“Go to America, they said! It will be fun, they said! New experiences and opportunities they said!!!”

The words echoed in a dark and damp bloody ritual room as a man sat with his back against a rather ominous looking stone alter. His only clothing was a bloodstained robe that looked too small for his large frame and a second similarly stained piece of a torn robe was wrapped around his waist. Despite his apparent physical health, he sat with his legs pulled tightly against his chest and tremors shook his body. If someone were to look into this man’s eyes, they would see the eyes of someone feeling completely out of their element. His complexion was pallid and eyes wide, darting from one grisly scene in the stone chamber to the next. The unfolding scene caused his breathing to increase in tempo before his eyes closed and he tried to slow it down and take more gradual and purposeful breaths.

“It’s okay, you are going to be . . . okay.” He said, his tone of voice cracking from the stress.

After taking a few calming breaths, he looked up at the stone ceiling. The sharp stalactites reaching down like stone fingers from above. The man, panicked and confused, was unsure of how he found himself in such a situation. Almost naked, in a dark stone chamber with what might have been sigils written in blood and surrounded by the bodies of more robed figures than he cared to count at the moment.

Perhaps we should introduce this individual before progressing too much and leaving anyone guessing or confused. To better understand the reasons for the frightened figure’s choice of dress, panic, and the state of the dark cavern he was in we must go back a few hours. We must also travel to a different part of the physical plane. This won’t be any trouble for you but know that the powers involved in such a feat are immense. Thus, you should be suitably impressed. As a narrator, I am a great and powerful cosmic being and will know if you are not. Regardless, I am digressing, and we should get back to the story. That is after all, I assume, why you are here.

. . . . . . .

               Alexi was not having a good day. After graduation he had promised himself that he would never again ride in one of those horrid yellow contraptions as long as he lived. The contraption against which Alexi held such distain was, of course, a yellow American school bus. If one were to ask Alexi what kind of vendetta he had against the American public school transportation system he would respond with the following words, as he had many times in the presence of his friends. “The school bus is a yellow American torture machine designed to carry innocent children to eight hours of prison and suffering five out of the seven days in a week. Then they use bared windows and three-meter tall, spiked gates to keep them inside while attempting to bribe them into complacency and obedience through offerings of cheap chocolate milk and cheese sticks!” If approached while in a better mood he may tacitly admit that the cheese sticks did kind of work.

Alexi Andrysiak had come from Ukraine to study in America with relatives as part of a foreign exchange program under the encouragement of his family and had quickly developed some very strong opinions about the school system. He had initially frequently tried to escape from the school premises at any opportunity, much to his cousin Henry’s embarrassment. Unfortunately, Alexi was forced to eventually accept the fact that the lunch lady was much faster than a teenager in a wheelchair. In the end, Alexi graduated from San Diego High School with his cousin and went on to college specializing in history with the goal to go anywhere else but San Diego to work.

However, four years after graduating from the University of Los Angeles with a degree in history he found himself facing a terrifying reality. In an already competitive job market and coming from a foreign background his options were severely limited. In the end the only position he could get was as a world history teacher . . . at San Diego Highschool.

Alexi sat once again inside the horrid yellow contraption; his wheelchair attached to the same space as when he studied at the very same high school that he now worked at. He felt a sharp impact on the back of his head and turned around to see the collectively shocked faces of this year’s class, fifteen students looked back at him with wide eyes. One, a smaller girl named Daniela, pointed across the aisles at a taller girl wearing all designer clothes. She huffed loudly and exclaimed, “Seriously Dany?” Daniela just looked down and began reading her book again, trying to tuck herself out of sight behind the leather seating.

“Priscilla, what was that?” Alexi asked, maintaining his calm.

“What was what Mr. Anders” Priscila responded, her air of self-importance practically oozing from her very presence.

“What was the object that struck the back of my head?” Alexi asked again, working to maintain his patience. He loved his students, he really did. Some of them just made it harder to love them all the time.

