Subject 15

CHAPTER 14 - Seth

When the long lunch period was over, Samantha and I dumped our trays into the trashcan, all the while talking about nothing, and walked to the class we had come from. We were the first ones there: the rest weren't eager to begin Intro to the Language Arts. I sat down in my seat, and Samantha beside me. Slowly, students began leaking in, still wanting more time off. I looked over at Samantha, and caught her silently looking at me. When my eyes met hers, a small smile crept up onto her lips, and she asked, "Cat got your tongue?"

I chuckled and shook my head, replying, "Not my tongue, but certainly my attention," which merited a laugh from Samantha.

When all of the students were in the classroom, a tall African American woman with long black braids and a flowing dress, complete with heels, followed the last students into the room. She then spoke in a voice that wasn't harsh, but forceful and almost demanding attention. Her Mask was youthful; smiles and happiness danced across her Mask, as well as the face of her young children and loving husband. She was different, like Samantha and myself, and I felt it, as did the others.

"Class," said the women, "I am Mrs. Patterson. Today, and for most of this week, we're going to be mainly focused on getting you to know your classmates, the classroom, and me. Now, if you will please follow me, we can begin."

With this she walked out the door again, and as Samantha and I followed her, she produced a ball of string from her small purse. The class followed Mrs. Patterson outside to the shadow of a large oak tree. There, she said, "Make a large circle." Once the students had done so, she told the class, "We're going to make a web; but first, what I am going to do is say my name, how old I am, and something interesting about myself. Then I am going to pass the string to someone else, and they will do the same thing I did. When you do throw it, hold on to a piece of the string."

Mrs. Patterson demonstrated by giving the required information and then passing it to the first classmate she saw. Soon a complex web of string was weaved, with almost everybody except me holding a part of the web.

As I tracked the small ball of string with my eyes, it started to slow down in the air. Then it stood still, frozen in mid air, all of the students and even Mrs. Patterson equally petrified. Time had stopped for me, and me alone. I tried moving my limbs, and it was like moving through honey. Then I heard it: the voice.

From an oak tree behind Mrs. Patterson came a Knight, dressed in all black, a dark-red cape flowing behind him. When I left The Lab, I had dreams about him, I heard his voice constantly. Then the Knight laughed, an evil, tearing laugh that ripped through my mind and soul. It didn't take me long to figure out who he was: he was the Demon inside me, the thing I felt before when I escaped the Lab, the voice inside my head.

He was Evil.

"What do you want?" I asked in my most commanding voice, my voice reverberating in my mind, but not slipping past my lips.

"You know why I'm here," replied the Knight, his voice equally booming, and rough like gravel.

I did know, but I hated it nonetheless. "What do you, the Demon, have to say to me?"

The Knight was moving closer to me, its sheathed sword dragging across the ground with every step, and it said, "Look around you; look at all the Masks. You see, everyone is alike; everyone is the same. Only you are different." The Knight started to circle me, his steps slow and deliberate, and it hissed, "You know this better than I do, boy, that you are unlike them in more ways in one... You lie... You steal... You kill... And yet, you still claim to only try to do what's right... That you are kind, and considerate, and even loving."

The Demon's voice was full of mockery, and it sliced into me down to the bone. I gave a small shiver as the Demon slithered closer to me, hissing, "You know you are just running from the answers to all the questions you have... Your mother... Your father... Your past... Your present... Your future... All you have to do..." said the Demon slowly as he came to stand face to face with me, "is just... give in... Turn yourself in... Let. Go."

By this time the Knight was right in front of me, and the Demon's breath smelled almost... tempting, as if I could trust everything the Knight said.

I slowly turned to the side, trying to break the spell, when I glimpsed Samantha out of the corner of my eye. She was standing there, looking at me with enchanting blue eyes, and her Mask not like I saw it before; I instead saw someone like myself, someone who was different than the rest.

Someone who didn't see me as some... object, or freak... But as a someone.

I saw a new beginning.

I slowly turned back to the Knight and roared in my mind, "You're wrong; there is someone like me; someone who is different like me. You. Are. Wrong."

The Knight flew back as if an invisible force had struck it, and when it straightened it said in a half hiss and half roar, "You think you have won? Mark my words, I will make your life a living hell! I will find you, break you, make you beg for mercy, and I will kill everyone you love, right before your eyes." With a final burning glare, the Knight extended his unsheathed sword at Samantha and hissed, "Including her."

With this, the Knight turned around and passed behind one of my fellow classmates, and when I couldn't see it again, it vanished. Then it whispered in my mind, "And then I will kill you."

Time resumed, and I caught the small ball of string. I rolled it in my hands as my classmates looked at me expectantly, and finally I looked up and said, "I am Seth, nineteen years old, and I am... different."