*scriitch scriitch*
“Alright that should do it… uuuuh… Yeah looks nice.” Isaac wiped a little sweat from his brow, smearing some of the dust from the chalk he was using. His homeroom was currently in charge of the ‘labyrinth’ part of the event. They were given the gym since it had the largest space and used replaceable office walls to map out the maze. Since his class was in charge of this particular event he had been given a small area in the maze to do with what he wanted. Once more he looked over the decorative magic circle he had made and gave a nod of satisfaction.
The event has been exciting for him and he had quickly grabbed a spot under the skylights, hoping that the moon would give his stand a more magical feeling to it . He had quickly decided to do a fortune telling theme, going out to buy drapes and an old table from pawn and hobby shops in town. The room was based off of the cat’s tent from An**al Cr***ing and he had almost fully decorated it.
As for the circle itself. He used geometry, norse runes, roman words, and even a few math symbols to create a pretty bad ass replication that he could be proud of. His plan was to set up the table in the center of the circle and dramatically hand out candies. The kids would get normal candy, the adults would get prank candies with both good and bad centers, like tabasco or caramel.
“Only a week now. I’ll set up the actual table the night before… I hope no one decides to mess with it.” He frowned a little, and quickly forced away the negative thought. Taking one last look over everything made him appreciate the scene once more, though he couldn’t resist setting the crystal ball in the middle of the ‘array’.
“Maybe it will absorb some energy or something and I’ll get lucky.” He laughed at his own joke and quickly left, waving to several of his classmates who were setting up their own little niches as well.
The gymnasium slowly quieted as the class trickled out, the day ending and the cleaning staff locking up for the night. Night crept into the dark building and slowly moonlight seemed to filter in through the sky lights. The crystal ball seemed to sparkle a bit and reflected it all over the room giving the chalk a pearl like glow.
It bathed in moonlight for hours, seeming to somehow thrum with energy. Once dawn broke, the energy seemed to go dormant as the circle and crystal ball seemed to glow just enough to be unnoticeable.
Kids started to once more pour into the school as the sun rose further into the sky. Isaac was panting heavily as he quickly ran. -Shiiit gonna be late, Mr. Ambrose is gonna kill me!- Due to a late start, mainly the once in a blue moon breakfast his mom made, he was trying to run quickly, just barely dodging people with his slightly below average physique.
He almost knocked over a few of the freshmen as the bell rang. The class looked over as he swore and skid to a halt in front of the door, bent over and gasping for air. Mr. Ambrose raised an eyebrow at Isaac and shook his head slightly giving a small sigh. “Alright Isaac, I haven’t started attendance yet. I’ll let it slide this time since you just barely made it.”
Isaac lifted his head and gave a tired smile and a thumbs up. He was sweating heavily from the run and brushed his light brown hair out of face and quickly made his way to his seat. His chair shifted as he fell into it tiredly, several of his classmates laughing at his slightly ragged appearance. He hadn’t even had time to comb out his bed head.
“Alright everyone, only a few days till the event begins. All but three of you are doing an exceptional job.” He looked over at the three ‘rebels’ in the class and gave a small scowl. “No matter though, keep up the good work everyone else. As for other announcements.” Isaac finally started to catch his breath and cool down, the teacher’s voice slowly becoming a buzz in the back of his mind.. He pulled a water bottle out of his bag and took a large gulp of it. Typically the teacher would have busted him, food and drink were not allowed in class, but ignored it this once to which Isaac was grateful.
After homeroom ended Isaac quickly made his way to the bathroom. His hair dripped with water after it was rinsed out and comb roughly by his fingers. He only peeked up at the mirror, making sure he wasn’t a total train wreck anymore, before turning and leaving not wasting more than a few moments.
Now, Isaac was one of the average students. He wasn’t bullied; he wasn’t in any large cliques. He was an outlier who could blend in anywhere. That being said he was friendly with almost anyone, giving the majority of people a good impression of him. This is exactly why his current predicament was rather rare. The only group he couldn’t get along with were the ‘rebellious teens’.
They were a group of five bullies who would try to pick fights, argue with the teachers, anything really. Of course it was his three classmates from homeroom who currently had him surrounded.
“Hey Isaac, we saw your room was almost done so we were hoping you would help us get our extra credit. Of course the reward being, we won’t mess up your area, or your physical well being.” Isaac sighed a bit and rubbed his face a little, looking a little frustrated. He let that frustration bleed into his voice with plenty of sarcasm.
“Of course Will, just leave the plans there. I am not being a part of your group though.” They laughed as if they scored some huge victory.
“Awesome!” The three were excited as Isaac butted in. “If I need to move something too heavy or unwieldy you’ll have to help though. So just make sure you show up for about ten minutes.” They sneered at him a bit, the response Isaac expected, and left without another word, quickly pulled into their own little world.
Like that, for the rest of the prep time, he was either building the three lunkheads’ attraction, helping with other parts of the labyrinth, or in classes. It was hectic but the maze was a perfect chance to work on his craft hobbies. The new room he was given quickly turned into a Victorian torture room, utilizing paper mache for the torture devices such as the Iron Maiden, while he made several of the ‘hallways’ in the maze into disorienting optical illusions. It was a rather nasty trap but as long as no one when into seizures than it was ok.
