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BLOODY RITUAL FOR MY FRIENDS
CHAPTER I
The Salem High School accepted Abdul Hassan Alhazred as a student on a cold December morning. Icy wind seeped through every slit of the school building and the pleasant warm air pumped by the central heating appliance diminished. No one welcomed Abdul. He had an extremely white face, which contrasted in a somewhat devilish way with his black hair. It was a face that did not feature the common American genes. It was a physiognomy that came from the mysterious countries in the Middle East, perhaps Saudi Arabia, Syria or the Emirates. No, no student at Salem High School welcomed Abdul Hassan Alhazred. The weird boy had invisibly been tattooed with the sign of death. The student's last name, Alhazred, reminded everyone of the recent terrorist attack in London where more than ten people had died. The assassins were Muslim extremists who had names very similar to the new student.
It was definite: Abdul Hassan Alhazred had on him the unmistakable stench of tombs; that's why Dexter Quartier spat at him. Alhazred did not defend himself, he remained silent; however, the new student seemed to have no fear. Quartier stood before the Arab with a defiant attitude. Other teenagers approached and surrounded Abdul Hassan Alhazred. They were Dexter Quartier’s friends: Randolph Carter, Howard Phillips Pickman, Scott Winfield, Sarah Susan Phillips, Kate Ashton, Anne Bloch, Mary Belknap and August Derleth. They said rude things about Abdul in the school hallway, and the girls wanted to watch a fight. It was then that they all discovered something in Alhazred that paralyzed them. The pupil and iris in his left eye were crossed by a red line; it was very thin, but visible. This red sign had the form of a raven's claw or of a prickly and dry branch.
Alhazred wiped Dexter's saliva from his face with a napkin. The Arab looked immutable; he stared at each of his enemies. That red claw in his left eye seemed to have a hypnotic effect on Dexter Quartier, Randolph Carter, Howard Phillips Pickman and the others. The girls, on the other hand, were seduced by the red mark. Sarah Susan Phillips, Kate Ashton and Anne Bloch believed they were beginning to fall in love with Abdul Hassan Alhazred. But neither the boys nor the girls said anything about their feelings. They felt rather confused. They all drew slowly away from the Arab, and Alhazred was left alone on that corridor where the dusk light, filtered through the glass, began to fade rapidly.
Half an hour later it was completely dark. The parents in their cars came in to take their sons home. The icy floor reflected the streetlights and the dry trees. Some fathers saw a strange lad. A weird-pale-faced teenager, of pallor similar to that of the wax masks with which the ancient cultures covered the faces of the dead. He left the school by walking. A lot of snowflakes struck the Arabian boy, but Abdul Hassan Alhazred walked with the dignity of a monster; he did not make the least gesture of discomfort for those, like frozen thorns that fell on his naked face and his hair, a hair blacker than a long-time dead star.
The lad went away from the place and his ominous figure faded among the trees of Washington Park. It was impossible to know exactly where he was heading to, but he walked towards the older part of the Salem Port. The parents were restless about the new student; they felt a vague fear for their children. Before Alhazred plunged into the shadows, Kate Ashton, from her father's car, contemplated the Arab. Now she felt that she was truly in love by Abdul Hassan Alhazred. That night, she would fall asleep thinking about that strange pale face and the red mark on its left eye. Kate had been bewitched by Alhazred’s damned personality forever.
(A fragment of a novel)
