by H. T. Night
“Those types of experiences enrich our lives.” Katherine gave me a big beautiful, reassuring smile.
“You’re not messing with me?” I asked.
“Why would I do that?”
“You’re right,” I said. “Why would you do that?” Kat had an unbelievably positive attitude about what she had just heard about me. “Are you sure I can’t help you carry your bags to your dorm?”
“Seriously, I didn’t bring a lot. I can carry them.”
I had the feeling she wanted her space. I was pretty good at reading signals. “All right. I’ll see you around.”
“I hope so.” She gave one last great smile.
Chapter Seven
I started to walk back to my room and went past the church.
I jogged past the cathedral and didn’t look up at the gargoyles, not once. This was something I had never done. Something was spooking me and I did not like to feel out of control. This was my final year here, and I had no reason to start believing I was in danger on this campus.
I arrived back to the room and Barry was sitting on his bed watching something on his laptop. He liked to watch YouTube videos for hours. Barry was a strange cat. He was a jock in high school who’d won the science fair every year. I couldn’t decide if he was a meathead or a nerd. I was pretty sure he was a strong dose of both.
Barry jumped up when he saw me. He gave me a huge hug. “My brotha’ from anotha’ motha’.”
“Don’t act like we haven’t talked since I’ve been here,” I said.
“We haven’t had a proper greeting since you woke up like such a huge grouch and needed towels.”
“You were blaring music when I’d just started to nap. If the shoe was on the other foot, you would have gone all King Kong on me. Don’t say you wouldn’t have.”
Barry thought for a moment, and his upper lip curled into a smile. “That’s true. I do go to red faster than most folks, in spite of our meditation classes.”
“You’re a little bit of a hothead. There are folks who value those who are quick to anger.”
“Shut up, Anthony.” Barry rolled his eyes.
“Why don’t you just get it over with?” I continued to tease.
“Just because I’m passionate doesn’t mean I should be a….” Barry stopped short of saying the word.
“Werewolves are good people, too,” I teased Barry.
“I don’t want to be a werewolf,” Barry insisted.
I smiled at my best friend and knew I had him, hook, line and sinker. “You’re doing everything you can to go in that direction. You’re growing your hair long. You put on some pounds. Be honest, is it your secret desire to howl at the moon?”
“Just because your mom is Samantha Moon doesn’t mean everyone you know chooses that life.”
“My mom didn’t choose the life. But that is a story for another day.” I trusted Barry, but I preferred to give him personal information about me in tidbits. I decided to change the subject and tell Barry about Katherine.
“Hey, man, I call dibs on this girl I just met. Or, I should say, woman. She’s twenty-three.”
“Twenty-three isn’t that old.” Barry liked to think he was a relationship counselor when it came to anything. He was one of those guys who was always trying to fix everybody’s problems around him, except his own. Barry had an interesting history with girls. His love life had been made up of a series of one-night stands. He had never had a steady girlfriend.
“So, what?” Barry snickered. “Does she have a huge rack and an ass for days?”
“No,” I said, and just shook my head. “She is a regular woman. Long blond hair and beautiful greenish-blue eyes.”
“So, she is flat?”
“Not at all, you pig! They’re perfect. She’s perfect. I remember her body being perfect.”
“Damn, you already have it bad for this girl. This is just day one.”
“Day one, final year,” I said, correcting my friend. “Neither of us have had any prospects at this school, so much so that we both have heard the rumors about our secret love affair.”
“You could do worse!” Barry joked.
“So could you.” We both laughed and then, had an uncomfortable silence. Not the time for uncomfortable silences. “Look, Barry, I think I like her a lot.”
“You just met her.” Barry shook his head at me.
“So what!” I answered with passion. “I know she could be someone special in my life.”
Barry looked at me and said, “She must be.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I’ve never seen you whipped.”
“Shut up. We haven’t even gone on a date.”
“Oh, it’s going to get bad.” Barry sighed. “I had a buddy in high school who had the look in his eyes that you do now. He is now married with two kids and another on the way.”
“All I’m saying is that I don’t want you to start flexing your chest muscles when we are around her.”
“I don’t do that.” Barry laughed.
“Yes, you do. You look constipated and it’s embarrassing.”
“I don’t think it embarrasses you. I think you’re the one who secretly likes it.” Barry hopped off his bed. He tore off his shirt and began flexing his arms and chest two feet from my face. “Try to resist.”
“You’re getting fat,” I said. I knew it was a mean thing to say. But he was pushing my buttons.
“I know. Too much ice cream. Love the stuff.” Then he wiggled his belly to show me how little he cared.
I felt bad after I said that to him and tried to fix my previous statement.
“You look fine, Barry. I was just messing with you. But if you do want to get a few runs in, I plan on running four to five times a week.”
“Don’t worry about me.” Barry walked right in front of me and tore off his pants with his back facing me. He was wearing white skivvy underwear with a message on the back. He bent over so I could read it. It read, ‘Don’t hate me because I’m juicy.’
“Look, werewolf boy, I’m not in the mood for your frat house behavior.”
“That’s fine. I’m going to buy a Coke from one of the vending machines. You want one?”
“I’m good.”
Barry left the room just wearing his underwear. The kid was a clown.
After a moment, I heard a woman’s voice behind me say, “I need your strength.”
What the hell? I turned around. There was nobody in the room. It was the same voice I’d heard this morning on the street. Someone was trying to speak to me.
“Hello?” I said. “Are you there?” I said this three times and on the third time, Barry opened the door and said, “I knew you wanted more of the juicy.”
I looked at Barry and debated telling him what was going on in my head. For now, I was going to keep this to myself. I stared at Barry with a puzzled look and decided to just go to bed. Maybe thinking about Katherine would settle my nerves.
