“Feeling sorry? That's not a usual look for you.”
I felt like groaning even more as I turned to see Raiya standing behind me. I sighed. “Why would I feel sorry?” I asked, my tone hard and borderline mean, definitely unwelcoming. “I didn’t realize I was the one still wearing a Rosemont uniform.”
Seriously, why did she keep wearing it? Surely she had enough money for new clothes when she transferred here.
Raiya frowned before apparently letting the insult slide. “I saw him.”
“What?”
“I saw Mikey. He's been camping in Shoreside Park these last two nights,” she told me.
I looked at her and then rolled my eyes. “Why would I believe you?” I wasn’t really interested in her answer, so I started to walk away.
I was surprised when she answered anyway. “I don't know. You're really just like everyone else.”
“What?” I turned around and looked back at her. “What do you mean by that?”
Her eyes met mine for the briefest second before she looked away. “The truth is generally something most people don't want to believe,” she said, shrugging. With that, she turned on her heel and started walking away. “And even if they accept it, they generally don't want to do anything about it.”
I just watched her as she headed off, dumbfounded. Then I clenched my fists and headed toward the swim team locker rooms. Like she would tell me the truth. She didn't care about me, or Mikey . . . It didn't matter.
I shook my head. No, it didn't matter now. All that mattered was today. The swim meet was on, and I had a date with Gwen. The college scouts were back, and I needed to be at my best.
*☼*
“All right, Dinger!”
I grinned as the cheering crowd once more sang my praises. I'd finished up the first race, and of course, I'd won. My groupies were just as excited about it as I was.
“That was really great!” Coach Uzzy cheered. “Our school's already ahead of Clearburg!”
All thanks to me, I smiled. Just in time for a photo op from one of the local newspapers, too.
“It's good we're doing okay without Mikey here, too,” Uzzy added.
“Yeah, it’s too bad he’s not here,” I agreed.
One of my teammates spoke up. “I thought he might at least come to wish us luck or something like that.”
“Ugh, no, I don’t think so. I heard he was in some kind of rehabilitation center,” Jason replied.
I stood up and left. I didn't want to think about Mikey. I didn't really want to care about him, either.
The next race was the one hundred freestyle. I checked my goggles, my cap, and made sure I looked intense for any possible camera shots coming my way. Briefly, I glanced over at the block next to me, only to see some teammate of mine–not Mikey–climb up.
“Swimmers, to your marks!” the announcer called out as the next race was getting started.
“Ow!” the swimmer next to me suddenly cried out in pain. The Central swimmer next to me was gone, pushed aside.
Mikey had arrived, and he didn’t like being replaced.
I, along with half the other swimmers, stood up and looked at the judges, who were apparently in a bit of frenzy. I stole a glance back at Mikey, just in time for the buzzer to go off.
“Beep!” The buzzer went off, sending Mikey went off along with it.
It took a full two hundredths of a second for me to jump off and follow him; then race was really on.
No one in the stands knew what was really going on, but they weren't picky. They just went along with it. I could half-hear cheers for Team Dinger and also some for Mikey as they grew louder while we quickly became the forerunners of the laps.
I glanced over at Mikey, to see him slicing through the water in a clumsy but powerful manner.
Then a stream of power–light and energy–forced itself out of Mikey, propelling him to the wall with supernatural speed.
He won.
It's probably a good thing Mikey won, I comfortingly reasoned, as time returned to normal and I kept moving. I was going to finish in second place for the first time in my life, but it was the first time in my life I didn't mind (that much, anyway– and I figured Mikey would be disqualified).
After grazing the wall with my fingers, I pulled off my goggles and turned to face my friend. “Well, Mike, congratu–”
My nice (though somewhat forced) congratulations cut off when I saw Mikey had disappeared. “Where'd he –?” I sputtered as I was forcefully dragged under the water, choking as the chlorine water filled my nose and burned in my throat.
I kicked hard, and managed to get up for air for a brief second before I was plunged into the depths of the pool.
I squinted into the water, opening my eyes as I struggled to break free. “Mikey!” I gasped, seeing it was my one-time friend forcefully dragging me further underneath the water.
Or was it? I wondered. Mikey didn't look like himself. His eyes were glowing eerie green again, and a cloud of darkness was fluffing around him.
“You've always had it easy, Dinger!” Mikey told me, the water distorting his voice. “Now it’s my turn!”
I felt the sudden rise of pressure and panic. Once more, I tried desperately to escape, letting out a stream of bubbles as I gasped in surprise and terror. Flailing my arms and flaying my legs, I struggled desperately to get free.
And while this was happening, Mikey transformed. Octopus-like legs sprouted from his sides, tangling themselves all around me, squeezing out what little air was left in me even more relentlessly.
I looked down at my wrist. Nothing. I reached out for it anyway, hoping against all hope I would be able to transform and get out of the mess I was in.
But the ugly tentacles were too much for me. My arms were spread out, and I could not reach the mark. I closed my eyes as I felt the onset of drowning slowly sinking in. It was hopeless, I realized.
Then all of a sudden, I was free.
