Through the Gate

Chapter Eight - The Gate is Open

Liam lay in bed mentally list-making and added "clean desk" to the list. It was becoming a mess lately. His phone lit up and the alarm read 12:01.

Happy Birthday to me...

He stared at the ceiling feeling that hollow space in his stomach spread. The blueish glow from his phone illuminated the room, casting skewed and elongated shadows. There was no sound. The house staff would be asleep and his father was nowhere to be found. Was his father still in NYC? Or had he gone straight to London without as much as a simple text to say what his agenda was.

Liam closed his eyes, unprepared to stare any longer at the barren wasteland that was his life. He was lucky though, too lucky to complain. So he finally decided to will himself to sleep.

-

The damp aroma of loam assaulted his senses and he felt the warmth of the sun seep into his pores. He felt so whole and at peace. He opened his eyes to see bamboo swaying in a gentle breeze, or at least, he thought it was bamboo. The same slim leafy stalks, save the leaves, were varying shades of red and the shoots were a startlingly pure white. He heard the trickling of a lazy stream and sat up to look at it.

The water ran clean and the bed of sand beneath was a silvery grey with flecks of black. The sun's rays cut diagonally across the place and he saw that same girl from before; the one who had jumped.

"The Gate is open." Her gentle voice reverberated through the clearing.

Suddenly he was standing and hundreds of figures were before him. Their features were dark but their uniforms were awe-inspiring. The fabric echoed the bamboo shoots from earlier: red and white with silver trimmings. He could not see their faces. He heard himself speaking but he couldn't make out the words. However, he did hear the response coming from the soldiers before him.

"Sir, yes sir!"

Then several of the soldiers lifted their helmets and began chanting "General!" over and over again. It was both terrifying and uplifting at the same time and Liam would happily give up his fortune to never have to face that particular horde ever again.

"Just like you, the others will see-" There was that same gentle, feminine voice resonating in his ear. He whipped his head around to see people, teenagers like him, and they were familiar somehow.

-

His alarm screeched and he shot up, startled. Liam took several deep breaths before he turned his alarm off and raked his hand through his hair.

A final shiver ran down his spine and he shook it off. It was six am and time to start his day. Sooner than he would have liked, he heard the intercom buzz and knew his friend was here to pick him up. Sure enough, he glanced out the window to see JD getting out of his car. JD made his way to the front of the house, no doubt in an attempt to abscond with whatever goodies the cook, Pete, had whipped up.

Liam grabbed his things and headed down. Pete and JD were talking animatedly as Liam waved a quick hello. Pete handed him a muffin and a coffee in a to-go cup and Liam noticed JD had the same thing. It was funny how people just sort of slipped into your life. JD was one of the few people that he didn't mind actually spending time with, so it was no bother. However, it made him wonder all the same.

They arrived at school with time to spare and headed down the hall toward his locker. JD fell in beside him and, strangely enough, so did Gweneth. She kept trying to catch his eye and Liam noticed JD chuckling to himself. She flicked a hand up to let her hair catch the rays of sun bouncing in from the tall windows. Again, he ignored her. She put on a sweet smile and said hello. He finally looked at her, blinked a few moments and replied politely back.

He saw Serena out of the corner of his eye and watched as JD's eyes followed the Japanese girl down the hall. Gwen finally separated herself, seeing a group of girls gathered around her locker. She bounced away calling a goodbye as she left.

"So, Serena..." Liam said, opening his locker.

JD's face turned as bright red as an English rose and he murmured, "Shut up."

"Isn't she out of your league?" He asked, ignoring JD's discomfort.

"She's out of everyone's league," JD sighed in reply.

Liam was about to tell JD to just man up about it when he heard screaming from the gaggle of girls down the hall. He heard a wail and saw Gweneth being coddled by three girls. It seemed that someone had blown up a portrait of Gweneth at cheerleading practice and impaled, quite poetically, a roofing nail straight through her forehead.

A slim black girl waltzed past, the look of distaste at the sudden commotion, was evident on her face. She glanced at the photo and shook her head, clicking her tongue as she went.

Though there was nothing he could do, Liam couldn't help but feel at least a little sympathetic. If high school meant anything in the grand scheme of things, and Liam wasn't sure that it did, then surely this was a heart-shattering moment.

The bell rang for class to start and his went to his first class of the day. A peculiar sight greeted him when he opened the door. All of the desks were facing the wrong direction. Oblivious to the change in the room, one of the jocks walked in and failing to grasp the change in atmosphere, collapsed in his seat, which promptly fell to pieces. Bits of wood and metal piled under the boy and various other students laughed at the antic. Walker waltzed in, hesitated a moment when he saw the state of the room and he grabbed his normal desk, turning it the right way around. He stood there for a moment, looking bored, or maybe just tired, and slammed his fist on the desk top. Nothing changed and he sat down without a word.

One by one, students came in and three more fell victim to the desk-breaking prank. Gweneth came in and one girl tried to warn her as she came in the room.

"Gwen, be careful of the-"

"Everyone needs to be quiet," Gweneth started out dramatically, "This is just the worst day ever and I have a screaming headache-" The last few words were more like screams as the desk fell apart under her. The screams morphed to crying and her face grew redder and redder from the humiliation. Liam tried to not show any hint of amusement as he turned his own desk around and banged in it, much in the same way as Walker had. The desk didn't wobble, so he sat cautiously down. The rest of the students quickly followed suit.

Walker was looking pleased with himself, though if it was because he was the prank puller or just happy not to be its' victim, Liam couldn't tell.

Weird dreams, nails through photos, childish pranks... It was going to be a long day.

-

Author's Note – So things are getting weird. What are your guys thoughts?

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