Luke woke up to his alarm blaring, but this morning he was ready for it. He had actually been awake for about 10 minutes due to his mild anxiety for the match that day. The one caveat was that he felt like things were back to normal. The beginning of the week was a jumbled mess and felt like now he could move on from the weirdness that seemed to have happened on Monday. He was looking forward to wrestling today, and hopefully pushing himself further up on the brackets.
He got out of bed, grabbed his wrestling sweats as the students were always allowed to wear them the day of a meet at school. Luke went downstairs in the hopes he could get more out of his mom if she would go or not. He walked down the stairs and turned the corner, but no mom. Seemed to be that she was already at work which was good news, and meant that she might actually make the match like she said she would.
He made a quick meal of some eggs and toast. Heading out the door he was ready to take on the day. He arrived at school with some time to spare meeting up with Ben on the way and as they walked in they noticed all the other students that would be competing that night as they were easily recognizable by the sweats. The school had only a few sports and luckily wrestling was one of their biggest so many students would be coming and others just got into the excitement of it all. As Luke and Ben walked down the halls many students gave them a quick hello, and wished them best.
"Hey, Luke! What's up? Ready for the big match?" One said, another saying, “Hey hope you guys bring the win to Polk tonight.” While others just gave them the typical high five or fist bump. Luke was happy today, and felt as things were falling into place. Today would mark hopefully another notch in his undefeated record. He made it to his Locker with Ben and then he felt something odd. His chest started to feel warm that quickly sent a shock through his body. His toes and fingertips feeling like they had been electrified, and then the dreaded migraine started to permeate his thoughts as his hand reached into his Locker to grab his textbook for class.
“Luke, wake up! You’re supposed to be taking the test!” Mrs. Chapman’s voice was like a thundershock to his senses. Startled, Luke blinked, trying to orient himself. He had no memory of sitting down for the test, let alone walking to class and sitting down. “Uh, sorry, Mrs. Chapman,” he stammered, rubbing his eyes. “I don’t know what happened.” “Finish the test, you have thirty minutes left,” she said, her tone laced with irritation.
His cheeks burned with embarrassment. The entire class staring at him as he managed to commit the cardinal sin that was falling asleep in Mrs. Chapman’s class. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was seriously off. How had he zoned out so completely? The last clear memory he had was reaching his hand into his locker. The rest was a blur. He shook his head, trying to refocus. It's only the migraines, he told himself. He thought that this whole migrain weird things happening was over and now all of a sudden he managed to black out again. It scared him to admit it, he might actually need to get checked out, but first he would try and make it through the day and his match later.
Finally, the bell rang. It was a welcome sound, signaling the end of History and hopefully the day wouldn’t continue to have unforeseen issues. The next class went without a hitch, followed by the next going well too. On monday he hadn’t even made it this far. This could mean that it was a one off incident, but as soon as he thought that exact thought he felt his head start to spin again. Thankfully it was half way through school and the remainder of the day was study halls, and a free period where he usually went to the library to read something or get even more work done. He decided to just walk on home to take a little nap before he had to be back for wrestling preperations. He let Ben know he would be heading home for the remainder of the day and would catch up with him later. Ben agreed to catch up with him later and Luke headed home.
The air outside was crisp and a stark comparison with the heat that was raging inside his body. He could tell that if he took his sweatshirt off his body would start to steam. His footfalls were like a metronome coupled with him taking deep breaths he was able to push off the feeling of passing out as his head pain hit a new height. He was glad he made it to his front door before his vision began to swim. He quickly threw his bag off in the entryway, rushed up the stairs where he ripped his clothes off. The feeling of his bare skin from the touch of his fingertips felt like an inferno. His only thought was a cold shower. As he went into his bathroom he caught a look in the mirror and noticed the mark on his chest was red, raw, and caused his skin to look like it was currently being burned with a hot iron. He let out a scream as something foreign took control of his body connecting the mark to his soul.
Luke woke up to the shower running the only sound he could hear in the otherwise quiet house. His body, a tangled mess on the floor. He didn’t try to get up right away. He was too scared. Scared that he might just collapse again. There was no hint of a migraine but instead the mark on his chest that he originally thought might have been starting to fade now felt like an open wound tingly as the humid shower air connected with his bare chest. The feeling did not instill confidence that everything was alright. His only thought, What the fuck. He was tired of this. He wanted a normal day, yesterday now felt like it had been a dream now that two of the week's days were filled with an oddness. He still couldn’t bring himself to get up, thankful the water droplets splashing over him seemed to be warm still so it meant he hadn’t been on the ground too long this time.
He needed to get his mind right, he wasn't even going to look at the mirror that lately had its own unforeseen outcomes. He wasn’t ready to face any more weirdness and knew that he just needed to calm down, and weigh his options. He could forfeit tonight's match and tell his mom about all the black out spells. He could just do nothing and lay on the floor for the foreseeable future. He also had the option to take a quick shower and just rest his head trying to clear away any negative thoughts. All of these seemed to be a viable solution but he knew what he wanted the most. He wanted to have a normal day. That had already been thrown out the window so the next best option to him was to try and have the remainder of the day be as normal as possible.
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
Finally working up the nerve to get up, he went to grab the edge of the sink and his fingers sank into the granite as if it was made of playdoh cracking it and seeing parts of it fall to the ground. Luke just stared at his hand with a mix of concern, excitement, and fear. He slowly took his hand off the sink, and then went to grasp the sink again with his other hand. However, this time no broken granite. He looked at his hand one more time and chalked it up to him both being heavy and that part of the sink being a weak point. He pushed the curtain aside, stripped fully bare, and jumped into the shower. The water seemed to rejuvenate his body and hopefully in turn his mind.
