Journal Entry #3
Flu shots are the worst.
I got the hybrid, all-in-one vaccine—not good. All that poison in one tiny little tube. Statistics prove their worth, but why do I have to be the exception? You probably know what comes next—right, Alex?
You are still with me, aren't you?
Oh, good—then you know. Yup. I'm cursed. I lost a week of my life. No joke. I remember getting the shot. And I remember cleaning the bathroom. Trust me. I will never forget the bathroom. The putrid scent of urine and gunky hair all over the walls and floor made me vomit. Ok, the poison shot played a role, too. You probably think I'm exaggerating. I'm not. This was the stinkiest-stickiest-skankiest-soul-sucking job of my life. Don't hate on me—the power of alliteration is real.
I should know.
Gauntlet cleans all bathrooms in The Breakers every Saturday because we are always in last place. Only no one told me that until it was too late! Seriously...how is that my fault? Bathroom are putrid petri dishes—the ocean could have waited.
But no, now I'm bringer of bathrooms and Merboy Z Glupyy, swimming in the sea, K-I-S-S-I-N-G... If I were a real wizard, I'd kill that rhyme first. And then I'd bring it back to life just to kill it again.
Dang—maybe killing is my thing.
The taunting verse is part of an expose post from @WizardSlayer666 on my cautionary childhood: A Candid Tale of Conception from the Crypt.
Yup, that's me. Cursed.
Jupiter always posts the bathroom assignments the night before. Someone—probably named Fydor—hacked the list and left me a present. I swear half of DOOM cut their hair in my assigned bathroom and then peed all over the floor and walls. That's hair and urine from 15 PCs—death smells better.
I'm scarred for life.
Isa, too.
Still think I'm exaggerating? Then why did all the Killers in Fydor's squad have DOOM etched into the side of their head that same day? Even the girls shaved one side of their head to brand themselves. Where do you think all that hair went? Fine hair. Thick hair. Coarse hair. Fluffy hair. Curly hair. Straight hair. Wavy hair. And just about every possible length and color combination—all sprayed down with wild abandon. Who do you think cleaned up that fetid, tacky and terrifying hairball from hell? Oh, and my vomit.
I now know every curse word in the Spanish language.
Isa swore for an hour straight. I don't know if she will ever be able to look at me again without dry heaving. Now imagine cleaning up that bathroom with a fever. And a pounding headache. And with the room spinning around you. I may have passed out before we finished. I woke up a week later in the hospital.
Zahir says I woke up a few times. I don't remember. He and G visited me once with the squad leaders. Apparently, I confessed my undying love for mermaids. Especially ones with pink iridescent tails. Now my dorm is a mermaid sanctuary. Mermaid posters cover every square inch of the walls. Dozens of stuffed mermaids, one as big as G, cover my entire bed. I have mermaid action figures, themed pillows and blankets, an Ariel shag rug—and G's side of the room is just as decked out as mine. We even have purple sequence desk covers that shimmer. And an untouched, bright pink, welcome-home-Merboy-Z-Glupyy-mermaid cake.
My sea fortress is under attack.
I blame Headmaster Hayes. This whole disaster started when he called me to the nurse's office. Can you believe our man in black is also the school nurse? Well, he is. Crazy, right? Niko told me he used to be a member of SAS. That's an elite special forces division in the Australian Army. He was also trained as a medic and administers all the required vaccinations at the academy. Well, SAS Hayes is the one who picked me up off the bathroom floor. I guess he saved my life.
Oh, and when Isa showed Headmaster Hayes pictures of the crime scene before he arrived, he awarded us each 500 XP. And DOOM is cleaning the bathrooms for the next month as punishment for their prank. I didn't find out about any of that until after I woke up. The bonus points helped me beat Jupiter's mandate by 200 XP with four days to spare. And Gauntlet is now in 2nd place!
All while I was sleeping.
@WizardSlayer666 needs to be annihilated. Big time. The entire school knows my father abandoned me. Remember that embarrassing thing I didn't tell you about...why I'm writing a digital journal? Yeah, this is it, my sordid truth—that's code for wretched. Or miserable. Maybe both. My dad left when I was four.
No warning.
No goodbyes.
No clues.
Just gone. And he took all our money with him. The entire bank account. The sad picture of me and my mom in front of the Mystic Mermaid Bed & Breakfast was used to advertise a charity event to help us get back on our feet.
But I still have a hole in my heart.
My therpist says writing will help me process my trauma. I'm not sure how. How do you express a black hole? That's my dad—an implosion of the brightest star in the universe. My universe. And his gravitational pull is sucking the life out of me. Because I have no answers to the never-ending questions playing through my head. Ocean waves help me fall asleep—they carry away some of the pain. But the hole feels bigger now. At times I wonder if sadness will swallow me whole.
Merboy Z Glupyy...the abandoned child.
That's all people see. Well, maybe everyone except Isa. She swears whenever she sees me.
And I smile. Is that wrong?
All three squad leaders are on a special task force led by Professor Kaz, our Cyber Security teacher, to help Headmaster Hayes find @WizardSlayer666. All we know for sure is the hacker has access to Code-X Academy. The creep has gone silent. Not a single post since his torrid expose pinged the void—the day I returned to The Breakers.
You're probably wondering why I can't find @WizardSlayer666. Something is wrong with my head. The doctors say I'm fine. They scanned my brain. They did blood tests. They tested my memory. Don't worry—I'm still a sponge without an absorption limit. But I don't feel fine. Headaches come and go. Sometimes I collapse from powerful zaps and blinding white flashes. Flashes and zaps that feel like lightning strikes. But I just get up again.
Because I'm fine.
Do you know your body has an electrical current? That's how your heart pumps blood. And how your nervous system communicates so you can move and talk and think. Well, something's interfering with my current. Have you ever been in an electric storm before? The kind that fills the air with shocking static energy and makes your hair stand on end. That's what my brain feels like. A high-powered-super-charged-electrical storm.
Yup, I'm crackling fine.
Except I'm not. Because every time I touch a computer now, I feel...nothing.
YOU ARE READING
Merlin's Curse
Science Fiction[8X FEATURED] Merlin is the greatest-eleven-year-old nerd the world doesn't know because his name has cursed him--he's all parts nerd and zero parts magic and all he wants is to be cool. When Merlin hacks a new encryption code designed to protect on...
