Gauntlet Rite of Ascension Read online

  The hallways were full of students making their way to their lockers and getting their books needed for class. I stopped inside the building and checked my watch. I had three minutes until the first bell. Then another bell three minutes later that let you know you were late.

  I had six minutes all together, plenty of time to get to my locker and then class.

  I tried to calm down and act normal. I walked through the hall avoiding other kids and keeping my head down.

  For some reason everything seemed to smell stronger. The scents permeating my school assaulted my nose and as I passed each student I could easily tell what they had for breakfast. One girl had cereal, another girl ate a donut, while still others only had coffee, and a few stunk from cigarettes and the occasional joint.

  Everyone that passed me held a deeper profile than I was used to. Colors were sharper and the sounds of the crowded hallway began to overwhelm me.

  I made it to my locker and stood there leaning my forehead on it taking deep breaths. I tried to get control of the sensory overload I was experiencing. Maybe I had hit my head harder than I thought.

  “Hey, what the hell happened to you?” I heard my sister say as she walked up to me.

  “What?” I said, startled at her approach. A strong scent of someone else came off her, a familiar, yet hard to define odor.

  “What’s wrong with you? Did you get beat up or something? You’ve got blood on your arm and you’re dirty. Did someone jump you?” She asked with real concern.

  “No, no. I just fell, it’s nothing. Thanks for leaving me, by the way. I had to take the short cut through the woods.” I said, trying to make her feel bad.

  “No problem. Next time, be faster.” She said with a smile, unperturbed.

  “Jerk.” I said.

  “If you don’t like it you shouldn’t be such a tight wad and spend some of the money grandma left us. Get your own damn car.” She said, walking off.

  “Bye bro, have fun today.” She added over her shoulder.

  Maybe she was right. Grandma had left us a large sum of money after her death. I took mine and put it in the bank, intent on using it to help with college. Susan took hers and bought some clothes and her car. The rest she put in the bank for a “vacation” she said she needed after school let out.

  We were twins, not identical, paternal. We were both graduating this year and had different goals. She didn’t take her future as seriously as I did. We were best friends growing up, always together, playing, hanging out. We slowly grew apart at the beginning of high school.

  I guess hanging out with your brother was bad for the rep. It was bound to happen I guess. I missed her though. Maybe things would change after school was over and the pressures of a social life less important.

  “Eric! Eric! There you are. Where the hell have you been? You were supposed to meet me in the library, remember? You wanted to practice your debate prep.” I heard Max say as he walked over to me.

  He was my best friend. We met during our freshmen year. I was on the football team and he was in the chess club. Some of my fellow teammates thought it would be funny to give him a “Texas wedgie”, I didn’t.

  I stepped in and saved him. He hasn’t left me alone since. He is really a good guy. Smart and kind, he spends way too much time online and sees a conspiracy in everything. I loved his enthusiasm.

  “I’m sorry, Susan left without me and I had to walk to school, took me longer than I planned.” I said.

  He came up to me and noticed the blood and dirt. Concern crossed his face.

  “You okay man?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Just fell that’s all. I’m gonna go get cleaned up real quick, meet you at lunch.” I said.

  “Yeah, okay, see you in a bit.” Max said as he continued to look at me with skepticism.

  I hurried down the hall and into the bathroom. I went to the sink and assessed myself. It wasn’t all that bad. I had a smudge of dirt on my face and some small leaves in my hair, my arm looked worse than it was.

  After washing the blood off it looked normal, except for the marks. I checked my clothes and quickly tried to swipe off any leftover dirt. I looked at myself and decided I was presentable.

  The first bell rang. I had three minutes. I turned from the mirror and ran straight into Ricky Roberts. We collided as I was exiting and we both took a step backwards.

  “What tha?” Ricky said.

  Anger starting to show on his face as he saw it was me. Ricky was very athletic. He was tall, strong and had a tendency to be aggressive. He wasn’t a bully, but he didn’t have a problem getting physical when someone got in his way.

  “Watch where the hell you’re going A.W.O.L.” A.W.O.L. was a term some on the football team had given me after I left. Some of the players saw football as a club or an exclusive membership, a privilege. They resented the fact that I quit.

  Especially, since I was good at football. Normally I never let the term bother me. I let it go by without a second thought. What did it matter anyway? These people lived their lives for high school and in five years they would be working some lame job reliving the “glory days”.

  I stopped and stood up standing tall and straight. Ricky outweighed me by about fifty pounds, but I wasn’t a shrinking violet.

  Anger welled up within me, a deep urge to strike out and make him understand that he was beneath me overwhelmed me. I was filled with a need to make my dominance known. To have him understand where he stood on the natural order of things and that was under me.

  I took a step towards him without even realizing it and a slow snarl began to gather deep in my throat. Ricky saw something in my eyes, because he took an involuntary step back.

  I shook my head, getting myself under control. What was wrong with me?

  “My bad, sorry.” I said as I turned to walk past him.

  Ricky just looked at me, still confused, then he said, “Yeah, well, be more careful.” His previous bluster gone.

  I walked away from him and made my way to class. Something about how he smelled clicked and I realized what the smell on my sister was.

