AzLean Soldier

Chapter 2 - Visions and Problems

I wake up to my roommate screaming at me to get the hell up for some reason. I do so, but I ain't sure what he wants from me. "What? I'm up, fucking hell," I say, grunting as I sit up in my bed.Peter starts going over to the TV. "You need to see this, dude. It is insane," he says.I look at him, confused. "What could possibly be so important that you wake me up?" I get up from the bed and stumble sleepily over to him. "What's on the news?" I say, but immediately stop when I get a good look at the TV. The news is on, talking about an unidentified object that fell from the sky."What the hell?" I say, staring. I look over to Peter, sitting in his chair like usual. Typing on his phone, possibly tweeting about this or something.I look back at the TV and listen to the news. I can't take my eyes off the screen as the reporter continues."The man who discovered this object and recorded it was a farmer named James Decoa, who saw the object fall from the sky like a meteor. After spotting the object, he called in the authorities to investigate."The news immediately casts footage of the object, which was sticking out of the ground. It appeared that there was a large crater with the object, which looked like a sword, in the center. Around the sword were deep and large cracks, almost like it would've ripped the earth open."Government authorities were forced to step in after two investigating law enforcement officers were killed in unknown circumstances following contact with the object."The reporter is standing beside a street along a sidewalk. A forest is seen behind them as they begin speaking. "The military has blocked all access to the site. Unfortunately, we are unable to send our crew to scout out the area. Back to you in the studio for the Los Angeles morning weather and traffic report."I stare at the TV a bit longer, kind of confused and also amazed. I looked back at Peter, who began to call on his phone to his other friends. Possibly the other football guys."This has to be a fucking joke." I shrug it off, and go to my side of the dorm, grabbing my backpack and stuff I need for the classes today. Afterward, Peter looks back at me. "Floyd, you gotta say this is amazing. Right?" he asks.I look back at him, "Not really, it could just be a meteorite. Do you seriously believe it would be a UFO?" I ask, giving the tone I always do when calling out the media's bullshit."Oh come on! You can't say that. The news is always right," he replies. "Besides, the farmer was there to say that it fell from the sky." I chuckle. "An object of that size, regardless of what it is made of, would vaporize within seconds of entering our stratosphere. There is no way that came from space." I look at him and stare."What if it's a . . . magical sword?" he says jokingly and kind of serious."Come on, Peter, you can't be serious," I say, grabbing my backpack and wrapping it around my shoulder. "Science already proved that magic doesn't exist.""No! I have done readings of these old books." He takes out his book from his backpack. It shows the symbols of old Greek symbols. The words of Time Manipulation as the title. "Ugh. Peter, we've talked about this," I say. "Those books are nothing but fake. Plus, if you haven't already guessed, Jesus is the only religion that I believe in." "What? So you believe in Jesus and God, but not magic?" he asks. "What kind of weirdo are you?""The non-bullshit kind," I say, opening the dorm door and walking out. "Fine! If that sword really is magic, though, you can't say I didn't tell you so." I close the door of the dorm on my way out, rolling my eyes and shaking my head."Peter really needs some Jesus," I whisper to myself, before walking to the cafeteria for some breakfast. However, before I can, the same girl as before appears behind me, causing me to stop in my tracks and whirl around to face her."Oh . . . hi," I say, kind of shocked. "Is Peter there now?" she asks."Oh . . . yeah, we were just seeing the news about the weird sword-looking meteorite thing that came from the sky. He thinks it's magical or some shit. Such a dork, am I right?" I reply.She rolls her eyes. "Did you even listen to what that sword did to two innocent people?" she asks."Well, yeah . . .""No . . . the news said that this sword killed two people by obliterating them to atoms. Though, I don't know if I should believe it or not.""You shouldn't, the media tends to exaggerate everything. Please don't tell me you're so dense as to believe that shit . . .""Are you calling me stupid?!" she shouts, clearly offended. She rolls her eyes and begins to walk toward the dorm room."Uh, no! I wasn't, I was just . . ." She ignores me, so I wear a defeated expression on my face and sigh as I turn to head toward the cafeteria. "Great . . ."~ ~ ~Classes begin, currently in Calculus. I watch the teacher at the front of the class, next to his Smart board. I focus, opening my textbook and beginning to write notes in it. However, when I look in my book I see the words and shapes that I previously wrote a day ago begin to move.I stare, confused. As I watch, the words and shapes begin to shape into symbols. Not soon after, I began to hear a calm but loud voice in my head. "Come to us . . . it is your destiny." I try to shake it out of my head, but I can't. Whatever this is, is scaring the fuck out of me.Soon after, the teacher calls to me. "Floyd . . ." I clear out of my trance and look up at the teacher. "Yes, sir?" I ask, confused."What do you mean 'yes, sir?' I asked you if you can tell me the chain rule and how to set it up for this problem right here.""Oh, uh . . . let me remember what it means," I say.I