Haze: A Mercenaries Path

“Reality is wrong; dreams are for real.”- Tupac Amaru Shakur R.I.P

I woke to the sound of trains whistling, the feeling of wetness from sweat, the taste of leftover steak from last night, the smell of cigarettes, and the sight of… nothing. It was total darkness, the same as everyday for the past two years. I felt for my cane, picked it up and slowly rose to my feet. Sluggishly, I walked towards the exit of my room and followed the scent of cigarettes and eggs. The out of nowhere I tripped over something.

“Ahhhh!” A loud thump was heard throughout the house. “Grrrrr! Who left their damn skateboard in the middle of the hallway, for the third time this week!!! I swear I’m gonna break something and yall are-”

“Nigga, hush, I’m trynna watch my damn soaps!!! Shut the hell up for I bitch slap yo black ass.” Well, at least now I knew that mom was up. I grasped my can and achingly got up. Just another day in the life of Nero Torrence. I found my way to the kitchen, wholly limping on my left foot, and sat down.

Ignoring the pain in my foot, I figured no one was going to get me my food since mom was busy with soaps, sisters were all at school, and a father wasn’t here, and hasn’t been for the past ten years, so I attempted to get up and get my own food. I walked towards the stove cautiously, and reached towards the skillet waiting for the slightest amount of pain but didn’t. As if it were instinct, I grabbed the handle of the skillet, with a fork scraped some eggs onto my plate, and poured my own juice as if it were two years ago. This strange, instinct happened a lot lately, but I saw nothing of it. I thought, “Blind luck is all. Blind luck is all…”

I stepped onto the city bus, being assisted by a kind old lady judging from the texture of her skin, who could barely walk her self guessing from the strange steps she took. I sat in my seat, and felt an eerie presence- People were staring at me. I was used to it.

Under my breath, I muttered, “Dumb asses…”, and sat patiently waiting for the stop to Martin Luther King Jr. High school. It was my first day of high school. I was finally a freshman. To most this would be one of the best days of their lives, but for me, as many things were, it was the exact opposite. For me it was just another chance for embarrassment, it was another chance to be picked on; it was another chance for bigots to point me out, but most of all it was just another day for an ass beating. Just another day in the life of Nero Torrence.

“James Smith”

“Here!”

“Jessica Tethers”

“Present!”

“Nero Torrence” Silence was the reply to her call.

“Ahem… Nero Torrence!”

“I’m here; you can stop Miss… whatever your name is.” The teacher looked towards the dark skinned boy, in the back of the classroom, with the twisty haired afro and distant eyes.

“Excuse me, young man; you do not talk to your teacher that way, no matter what the circumstances are. That is a detention for you young man, now come up here and sign this slip.” Damn it!

Nero was not hesitant at rising up, which is how most kids who were like him acted. He strongly rose to his feet, and then noticed a vibration in the floor. Someone was going to try to trip him. He felt for the starting point of the vibration and found it to be not too far from where he was. He took a couple paces forward and stopped, right in front of the student who had his leg in the aisle, trying to trip him. Unexpectedly, he turned to face the student, probably a male, reared back his fist and let loose a punch that broke wind.

The principal read the detention slip while pacing back and forth, with an occasional “Hmmmm…”in between each offense.

“Failure to respond to teacher, disrespect, late for homeroom, and punching a fellow student. Hmmm… Sir, do you realize that you have broken your fellow students’ cheekbones.”

“No sir”

“Hmmm… sir, do you realize that you have stained classroom 678’s floors with blood.”

“No sir.”

His tone grew in intensity. “Hmmm… sir, do you realize that you have a chance of getting expelled because of what you’ve done.”

I grinned and slyly said, “No sir.”

He finally cracked, “Sir, are you aware of any of the physical evidence that you have punched a student in the first ten minutes of school!!!”

“No sir.”

“And why is that??!!”

“Because I’m blind, genius”

When I left the principals office, I left with a smile on my face. I had just gotten away with fighting. I thought of all of the possibilities and types of things I could get away with at this school- breaking and entering, accidentally feeling a girls butt or chest, and even murder. All because of some disease.

