Well, this sucks. Even with everyone teaming as one united force, it STILL isn't enough to take him down. It's crazy. Ludicrous, really. All of the hell that we had gone through just to make it to this room alone was enough to fulfill a lifetime. And I simply lay here, on my now-fractured spine, looking dead into the eyes of a man who's killed my friends, my parents, and my brother. Anything, and just about everything I loved, is gone. Except for the five of them.
My blood began to make a puddle of crimson liquid that drenched my already wet body. I looked up into the clear plexi-glass doors that contained my friends. All five of them. A purple gas fumed into the tanks, which I had supposed was slowly, but surely killing them.Yet I was down here, fighting our worst enemy, bleeding out. On a solid steel floor, in a solid steel room, at the mercy of my most hated enemy. I could feel cold emanating throughout my body, and my body became very stiff. My vision began to blur slightly, and I took in what may have been the last moments of my life. The solid steel room only had one door, which was automatic as the six of us had discovered earlier, but was since then locked from the outside. Otherwise, the room was plainly metal, with nothing but five tanks, six dying teenagers, and one egotistical megalomaniac of a teen, laughing at our utter weakness.
"It's over Little Eckheart. It's funny, crawling for your last seconds of life must run in the family." My worst enemy looked me dead in the eyes. "It's your turn to die now, and you must've figured by now that it's inevitable. All honors, right?" I tried to lift myself to a sitting position, but cringed when the blood began to drop from my scarred forehead. That prick laughed. "You know, I TRIED to warn you, but you just wouldn't listen. You could've been my second-hand." I attempted to slash at his legs with my bo-staff, but his foot crushed my hand. Add another broken bone to the tally."Don't try to move. The poison will just spread faster. And besides, your five friends won't be far behind either." He grinned with such a pleasure, and proceeded to laugh for at least two minutes. Or maybe it was less. Time is weird when you're looking death in the eyes. I knew if I didn't get up they'd die. Or even worse, be forced to work for HIM. But even if I could get up, and use every last bit of my strength, they'd probably still die. I'm not strong enough. Not by a long shot. Not now, not ever.
I looked at my friends. They weren't in much better condition than I was. Poison was seeping into those tanks. I could see pain, and definite fear in their eyes, but somehow they were worried about me. Ian was smashing on his cage, yelling mindless words that I couldn't hear. Lia has her face pressed up against the glass, looking down on me. Percy was also bashing on his cage, but also was trying to unhinge the chain that connected them to the ceiling. Athena and Selene were looking away, not able to watch. "Have to- get up. Can't... Lose." I could only say this one phrase before HE shut me up, and then proceed curse to myself about how weak and soft I was. I looked up at all five of them. Lia. Ian. Athena. Percy. Selene. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. "Not...yet..." And then there was a flicker.
If I should apologize, you should at least be filled in. My name is Mason Eckheart. I was thirteen when all of this started. This hellish, monstrosity of a life. I began my day like a normal teenager. Wake up as slowly as possible, realize its yet another monotonous day of the week. And worst of all, realizing that its a school day. I pulled myself out of my small bed, which wasn't that small, but the fact that I'm 5'9 didn't help. My bed was pressed up to the yellow wall that surrounded the entirety of my room.I threw my legs over the right side of my bed, and took a look at my small alarm clock. It read: 6:24 A.M. I walked over to my dresser that was on the other side of the room. I was a nice, oak dresser, and had five drawers, each of which had different pieces of clothes. I took my normal clothes, and took a shower. The water felt smooth against my tan skin, and pleasant against my sleek, black hair. As I stepped out of the cramped, café brown bathroom, I checked my Facebook like I always did. No notifications, as usual.
I cracked my neck. With a sharp pain, one of my main veins popped out of my thick neck. I cursed to myself in pain, and rubbed my neck to ease the pain. I picked up my clothes, got dressed, and looked at myself in the mirror. I was wearing a white shirt with a black design of ravens on it, topped off with a black sweatshirt that was left unzipped. I was also wearing my favorite jeans, my solid black pair, to be exact. My shoes were also black, but were less noticeable because of the rest of my outfit.
I walked downstairs and right into the kitchen, where my breakfast was now located. My mouth began to water at the wonderful sight. "Pancakes..." My eyes blurred, and my only focus was those pancakes. Those scrumptious, chocolate chip, moist pancakes were absolute perfection to my taste buds. After sitting around waiting for around half-an-hour, I stood up, and told my brother Thomas that I would be home later. I was wrong. I was dead wrong.
I walked down my street, and I looked around, as I usually did. On each side of me, there were two story houses, that could easily hold one or two family. Each house had at least one mighty oak (my memory is lapsed here, there were different trees, I swear, I just can't remember) in the front yard that was taller than the house itself, and in the distance, over the set of houses on the street that intersected mine, was a forest. After taking a left at the bottom corner of my street, I arrived at my bus stop, which was almost like a little ghost town now, considering that I was the only person there. I hummed a little tune to myself and bounced around in place to stay warm. Today, it was in the middle of December, nearing Winter Break, and the weather followed suit. It was about 0 degrees in my small town named Hamiltonia. And thanks to the chill in the air, my hands stayed refrigerated at a nice 10 degrees. The ice that had been left overnight resided on the edges of the road, which was about thirty feet wide, and only held two lanes. There was a tree in front of each house here as well, but were less in stature compared to my street. While some were, enormous others were newer, and as small as I was. I shuffled around to keep warm in my black skinny jeans and my black-white tee. Or as Percy liked to call it, "Flight of The Monochrome."
Percy is one of my best friends. At about six foot even, he towers over me, and basically just about everyone else I know. His curled brown hair, and his naturally tanned skin made him really easy to find in a crowd. We'd play games together a lot of the time, and got to know each other really well through them. We felt really normal getting really nerdy about games, it's a little sweet looking back at it. But sweet would be like saying that we were normal. Trust me, when I say that we were insane. And that's the understatement of the century right there. Our adventures had found us in trouble with our school, the police, and on one occasion, a Hasidic Church (Long Story, I'll tell it when I've got time).
My bus finally showed up, the Yellow Twinkie as I had liked to call it. Its widespread appearance, it's obscene ability to stuff random children inside, it basically was a twinky to me. I got on the bus, and took my seat in one of the three person seats in the first row next to another one of my friends, Ian.
Ian was right around five foot seven, and had skin that would make a jar of mayonnaise look at least somewhat tanned. He had glasses and blue eyes, and curled brown hair. He, like Percy and I, was yet another gamer. Our little trio was always like this. We loved games. Yet, there was a love even deeper. That was our inexplicable love for mayhem, and even inside of that love came another, a love for knowing the truth, and in that, even a little bit of justice followed suit. He of course, was also involved in the adventures we shared, and as we came to find out, they became known to the people (in our school) as, "The Adventures of Team 'Mercian."
Ian and I continued to have a small chat about some of the new issues and tricks of some games, which was normal for us. But that morning was anything but normal one. That day was the day when we finally did it; when we finally took down 'the man.'
"You ready Ian?" I gave Ian a look to show him how serious this was.
"Yeah," He replied. "It's finally the right time to go through with this? You talked to 'her' about it?"
"Yeah," I whispered, "I talked to Lia yesterday. She gave the thumbs up last night." I began to laugh. "Wow, I can't believe we've been working on this for a year now."
Ian gave me a nod, and said, "Yeah, it has hasn't it?" And he started laughing as well. And that was how our bus ride went along. Just us laughing. Just pure happiness.
We finally arrived at our school, which was a not-so-nice public school named 'The Pennsylvania Middle school.' As usual, we picked up our bags and walked into the main lobby of our 'place of education.' As we walked to our lockers, which we had placed next to each other, I gave the halls a good look. The narrow halls filled with trophies of 'Runner Up!' and 'Nice Try!' We finally reached our small green lockers after having to plow through the unending horde of people. Our lockers were near the entrance to the school's gym, which doubled the ways we got pushed around. After having put our books in our cramped lockers, Ian and I felt a jab on our necks.
"Hey what was that for-" I stopped mid-sentence as my other locker neighbor, good 'ole Percy was behind me cracking up hysterically after having jabbing us.
"Dude you freaking scared me!" Ian yelled.
"It was so worth it though!" Percy chuckled as he put his books away. We continued talking as we prepped our bags for homeroom. Today however, took especially long to pack. We had a mission. And we would stop at absolutely nothing until it was seen through.
For the second time that day, Ian, Percy and I were ambushed. After falling after being jabbed in the kidney, I got up quickly before i was noticed and turned fists ready. My face went blank. Percy and Ian laughed as I blushed. A lot.
"So how does it feel to get ambushed by girls for once?" Lia said. She laughed as she said this, and as did Selene and Athena. Lia has been my friend for a long time. Since fifth or sixth grade. She's shorter than Ian, Percy, and I, but still a decent 5' 4'. Lia has hazel brown hair, and a relatively pale complexion. Her eyes however, were very odd. Lia had sky blue eyes, but her left eye had a sliver red mixed in. On a usual basis, Lia was a very respectful girl. But our team's situation would call for a deeper commitment.
After Lia said her piece, Athena followed not far behind with, "I mean really! Wouldn't you three ALWAYS be looking behind your back for assassins? You play the games enough!" We gave her a look that said, 'You know what? Screw you.' And we turned around, except for Ian, who was laughing with Athena. Athena was around the same height as Lia, but she was just a bit taller. Athena had brown hair, which usually ended up curling, whether she wanted it or not. She had brown eyes, which always stayed open and shone bright. Those eyes kept all of us happy. And her tan skin reminded me a lot of my family. It was actually really funny. She never stopped smiling, and lets just say it decided to spread to the rest of us.
And finally, Selene finished off their assault with, "Oh come on guys! We expect more from you!" Selene was yet again, still shorter than Ian, Percy, and I, but was at least the tallest of the three girls. She had dark brownish hair, and grey eyes that liked to change color with her mood. Selene was around 5'6 and was a great person to joke around with. Selene always knew how to take a joke, and when paired with Athena, lets just say life could NEVER be boring.
I stayed quiet and stood still. All of my five friends chatted it up. Today was the day we fixed our school. Better or worse, we could fix it. Percy was having yet another argument with Selene, who refused to stop arguing with him. Ian and Athena were talking about some apparent new tech that had come out, which was usually like them. So, with five minutes until the last day of school assembly, and five minutes until our mission commenced, I decided to talk to Lia, who was attempting to butt into the other's conversations. I used one of my favorite abilities, which was to walk quietly, and to suppress my breathing to undetectable amounts, to get behind Lia. After quickly sneaking behind her, I made sure that Ian and Percy kept a straight face while I was committing my 'good' deed of the day. I prepped myself for any signs of her noticing. Ian kept a straight face as he subtlety gave me our signal, which was our three fingers other than the middle and the thumb. I nodded, and as Lia said to Ian, "Hey, what was that?!" I got my hands around her waist and started spinning her around. As literally ALL of us started to laugh, Lia started to kick and scream for help.
I said to her, "Shut up or we'll all get detention!"
She calmed down, and said to me seriously, "B-But I've never gotten a detention in. My. LIFE."
I said back to her, "Well sorry that were not all little perfect children like you Lia." I put her down, and I looked at a clock mounted above Ian, Percy, and I's lockers. "Hey guys look" I said to them. We all looked at the clock, and it read just around 8:30. "I guess it's time." I gave a look to Lia. "You started this. It's time to end it leader."
She gave all of us a dead serious look. The red in her eye looked like it was blazing. "He's right. Lets finish this."
Our plan was simple. Our motives could've been questionable, but in our own way, it couldn't be any more of a perfect reason. Over a year ago, our band conductor was falsely accused of murder. Our evidence? We were there at the so called 'Time of the Crime.' He was literally conducting the band. And you should already know how much we loved our band. Our plan was that when the ENTIRE school was assembled in the gym, we would get out of school with some help from a custodian. Lia led our line down the narrow hallway and into the main lobby, where the custodian, Shamus was waiting. "Oi laddys! I've fixed up da system so ye can get out undetected. Good luck lads and ladies!" Each of us thanked him as we walked out of the school.
We made our way to the police station by foot, since it would be harder to track us without a license plate strapped to us. After around twenty minutes of walking, we finally had arrived. The sunlight shone in the clear blue sky, and no clouds we be there to block it. That sunlight would be the last sliver of sunlight I would see for the next three years.
We made our way in through the back, and found a hatch going into the cells under the station. I turned to Athena, who had got the blueprints we used to plan the this raid, and said to her, "Wow! These were really accurate! Nice job!"
A huge smirk came across her face as she replied, "Oh... It was nothing." She blushed as we all looked at her and she jumped in the now opened hatch.
Ian yelled, "ATHENA! WAIT-"
Percy cut him off by covering his mouth with his hand. He then said, "Stop yelling or we'll be noticed!"
Selene followed up with, "And if we get caught, Athena will be stuck in there waiting for us."
Ian replied to them, "But... Fine. Go in."
Ian climbed down as fast as he could, and I said to Selene and Percy, "Go in. I need to talk to Lia for a second."
They nodded and climbed down the ladder into the cells. Lia asked me, "So what is this about?"
I said to her sadly, "I promise you, I will not be going home with you. Just make sure you get him back to the school. And today, you will see something that will scare the hell out of you. I ask you to please turn away when I say."
Lia's face went pale, and she barely made out, "Wh-what? Are you screwing with me Mason? Yeah! That's it!"
I replied, my face still covered in sadness, "I'm sorry. But there's no way. I promised you a year ago that I would do whatever it took to finish this. And this is it."
She nodded, and without warning, started to tear up. She said through the tears, "You were always one to stick to your word weren't you? I smiled, and led her into the pipe as I closed off the last of my light.
As we now stood in front of a small door with absolutely NO light, I took out my phone and shined light on our surroundings. Lia muttered, "Geez it smells like death in here."
Ian replied, "What? Do you have a problem with death?"
She snickered and said to him, "No. Not at all actually. In fact, I quite like it."
Selene replied, "Really? Cuz I can't stand it!"
I said to them, "Shut up guys. This is serious!"
Lia gave a nod under the dim light. Athena popped up as we finished talking, and said to us, "GOT IT! I've got us in!"
Lia asked her, "When did you learn how to do that?"
Athena replied, "I hacked my way into their records... And got the password."
Ian replied, "When did you get the time to do that?"
Athena blushed, and only laughed. We silently made our way into the cell area. Within the first five seconds, every prisoner that saw us through the dim yellow light in the narrow stone hallway, they yelled like no tomorrow. The screaming made our ears deafen, and communication between us became nearly impossible. Lia's face went pale, and she instantly took a step back towards the way we came in.