He was very tired during the week trying to get everything together. No one entered his area the entire time and he was too busy to check on it. Not being able to make last minute adjustments to his original space was wearing on his but he swallowed down the annoyance to try and enjoy the festive atmosphere. After all, he would be given time to make some final arrangements before the event… Or at least he hoped he would.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Finally it became the evening of the Halloween event and he had on his fortune telling costume. His teacher helped him to adjust it to make sure it looked presentable. A wine colored cowl adorned his head and shoulders shadowing most of his face. He wore black, loose fitting sailor type pants and some simple black dress shoes. To finish off the outfit, he chose a black sweater with a wine red undershirt to match the rest of his clothes. It was simple but with the costume jewelry accessories he looked like a mock up of a character from the Arabian Nights story.
Students and teachers waved and greeting him as he made his way towards his little area. Isaac finally saw his room and smiled. Not even a single mote of dust had been disturbed, making him vastly relieved. It would have been terrible if he’d have had to redraw the circle in just a couple hours. He didn’t even really want to risk smudging it by setting up the table. By being exceptionally careful he managed to set up the table.
He did, however, notice that there seemed to be something different with array he had made. It was such a minute change the he was unable to spot what was different. He quickly set up the table, carefully adding the tablecloth and the chair. The room was finally, totally finished which allowed him to take a well deserved rest as he examined his handiwork. LED candles and wall coverings as well as a few other decorations gave it a somehow mysterious air and energy seemed to permeate the room.
It was almost too much for him to keep his excitement in check as he sat. He had set up two large bowls of candy for his visitors, one was the normal candy for children with cute little cartoons on the wrapper, and the other for classmates and adults that had the prank candies mixed in with real candy. He had put fortunes on those ones instead of the comics.
The gym quickly became a buzz with activity as more and more people finally started to arrive and come in. His first visitor of the night was a little girl and her mother. It was amusing him to see the girl gasp and look around worried, as if a monster was going to jump out at her. “Look mommy it’s glowing!” Isaac slowly looked over the table and looked surprised. To anyone looking it seemed as if the candles were causing a soft glow on the chalk, making it seem totally natural.
He gave a small smile and started. “I have been waiting, have you come to claim your fortune brave little soul?” She meeped, it was adorable, and hid behind her mother who giggled and answered for her. “How do we claim them?” His voice projected and the hood lifted a little, showing a slight malicious looking smile. “On your left are fortune candies for children, and on the right are fortune candies for adults. Beware of bad fortunes.”
The mother looked over at the generic candies and lifted her daughter who quickly grabbed one. She didn’t like the sound of ‘bad fortunes’ and a slight frown appeared on her face. “What do you mean bad fortunes?” A small chuckle came out of the hood as he dropped the theatrics to explain. “The adult ones have a prank center in some of them. Thinks like lemon juice or Tabasco or wasabi. They aren’t in the children’s candies though.” A look of relief appeared on her face and she sighed. “Oh and the wrappers have little comics and fortunes made by myself.” The little girl had already stuffed the candy into her mouth and was smiling. “Mommy look I got a picture of bunny on a bike!”
The two thanked Isaac and slowly made their way deeper into the maze. It was great fun and most of his conversations went like the first one. No one seemed to notice as the moon rose higher into the sky and even the fact that the circle seemed to be glowing stronger with each visitor was lost on him. His ‘booth’ was relatively popular, or at least well visited, and more people came by for candies. There were costumes abound and most people had one, even though the actual holiday was a week away, and he enjoyed watching the cute kids, strange adults, and slightly slutty teenagers, boys and girls, as who came to receive a fortune.
Isaac noticed something was wrong when the candles started to flicker. Screams and cries of panic and excitement split the air as all of the electronics in the building suddenly went out. Isaac moved to stand as huge winds seemed to appear from nowhere and blow around. Baubles were knocked from shelves and people were knocked over as the screams slowly melded into a panicked chorus.
Isaac swore and pushed back his chair, accidentally smudging the circle. Suddenly everything went still and quiet as the moon slowly rose directly overhead of him. His eyes were drawn up as the skylights suddenly exploded and the magic circle came to life. A pillar of light with him in the middle, several students saw it and gazed on in fear and awe.
A shock wave seemed to detonate from the column of light and everything went to hell.
For everyone but Isaac that is. Isaac found himself in a void. No light, no sound, even his own voice couldn’t be heard. He quickly started to panic as he realized not a single one of his senses were working. -Am I in a coma? Oh god please don’t tell me I di… AHHHHHHH!- All his thoughts were scattered and dismissed as unimaginable pain wracked his very existence.
As if hundreds of millions of tiny ants were pulling him apart molecule by molecule he went through agony, torture, and pain. It didn’t seem to be stopping or weakening, only growing even more intense. The pain started to invade his mind, feeling like the tendril like roots driving themselves through his brain as bits and pieces of him were pulled out. Memories that had been crystal clear before were torn from his psyche.
Fear quickly ramped up with the pain. His memories of his family, friends, school, even his own name was torn from him by the unbearable pain. The pain was inescapable as whenever he felt his consciousness grow hazy some now pain would jolt him back. He didn’t understand and the confusion only furthered his fear. What seemed like several lifetimes passed before there was a change. A break in the absolute blackness of the void. A white portal, like a beacon of light, had appeared. His first instinct was to flee towards the light, scared of returning to the pain and the void. The light seemed to pull him in closer and fill his mind as he finally slipped into blessed unconsciousness.