Krimson Mind: The Krimson Cycle Vol. 1

Chapter Two:

James slid the journal under his pillows and lay back down. A glance at the clock on the nightstand showed the time to be 7:30. James reached over and turned the alarm off. It was set for 8 o'clock. He forced himself to sit up and put his feet on the floor. A low, groaning sigh rumbled from his chest. Today was the beginning of what all Dodge City high school seniors called "Demon's Week". The Demon's Week was commonly known as the last week of school to those who didn't have the weirdest school mascot he'd ever heard of.

Every senior had one or two final exams, per day, until they have taken a test from every class. The seniors had been given a new schedule that detailed how their last week of high school was to operate.

James had English Literature and Geometry finals on Monday, World Studies on Tuesday, Psychology on Wednesday, Drama on Thursday, and Chem. Lab on Friday. It was a grueling schedule to say the least. But at its end, was graduation.

James was both grateful and angry about the two exams he would be taking later on in the morning. He loved English Literature, but detested Geometry. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't wrap his mind around the math.

"Might as well get started." James thought to himself.

James stood up from his bed and trudged sleepily to the bathroom. The upstairs bathroom had three doors to it. One door exited into the main hallway. The other doors led from James's room, and Amy's room. It gave a measure of privacy to both James and Amy to be able to go to the bathroom without having to leave their rooms and go into the hallway.

James pointed at his bathroom door and several things happened at once. First off, the door opened and the light turned on all by itself. James walked in and the cold water began flowing into the sink. His toothbrush and toothpaste began to levitate. The toothpaste's cap twisted loose and lowered to the counter all by itself. As James answered the call of nature, the brush moved closer to the toothpaste tube. In turn the toothpaste ejected a bead of bright green, super minty, bad breath killing paste onto the bristles. The tube recapped itself and landed without a noise on the counter. Meanwhile, the brush flew over to James's mouth and began to wage war on yet another case of really nasty, morning style dragon breath.

James finished his business and began to wonder what he would wear to school as he washed his hands. He planned on wearing a t-shirt and jeans. He wondered what t-shirt would look good with his favorite jeans. He walked out of the bathroom, turning off the cold water as he walked by. He pointed at the closet door, and the door slid open all by itself. His favorite jeans floated a foot out of the closet and stopped suddenly, suspended in mid-air by its hanger.

"Now whaa sird?" James asked himself around a mouthful of toothpaste and a still scrubbing toothbrush, which he still hadn't touched with his hands.

Fifteen t-shirts in as many colors began to hover around the still airborne jeans. It seemed to James that the t-shirts were doing some sort of tribal dance around a would-be sacrifice to the t-shirt god. James evaluated them all. Some of the t-shirts were long sleeve, somewhere short, whereas still others had no sleeves at all. Finally, James settled on a short sleeve black t-shirt, that was spinning fast enough to make a whirling dervish dizzy.

"Da blag sird!" James called out after watching the "dance" go on for a minute or two longer.

The rest of the t-shirts floated back to their dresser drawer. James nearly spit toothpaste all over the floor as he watched a bright red long sleeve t-shirt make a vaguely obscene gesture. Then it folded itself up and went back into it place in the drawer. The chosen t-shirt and the jeans landed in a heap on the bed as James returned to the bathroom to finish brushing his teeth.