Black and White…

Black and White…

Black and White…

Where will the Domino land today?

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Black-haired and pale-faced, David Rey Keesle was very bored. Every day seemed to be the same to him. He would be forced out of bed at around 5 in the morning to go to school, sit in a cramped little desk with crude racial slurs and poorly-drawn sexual organs scribbled all over it, listen to a teacher’s nasally voice drone on and on about nothing, eat unbelievably crappy food in a dirty run-down cafeteria, listen to more of the same shit spouting from the teachers’ mouths, and then finally go home in a bus that reeked of cigarette smoke and rotten eggs. It was such a huge pain, living life so meaninglessly like this. He wanted to enjoy what little time he had left as a high school student, not loathe it. It wouldn’t be long until he’d have to attend college, and he’d be forced to work harder than ever.

‘Maybe I should join a club or something…’ David pondered to himself as he sat alone in the back row of his mathematics class. Like usual, he wasn’t paying an ounce of attention to the lesson itself. Two girls sitting in front of him were whispering excitedly amongst themselves, although David wasn’t able to catch a word of it. A short, bespectacled boy up at the front stared intensely in his direction for a few seconds before quickly turning his attention back to the board. Another kid, a tall jock with blood-red hair, was smirking as he scribbled an obscene gesture at the top of his desk. David sighed; he didn’t have a single friend he could relate to. It wasn’t that he had trouble being social, though. He just found making friends too trouble. So, basically, he was a hypocrite, whining about wanting friends when he’s too lazy to even try and make one.

Reaching into his back-pocket, David pulled out a crumbled piece of paper. Flattening it out on his desk, the paper turned out to be a listing of all of the school’s clubs. David’s ice-blue eyes shimmered slightly as he stared at the wrinkled paper. There was bowling club, art club, dance club, music club, cooking club, Anime club, computer club, animation club, football, soccer, tennis, volleyball, S.A.D.D. (Students Against Drunk Driving), and more. All of them either sucked in David’s opinion, or they weren’t able to take any more members for the year. A scowl broke out on David’s lips; could this school’s extracurricular activities be any lamer?

“Hey. You looking for a club to join?”

David swung his head up to see the bespectacled boy from earlier now standing in front of his desk. Looking around, David suddenly realized that class had already ended; even the teacher was gone. The boy’s thick glasses seemed to shine luminously in the beams of fresh sunlight that poured through the window behind David’s back. Neither boy said a word for a good three minutes.

“Well? You looking for a club to join?” The glasses-wearing boy repeated. His voice was a bit scratchy and high-pitched for someone his age. David lazily shrugged his shoulders. He rolled the list on his desk up into a ball and threw it carelessly over his right shoulder. The glasses boy’s left eye twitched. Two more minutes of tense silence.

“I guess I am…” David quietly replied after taking his sweet time. He began shoving his text book into his already-stuffed backpack, apparently no longer interested in listening any further. The glasses boy smirked wily.

“I know a club you can join. It’s a club I set up about half a year ago, but no one’s ever joined. Not a single one. So…how about it?”

David slowly glanced up from his book bag. “What kind of club is it?” he asked.

The glasses boy reached into his pocket, and took out a small, rectangular tile. It was white, except a single black line ran horizontally right through the middle of it, and there was single black dot on both sides of the line. He slammed the tile down onto David’s desk, and beamed proudly at it. David blinked twice.

“It’s a club for playing dominoes…!!” he replied, flashing a toothy grin. For a moment, it was as if time itself had stopped. Beads of icy sweat ran down James’ thin, toothpick arms as he stood there. Was…was this guy an idiot?

Had David been a bit less cynical, he would have probably asked on how such a ridiculous idea for a club could have ever been approved by the board of education, but he decided it would probably be better if he didn’t know. Sighing, he pushed himself up out of his seat, swung his bag over his shoulder, and made his way for the door.

“W-WAIT A MINUTE!! AREN’T YOU INTERESTED IN JOINING?!!” the glasses boy cried, waving the tile around in his hand like a little child.

