My ceiling. When did I start calling it that? It’s not mine, technically. It is the ceiling, the one in my room. I don’t own it, it’s not mine, and the only real defining attributes of it were put there by other people. The dent from TJ’s first intrusion to my room, the black burn mark from Nia’s outbursts, the scratches that TJ’s cards have caused. It’s stunning how reassuring it is to rest on my bed and look at the ceiling. Remembering that I’ve lived a life with other people. TJ, and Nia, even Thomas and Crystal. Mr. Virgo, Mr. White, the Krauses, Professor Delta. It’s annoying, but for whatever reason Rahj comes into my head as well. He was a quiet kid who TJ dragged along with us in India for a minute, kinda like me. But we had to kill him, he was our target. TJ’s actions there probably got him killed, and as infuriating as that is I can’t do anything about it. It’s been months since we’ve heard or seen him. He probably was so against killing Rahj because Rahj reminded him of me. Or maybe he’s just against killing in general. I don’t know when I got so soft, but that mentality has been getting to me too. I guess each person has a life. If somebody as nice as TJ didn’t consider himself worthy of deciding when to end somebody's life, why can I?
Classes are even more boring than I would’ve thought possible, all because he’s gone. That’s so weird. I mean, I was doing fine until I met him. Now that I’ve experienced what it’s like to have classes with him though, to live life with him…I guess I have something to compare my life to now. I miss him, but I’m not going to see him again or anything. So why does my brain not seem to understand that I should stop caring?
“TJ…This is your fault. Take some damn responsibility.”
“What is it with people blaming me today?”
“WHAT?!” There’s no way but I could’ve sworn I heard TJ talk to me, “T-TJ? Are you with me?”
“Are you with me?” He asks back in a horrible impression of my voice, the vent leading into my room being popped open by TJ. I pop up in disbelief, staring at him like he could disappear if I so much as blink. “For the record,” He hops into my room and turns on the lights, smiling broadly as he turns back to me and puts his hands on his hips. “I’m totally with you.”
“You…” My chest feels heavy for a moment, and it gets really hot in my room. Some pressure seems to build up behind my eyes and my nose burns for a moment, “You fucking bitch…” I barely manage to say, my voice is an octave higher than normal and I can scarcely get the words past the rock that’s wedged itself in my throat. I can’t stop a grin from forming on my face. His green eyes glisten like emeralds, an optimistic sparkle underneath his sharp irises. I wrap my arms around him in a hug, and he gives me a huge hug back. We clutch desperately to each other for a few seconds, and for the moment I don’t want to let him go at all. “I thought you were dead. I missed you, you dumbass.” We pull apart, both of us still resting our hands on each other’s shoulders.
“Well…I gave it my best shot. Death doesn’t seem to like me much, I just keep on living. I’ve lived every single day so far, of my whole life! I haven’t died once.” He remarks with a giggle, patting my shoulder before letting go and jumping onto my bed. “Not for lack of trying though. On the topic of near-death experiences for me, Nia.”
“What about her?"
“I met her already, and that was cool and all. But Mercury, I need to ask for the biggest favor of my life.” His eyes look intensely at me, it’s an expression that TJ’s carefree attitude made me think he wasn’t really capable of. He’s serious, more than serious. I can’t let TJ down.
“Short of jumping off a bridge, I’m sure I’ll be able to help out. What’s up?”
"We need to leave. Nia’s coming with us, but I need you, and we need to kidnap Jasmine.” I must’ve misheard him. No, wait, it’s all making sense. I tsk and cover my face with my hands in embarrassment, how did I not realize I was dreaming until now?
“I should’ve known this was a dream, there’s-” TJ grabs my wrist and pulls me to him. Our faces are inches away from each other, his green eyes seem deep and dangerous as he breaks off my thoughts. I wouldn’t be able to dream in such vivid detail. Feeling his pulse through his palm, the soft exhales of his as we stare at each other, and the slight static electricity that seems to emanate off his hair. Static electricity? What’s up with that…?
