The One Who Was [ON HOLD]

His Story Part 1

I wanted to ask, but he honestly scared me. The pain in his voice ws the pain of one who knew nothing else. Yet, if he was my father, then he would've had happy times too. What then, could be so awful, so painful, as to make him sound like this?

He must have heard my thoughts, for he sighed heavily and spoke.

"I suppose you want to know how this happened?"

On the word this, he indicated his entire body.

Now that it was out in the open, there was no point in denying it. I gave him a small nod. He grunted as if he had been hoping I would say no, and replied,

"Should've asked earlier then. Bell's about to ring."

As if on cue, the music that signalled the end of class began to play. I groaned, and looked up at him with huge, pleading eyes. He waved me away from him, and I reluctantly turned to walk to my seat. I swung my backpack onto the chair and fell into the seat, wondering how we was going to explain his appearance to the class. Just as I had that thought, his form shimmered. Thousands of shards of blackness shot out from his skin and disappeared. His green scales rippled and retracted, and now I was staring at my English teacher with my father's head. And then, that too, was gone.

He walked over to the classroom door and opened it, allowing the rest of the class entry. They stampeded in, talking and laughing, not even noticing me. Katherine and Kathleen broke off from the group, and came to their accustomed seats by me. They placed their backpacks on the back of their chairs and sat down, almost in unison. 'Mr. Hornswaggle' cleared his throat. The class immeadiately fell silent and filed into their seats.

'Mr. Hornswaggle' went up to the board. He began writing some rules of grammar on it that no one was really paying attention to. I looked straight ahead at the board while fishing around in my pocket for a pen. After finding one, I searched blindly in my backpack for a piece of paper. Once one was extracted, I lay it out on my desk and began to write. Still occasionally looking up at the board, I lost myself in the story. I drowned out my feelings and focused on my characters'. That is, I did until I felt the sharp whack of something on my head. I looked up and saw 'Mr. Hornswaggle' standing there with a ruler in his hands.

Grimacing, I replaced the paper in my backpack and folded my hands in front of me. A model of a perfect student. He nodded, and walked back to the front of the classroom. Now unable to distract myself, I sat there, looking at the board, trying to avoid the mind-numbing boredom. 'Mr. Hornswaggle' droned on and on about the importance of commas as I looked at the clock, waiting for an explanation. When the bell finally rang, the student body surged to their feet. I made to rise, and removed my bookbag from the chair, slinging it over my shoulder, when I heard 'Mr. Hornswaggle's' voice calling my name.

Slightly reluctantly, I walked over to his desk, getting some questioning looks from the students on their ways out. The door slammed shut on the last person, and 'Mr. Hornswaggle' transformed into his previous form. It was not getting any less disconcerting to look at his skin rippling like water and changing. Then, abruptly, he/it grabbed my hand and I hissed. While it was apparently not broken, it was still wounded from his claws. He frowned, and released me, taking hold of my other arm.

He pulled me off my balance and towards the window. The closed window. I closed my eyes and waited for the life to leave my body. I would've fought back, but he was stronger than any human had a right to be. But then again, he wasn't human. Not entirely. This run was taking a lot longer than it should. I opened one eye a crack, and immeadiately closed it again. I repeated the process with my other eye, hoping that I hadn't just seen what I thought I had seen. But there was no doubt.

We were flying.

I opened both eyes, all the way this time, and looked down at my body. I shrieked. I could see through myself. I was completely insubstantial. That was why the glass hadn't shattered around us. That was why my arm didn't hurt anymore. That thing who called himself my father had kidnapped me. I finally realized that I was till screaming, and stopped. Looking over to the side, I realized that I was flying on my own, with no support. Gradually, I came to the conclusion that this was fun. I began swooping and flipping, and was about to try a drive when The Tsal called out in his gravelly voice.

"We had better land."

The wind whipping my face, I yelled back.

"Why? And How?"

He soared closer to me.

"I have something important to show you, and fainting in the air is generally seen as a Bad Idea. As to the how, just dive."

Ignoring the implications of his statement, I tucked my chin in and angled myself towards the ground. Suddenly, falling downwards, the wind stinging my face and bringing tears to my eyes, I could feel my body solidify. It was like little bubbles were popping all over my body, and I was accelerating quickly. As the ground neared I averted my eyes, only to feel my body rotate and be slowly lowered onto the ground. Again opening my eyes, I saw that we were standing in an empty field. There was no one for miles around, and the grass was brown and growing in little pathetic patches.

He sat down on the mud, and gestured for me to do the same. I sat, shading my eyes from the sun.

"Won't they miss us?"

He shrugged, which I took to meant that he either didn't know, or didn't care. Then he raised his clawed hands to his face, almost as if he meant to rip it off. A swirl of sparkly mist latched onto his hands, and he swung them out wide. The mist enveloped us in a glimmering curtain of secrecy. Then he opened his mouth and began to tell his story.

"It was on your 7th birthday, as I'm sure you'll remember. I went to work, noticing that there was an unusual amount of cloud cover. Much like today, in fact. I parked in my usual parking space, but unlike usual, there was a car in the space adjacent to it. It was sleek and black, almost like a shark, and I remember wondering who had enough money for it. I walked around to the back of it, saw the liscence plate. It read

                                                                            I DO KILL"

I shivered, remembering the car that had mysteriously disappeared, taking Dylan with it.