David glared at the kid from over his shoulder, a tempest of rage and fury radiating from narrowed eyes. “Look, kid…you kept me from getting to class, and now I’m going to be late and it’ll all be your fault. Besides, I don’t even know who you are, so-”

“My name is James Leiuro!”

“…So I don’t see why I should hang out with someone as nonsensical as you. Also, a little piece of advice to keep in mind: next time you start a club, don’t have it focus on something as unbelievably retarded as dominoes!” David harshly concluded.

The bespectacled young man named James Leiuro let loose a heavy sigh. “Strange for you to let such an opportunity slip past so easily…I thought you wanted to have friends, David Rey Keesle…”

That single statement made David freeze up on the spot. His blood instantly ran cold.

“It’s no secret that you feel lonely, David. I can tell it just from simply observing your everyday actions. You hardly ever talk to anyone, you always sit alone at lunch, you avoid striking up conversation whenever possible…and yet you still have this unbearable sadness in your expression. Don’t you want to change that about yourself?”

David’s lips curled into a snarl. “…Who or what the hell are you? Are you some kind of perverted stalker, watching my every move?” he snapped.

“No,” James shook his head, “Just a kindred spirit…I don’t have any friends either.”

“What makes you think I would even want to be friends with someone like you in the first place, though?”

James’ eyes lit up brightly from behind the foggy-thick lenses of his spectacles. “Hey, if you join my club…then you won’t be bored with life anymore either, right? You’ll finally have something to do, and my club will officially have two members! Everyone wins!!”

David was silent for a moment. He had never met anyone nearly as odd and unnerving as this kid. He could easily tell that the sugary-sweet smile plastered on James’ face was nothing more than a facade; this kid was definitely hiding something. Exactly what it was he was trying to hide, however, David hadn’t a clue. In any case, it didn’t seem like James was going to give up. He had every intention of convincing David to join the domino club, no matter what the cost. Finally, after pondering to himself for a good five minutes, David sighed in defeat.

“…Okay, fine…I’ll check out this stupid dominoes club of yours…”

“Yes!” James clapped his hands together, looking rather satisfied.

“Still…how do you know so much about me, anyway?” David inquired further.

“Like I said…” James glanced off to the right, “We’re kindred spirits.”

In the end, both boys were terribly late to their next classes…

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Later that same day, after school had ended…

David raised an eyebrow, feeling glad he had kept his expectations so slow. “So…this is the Dominoes Clubroom, huh?”

“Yes…yes, it is…” James replied rather flatly.

The ‘clubroom’ was in fact a small, rundown shack in the middle of a small forest clearing out behind the school. There were empty syringes, cigarette butts and large clumps of animal fur strewn all about the surrounding exterior of the shack, which made David even more reluctant to actually go inside. Tapping the rim of his glasses, James stepped up in front of David. His expression was unreadable.

“I apologize for the terrible conditions of our club,” James said, although he didn’t exactly look sorry about it at all.

David shrugged. “Well, what you get is what you get. This school is pretty cheap when it comes to club funds…”

“Well, actually, I had requested for the use of this shack specifically when my club application form had been accepted by the board of education…” James replied matter-of-factly.

“Eh?”

“You see…about three months ago, I discovered that this shack has…oh, how can I say this without actually giving it away yet…a special FEATURE of sorts!” James smirked. His entire personality seemed to have had changed immensely ever since David accepted his offer to join the domino club. He had a habit of jesting now. It was a bit mystifying, and David was beginning to really wonder just what kind of thoughts ran through this weird kid’s head.

“So…do you wanna see what the special feature is?” There was a sinister grin plastered on James’ round face. David sighed into his hand.

“…I don’t really have a choice, do I?” he muttered wistfully.

“Nope!” James shook his head as he turned to face the shack.