Once again Daniela looked up from her reading and pointed at the aisle behind Alexi, on the ground was a tiny airplane. Emphasis on the tiny. Alexi was actually pretty impressed by the craftsmanship and found himself forgetting for a moment why he was irritated. Finally remembering, he looked back up at Priscila and said, “You are much to old for such things.” He then leaned over in his chair and picked up the plane and continued, “But your work is actually quite impressive, so we’ll ignore it this time. It actually reminds me of the exhibit that we are on our way to see about American pilots in the Pacific during the Island hoping campaigns against the Japanese.”

His cousin Henry, coincidentally the basketball coach at Sand Diego High School, quickly interrupted him before he could get going on one of his lectures. “Woah, let’s hold it right there Alex.” Referring to Alexi’s Americanized first name. “We don’t want to spoil the surprise now do we?”

“You can spoil any surprise you want for me Mr. Andrich.” Said Rose Huntington, one of the older, though not nearly old enough, students.

“Yeah, I don’t think so Ms. Huntington.” Said Alexi.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“What if it’s just sitting next to me to keep me company?” she shot back while trying, and failing, to appear innocent.

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen.” Replied Henry, trying to put a firm end to the line of discussion.

“Common, it’s not like your vamp of a cousin can do anything to stop us Mr. Andrich” said Rose, thoroughly crossing several lines both socially and politically as Alexi began seriously considering trying to hit her across the U.S. Mexican border.

This was one of Alexi's greatest grievances and one of the reasons why he found it difficult to love some of his students all of the time. Some of them were entitled pricks (Priscila Gates), some of them were completely inappropriate (Rose Huntington), and some of them could be complete idiots (Redacted). Though Alexi would never say it to their faces or to their parents. They could also be cruel. A foreign born, paralyzed, pale man with a hint of an Eastern European accent was a treasure trove of potentially exploitative material for name calling and gossip. Though it was generally said outside of his presence, he was often referred to as the vamp because of his pale skin, a result of being far more attracted to books than going outside where people looked at him, and his light accent. He loved working with high schoolers and trying to help them have the best experience that they could have. That didn’t mean that high schoolers couldn’t be despicable human beings at times. Despite this he was generally well liked and enjoyed teaching his students. He did not, however, enjoy riding the bus.

“That kind of language is not ever acceptable Ms. Huntington. We will be talking after the trip, and you will be apologizing to Mr. Anders.” Said Henry before adding, “And you will be doing extra laps tomorrow to make up for your behavior.”

‘Ah my knight in shining denim.’ Thought Alexi. He had been defended by Henery since he arrived in the U.S., he just wished that Henry would trust him to stand up for himself for once.

“Alright, let’s quickly go down the list to make sure that everyone that wants to go to the museum is actually on the bus. Unless you have something else to add miss Huntington?” Began Henry, pulling out a clipboard of his bag.

“No Mr. Andrich.”

She said while pouting. As her brother Sam pulled her down into her seat and hissed in her ear, “Just can it rose.”

Henry Then began listing off the names of those who had signed up for the World War II history field trip. “Anna Allan, Maryn Anderson, Priscila Gates, Keven Hunt, Samuel Huntington, Rose Huntington, Kiyo Itadashi, Silvia Lancaster, Elizabeth Muller, Carter Millers, Chris Olsen, Daniela Santos, Rebecca Shole, Ezrin Smith, Gabriel Torres.”

As he spoke, listing off the names, the accompanying responses of “Here,” “Present,” “Yo,” and Priscila’s response (Alexi’s personal favorite) “Gracing you all with my presence!”

