Ancient Forces (2018 Reboot)

Chapter 5 - Beyond Human Part 2

Zayne was walking down the gym hallway towards the cafeteria to get to his next class when a body landed next to him, slumping on his shoulder and adding a bit of weight to him. Zayne pulled himself up and looked to his left expecting to see Aries or Austin, but was instead greeted by the creepy smile of the black haired kid from the dodgeball match. Zayne jutted his shoulder out and knocked the kid off of him, then refocused on the steps ahead of himself. The black haired kid kept following close behind, giving Zayne a few looks up and down.

"What's your name?" The kid asked.

"Why do you want to know?" Zayne responded.

"Well we've been seeing each other a lot recently, so I figured it'd be good to put a name to the face you know?" the kid explained as he tried to lean against Zayne again.

After pulling away, almost tripping the kid, Zayne told him his name. The kid smiled back.

"My name's Antonmithy, but you can just call me Anton, weird name I know," Anton greeted as he sloppily extended a hand.

Zayne reached out and shook the hand, then quickly pulled it away. As he did Zayne noticed his hand felt, slimy. It seemed to be very sticky and silky. Disgusted, Zayne shook it off and questioned when this guy had showered last for his hand to be that gross.

"Say uh Zayne, you've got a pretty mean swing there bud," Anton... complemented?

The demeanor of this kid was drastically different from earlier encounters. He was very casual, relaxed, too relaxed actually, and he seemed way too friendly for someone who picked a fight over someone walking into him a few days before. Zayne was getting suspicious, just like everything else in his life currently.

"I was just a little curious, where'd you get your training to do that?"

"I didn't get any training, I'm just really competitive in dodgeball," Zayne wrote off, trying to escape the conversation.

Zayne quickly made a turn towards his class. At first he thought Anton had left, but another weight increase on his shoulder proved otherwise. Zayne looked to his shoulder and saw Anton slumped over him again. It was getting annoying, and Zayne shoved him off again. Anton stepped away, then almost threw himself into Zayne again. Zayne this time stopped, then faced Anton fully. He gave him a glare.

"What's your problem, huh?" Zayne snapped.

Anton smiled devilishly again, then slumped and leaned over like he had no bones in his body, whispered, "My problem is you freak."

Zayne tensed up. Why had he just called him a freak?

"Well I'm sorry to hear that, but could you please back off?" Zayne complained as he began walking away again.

"I don't think you understand freak," Anton almost shouted to the leaving Zayne.

Zayne tried ignoring him as he avoided the situation.

"I'm gonna get you freak! I'm gonna get you!" Anton started giggling loudly.

Zayne looked back to see him giving Zayne that menacing glare he knew well. Other people were giving Anton looks, but Anton didn't even so much as flinch from his stare on Zayne. Zayne turned to his class and stepped in, finally away from the prying eyes of his follower. The chills on Zayne finally stopped. Great. Just one more person to be paranoid about.

----------

It was the next day, Saturday thankfully. Zayne's parents had to work most of Saturday until around four in the afternoon. Zayne had just woken up, around eight in the morning. It was going to be another long day of watching TV and playing games, he could already tell. Zayne rolled from his bed and made his way across the sea of clothes and items across the floor. As he went he picked up several things and either moved them aside or tossed them across his room. When he finally reached the door he paused for a moment. He looked back and took a deep breath through his nose. The place smelled rancid. Zayne instantly pinched his nose and stopped breathing. His room had never smelled this bad before! As his smell was slowly turned off Zayne noticed his eyes start to focus and sharpen. He could clearly see things across the room that in the morning, due to his sleepy eyes, he wouldn't normally be able to see.