  I made it to class with a few seconds to spare and the day of learning started. My first period was calculus, it wasn’t too terribly hard, you just had to keep up so that the material didn’t overwhelm you.

  Next came U.S. History. I always loved the stories about battles and the founding of America, but somehow Mr. Fritter sucked all the fun out of it. I think history teachers are taught how to pull all the enjoyment out of the past. We learned more about dates and places than about the people and events that took place there.

  Third period was Home Ec. I had all my credits full and needed an elective. I decided to take it in hopes of meeting a girl. I figured that’s where they’d all be. Sure, it was full of girls, but none of them were interested in me.

  It was no loss; I learned how to fix buttons and how to bake a cake. I was currently working on making a poncho, it was almost done. All I had left was sewing on the hood.

  After Home Ec. was lunch. The previous episodes of enhanced sensory perception had stopped and I wasn’t assaulted with overwhelming sights, sounds and smells.

  I went to the lunch counter and got a tray, loaded it up with the mystery meat of the day and went to find a seat.

  I turned and saw Max already sitting at our normal seat. Our lunchroom was one large area with long communal seats set up. Four rows of bench seating with a table in the middle. We always sat furthest away from the counter on the far left side of the room. I don’t know why, but we had staked out the territory years ago and no one bothered to sit there.

  I walked up to him as he sat and ate with vigor.

  “Sup.” I said as I sat down.

  “Did you watch that video I sent you last night? The one about the Phoenix lights?” He asked.

  “I wanted to, but I was just too busy doing other stuff.” I said.

  This was a ritual with us. He constantly sent me conspiracy videos and I constantly i
gnored them.

  “This one was ballshit crazy. The military is actually trying to say it was just an exercise, damn that’s old! There was like a thousand eye-witnesses, not to mention the fact that military protocol wouldn’t allow them to engage in exercises that close to a populated area. They think we’re all brain dead idiots.” He said.

  Sometimes I liked to needle him, just for shits and giggles.

  “Why don’t you write your senator? Maybe send the video to channel three. I’m sure they would run it in between this weekend’s bake sale coverage and the hard hitting expose on A.T.M. locations.” I said.

  He looked at me for a second, before using his fork to point at me.

  “I know you think I’m crazy, but I don’t give a damn. Those fuckers are controlling shit and one day you’ll see. One day something will happen and you will say, damn, Max was right all along. Mark my words.” He said.

  “Send me the video again, I’ll take a look.” I said, trying to appease him.

  Max could get real agitated at times, especially when someone thought he was crazy.

  “No you won’t, dick. I’ll send it anyway; maybe you’ll come to your senses.” He said, appeased.

  “So, have you asked Sara out yet?” Changing subjects.

  This time it was me who became the target of ridicule.

  “No, I’m waiting until the right moment. I want to make sure she’s over Ricky, I don’t want to waste it too early.” I said.

  “Yeah, you don’t want to blow your wad too soon. Hey maybe you can take the vagina out of your butt and grow a pair. Ask her out already, don’t be a chicken shit.” He said.

  “That’s easy to say coming from you. How many girlfriends have you had? Online, long distance doesn’t count. You can’t claim to have a girlfriend in Paris who you never have seen and only talk to through Google translate.” I said, trying to turn it on him.

  “Don’t disrespect Annette. She is a beautiful creature and will be here in six months. She has promised.” He said with an air of belief.

  “I’ll believe it when I see it.” I said.

  “So, back to Sara, when are you gonna do it?” He persisted.

  “I don’t know, I heard Fred is having a big blowout tomorrow, I was thinking about asking her to go.” I said.

  “You’re going to ask her to go with you to a party that she probably would have gone to anyway? Why not just ask her to go with you to school? I mean that’s totally romantic.” He chided.

  “I know, I was thinking of taking her to dinner first, so we could have some time together. So she could get to see me outside of class and we could hangout before going to the party.” I answered.

  “Hmm. That’s actually not a bad idea. That way when she realizes you’re a total douche she can dump you at the party and claim innocence.” Max said, then mimicked what he claimed was an exact replica of how Sara talks.

  “I don’t know what happened, I just got lost in this big ole party and had to get the hell away from you.” He finished.

  “You done?” I asked.

  “I guess.” He said.

  “All I’m saying is school’s about to be out, the summer will be filled with people traveling and leaving. A girl like Sara is special and she won’t stay around here for long. You need to move on it if you want to tap that ass before she leaves.” He said.

  “Thanks for your concern. Have you prepared for the debate?” I asked trying to change subjects.

  “Yeah, no thanks to you, where were you anyway? Don’t tell me you fell down, that’s bullshit.”

  I decided to tell him, he was crazy, but he was my best friend. I didn’t keep secrets from him.

  “I don’t know it was the weirdest thing. I was walking to class through the woods, you know, taking the short cut, when I heard a noise.”

  “Wait, wait. You’re telling me you were walking in the woods then heard a noise? What did you do next genius; go investigate like a good horror movie victim?” He asked.

  “Hey, I thought someone might have been in trouble or something, and, yes, I went to investigate. I stumbled on a curled up animal. I think it was a rabbit, it scared the shit out of me and I fell down, bumped my head and woke up with these bug bit on my arm.” I said, showing him.