I grabbed Lia's shoulder, and pulled her back with the rest of us. I told her, through the screeching yells of the prisoners, "Lia. We can't back out because of a couple idiots in cells. They don't have keys. They can't hurt you from there."
She promptly punched me in the gut, and said, "Shut up you jerk!" With a wide grin across her face. "If I act like your hostage, nobody would guess that I was with you!"
Percy nodded in approval. "Seems legit," He yelled as he butt in to the conversation. "But I think it's about time to leave. The police MUST have been alerted by now."
We have each other a serious look, and navigated the hallway without getting pulled to the cell bars. Those beige cell bars held in three hundred and six-hundred pound men alike. How they even dealt with themselves I had no idea in the slightest. The screeching had halted to a few muttering curses now, and we now realized just how long we'd been walking. It was at least five minutes since we came in from the pipeline. And worse of all? We haven't even turned a corner.
Ian whispered to Athena, "Hey, where exactly are we headed Athena?"
She replied, "Cell block 36, cell 9034."
Suddenly with no warning, Percy and I yelled out, "IT'S OVER 9000?!"
We all burst out laughing, which was Quickly interrupted by guess who? The cops.
Immediately, Lia started pleading with the police. "I'm not a part of this! I'm a-"
Without telling my 'secret' plan to anybody but Lia, I pulled out two pistols and held them to her head. "Move and this chick dies yo!" I went a little bit too far, when the other four tried to charge me. I pushed my guns in on Lia's head, making them back off. "Now put. Your guns. DOWN. Or this little girl gets bullet!" The cops did as told, and put their assault rifles on the solid cobblestone floor. I yelled to Lia, "NOW!" And we moved from our stance and got the guns. "I thank you for your service men!" I said to the cops as I hit them with the butts of their own guns.
We now ran through the enormous prison, and heard the actual cheers of the inmates. We just kept running, and we never looked back. The six of us never stopped running. Not until we reached cell 9034.
As we finally took a screeching halt at the cell, we had Ian drop and pick the lock with the keys we had 'borrowed' from our knocked out police buddies. The unending yelling of the inmates never ceased. It was like everything in the world just simultaneously exploded. After two minutes, we heard a click in the lock. But with that, came the silence of the prison inmates.
I yelled out, "What happened? Warden coming to get'cha?" There was no reply.
"Mr Sullivan!" Lia yelled as she ran into the cell.
Mr. Sullivan yelled at her "LIA! STAY BACK!" But it was already too late. Two men already had her held as a hostage.
"Lia!" Athena yelled, but it was too late to help her.
"Funny thing you two." I gave the two men a cold stare. "I always thought that beating up other little girls didn't help your self-esteem." Instantly, the two men ran at me full force. My friends jumped out of the way as the men plowed through, and smashed their skulls right into the bullets I had fired. Instantly, the men's bodies fell limp. Everybody in the cell looked at me. My hair was now bloodstained, and the blood of the two men was splattered across my face.
Selene whispered, "No. Mason..."
Ian yelled, "Mason! What was that?!"
Percy said to me, "A little gruesome Mason..."
Athena took a step out of the cell and she screamed. She ran back to Lia's side instantly, as she yelled, "Company!"
I glanced over and saw the armada of police men assembled. The one who looked like he was in charge, looked down at the two bodies, my bloodied face and my two guns. He simply pointed to me, and I was surrounded right away.
Almost everyone of them yelled something upon approaching me. The leader of the approach was the chief of police himself. I thought to myself, "If it has to end like this, lets go out with a bang." I ran up to the chief, and held him hostage now. I said to Lia, "Please. Lia can you come here? I want to... To say goodbye." She nodded, and ran up to me as I dropped my guns to the floor and was handcuffed. I was immediately kicked to the group, and with my hands behind my back, and me sitting on my knees, Lia had to now crouch down to my size for once. Lia was crying now. Almost like her eyes were two oceans, each spawning a new river. Without warning of any kind, she simply hugged me, and said "Goodbye Mason."
As Lia held her hug, I whispered to her, "Please, just do me one thing Lia. Don't forget me. No matter what happens, promise me that you won't. And also... This is really the most painful part."
For only a second she pulled away, and Lia looked me dead in the eyes. Her eyes were bloodshot from her crying, and Lia still couldn't stop crying. I continued, "Go. Get out of here and live on. I am only a sacrifice. Don't let that live on in vain. I'm... Sorry that it has to end like this."
Lia said to me, through the cascading tears that ran down her face, "They can't hold you forever. I'll see you on the other side Mason." And with that, I was knocked unconscious by a police man behind me.
I awoke in a small chamber, with a single lamp above my head. My brain blared up in pain, so much so, that I screamed in pain. The room echoed, and my screams resonated around what seemed like a steel framed room. I couldn't tell however, because that blinding light was shining like a sun. I tried to move my arms and legs, but it was no use. My arms and legs were trapped inside leather straps that kept me connected to a iron clad experimentation table. Then, it hit me. I yelled, "What are you doing to me?!"
A voice emerged from the back of the room, and the voice was deep, but not as deep as mine. The mystery man said, "Hello Mason? Are you ready for excruciatingly painful tests?"
That voice, I realized belonged to Zane, a kid in my school who I never exactly, 'got along' with. "Just what the hell are you planning Zane?"
He responded coldly, "Oh just a few tests. It's not an issue. If it works, you will become my right hand man. If it fails? Well, lets just say you'll be rotting here."
"What do you mean-" and with that, I faded into unconsciousness.
When I awoke, I felt a massive pain in my right arm. I glanced toward the center of the pain, and saw at least 30 small holes in my arm. I winced from only looking at the wound, and I yelled out to the walls, "What have you done to me?!"
Within an instant, my answer had appeared to me, in the form of Zane's voice. He said to me, "I've only implanted some genes of a demon inside of you. No biggie. If the genes fuse correctly with yours, you can become the world's first half-human, half-demon." I took a good look at him. For whatever reason, his smug grin looked larger than ever, and was he... Stronger? Just how long was I out?
I clenched my jaw . "But why would you make something that could easily murder you?"
He never replied. Zane never answered that question. He simply left the room saying, "This experiment has failed. You will serve another year and a half in prison, plus a lifetime sentence. And by the way, I believe today is your birthday. August 26th, right?Happy fifteenth Mason." He started to walk away, but turned back to me, and said "Oh, and I almost forgot, a letter came in from your parents. Anyway, I'll be seeing you around Mason." Holy shit. I'm two years older than I was yesterday. With that, Zane walked out of the echoing room. I could tell he was smiling. It was in his nature. And with that, the latches were unhinged, as a trapdoor opened up from under me, and I fell into the abyss.
I yelled while falling for what felt like two two minutes. When I finally hit the ground, I felt a pop in my arm, causing me to scream from the pain. I sat there, holding my arm until I finally decided to do what I had to do. I grabbed my arm, and quickly snapped it back into place, which caused plenty more screaming. I decided that I would scan my surroundings. From what it had seemed, this pit was made for prisoners to NEVER escape. There was a dim light cast by a small lamp on the wall, and it gave the room an eerie glow. The bed was barely large enough for me, and the little toilet was on the opposite side of the circular hole. Now I was truly alone.
The entire hole was made out of iron-clad material, and was automatically slicked so the I couldn't try and climb out. "May as well make the best of it!" I said to myself as I began learning about my abilities. To bad there were none. Not even super-speed, or strength. I couldn't do anything special. "Half-Demon? Yeah right." I decided that as long as I was in here, I may as well train myself, powers or not. For the next six months, I trained every day. You know, only the basics were going to work in there. I had zero equipment, so training became a difficult task. I stuck to what I knew, and trained from whenever I woke up to whenever I slept. One day, as I slept, the floor beneath my feet rose up to where I had originally fallen into. The air was stale, and I was surrounded by mirrors. My mouth lay agape as I saw how much I had changed. My hair was now down past my neck, and it looked like I had grown at least four full inches. My clothes no longer fit me, as my jeans were now up to the tips of my ankles. I took off my small, tight black tee, and I saw that my undershirt was still fitting me. I remember that about three months ago, I took off my shoes, because I had grown out of them quickly.
The mirrors around me went back into the floor, and as it looked like, there were easily four masked men behind the mirrors. "Who are you guys?" I asked the masked men. Each of the men were at least six foot, and very muscular. However, me being six something now and having been getting stronger for the past six months, try and guess who had the advantage.
I said to the masked men once more saying, "You know, if I was any smarter, I'd say that you idiots are going to try and assault me. Too bad for you, I've already won this fight."
The largest of them charged me without alarm. With full force, he threw a massive fist toward my head, with his body following his fist. I simply stepped out of the way a split-second before he could bash my brains in, and I watched the tallest man plummet into my former rotting hole. "Three left? My odds keep getting better."
They smallest one yelled, "You about to die man! And you think your odds are 'gettin any better kid?! I'm gonna kill you!" With that, the smallest of them charged at me with a small pocketknife. The next two followed with weapons of their own. As the first masked man took a large swing with his small knife, I simply ducked, grabbed his not-so-muscular arm, and broke it. The other two instantly halted as the crack from the man's arm echoed throughout the room. The man screamed in pain, and I took the knife from his hand.
I said to the other two, who still stood mouths agape, "This is your final warning. Ill spare this guy, but you need to explain why you're here, or else I'll finish this guy."
The more muscular, but shorter masked man said, "The tyrant that's currently ruling this town sent us here to kill you. Said you might be a 'threat.'"
The second one, who was taller, but skinnier said to me with a deep voice, "Kid, I respect you. How long were you in that hell hole?"
I replied, "Six months. Didn't stop getting stronger. I trained in that hell."
The muscular guy said to me, "Hey kid, we're inmates here, and now that our guys are hurt, we kinda have open spots in our little posse. You want in?"
I replied to him with my first smile in months, saying, "Yeah. That'd be nice man."
As I was taken out of the room by the police officers, I was given my cell number and my bed. I had gotten a top bunk, and my cell was, and the painful irony is... Cell 9034.
The next day, as it turned out, was August 16, a day after my birthday. I was sixteen. It'd been three years since that day, and during those injections, I went into a coma for a full year. The officers at the station were kind enough to cut my hair to the point that it was short on the back and sides, but long enough at the top to gel it into a style that looked similar to an Elvis-cut, but with a lot less volume. I looked in the mirror and said out loud, "People always said I looked like my dad."
Anyway, the guys that I had met turned out to be genuinely nice. They'd kept me safe from any 'desperate' jail birds, and they showed me around whenever they got the chance. The place was still gloomy, and definitely filled with the hate of many men, but thanks to these two, Dimitrius and Damian, my life in prison had never been better.
Damian was kind-of the jokester of the group. He was a reckless fighter, as I had discovered in a prison riot, which the three of us assisted the officers on. Without him, I don't think I'd have remembered how to take what life gives you, and laugh right back at it.
Dimitrius was the more serious member of our trio. He tended to stay silent for most of the time, right up until the time came to fight or joke around. He was a bit smarter in a fight than Damian, and hit plenty harder, but had a lot of trouble keeping up with faster fighters. The three of us went through our days together, all protecting one another and keeping our sanity in check.
At one point, the two ended up introducing me to our warden, Mr. Schloss, who they somehow convinced I should be let out for good behavior. Dimitri convinced him that I had only protected my friends, and that was the only reason I had to... kill those guys. I still shivered from the blood that I shed. I started to wonder how Lia was. As I had explained my situation to the two as I was brought into the actual prison itself, they sympathized with me so much, they surprised me with a visit to the warden's office for my birthday the following year.
"Sir," Damian began, "My brother and I, Dimitrius here would like to know if we can do anything to get Mason here out of this prison any faster." I knew that there was literally no way I would be let out. But just in case, I decided to see if I could provoke the warden i to letting me go.
I blushed and looked at them, and said, "Thanks guys, but I don't think there's anything that our warden can do." I gestured toward him, and continued, "Let's just leave now, it's not like he could do anything to help."
With a look of surprise, the warden said to me in a thick western accent, "Actually kid, there is a thing or two I could do to get you outta this here prison. But I'd reckon that these two, what was y'all's names again?"
Dimitrius replied, "Dimitrius and Damian, Mr. Warden sir." It was obvious that he was trying really hard not to laugh at the accent.
The warden continued, "If your friends are willing to take an extra thirty years each, then I can make an exception, and we can get you out by next week."
My body went into total shock, and I froze. My two prison friends have each other a look, and Damian replied, "We'll do it sir. Thank you for your understanding." What?! No! I wasn't going to leave without them! I went to argue, but Dimitrius anticipated me, and cupped his hand over my mouth.
The warden said, "Don't mention it. And kid, better go pack your stuff. You're going home early. But I still hadn't read that letter that Zane had given me a full year ago.
When I arrived at cell number 9034, I packed the small, grey duffel bag they'd given me. I then got to go to the showers, and I was in there for at least half-an-hour. When I finally finished my shower, I had put on the jeans and black shirt I was given. My hair was a mess, so I took some gel that was given and fixed it up. It was then that I realized what was actually going on. I was going back to my light.
I walked back to my small bed, and looked under the pillow. The envelope that contained my letter was still there.
After staring at the letter for a good five minutes, I finally mustered up the courage to open it. The short letter said, 'You are dead to us. There is no home for you here.' I sat down and just cried. I cried for at least six hours.
The next week flew by. I didn't see much of Damian and Dimitrius, which was very odd, because usually they would find me in the main hall. Today was the day I would go back into my town.
As I was being dragged out into the courtyard, which I was never allowed into, I approached the exit to the police station. I was promptly intercepted by guess who? Dimitrius and Damian.
Dimitrius said to me, "Hey kid, we believe in you."
Damian continued, "We wish you the best of luck in your life."
They both said, "But since we want you to prosper, we wanted you to always remember us, so we made you this."
The two men handed me a small necklace with a small fang as a charm that had inscribed, 'Defy and transcend.' Dimitrius said to me, "Inside of that fang is the key to your soul my friend. But do not waste it. It may only be used once Mason. It is a powerful liquid, and it wields what you need the most."
And with that, Damian said to me, "Stay strong young Mason Eckhart. Never forget even the smallest insects in your one large web, friend!" And I was led out into the rain.
I picked myself up, and looked around the place. It looked vaguely familiar to me, but I wasn't sure. After sitting on a small bench, I wondered about what I could do. My parents don't want me. I don't even know if anybody remembers me. And even if they do, would they accept me? "Well, there IS one place to try." I said to myself quietly. I got up, and started walking towards an old friend's house. "Hopefully she held up to her promise." I said as I laughed to myself. "I swear, if I get slapped again!" And with that, I started running through the rain to Lia's house.