begin to open my notebook to the page where my definitions are. However, by the time I get to the point, the words and shapes begin to do the same thing as before. I struggle to find my words. Was I drugged? Did my own roommate drug me?"I uh . . . uh . . ." I mumble to myself, unable to focus. Just seeing the symbols fill my mind."I uh . . . uh . . ." The teacher repeats to me, "You're not speaking English, Floyd," he says.I stare at the book more, unable to speak."Floyd . . ." I look back at him, losing my train of thought and what I was doing. "Are you okay?" he asks. I try to regain my focus. Once I do, I look back up to the teacher, and nod. "Uh . . . yeah. I, I'm sorry, I'm good," I say, looking down. The teacher is disappointed. "Okay now . . . since Floyd isn't willing to respond, who else can write the chain rule and how to set up the formula for this problem right here?" he says, tapping the board with his stick.Another student in the class raises his hand. The teacher immediately says yes to him, letting him come up to the board and write it.As the student heads back toward their desk and the rest of the students listen to the instructor, I look back down into my notebook—but now no longer seeing the symbols reform. Breathing heavily, I shakily take a deep breath and close my eyes. ~ ~ ~Finally lunchtime. I sit in the grass outside, looking out to the rest of the college field. I sigh, and begin to eat. Peter comes over and sits beside me. "So," he starts, "how was your day?""It went fine I guess, just having stuff on my mind. It's been kind of ruining my focus today," I reply. "Ah . . . strange, I never thought it would come so early for you," Peter replies back."What's too early?" I ask."A burnout . . . That means you're getting tired of college and want to leave as soon as possible," He replies. "What? No, no, no . . . That is definitely not what I am experiencing. Just been thinking about other things, you know?" I say, attempting to dismiss it."Ah . . ." Peter looks around for a minute, particularly at the girls walking down the path.I look back at Peter. "What about you?" I ask.Peter looks at me, then into the distance. "Eh, just the usual," he says nonchalantly."You really need to eat more," I say, being the usual thing I bring up once a week. He doesn't usually eat lunch."You really need to stop eating," he replies, kind of getting annoyed that I keep bringing it up. "Besides, I do eat. It's just, I don't like school lunches." "They aren't bad. Just kind of pretend they aren't bad is all." Peter chuckles and grins. "Yeah, right. There is much more than eating something bad because you hate yourself," he says."Wow. You really don't like school lunches, do you?" I say, grinning."Maybe, or it's just my obsession with Taco Bell," he replies."That place sucks." I reply. "Oh be quiet, I know you like their tacos." "Shhhhhh!" I force my finger on his mouth. "I do not," I say.He laughs, and looks around the college campus. "It was a joke," he says before standing up. "Welp, I better go now. The boys need me ready for the next game," he says. "All right, see ya," I say as he waves goodbye and begins to run toward the college's football field in the back. Meanwhile, I look back down at the food I ate. I roll my eyes and pack it up.I begin to head toward my last class for the day, hoping it won't turn out as bad as the math class.LaterComing to the dorm feels like a relief, getting to finally go inside and relax my head. I open the door and walk in, feeling so tired. I place my backpack on my bed, then lie down beside it. I sigh. Today has been a bitch . . . hopefully tomorrow is better, I think. As soon as I close my eyes, however, those strange symbols from before begin materializing in the darkness.I try to yank them out of my mind by replacing them instead with my family or Peter, but the memories always get overrun by those damn symbols. So I decide that the only way to stop these visions is to draw them. I yank my textbook out, take out my pencil, flip to a fresh page, then start to draw each symbol that comes to mind.As I draw the symbols, they just keep appearing in my mind. So I begin taping up pages of the symbols as I draw them. Each symbol seems to have its own meaning, different in some ways than the others.I stare at the symbols, but just keep drawing them. Any symbol I see, I hastily scribble down. For some reason, I cannot resist the urge to continue scribbling them down, even after they show no sign of stopping anytime soon. I begin to want to know what they mean, trying to think of any alternative to them. I go over to Peter's side of the room and take out a book called Lancon and Hallsworth, the weird book Peter is always talking about.I start to flip through the pages, trying to see if there is anything resembling the symbols or that would give any meaning to them. I can't find anything resembling them, so I start to dig deeper. I grab his other books, flipping frantically through the pages, my eyes scanning rapidly and trying to find anything similar or familiar to me.Eventually, I give up and put my hands and arms behind my head in frustration. I begin looking up at the symbols I pasted across the dorm room, observing them. I start to speak, but mostly to myself. "What do you mean? What is the reason my head is showing me this?" I feel like I'm going crazy at this point.As I look at each symbol, and the symbols appearing in my mind, I begin to feel overwhelmingly exhausted and, despite my drive to continue scribbling down the strange symbols, I find myself succumbing to sleep before I even realize what's happening.