The Extremely Unlucky Benjamin Clark

How Hard Can It Be To Be Normal?

Things are never what they seem. This fact alone I can promise you is the only real truth in this world. From a young age I knew the world around me was much bigger than what everyone thought it was. Every myth, every story, every little frightening tale we tell each other to scare the ever loving crap out of us had some type of not so mediocre truth behind it. So you would think that when I first came face to face with the supernatural and otherworldly aspects of life I would be able to handle that right?

Wrong.

It turns out that unlike most people I like the idea of having what other people would call a normal bland life. The thing is, is that I never considered the things that makes someone's life 'normal and bland' to be.. well normal and bland. There is nothing more exciting than the mundane every day to day occurrences to me. There is something about the thrill of the complex simplicity of it all that makes it not so mundane. Whether that's applying to a job, or even asking your crush out on a date. It makes everything so colorful and easy. But like I said, things are never what they seem.

As I stood out on the sidewalk facing the massive structure before me I couldn't help but to be struck in awe of its majestic scenery, despite the fact that this wasn't even the first time I have come face to face with the beauty that was to be my new home for at least the next four years of my life. This was Mount Bellweather University. This pristine college was established in the middle of the Ozark mountain range down in the good ole state of Missouri. The campus itself as much larger than what the brochure had led me to believe. This place honestly looked like it came straight out of a Harry Potter movie, or some medieval time. The main building stood out like a sore thumb compared to the other buildings surrounding it with its large cathedral front face and the two towers leading up into the sky. The grounds in front of it was littered with students, most of which were happily walking across the freshly cut grass and around the ornate ponds and round hedges. The sun above shined down onto everything making the autumn day feel more like summer than fall. This place was beautiful, and big. It was almost intimidating. But I had specifically picked this college to get away from my old life. Here nobody knows Benjamin Clark. It was at this place that I would be able to finally make a new name for myself instead of constantly being labeled as the official loon of my home town.

See I grew up in a very small Hawaiian village, and believe me when I say that I miss the beach. But like in all small town's everyone knows everyone. When you're someone like me, and for those who are and know the pain I went through I am sincerely sorry, who is constantly being dragged into one paranormal affair after another people tend to think you're crazy. Which I don't blame any of them for thinking. I mean, if some kid came up to me screaming about how his girlfriend is actually an aquatic predator trying to eat him I wouldn't hesitate to put him in a mental ward. Maybe that's why I was institutionalized four different times. Every time the doctors and psychiatrists prescribed me pills and other forms of treatments I always had some small hope that everything would go away. That I was in fact full on crazy and that I was just sick in the head. Sadly though that wasn't the case. Once I realized that no amount of pills or therapy would ever change the fact that life itself was just crazy I gave up on trying to find help from anyone 'normal'. 

When I got old enough to make real adult decisions for myself it was all too easy to run away from the strange and creepy island life I had and took away to somewhere entirely new in hopes of finding a much calmer life. Something deep down in my gut told me that that wouldn't be the case here. With a rather loud audible sigh I let my caramel eyes fall down to the paper clutched in my hand. I had arrived a week prior to settle into the dorms and to get a feel for the campus, but a week was most definitely not enough time to explore all that Bellweather had to offer. Nor was it enough time to even find where most of my classes were. I knew that my morning classes were to be found in the eastern building. I reread the page over and over as if it would turn into a map at any moment. With a final look over I fold it back up and slid the paper down into my front pocket. I didn't want to come across as one of those lost sheep walking through the crowd. My footsteps were light as I made my way across the sidewalk. The entire campus seemed to be painted in wildfire colors. What few tree's that were spread across the open grass looked more like lively torches rather than the deep green I'm sure everyone was accustomed too. As my feet carried me towards my designated building I found myself silently being wrapped up into the world around me. I was in college. I had survived everything and actually made it to University. No, not just University, but one of the top leading schools in the United States.