Masters's Son

Twenty Six

Behold, me.

A very tired me.

Because of last night's bad dream and my inability to sleep properly, I was hardly able to get back to sleep. Twisting and turning, the memory of the dream playing in my mind on repeat.

The sneers and rude remarks from the faces of the few I consider friends. The heart wrenching sound of the machine whirring to life and the deafening blast. Suddenly I was back in Amity, Casper High to be exact. The familiar, annoying feeling of ignorance from bystanders and faculty of the harm sent my way wavering in the air. And then there was Vlad, holding an ectogun. Liquid ectoplasm splattered on his now no longer dark suit.

And Ember laying dead at his feet.

I sigh and smack the screen of my phone's alarm. I sit up and stand, a short wave of dizziness hits me. Balancing, I yawn.

I walk over to some spare shorts I think I stole from Casper High's gym. I didn't mean to at the time, I just never felt the need to return them. Besides, I used them plenty and no one questioned why I had them on during school. Not that anyone really noticed.

I keep the shirt that I have on, it already has some dried sweat on it from a few hours ago.

I leave the room to go to Vlad's gym-space for our run. He has a large pack water bottles set on a counter. Most of which I know I will need to consume before the hour is up.

"Ah, there you are young Daniel." Vlad says. "Since we have plenty of time this morning, I planned to do some stretches first." He says and gestures his hand to a mat close to a wall made up of a giant mirror.

I suppress the urge to groan and to roll my eyes.

"Remember the stretches, Daniel. We'll do the same sets the next time you decide to skip a morning run." He says and lifts his arms above his arms above his head, twisting them and bringing them back down.

I couldn't help the face I made when he said those works. He acts like it was on purpose. Like it was a rebellious moment in the short amount of time he's been my guardian. My jaw drops and my eyes narrow into a glare.

With twitching fingers, I follow what he does. I try memorizing the several second stretches in case I do accidentally miss a run. But I'd never skip them, at least since the day that I found out I can't just make an easy excuse like being lost. I can't afford the risk of being kicked out and put back in the system.

Jazz just found out where I was, I can't just move away. For her sake.

"Bring you hands higher. You're not stretching, you're reaching." He instructs, giving an example by lifting his arms more.

I do as he says and stretch more.

"That seems like enough stretching for now. Let's start our run, shall we?" He picks up a towel from a rack and gently dabs his forehead from sweat that isn't there.

I nod, agreeing. I just want this over with so I can get back to my room.

We walk over to the treadmills. He presses the button a few times, setting to at a pace. He notices me hesitantly stepping onto the motionless belt. He waves his hand in a 'begin' motion.

And so I do.

I press the button, pausing every so often so I can set myself at a pace. I'm doing okay for now. I shallow my breathing so Vlad doesn't hear me fighting for my life.

After several minutes of steady running Vlad speaks sounding unfazed by the exercise, "Okay, we can slow to a walk." He presses a couple of buttons and it slows down.