The Sketch: The Voyage of Soal

New Beginnings

As the bus screeched to a halt, the driver picked Samuel Lawrence up by the back of his uniform and threw him out of the narrow doors and onto the rough pavement leading to the door of the school. "Flee, little rat!" she barked, and as the doors closed the bus dashed away before being caught by officials who gave her a speeding ticket. This was a normal day in the life of Sam, who was constantly bullied, by everyone ever. It was as though the universe hated him.

It was February of 2093, late at night. As he picked up his head and got up, it was snowing dirty yellow snowflakes, and it was about 5 degrees, but he still had to wear his uniform and not a jacket. Times were tough in this world. Rarely did anyone speak of the good days of long past when the skies were blue and the earth was just the right temperature. No longer. Every day people wake up to dirty yellow clouds and blistering (or freezing) conditions. If only humanity was less haughty of themselves!

At this point, Samuel Lawrence was eleven years old, following his birthday last July. When he was one, his mother died. When he was three, his father died. When he was four, his older sister and his godmother supposedly died; probably all of them from the pox. He was the only remaining child left in the close family. Who knew if anyone else had survived. So when he was five, he was sent to a brutal boarding school. The next year he went to another one. Then another. And another. And soon, he was being shipped all around the nation, since no one wanted him. Of course he was a perfectly fine boy, but everyone he ever knew thought otherwise. Sam was always the target of bullies, and whatever he did about it didn't matter. At each boarding school, the bullies were worse, and worse, until there was no escape. Now he's going to yet another school in the middle of nowhere, a giant dead field, where a sickly brown brick-built castle-looking school stood. It was a large school, but it didn't look too good. And he was the only one in the giant courtyard composed of several long-deceased gardens. If the caretaker of this place didn't even care for their garden, Sam knew he was in for something cruel. Finally walking to the doorway, the main gate, he forcefully pushed the gate open, and the inside was a mess. There was a massive mob of children inside a long lobby (main room) with a stairway at the end. In the middle, there was a raised pedestal where the mistress stood. She was an old, stout lady, shouting and spitting at all of her students to get into their rooms, where there were doors to on the left and right walls.

Joining the crowd, he waited for the mistress to say his name and direct him to which room he would be sleeping in for the night after studies. Finally, with a crooked voice filled with criminality, she spat, "Samuel Lawless. Up the stairs on room 2D." It took even longer for him to reach the stairs at the end of the main room and find his room on the second floor. It was full of bunk beds, and Sam settled on the bottom half of one near a window, above a large vent on the wall. A few other children were on some other beds, slightly older than him, who immediately made fun of his pack which he had brought with him, the little that he had ever owned. However, one student defended Sam on the bed above him, who was a little younger. Then he was the target. Covering himself completely with the mediocre blanket, he fell asleep and dreamed a terrible dream.