“Mercury. Listen to me. You’re not dreaming. I need your help. The Principal is…”
****
It’s unbelievable. We’re all being tracked? He plans to kill anybody who takes a step out of line? We’re protecting the United States, that’s what we’ve always been told. Amassing more Evolved is necessary for that, isn’t it? TJ wouldn’t lie though, not to me, not now. It’s hard to believe, but if Nia truly came around to his side like he said then maybe his words hold credence. Even if they don’t…
I sigh and smile softly leaning back on my bed and resting my head against the wall. He’s so… “Fun.” I whisper out, before meeting TJ’s eyes. “TJ. I trust you, I’ll help you with this.” Life is boring. People are annoying, they piss me off. They’re stupid, and never do anything. They’re balls of contradictions that lie and pretend in order to get what they want. I’m so sick of that world, of just doing what I’ve been told to do without having any say in it. My life sucked before I met TJ, and it sucked when he left. He’s back now, I don’t care if he’s telling the truth. I'm going to stick with him and live how I want. “But why are we kidnapping Jasmine? If you want to be morally superior to the Principal I don’t know why you’re starting with kidnapping a 14 year old girl.”
TJ snorts, before he starts explaining the plan. “Look, we have to be crazy careful. Only a few of us can get out, namely a group of 4 or 5. Since I’m breaking us out I’m picking you and making sure you come with me. Nia’s mom would get blackmailed if Nia was still here so she has to come with. Nia will demand I bring Crystal, and so that’s 4. Jasmine makes 5. Now we have to kidnap Jasmine because-” He’s cut off mid-sentence by an alarm that blares. I’ve never heard the alarm before, it screeches incessantly at us. TJ frowns slightly, but doesn’t actually look confused. He says something but I can’t hear it over the shrill ringing of the alarm.
“TJ, WHAT’S HAPPENING?” I call out to him over the alarm. He turns back to me with a guilty smile on his face, a small blush on his cheeks and a nervous glimmer in his eyes. He scratches his cheek with one finger and I barely hear what he says.
“This might be from me trashing the Principal’s office to delete the security footage of me and Nia…” WHAT!?
“WHAT!? YOU TRASHED THE OFFICE!?” I exclaim, flabbergasted by his idiocy. He nods, and his head flicks to the door, drawing my attention to it. I look over at the door, just in time to see it get kicked open by Mr. Virgo. Shit! TJ’s going to get caught! I whip back to him and he’s gone, almost like he was a ghost. Mr. Virgo rushes to me and grabs my collar, slamming me against the wall and shouting at me.
“MERCURY, EXPLAIN YOURSELF!” He’s trying to force a confession out of me, instead of giving me the chance to say I didn’t do anything. The other teachers are probably doing the same thing to other students. He pulls back and slams me against the wall again, “WHY DID YOU THINK IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO BREAK INTO THE PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE!?” His voice somehow manages to exceed the alarm in volume and I wince when his spit flicks onto my face as he screams.
“I DIDN’T SIR, I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT!” He seems annoyed, and he tosses me back onto my bed before storming out. I’m stuck staring up at my ceiling, where TJ’s head is poking out of the vent. I’m basically frozen in place by his audacity. When he gives me two thumbs up I slowly flash him a thumbs up of my own, and then he disappears into the vent.
The alarm echoes for another hour, forcing me to stay awake as it blares through the school. Even without the alarm, I wouldn’t have fallen asleep again. TJ’s back. And he’s given me a lot to think about.
- - - - - - - -
“Jay.” That voice slithers into my ears, and penetrates into my brain. He wears a black suit, his limbs are long and thin. His legs stretch out like a spider’s from his body, and rest crossed as he sits on the side of my bed. He’s in my room, the Principal is. My heart races and my breathing quickens, I can barely manage to hold the butterflies in my stomach back. They really want to escape out my throat in either a scream or vomit. “Are you going to hide up there forever? Or are you going to make your father come get you.” A spindly finger stretches out from his hand and points up at me in the vent. I was too slow getting back to my room, and the worst person possible beat me to it.
“I’m coming, Dad. Sorry.” I control my voice and my emotions. I can’t afford to make a mistake, or reveal anything about what I was doing. He doesn’t have any proof, not anymore. The fact he’s showing up here means that he genuinely doesn’t have anything on me. I drop down to the floor of my room, and look down at the ground while kneeling in front of him. If I play into the role he wants from me then everything should sort itself out in the long term. All I need to do is get through tomorrow, it’s our last day of classes before we’re allowed to leave for one week of winter vacation. I’m not coming back from that.
