The Green Mage

The Omamori Charm

All that Martin could see was pitch black darkness, completely devoid of any form of human touch and virtue. It's lonely he thought, levitating in the sorrowful abyss like a plucked rose waiting to wilt. The chill was penetrating his skin, almost as if he could feel them cracking and breaking – like pieces of his matter and soul were slowly being chipped away to be one with the oblivion.

Is this death? Did I die? He inquired, for during his earthly contemplation, he always wondered what death would be like. Would it be like a train losing tracks to never again take passage? Or would it be like jumping from a cliff, but never feeling the earth? These were some of the things Martin thought whenever he finds his mind slipping away – from the earthly realm – and find it somewhere far more grim and sinister.

As this tumultuous thoughts and forces pranced in his mind like a fever of devilish imps, he scarcely heard a voice – until it had repeated itself multiple times with growing frequency, audible even in his personal abyss and to his prancing imps.

"Mr. Martin! Excuse me, Mr. Martin!" said the voice, in a strong and loud tone, breaking Martin from his incorporeal trance. As he regained ties with the physical world, he found himself inside a classroom, with the worldly gaze of hormonal 17-year-olds densely fastened to his person. "Does our topic on Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality development bore you so Mr. Martin?" said his Professor, with a tinge of worried eyes but an overwhelmingly condescending tone that shadowed any sympathy that might've been there. "No sir. Not at all! I'm sorry." Martin said. Embarrassed, his cheeks turned a faint crimson as the suppressed laughter of his classmates pierced the four walls of the room.

As the echoing clang of the school bell collided with the walls of the corridors signaling class dismissal, all the students went out for the day, back to their homes or to their friend's house to "hang" as they'd often like to call it.

Martin, on the other hand, went straight to the hill that overlooked Immaculate Academy – the school he went to. He knew this hill like the back of his hand; the maple tree and the leaves it had bid farewell, and the wild rose-bushes with its delicate gems were familiar sights that he'd watched growing up. He laid in the patch of grass engulfed in paperback maple leaves gazing softly in the vast blue heavens – calm, peaceful, but discontented. Martin had always felt like this; like he was inside an unworldly sphere completely detached from the natural world and its inhabitants; like he walked the whole of the earth every day but had completely forgotten it the next day.

"Mart, your mind's drifting again isn't it?" A man said, standing tall at the side of Martin with a genuine and kind smile. His name is Alan, Martin's best friend since they were kids. He had black-brown eyes with a noticeable glint and strength that paired well with his dark wavy hair and imposing physique. He had this air of maturity and ruthlessness about him – the same kind of otherworldly energy that Martin had, but somehow, completely different. "Hey Al, what's up?" Martin replied quickly after noticing Alan's presence. He sat straight up as Alan joined beside him in the patch of grass. Alan was the only one who could easily break Martin's daydreaming; normally, people would need to shout at him to have him respond, but Alan only had to be there.

"Tomorrow's the big day, huh?" Alan said, with a slightly nervous and cracking voice that puzzled Martin. "What? Oh, you mean, my birthday? He replied, intensely eyeing Alan who had this sort of restrained panic and agitation in his face. "Oh- yeah! Of course your birthday. I actually got you something, figured I'd give it now in case I couldn't tomorrow." Alan said, handing a small box cheaply wrapped in crumpled construction paper. Martin took it from his hands, gave Alan a look, and opened it. He saw inside a piece of blue navy cloth with sewed on Japanese texts and gold-threaded flowers. "It's an omamori charm, meant to keep you from all harm and danger," Alan said, with that once again ingenuous smile. "Keep it with you always."

"I definitely will, thanks," Martin replied as he placed the charm back in the cheaply wrapped box and gave Alan the tightest hug he could give. "Thank you for always being there, Alan." Martin continued as he felt the soft and cool breath of Alan at the edge of his walnut neck.

"I got to get going now, Mom told me to come home early today, hey, I'll see you okay?" Alan said, nudging Martin in the shoulder as he headed down the hill in a conspicuous hurry. A bit perplexed, Martin wondered why Alan acted the way he did, and what he had on his mind. He also wondered what he meant when he said "if he couldn't see him tomorrow" because for almost 8 years they always met up at the hill after their classes.