I was in the hallway of my old high school before I went to live with my Emerson. It was nighttime, so the hall was deserted. A voice over the intercom spooked me into the next month.
“Hello, Lyle.” a woman’s voice boomed, “Welcome to the Sworn’s Greatest Hits. Warning: you may experience dizziness, nausea, and vomiting. Please sit back and enjoy the show.”
The scene spun around me. It was going so fast I thought I was going to puke. The scene was now a small bedroom covered in detailed, disturbing pictures of beasts from lore. They made me cringe. The room was tidy, inhumanly tidy, with an entire wall of shelves all filled with books, just books. Whoever lived in this room was either the smartest kid in Minnesota or a total nutcase. Then, I turned around.
On the bed, reading, was Samuel Graves, the guy I used to be jealous of. I had always wondered how he got Gatlin to choose him over me. I guess he just prefers intelligent guys with OCD.
“Samuel,” a woman yelled in distaste, “a boy named Gatlin is here to see you!”
He instantly perked up from his book with a raven on the front of it, dog-eared his page, and put it back on one of his countless shelves. He stood in front of his mirror. I could hear his heart from across the room.
“Send him up, Mom.” Samuel responded, sitting down at his desk.
Sitting on his desk was a neat pile of notebooks up to his head of various widths. One was open to a page with a rather disturbing description of a scene filled with blood, guts, and gore. Some of the words just looked like gibberish, like excommunicate and counterclaim and blasphemy. Man, that kid had a huge vocabulary.
The door to his room creaked open, and Gatlin popped his head in. His red hair was perfectly gelled and styled, and his fair skin glowed in the lighting of Samuel’s bedroom. Though he was beautiful, he didn’t even compare to my Emerson.
“Hi.” Gatlin greeted.
“Hello.” Samuel responded, not making eye contact.
“I just...umm...” Gatlin began, his voice a chorus of bells, “wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“I’m okay, thank you.” Samuel responded, “They are like this every day. Besides, they are only envious of my superior intellect.”
Gatlin smiled down at the floor, laughing to himself. His cheeks were as red as roses. He bit his lip to keep his smile from splitting his face in half. Gatlin was infatuated, for sure, but Samuel was completely oblivious.
~
The scene swirled around me again, and I resumed gagging. Everything became a blur of colors, like a painting I made in art class once when I waited until the last five minutes before it was due to start on it, so I just randomly brushed paint colors on a canvas. By the time I was at the next scene, I was sick to my stomach.
This time, I was in a cafe. The muttering of dozens of people seemed to be overwhelming Samuel, sitting in a booth in the corner. Gatlin sat across from him, looking concerned.
“Are you alright, Sammy?” he asked.
“They’re so...loud.” Samuel whimpered in response, “Their words hurt me.”
“Your ears?” Gatlin asked, clarifying his statement.
“Yes.”
“Do you want to go somewhere else?”
“Yes.”
“Alright. You can come to my house, okay?”
“Okay.”
YOU ARE READING
The Nightingale Code (Monsters Series #2) (COMPLETE)
Romance"The Nightingale Code, the rules for every Guardian to follow, and the list of important people in a Guardian’s life. There are many minor rules, such as never cross a threshold with a crucifix above it; it’s an omen of discovery. The one major rule...