After about an hour of running, I had realized just how strong I had become. I never stopped running. After wandering while running around my small town. I finally arrived at Lia's house. I felt the butterflies in my stomach assemble into one large bottle of anxiety, fear, sorrow, and plenty more. You can say that's its been a hard past three years for me. When I finally decided to give it a shot, I walked up to the door as casually as I could, which was hard considering that I haven't talked to a normal human in three years. Hopefully I would remember my manners. I rang the doorbell to Lia's two story house, and within ten seconds, a man around my hight opened the door. He asked me, "Hello, how can I help you?" I did a quick scan. If I'd ever figured out how much trust I had lost, it would probably scare me. I checked my small checklist. Hostility: None. Malice: None Killer: Doesn't look like it. He seems alright to me.
I responded as nicely as possible, "Hello, is Lia home? Please just tell her an old friend is here to say hello."
The man gave me a very suspicious look, and then yelled, "Lia! You have a visitor!"
I heard a girls voice, light, but not squeaking. "Definitely Lia." I said to myself.
She arrived at the door, and upon seeing me, her face went pale. She tried to muster out some sort of greeting, but it became incomprehensible. I said to Lia, "Hey, Lia. It's me. Don't you remember me?"
She nodded, but still she couldn't make a sound. I continued, "Please then, tell me who I am." Still no response. It was time to resort to desperate measures. "I'm sorry, but I have to do this," she tried to step back, but I grabbed her arm, pulled her closer to me, and whispered in her ear, "Musicality."
"SHUT UP!" She yelled, and I simply burst out laughing. She gave me a hug, and stayed there for at least a minute. "What happened to you?" And then her hand came across my right arm. "Whoa. When did THAT happen?!"
I blushed, and said to her, "Three years in a hellhole does that to you Lia."
"Well, what are you waiting for?" She said to me. "Come inside, it's pouring out still!" She led me upstairs and into her small room, which was very tidy, which I remembered it was always kept. However, she had a HUGE bookshelf in the back left corner of the room, and a small desk with a computer on it. "This is my room!" She said with a huge smile on her face. "And here, catch!" She threw a blue beanbag chair along with a towel over to me, I threw the towel around me and sat down next to her. "So I believe you have some explanations to give?" She asked me.
"Yes," I replied, "I think I do."
After explaining my tale about being in the hole for months, and the multiple injections, Lia had looked like she knew what I was talking about. I asked her, "Why does this all seem so natural to you?"
With a serious glance, she looked me dead in my eyes, and said to me, "Because they did the same thing to us Mason." I was shocked. I was angry. I was all of the above status.
"WHAT?!" I yelled, "How did you not get to this?! Explain to me what Zane did to you-" She cut me off by putting her hand over my mouth.
"Mason!" She whispered at me angrily. "Don't you know that he took over this town?"
"No..." I muttered. I thought back to when I woke up strapped to that table.
"I'll be needing a right hand..." Is that what he meant?
Just then, Lia's phone starting to ring. She picked it up and I heard a girl's voice on the other end. After a full minute, Lia finally said, "Yeah sure. Be here in half an hour. Okay. Bye." I gave her a queer look, and she said, "Athena's on her way. Better get ready." Then she just laughed at me as I blushed, totally forgetting about the others. But then again, I don't think they'd be remembering me either.
As we sat and waited, I began to brainstorm ways to make my reappearance... Less awkward. As I sat waiting in the small beanbag chair, Lia took notice of my discomfort. She said to me, "Mason, it's not like they're going to try and kill you if they see you. And besides, only Athena is coming." As she finished the last sentence, she heard an alarm go off on her phone. She read the text she had received, and gave one of those 'Im sorry' smiles. Lia said to me, trying not to laugh, "The- All of them are on their way here now."
I rolled my eyes and said, "Oh that's fine. Because you are going to help me with something. No matter how embarrassing it may be..." I began to burst out laughing, and I explained how my plan would unfold. It took her only around a minute to figure out what I was planning, and her first reaction was yelling, and saying, "NO! I have my dignity!"
I laughed, "Since when? I mean we play jokes on each other all the time... Well, at least the last time I was here." Lia smiled, and nodded in agreement to my plan after moment.
Within the next 15 minutes, we had our plan set into motion. Lia, having agreed to a SERIOUSLY embarrassing prank, was frantic about what the others would think. We had taken off our socks and shoes, and thrown them next to the door. Then, we borrowed one of her undershirts and randomly threw it so it would hang on something inside the room. Next on the list required me to take off my shirt, and threw it in the opposite direction. Now that I was down to my undershirt and jeans, I told Lia, "Are you ready for this?"
Before she could reply however, we heard the doorbell ring. Lia and I froze, and we heard the door open slowly. The silence felt deafening, but was quickly interrupted by the stomping of feet up the stairs to the second floor bedroom. Without knocking, which I found to be VERY rude, Athena burst into the door, to see Lia and I standing side by side. Athena had changed quite a lot, and had grown at least another two inches. Her hair color had remained the same, and most of these changes had gone right along with Lia as well.
"What is going on?!" Athena yelled.
Trying to calm her, Lia got in between the two of us, and elbowed me in my gut. What was she up to? She said quietly to Athena, "This is my 'friend'," With a wink, she continued, "And we had thought of a way to introduce him to everyone. Please would you help us Athena? Please?"
Athena considered her few options, and responded "What do you need me to do?" I quickly explained to her what we were planning, and her face went pale. "You want me to WHAT?!" She raised a fist and started to walk across the room. To make her think that I wasn't me, I took a step backward, and had it looking that I was scared. Athena yelled, "What kind of sick guy comes up with this?!" Without my knowing, I had actually fell onto the bed from back up too far, and Athena put her foot into my stomach. When she couldn't push my gut in any further, she grabbed my shirt and lifted me up to my feet. She said to me, "First of all, 'friend' of Lia's, what is your name? And secondly, why can I not push your gut in? I can do that to Percy and he's got a freaking six-pack."
I responded to her, "I'll answer your second question first, since that one IS easier. And personally, I'd love to find out myself." I lifted my undershirt, and saw my stomach. I was as normally skinny as I always was, but I had at least and eight-pack. "W-what?" I asked myself. "Hey, Athena right? Can you count that for me?"
I saw her jaw drop, and she barely made out, "That- that's ten by my count!" Behind her, Lia stood blushing, and by my guess, she had never seen a guy other than Percy or Ian without a shirt, considering I had always had to go elsewhere during our swimming parties.
I said to her, "Lia, come on. You shouldn't be blushing at all. I'm your 'friend' right?" I said with a wink.
Lia responded, "But Mason-" And after realizing what she had said, she spit out gibberish to try and make it look like a mistake.
Athena gave me a look, and looked me dead in the eyes. Shortly after that, she said to me, "Mason? Is that seriously you?" She actually started to tear up.
I stood up, and told her, "Yeah Athena. I'm back."
Lia broke the moment in saying, "Mason, I'm sorry I revealed it too early."
I gave her a smile and said, "No worries. At least she'll help us now."
She gave a frantic look, and tried to run, but Lia grabbed her arm and said to her, "If I'm getting embarrassed today, so are you Athena."
Athena reluctantly agreed, and had followed through with our prank. Athena had taken off her flats, and put them by my sneakers and Lia's flats. She left the room quickly, and came back holding a pink tank top.
I said to her, "Athena, I seriously don't even wanna know where you got that."
She responded with a small light laugh, the same laugh that always kept the six of us laughing, and said, "Just don't try to pull up my shirt Mason."
The two girls laughed, and I stood there like a total idiot, blushing. Lia said, "Don't worry, he won't. Unless he wants to!" And they just kept laughing at me.
"I hate the both of you." Finally, our preparations were just about finished, and we prepped the final part of our plan.
"Where should we be when this goes down?" Athena asked.
"I'd say just pretending like we're asleep," I told her, "And hopefully they'll get the message without us telling them." As I finished talking, we heard the doorbell ring. Athena and Lia gave me a frantic look, and I gestured to sneak over to the bed. We made it unheard, and from what it sounded like, Lia's father was having a conversation with Ian and Percy. "Stay focused, and we can get it out of them later." I whispered to them. "Get in position!" I whispered to them. I laid in the middle of the bed, and I had Lia wrapped in my right arm, and Athena in my left. We had now pulled Lia's purple comforter up to just about our necks, and were finally ready to prank our best friends.
"LIA!!!" Percy shouted. "We're here!"
Ian smacked him, and said, "Where are your manners Percy?"
Selene laughed, and said, "Both of you just shut up and get upstairs."
The three of them made their way up the stairs quickly, and finally, they stood in front of the door. "Lia?" Selene asked. "Are you there?" We didn't reply.
"Lia are you in there?" Ian asked.
"Lia! Open up!" Percy shouted as he stormed into the room. And with first glance, Percy had already fallen silent from our prank. "You guys have GOT to see this."
Ian walked into Lia's room, and said, "Percy what was Tha- What is going on?"
Selene followed in and said, "Wait what am I missing?!" Selene could see the rest of Lia's room, but not the bed itself. Percy stepped out of the way, and gestured toward the bed.
Ian said, "IS THAT ATHENA?!"
Selene replied shortly afterwards, "Yes, I think that is!"
Percy remarked, "Then who is that guy?"
"No idea," Ian said, "But we may as well beat him for doing this!"
I sat up slowly, and left Athena and Lia on the bed and said to the three of them, "Now do you REALLY think that you could beat me?"
Ian responded, with a certain hate quivering in his voice, "I know I can."
I told him, "Even if these two were to tell you my name?"
Percy replied in Ian's place, "You could bet on that."
I answered them, "Okay, but it's too bad that you'll never get to know. I guess you want to fight me now?"
Before either boy could answer, Lia and Athena popped out of their 'resting place' and sat guarding me. "Don't hurt him!" Lia said, giving me a serious look.
"I doubt you'd be able to touch him!" Athena said to the boys, almost poking at them to try. "But if you really wouldn't care about what his name is, I guess we can tell you anyway!"
Lia said to them, "Guys, this is Mason. This is OUR Mason. The same Mason that saved our lives three years ago."
With three looks of awe, Ian, Percy, and Selene looked straight into my eyes.
"Hi guys." I said as they stared in wonder. "I'm home." The three ran up to me, and said their 'Im sorries.' "Guys it's ok! It was just a prank!"
Ian yelled, "WHAT?! Lia this wasn't your idea right?"
Lia said back to Ian, "No, it was all Mason's idea."
Percy finished our happy time with some serious talk of a new kind. "So how did you get out of jail with a lifetime sentence? It doesn't seem right that you're somehow out of jail already after... After killing those guys."
"I suppose that I do have a lot of explaining to do." And with that, we all sat in Lia's bedroom, and I told my story to my five friends.
After about an hour of explaining my story to the others, the air in the room was heavy. I got that they had to take in a lot at one time, but they needed to get used to this fact too.
Ian broke the silence at that moment with, "Well, what does it matter now?! And I guess that Lia's told you about us as well?"
I gave Lia a glare, and said to Ian, "No, She hasn't. Explain to me what I'm missing out on Lia?"
She looked away, and without looking at me, said "I just don't want to talk about it."
Selene spoke up and said, "Mason, in order to leave the prison without anyone knowing, Zane made us get the injections as well."
Before I could yell, Ian put his hand on my shoulder, and said, "But apparently the experiments failed. So no harm was done."
I responded, trying not to scream, "Are you SURE?"
Percy responded, "Yes, he's sure. None of us have any special abilities."
I exhaled deeply, and I started to reorganize myself. "So you know that nothing happened? Nothing at all?"
Athena said from not far behind me, "Nothing went wrong Mason.
We're all fine."
"Thank God. Because there's been something I've been meaning to show you." I pulled up my jacket sleeve, and showed the marks from the injections I had received a year prior. By now, they had developed into what looked like ancient symbols, scrolling up and down all sides of my arm. Every person in the room stared in wonder. "After receiving those injections, it turns out that these symbols have something to do with demons, which I can't figure out how he got that DNA." I began to look at my arm. "These symbols mean something though. That's why I wanted to know if anything happened to you. Because it had happened to me."
Lia cringed at that point, showing the sensitivity on the topic. Ian and Percy nodded along, as if they were actually keeping up with the conversation. Athena and Selene just gave looks of sheer horror. Everybody had a look. But nobody had to say. "Ummm..." I couldn't figure out what to say. I thought and thought, but I couldn't make out a sound. After at least a minute of silence, with all eyes on me, I said to them, "Lets take a walk and get all this out." All agreed, and now that the sun was shining, there was one thing I had wanted to do. I wanted to see if my light had changed.
As we walked down the concrete paved sidewalk in Lia's neighborhood, the sun just barely made its way through the many trees that lay above us. As we walked, it was still awkwardly silent, and not one of us had made a sound as of yet. The trees began to rustle as the wind blew through their brittle leaves. The sticks that extended from the trees were now shaking, giving the impression that they would soon fall. "So," I began, "What has life become with Zane in charge? And in addition to that, how DID he get in charge?"
Lia replied quietly, "Mason! Shut up. I'll explain later, so for now, just don't talk about it."
Ian added, "It's not something to talk about publicly, so try to avoid it at all costs."
Percy hit Ian on the shoulder, and said to all of us, "Guys come on! Don't get all gloomy on me. Sure, Mason's back now! Yippy-ky-yay. Hey, he's been our friend since all of this started. So don't yell at him for spending three years in prison to protect us."
My smile had now become too large to hide, and I thanked Percy. We continued our walk, and began to talk about happier things. Like, for example, Percy and Ian had successfully been able to trick everyone into thinking that I had moved away! So that way, when I came back I may be forgotten, but at least I'm not hated. We walked for at least a full hour before Lia got a call from her parents. After talking on the phone for at least a full minute, Lia spoke into the phone saying, "Alright Dad. Ill be back soon."
I gave her a look and said, "What is it?" All five of them looked at me like I was an idiot. "What?" I said to them, "I haven't been around normal people in three years!" Each of them held a look of approval, and none of them brought it up again afterwards. We walked with Lia back to her house, because APPARENTLY she had to eat dinner with her family. How would I know?! As we neared her house, I pulled her to the side, and began to talk to her.
"Lia... I need a place to stay. There was something I didn't tell you."
She gave me a confused look, and asked, "And that would be what?"
