My eyes flickered open. My vision cleared as I surveyed my surroundings. A bus? Why was I on a bus? I put my hand on my forehead as I tried to recall how I had gotten here, I struggled to even remember what I had for breakfast this morning.

“Don’t worry too much. You’re not the only one who has lost their memories.” A mysterious velvety voice announced from beside me.

“Pardon?” I looked to my left to the seat next to me. There sat a tall, mahogany haired boy about my age wearing blue ripped jeans, a dark blue shirt and a red jacket. Sections of his hair turned silver where the sunlight touched it. His eyes were dazzling, the left one was bright green while the other was the most amazing gold colour. His cheeks and nose were lightly sprinkled with small freckles and his ears, I noticed, were the right size for his head rather than being too big or too small. He was perfect.

“We were all kidnapped as far as I can tell. Everybody who has woken up so far has no recollection of anything. Some people think its last year again, I’d personally hate to go through 2018 again, I have a bad feeling about that year.” He smiled. His teeth were amazing.

I looked around at the other people on the bus. Most were asleep, some laying awkwardly on each other. Only five people, including me, were awake out of the twenty people here.

“Do you know where we’re going?” I asked, hoping he’d know.

“No idea. The bus driver is a zombie. He won’t talk.” He looked towards the front of the bus.

I followed his gaze and planted my eyes upon the driver who was in fact a zombie. He had greyish blue skin which looked as if it was falling of his bones, some of which were showing. His grey hair was falling out and his dress pants and grey shirt were ripped and desperately needed a wash.

“Why are we on a bus with a zombie driving it?” I thought out loud.

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen a zombie this close before, not that I can remember at least.” He stared at it in wonderment.

“You’ve seen zombies before? You must not be human then.” I concluded. In this world there were humans and then there were the supernatural. The humans didn’t know about us, at least not anymore, people turned us all into fairy-tales a long time ago.

“No, not really. Hi, I’m Wilden Brook and I’m a warlock.” He held his hand towards me and I shook it, it was surprisingly soft.

“I’m Lazarus Riveheart, people call me Riveheart. I’m… not going to tell you what I am.” I told him as I shook his hand.

“Is it that bad?” he questioned.

“Yes.”

“Fine then, but I will find out eventually.” He grinned.

“Most people do.” I muttered under my breath as I turned to look out the window at the blur of pine trees passing by. There wasn’t much I could do about being kidnapped, I could feel the protective spells around the bus, trapping us in and stopping me from teleporting away.

An hour passed slowly, several more people woke up from their slumber. There were various different reactions to waking up on the bus, the most entertaining/gross being the boy who woke up and immediately vomited, the zombie driver was not amused.

“So, how old are you?” Wilden asked me, he was visibly bored, much like the rest of us. No one had any entertainment, someone had taken everybody’s phones.

“16. How about you?” I asked back.

“Same. Favourite colour?”

“Green. You?”

“Yellow.”

We continued asking each other weird questions until I fell asleep with my head against the seat in front of me. It felt like I was jolted awake a second later from the bus screeching to a stop in a small car park when in reality it had been a couple hours judging by the time on my watch.

“Where are we?” I asked Wilden.

“I don’t know. It’s some sort of school I’ve never heard of. I saw a sign that said it was called Occultus high school. I’m guessing it’s a school for the supernatural since the word occult is in occultus.” He said.

“Why’d they bring us here?” I questioned.

“We’re probably about to find out.” He said as a woman stepped on the bus and told us to follow her off. We all did as she asked, mostly because she was terrifying. The woman had a sharp nose and cheekbones with dark red eyes and a small black bun on top of her head. Her dark grey suit made her look extremely posh. I hated posh people.

She led us through what looked like the administration building, every other entrance was blocked off by a wire fence apart from a large gate on the right hand side of the area. As soon as we were out of the office, I felt trapped. The same spells that were on the bus surrounded the school. As we walked, it started to resemble a school more and more with rooms full of desks and picnic tables scattered around the place.

“Why’d you kidnap us?” A blonde kid with a strong American accent towards the front of the line asked. His hair was very curly.

“We didn’t kidnap any of you. I will explain everything in a second.” The woman stated.

We walked to what I presumed was the hall and the woman told everybody to sit on the floor in front of where she was standing. I sat next to Wilden at the back, he was the only person I kind of knew here.

“To start off, you were not kidnapped in any way, shape or form. None of you should remember what happened so I will refresh your memories. Each of you were in danger where you previously were, whether that would be a danger to others or someone was after you. Your parents and yourselves have signed enrolment forms for this school. You are welcome to look at them if you want.” She swept her piercing eyes over each of us. “The memory loss prevents you from knowing where you are. You remember key details about yourselves such as names, age and race. The only things you won’t be able to remember are the people you used to know, locations you have been, activities you have done and interactions with everyone you have ever met up until now.” She paused.

“How will we know how we were in danger?” a young girl asked.

“You don’t need to know if someone was after you, you all are perfectly safe here. The people who are a danger to others will know who they are.” She informed everyone. Several people, including me, looked at the ground. I doubt anyone here was as dangerous as I was.