Everything is calm when the music begins. It’s a soft, melodic song that’s meant for dancing. The men and women stand and move toward the wooden dance floor. The music remains calm and collected as everyone pairs off and begins swaying to the beat. I stand at the far end of the room with my back pressed against the wall. No one seems to notice me, which brings with it a sort of consolation in itself.

The doors on the other side of the room open and my attention is captured. He was tall, but then everyone was tall to me, and his dark eyes immediately found me. Panic flooded all of my senses. Half of his face was hidden behind a mask and he wasn’t wearing the formal attire one would when attending a dance like this. By the time I had any time to react to him, he was standing in front of me and offering me his hand. Even with every bit of me screaming to run away, my hand raised and placed itself in his.

We were dancing just as everyone else was. The beat was simple and easy to follow, even through the distraction of my brain screaming at me to run. It was odd that no one had noticed him but me, but whenever another couple would come near, they would look only at each other and nothing else. As though nothing else existed. His dark eyes never left me and I was mesmerized. I felt both absolutely terrified and exceptionally safe all at the same time.

The beat exploded then. There was a hiccup in the sound and suddenly things changed. All of the couples stopped and turned to me, the boy I was with stopping and shielding me from their gaze. What was going on? He looked back at me, grabbed my hand and pulled me away.

We bolted out of the room and through the doors he entered in. We ran down a long hallway and took a left down another hallway. Somewhere along the way, he ripped a door open and tossed me into it. He pushed himself inside and closed the door, placing a hand over my mouth and a finger over his lips. Quietly, we listened as several pairs of footsteps passed the room. After a moment of silence, he dropped his hands and looked out the door.

“What’s going on?” I whispered to him.

My first words of the night that I could remember. Without answering, he took my hand and pulled me back out the door and we were running again. We went back the way we came, going the opposite way that had been taken earlier. We rounded another corner and then we pushed through a set of doors and I was met with the thick, humid air of the night. He tugged at my arm to keep moving, but I pulled back.

“What’s going on?” I insisted.

He stopped then and looked back at me. The panic that had flooded my senses earlier came back. He was unfamiliar again. Mysterious. My brain screamed for me to run from him. His dark eyes looked past me and at the door, the sound of something hitting the other side making me jump. He grabbed my hand and pulled me away from it, my eyes never leaving it as he continued to pull me away. Had he just saved my life? What was going on? He seemed to be creating more questions than he was answers and it was beginning to get frustrating. After a bit of running we slid to a stop, hiding in an alley.

“Okay, that’s it-“ I panted. “What the hell is going on?”

He was leaned over himself, his hands on his knees and his lower back rested against the brick wall. His chest heaved as he raced to catch his breath, too. The wind picked up and his eyes came up as well, looking at something just beyond me. I turned and found three more boys, all wearing masks.

“So you did manage to save her.” One spoke in surprise.

His voice made me shiver, a cold feeling erupting in the pit of my stomach.

“Save me from what?”

If the mysterious boy who’d stolen me from the ball had been any indication of what I was allowed to know, I expected no answer at all. The sound of a piercing howl interrupted the moment. My heart began to race again and I started to feel lightheaded. All of this adrenaline was going to end up killing me. The boy who had stolen me pushed past me and the four of them turned around the corner and left, none of them saying a single word. Whatever that had been must have been important.

Without thinking I took a few steps forward, the sound of something heavy hitting the ground behind me, paralyzing me. Though to be fair it was the fear of something unknown being behind me that had scared me.

If I don’t look at it, it can’t be real, I reasoned. My heart begged me not to look at the mysterious sound. It pleaded by beating against the inside of my chest with such force that it was all I could hear. Slowly, however, I turned.

-----x-----

Beep beep beep! Beep beep beep!

My body shot forward, my heart racing as I slammed my hands around on my nightstand to shut off my alarm. Once it had been silenced, I huffed and looked up at my ceiling. Flashes of my dream came to me and I immediately jumped up and ran to my desk. My laptop took its sweet time turning on, but once it was up and running I popped open a new Word document and began recording the vivid pieces of story my mind had told me as I slept. It only took a couple of minutes before I was finished and rereading it. This wasn’t the first time I had dreamt of the masked boys. Maybe it’s only happening because I’m thinking too much into it?

I flinched at the sound of my phone receiving a text message. I picked it up off my desk and slid my finger across it, unlocking it and opening the message.

Fr: Dad

You did actually get out of bed right?

I rolled my eyes and smiled. Normally I would be annoyed at this early hour, but I was exceptionally excited about today. Probably not nearly as excited as my mother, though. Today was the day the exchange students would be arriving. Not all of them quite yet, but half of them. Everyone arriving today was from Korea, and my mom was more than excited.

Mom had grown up in Korea, only moving away once she had married my father. She missed it, and I could tell. When I was younger I asked my father to enroll me in classes to learn Korean so I could surprise mom for Christmas. I had never seen her so happy about anything before. Since then she’s helped me learn more and become more fluent.

I typed a quick ‘yes’ and set my phone down. With a quick yawn, I lifted myself from the chair and headed to my closet. Today was definitely going to be a long day. The house next door had been rented out by my father for the exchange students to use and it was pretty big since there were going to be twelve of them. Moving in all of the stuff they were bringing was going to be tiring, and I could picture taking a nap halfway through today. Permitting mom was going to let me. With a sigh I pulled out what I was going to wear for the day and headed for the shower.

-----x-----

[Author]

So, it's been quite a while since I've written any kind of anything, so forgive me as I work back into writing. I also apologize for the intro chapter not being very exciting. I'll hopefully be posting the next chapter tonight and it should pick up from there.
If you have any advice or anything of the like, feel free to let me know. I'd love to know what I can improve on as this story grows.

Thank you so much for even taking the time to read it. <3