I said solemnly to her, "I got a letter from my family while I was in that jail. I hadn't opened it until it was time to leave. Inside it said..." I couldn't continue. I simply handed Lia the letter, and she read it in all of its one sentence message.
"Mason..." Lia began to tear, and her pity was felt in my core. Or was it empathy? I still don't even know. "And you want to live with me?"
"I have a feeling that there's a price on my head. Zane isn't one to leave loose ends." I replied with a smile. "So a shelter would be nice." I saw the decision flashing in her thoughts, and continued, "Don't worry. I won't pull anything." I finished as I winked, "Unless you want me to."
Immediately Lia blushed and punched me in the arm. "Really?! That's what you think I'm like?"
"Of course I don't. But how will I ever get to know?" I said with a smug grin. "Oh lighten up Lia. It's a joke."
She replied coldly, "Well it wasn't that good of one..."
"Oh really? Could you do any better?" Percy said to Lia, who was trying to escape this situation.
Ian continued, "Yeah, can you Lia?"
Athena and Selene simply laughed as Lia blushed again. We walked Lia and I to her door, and the others walked off together.
As she opened the hard, oak wood door with an original stained glass pattern, the creaking of the door echoed throughout the corridor. I heard the sizzling of the crispy food lying inside of the pots in the kitchen. The smell of bacon emanated throughout the house, and my nose thanked myself for being there.
"Lia," I began, "Why didn't you tell me you lived in heaven?!"
Lia grinned, and replied, "Well that would just kill the surprise now wouldn't it?"
"I suppose it would."
With that, her parents walked into the corridor. Her mother was about two inches taller than Lia was, but otherwise they could've been twins. Lia's father on the other hand, was MUCH taller than her mother, by at least eight inches. He had black hair, and had a shaved stubble lingering on his chin. Lia's father asked, "Why is HE here Lia? Is there something that you haven't told me?"
Quickly, Lia cut him off, saying, "NO!" She blushed and awkwardly tilted her head the other way after saying that. "He needs a place to stay."
With an angered look, her father yelled out, "And when were you going to tell me THIS?!" Lia's mother promptly took her exit into the kitchen to avoid getting involved. I wished I was her right about then.
"Sir," I spoke up, and he only looked angrier as I talked. "I need a place to stay for a month. My parents left me here and decided to go on a month-long vacation. I'm really sorry but I didn't want to bother you about it at the door earlier."
His angered tone still lingered in the air, but it looked like it had simmered down to at the most a small boil. He nodded and replied, "You could've just said that instead of making it look like you were with my daughter."
Lia and I blushed and gave each other a quick glance but looked away after making eye contact. "Thank you sir. Ill pay you back in any way."
He nodded as he stroked his stubble, and responded kindly, "That's nice. I hope you know how to do chores. Lia does need some help." He gave a laugh and walked away into the kitchen, leaving Lia and I to laugh at what just happened.
Not five minutes later, Lia and I took our seat at the small square table. I took the seat adjacent to hers, and was given a plate and utensils. "Thank you," I told Lia's mother. "But I could've helped you set this up. It's really trivial when you have to set up countless plates."
She laughed and walked away. Great. Looking like a total kiss-up wasn't in my plan.
We continued the dinner in an awkward silence for about another ten minutes, right up until Lia's mother started to ask questions. "So where are you from?"
Looking back, I guess Lia had tried to cover up where I'd come from, but if I was going to live with them, it was only right that they should've known. Right?
In any case, I replied, "I'm from this town. My parents are out of town for a while. So Lia offered me a place to stay." With a look of immediate relief on her face, Lia let her body relax, and she slumped back into her chair.
The aroma of the meal was still emanating around the table by the time dinner was finished. Lia's mother took the dishes, and put them in the sink. I thought to myself, "Wait... Shouldn't those be washed?"
Without a moments hesitation, Lia and her mother took a seat on the small brown leather couch, while her father took a seat on a black leather recliner. They looked at me with awe, as I realized then that they expected me to sit. I pulled up a wooden chair from the table with the cushioned leather seat. I thought, "A lot of leather huh?"
As we sat around the small mahogany coffee table, which rested a hot cup O' joe sitting in front of Lia's father. Lia had herself crouched in... As if she knew what was about to happen. The Flat-Screen resting on the wall behind me was pitch black, and all eyes were on me. "May I ask what is going on? Sorry for any disrespect."
With unforgiving eyes, Lia's father stared me down. With less threatening eyes, Lia's mother said to me, "It's alright Mason, we just want to ask you more about yourself."
"Oh great. Yeah let's see, been to jail; killed three men; broke. Yeah! They'll LOVE me." I thought to myself.
Her father spoke up, "So what are your grades like in school?"
Crap. Grades? Hadn't heard that word in a while. Lets think...
"He has all A's and all honors." Lia spoke up. I glanced at her, and she gave a quick look that said "You're welcome idiot."
"Is that true?" Her mother asked.
"Yeah... I've always been ranked highly in my classes." I gave a quick smile, and prayed that they would move on.
"That's very good," Her father continued, "But can you name your favorite class? I'd like to get a range for you."
So first my grades, and now classes? Wow either they're really overprotective, or I'm really intimidating... "If I had to say... I would prefer my honors history class." I faked a smile. What else could I do?
"What do you prefer in that class?" Lia's mother asked.
I tried not to yell, and replied, "I like learning about mythology... Especially parts about the afterlife." Weird, I've never thought about that before that point.
"Very interesting Mason..." Lia's father cleared his throat shortly, and continued, "I suppose we should leave you now. Lights out at 9:30."
I rushed out of the room with Lia at my side, and we found ourselves sitting in her room once more.
As we sat on opposite sides of the room,there was an awkward silence in the beginning. Lia and I made full eye contact for less than a split second, and simply looked away. No words. Just awkwardness.
After a full five minutes of this deafening silence, I started to become bored. I took a better look at Lia's room. I noticed that there were at least two good sized bookshelves. At least five feet high for both of them. It was covered in books, ranging from romance novels, to tales of long ago, to even some wild fantasy stories. I noticed how each one had no dust, and each shelf must've been taken very good care of. However, In between the two shelves, leaning right against a wall, had a large stack of papers sprawled out.
I walked over to them, and saw written out on a piece of small typing paper. It read, "As we walked down the perfectly paved asphalt, we came across the small police station." By now, I could figure where this is going. As I was about to continue, Lia's gaze must've come upon me, because she instantly hid the papers from me.
"Would you stop going through my stuff?!" She yelled so loudly I was surprised when her father didn't burst the door down screaming. "Don't you get it?! This is my personal space!" I saw not anger in her now blazing eyes, but fear. I don't think that she really wanted me to see that. At all.
"Lia," I began, "I get that you still think about that day. I do too. But I'd love to see it from your point of view. It'll help me see where I went wrong. Where to start saying I'm sorry."
Coldly, she turned her back on me, papers glued to her chest as she said, "Your bed is downstairs Mason. Goodnight." She didn't even look at me. She just stared out her window into the street. The lampposts on the side of the road glowed a fluorescent yellow light onto the street, revealing the cracks in the road. I could hear a dog barking too.
"Good-" I cleared my throat. "Goodnight Lia." And I walked out for the first time on one of my best friends.
I walked down the carpet covered stairs into the house's foyer. Still as pristine as earlier. I somehow found a way to sneak around any rooms that would've contained Lia's parents, which worked out well. As I walked into a small living room, I saw a couch covered in blankets. The one pillow resided on the side to my right, which was close the the treadmill that was sitting in the back corner. On the left side, there were perfectly clear windows revealing the street. As I made my way over to the couch, I heard a loud crashing noise in the street! I rushed over, and put my face straight onto the window to look around. After a minute of looking, I figured it was over by now. However, as I turned around to lay on my 'bed,' the lights from the street lamps revealed a man being chased by an officer. I tried to focus on what was going on, but I couldn't see much about it. All I knew that the man being chased was holding an item that glowed green. A lava lamp? Or possibly something valuable. And if what Lia said is true, with Zane taking over this town... His officers must take direct orders from him. And that also means that whatever it is that guy has, Zane wants it.
Immediately, without any hesitation, I stormed out of Lia's house sprinting at top speed, towards the man carrying the glowing light. At full speed, I can run at approximately fifteen miles per hour, which I had learned earlier. After around five seconds of running down the smoothened sidewalk, I finally had reached the man and the officer. I raised my right arm, and smashed it into the officer. Within a second, the officer made a low grunt, and went on one knee to the ground. Now that I was closer, I could see what he looked like. He had black combed over hair, leaving one side of his head bald. Quite a weird hairstyle if you ask me. He had a round build in the torso area, and ENORMOUS thighs. He was wearing a white and red dress shirt, which was mainly white, but had red stripes under the arms.
The man holding the glowing light now looked at me with such shock, he could've been hit by a car and forget to notice. The officer still groaned behind me, but I don't blame him for that. The man asked me, "Who-" He paused to breathe, telling me that he was running for a long time. "Are you?"
I gave him a smile, and under the yellow light, I said to him, "My name is Mason Eckheart."
His face went pale. As he tried to make a word appear from his gaping mouth, he just dropped. No warning. He just fell to the ground. I spoke to the now unconscious men, " Thanks now, but I'll be needing that device... Whatever it is."
I crouched on my knees, and cautiously reached for the device. My fingers trembled as my hand got closer, and when I finally reached at least five inches within range, my entire hand was shaking.
I thought to myself, "There's something wrong here..." Yet, I couldn't bring myself to stop reaching! I yelled out, "Mason! Would you stop it!" But I couldn't. And then my hand touched the device. And then everything went dark.
[Meanwhile In Ian's House]
Before I go off telling you about my trippy adventures in my head, I'll need to switch to what Ian was doing at this moment.
As he laid in his bed, Ian rolled all over in his sleepless night. This was the fourth time this week. He groaned as his body refused to tire, and he shuffled constantly trying to find comfort. His restless behavior hadn't woken anybody yet, but eventually it would have to. Ian, now realizing it was hopeless to resist, stood up and walked into the bathroom. He turned the faucet for cold water, put some in his hands, and dowsed his face with it. As he looked up, he saw his arm. Fully mechanical. All metal, wiring everywhere. Before he could scream, Ian woke up sweating. "That's five." He said to himself.
[Back to Mason Now]
As my hand tapped the lava lamp with the glowing green light, a shockwave traveled through my body so intensely, I fell to the ground and yelled in pain. As my eyes rolled back into my head, my vision began to blur into a cloud of fog. As my body slowly faded into unconsciousness, I heard a scream from somewhere. "Too late," I thought to myself. "I'm already done for." And my eyes closed.
When they opened, I was standing in the rain. I had no idea where I was, but then again I guess I wouldn't. "Where am I?" I said aloud.
A light fog was sticking to the ground, and the air was very moist. It looked like I was standing on the edge of a sidewalk, but I couldn't really tell. The sky was grey, and from as much as I could see, I was standing in the middle of a small town. As soon as I tried to move, two small children were running in my direction. "Hey!" I yelled at them. "What town is this?"
They didn't reply. A little girl just kept chasing a boy. The girl had very light brown hair and blue eyes. She was about an inch shorter than the boy, and was about the same size in the waist area. The little boy had sleek, black hair and greenish blue eyes. The two continued to run around, as the fog quickly enveloped the area, making everything grey. As this scene slowly faded, another one appeared. From what it looked like, I was about fifteen feet high on metal rafters that looked at five or so medical tables in the center of the room. A fluorescent white light surrounded the five tables, which were all facing the middle of the circle of light. The entire room was a dome of bronze and metal, and was dark in all places except for the center with the light. The circle of tables was around twenty or so feet long in diameter, and the room was about forty feet in diameter. "Smells like something died in here..." I said to myself. Suddenly, six silhouettes appeared in the center. Five strapped to the tables, one standing in the middle. Now, the tables rose to a standing-like position, all facing the one silhouette in the middle. No words were spoken, and not a sound was made. What kind of view is that?! And then again, for the second time, a fog covered up my vision, and made everything just poof! Disappear.
When the fog finally faded, I saw new silhouettes, which by my count was twelve, in a meeting hall. In the center of the room sat a large, oval shaped table, which took up most of the room. Around that, was twelve black leather chairs, all holding silhouettes. Each seemed to make different gestures with their hands, and no words were spoken. Or rather, maybe I just couldn't hear. As they went on with the hand movements, the two silhouettes at the end of the table stood up, and began to make what looked like rather aggressive motions. Yet again, each took their turn, and still seemed to get their point across. As the two sat down, that same fog came back, and overtook me once more.
Now, the scene came onto a forest with a small cabin. There was a small amount of smoke puffing out from the brick chimney, and there was a recently put out bonfire beside the house. Trees surrounded the entire area, except for the spot in front of the house. I began to walk over to the clearing, and when I finally reached the edge, I was speechless. My jaw dropped, and I couldn't breathe. The view was absolutely astounding, with the lush, green trees covering everything that the light touched. I stood there for at least five minutes, making a feeble attempt at seeing everything there. To the East laid an enormous waterfall that was a bit higher up than the cabin behind me. The river it fed into led straight into the dead center of the valley area, and after reflecting the light, made a pool of not clear, but fully blue water. To the West, there was only another mountain, but contrary to the warm weather where I stood, it was covered in blankets of snow. "That's not very usual..." I said to myself. I looked to the South, and saw yet another mountain, this one being the tallest. And in the middle of all of this, was just forest, with that shimmering blue pool of water. Now, I looked down, and saw a few stumps. The entire amount of trees that had been cut had been made in the form of a half circle, probably just preparing to cut all of them down. But why? Why would anybody cut all of this beauty down?
"To prepare for a war." A voice said in my head.
"Who's there?!" I yelled out. "Where are you?!"
"I'm right in front of you. Can't you see me Mason?" The voice said solemnly.
"No! Should I be able to?"
"In good time." The voice replied. "Just remember, when you can't think of a way out, my name is Bartandeles."
"But when is that?!" I yelled. There was no reply. "Bartandeles?!" Still no reply. I was now alone. "Hello?" My feeble attempt at bringing him back failed horribly. "Where am I?" But yet, I felt a strange urge. One that made me walk back to the cabin. Before I was within ten feet of the cabin, that fog cane back. Very gradually, it overtook the house, moving closer to me. "No!" I exclaimed. "I don't want to let this view go!" But the fog just kept moving. Quickly, I turned, and took one last look. "I guess I'll see you later." I said quietly. And the fog overtook my body.
"Mason!" I heard a voice. "Mason?!" Was I still in that zone? "Mason..." Who was calling me? "Please get up..." I opened my eyes groggily, and I rose from the pavement. I felt my arms.