“Sorry?” He asks coolly, his voice wrapping around me and placing the pressure of an atmosphere on my chest. “Sorry for what TJ? Every child is afraid of being punished. They whine, and complain,” He rises to his feet and walks over towards me. His pale hands are clenched into tight fists, “They’re ungrateful, annoying, pretentious, overconfident, and ignorant children!” His voice raises in volume, and his words ring through the room and reverberate in my ears. I keep my eyes down on the ground and let him rant. Even though the silence that now spreads between us is deafening, I know saying anything is tantamount to asking to die, so the quiet continues until the Principal breaks it. “But what does a father do Jay? In spite of all of that a father forgives their child. Just as I forgive you for hiding.”
“Thank you Dad.” I stared down determinedly at his polished white dress shoes. They come to a point at the end and look as though they could be made of snake-skin, a rectangular pattern spreading across them.
“Of course, Jay. Of course. Now, we both know what you did.” My heartbeat may as well have been visible given how loud it crashed in my ears. “So, are you going to confess and be punished less? Or force the whole school to be punished instead?” He couldn’t know, he couldn’t possibly know. All I have to do is lie, and tell him I was playing cards or something in the vent! But then, the rest of the school would be punished. Mercury, Nia, Crystal, Thomas, even Leo wouldn’t get away without an injury most likely. On top of all this I don’t even know his Emblem, it’s too risky to try and pull anything. I don’t know what to say, I can’t come up with a retort, or anything that could get me out of trouble.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“I…I’m sorry. I was-”
“He was helping me.” Leo’s voice breaks through the oppressive atmosphere that seems omnipresent around the Principal. He stands in the doorway, his hands in his pockets and with icy blue eyes defiantly staring down the Principal. “Guess TJ decided to report back to his room by crawling through the vent.” He’s vouching for me, and it feels like the tone of the room shifts. My thoughts come rushing back into me and I feel like I can think clearly again.
“Yeah, sorry Dad. I was doing espionage training while getting back to my room.” I add to Leo’s explanation of my actions, gaining some confidence back. The white shoes of the Principal shift slightly, one of his feet pointing away from me now and directed towards the door. Watching the other foot point directly at me is off putting, but somehow feels like an empty threat.
“Mr. White.” His words are barely more than a whisper, and somehow manage to fill the entire room regardless. His commanding presence makes the entire school feel as inconsequential as a mouse before a lion. “Tell me, why are you interrupting a conversation between a father and son? I never gave you even the slightest permission to do anything along these lines, and yet here you are. Can I take this to be-”
“Insubordination?” Leo cuts him off. The words slice through the air, they seem to cut down the dreary and overbearing atmosphere that was haunting my room. His face morphs to a coy smile and he tilts his head back as he looks down on the Principal as though he’s a rookie. “Not at all.” Leo starts walking over to me, “These are two children of yours, dad.” Leo says indifferently, stopping in front of me and leaning down so our heads are level. He lifts my chin up gently, and together me and Leo stare at the Principal’s face.
His lips are thin, but seem larger than they are due to the deep red coloration they have. Comparatively to those lips everything else on his face is muted, a pale skin tone and stunningly high cheek-bones are the secondary features to his face. His chin seems to be a triangle, as it comes to a sharp point that I would normally joke about being able to cut myself on. His nose is long and thin, stretches from just below his eyes and ends barely above his upper lip. When we meet eyes, a shiver runs down my spine. Brown eyes that are flecked with red splotches that seem almost like a disease, the dying embers of a fire in his dark eyes pierce through me as we make eye contact with each other. His hair is darker than his black suit, cut short and slicked back slightly.
“And children stand up for each other, especially when their dad is blaming one for the sins of the other.” Leo finishes, and as much as I want to turn and look at him my eyes are locked with those of the Principal. It feels like if either of us look away first it’s admitting a defeat of some kind, my brain feels like it’s oozing out through my eyes and directed in a straight line towards the Principal. His face scarcely shifts at all as he mulls over Leo’s words, until he slowly starts to open his mouth.
“Jay…I don’t recall giving you permission to look at my face.” His words wrap around my throat. Yet, they’re not tight, they’ve lost some of their punch. I’ve already made up my mind, he’s not somebody that I’ll respect or seek any sort of approval from. So, I guess, because of that realization, I can think normally around him.