The principal said sorry about twenty times before I left to homeroom. He said that he would make sure that no other student would mess with me and that if they did then they would be immediately expelled. Life was good when you can’t see. Especially when you can’t see and have a gift of enhanced senses.

I walked through the halls during the first locker break, sensing the strange looks that I was getting because of the homeroom incident. But while I walked though the halls, something strange happened. For a brief moment, probably three seconds at the most, I saw something. I actually saw something. It was the first thing I had seen in two years. I saw possibly the most beautiful girl in the world. Beautiful enough, that I could remember her looks for a lifetime, even if I saw her for three seconds. Her hair brushed across my shoulder when she passed. When I saw her she was laughing, and walking with the some guy, with a red substance on his white polo shirt. And then it stopped. My first vision in a couple of years had abruptly ended. The beauty was no more, and everything returned to total darkness. My life would never be the same again.

I sprawled out on my bed, expecting a prank like a bag of dog shit on my bed, but to no avail. I couldn’t decide what was more exciting: the beauty of the girl, or sight. I told my mother but she told me t was just my imagination. It couldn’t have been my mind, because no human mind can conjure up a girl that pretty, no matter how hard you thought. But the more I thought about it, the more I was convinced that is was my mind, because for the past two years, all I had was my mind. To take my mind off the preposterous thought of actually seeing, I put on my music head phones and drifted off to sleep.

Fuck what my mom said, she could kiss my ass. Over the first few weeks of school, the visions increased. They would last longer and longer and happen much more frequently. Sometimes they lasted for twenty seconds, sometimes for even a minute. Sometimes they would happen three times a day, sometimes ten. But one thing remained constant: they almost always happened when I was around the girl. It was the same girl who I saw in my first vision weeks ago. I only saw her during the locker breaks so I cherished the time greatly and sometimes followed her around to the point of obsession. But I wasn’t obsessed over her, as pretty as she was. I was obsessed with seeing. And thanks to a little altercation, I actually got to become her friend. It happened like this.

I walked down the hall, searching for my math class, with that strange instinct I have at times guiding me. I suddenly walked into a strange altercation in the hall.

“Look, I already said it; I’m not your girlfriend. Stop spreading these rumors or else.”

The senior chuckled. “You ARE my girlfriend, and THAT’S final!”

The visions started to kick in because of my proximity to her. It was somewhat blurry, but it was good enough to see that we had a problem. I walked towards the crowd and shoved my way through. The senior grabbed hold of the girls arm, and pulled her towards him. The group was yelling “Fight, fight, fight, fight!” like the idiots they were. In the middle of the chanting, the senior, pulled his hand back and threw it towards her face. Pop!!!! So I did what any real man would do. I joined the fight.

He pulled his hand back for another hit, but I caught it just in time. “Excuse me, but aren’t you supposed to respect women, not hit them?? Please correct me if I’m wrong.”

The senior had a surprised look on his face and I knew exactly why. “Hey, aren’t you the blind kid that hit James right in the face.”

I replied with, “I don’t know, am I?” just to mess with his head. The vision then left me, but I wasn’t scared. I had a backup plan, even if I couldn’t see.

“Stop playing games. Your gonna regret ever fucking with one of the 35/50 Boyz.”

The crowd went still and silent. He let go of the girl and aimed a punch to my gut. I could tell by the shift of movement in the ground and the way the air flowed. I strafed to my left, fast as lightning, and reached for his arm. I held his wrist, palm facing the floor, and smashed his arm in, my fist hitting the outer elbow. He cried out in immense pain, and screamed for help. And lo and behold, more thugs came and tried to take advantage of my weakness. I could not see, but I could damn sure hear well, which they could already tell. They told the whole crowd to stomp their feet on the ground. This would cause me to get confused, for I couldn’t focus on where the blows were coming from. Who would’ve known that they were that smart?? I prepared for the worst when I heard a loud cry, above the stomping. It was the girl’s voice.