"Still there." I said to myself. I looked down at my legs, which were also still there. "I guess I'm not dreaming anymore."
"Mason!" Lia was quite literally right next to my head, kneeling. "You're finally awake!" Her voice sounded so relieved.
"So... How was your sleep?" I smiled to her as she had sighed in relief, and possibly a sense of irritation as well.
"You idiot." She laughed trying to make out the words. "Now let's get you inside. I want to know what happened." Reluctantly, I nodded, but not really wanted to explain.
"I really can't tell her whatever I just saw..." I thought to myself. I stood up and started walking inside with Lia, slowly but surely. "And that voice... He called himself Bartandeles..." And when I looked at my hands, they were clenching down on my necklace. So much so, that I was bleeding. "Mason you idiot." I thought as I walked inside.
As Lia sat me down on my "bed," she took the couch across the room from me. "Mason," she began, "What the heck is that thing?"
I looked down at my hands that held the glowing green "lava lamp." I knew it was so much more, but I didn't know what exactly. And I know even less about what it showed me, and how. "Well," I said to Lia, "I have no idea! I guess Ian and Percy will help me look at it tomorrow!" I put on a smile and tried to hide my worry about this- thing?
"Mason... I didn't tell you something..." Lia looked a bit hysterical, and not in the insane way... More laughing hysterical... "I signed you up for school!"
My jaw dropped. Just utterly dropped. "Lia..." I really had no idea what to say. "Just... What?"
"I signed you up so you could start over!" She gave me an enormous smile.
"Lia... I murdered two men. People don't just forget. Nobody will get within ten yards of me."
"And? I know five people that will!" She replied.
"And then what happens if I'm in a class with Zane?"
"Mason... He dropped out to take full time duties as dictator of our little town. He has full control." Her expression just dropped to extreme lows.
I looked her right in the eyes, and said, "Then I'll find a way to take him down. I'm not letting him have control. Not now, not ever. Got it?"
Lia nodded, and began to walk upstairs to her room. "Goodnight Mason."
"Lia..." I said before she could get out of hearing range. "I'm sorry for freaking you out. I'll fix this. Someday."
That night, I guess sleep wasn't an option for me. Not that I had nightmares or anything like that, but- I mean... Ok it's just hard to explain. So I'll try my best to explain it.
When my eyes opened in my dream, I was back on that mountain area that I saw earlier.
"Here again..." I said out loud. I turned immediately to find that same cabin, just the same as it was the first time. "I guess that nothing's changed?" I walked over to the ledge that overlooked the valley, but this had changed so much. I was no standing over a fortress, with enormous metal walls. There was a courtyard in the center, at least a hundred feet on each end. The small square courtyard had small black shadows sitting around. The metallic building surrounded the courtyard was five stories up, in the shape of a triangle. This building not only fit just in the area of the mountains, but had that same blue lake in the center.
"Beautiful, isn't it Mason?" I heard that voice from earlier!
"You?! Wasn't your name Barthandelus? Who are you?? How do you even know me?!" I just spit out everything that I had questioned in the earlier events. I thought that I could get answers.
"Mason, do you remember your question? Why someone would destroy all of this beauty? Do you remember my answer?"
I gave Barthandelus a queer look. "You said that somebody would to prepare for war. But against who?"
He responded as a red fog began to overtake me, "You tell me."
Then, I couldn't help but feeling a sense very new to me. Fear. "Why... What are you trying to say?" The fog grew into a darker shade, and once I swore it couldn't get worse, the red fog liquidized. Into blood. As I looked, I couldn't make out any words. Just horror made its way through my body. My clothes were now lathered in blood, and a puddle surrounded my feet. "What... Is this?" I tried my best not to throw up.
"The blood of the men you've killed Mason. And it will only become bigger. More of this will come. And you cannot prevent it." The voice still came from out of thin air, as I stood shaking.
"Just... Why am I here again?!" I couldn't help how he knew that this puddle would grow.
"It's beginning Mason. Look at the way you've changed in three years. If you want to liberate your town, you only need tell me." The voice grew quieter yet.
I yelled out, "Of course I want to free my home!"
"Then it's settled Mason." And suddenly, a small crowd of medieval looking people showed up in front of me. About twenty-two by my count. As I looked straight at the center, a man with bronze and red armor walked up. "You have chosen the path needed to liberate your world. Now you see me Mason. You, along with a few others can harness our power. You and these others will be the ones to put this world at peace."
"Others?" I asked the man. "What others?" The entire situation was spiraling into my interest.
"You will find them, or they will find you. Otherwise, they will not appear." The people in front of me slowly began to fade into light particles.
"But wait! If you have to leave, at least tell me your name!"
The man nodded to me, and flashed a smile. "You already know my name." And he disappeared, as I woke up sweating.
[Now over to Selene's]
"Selene... It has begun." A voice came out of thin air as my eyes closed and entered the realm of sleep. "HE has initiated the new world. HE will be the savior. YOU must be strong. Not in strength, or even power, but in heart. Your will is enough to patch the hearts of thousands. Prove your worth Selene. It is time to rise." The feminine voice faded as the final words escaped from the echoing dream.
I woke up sweating,realizing that things just got a lot more interesting.
[Meanwhile at Athena's]
My eyes opened as my back ached on a hard metallic floor. "Am I... Dreaming?" I said out loud. My voice echoed throughout the dimly lit room, as a single lit computer screen sat in the middle of the room. I picked myself up, and once I reached my feet, made my way over to the computer. On it, was three words, which read, "Get smart Athena." Under this message had a signature in all script letters, which read, "-Yours truly, Mary."
"Get smart?" I said aloud. What could that mean? And if this is the Mary I've been talking to in my dreams,then I'd better do what she asks. I've got a bad feeling that I'll need to." I closed my eyes and woke up still in my bed. "Oh thank God." I closed my eyes again, and fell back into my sleep.
[Percy's Place]
"Hey idiot! Open your eyes! You can't sleep right now!" A girl was yelling out to me as my eyes slowly opened. I was on top of a high-rise skyscraper, and it looked like it was raining. There was a slight fog on top of the roof, and not a single building was nearby, or so I thought. I pushed myself to a sitting position, and looked around more. There were targets all over the roof, all with massive holes in them.
I yelled out with my hand massaging my aching neck, "Who's there? And I hope you know, I could be sleeping right now."
No response. I stood up on the building, and walked over about twenty feet to the nearest ledge. I peered over, and saw that there were buildings around, just nowhere close to this height. A dense fog surrounded the buildings below, and it looked like it was a long fall.
"So who are you?" I turned around to find a girl, wearing a beanie and glasses on her head. Her hair was a dark brown, and was curled down to her shoulder-blades. She wore a black sweatshirt with her hood hanging on her back, probably supporting her hair. Her blue jeans were ripped on her right knee and her left thigh, and the jeans were tight on her skin. Her shoes were black combat boots that reached just below her knees. She was a muscular-type build, but was far shorter than me at about Lia's height.
"I'm Hylia. Just remember that when the time comes. That'll be all idiot!" She smiled and laughed as she evaporated from my sight.
"Not very nice..." I said to myself when my eyes opened in my bedroom. "Hylia huh? I don't think I could forget it. Mostly because of her nickname for me. How original." And I passed out again.
[Back into Lia's house]
An endless nightmare. One I'd been having for years. Since IT had happened. When Mason had disappeared, I had dreams of he and I. Along with Ian, Percy, Athena, and Selene.
After the injections we received were finished, I began to have some horrifying nightmares. Only some of the things that I saw included Demons, the undead, werewolves, vampires, all hunting me down. One by one, I fell into their grasps, trying with all my might to breathe, which was a challenge. Eventually however, my fragile body let out, and I passed into unconsciousness, and my eyes opened.
I looked left at my digital clock/timer/ calendar. It said in its own robotic font: 04:26 A.M. "Lia..." I said to myself, still sweating from the scare I just had, "You need to seriously start having better dreams. They're starting to make sense somehow..." I went to try and close my eyes and enter my hellish dream again, I heard a noise.
This same noise was followed by a yelling. "Mason Eckheart! We know you're in here!" They knew Mason wasn't imprisoned... But didn't he say that he was set free?
[Let's start to actually get on track, and this bracket text is wayyyy too long. If you couldn't guess, back to Mason]
The one thing I didn't expect tonight was the police. Or at least what WAS the police anyway. As it had seemed, Zane had also taken over our town's law enforcement, so I had assumed that the person who had sent them looking was none other than Zane. Their purple uniforms were hideous, not in a fabric kind of way, but rather the color scheme. The design was light purple on the left side of the suit and dark purple on the right. Of course, the lighting set everything off, making them even MORE terrible.
My head shot up upon hearing them, thankfully I wasn't sleeping, so I stood up. This of course wouldn't help, mostly because the two men in front of me were both at least 6'5", making me feel ever so little.
The one on my left side was light skinned, and not at all tan. He looked very strong, and was obviously not about to waste time. He had black curly hair that poked out of his black hat. He had sea-green eyes, but an angry face.
The one on my right side was dark skinned, just as tall as the other guy, but less in build. He had grey eyes, which was very interesting to me. His eyes had no iris, but at any given moment he was looking at me. The two stood directly in front of me, looking to make short work of me. However, they forgot that they were dealing with Mason Eckheart. With a short grin and a wink, I charged the one on the right.
With my fist rattling his ribcage, he stuttered backwards into a wall, and held his chest. The light skinned one charged into me full force, throwing me into the wall on the other side of the room. This guy was not something to mess with. With a thud, I hit the wall, struggling to get up. "I'll have to admit," I said to him barely breathing, "That was a damn good throw."
His expression stayed in its stoic position, and he started to walk up to me. 'Dammit Mason...' I said to myself, 'Get up...'
Out of nowhere, a familiar voice popped into my head. It said, "Mason, to take out a giant you must shorten him." It was Barthandelus, telling me how to fight.
'Understood.' I thought to him. I waiting until the guy's hand was about to touch my chest when I pulled him into the wall and smashed his knees with my foot, which I then used to kick his face into the floor.
With both of my assailants incapacitated, I decided that I should probably move them away from where I was. Hopefully, they'd forget that I beat them into the ground and would leave me alone. I dragged the lighter skinned one and dragged him out to the curb, his limp body dragging behind me sluggishly. The darker skinned one was easier to drag, and took me far less time to bring out. With the two sleeping side by side in the darkness of night, I looked at their name tags. The lighter skinned one's name was Ghoul, and the darker skinned one's name was Saul. "Interesting," I thought out loud, "Your names are either very unique or code names. I just want to thank you though. You reminded me that Zane still wants me dead." With that, I turned around to see Lia at the door in her green pajamas looking at me with an old look that I hadn't seen in a while.
When I finally got to her, she spoke to me, "Do you ever say no to a fight?"
We laughed, and I replied, "It's not that easy to ignore somebody's fist in your face!" We went back to our beds, and before I slept, I prepared my school bag that Lia had gave me, because tomorrow, I was going back.
------------------------------------------
I opened my eyes to the sun shining right in my face, through a nearby window sill that was left open. I heard Lia storming down the stairs, not angrily, but in a rush. "Mason!" Her yell was muffled by the pillow stuck to my face. She continued, "Mason get up we're late!" By this point, she was screaming in my face, and I supposed I had to wake up now. I rose up, pillow still stuck to the left side of my face, with a wild bed-head situation going on. My hair was sent off in several different directions, and none of them were orderly. I began to pull the sheets off of myself when I remembered that I was only wearing my underwear. Lia, who was just now walking back into the room, arrived just in time to see me just about naked. She gave out a slight gasp/whimper type-thing and ran into the other room, wildly blushing.
"Dammit Mason, put some pants on!" She yelled as she covered her eyes.
"Well, in all fairness, you DID tell me to get up!" I replied while putting on my pants.
After I got my clothes on, I walked into the kitchen where I saw Lia frantically making sandwiches. She worked furiously, and finished in about a minute or two. Since I had been leaning on the counter next to her, giving her words or encouragement as she made the food, she promptly swept my arm out from under my face, causing a loud band as I smashed my head into the counter.
"Lia, what was that for?" I asked while rubbing my forehead.
"Because you tried to be smart."
I sighed as she took my arm and literally dragged me out of the house.
Lia took off down the street at a steady sprint, which wasn't terribly fast, considering my legs were much longer than hers. After ten seconds, I caught up to her to see a yellow vehicle pulling up at the corner. I couldn't, however, seem to remember the name for the vehicle.
"Hey, Lia?" I yelled out to her, as she was at least twenty feet behind me. "What's the name of that thing again?"
"Mason, stop messing around, seriously." I gave her a 'you think I'm joking?' Kind-of look, and she understood. She sighed, and said, "It's a school bus, idiot." The school bus pulled up in front of us, and we were gestured to get in by the driver.
Lia got on before me, and said good morning to the driver. I walked in behind her, prepared to do the same, but the driver told me, "You're not on this bus, you need to get off."
Wait, what? That's an actual thing? "I'm with her though." I gestured with my head to Lia.
"Doesn't matter," the driver replied, "You're not registered, so you'll have to walk." She concluded.
"Son of a b-"
"No foul language!" And with that I jumped off the bus. As it began to pull away, however, I realized that I could be doing something really, really stupid.
"Oh but it's so worth it." I had made my decision. As the bus started to pull away, I jumped onto the back very quietly, grabbed the handle, and hung on.
As the bus sped down the streets, stopping only to pick up more kids, it took plenty of getting used to. I decided to hook my left foot under the bus and keep my right on the step that led to the emergency exit, while holding on to the right-side handle with my hands. Eventually, we pulled up to the school, which I have to say, I've seen larger elementary schools.
"Looks like Zane was on a budget." I said aloud as I hopped off of the bus and started walking to the front door. "This place couldn't hold more than 500." And as it turns out, I was right, but not in a necessarily good way.
As I walked to the door, I saw Lia talking with Selene and Ian.
"Hey, guys!" I yelled to them.
"Mason! Good to see you in one piece!" Ian said with a smile.
"What are you talking about? It's not like he was in any form of danger." Selene replied.
"He was on the back of a bus. I think it's terms to say that." Ian said with a snarky tone.
"Mason, are you CRAZY?!" Selene yelled at me. She didn't look angry, but more aggravated that I would do something so stupid.
"I needed a ride, and I didn't plan on walking." I replied.
"Seems like Mason." Lia said, as Percy and Athena started to walk up.
Percy yelled out, "Morning everybody!" As he had his backpack slung over one shoulder. "Mason? What're you doing here?"
