Cassandra - Chapter One

Chapter One
All Angels


My name is Eulalia. I have no story of interest about myself for I am a completely normal person, however there are other people who I can't say the same for. I understand this must all sound very vague to you so I'll start from the beginning.
When I first started secondary school I was worried. I was worried about making friends, harder homework, PE lessons and school dinners, but I realise now that those were trivial issues. There was a girl in my class called Cassandra, I can't even remember why we started talking but we did and at first she seemed shy and skittish. The smallest of noises seemed to make her jump but as I got to know her I began  to see that she was listening to every sound. Even that first time talking to her I seemed to sense a sharp intelligence behind her bright blue eyes.
At the time I felt slightly jealous of her. She was far prettier than I will ever be with her ash blonde hair and flawless skin. I see her in photographs and wonder how anyone could be so small and yet so perfectly proportioned.
I can't say I remember much about my first conversation with Cassandra other than a few sentences, we had been talking for a while about television and discussing our timetable when she suddenly came out with something that struck me as odd at the time.
"Eulalia, that's Latin isn't it?"She said
"Greek actually, like your name! Did you know that in Greek mythology Cassandra was the princess of-" I was cut off as Cassandra burst out again.
"I know some Latin. 'Omnes angeli, boni et mali'. It means all angels, good and bad."

Over time I learnt that Cassandra was definitely a good angel. She stood by me and defended me in times that I couldn't defend myself and never asked for anything in return. She never hated me or argued with me or told me I was wrong, unless I was, of course. The only negative emotion I learnt to identify in Cassandra was guilt, which  was another mysterious thing about her. She was the most honest person I'd ever met and in all the time that I knew her she had never done anything bad. Sometimes she wouldn't eat for days on end, no matter how hard I tried to make her.
By the start of year eight I had begun to find a pattern in Cassandra's mood swings. First she ate in vast amounts. I didn't know where she hid all the calories but she didn't seem to grow and her hunger was never satisfied. Next her hunger died down  but she became hyperactive and excitable as if it were her birthday or Christmas, and there was an excited look in her eyes although there was no notable physical difference in them. This stage ended after a few days and at the end of the last day there was always a hungry look on her face that terrified me. The next school day came the starvation where she refused to eat, sometimes even breaking down into tears.
I was so worried about her. In a short space of time she had done such a lot for me and it broke my heart to see her so depressed. I did try asking Cassandra. I asked if it was family life, I asked if it was a form of anorexia. I even asked, with a great degree of scepticism, if it was drugs. Of course, it was none of these things and, as it seemed no matter of guesswork would solve this mystery, I decided to follow her around to uncover the truth.
I tailed her after school for months but I never even found where she lived. One day we got a letter for a camping trip from school, I couldn't wait but Cassandra seemed frightened by the prospect of sleeping outdoors.
"Haven't you ever been camping before?" I asked
"Well yes, but it didn't go well." She replied
"Oh, what happened?"
"I'd rather not say, but I'm worried it might happen again."
"I'm sure it won't, come on, you'll have a great time." Cassandra was my best friend, I wasn't going to let her miss an opportunity because of something that had happened years ago.
"Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt." She agreed
When it came to  the camping trip itself Cassandra was even more jumpy than ever. She screamed when her name was called for the register and chewed her tough nails right down to the skin. She didn't speak a word on the bus journey either. The teachers announced that we had the option to stay outside the tent if we wanted. I thought it was a great idea but again, Cassandra was not so happy about it. Eventually I persuaded her to stay with me but I wasn't so sure anymore, she had started to get that scary look on her face again and we were the only two people staying outside our tents.
Before long it was night-time and after a long day of pitching tents and building fires I fell asleep almost instantly. I was woken by a scream. Only half awake, I rolled onto my side and blinked a few times. The whole campsite was illuminated by the eerie light of the full moon so I could see everything clearly. It took a while for me to realise that Cassandra's sleeping bag had been torn open. It suddenly dawned on me that it was Cassandra's scream, I really did want to help her but I was paralysed by fear. Then the moonlight reflected onto something that shimmered for a second before disappearing into the forest. It was a wolf, I was sure of it.
I tried hard to stay awake but at some point I must have collapsed with exhaustion because I woke up in the morning to see Cassandra back in her tattered sleeping bag.
"Cassie? Cassandra?" I whispered, "You awake Cass?"
Cassandra didn't reply, she just turned to face me with a long, shuddering sob. She was deathly pale, her face was tearstained and her lips were discoloured but perhaps most disturbing of all were her eyes. They were red from crying and surrounded by dark circles, her pupils were tiny and the whites and irises seemed strangely proportioned. She blinked after starring wide-eyed for what seemed like an age.
"Cassie, what's wrong?" I asked, sitting up
"Oh, I'm fine. Really! I'm just homesick I think, and I had a nightmare which scared me a bit but I'm OK." Cassandra protested, wiping her eyes with a scrap of sleeping bag.
As much as I wanted to believe my friend's story I knew what I  had seen was real, and the sleeping bag was proof. What happened to Cassandra was no nightmarish figment of her imagination and she knew it.
We were supposed to camp for longer but, to Cassandra's relief, some local tragedy caused the campsite to be closed down. When we returned to school Cassandra was still shaken by the camping trip and barely spoke all day. It was when I was following her home that, after three years, I found out that my friend was harbouring a dark secret that would change my life forever.