Her voice then sparked my vision and in the knick of time I jumped out of the way, barely missing the onslaught of punches headed towards me. The group looked dumbfounded, and they should’ve. I grabbed my cane off of the cold floor, and beat the crew like they stole something, similar to the Rodney King incident. After minutes of ass beating and bloodshed, teachers finally broke through the enormous crowd and held me back. I wasn’t worried though, because I had the principal in check. Trouble was not in my vocabulary as long as I had him knowing I was blind. Just another day in the Life of Nero Torrence.

I walked out of the bathroom, wiping the gangs’ blood of my fingers with a wet paper towel, with my escort standing right in front of me, helping me since I was blind but mostly just waiting for me to screw up. Long story short, the principal got suspicious and is giving me a personal escort for the next month, so he sees that no one messes with me, so I can have help with what he calls my “ailment”, and so I don’t start any fights.

“Excuse me; I’m going to use the restroom too. Stay here, and don’t start any mischief or I’ll have you put in detention.” The escort walked casually into the restroom and I sat down on the floor next to the door until I heard something.

It was the girl from the fight. “You can stop hiding; I already know it's you.”

“Aw, damnit!” whispered a voice from behind the trashcan.

I was excited that she was here. I could finally talk to her without any interruptions.

She spoke at regular tone. “So… whatever your name is, answer this question for me.”

“Okay, shoot, but I’ll only answer your question if you answer mine afterwards.”

“Deal. How in the HELL did you do all that back there??!! I mean, if you’re blind, then how can you fight? That’s freakin’ impossible.”

I chuckled at her question. “Well… If you really wanna know. My name is Nero Torrence. I joined a kickboxing class at age four, and a tae kwon do class at six. This is when I could see. I kept active in the class all the way up until I was thirteen.”

“Why’d you stop??”

“Hehehe… well as you can see, I am as blind as a bat, but I wasn’t always like this. Three years ago, when I was thirteen, I was diagnosed with glaucoma. My vision gradually got worse and worse over the course of a year until I was thirteen. But my other senses got better as my vision got worse. In a nutshell, I practiced my basic martial marts routine every day, to keep myself occupied, so I’m about as good as I was two years ago even if I’m blind. I use my ears and sense of touch in fights, in place of my eyes.”

“So you’re kind of like that Daredevil dude, in the comics.”

I marveled at her statement, because I never thought of it that way. “I guess you could say that.”

I was talking in a cool tone, but deep down I was extremely nervous. I was hoping that she didn’t notice. I was hoping my sight would kick in, but for some reason it wasn’t.

I heard the toilet in the restroom flush, so I motioned for her to go. She turned around to leave but then did something unexpected. She kissed me. Not on my hand. Not on my cheek. She kissed me on my lips. “My name is Mya, thanks for saving me!” she walked off to the women’s restroom to hide from my escort, Ms. Jenkins. I was in shock for the rest of the day.

Over the next couple of days, I began to talk to Mya more and more during school. Some people questioned her judgment about hanging out with me, but amazingly, she didn’t care. As we got better acquainted, I learned everything about her. She said that I was her official bodyguard during school hours. She never spoke of the kiss though, even if we were all alone. We began walking to classes together soon, and even walked to school together after I learn that she only lived two blocks away from me. Life was great. I finally gained a friend, no body tried to play jokes on me any more, Mya’s girlfriends were talking to me, and I even got to step in Mya’s house, which was huge. It was like a mansion. I never told her this though, for then she would know that whenever I was around her I could see and then she’d say I was crazy and so on. My visions began to last longer and longer. After a couple of weeks of hanging around her, it would last hours at a time. As I said before, life was great, until it happened. The day that would change my life, for the better or worse, I wouldn’t be able to tell.

A/N: alright, that’s my first chapter. I’m sorry for the lack of action. Intense action starts in the third chapter. I will definitely go deeper into the “New World” mentioned in the summary in the next chapter. In the next chapter, he’s going to start a new school, where everybody has special powers, even him. Feel free to ask any questions if you don’t understand something. And feel free to comment or critique my story. Peace out N.I.G.G.A.Z