"Lia enrolled him here!" Athena replied, "Didn't you get the text?"
Text? I remember the word, but not what it was... I guess it was like a message-type thing?
"I don't use my phone!" He replied loudly.
"Hey Johnny-Cake!" I heard a feminine voice come from behind me, as I felt my left shoulder get trucked by another person. "Oh sor-"
She turned around to apologize as she fell into Percy's arms, but couldn't seem to make out a word.
"Is... He new?" She asked to our group.
"Yes and no. He's an old friend of ours that came home this week." Athena said smoothly, as I gave her the nonverbal "thanks-for-saving-my-fresh-out-of-prison-ass" look.
"His name is Mason." Percy told her.
"Hiya." I said to her with a smile. "Nice to meet you."
"Yeah..." She replied with a look of confusion.
"Any idea where your classes are?" Ian asked while he started walking down the hall.
"No idea. Should I?" I replied.
"I'll bring you to the main office, I have a break period first." Athena said to me.
"Alright. I suppose that this means that all of you have to leave?" I said to everybody.
"Yeah. See ya!" Percy yelled.
The girl that had bumped into me turned around before she left, and told me, "My name is Kirsta, by the way."
"Alright. Again, nice to meet you." I smiled and walked away with Athena to the main office.
As we walked through the scrunched together hallways, I realized that there were doors at the edge of every room, and nobody was actually inside of the rooms. The floors, as I now realized, were clear marble. The walls were spotless, and to my surprise, were metallic. The doors to each room were metal sliding doors, and were motion activated. "'Thena... What IS this school teaching?"
She looked at me with a sad stare, and said, "This school is so small because THEY'RE training the world's next super soldiers."
No. The way she had said 'they're'... I know she had meant Zane. Which would mean what he had told me was true. With my body at the height of its physical condition, there was no doubt in my mind that I would become his favorite 'student.' I was trapped. If I didn't do well, he'd just kill me. Simple as that. But, on the other side, if I did well, I'd have to follow his orders, or die trying not to. "Damn you, Zane." I muttered under my breath. "I swear to you, I'll never follow your orders. You've screwed me already, and stolen from my life..." A tear went down the side of my face. Out of anger, or hate, or anything I wanted it to be. "What else could you possibly want?"
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I heard HIS voice. "I want you to crumble at my feet you stupid child. I want you to suffer the same loneliness that I did because of YOU. We will suffer together, and I PROMISE you, it will break you."
I yelled out, in the middle of the hallway, "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"
Athena looked at me like I was insane, and she asked me, "Mason... You okay?"
"I don't even know anymore." I replied solemnly.
"Well, we're here." She replied awkwardly as she walked away. "Oh, wait! I needed to tell you." She turned around and said, "Kirsta is dating Percy, just so you don't get any ideas."
"Wasn't planning on it yet, but okay. I'll check ya' later." I said as the doors to the office opened.
I was greeted by a short receptionist with tied back black hair. She looked around thirty, and her tone sounded pleasant. "Good morning, are you the new student?" It seems my presence was already noted.
"Uhm... Yeah." I replied. "I needed a schedule?" I have to say, I was clueless.
"Well, you have to take a placement test, so we can see where you stand." She replied as she stood up.
"Alright. Where do I go?" She turned and pointed to a door in the back of the room.
"Right there. We've been waiting a long time to test you, Mr. Eckheart."
Oh shit. Zane got the staff here all hyped up on my arrival.
I walked through the door into a dark room, where a single woman was tied in the center of the room. Around me, it was utter darkness, other than the shining light in the center. A voice echoed through the room, and said, "Save the girl, at all costs. If she dies, you fail."
It was then that I realized that the girl in the middle of the room was struggling against the ropes that bound her to the metallic pole in the center of the room. And she looked just like... Lia...
"Choose your weapon." The voiced echoed again.
A wall came up from the floor, and had a variety of guns, knives, and swords. However, I saw one specific weapon that peaked my interest. It was a bo-staff, with two blades at the two ends. A bo-staff, for those who don't know, is a weapon that is a large stick, in basic terms, that can be spun around and used to smack your opponent. When you add blades to that mix, it's one of the most lethal weapons you can find.
I lifted the staff from the wall, and it went down into the floor. I found a button on it's side, and I decided to press it. As I pressed it, one of the blades retracted into the weapon, and made is a spear. Instead, the other blade locked around my wrist, which I implied would mean a chain would be inside of this weapon, allowing me to throw it, and bring it right back. I clicked the button again, and it became the bladed bo-staff again.
"An odd choice, Mr. Eckheart. Good luck." The voice cut out, and the wall went down. I saw eight bodies about to attack Lia. I clicked the button, and threw the spear into the head of one target. Immediately the body went limp, and I realized that the chain could pull me, instead of itself! I clicked the button as it pulled me to the group, and with another click, I made a quick 360 degree turn just above Lia's head, annihilating the rest of the enemies.
With that, Lia was pulled up above, and all the lights came on, with the sound of clapping echoing inside of the room.
"That was easily the most masterful display of destruction I've seen in years!" A male voice yelled. He walked out from the shadows, still clapping, as he presented me with a piece of paper. "This is your schedule based on your performance. You'll be happy to know that you've achieved maximum proficiency on all accounts! See you in class, Mr. Eckheart."
"Sir... What exactly am I supposed to do with this?" I held up the staff in my hands, stained with powder from the enemies, which I suppose were fake.
"Silly child, it's yours now. You proved yourself with the weapon, so it's yours." He replied. "You have five minutes to get to class."
I walked out of the room, and looked at my piece of paper, which, at the top in the '1st period' box, said, "Advanced Combat training."
I walked over to the secretary, and asked her, "Excuse me, do you know where I can find this room?"
She looked at me in awe as she saw the results, and said, "It's the next-door room to the right. Congratulations on your results!"
"Thank you." I walked out the room and punched a nearby wall, which hurt like a mother- and all I could hear was Zane saying, "I told you. My second-in command."
"I hate him." I said to myself, as I walked into the room, holding my weapon.
I was greeted by skeptic looks and utter silence. The teacher, who was the man that met me in the other room, was at the front of the class. He said out loud, "Class, this is Mason Eckheart, who just completed the placement test in two seconds flat. Welcome him accordingly. Mason, take a seat anywhere."
I looked for a spot to sit when I saw some familiar faces. I saw Percy, Ian, that girl Kirsta, and a face I hadn't seen before, all at a table for five.
I walked over to them, and asked, "Mind if I sit?"
Percy laughed and said, "Sit down, Eckie."
Ian said, "So, two seconds? Not bad. Which gun did you use?"
I replied, "I didn't." And I showed them the bo-staff that was given to me.
Kirsta asked, pretty loudly "How did you complete it in two seconds with THAT?!" Which attracted most of the class' attention.
"I was just smart, and picked the best weapon." I said with a grin.
"Well, last time I checked that weapon wasn't even an option for me." Kirsta replied
"Call me lucky I guess." I finished as I focused on the teacher.
The class proceeded pretty quickly, and luckily, once our lecture finished on how to use a weapon and environmental advantages,we got to the actual physical activity. We were set to sparring based on what we had learned, and we were placed in a bracket according to our classroom's ranking. Since I was new, I was 30th, the lowest ranking. At the top five, there was: 5th: A random person named Chris 4th: Ghoul... Wait a minute... I remember him! He's that officer- oh my God. He was sitting at my table in class, and he wouldn't stop staring at me... Anyway! 3rd: Ian 2nd: Percy 1st: Kirsta... Wait, Kirsta?! As in the girl sitting next to me?! She was shorter than Percy by a lot and yet she could beat him?! There had to be something wrong. We went into a door in the back of the classroom, which turned out to be an elevator. "I knew this school was too small for Zane's taste." I muttered under my breath.
"You say something, Eckie?" Kirsta said in front of me. Apparently she'd adopted Percy's old nickname for me. I really hadn't looked at her earlier, either, not until we stepped into the elevator anyway. Kirsta is an average sized girl, at about 5'6", and had red hair. And no, to all of you who think red hair is ginger, it was literally straight, red hair, that came down to the smalls of her back. She looked partially muscular, and looked like she was ready to fight.
Percy and Ian looked tense, and it was really unlike them. Was she really that dangerous?
"If you're wondering about the red hair, people say it's from all blood she's beat out of her opponents." A tanned guy with an average build, and short, brown hair whispered to me.
Suddenly, without any warning at all, a hand appeared on the back of his neck, wrapping around and poking at his esophagus. A deep voice appeared, and said, "Are you trying to psyche out the new kid, Chris?"
He turned around, obviously scared out of his mind, and said, "No sir, fourth seed!" And went back to his own business.
"Thanks." I said to him.
He replied coldly, "Don't think this'll erase what you did yesterday."
Oh my God. He knew. And he had plans to beat the hell out of me.
As the elevator came to a halt, we walked out into a dojo. On opposite sides of the wood-walled room were two metal benches, and two doors. One door read, 'Boys,' and the other, 'Girls' accordingly. We went into our locker rooms, and all started to change, minus me, of course, because I didn't have clothes. Before I could walk out unprepared, my teacher, who I now knew as, 'Lieutenant Reginald,' stopped me, and said, "If you walk out unprepared, you're going to have to fight the first seed, Mr. Eckheart."
"Really? I thought I would have to ask for that privilege!" I said with a jolly tone, as I walked out of the room, in Jeans and a sweatshirt.
I decided to stand on the wall with my hands in my pockets while whistling a tune, just to keep my cool. 'No time to throw this away, Mace. Let's see why a person is first place.'
After everybody made their way out, which took about ten minutes, we began sparring. The class was told that I would be sparring with Kirsta, and she looked shocked. Ian and Percy started to laugh at me, and tell me how screwed I was, while I just smiled and laughed with them, while looking at Kirsta for signs of weakness. Everybody else just gossiped like anybody would.
As the matches worked their way up to Ian and Percy's fight, I took a seat, ready to watch them fight. However, unlike the other fights, they walked over to seats in the back of the room, with their weapons in hand. They put on headsets, and a plexiglass box appeared in a cube-shape around the sparring arena. Before the Lieutenant pressed the button to start the sparring, they bumped fists, and said good luck. 'At least everybody else stayed friends.' I thought to myself.
The button, however, activated a simulation spar, where the two would fight, but to the point that they could use their weapons and not hurt their actual bodies. Percy was holding a large sniper rifle, that was about four feet long, and had plenty of modifiers. He wasn't wearing a lot of armor, but he had enough to protect while giving him good movement. Ian had two electronic fists, and a bodysuit of armor, which made me realize that he was basically a tank with legs. The spar was started, and they went at it immediately. Percy fired several bullets at Ian, but they bounced of his armor like they were nothing.
"I hate that damn armor!" Percy yelled while dodging punches.
"It's a perk, I won't lie!" Ian yelled
They went back and forth for a long time, when eventually, a loud click echoed from Percy's rifle.
"Oh shit." He said as he looked at Ian, and continued, "You wouldn't hit a person without a weapon, would you?" And gave a fake pouting face. By now, both of them were exhaling heavily, and were sweating profusely. Ian's helmet had been knocked off, and both were vulnerable. Ian charged at Percy, and closed the distance quickly, bringing them with a foot. As Ian threw a punch, Percy smacked Ian with the butt of his rifle, and both were knocked out.
Their heads both snapped out of the simulator quickly, and they inhaled hard as they snapped back to reality.
"A good match, you two, but it counts as a tie, and the seed rankings stand." The Lieutenant told them. He looked over to me, as I was fiddling with my weapon, and I had found a very interesting feature. If I pulled or pushed the weapon as I pressed the button at a certain pressure, it would contract or expand into a different weapon! "Mr. Eckheart, whenever you're ready to lose, step forward."
"Well, sir, I suppose I'll be standing here for a while, then. I literally can't lose this fight." I told him with a large grin. I contracted my weapon into the bo-staff form.
Kirsta yelled out from across the room, "Eckie, you should know that I've defeated Percy AND Ian in matches before." She had a smile on her face, making it seem like she was going to show mercy.
"But you're 0-0 against me, Velvet." I decided to put her on an equal playing ground with the nicknames, and I just basically called her a delicious cake/cupcake batter based on her hair. Aren't I just incredible at coming up with awful nicknames? "Oh wow, I'm getting hungry..." I said as I put the headset on.
"Good luck, Eckie!" Kirsta said with a light smile. "You'll need it." She said as she got very serious, very quickly.
The simulator started up, and the two of us were inside an arena with a single tree with a partially snapped branch. Since we were both on opposite sides, and her priority arm was her right, where she held her weapon. I extended my weapon and swung it around the left side of the tree, to trap her good arm. The chain made contact, and wrapped around her body, which gave me the signal to tug. When I pulled, the end of the blade that I held flew into one side of the tree, while the other end of the blade stabbed into the side of the tree. I walked over, and watched her struggle, as I snapped off the branch that was hanging off of the tree.
"What the hell?! How did you-" I interrupted her with a smack to the face with a branch that was double my height, and at least twenty pounds. She was now bleeding profusely from her face, and was on the edge of unconsciousness, as I retracted my weapon, which left her crawling on the ground.
"Sorry, Velvet. It seems like luck was on my side of the tree." I spoke as I finished her with a quick stab to the face.
I opened my eyes and found myself back in the dojo, where everybody had a very similar shocked look on their face.
"Mr. Eckheart... You've been promoted to first seed..." The lieutenant said with a look of sheer awe.
Kirsta punched me right in my stomach, and yelled with a large bruise on her face, "Why'd you use a goddamn tree! Didn't you think that it would hurt?!"
"Wait, you actually get hurt from this? It isn't just a fake simulation? Oh shit! I'm so sorry!" I bent my knees a little as I tried my best to help.
"It's fine. Just try not to do that again." She replied with a smile.
"Mason!" Percy yelled "You ass!" He decked me, for a good purpose.
"Yeah, yeah, I know," I started to rub my now-bruised jaw, and continued, "I didn't know the simulator actually affected the body. My bad."
"That was amazing, Mason." Ian said with a cheesy smile. "Easily the greatest fighting I've ever seen. I mean, you could've held back a little."
"Thanks, you ass." I retracted my weapon into its 'Stick with Benefits' form, and took a seat, as the Lieutenant stepped forward to speak.
