Chapter 1

Bluffton University has to be one of the worst choices I have ever made, why did I think that a private school, in this area of all places, would be the best fit? Perhaps the real reason I hate the place so much is not because of the school itself, but the people. I need to get out!

My name is Jebidiah Bishop, and I used to be popular until I wasn’t. I guess you could say that I have the looks and the charm, but what I don’t have is the ability to keep friends or even girlfriends (pathetic, I know right?). The reason I undoubtedly despise the people in this area is due to the fact that every single one of them is exactly the same, fake.

I have precisely one month of university life left. After that, I really need to get out and just see the world. The people in this area seem to think that I am just this common jock that goes around and breaks the heart of any unlucky female foolish enough to be interested in the likes of me. However, what they don’t know is that I am nothing special, I am just as awkward as anyone my age, if not more. To prove a point, just today I approached this raven-haired goddess of a woman, hoping that I would be able to talk her up and possibly take her out on a date. The only words that ended up falling out of my mouth were,

“Hi, you look like a dessert tray, and I would like to eat you up, can I?”, she understandably replied with, “Jerk!”, and scurried off, probably to report me, as she should. I just can’t seem to string a proper sentence together when it comes to the opposite sex, I may just be broken.

My English professor is this ridiculously attractive woman that keeps making eyes at me in class, and it is phenomenally difficult to concentrate when that happens. I swear it’s like she has an overpowering pheromone flower embedded right beneath the surface of her skin, because when she’s around I feel this overwhelming urge to just spontaneously combust with desire, and that’s just not normal.

I’m in her class now and she’s doing it again. Why can’t she just give her sinful attention to someone else? Someone that would unquestionably take her on? The class is almost over, at least, now I just need to rocket out of here so that she doesn’t approach me again with her illegal ecstasy skin.

“Leaving so soon, Jebidiah?” she crooned. Too late now, “I’m late for a meeting with another professor, did you need something?”, I lied. “I was hoping to go over some notes I have regarding your most recent paper. When will you have a moment?”, she asked. “Tomorrow works, but I really need to go now, bye!”.

I am not even sure whether or not she replied but I was out of there so fast. I genuinely felt like I might’ve died if I stayed even a second longer. The rest of the day has been a blur, almost as though the toxins leaking out of her skin messed with my mind and body in a way I really do not care for. I wouldn’t say that I am attracted to her in the way that I am supposed to be, it’s more like I have no choice in the matter. I honestly wonder if anyone else experiences phenomena like this.

Wait… Didn’t I read about something like this before? I will need to go and find the book I saw this in and see if I can make sense of all of this. As I start to head out Professor Jones, my English Professor, is at my door poised to knock. I am feeling overwhelmingly conflicted about what to do next.

“Professor Jones, how can I help you?”, I asked. “Jebidiah, if I told you exactly what you could do to help me, you would most probably not believe me”, she stated as she pushed me back inside my room and shut the door. At the click of the door locking, I started to yell but she quickly clamped her hand over my mouth and whispered, “Quiet, that will only make this way worse than it already is, you don’t really want that do you?”, I shook my head pretty violently and squeezed my eyes shut because maybe if I couldn’t see what was going on it wasn’t real. She took her hand away and slapped my already spinning head really hard, my eyes flew open in shock. “I am not here to take advantage of you, why are you taking off your clothes?”, she barked. I wasn’t even aware that was what I was doing, but I replied with, “If that is not what you are here for, then why are you here locking the door?”, she was quiet for a while after that question, she paced up and down the room as though she was trying to gather the right things to say. “I am not really an English professor. I started at this university the same day you joined, I had to get rid of the man that was teaching English before me so that the plan could work, just don’t ask me how I got rid of him.” She paused and I didn’t want to interrupt in case I messed up all that she wanted to say, instead, I screamed internally, because what was happening? She continued with, “I came here for you, I need to warn you about something before you leave university.” I stood there dumbfounded for a hot second, not really knowing what to say, then I gathered myself enough to ask, “what is the warning?”, I was seriously expecting her to say something like, “they’re coming for you, the green ones” because that’s how my idiotic brain works. Instead, she breathed a heavy sigh and said, “I am here to warn you that you only have a year left to live. I see things that nobody else does, I can’t tell you how you die, I can’t explain why all I can say is that your year starts tonight when the clock strikes midnight.” After that everything went black.