Finishing up in the shower, he made his way to his room where his discarded clothes were thrown on the floor. Gathering them up he took stock of himself carefully to keep his eyes from the mark that seemed to still tingle. He didn't see any bruises or anything from falling to the ground. He felt better after the shower. The cold water was much needed. He ran downstairs and decided a snack was in order. Whipping up a couple peanut butter and jelly sandwiches he located his phone and saw Ben had shot him a text to let him know he was staying at school till the warm ups for the meet tonight and told Luke to do what he needed to get ready for the big match that night. Luke was happy to have a friend like Ben, didn't ask too many questions and always wanted the best. He took his advice, finished his sandwich and decided to do some light reading before he had to leave.
Feeling better than ever and hoping the worst of the day was behind him Luke drank a quick glass of water and headed back to school. As he got to the school and entered the gym, the locker room was buzzing with excitement many of the other kids offering their encouragement to each other hoping for everyone to have a good meet. This was the time where Luke didn’t revel in the comromady like the other individuals on his team. His approach to wrestling was more intrinsic. He often put headphones on while he got ready and listened to music that might help soothe him.
After he was done getting changed, his coaches came into the room followed by the scale they would all weigh in on. After that followed the rival team, and then the judges for the various matches that night. Typically this was done in a larger room, but Polk wasn’t a very large school. Instead they started at the lightweights and moved up in weight class, both teams sending their respective candidates forward. When they got to weight class before Lukes own he respectfully took his headphones out and lined up across who would be his opponent. It was Fredric Killgore. Not only did he have one of the most intimidating names of any highschooler Luke had heard of but he was built just like Luke. Both young men eye’d eachother up and down hoping to use their eyes to somehow detect how one would find an advantage over the other.
Luke’s name was called next and he walked by him opponent confident in his stride and weighed in exactly on point. Next was Killgore who also weighed in perfectly. Both shook each other's hands and said good luck. That was the only interaction Luke had with anyone since he had gotten to school and got ready. The rest of the weigh-ins went without incident and the coach brought the team together, giving them a short pep talk to then release them for warm ups.
Being as Luke was a captain along with Ben, and Nick they got the team lined up just outside the gym entrance where the Locker room was tucked away. Luke gave them the que and the team ran out on the mat finding their own little spot to begin their warm ups. The other team did the same and both teams gave each other room to get ready for their matches as the gym filled with onlookers.
The beginning of the warm ups went without a hitch and then moving on to more dynamic work doing air squats, a searing pain shot through Luke’s chest. His vision blurred, and the world seemed to tilt sideways. His knees buckled, and he collapsed to the floor, clutching his chest, gasping for breath.
"Luke! What’s wrong?!" Ben’s frantic voice pierced the fog of pain. He was at Luke’s side in an instant, kneeling beside him. Luke had managed to deal with the pain the last few days alone and was weary to show weakness in front of not only his best friend but the team. However, the pain was unlike anything Luke had ever experienced.An agonizing heat that seemed to burn from the inside out, spreading through his body like wildfire. But it wasn’t just physical. It was something deeper, something in his soul that was being tugged, pulled in ways he couldn’t explain. The power, the energy, it felt like it was reshaping him like he was slipping between worlds.
"Luke, talk to me! What hurts? What happened?" Ben’s voice was panicked, but Luke couldn’t respond. All he could do was clench his fist, the pressure in his chest unbearable.
Then, as suddenly as it came, the pain faded; there was no blacking out this time. The burning in his chest was gone, replaced by an odd lightness similar to the energized feeling he had before. It was as if a weight had been lifted from him, but the sensation was unsettling. Luke slowly sat up, the world around him coming back into focus. His teammates were staring at him, a mix of confusion and concern on their faces.
“I’m fine, guys,” Luke said, trying to sound normal. “Just need a minute. Finish the stretches, I’ll be right back.” He jumped to his feet feeling none the worse for wear and ran inside the locker room. Ripping off his sweatshirt and glancing in the mirror he looked at his chest to see if the mark that now seemed a part of him changed in any way, but couldn’t find anything abnormal. The pain had started at his chest but it felt more like a tug than a tingling pain this time around.
Ben’s voice startled him from behind. "Luke? Are you okay, man? What’s going on? I’ve never seen you like that."
Luke spun around, quickly pulling his sweatshirt back down to cover the mark. "I’m fine," he said, though his voice sounded distant even to him. "Just a bad migraine, I think. Nothing too serious. I have been getting them all week."
Ben eyed him skeptically but didn’t press the issue. "Alright, but that was some crazy stuff earlier. Let’s focus on the match. Killgore’s not going to be an easy opponent for you regardless of how well you have been doing this year. He also saw that little display you just had, and I believe he thinks he has an easy win now."
Luke nodded, understanding that Ben was right but couldn’t come up with much more to say, “I understand, I won't let it dictate the outcome of the match. I am ready for this and hopefully I can move to the number one seed after tonight.”
Luke and Ben exited the Locker room to find that the team had finished their warm ups and standing in the entryway of the gym Luke’s eyes scanned the crowd, searching for a face he hoped would be there, his mother’s. But she was nowhere to be seen. It wasn’t a surprise. She was always busy, always working. Luke had long accepted that she most likely wouldn’t make it even though she had told him more like promised she would. It was inevitable she always said she would but sometimes he felt like her job came before him at times.
Ben noticed his lingering gaze. “She’s saving lives,” he said, as if reading Luke’s thoughts.
Luke gave a faint smile. “Yeah. That’s why I love her.” His voice was distant, but he quickly added, “And that’s why I’m going to win tonight. For her.”
Just then, their coach, Carl, barked from across the gym. “Get your asses over here! It’s almost time!”