"Now, as you know, after each sparring class we have open challenges for any seed to challenge another. Would anybody like to challenge another classmate?" He said while still recovering from what he just watched. For about ten seconds, the room was silent. After the silence, the Lieutenant continued, "Then I suppos-"
"Wait!" A deep voice echoed throughout the room. "I challenge the first seed." Ghoul rose up from the corner her was sitting in, and looked VERY irritated. He walked over to me, and pushed me, causing me to stumble back, but not enough to make me fall. It wasn't until that point that I saw just how huge this guy was. He towered over me at about 6'4", and had a very muscular build. He could probably overpower me, too, if I hadn't done all that training in the prison.
"Ghoul, as much as I'd love to accept for you to make an attempt to regain your honor, I'm not really feeling another fight today." I turned and started to walk away, but I heard his voice from behind me, with anger starting to erupt in his words.
"I'll bring Kirsta with me. You can get your choice of any one part-"
I cut him off right away, and said, "I don't need a partner to beat you, even IF you had help." A series of 'ohhs' echoed immediately. "But I guess I have to accept a man's last wish."
"Mason, you should think about what you're saying!" Ian yelled, with evident worry. Was Ghoul really that strong?
Percy followed up quickly with, "You got lucky against Kirsta, just take the hint and back out!" Something seemed venomous in that, looking back, but I was being arrogant again, and refused to notice
"Well, now that you mention it... I'm going to win this one, too." I gave a smug grin and laughed right in Ghoul's face. "Unless... YOU could do something about it." And I walked forward, I saw a knife on the wall. I looked at the Lieutenant and told him, "If I'm going to be fighting two people, I'm going to use two weapons." I lifted the knife, which was about a foot long, and got into the seat for the simulation as I laughed again. Once the three of us were all set, the button was pressed, and everything started.
When my eyes opened, I was in an alleyway that was on the edge of a city block. I held my bo-staff and new knife, and quickly realized that I could handle the two of them in a close quarters situation. Kirsta was agile, and Ghoul hit hard, including the fact that my weapon would get stuck in between the walls. Then, I realized, "If I get caught, I'll die. But if I have the upper hand..." Promptly I looked up at the wall and said, "Yep. That's about all the 'upper' I'll need." I contracted my bo-staff into a blade about the same size as the other one that I was holding, and I stabbed the one in my right right into the brick wall next to me. I promptly stabbed higher on the wall with my left, and started to scale the wall. Once I was about a good twenty feet up, I made use of my semi-light weight, and rotated so that I faced the alleyway, but could still hang on. Soon enough, Kirsta and Ghoul were walking back to back down the alley I had woken up in, and were talking.
"If he made a similar choice as us, he's probably sneaking around the other side." Kirsta implied incorrectly.
"Yeah, you're probably right, but why is it so quiet?" Ghoul said, just as they reached the position under me.
"I mean, it isn't like your talking is giving our position away." She responded sarcastically.
I grinned. They didn't know I was up here. I quickly pulled the blades out from the wall, which had me falling quite quickly due to gravity. As I fell, I took my blades, and promptly stabbed both of their necks before I hit the ground.
I blacked out once I hit the ground, not because I got knocked out, but because the simulation was over. The class was now applauding my display, including our instructor, while Ghoul was shocked visibly while Kirsta was laughing hysterically.
"He was above us! Why didn't we think of that, Ghoul?!" Kirsta was laughing as she spoke. Her face showed a happiness, but only to an extent, as she was hiding her anger of losing not once, but twice.
Ghoul didn't make a sound.
Percy and Ian kept congratulating me, while laughing themselves. I was starting to get very tired though, and I felt my arms and legs get very sore.
"Eckie!" I heard Kirsta from behind me, and I turned to face her as she punched me in the stomach, which I barely felt. Numbness from the fall must've been starting to kick in.
"What was that for? Did I hit too hard again?" I smiled at her and she laughed.
She responded, "No, but you called me Velvet!" I guess it really did take her that long for it to process that I called her that. "Never, ever call me that again!" She gave me a stern face, but obviously she meant it as a joke.
"'Kay, I'll remember for next time, Velvet." I walked away laughing as she was starting to actually get pissed off at me, proving my assumption of her anger. "I suppose that we're done now?" I asked to nobody in particular. My ego decided to press itself further as my body convinced me to say, "Or does anybody else want to go down swinging?" Dammit, Mason. Your ego is overshadowing you again.
"Only if you want a twenty-nine v one match, Mr. Eckheart." My instructor said to me with a look of disgust.
"Sorry, just the adrenaline pumping. It tends to happen when I get hyped up." In that sentence alone, I said two words that hadn't crossed my mind in years. Adrenaline, which has probably been the reason for my strength up to this point, and hype, which probably was the reason I felt I could take on Kirsta AND Ghoul.
I heard plenty of judgement coming from the crowd, and I heard one person say, "Adrenaline? Hype? What is he, some outsider that got into Lord Zane's territory?" Oh my God. They don't know, or maybe don't remember what my literal driving forces are. I saw Percy and Ian examining themselves, probably because their bodily functions were similar. No wonder the rest couldn't keep up. But then again, how could Zane possibly manage to hide such a natural function? It almost seemed like the lower ranks didn't even have any themselves.
Yet another point of worry, "Lord Zane". I knew Lia said that he had took over, but was it really that bad? He's nobility? Or is he just powerful? It was something I wouldn't understand for a while, with limited knowledge of what exactly Zane could do.
We promptly left the sparring arena, arriving on the higher floor, back in our classroom just as the bell began to ring. As the students began to shuffle out of the room, I recognized that Lia, Athena, and Selene weren't in the room. I didn't think that it was very important beforehand, but now I realized that it was because they didn't finish that first simulation fast enough. And if they didn't, then not counting Percy, Ian, and Kirsta, I was alone. Seems like a recurring theme.
Anyway, we exited the room, and walked to the end of the hallway, and took a left into another classroom. This one, according to my schedule, was called: Dexterous Training. What the hell was that supposed to mean?
I made my way in behind Percy and Ian as we sat at a table in the back of the room, that was similar to the other classroom. On the whiteboard in the front of the room, there were three drawings titled: 'How to throw weapons.' So we're throwing things now? Peachy.
As we sat down at our new table, I heard a voice, and it sounded sweet- kinda' girlish. Not as in a guy with a high pitched voice, but a girl that sounded... Too girly? "Hi Kirsta!" Kirsta turned to face the noise, and replied-
"Oh, hey Summer." She gave a faint smile, but still showed happiness. Was something wrong? She seemed lost in thought, but played it off well, at least.
"Can I sit here? Since Mason displaced Paul, he kicked me out of my seat." She looked like she was about to cry.
As Kirsta went to reject her, I spoke up first, and said, "Well Paul sounds like an ass. Take a seat. Summer, right?" I smiled at her as she sat down cautiously. I started placing red flags on her relationship (if it could be so called).
Apparently, I was within earshot of the guy Summer called Paul. He stood up from across the room, and yelled, "If I'm such an ass, then why did you take a first seed from your 'friend'?" I was literally incapable of telling what pissed me off more, his use of actual finger air quotes, his voice that (almost literally) yelled privileged, or how he called me out for something I did for something he knew nothing about. However, I realized why the school was so small- it quickened the transfer of information between people. If this really was a military school, it keeps everyone closely tied into gossip and information, which explains how he knew that I beat Kirsta. Secondly, I realized that this kid couldn't beat me in a fight. He was about my height with a black-haired fo-hawk with silver highlights for whatever reason. He was plenty less muscular than I was, and his tense posture told me that he was a bit scared. He was wearing the same clothes as the rest of the people in the room, which was a silver polo with purple dress pants. A weird combo, but I remembered the police uniforms that I had seen when I fought Ghoul, and preferred these immediately. He, unlike the others, had a large purple patch across the left side of his chest. Maybe Kirsta had beat him before, but either way, he was in for a world of hurt. Ironic, I'd learned more in prison about the world than in school.
"Don't change the topic. This is about YOU being an ass, not me, and you'll be very happy to know that I freely identify as an ass, so your words only show me the lack of effort you've put into trying to beat me here. Who are you, anyway?"
"Psh. You don't know who I am?" He put great exaggeration on the don't.
"Why would I ask otherwise, genius?" I gave him a cold stare, and I could feel everyone watching us.
Ian said quietly, "Mason, you should really back off from this one, he's a lot stronger than he's showing. He's the god damned general of silver squad" The hell is a "silver squad? But I could hear the genuine worry in his voice. I should have told him to stop worrying.
The guy continued, "My name is Paul Chino, I am first seed of four of my classes, and General of the silver squad." He gave an enormous grin, enough that everybody in the room looked at me for a response. "And who are you, new kid?"
"My name is Mason. Adrian. Eckheart." I threw in the middle name to make a god damned point. I was in no mood to take this kid's shit just because his ego was just as propped up as mine. "I'm the first seed of AP Combat Training, the strongest person in the room, and the one person who could kill you right now." I threw as much venom as I could into that last bit as I lifted my now transformed spear. At the least, I was getting used to the weapon. Several yells erupted in the room. I clicked the button, and extended the spear's tip regardless, and stopped right at his neck. I still hurt him, but not as much. As the small dot on the left side of his neck trickled, I said to him, "One more inch and you would've been Paul Chino, the former General of the silver squad, and currently six feet under. Don't try to start anything again, because all I need is just that little extra push, and you'll drop dead." Around the room, everybody had a different reaction. My friends were shocked, but Percy and Ian were laughing. It seemed they had become accustomed to me drawing attention to myself. Kirsta was shocked, visibly, and Summer had her hands over her mouth with a very worried look. Oh my God. She was actually dating the guy I almost killed not twenty seconds ago.
I condensed my spear and sat down, the tenseness still echoing in the air. Paul's eyes were widened, as he was visibly trembling. Ian and Percy were still giving off muffled laughs with a tint of worry, but Kirsta was comforting the now-crying Summer. Dirty looks never change, huh?
Our teacher began his lecture with a bit of tenseness in his tonality. It seemed to me that I was making more enemies than friends here.
"On that note, good morning class!" There was a sense of false cheer, but I supposed that he knew what he was doing. "Today, we'll be working on technique of throwing small weaponry."
I heard Summer ask, "What type of weaponry?" I still heard fear in her voice, but she was less visibly shaken. At least it was something. I heard Ian and Percy making some far-out/inappropriate comments as the teacher spoke.
"Today," He began, "We'll be going over proper technique and posture to throwing daggers and knives." I rolled my eyes and kicked my legs back as I slouched in the chair. In my head I created a chalkboard with a small tally sheet. It read: Lessons Learned in Prison but being taught here- III And Lessons Learned in the house of Zane's war mongering minions- 0. The lecture was damn-near endless.
Eventually, we finally reached the sparring, and though I had paid a minuscule piece of my attention to the lesson, I fully understood what I was doing. Our class filtered into the elevator, and as my table was next to be called to move in, I heard our teacher say, "Chino, you're in charge while I speak to these ones." I could feel that asshole's grin from my seat.
As my old and new friends, along with myself sat in wait of our inevitable "Second Lecture," as Percy put it, I decided to practice what I had just learned. Which of course was throwing shiny and sharp objects.
"Hey Kirsta, can I borrow a pencil?" I asked her.
"I don't know, are you going to stab me with it?" I heard Summer mutter.
"Hey!" I yelled blatantly. "You don't need to be bitter. I was just trying to help." I slouched and gave an irritated look, which about explained how I was feeling.
"Mason," Percy began, visibly attempting not to laugh and be serious at the same time, "I mean, you did nearly kill him."
I lifted my finger in the utmost disapproval, and said, "But- I didn't. And it was just to protect her integrity, whatever messed up-deranged shape he left it in."
Kirsta yelled at me, "Mason! Shut. Up." She looked at me with disgust.
I stood up, and looked her right in the eyes, and screamed, "Well why should I?!" I started to get really angry, and out came the first eye flash. "I try to do one thing, just one goddamn good deed for the day," a second flash. "and for whatever reason, everybody feels the need to be on my ass about it!" The third flash. I was screaming. Audibly huffing at how loud I was. Kirsta looked afraid. I felt a weird itch on my skull, and I immediately felt a headache. I felt my vision blurring as the teacher jogged over.
"Don't touch him!" I heard Summer yell. "He's got something wrong with him!" How rude.
I collapsed out of my chair, to be caught by Percy and Ian, who looked down at me, and back to the teacher. Percy asked, "By any chance, would you have a Snickers bar?"
Kirsta gave a questionable look and Ian gave a light smile, as the teacher responded, "Well yes, actually, but why?"
Percy lifted me to my feet, and said the funniest thing I would hear for months. "He's not himself when he's hungry." I went into quiet laughter as we walked into the elevator with a bo-staff and a Snickers bar. Kirsta eased up a little bit and smiled? Why is she happy that I freaked out like that?
While we descended, Percy explained to me that while I was in the middle of my minor freak out, my eyes had started to flash into a crimson color. I didn't really understand what it meant back then, but I learned that it had something to do with my inherent "ability."
Within the next few seconds, the metallic doors that were identical to the ones I had been in for my previous class opened to Paul Chino and the rest of the class throwing around knives and daggers at targets. Most people would throw their objects at a circular target with red and white rings, but Chino and his "goon squad," as I would call his group of cronies, used the human-looking figure, and aim for the eyes. Not even between them, but straight into them, so he could go so far as to FEEL the screams of his enemy.
Unintentionally, I muttered aloud to myself, "Hmph. I'm surprised Sunni doesn't have an eye patch."
"MASON!" Ian turned and covered my mouth before anybody else heard it. "Ever heard of something being rude?" I nodded, almost like a child. "Ever heard of being inconsiderate?" I nodded once more. "Then stop saying stuff like that! If you have nothing nice to say-"
I cut him off immediately, and said almost like clockwork, "Then your mouth is sewn shut and your mind has been corrupted by your enemies." I realized that I had unintentionally quoted Demetrius, who had once told me that about a man in the prison who would talk trash to any and everyone. I remember it still, like it was only a few days ago.
"Hey kid!" He had yelled to me. Damian and Dimitrius turned to face him, as they stood behind me, being my 'unofficial protectors.' Damian's eyes, unlike their usual, happy-go-lucky expression, became very serious. Dimitrius however, didn't blink as he turned. He was mainly the quiet one in our group. The man continued, "How'd you manage to get in here for life, hm? Decide to have a bit of fun with the local wh-"
"Shut yourself up before I do it for you, you pathetic thug." Damian's eyes were obviously angry, seeing this as another opportunity to protect me. Dimitrius didn't speak.
"Oh right, he's got his little protectors, right?" The man continued, with a sarcastic expression. "Oh I'm simply trembling. I mean a scrawny, half-assed fighter like you couldn't do shi-" Damian quickly cut him off again, but more violently this time, by grabbing the man's throat and lifting. I watched the enormous trash talker be heaved about two feet into the air by little Damian, who was about my height and weight, but still holding his ground.
