Marco was convinced that there was something wrong with the dwarf. ‘Hey, I’d probably be like that too if I had to live in this sick place.’ Marco told himself as he slowly climbed the stairs, leaving the shop behind him. ‘In fact, I should probably pity him. I wonder why he continues to stay here? Guess the money must be pretty good, huh?’ Marco thought.

At the top of the stairs a simple wooden door with a hole where the handle should be greeted Marco. Exhausted from his adventure Marco pushed the door open and walked through it. Immediately Marco experienced what he could best describe as a ‘pull’ that sucked him through the doorway and began carrying him somewhere.

While flying through… wherever it was… Marco remembered the skeleton he’d fought today- killed today. A shudder passed through him. The yellow bones of the skeleton came to his mind, almost like it was right in front of him again...

‘Wait what’s that?’ Marco asked himself as a yellow figure came into sight. ‘SHIT IT’S A SKELETON’ Marco screamed as he approached it. And then he was awake, in his bed, screaming at the top of his lungs at the skeleton that he’d just seen.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” Came an exclamation from the other side of the room as sheets flew through the air onto the ground along with a muscled figure. Realizing where he was Marco covered his mouth and held back the tears that tried to force their way through. “Sorry, Oscar. Just a bad dream, that’s all.” Marco lied to his roommate.

“Are you sure?” Oscar asked as he got up from the floor to examine Marco, “It doesn’t look like it was just a dream.” Marco jumped off his bed and rushed to the door, grabbing his shower gear on the way out the door as he said, “Really it’s nothing.”

After Marco walked into the dorm bathroom he gazed at his reflection, at the maddened green eyes that gazed back at him and thought to himself, ‘No wonder Oscar thinks something’s wrong, I look like I’m high on something.’ Shuffling into the shower Marco let the running water calm him down. He thought about everything that happened today- last night.

Death. A Dwarf. A skeleton. Magic. His heart began to beat faster with the memories rushing through his mind, gaining speed like a river crashing about his mind. Until he remembered that word, calm. The memory overtook him; calm. His racing pulse slowed before returning to normal. 'It's ok,' Marco told himself, 'just forget it ever happened. It's over now.'

Marco got out of the shower and checked his reflection again. No more madness in his eyes, in its place something else, something strange. Out of place. ‘Ah,’ thought Marco, ‘It’s the calm.’ Marco shivered as he broke eye contact with his reflection. Seeing it was different than feeling it. The word’s power felt so natural to him, but it certainly did not look natural in his eyes.

When he got back to his room Oscar had already gone to his first class, though he had left a note expressing his concern at Marco’s state this morning, offering advice about drugs, and asking if Marco wanted to talk. Marco threw the note in the trash, ‘You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.’ he thought to himself as he readied himself for his first class.

Walking to his class Marco began to feel something odd, a nagging feeling like something was out of place. He found himself exhibiting heightened alertness, his eyes scanning the surroundings in search of something. A mental sigh echoed in his mind with the reassurance, ‘No skeletons here.’ before another thought intruded, ‘Yet.’

A shudder travelled through Marco as he quickened his pace, ‘Nope. Not going to think about that. It’s over. It’s done.’ Arriving at his first lecture Marco took out his laptop and opened the internet. ‘I shouldn’t be doing this.’ Marco thought as he began to search out information about Titans, Gods, magic, Dwarves, skeletons…

To Marco the lecture ended right after it began, which was a pleasant surprise. Afterwords Marco made his way to one of the campus dining halls to grab brunch as his first meal of the day. On his way in he noticed that today was ‘international food day’, whatever that meant.

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Upon entering the dining hall Marco saw signs hanging up around every food station, each indicating which country’s food was being served. Upon seeing ‘Italian’ written in cursive writing Marco made his way over. Various pastas and pizzas were arrayed before him, and one of the pasta dishes in particular caught his attention. It looked good but he couldn’t remember what it was called, ‘What was it again?’