I opened my eyes and surged to the surface of the pool, gasping. I hurried to get out of the water. Some teachers and a few of my friends looked relieved to see me and moved to help me. I noticed Gwen was open-mouthed with shock.
“Dinger, are you all right?” Uzzy called.
“Dinger!” Jason grabbed me by the arm. “What happened? Where's Mikey?”
“You okay?”
“You need anything?”
“Can you stand?”
There were a million questions by a million people, and I didn't have the patience or proper courtesy for them. I looked down at the pool, wondering what had happened. The pool water had turned black and murky. Other tentacles reached out from the water, bursting out of the room and curling around people in the stands.
What caused Mikey to let me go?
I got my answer as Jason brought over a towel for me. “Man, first you get tackled by Mikey, and then that crocodile jumping in the water–”
“Crocodile?” I asked. That was not something I was expecting.
Then it dawned on me. Elysian had saved me. I cringed. I was going to owe him one for that.
Before I could ask anything else, the water surged out of the pool. People scrambled to get away and hurried out the nearest exits. A giant tangle of two creatures filled the room.
“Elysian,” I muttered.
I started pushing people out toward the door, shuffling around Coach Uzzy and Jason and others. Some were looking to me like they needed direction. So I decided to give it to them. “Let's get out of here!” I cried.
☼16☼
Adversary
Students were screaming, bricks were splaying, and chairs were overturned. Needless to say, it was pandemonium.
Somehow during the chaos, my reflexes took over. I shuffled people out of the pool area, desperately looking for Gwen as the stream of people poured through the doors. Where was she? I hoped she hadn’t gotten hurt.
My eyes flew to my wrist. I blinked at the blank patch of skin before I remembered I’d quit.
I cursed silently to myself.
The roar of the slug-like glob bellowed out behind me, and that was when I decided I’d had enough of doorman duties. Seeing the stream of people headed outside starting to dry up, I dropped the door and headed over to the stands to look for Gwen.
Before I could get too far, the doors burst open to reveal the policemen–or should I say some kind of SWAT force–had arrived.
I’m not sure if the loss of subtlety was helpful.
Mikey’s monstrous, octopus-like body was tangled up with Elysian’s; a tentacle lashed out and slammed through the school windows, shattering the glass. I ducked behind the stands and finally caught sight of Gwen.
Her legs seemed to be stuck under one of Mikey’s tentacles, unable to move.
“Gwen! What’s wrong?” I asked, coming up behind her.
It was then I saw Tim Ryder on the ground next to her, covered in one of Mikey’s many tentacles. He was, fortunately for me, unconscious.
Oh great, I thought. This again?
“Hammy, you’ve got to help us out of here,” Gwen whispered. “Tim just came over to say hi while the race was on and then . . . ”
Her voice trailed off and I assumed she began talking about some heroic-type effort Tim put forth in protecting her. All I could think about what how much I’d seen her texting lately, and about how much I suddenly wanted to look at her phone.
A surge of jealousy ripped through me, burning through my blood. Tim’s body twitched on the ground, bringing me back to the moment.
A ragged, out-of-breath Starry Knight suddenly appeared behind us. “Get back!” she gasped in warning. “It’s not safe!”
Her bow was out, and she slashed through the pudgy octopus arm in a single swipe, breaking Tim, still comatose, free of its oppressive hold. The part of the tentacle attached to Mikey’s body twisted around and swished back to its owner. I watched as it managed to flick Elysian in the face, who, I couldn’t help but notice, was having trouble controlling the beast.
As Gwen tried to wake Tim up, Mikey roared and broke free, launching himself through the wall of the building. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Starry Knight take flight before I could stop her. Starry Knight began unleashing another storm of arrows at Mikey. The arrows ripped through the tentacles, sending several pieces of torn flesh down onto the floor and pool.
Gross.
“After them!” a policeman ordered.
They jogged after the monster. I looked down at Gwen, practically sobbing over Tim. I’d have to deal with this later, I decided. I was just about to follow Starry Knight and Elysian when I heard a very feminine, very evil laugh coming from above him. I looked up and saw a floating woman of some kind.
This Sinister was certainly maleficent in her demeanor. Huh . . . It's not the bluish one, I noticed. It was the one from my vision. Alcyonë.
My fists clenched as I recalled her earlier conversation with Orpheus; she’d done something to Mikey, I was sure of it. “What did you do to him?”
Alcyonë looked down at me, surprised to find someone paying attention to her, no doubt. “I didn’t do anything to him. He did this to himself. Sure, I prodded him in the right direction, but this is all his doing. There is no rescuing him at this point. His Soulfire is under my control.”
I was just calculating my chances of managing to punch her when a familiar-looking arrow of light shot through the room.
Alcyonë flinched to the side, but not enough to escape the arrow entirely. “Augh!” she cried out as the arrow pierced her. She slumped down to the ground, far from defeated but close to a retreat.
I was just about to mock the jolly-green jerk as she curled up on the hard floor when I was struck (hard) from the behind.
The blow from the tentacled monster sent me reeling back into the pool. Starry Knight immediately sent an arrow slashing through Mikey’s body, and Elysian let out a strong whiplash, sending Mikey’s body careening into the wall of the cafeteria.