Damian, who was now visibly seething anger, said only two words to the man, "Shut. Up." He let the man go, as the trash talker threw a punch at Damian. Damian caught the punch, and with a chilled 'crack', snapped the trash talker's arm. Within a few seconds, Damian was detained by the watchmen, and he went with them willingly. Dimitrius and I still hadn't said a word. We watched in silence as his brother, and one of my only friends get taken away.
I looked up at Dimitri, as was my nickname for him, and asked, "Why? Just-" I sighed deeply. "Why did Damian have to do that?"
Without taking his gaze off of his brother, he replied to me, "Damian is very calm most of the time." He looked down at me, and continued, "But even HE hates something. Damian hates insolence and foolishness. He hates smack talkers like that thug because he messes with his flow. I remember, back when we were kids, he said to me, 'If you have nothing nice to say, then your mouth had been sewn shut and corrupted by your enemies.' He tended to think that way."
I snapped back to reality and out of my flashback as Ian was holding my shoulders, "Get it?"
I replied, still half in my daydream, "Yeah, sure. Whatever." I laughed it off as I put a plaster smile on my face as I walked into the 'Dexterity room' when I noticed the marks in the wall behind Sunni's target. There was only two or so holes above her target, but none to the side. I walked to her side when I saw another blade fly. She hit her target directly in the center, a bullseye. But this bullseye wasn't on the chest area, instead, it was on the forehead, giving me this ominous feeling that this was an academy that dedicated lives to the killing of others. 'Go figure Zane, you never cease to amaze.' I thought to myself.
I looked at Sunni, who was now sweating and panting slightly, and said to her with a ton of sarcasm, "I don't think you've practiced enough. I mean, we've been down here for SO long!"
She didn't look at me, and replied, "Shut up and throw a knife already." Yeah, she might be slightly pissed at me for my scene earlier.
"By the way, aim for the heart. More assurance if you throw it the right way." I said to her, still smiling. She rolled her eyes and continued.
I had to take a quick walk down to the other side of the room, where I picked up a knife and stared at my target. 'The head? Why target the head? Eh, whatever, let's just hit the target first before we choose a spot.' My thoughts echoed.
"Mason, it's me." I heard a familiar bass voice echo in my head.
"Bartandeles?" I said out loud, which gained several odd looks from my classmates. Stop looking at me so I can talk to the voice in my head, damnit.
"Indeed, nice to hear you again, Mason." His voice was still deep and kinda quiet, so I figured this was a sort of telepathy. I mean really, there are weirder things for me to believe in.
'What's up? Why'd you grace me with an appearance?' I thought to myself/the voice inside my head.
"I wanted to tell you to imagine you putting all of your body's energy into throwing your blade. Focus the energy in your body to your fingers and good things will happen." The way he was saying this to me was like something out of a movie. But for whatever reason, I felt this urge to try it. "I can't talk for now, but I'll be back later. Stay strong, Eckheart."
"If you say so, Bart." Damn it, more staring. "Don't you have knives to throw or something?!" I yelled to the perpetrators. There was an awkward air hanging about now. Whoops, my bad. I looked at a small monitor that was standing at my 'station' that was next to a line of black paint, which I assumed was the throwing line. "Okay... Simple enough." I said to myself, quietly enough to not be heard. Suddenly, a bright blue screen popped up with a small rectangle in the middle. It read: "Incoming Video Call? Accept? Y/N" A small holographic keyboard popped up out of the monitor, which I thought was absolutely badass, and I pressed the "Y" key, assuming that it was nothing major. Yeah, no, I was WAY off on that one.
"Hey there Eckheart, I see you've somehow made your way here. I mean, I even threw you in jail, and you're still a bit of a thorn in my side." Zane. Man I hate this guy. Such an arrogant asshole. Can't even let me live my life for a full day anymore without him doing something to it. Zane continued, still in his condescending tone, "But since I like your decision to join my academy, I'll let this one slide. Just remember, coming to this place means that you'll become my devoted soldier! Even AFTER you denied it, you'll still be my second in-" I hung up and stabbed the monitor.
"Shut the fuck up Zane. I'm tired of hearing your voice." With that, several gasps popped up from the rest of the room, most noticeable Kirsta and Summer.
From Percy, I heard a muttered, "Dumbass," and from Ian I heard, "Why do you keep doing stuff like this?" This of course, made me a laugh a short and bittersweet laugh as the instructor walked over.
"That's twice now," he began, "that you've gone and drawn attention to yourself." His voice resounded in the training room, and many of the students flinched in fear. "You've gone and become a nuisance now, and I'd really rather not deal with it. So it's either prove yourself as a soldier or get demoted." A few gasps appeared in the room, and Kirsta and Ian looked worried. Percy whispered a worried "Demoted equals exile or execution, Mason." to me and got back to throwing. Then, I heard the one and only jerk-of-the-year recipient for fifteen years running laugh. Which made his cronies laugh. And that's when I got pissed off.
"Okay. So what am I doing?" I asked the instructor nonchalantly. Somehow, I managed to ignore the imminent death or death situation in front of me
"You'll be killing your target. With one throw and a dulled knife." He handed me a butter knife, and the target planted on my test dummy's stomach disappeared. Well shit.
"Hey Bart, now would be the time to do that cute thing you do where you give me this epic life advice and help me out." I thought to Bart, who I hoped was listening.
"Mason, just focus. Your knife is dulled, so attempting for a headshot is useless. The target has a stimulatory helmet, the knife will never pierce it. The kidneys are a viable option, it may even be possible to target the main artery in the wrist, but it seems that the teacher wants you to immediately kill the target. So it leaves you with only one option-"
I cut him off. "The heart." I thought as I grinned.
"Indeed. Now just don't miss." I laughed aloud and garnered a few looks. By now the entire class was standing in a half circle around me.
"Well don't just laugh, kill it!" Then, the class started stomping on the floor. It was quiet, and slow at first, but over time, it became fast and roaring loud. I took the knife in my right hand, seeing as it's my preferred hand, and feel it on the blade edge. It's duller than even a butter knife, which can only mean one thing. This knife needs to hit with the tip into the heart. I ready the knife, with the blade end in my hand, contrary to the handle. And in that moment, I lost control of my body. Pure instinct came over me and threw my body in a perfect momentum for my throw. All I could do was look at the target's heart, and let my body do the rest.
I released at the peak of my throw, as the knife spun through the air.
And then time just slowed. I watched the knife fly, but I was stuck in slow motion. I saw the eyes of the crowd follow the knife. I felt the adrenaline flowing through my body. When the knife hit, all of that stopped, and time reverted to normal. 'Whatever the hell that was, I want to feel it again.' I thought to myself. It was at that point that I actually realized that the knife had smashed into the target's chest and flown out of the dummy's back. A red buzzer positioned above the dummy blared, presumably signaling a confirmed kill. The crowd was awestruck, to say the least. Incomprehensible mutters echoed throughout the room, I saw Ian and Percy laughing with disbelief that I managed to get away with another screw-up. Ghoul was pissed, but you probably already knew that. Kirsta's expression was different though. Instead of rage or happiness or even like, general confusion, she looked... Interested? In what? Me or the lucky throw?
The rest of the class roared in approval, and all of a sudden I felt this warm feeling in my gut. So this is what it's like to be loved. I heard the thought in my head, but was it mine? Yeah, I guess it was, if I'm honest with myself. I mean don't get me wrong, I loved and still love my friends, but this was different. It was something more than love. I think it was approval. For the first time in about five years, everybody was proud of me for being myself, and that felt great. Zane thought he could make a fool out of me, but I rose to the occasion and looked myself in the face and said "God damn you, little Eckheart, stop being so weak." And that pissed me off. Even when I had succeeded, Zane got me to bully myself into it. So who won? Me or Zane? Or maybe even the voice in my head? I don't think even I know who did that day.
Either way, we returned upstairs and packed our bags to leave for the next class. I took a look at my schedule, and it said "Advanced Proficient Battle and Warfare Tactics."
"Oh peachy, I get the privilege to learn the most efficient way of violently murdering people so that I can take their home away for them. Just wonderful." I said to nobody in particular. As it would turn out, I knew I had Ian and Summer in my next class, which was alright with me. I recalled somebody else, but it was at that point that I received a massive migraine, from almost out of nowhere. "What the hell?" I thought to myself. "Owowowowowow." I walked up to the teacher and asked if I could leave for the infirmary, but to my surprise, he rejected me, and said to go take a drink before my next class. Jerk.
I went to take a drink anyway, though, mostly because I was thirsty like a desert with like, seven suns, but also because I needed to think for a bit. What was going on? I bent over to take a drink, and took my merry time at the nearby water fountain. It was conveniently right next to my next class, so I wasn't as worried about being late (I didn't want another incident). After what felt like two minutes, I sat on the ground and leaned on a purple locker beside the fountain. With a grunt, I slammed myself into the locker and slid to the floor. "Son of a bhlauiehtnd." I didn't have the energy to properly curse. I felt so drained, for whatever reason. Maybe it was overexertion? No, the simulator doesn't affect fatigue in the real world. So what's happening? "OW, SHIT!" A mind-numbing pulsation of pain in my head went off, and I fell to the floor clenching my head. "OH MY GOD OW!" What was this pain coming from?
"Mason, can you hear me?" I heard that deep voice/James Earl Jones impersonator echo in my head again.
"Barthandelus, right? What in the hell are you doing to my head?" I was physically growling now, and my vision blurred. It hurt so badly. I just needed the pain to stop.
"Mason, I'm just adjusting your body to your... abilities." Okay, what? So, first my head is damn near exploding, and now he pops this on me? What a loving voice inside of my head.
"What abilities? HOLY SHIT OW!" My head (Along with myself) were screaming in pain when all of it just suddenly subsided. "Wait, what?"
"Like I said, I needed to adjust our wavelengths so that I can talk to you more easily."
"What is a wavelength? And why did you have to adjust to mine?"At this point, I was talking out loud, which proved to cut our conversation short.
"Mason? What are you doing out here?" It was Kirsta. Shit. Here's hoping that she didn't manage to hear my wails of pain. "I heard screaming, are you okay?" Double shit.
"Uh.. yeah, I'm alright, I think. I just got this really bad migraine for a few minutes. I couldn't even think properly. Sorry if I worried you or anything." In my defense, I technically never lied to her when I said that. All of it was true, I just left out the part about a voice in my head inducing it.
"Well, whenever you're finished with... that, I was told to bring you to class." She looked suspicious to say the absolute least, but I took the time to reanalyze her. She was somewhat short, I approximated 5'6", and had actually crimson colored hair. I'm not talking that auburn brown or even a sunset ginger, I'm talking blood red hair. Her body was really well distributed and I couldn't help but be a teenager at some of the... larger parts. Her eyes were odd, they were green, but seemingly had spots of red spread out in the eye. She was wearing a pink tank top and black jean-shorts, and smiled at me as she continued, "Let's go Eckie, we'll be late." She offered her hand. I graciously took it and got up to my feet.
"So wait, we have the same class together? What are we even doing in it? More sparring?" I smiled as we walked down the hall.
As we arrived at the room we were just in, I grabbed my 'special stick' and met Kirsta back in the hallway where she said, looking at what seemed to be a see-through smartphone, "We have a small test on the use of battle tactics in history next period, and it says that every student has to take it. I'll try to help any way I can-" I cut her off with a laugh.
"Why? I don't think I've done anything to earn your help or friendliness, so why are you being so nice to me?" I was genuinely asking this, but Kirsta took it as a joke of whatever sort.
Logically, she responded with her own joke, "Well I can tell you it isn't because you're attractiv-" she squeaked and turned away. Was she blushing?
'Wait oh my God did she just call me attractive?' My brain went almost nuts thinking about it, almost in disbelief that it took me more than a second to realize. 'I mean, she's cute, but isn't she dating Percy? Why would she say that? Why me?' She looked at me dead in the eyes, and hers flashed pink. 'What the fuck.' Why were her eyes like mine?
"I'm sorry, you just talk really similarly to the way Percy talks, Eckie, I mistook you for him for a minute." She laughed awkwardly, but I could tell she was lying. What did I do to her? The silence was deafening up until she broke the silence and muttered, "We're here."
The room was like any normal lecture hall, it had a minor incline, with seats that rowed upwards like stairs with a whiteboard and desk in the front. "Wonderful, another class with lectures that'll put my ass to sleep." Kirsta giggled. Damn, she really was cute, besides the whole, 'trained to kill people at a madman's will' part. No, Mason, she's dating Percy! Focus! I arrived at my now assigned seat, which was front and center.
"Students." The teacher was a middle aged women who had a very bad case of the "I hate kids" look. "Today you will be taking an exam that determines your ability to lead the now-defunct Purple Squad. As the top students in your class, this test and the following simulator downstairs will decide the next general of the purple squad, and will lead in each Friday's game of war. Failure on this test could mean being de-ranked to a lowly lieutenant, which aspiring trainees such as yourselves should seek every opportunity to avoid. Best of luck."
"Uh, Miss? How am I supposed to take this test without being in the class for a single lecture?" I asked somewhat snarky, and somewhat genuine.
"Mr... Eckheart? I've heard that your natural prowess in battle is more than enough to propel you into the higher rankings of your class, so I believe that you are one of the most fit to take this test now." She said with venom seething through her teeth.
"This is a joke, right? I literally don't know anything about this-"
In unison, both the teacher and Bart said "You know more than you give yourself credit for." I swear, this voice in my head has selective hearing.
'Bart, when you say that I know this stuff, are you saying that I know it, or are you saying that you know it.' I was starting to get extremely good at the whole telepathy thing.
'I'm saying that we know it, young Eckheart.' He thought(?) back to me. 'I can help you with what I know, and your natural affinity for decision making in fights can get you the answers.' I swear it's like he can read my mind- wait a minute.
I looked at the test in front of me. Words everywhere, with about a dozen or so lines. The situation was, simply put, a great wall of text, so I'll sum it up as best I can. It basically introduced a situation where myself, who is the presumed General of this small unit of ten people, each specializing in one form of battle, has to manage to take out a one-thousand man, highly trained force that specializes in gun oriented warfare.
YOU ARE READING
A Rebel's Tale
AdventureMason Eckheart was thirteen. Once. But when life causes him to resort to drastic measures, he may find things about himself and his family that will change his life forever. As a new tyrant rises to power, Mason and his five friends; Lia, Percy, Ian...
