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1
Carol Swatzen was never an ordinary girl. She had no friends, perfect grades, and read all of Stephen King’s books in one month. If you look in her black messenger bag, you will find only 6 things. A sketch pad full of gory drawings that would terrorize any innocent human, a note book of writings that would horrify all of the greatest authors ever to come into existence, a binder with homework all done with amazing excellence, a water bottle with a strange substance that smelled wonderfully, but made you shiver with disgust, her favorite book, and a Swiss army knife. This year it was “The Dark Half” by Stephen King, which she read over and over again, all the time. Her long, silky black hair, which fell down to her waist, always looked like it was made from ravens or crows feathers. She wore no jewelry and no make-up. She was impossibly beautiful until it came to her eyes. Those grey, almost white, eyes with hardly any pupil seemed to stare into your soul. It almost looked like she had no eyes at all.
Even though the tiny town of Rainsford only housed about 100 people, and Carol has lived there all her life, no one but Carl Swatzen Sr., Carol’s grandfather, has ever herd her speak, or even seen her smile.
Carl Sr. was a 67 year old pharmaceutical technician. He had slurred speech and was slow in both mind and body thanks to his fathers harsh “punishments”. Although he was a sweet old man now, Carl Sr. had given his own son, Carl Jr., painful beatings as well. Carl Jr., however, had taken the tradition too far by getting himself thrown in jail for murdering his wife, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and child abuse. That is why it was rumored that it wasn’t that Carol wouldn’t talk, but couldn’t.
On the very edge of the wooded town, there was a small, two story cottage with a dock onto a large dark green lake where Carl Sr. and Carol lived. It was a two bath and bed house surrounded by green plants so thick that you could barley see the little dirt road leading into the alien forest and into town. The entire town adored Carl Sr., but were all afraid of Carol.
On one eventful Tuesday afternoon, three new students joined Carol’s 6th period math class. Anthoney Hokinson, a tall scrawny boy with dark brown hair that had dark red streaks threw it, and was cut so that his bangs hung a little in his eyes and had tan skin. Kyle Goat, also a tall boy with short blond hair, a muscular frame, and lightly tanned skin. And Ferdinand Goat, a huge boy that looked exactly like a very young Tom Cruise. And since they were new to class, the teacher placed them all right by her star student, Carol, hoping she would help them catch up in that creepy way of not talking, but still getting her point across perfectly.
Ferdinand spoke in a low scratchy voice. “Hi. I’m Fred. This is my twin bro Kyle. We’re from D.C.” Anthoney was second to speak in a medium clear soft voice. “Hey. I’m Toney from Long Island.” They all looked at Carol for a response. But just like she does to everyone else, she acted as if they didn’t even exist. Kyle leaned over to look at the assignment Carol was working on. “I’m guessing you’re Swatzen? That’s an odd name. What is it German?” Carol looked up from her work and gazed into Kyle’s eyes giving him a you-are-such-an-idiot-how-are-you-alive look. Digging in her sac, she swapped her binder for her sketch pad and flipped to a clean page. Stunned Kyle was left speechless, utterly terrified by the white eyes he just saw. He stared petrified by the white eyes in front of him. White was all he saw. Toney, the only one in the group undisturbed by her eyes, spoke in a friendly tone. ”What are you drawing?” Just then the teacher, Mrs. Veerskin, walked up behind them. “Carol, how many times must I tell you not to draw in class? If you’ve finished your work then please read. I can’t stand all the noise you make.” As the teacher spoke Carol once again dug in her sac to swap sketch pad for binder. “Thank you.” Once Mrs. Veerskin left, Carol pulled out a thick 700 page notebook from inside her binder. “Sweet Zeus that thing is huge!” Toney exclaimed. She flipped threw the notebook quickly looking for a clean page. When she stopped there was only about ¼ of the notebook left. By now Fred and Kyle had recovered from the frightening gaze and Fred asked “Why do you write so much? Do you have no life or something?” Carol froze as if she had a gun pointed at her and slowly looked up at the boys. This time her hair covered exactly half of her face, so only one white eye was starring at them. “Dude,” Kyle whispered barley loud enough for them all to hear “It feels as if she’s starring into my sole and trying to melt me….” Her eye widened and grew more fearsome. At the same time she cocked her head to the right making her curtain of pure black hair to fall from her face. She gave them a look that said one thing. ‘I’m going to kill you if it’s the last thing I do.’ It was Fred who noticed the entire class looking at them in complete silence. Just then the bell rang making everyone but Carol jump. One second the girl was there and the next she was gliding towards the door already half way across the room.