  He leaned over a little, examining my arm.

  “What else aren’t you telling me?” He asked.

  Damn, he knew me too well.

  “I know it sounds silly, but I dreamt that I saw a large wild wolf. It stood up and came over to me, I pet it and then it bite me, right on my arm. Then I passed out, but when I woke up there was only blood and these bug bites. Weird, huh?” I said.

  “Holy fucking shit. Are you kidding me? You have been bitten by a werewolf. Oh my god you’re a damn monster now!” He said, making fun of me.

  “Whatever, that’s what happened.” I said.

  “Well, if you need some chamomile cream for your bug bites the nurse has some. I used some last week when I got a rash from poison oak.” He said.

  “That’s not why you got that rash, quite lying.” I teased.

  “Bite me.” He said.

  I went to start eating, there wasn’t a lot of time left and I was real hungry. I took a look at the food on my plate and had no interest in the vegetables or bread, my mouth started watering in anticipation of the Salisbury steak, however.

  It was weird. I never really liked their Salisbury steak. I would eat some of it though, just for the nutrients. This time I was ravenous. I started shoveling the meat down faster than I could swallow, shoving big chunks in my mouth. I chanced a look up and saw Max staring at me with disgust.

  “I guess you’re taking this werewolf thing seriously. Or do you always eat like a lunatic?” He asked.

  I paused and slowly started chewing, smiling slightly to hide the worry I was feeling, what if my fall had affected me more than I knew? This was weird. The bell rang and we got up to go to class.

  Chapter 3

  The walk down the hall helped clear my head.

  I went to my locker and got the books needed for lab. I went to my next class and sat down at my table. I was the first one in, which was normal. My teacher came in a second later carrying some books and his lunch bag. He sat down and put the lunch away in a drawer in his desk. He looked up and saw me.

  “Good afternoon Eric, how are you?” He asked.

  “I’m fine, thanks.” I answered.

  Mr. Mason was a good teacher, better than most. He was genuinely excited about teaching and it was evident. He was the type of teacher that challenged us, but did it in a way that made us want to be challenged. He was even good at getting the kids who had no interest in learning engaged.

  He was middle aged, probably around thirty-five. He had a receding hairline and had no qualms about it. He didn’t try to act cool or be someone he wasn’t just to get the kids to like him in hopes that they’d take it easy. Some of the students can be cruel to teachers who are weak.

  “Excited about graduating, I imagine?” He asked.

  “Yeah, I can’t wait. I’m going to Georgetown in a month to take a look around.” I said.

  “Georgetown is a great college; you’ll be a good addition to their student body.” He said.

  By this time other people had started making their way into class. The room soon filled up and I waited for Sara to come in.

  I always waited for her.

  She always came in right at the bell. It was a gift. Today was no different. Just as the bell started to ring, she came in through the door and looked over at me. I was momentarily stunned. She came over and sat down, looked at me and said, “Hey.”

  “Afternoon.” I said.

  I had been her lab partner all year and I still felt awkward. I was such a doofus.

  “Did you finish the diagrams on the cell mitosis?” She asked, pulling out her books and material for today’s lesson.

  “Yeah, I finished it, you?” I asked.

  “Of course. I wouldn’
t let a little mitosis stand in my way.” She said, smiling.

  I smiled back, I couldn’t help it, it was infectious.

  “Okay people, today were going to finish our work on cell identification. We have a bunch of slides to look at and tissue samples to examine. I want everyone to turn on their microscopes and get some samples from the front of the class. Take out your lab folder and start completing the instructions in chapter ten, if you have any questions, just ask.” Mr. Mason said.

  “I’ll go.” Sara said.

  She got up and walked to the front of the class getting our samples. I barely turned my gaze as she turned back. I didn’t want her to catch me staring at her. I could have sworn I saw a slight smile on her face as she walked back.

  “Here you go. I guess you can use the scope and I’ll draw, if you want?” She asked.

  “Yeah, that’s great.” I said.

  We went about labeling, identifying and drawing different cell types. It was boring, but important. I already knew all of this, but it never hurt to go over it again. The class went by with ease.

  I lost track of time. I looked up and saw there were only a few minutes left in the period. I was planning on asking her out today and figured this would be as good a time as any. As the moment of truth arrived I began to get very nervous, my heart sped up and was a physical presence in my ears. I could hear every beat. My hands got sweaty and I almost dropped a tissue sample as I took it back to the front.

  I walked back wondering what to say when I looked up and saw Sara talking to Jake Spelling. Jake’s been in our class for the whole year and pretty much kept to himself. I really didn’t know him, but seeing him talking to Sara made me angry.

  A strong feeling that she was mine filled me. I forgot about my hands and my nervousness and went over to them. I stepped in front of Jake, cutting him off from Sara.

  “Hey.” He said.

  “Oh, sorry, my bad, I didn’t see you there.” I answered.

  I turned and faced him, my back to Sara. I looked at him and the anger and feeling of him encroaching on my territory increased and seemed to flow out of me in an almost visible wave. Jake took another look at me and stepped back.