Story The Forest of Ink

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I scrapped this idea from another writing site earlier this week. However, because I find the concept interesting, I've decided to post it here on the forum to give it another shot. Oh, by the way, these won't be really proofread and have little planning. Enjoy.

Prologue
"That's not good," a hoodied teenager hushed as he stared at a school to which his target had just escaped. He stood there at the front, tapping the spine of a white-colored book. It was really annoying those things could easily pass through walls, but with him being flesh and it being midnight, there was no possible way of entering the school without breaking in. In doing so, he'd probably trip an alarm, and against something that powerful, a time limit was the last thing he needed. As the teen was brooding, one of his hunting dogs (both were white, wolf-like creatures) barked at the school and began growling. Immediately, the teenager held up a hand, and the dogs immediately sat down with a whimper. If he couldn't be there physically, there was no way he'd be risking these two. With no other recourse, the teenager whistled, prompting the dogs to run towards the teen and leap into the teen's book. Instantly, both dogs were suctioned into the book, leaving behind a wisp of white smoke. With that, the teen took one good look at the school before leaving, worriedly musing over the fact that he'd be attending this school tomorrow.

 

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Post 2

Faulkner scratched and wrote answers like mad. Of all the days the Mr. Gerald could have chosen, Halloween was the obvious pick, the sadistic monster. Faulkner remembered the flooding of black wisps when the teacher announced the date of the test. Compared to now however, the room was absolutely filled with black smoke, something that helped little as Faulkner frantically made last minute changes when he'd just remembered facts from his all-nighter study session.

"Pens down," Mr. Gerald announced. The entire class moaned, except for Faulkner who ignored him. When it was obvious that Faulkner didn't listen, Mr. Gerald bellowed, "Pens down, now, or you get a zero." Without any hesitation, Faulkner let go of his pen, letting clack onto the table. Students then began passing forward their papers, stacking them together one by one. As Faulkner was waiting for the stack to be passed to him, the girl in front of him, Meridy, turned around to face him.

"Wow, that test was more difficult than I thought," Meridy squeaked, "What did you get for the important general that fought in the War of 1812?" While Meridy was speaking, Faulkner was given the stack of tests.

"I dunno, Michael Jackson?" He sputtered sarcastically before shoving the papers into Meridy's face. Quickly, Meridy shoved the papers down, giving Faulkner an "are you kidding me?" look before taking the papers and passing them forward.

"Seriously? You put Michael Jackson?" She asked incredulously. Too tired to deal with her, Faulkner quickly buried his head into his arms, hoping that Meridy would get the message. Fortunately for Faulkner, she understood and didn't press further. Actually, Faulkner did put down Michael Jackson. Throughout the test, Faulkner's attention wasn't fully on the test, part of it because he was sleep deprived, but mainly because of that thing that hung from the ceiling. It was a giant, humanoid, but clearly non-human skeleton with eyes embedded all over the bones. The creature terrified Faulkner. What was worse was that the skeleton hung over that kid (dubbed punching bag), all of the skeleton's eyes fixed on the kid and an arm pointing at the teacher, stretching further and further as the test wore on. It was gone now, thankfully, but the feeling Faulkner got from it didn't go away. All he could do right now was catch a few winks now so that he'd have enough energy to walk to his last period, PE, and knock out... if not for Meridy piping up.

"By the way," she whispered, "have you seen the new kid? He's so weird! Like-" Faulkner held his hand up to stop her, but he needn't have tried since the bell rung as he did so. Without a word, Faulkner scooped up his stuff and walked off to PE, Meridy following closely behind.

 

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Post 3

As one of the baseball kiddies, Faulkner was lumped into the 6th period PE where they lumped together all the other sports when they were off-season. Unfortunately, that the period was filled with a whole lot more testosterone than usual, meaning that the bullies were also here... Faulkner could imagine the bullies noticing him, snickering to one another and chittering about how they'd push Faulkner off the benches for being the best pitcher on the baseball team. However, he knew they'd never actually do it, given that the bullies had an easier target that they could pick on, and sure enough, a resounding "oof!" could be heard throughout the gymnasium. Faulkner could feel his insides twist. He always hated when they picked on the punching bag...

"What's wrong, punching bag?" The bullies laughed as they looked over their latest tripping victim. Faulkner, though he hated to watch, dutifully moved an eye towards the commotion. Immediately, Faulkner flinched. The monster was there. However, rather than having one pair of arms, the skeleton now had several, each pointing to kid in the bullying circle. Then finger was pointed at him. Faulkner flinched, shivers coursing down his spine, before noticing that "punching bag" was giving him a look of pure rage, making Faulkner even more uncomfortable. Then, out of nowhere...

---

"Oi, oi, oi" a voice called out. Without warning, a teenager with pure white hair walked over to the commotion. It was the new kid, and unbeknownst to everyone, he'd been observing the punching bag since the start of PE, and when the punching bag got tripped over, the new kid proceeded to intervene on the situation. "That's not really nice of you," the new kid scolded, "You should apologize for tripping him." As soon as the kid said that, the bullies looked at the new kid with a stink eye. What was stranger yet, however, was that the skeleton disappeared.

"And you are?" the ring leader, Jack, growled as he towered imposingly over the new kid.

"The names Canis, and you should apologize," Canis demanded with a calm smile. The bully snorted, before saying, "And what are you gonna do about that, grandpa?" Canis raised an eyebrow at the Jack, but rather than getting angry, Canis arched his back before retorting in husked, elderly voice, "Kids these days have no respect. They need a good beating or else they'll be worthless when they grow up." At that, Jack's face steamed before he slung at arm at the kid. With deftness, Canis effortlessly dodged the punch before patting Jack on the head. "My my my," Canis responded in his old voice, "This here's a feisty one. I'd better teach him a lesson!" Jack whirled around to face Canis, but as soon as he faced Canis, Canis already had a finger primed in front of Jack's face. Then, without mercy, Canis flicked Jack like a meteor impact, knocking Jack onto his back. When Jack's cronies saw that their leader was defeated, they dispersed in a hurry, and Jack, now with a red mark on his face, scrambled to his feet, saying "You-you'll regret this!" before scampering off to the lockers. When all the bullies left, Canis turned his attention to the punching bag, extending out a hand and initiating a short conversation. Though Faulkner could not hear, the conversation went something like this.

"Quite the problem you have there," Canis commented as the downed kid grabbed his hand. "By the way, the name's Canis. What's yours?"

The punching bag looked at Canis with wide eyes before nervously saying, "It-it's Taylor."

At that, Canis smiled before saying, "Nice to meet you Taylor."

---

Faulkner watched incredulously as the new kid challenged and defeated Jack, and plus, helping out the punching bag... Taylor... A jealousy rose up from within him, but also a burning regret. Faulkner didn't watch for long, however, as the new kid, noticing Faulkner's gaze, stared back at Faulkner from afar. Immediately realizing he's been caught, Faulkner closed his eyes, pretending that he was sleeping the whole time, and eventually, Faulkner fell asleep for the whole period.