~ ~ ~I wake up to the sound of talking outside the dorm room. A few moments later, I realize I still hadn't cleaned up my mess, and it hits me with the force of a freight train. I jolt up and start scrambling out of bed, trying to quickly take down the papers I drew, but I end up slipping on a piece of paper that was on the floor and falling on my ass with a loud CRASH. The doorknob begins to turn, and I feel panic overtake me as Peter and the girl from earlier walk into the room. Peter's eyes go wide and his jaw slacks as he stares for a moment, his eyes jumping from me to the mess on the walls and floor. "FLOYD, WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!"I struggle to sit up. I stutter a bit before I eventually give up and keep my mouth shut, face red in embarrassment. Peter then sees the books I took from earlier, lying on the ground all open and on their faces.He comes over to them and picks one up, looking inside. He sees nothing different or ripped inside them. "Floyd . . . what . . ." he says, unable to say a word. Samantha stares at the mess, then looks at Peter. "I guess you two are, uh . . . busy. I'll just leave you guys alone now." She turns around and begins to walk the other way.Peter looks back at her. "No, no . . . I—" He stops himself as Samantha closes the door behind her. Peter glares in my direction with an expression of mixed frustration and anger."Listen . . . I know it seems like a mess but—""No . . . don't say anything. You literally just ruined the one time I had an opportunity to score. Thanks, dipshit. Jesus Christ, Floyd, I don't understand what has gotten into you lately.""I get that, but listen to me for just a moment—" I stop myself, then realize that he has the Time book. I get up from the bed and come over to him. I take the backpack off of him. "Hey! What the fuck, Floyd?! What are you doing? Give that back!" he says. I ignore him and go through his backpack, taking out the Time Manipulation book. I start to flip through the book and I immediately begin to see familiar symbols."Yes. This is it," I say, looking back at the symbols on the wall. Checking each one, seeing which ones match the ones on the wall."What is it?" Peter asks with a tone of confusion and slight curiosity. Then, with a bitter note, he adds, "What could possibly be so interesting that you steal my books and destroy my room on my date?" causing me to twinge in embarrassment.I keep checking the symbols, but I soon find out that none of the symbols nowhere remotely come close to each other. The symbols on the walls are completely different than the possible Time spells in it. I even check any other symbols for any possible chance they mean anything. Although, my search goes dry again. I stare, bringing my eyes to the floor again. Peter yanks the book and his backpack back, and looks into the Time Manipulation book. Seeing the symbols in it and looking back at the ones on the wall. Then, brings his attention to me. "Floyd, I am so confused," he says, wanting an answer to this. Soon after, I look back at him. "I am too . . ." "You're confused? You're the only other person who could've done this," he says. I nod. "I know." "Then, what the hell am I looking at?" he asks again.I look back at the symbols, then come with a shrug as an answer."Floyd, are you okay? Today, you've been acting much different than usual. Like, I heard that in Math class you weren't paying attention like usual," he says."How do you know about that? We aren't even in the same class together," I say. I bring my hands to my eyes and begin to rub them. "No . . . though Samantha is. She told me what happened. Says that you were acting different than usual," he replies. I nod. "Yeah, it was nothing. I didn't sleep well last night, that's all.""Bullshit, you seemed to be well fine in the morning and the same goes for lunchtime," he replies, possibly demanding an answer."What do you want me to tell you then?" "The truth . . . What the hell is going on?" he asks. I lick my lips and look at the floor again. "I don't know, okay? I've been having these . . . visions," I say. "Visions?" he asks."Yeah . . . like symbol visions. These things . . ." I point to the drawings on the walls. He looks back at the symbols on the walls, then back at me. "What else?" "A woman's voice . . ." He grows surprised. "Oh. Well, I didn't know you were—" "No!" I yell, but not too loud. "In my mind," I say."Jeez, okay. What kind of female voice? Like a hot, sexy stripper woman or a fat, ugly woman with a voice that sounds like she's an alcoholic and does cigars her whole life?" I shrug. "Just a . . . calm and loud voice. Telling me to search for them, because it's my . . . destiny?" I say.He grows a bit shocked, unsure what to say. Looking around the room again. "Well, okay then . . ."I sigh and look down at the floor. Then I look back to him. "Sorry about the mess," I say. "I'll help clean it up." He stops me."No, it's fine. I think all you need is some rest," he says."I was doing that, till you came in," I say. "Well, time to go back to sleep then." He picks up the books from the floor and puts them back where they came from. I sit back down on my bed, and yawn. "I'll clean this up tomorrow," I say. "You do that," he says, sitting on his bed, taking his backpack and making sure everything is fine. He puts the Time book back in there as well while he's at it. I lie down on the bed and lie my head on the pillow. Meanwhile, Peter turns his game on, grabs the controller, and begins to play, not giving me any attention at all.I close my eyes and yawn again, then immediately pass out, hoping this time I can stay asleep and get rid of these damn visions in my head. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.