Haze

Ch.6- Is it a Dream?

All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.
Edgar Allan Poe

The Good. I stood in front of the giant building, taking in the beauty of the atmosphere. Magic was in the air, birds sang, and the smell of honey filled my nostrils with a feeling of wonder and excitement.

The Bad. I stood in front of a gigantic building with the title of Heavenly Crown Academy. I had to go to school for the next two years of my life. My job as a Regulator would be put on “hold” for the next couple of years and for what? Spying on someone who could possibly be the reason for the end of this world as we know it? It wasn’t worth it. If only this were a dream.

I picked my bag up from the granite covered ground and took my first few steps towards Heavenly Crown Academy. Sounded more like Hell to me. Not but a couple hundred meters away from the school, I began to ask myself, “Why the hell am I here?” and “How do they know if the guy I’m looking for is capable of some shit like destroying all of Midas?”. The question that stuck out the most like a sore thumb in my mind was “When is lunch?”

I pulled the heavy door to the school open and walked towards an elderly lady. She was sitting in a desk that was in the shape of a semicircle, next to a computer, welcoming me with a brief gesture of the hand. She smiled up front but I knew that she was probably thinking negatively of me. Everyone always had. The wrinkles in her face and the grey shade of her hair led me to believe that she was in her mid 70’s. But I had spent so much time on Earth that I forgot that she could be two-hundred years old in a 70 year old mystique.

“Hello, young man, how may I help you today?” She smiled even wider than before, but her eyes were practically begging me to leave.

I frowned and replied by saying exactly what HQ told me to say. “Yeah… I’m new at this school. I was late for the first day orientation because of family matters, is it okay if I can have my schedule and my dorm number?”

“Sure I’ll give it to you but you have to do three things for me. First you need to show me your card that has your school ID number on it.”

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the ID that HQ salvaged for me from my Middle School days and dropped it in the palm of her wrinkly hand.

She looked at me in a strange way, that I suppose meant thank you, and ran her other hand over the card briefly. Two seconds after wards, the card glowed with a blue light, and she handed it back to me. She typed a couple o things up on her keyboard and spoke again.

“Second I need you to turn that frown upside down. You’re too cute to be looking angry all the time.” I looked at her like she was crazy but then remembered I had to play my character. I cracked a smile that would make glass shatter and waited for her third request.

The old lady smiled and as I looked closer I saw that she was blushing. “Now cutie, give me a kiss.”

I looked at the lady with a face full of disgust. “No way! Are you crazy you psycho bitch!” Anger overtook the sweet, but strange ladies face instantly.

“Look you horny ass teenager. I’m very old but I am just as horny as you are, the least you could do is give me a kiss! And besides if you don’t, I’ll tell the principle that you’re trying to get in school with a fake ID card. “

Damn! I knew that card was fishy as soon as I saw that they spelled my name wrong. They said it was barbecue sauce! I was stuck. Either I gave the old, nasty, wrinkly, ugly, three hundred year old lady a kiss or I lost my life… and my pride.

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The door read “Room 548” as I walked towards the oak door. I pulled my key out of my pocket and began to open the door. Thankfully, Lee restored my site to me for the rest of the night so I can take in scenery. The lock opened, as I turned the key horizontally into the slot. Expecting to find someone waiting for me, I timidly walked into the room. I shuffled around in the darkness until my hands recognized the light switch. I flicked it on, wanting to see my roommate, but instead saw something else: a penthouse suite. That’s what the room looked like. I expected the room to be pretty average, actually below average but this was something else. The room was filled with the fragrance of lilac, the bed spreads were sprawled over the mattresses with intricate designs on them, and the floor was tiled with marble, as was the bathroom. Various works of art by Van Gogh and Michelangelo were everywhere, along with a couple of artists I had never even heard of. And the golden sun was dimming at just the right spot so the whole room looked magical.

The room was about as big as an apartment. Everything was very beautiful, the floor was a marble green, there were flowers in creatively designed vases everywhere, the walls were a plain white, but it matched with the beauty of all that was in the room such as the curtains. The curtains had outlines of flowers on them and they were- pink.

“Pink!!!” I turned around to find Slim staring at me, waiting for me to say something.

“Lee, I thought the dorms were strictly non co-ed!”

“Umm... they are. What? Just because you have some pink curtains, you think you have a girl living with you?”

“Yeah, pretty much!”

He started to chuckle, but I then found out that he was trying to hold in a fit of laughter. “Well Nero, aren’t you lucky!!”

“Lucky… what are you talking about?”