“I don’t recall asking, Pops.” I remark while trying to keep my face collected. I barely register a movement in front of me. Faster than Nia, faster than Rahj, faster than anything I’d seen before. My hair blows back as an abrupt and wild gust of wind brushes past me. Leo’s hand is directly in front of my face, trembling slightly as it holds the fist of the Principal. It was like I skipped a frame in a movie, and suddenly the scene had changed, but it was real life. There’s a silence in my room, and I feel like breaking it would kill me. The tension between Leo and the Principal is suffocating.
“Don’t call me ‘pops’. I’m your father, but if you don’t respect me I won’t be so kind anymore. Don’t antagonize me Jay.” He takes his hand back from Leo, and starts to leave the room. He lingers by the entrance, and turns back around to stare us down. His dark brown eyes, flecked with red splashes of a controlled malintent, sear themselves into my vision. Luckily that glare is all he shoots at me, and he finally takes his leave.
“Woah!” Leo exclaims gently, because I damn near pass out next to him. I felt all the energy in my body flee from me, and without the adrenaline boost of confrontation with death my legs buckled under me and I fell. My heart beats a thousand times in the next few seconds.
“He’s definitely not my dad. He can best be described as my abusive uncle.” I remark with a smile that may have been forced through fear. Mixed with relief, my brain feels like it’s on a high. Leo’s blue eyes widen, his eyebrows raise in surprise, and then he laughs. “I thought I was going to be killed. He’s going to hold more than a grudge over our conversation, think I’ll make it through tomorrow?”
“No shot.” Leo responds with a snort, as I get back onto my own trembling two feet. “Finals are going to kill you. You were in the middle of the pack before our little excursion to India and the E.E.E.. Now? You’ll be lucky if you get a single question right.” I stumble over to my bed, and collapse onto the soft mattress.
“Oh Leo.” I pull the covers over myself, and look innocently at him. “I was going to be lucky if I got any question right beforehand. That’s not a new development. Just a return to form.”
“Is that right?” He remarks with an amused expression on his face, shrugging and walking back towards the door. “Well, get some sleep. For finals, and what’s happening after finals. You remember the plan, right?” His face darkens slightly as he turns back to me, his sharp blue eyes meeting my tired green ones.
“Yeah. Yeah I do.” I respond quietly, leaning against my pillow and staring at the dark ceiling. How could I forget? It was a month from hell. Working with the Emblem Eradication Enforcement squad. Always on the verge of being executed. Always having to listen to orders, never being allowed to think for ourselves. There were barely 30 minutes of free time each day, and we used that time to eat. They forced us to use our Emblems until they evolved even further, to a second level. I didn’t even know that could happen. But they couldn't track everything. The members all hated it there, none of them had true agency. A protocol for everything, reports all the time, random inspections of a small room you stayed in. I became quite the actor.
“Ha ha.” I laugh quietly to myself, closing my eyes and turning over in my bed. Became quite the actor? Please. I had been an actor for quite a while beforehand. Now I’m just being forced to do it instead of forcing myself. I guess that’s not so bad.
- - - - - - - -
Math. English. Vein Science. Combat. Emblems. History. Only once I fail all of these finals can my life really get going. If I guess randomly I have a 25% chance of being correct on any multiple choice problem, so that means I have a 25% chance of getting perfect scores on all of my finals, and a 50% chance of passing with either a 75 or above. So, it’s just a coin flip. Why do people even study? I’m feeling lucky, the universe owes me something today, so I bet I’ll win the coinflip.
“You look like you’re thinking of something stupid.” Mercury comments casually from my side, not even looking at me when he says that. He wears a pair of large baggy brown camping pants that seem to consist only of pockets, and a white tank top underneath a black leather jacket.
“He’s thinking about how fucked he is for all of his finals because he hasn’t been here for a month.” Nia adds on flatly, shooting me a glare as if she’s mad at me for having the nerve to come back.
“He’s probably just zoning out. Trying to retain as much information as possible.” Crystal adds on from Nia’s right, making me the official center of attention.
“Oh please. It’s all multiple choice, so I’ll be fine. I have a 25% chance of getting perfect scores in all our classes, and I feel lucky. I’m guaranteed a perfect score in at least one of the 6.” I look at the other three. They all have stopped walking and are staring at me in stunned silence. “What?” I ask a little nervously. Mercury walks past me, and claps my shoulder with a grimace on his face.
