Chapter 4 - Ella

I walked in and saw the most beautiful girl to ever exist. Elflocked hair flowed down her back and stopped just beneath her waist. It was a dark ebony colour, but in the yellow light it appeared a gorgeous chocolate brown, and it shone whenever she shook her head, mesmerising me as she swished it about. Her skin was a wonderful russet, reddish brown; rich with colour and life. It was as if she were a piece of clay, and she'd been melded and sculpted into the ethereal being who stood before me.

"Are you alright Ella?" said Coach Lee. Ah. Yes. Right. It was my first meeting with the tennis club since school had started, and I'd already fallen head over heels with one of its members. Unusually, she was one of few. Including me, there were only six of us in this room, which I wasn't expecting for a school with at least a thousand pupils. But, hey, maybe that was a good thing. I've never been good with strangers.

"I-What?" I brought myself back to reality. "Yeah, yeah, yeah I'm good." I nodded.

I casted a nervous smile at the girl, she returned it with a chuckle as her friend next to her protectively held her hand. Ah. I see.

"Ok are you done?" It was the captain. "We need to get a move on alright?" He glared at me. What was this guy's problem? This was the first time I've heard him speak. He could at least try and make a good impression.

"So this is the tennis club," he continued, "This cabin is where we'll be meeting from now on. I'm Kalen, you've met my sister already," he gestured to the coach, "Minerva, Ty and Vera."

Coach gave me a little wave, and the two girls smiled politely. The other boy who I assumed was Ty stood next to them, almost a foot smaller. His small face and stature told me he couldn't be more than 11 years old, and the impishly youthful glint in his eyes only confirmed it.

"Alright," said the captain, "There's no point in beating around the bush, so I'm just going to be the one to say it. This is not a tennis club, I have never played tennis before, none of us have ever played tennis before." He stopped talking for a second to cast a wary glance at me.

"This school is roaming with ghosts you see. Hoards of the bastards. And us here?" He gestured again to the rest of the group. "We've all been able to see the bloody things since we were born, and coincidentally, we've all ended up here. The 'tennis club' is just a front so we can use this cabin and the headmaster is fully aware of our circumstances. Does that make sense?"

"I- erm-" I glanced around the room at the people who were all looking at me in suspense. "I guess- I guess I'll get going if this isn't really the tennis club. Bye!"

Stumbling to the door, I flung it open, rain crashing down from the sky, immediately drenching me the second I stepped foot outside. I ran through the trees, the cabin deep into the woodland outside Alder's. Swamps of mud, forts of fallen branches and armies of trees blocked my path back. I couldn't last a moment without losing myself to a sea of sludge or scratching my cheek on the reaching hand of the arboreal figures in the forest.

I'll admit, I was a bit suspicious when Coach Lee had led me to the cabin, because obviously what tennis club is miles into the woods? The courts were way back at the school at this couldn't be further from it. But I'd never imagined there was no tennis club at all. They'd really lied to me? They'd really shown up to my game to offer me a scholarship to a club that didn't exist? Would I really not be able to play tennis at all then? But the opportunities they'd promised! I thought coming to a school as prestigious as this would open so many doors for me, I thought I'd actually be able to get somewhere. My skills were good, but nowhere near good enough to get into somewhere that would let me reach the heights I wanted. So why?

And not only would I never be able to play again, it was because of ghosts? I'd always been of a fan of the paranormal and the supernatural, but never under the impression that they were real. It'd been a week since I started at this school, and the possibility that I was sharing it with ghosts...

Once I'd gotten back to school I'd-

"This-this is not Alders."

Water was spilling out an ornate fountain, constantly swirling and whirlpooling in a pool of cerulean blue that stopped just before my feet. The area was paved with some kind of limestone, completely spotless and brightening to the eye. I took a step closer. There was a statue- no two statues in the water. A boy and a girl. I think you'd usually find statues posed, re-enacting a human action, at least some element of life and spirit imbued into them. However, the girl was displaying no action, no emotion at all. Her eyes closed and her face expressionless. Merely an imitation of something lifelike. But the boy- the boy was the opposite. Sculpted fingers in the attempt of clasping his other, stone arms wrapped around the girl, a countenance desperate and pained. Upon seeing him, my chest became heavy with the very same emotion the boy's face expressed, my heart aching for the pair in the water; it was almost deja vu, a harrowing nostalgia I'd never felt before. Before long I was sobbing, tears rolling in my cheeks as I watched them, stationary below the surface.

How long I'd been there, I didn't know. But my head was throbbing from crying and I shivered in the ruthlessness of the rain. Nightfall would be coming soon, and I had no plans to be here after dark. And yet, I couldn't bring myself to leave.

"Ella!" A voice shouted, hoarse and worried.

A boy came crashing through the bushes. Black hair soaked to his scalp, baggy clothes stuck to his skin. The captain.

He hurriedly scanned the area. When his face fell on the statues, I watched as his expression went from worried, to sadness, to anger. And when he noticed me, this only worsened.

"You should not be here."

I looked up at him. "Who- who are they?"

"We need to get you out of here. Now."