Chapter 1

It all started on December 18th. I was a sophomore in high school and it was the very last day before Christmas break started. I was sitting at my desk in the front row in the middle listening to my teacher talk about the Byzantine empire and The crusades whilst counting of the last minutes until...RING! The bell went off and it was time to go. I picked up my bag and walked out of the room then the building. I walked right over to the bus stop and waited until my bus showed up. "Hello, Ben my boy." A voice said from behind me. I turned around and standing there were the only three people in the world I can say truly hate me. Mark, Dillon, and Adam. "So then," Mark continued. "What do you have planned for the week? Christmas of course. But, maybe something else? The mall? Studying? Or perhaps, you were going back out to those old woods behind your house. You know, they say your more likely to get into an accident if your alone out there."

"Who said that?" I asked.

"Me." He replied.

At that exact moment the bus pulled up and I climbed the stairs and found a seat in the very front. All the others got on the bus and a Senior sat next to me, he was a guy with sandy blonde hair and a black AC/DC t-shirt. "Sup'." He said as he sat down. I just nodded and looked out the window for the fifteen minutes it took for the bus to get to my neighborhood and my house. The AC/DC guy had already left and I just got off the bus and used my key to open the door. I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a granola bar. Dad had left a voicemail saying that that his flight had been cancelled due to heavy snows and he was stuck at a company meeting three states away and he wouldn't be able to get back until next week, he apologized profusely and swore up and down that he would make it the best Christmas ever. I didn't mind, I like alone time. I put on a gray Adidas hoodie and walked off into the woods behind my house to explore.