl off it, then it returned to its former position. 

Ruby laid lifeless on her bed, getting a semblance of the sleep she desperately wanted.