“You’re next, Alcyonë,” Starry Knight announced, turning her attention back to the green-tinted lady.
Alcyonë wrinkled her nose in disdain. “How do you intend to defeat me? You couldn’t before.”
The violet eyes of the warrior held steady as she drew the bow back. “I have my ways,” she spoke softly, letting the arrow fly.
This time, Alcyonë was smart (or lucky) as she ducked. But it was too close for her comfort. “I think I’ll leave my minion to deal with you,” she said with malice, before disappearing.
Starry Knight frowned before turning her attention to Mikey. That was when I began to panic. Even though I was mad at Mikey, I didn’t want Mikey to be destroyed. Or the school, which was also taking quite a beating.
I hurried to the side of the pool and grabbed my sports gear. A policeman held me back as I tried to go out and catch up with them. “Stop! Let me go,” I yelled at the policeman.
“Sit tight, kid. Let the adults handle this.”
Kid!? Ugh. “Starry Knight!” I called.
Despite the noise, her violet eyes fluttered to mine. Her hair fell gracefully behind her in gentle waves, and her wings fluttered delicately, belying the solid strength held within. I suddenly felt overwhelmed, as though I’d betrayed her–that I too was a monster, overcome by evil and consumed with helplessness.
I’d have to worry about it later.
“That demon is a person!” I called out. “Please don’t kill him!”
The elegant warrior looked over at me. “I told you not to get involved,” she said, her words cold and sharp.
“You can't kill him.”
“He is corrupted. It is my duty to seal away the Sinisters and all their demons.”
Really? I thought. It took me to be a civilian before she would tell me the specifics of her job? Ugh, there was no time to call her out on it. I’d get to it later. “He's a human. That lady did something to him to make him this way. We have to turn him back,” I argued.
Starry Knight hardened her gaze as she lowered her bow. “That lady, as you call her, is the Sinister of Envy, Alcyonë. If he became this way because of her, he must break through on his own. And at this point, it’s not looking good. If envy is the root of the problem, there has be something done to break its power,” Starry Knight told me.
That meant about nothing to me. “But there is hope,” I insisted. “I'm not going to take the easy way out and say it's useless to try.”
She said nothing, but her eyes flickered back over the monster, and a moment later, she had jumped high into the room, and transformed her bow into a harp.
The waves of music overcame me, but instead of feeling soothed, enchanted, or strangely nostalgic as I usually did, I felt as small and ugly as Mikey was starting to look.
Mikey slowly sank down to the floor in a heavy pile of flesh. He did not transform back into his normal self, but remained there, planked on the floor. Elysian looked questioningly up at Starry Knight, and she shook her head as she put down the harp. The two of them came down looked over Mikey, whispering to each other.
I suddenly wished I was over there too, listening to what they were talking about.
The police broke away from where they had been standing and hurried over, cuffing the boy/monster. They began to drag him away as some sense of normalcy returned, and I could hear others in the stands, those who hadn’t made it out of the building, crying for help.
Starry Knight and Elysian both then turned to go.
“Wait!” I called back, but Elysian only let out a snort, and hurried off faster.
But Starry Knight looked at me; I knew she couldn’t stay. And when she left, I felt a strong wave of nausea rise up within me I knew had more to do with my own actions than Mikey’s fate.
I glanced down at my wrist again and felt numb.
☼17☼
Hollow
The first bell of the day rang. “If every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings,” I muttered darkly, “I'll bet when that bell rings someo
ne dies.”
“Entirely possible,” Poncey agreed as he slid into his seat near me. “I don't know if it's all one person though. I think just a little bit of me dies every time that bell goes off.”
“If a bit of you dies, I'll bet it's from your brain,” Jason grinned as he too took his seat.
“You don't have any room to talk, Jase,” Poncey argued. “I'm the one who got a better grade on my Biology midterm.”
I silently groaned some more as I tuned out my friends' arguments. Normally I would have joined them (and made them both out to be sorry figures) but today I just didn't feel like I had any energy to do so. I’d gotten to sleep relatively early (all things considered), but I was just tired.
Or maybe tired of. There was always that to consider.
The whole day of today had to be a big joke, I mused. Everyone in the school, it seemed, had grown tired of last week’s news, the weekend managing to divert attention to other matters.
The news was no help, of course. It’s a frightening, terrifying world to live in after discovering the news doesn’t like to tell the truth oftentimes. There was little to no mention of the demon forces at work in Mikey, and Starry Knight and Elysian were left out of the story as much as possible. Those who were injured in the attack were not named over the news, but I knew there were quite a bit; the rumors were swirling around faster than draining water in a bathtub.
I knew from personally seeing it Tim wasn’t the only one who was in the hospital. Mrs. Smithe had also been hit by one of Mikey’s many suction-cupped limbs, as well as some other students, teachers, and even the librarian, Trixie Brain. (I wasn’t exactly sorry to hear about her.)
I’d rather have liked to forget them as much as I’d have liked to forget Mikey’s unnatural form lying crocked on the cafeteria floor, bound in extra-large handcuffs.
But what was even more impossible to forget was the heaviness I was carrying around in my chest today.
What’s wrong with me?