He turned around, holding his ribs, in pain while laughing at the same time. “All I can say for you kid is keep your butt hole tight!” He walked out of my room, laughing hysterically.

I thought to myself, “What did he mean?”, but soon enough figured it out. I wasn’t homophobic or anything, I was just surprised that my roommate was… gay.

“Just great, the first day in my new… world and I learn that my room mate is gay. How surprising. Whatever, doesn’t bother me.” And it didn’t. I just didn’t see this coming.

I pulled my hoodie off, threw it on the floor and decided to look around this room, or more appropriately, this house. I soon discovered as I searched the dorm that the room even had its own kitchen and game room. It had everything from George foreman grills to XBOX 360’s. I walked every square inch of the dorm room until I found and picked my room. It was the biggest out of the three rooms, so I guessed it was the master. Life here was gonna be good. But unfortunately, it wasn’t worth the life that I had lost. Or at least the love of the life I had lost.

I threw my duffle baffle bag onto my bed and rummaged through it, finding out that all the material items that I held dearest were in there. My Eminem and Common CD’s, amongst others who were in my top ten music list, my Spiderman poster, my playboy pajama pants, my mp3 player, my gi, and… a ring.

It was the very same ring that I was going to give Mya before I died. I felt a warm tear slowly slide down my cheek. With that tear came sadness, and with that sadness came anger, and with that anger came vengeance, one of the few feelings that I felt that I actually enjoyed. Just the thought of killing those thugs one by one aroused me. It made me smile. Them dying, their life slowly slipping from there grasp, there souls becoming nothing more than waste.

“I promise, Mya. I promise one day they’ll die. All of them will fuckin’ die. I’ll kill them with my bare hands and they’ll be gone for good. And most importantly, ill do it all for you.” I threw myself into an almost maniacal fit of laughter and rage, with my fists clenched so hard, that my nails dug into my skin and blood slowly dripped from the wounds, exciting my lust even more.

I soon fell into a deep sleep, thinking, “Life here would be sweet, but exacting my revenge on the ones who took my love away from me will be much, much sweeter.”

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“Something about that lady puts a bad taste in my mouth, literally.” I walked towards Carter Hall, wishing I had some Listerine, and gripping my schedule ever so tightly.

The sun was setting, so I had to get to my room quickly, before something went wrong. But I then remembered, “Everybody here is like me. I almost forgot I ain’t on Earth anymore.”

After what felt like hours of walking, as I stood not too far away from the dormitory, known as Carter Hall, I welcomed the coming transformation after months of being on Earth. Here on Midas, the change felt much more natural, probably because of the amount of qi that was in the atmosphere here. The transformation was much less awkward and felt orgasmic almost.

“Now that feels better.”

I walked into the dormitory. It was so silent that you could hear a pen drop. It was pitch black in the whole building but for me, that was no problem. I walked up the steps to floor number 8 and walked towards room 845. I unlocked the door and found someone’s stuff all the way on the other side of the room, or apartment from what it looked like. It was obviously a guy’s stuff judging from the enormous amount of condoms and playboy magazines in the corner of the dorm room.

The first thing I did as I entered the room was walk into the bathroom to check the toilet out. Bathroom hygiene was a pet peeve I had due to bad past experiences with roommates back at RAW- Regulators Academy for Warriors. It seemed nice and clean, so I relieved myself, flushed, and did my ritual- I stared at the moon searching for someone. That someone was probably why I was still alive. That reason was the reason I was the highest ranking person on the Regulators Ranking list for the teenagers and the adults. He was my motivation. He was the spark for the fire that burned in me. He was none other than, Kontan, the greatest Regulator since… ever.

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A loud banging on the door made me force my eye lids open after last night. I expected to remember a dream about the skull guy from before, but nothing came to mind. Good. The less I saw of him the better.

I hopped out of my bed, with only my drawers on, and opened the door. A blonde haired girl stood in front of my door, with a mix of embarrassment and humor on her face.

It was Dana. “Why don’t you have any clothes on? Classes start in ten minutes! If you don’t hurry, you’re gonna be late. Everybody else is in the commons area talking and stuff, while you’re here sleeping.”

Sarcastically I replied, “Ten minutes. That’s not even enough time to iron my clothes!”

“Then quit talking to me and iron them. “

I decided to just put some clothes on. Dana helped me as I slipped some blue jeans out of my duffle bag, slipped my Red and brown vans on, with a brown Malcolm X shirt. I brushed my teeth, washed my face and headed out the door with Dana.

