Thomas Behrens

SDT #3

The Beasts of High School

The cave was empty of light. They fumbled inward with only their memory and their bruised shins to tell them where they were going. Then they reached the amphitheater, a large spacious chamber with a little natural light falling in on the night of a full moon. One of them strikes flint to steel trying to coax a spark to grow into a flame on lamps wick. At last the flame ignites, causing their dilated eyes to smart and casting the room in to shape relief of light and dark, yin and yang. They gaze around and the tension of excitement takes on a tangible quality. At last one speaks. “All right I think that is every one,” announced the leader of this pack of high schoolers.

”What about the Freshman?” questioned his second in command.

“You moron, you should know by now that newbies aren’t allowed at the first meeting,” claimed his girl.

“So Alpha,” cooed the leaders girl calling by his nickname. “Why don’t we get on with this meeting?”

“Sure thing love,” Alpha agreed. “Let’s start with tonight's tale of horror,” Alpha started off, pausing to gaze around at the other members. There was Beta, a towering black haired figure with strength that was only matched by his lack of intelligence or the strength of his odor. He bulky build so unlike the sinewy framework of Alpha’s own blonde haired body and the gentle scent of his mild cologne that caressed all who approached him so unlike the jagged knock out gas that vented away from Beta’s body, which was what reached his nostrils now. Then came Alpha’s gal, Dawn, the most beautiful red haired girl in the school. She was such a fox. A sight to swoon over. She left the guys howling for more of her. But despite how they coo over her lovely locks and the lavender scented aura that wafted away form her body they never would ask for her company. She was Alpha’s girl, and Alpha was the top of the school food chain. Then came Gamma, the brains of this pack since his skinny brown haired body was used for little else. He was well kept but that was about the extent of his personal grooming so he really had no identity when the wind carried his aroma away to sensitive noses. Then finally he gazed past Gene, Beta’s foreign white haired girl. She is from Norway, or maybe Russia. Either way she was from a place far colder than where they sat right now. No one could tell if she wore perfume for her light jacket reeked of the have been stuck-in-storage-with-moth-balls-too-long scent. After Alpha glances at all of them long enough to give them the proper sense of suspense he asks, “Gamma, what story should I tell tonight?”

“How about the new one you told me that you got?” suggested Gamma.

“Ah a fine choice for our first meeting this year,” Alpha accepted. “Tonight’s story shall be, The Unnatural Student. It all started when a most particular student enrolled into this very school 50 years ago. The student was grotesque. It’s hairs were so few that they barely covered anything. It’s head has bloated and horribly misshapen. It had such poor sight that it couldn’t tell who you were till you got close enough to smell it’s odor. And yet it’s own nose wouldn’t even be able to pick up the odor of Beta here till he got almost right on top of him. It hearing was so horrible that it would always be late for the classes and would claim it didn’t hear the bell.”

“Borrrring,” interrupted Beta. “Come on, tell us a real scary story instead of this boring crap.”

“It wouldn’t be boring if you would let him finish the introduction,” chimed in Dawn, silencing him and sending off with his tail between his legs. “Oh stop moping Beta. Go on Alpha.”

“Now here is the true horror,” Alpha continued on as if Beta’s voice had just been smoke in the wind, “All of his relatives and family were just as grotesque and handicapped as he was. And yet the majority of them decimated countless lives, tainted the air, land , and sea so that none could live there but more of their kind. Their numbers were once sky high, numbering in billions, and they together were slowly killing all life that was not them. But they eventually became their own downfall. For not only did they kill and maim all other creatures, but they also took great joy in massacring themselves. So they went on, killing and killing all creatures, including our own ancestors, till eventually they exterminated themselves. Or so we thought. By the time this kid came to our school the others of his kind were all but forgotten. But people started to remember pretty quickly when he showed up. Despite, however, their rejections, there were no laws to prohibit him so they had to admit him. At first he seemed harmless, even if he was a freakish looking handicap. But then some people stopped coming to school. Then more, and more, and more, till their was barely enough to fill a classroom. The teachers said that they moved away, but every one knew that the freak was the one behind the disappearances. So eventually, a pack of students, much like us, decided to follow him and find out if he had left some of them alive.” Every one was so enthralled with the story now that they failed to notice him stealthily jumping down from the craggy podium and make his way around the chamber. “After school they carefully snuck behind him, each one thankful for his underdeveloped senses, till he reached a cave, this cave in fact, and they crept slowly into it following his flashlight deeper and deeper in the cave till they reached this very room,” Alpha whispered into their ears, pausing on each of the last three words. “Then something horrible happened that left only one survivor, who himself was so terrified, that to this very day he has yet to tell any one of the horrors the befell him and his friends. Also, none have ever seen the strange creature again, but some say he still lingers in this cave waiting for some poor soul to satisfy his own bloodthirsty nature.” Alpha slowly walks behind Beta “Who knows, we might be,” he pauses for a moment and he sees Beta biting his on lip so hard he starts to savor the iron tang of his own blood. So he reaching for Beta’s shoulder before grasping it and shouting’ “NEXT!”

Beta jumped so high that you could have sworn that he tried to dig his claws into stalactite on the ceiling. Of course Dawn and Gene jumped to, but since neither of them made such a spectacular display as Beta, So they were entitled to be rolling on the ground laughing with their tails waging like no tomorrow. “Well, well, well. It seems as though Beta has found this story much more interesting than he previously thought,” Alpha taunted with a smirk creeping across his muzzle.

“So what was this, “unnatural student,” supposed to be?” asked Dawn as Beta sulked of to the coner to fume.

“What do you mean?” inquired Alpha with a tone of mock innocence.

“I mean was he a wolf, fox, cat , bear , or whatever,” replied Dawn, deciding to play along with her boyfriends game.

“He was neither of those, or any other that you know.”

“Then what is he?”

“Human. He was a human.”