Kicking the door open, James grabbed David by the hand and pulled him into the darkness. For a moment, David felt a sharp pain in his palm, but it subsided as soon as it came about, so he didn’t pay it any mind. It was completely dark within the interior of the shack, and had James not been there, David wouldn’t have had the faintest clue on where he was going. After a bit of groping around and bumping into things, though, James finally let out a cry of surprise.

“Ah! I found the light-switch!” he proclaimed. There was a loud click, and a moment later, the lights slowly flickered on. David’s mouth dropped open, and his eyes grew as wide as dinner plates. This was definitely not what he had been expecting. Hell, this was the last thing he could have ever been expecting.

The two boys were standing in the middle of what appeared to be a laboratory taken straight from a highly-acclaimed sci-fi novel. The entire room was a beautiful white, with various machines and gadgets strewn along the walls, all of them foreign to David’s eyes. There was a large porthole located on the westward wall, and a small sign underneath it read ‘EPHERON’. In front of both James and David was a giant panel, although unlike the rest of the room, it was completely black. However, there did appear to be one tiny piece of the panel on the very bottom left that was still white.

James stuck his arms out proudly. “This is the ‘special feature’…do you like it?” he asked.

David slowly nodded his head with a stupefied look on his face.

Reaching into his pocket, James took out the tiny domino tile he had shown David earlier that day. He placed it into the empty space of the panel on the wall, and at that instant, the entire panel lit up, showering both boys with an explosion of light. As the light faded away, the darkened panel now revealed a map of sorts, made entirely out of domino tiles. The word ‘EPHERON’ had been scribbled across it in bright, neo-green letters. David wasn’t sure how many more surprises his heart could take.

James smiled that sickeningly sweet, innocent smile of his. “Alright, before we begin, there’s two things I should tell you…one, the real reason I knew you wanted friends and were bored with life is because I have the ability to read minds, not because we’re ‘kindred spirits’. Second…the whole story about this club being a place where you can play dominoes was just a facade. This club actually has a totally different purpose. Do you understand so far?”

David shook his head.

“Oh, well…it’ll make sense soon enough!” James chuckled to himself.

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“EPHERON is the name of a heavy-security, super-secret, highly-classified banking fortress located about thirty or so miles underwater off the east coast of Australia. It was built a good 100 years or so ago by the U.N. to ensure that a large proportion of the world’s expenses will always be available to use in case of a world crisis. Many jewels, gold and other treasures that have been discovered throughout the world are stored in that fortress. Due to the current economic recession, the fortress has recently been reopened for business. That’s where you, your two teammates and I will come in. I will provide you three with all the information you need from the safety of my control room. You will fight your way through each floor of the fortress until you reach the final, tenth floor, where the ultimate treasure of the world is said to be held. You will retrieve it, bring it back to me, and we shall celebrate with vanilla-frosted cupcakes!! How does that sound?!”

David scratched his chin, deep in thought. “…Vanilla, huh?” he asked.

James nodded. “Vanilla. It’s the only kind of frosting I got.”

“Dammit…” David liked chocolate better. Then, he realized something else. “We have teammates?!”

“Yup.”

“You said this club didn’t have any members, you bastard!!”

“I lied.” James stuck out his tongue mockingly.

“…”

“Ha!”

“…?”

“By the way,” James added in as he turned his back to David, “You have no choice but to help me, just so you know…”

“Huh…?”

“Look at your palm.”

David looked at the palm of his left hand, and his mouth fell agape; a small, black cross had formed in the very middle of his palm. James’ lips curled upwards into a smirk.

“I placed my mark on you to ensure that you don’t run away. If you do, the mark will explode, taking you with it…” James explained in a pleasant tone of voice.

David recalled back to when James had grabbed his hand earlier. That must have been the time when the marking was placed. He couldn’t believe he had let himself be dragged into such a trap.

Thinking about it now, it might have just been better if he had simply stayed a loner. Just what was going to happen to him, under the orders of this bastard James?

“Well? Let’s meet the family, eh…?” James said, motioning his hand towards a door that had suddenly formed on the eastern wall. David’s eyes grew wide as two figures stepped out before him…