Through the Portal

Chapter 3- Jerome

        Jerome walked through the teeming hallways with his head down, just like he had for the last seven months and six days. No one paid him any mind, and he paid them none. He got along just fine with the symbiotic relationship that had formed between him and the rest of the students in his high school. He had no wish to speak with any of them, and they were all afraid to speak to him. No one wanted to say the wrong thing.

        So, he pushed silently through the day, pain filling his heart, and blurring his vision, and he didn't try to stop the tears that sometimes leaked out. At least he usually didn't, but today he felt that if he started crying he would never stop. It was his last period of the day. He looked around the room at the students, the teacher, the merry sun shining through the windows, mocking him, and he couldn't take it. He stood abruptly. The teacher stopped talking.

        "Is something wrong Jerome?" he asked.

        "Yes, everything is wrong. My whole life is just one big mistake." Jerome wanted to shout at him, but all he said was, "May I go to the bathroom?" His voice quavered and he hated the looks of sympathy directed at him from every angle.

        "Of course," the teacher said. "Bring me your passbook." Jerome walked to the teacher's desk, and held out the thin notebook. "Take as long as you need," the teacher murmured as he initialed the line on the bottom of the page. Jerome didn't say anything, he just walked out the door and down the deserted hallway to the restroom.

        He walked in and leaned back against the wall and slid down to the cold, cracked tile floor. He put his head on his knees and wrapped his arms around his shins. He let the tears fall. The bell rang, and the hallways filled with noise and people, but he didn't move. He stayed until the hallways were silent, and he was the last kid in the school.

        Jerome stood and stared into the mirror, and ran cold water into the sink. The faulty drain was clogged again and the sink began to fill with water. Jerome splashed some onto his face, and then stared into the mirror, his face dripping.

        The light coming in from the window danced on the water and created a rainbow on the surface. Jerome stared at it. Something about the rainbow appearing was strange, but he didn't know why. Before he could figure it out a flash of blinding light cut across his vision, and Jerome had the strangest sense of falling into a pool of cold water, and then he was out of the water and standing knee deep in a shallow pool. There was a lot of noise, and Jerome could sense an enormous amount of people even with his eyes shut tight and bright light still all around him.