As the routine was performed, Alexi found himself glancing around the bus and at the students as he waited to get to introducing what kinds of exhibits they would be able to see that day. Henry was slapping Rose’s hand away as she tried to slip her hand into his while he was listing names, a sadly common occurrence. Priscila was brushing her hands through her golden hair gilded with what Alexi suspected might actually be gold, believe it or not reader but this was actually considered normal as well. Kiyo, the Japanese foreign exchange student, drawing something from some anime, yeah that has to happen at least three times a day with the third being a sign that it’s almost time to free the students from their torture. Then Alexi looked back towards the front of the bus where the driver was still absent and sighed.  Then, above the aisle, floating in the air, he spotted something very much outside of the ordinary.

There was a slight crack in the air, as if a pane of glass had been partially shattered midair with light seeping from behind it. ‘hmmmm’ thought Alexi. ‘That’s not normal.’ It took him another fraction of a second to realize that the strange optical illusion was above his cousin’s head. It took him another fraction to realize that the cracks were growing and spreading through the air. The growth of the crack seemed to be accelerating. As Alexi opened his mouth to give his cousin a warning the air appeared to give way. The cracks exploded outward and open, filling the space with endless piercing white light. There wasn’t time to react, and all of the occupants found themselves engulfed in the widening tears as a crack of sound filled their ears, followed by crushing silence.

Alexi found himself in complete and utter agony. He tried to scream but couldn’t hear his voice. The feeling of every molecule in his body being slowly ripped apart, layer by layer and then atom by atom. Eventually he couldn’t even tell if he had a body anymore to be feeling pain, but the agony continued

‘This . . . really . . . sucks!’

Was all he could mentally consider as the pain and torture continued unmaking every part of his being but the single part that made him Him.

‘If this . . . is death . . . I wish that it would just . . . be done.’

[NOTICE]

A robotic feminine voice sounded in the white void and a message appeared before his mental eye.

[PHYSICAL RECONSTITUTION IN PROCESS]

‘Woah . . . that feels weird’ thought Alexi as he felt the shadow of sensation returning to his senses.

[BODY RECONSTRUCTION IN PROCESS, SEARCHING ARCHIVES FOR BEST MATCH]

‘Match?! Match to what? Answer me lady! Woah! I think that I can feel again.’ He thought in excitement as the impression of sensation became and actual tingling feeling spreading out from his core being.

[SELECTION MADE]

[GIFTING SPECIAL ATTRIBUTE]

{SUCCESS}

[DEVELOPING PRIMARY SKILLS]

[SUCCESS]

[LANGUAGE UPDATE IN PROCESS, PLEASE STANDBY]

‘Standby? I don’t have a choice lady. I CAN’T MOVE!’ Alexi continued to mentally scream in indignation.

{SUCCESS]

[BODY AND SOUL RECONSTRUCTION AND INCORPORATION COMPLETE]

[REINCARNATION SUCCESSFUL]

‘Reincarnation!? What!! Slow down I need to process these things lady!!!!’

[WORLD LOCATION SELECTION COMPLETE, HAVE A NICE DAY!]

Suddenly a new sensation took over and Alexi suddenly felt like he was falling. Down, down, and further down. Faster and faster while the light faded away and his body failed to head his command and scream. Eventually his pace slowed down. Slowing. Then stopping. As he felt his being forcefully shoved into something that didn’t quite fit.

He was lying down on something cold and hard. ‘Probably stone. Definitely feels like stone’ He thought.

“waa . . . w . . . haaaa . . . t . . . . . . . . . ha . . . happ . . . ened?” he mumbled out though his mouth as he felt like he’d both fallen a great distance onto his back, while also like he’d been relaxing there for a while.

“wh . . .ere . . . . . . . . . aaam . . . I?” He tried saying in an attempt to get some kind of assistance as he felt his panic mounting.

[REQUEST RECEIVED, PLAYING STANDARD GREETING] the same robotic feminine voice droned in his head. Then music from some fantasy game started playing and a new voice appeared in his head and all around him saying something in a rather chipper voice, suspiciously similar to that of certain elf queen from a popular fantasy trilogy, that would mark the greatest shock of his life

[Greetings traveler. Welcome to Loreal, your new home!]