For the first few minutes of fast paced walking, there was total silence until I decided to start a conversation. “So… how do you like it here so far?”

She blushed and replied, “Everything here is fine it’s just that… I kind of miss my old life, ya know? I miss all my old friends, my life, my…family. How about you? What do you miss?”

I chuckled at her question, and after a minute finally found an answer. “I really don’t miss much. My life back on Earth was basically Hell. I was blind, bullied, and a nobody.”

“Oh… I’m sorry for asking.”

“Well actually there was something I missed.”

In a timid voice she asked, “And what was that?”

“Actually, it was someone. Her name was Mya. She was the only thing I lived for, and the only person I would die for. She was the only one who I think will ever understand me. She liked me for who I was. She didn’t care if I was blind or even if I was an alien, she still cared for me. I don’t if there will ever be a girl like her, on earth or here on Midas.”

Dana couldn’t help but frown as I told her who I missed. I was stupid enough to talk about how much I loved a girl in front of a girl who, little did I know, loved me.

“So, Dana, how’d you die?”

“I don’t think you really want to know.”

“If I didn’t want to know, then I wouldn’t have asked.”

She looked around, as if somebody was watching her, as we opened the door to the outside and walked towards the schools front doors. “I…I… I committed suicide.”

I was in awe at her statement. Not because of the fact that she did it, but of a family member it reminded me of. “You shouldn’t be ashamed of that. Shit, at times, I felt like I wanted to commit suicide too, but something kept me from doing it.”

“What’s that something?”

“I don’t really think you wanna know.”

“If I didn’t want to know, then I wouldn’t have asked.” Damn. She’s using my own words against me.

“Okay, don’t laugh at me and don’t tell anybody.” She made a gesture where she zipped her lips closed like a five year old. It was cute, but I didn’t tell her that. It would’ve made me feel guilty about Mya.

“I have this strange… instinct you know. Like a voice inside my head that guides me through tough situations in life. Sometimes I listen to it, and sometimes I don’t. But whenever I felt like killing myself, it’s like it forced me to listen. Sometimes it even tells me things that other people don’t realize like… like… kinda like Spiderman’s spider sense.”

I expected her to start to bust out laughing like Slim did last night, but she didn’t. Instead, she looked t me with a look of compassion… just like Mya had done when I told her how I felt about things. The resemblance was scary.

To take my mind of the subject of Mya, I asked another question. “Did your room mate come in last night?”

“From what I hear, nobody’s has. Or at least none of the freshman’s has. Slim told me that all the new foreign students were made sure to have upperclassmen roommates. The upperclassmen were at some meeting or something yesterday and left to it as soon as we got here. He said they’ll be here by first period.”

After walking and talking all the way to the school, I opened the door for her and we bid each other farewell for our schedules were completely different besides the fact that we had a class called soul training together. I anticipated that class more than any class I ever had. Slim told me that we each had a different soul of some sorts while we were back on the train, and I was busting out of the seams of my shirt trying to figure out what I looked like. But what was strange was the fact that everyone knew what their soul was, whether they were vampire, a lycan, or a phantom, except me. Slim never mentioned to me what I was. Well whatever I was, I would know by the end of seventh period for sure.

Just as I tried to look at my schedule to find my first class, I remembered- I was blind. I had gotten so use to Slim’s powers that I forgot. Dana had helped me walk all the way here, so I never really thought about getting around the school until now.

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A call from HQ woke me up, just in time to get ready for my first day of school at Heavenly Crown Academy.

I picked up my phone from the furniture piece beside my bed and pressed the green talk button.

In an angry tone I answered, “Hello?”

“Time to wake up, Locke. Remember that you are on a mission.”

“You call being with a bunch of kids my age who know nothing about Midas a mission. You gotta be kiddin’ me.”

“Look you incompetent fool, get some clothing on and get ready for class. Your first academic is Geometry. You were not too bright in math the back at RAW so I expect you to better here. Is that understood?”

“Yeah, sure, whatever. What are you, my… dad?”

“Your father was a great man, and I can never live up to his standards no matter how hard I try, but for the next couple of years of your life, I am your guardian, so do whatever the hell I say, is that clear?”

I muttered, “Yes maam.” And put on a black Rocawear shirt, Black pants, and some black Hawk Reverts. I had so much black on, you would’ve thought I was what people on Earth called a Goth. I locked my door, and hurried to class, not expecting the first day to be as hard as I would soon know it to be.

Gods of death-

Pluto

Hades

Anubis/ Osiris

Yama

Thanatos

Shouten

AOD