Cavatappi

“Shit” Marco said out loud as he stumbled away from the Italian station, earning him a few looks. ‘Shit. Shit. Shit.’ Marco thought to himself as he hurried out of the dining hall. ‘No. No. No. No. No. This is not happening.’ Marco told himself as he broke out into a brisk walk towards his next class.

But it was happening, and Marco knew it. He’d been starting to think that he could get out of it if he wanted to, ‘How stupid!’ he thought to himself. ‘Could a soldier just leave a war? No they couldn’t, and if they tried they’d be labelled a deserter and…’ Marco’s thoughts trailed off as he realized the gravity of the situation.

He was summoned by Death itself and had accepted the invitation. What would happen if he tried to back out of his agreement? ‘Fuck’ was all Marco could think for the rest of the day… ‘Fuck. Fuck! FUCK!’ Marco changed directions, away from his next class and towards the gym. He wasn’t an athletic person but he really needed to do something with the raging energy inside of him.

Once at the gym Marco distractedly walked up to the counter and shoved his ID in the face of the student behind the desk. That was a mistake. “Hm? Oh feeling ballsy today are we Marco?” spat a hulking wad of muscle. ‘Chad. Shit.’ Marco cringed as he realized how stupid he’d been. Of course Chad would be in the gym, where else would have been?

“S-Sorry Chad,” Marco stuttered, “I didn’t realize it was you, please don’t…” Chad held a finger up to his mouth to stop Marco, “No Marco, it’s ok, really. It’s about time you grew a pair.” Chad bared his teeth in an animalistic attempt at a smile. “Here,” Chad said swiping Marco in, “have fun.”

Marco silently sighed in relief as he took his card back and walked by the front desk. Before he could turn the corner he heard Chad call after him, “And Marco? I’ll see you later.” Marco paused before picking up his pace. He sincerely hoped that was an empty threat.

After running on a treadmill for half an hour Marco felt a bit better, if not tired. On his way out he walked by the pool and stopped, ‘Why not?’ Marco thought to himself as he walked over the tiled pool floor to get to the sauna. He’d never been in there before but he hoped the heat would do an even better job than the treadmill at killing whatever was left of his anxious thoughts.

When Marco opened the door a blast of heat bombarded him, stunning him for a second. “Hey, close the door.” said a deep voice before saying, “Huh? Is that you Marco?” Marco closed the door before looking at the owner of the voice, “Oh. Hey Oscar.” Marco greeted as he lay down in the blistering heat.

“Why are you here? I’ve never seen you in the gym. Wait, don’t you have class?” Oscar asked while peering at Marco as if he were some kind of mythical beast. Maybe he was now. “I really don’t want to talk about it Oscar.” Marco whispered, trying to focus on letting the heat burn away his thoughts.

“Marco… I’ve never even heard you talking about coming to the gym, much less skipping class. You can talk to me, we’re friends aren’t we?” Oscar asked softly while watching Marco with obvious concern. “We’re… friends?” Marco spat, the heat burning through his veins, "Really?"

“Really?” Marco asked again as he sat up, looking Oscar in the eyes, “We’re friends? Tell me Oscar, what gave you that impression? Friends hang out, right? Friends talk, right? Do we do that? It seems to me that we’ve barely talked in months, much less hung out together. Do you think we even have anything in common anymore Oscar? I sure as hell don’t give a flying fuck about track or crew. I don’t find parties enjoyable. Hell I don’t even think Kinesthetics is an interesting major.”

Oscar opened his mouth to respond but was cut off as Marco yelled, “Don’t fucking lie. You don’t play games anymore. You don’t talk with me anymore. We haven’t spent more than 5 minutes together in months. We’re not friends Oscar, we were friends. Now I’m exactly what you introduce me as; your roommate. That’s all I am, now I’m just your fucking roommate.”

Oscar stared open mouthed at Marco as he rose and walked out of the sauna, “Go fuck yourself Oscar.” he said, slamming the door behind him. Marco knew he had another class to get to, but he didn’t care. With energy he didn’t know he had he started running again. Not on a treadmill this time, instead he ran outside. He ran through campus and then off it. He ran through a park, through a forest. He ran through the college town, he ran next to the busy roads. And then he walked back.