“Let me know your highest F.”
“Please, they’ll have to invent something else entirely for him.”
“He…Might do good in classes outside of math?”
“Was it something I said?” I ask as I follow them hesitantly, unsure of what made them convinced I was going to fail. Mercury’s gray hair is the first to disappear into our first class, and Nia’s raven head follows soon after. Crystal looks back at me solemnly, as though I’m standing in a casket, before she follows the other two and her blonde head ducks into the room.
“It wasn’t something you said.” Thomas remarks from behind me, standing with one of his only two friends. His eyes are darker than normal today, and he has his hands in his pockets in an egotistical manner that I recall seeing Leo do once or twice before. “It’s the fact you said anything at all.” Thomas says with a smirk, as though he just said something really clever. His crony snickers.
“Hey Thomas!” I exclaim with a smile, pulling out my deck of cards and holding one out to him. He still hasn’t taken one and honestly it’s starting to get annoying. “Pick a card. Or I might make a scene.” I wave the cards seductively in front of his face, and his smirk falls to a sneer, and he bats down at my cards. I let them go and quickly place a mark on top of his hand. My cards fall in a flurry to the ground, and I use my Emblem to attract my cards to his hand. I warned him I was going to make a scene if he didn’t comply.
“OOWW!” He falls to a knee with a stunned expression in his face, clutching his hand desperately as his already pale face turns a sickly shade of white. I laugh innocently and crouch next to him, attracting his marked hand to me. It’s been impaled with all 52 of my metal cards, and his blood is painting the floor red.
“Aww! It’s like a porcupine!” I comment with a laugh, it’s really funny! His hand is barely visible due to the cards, which vary from piercing all the way through his hand to only stabbing into it. There’s one card that’s barely stabbed into his hand, and that’s the one that sticks out to me. I grab it and glance at it, wiping his blood off of it. “Well that wasn’t too bad. You’re the Four of Spades.” That’s unfortunate. Four is an unlucky number. It was my Mom’s favorite number and my Dad ended up drawing the four of clubs before he ended up dying. I glance back at Thomas, who’s clenching his jaw while staring at me with wide eyes.
“TJ, you’re psycho!” He screams out, throwing a wild punch at me with his Emblem. Thomas’s Emblem is density. He can control how dense his body is. With that his body becomes much heavier, or lighter, and his muscles can’t always handle the burden. He always makes himself more dense to fight, reflecting his mentality. His punch is so slow, his arm alone must weigh a ton right now, but compared to the principal’s punch I saw earlier this is nothing.
“I don’t wanna fight you Thomas.” I remark while stepping back a few feet, marking the ground with each step I take. “But I do need my cards back.” Activating my Emblem that marks all my cards, I summon them back to me. They rip through Thomas’s hand and fly to my palm. His fingers fall to the ground completely sliced off his hand, and what’s left is so mangled and sliced that it reminds me of something I can’t put my finger on right now. Hm…
“TJ!?” Mercury dashes out of the class, and his blue eyes look super concerned. Thomas is on the ground clutching his hand again, or what was once his hand I guess. Oh! I know what it reminds me of!
******
“The Flying Spaghetti Monster!” TJ says brightly, with an innocent grin on his bloodied face. His cards are still dripping with Thomas’s blood from above his palm, but he acts as though he hasn’t done anything at all. His green eyes are still glittering with an affable glow, popping out against the red splatters all over his body. He’s acting like TJ, he’s talking like TJ, but he can’t be TJ. “Doesn’t his hand look like that?” He asks me, pointing at the writing Thomas. Thomas is being dragged away from TJ by his friend, towards the hospital ward. His hand is mangled, blood spills from it and it seems to move with the wind. There’s no control to his hand, the skin and sinew completely disconnected from their bones. He laughs to himself, and then uses his Emblem somehow to repulse the blood from his cards. “Oh, yeah, Mercury.” He walks over to me, and my body forces me to take a step away from him. His face recoils for a moment. His eyes widen in surprise and he seems a little bit hurt, but much more than that he looks confused. He shakes his head and then continues, “I forgot to mention it, but your outfit.” He smiles as though nothing's happened, playfully punching my shoulder as he walks by me into the room. “It’s totally tubular, man.”