Chapter Eight
On Sunday, I spent most of the day sleeping. A couple of times, I walked outside to see if I would run into Katherine, but she must have been buried in her dorm room. In the evening, Barry and I ordered a pizza.
During the week, the Academy provided a cafeteria for all three meals. But we were on our own on the weekends. That was why I always had a big wad of cash every time I came up here. With my debit card account with three grand in it, I was doing okay. Barry apparently had two hundred bucks to his name. So, pizza was my treat tonight.
Barry and I stayed up until about four in the morning playing the newest Halo game. The game was insane and the graphics were just sick. Barry and I had the same school schedule. From 9 to 10 a.m., we had Advanced Potions. From 10 to 11, we had Alchemy 303. From 11 to 12, we had Metallurgy and Gems. Then they gave us an hour for lunch. From 1 to 2, we had Advanced Meditation, and we closed out the day in the gym in a class called Kinetic Manipulation.
“Think we will wake up?” Barry said as we both tried falli
ng asleep around 5 a.m. That gave us three-and-a-half hours with no breakfast. Our showers were always cleared by then, because no else was tardy as often as Barry and me.
“We better,” I answered. “I am not standing patrol on the first night.”
***
My alarm went off on my Android phone at 8:30. I didn’t want to wake up. It was the first time I’d had to wake up early for anything in a month and my body just collapsed. No way in hell could I drag myself out of bed. Then I thought about her. Her amazing smell. I thought about her smile and just the idea that she was somewhere out there forced my body up.
Barry was also up. I wasn’t sure what his motivation was, but we hurried ourselves to the showers.
I took a three-minute shower. I soaped, washed off, dried off. I brushed my teeth, put on deodorant and some body spray.
I hurried back to my dorm room in my towel and put on my best outfit. It was a pair of jeans that fit me perfectly and a white sweater. I wore white tennis shoes.
I knew which hall we were meeting in. It would be the West Hall for all final-year students. Our class had a whopping group of twenty-eight left. At least, we had that many before we’d all left for summer break. In all likelihood, we would lose a couple of students before this school year started. That was the nature of the game.
Barry was ready and we had ten minutes to spare. We locked our room and hurried to our first class.
Barry and I ran into our Advanced Potions classroom, two minutes before the bell.
Advanced Potions was easily the most sought-after course on campus. Most alchemists did not have my skillset in terms of my hybrid immorality and potions were a strong way of keeping balance for them. This was going to be Barry’s favorite class for many reasons. Unfortunately, hijinks would be one of them. In this advanced class, we could combine potions and transfiguration, which pushed the boundaries of alchemy.
“You boys arrived in the nick of time,” the long-haired, skinny teacher said to us. I had never seen her at the school. She was six feet, 100 pounds. To say she looked like Morticia from The Addams Family would be understating this woman’s creepiness. “I have two seats right up front for the both of you.”
Barry and I made our way to the seats and put our backpacks full of paper and pencils behind our chairs.
I looked at the board and saw a name written on the board. Belladonna. I wasn’t sure if it was her name or some type of ingredient in a potion. That question was soon answered when June, a final-year student, same as myself said to her, “Belladonna, will there be any texts in this class?”
“No texts you will find in books. I will bring specialized materials and you will take precise notes. Then, all my materials will go home with me.”
Sounded intense. I never had a class where they were afraid to issue us a book. Even in my telekinetic manipulation class where we basically tumble all day, we have a class text.
The rest of my potions class, I took thorough notes and was completely enthralled with all the concepts that potions can bring to any alchemist fight. This would be my favorite class this year.
The Alchemist Academy wasn’t a magical kingdom of happiness like some books had painted them to be. Maybe there were schools out there that fit the mold of someplace where spells are cast constantly with wands, and flying broom games are played outside in arenas. Our school was far more practical and less odd. In the short amount of time that the Alchemy Academy had been run by Archibald Maximus, this school has been a magical kingdom unto itself.
What I had seen would make most of these students quit this goal. Most had no idea of the truth that is out there just waiting in the dark to pounce. Did this make me a special student at this school? I liked to think so. No one, other than the Dean of Students, knew the full extent of what I had been through.
I knew the truth. My professors had seen less action than I had. Did that change the fact that I could learn from this? No, it didn’t. I was intelligent enough to understand that whatever I was, whatever I continued to grow into, I would need these skills to fight the unknown. And trusting I had seen the unknown, I decided the moment I chose to join the Academy that I would keep all Fire Warrior and other experiences I’d had private from everyone. Not even my best friend Barry knew that part of me.
Potions was a nice class to have first, because it came naturally, especially when you were trying to wake up from a long night of gaming. Barry and I would always team up in these types of classes. Barry was incredibly smart when it came to the work. He was a half-witted dope when it came to everything else. But he was an oddly smart fellow. He’s the book smart, and I’m the street smart in this operation.
Today, we split up in our chemistry station and did the exciting work of mixing a potion that we had done in our last class. We each needed to come up with one.
Barry mixed up a Mute potion, which made whoever consumed it mute for a minimum of eight hours. I was hoping he would take it tonight for himself so I could finally have a good night sleep from his snoring.
I put together a potion I could put together in my sleep: the Fire potion. It was lethal, but I knew how to control it.
Today’s potion was not enough to matter. Whoever consumed my potion would have the ability to throw fire around from their hands by simply saying the phrase, “On Fire!”
The batch I made today was about two ounces. I would be the one who would drink the potion. Not the tastiest of liquids.
I was given the ingredient in a dream last semester by a mystery man. For all I knew, it could have been my subconscious speaking to me through a voice. The ingredients made one of the most lethal potions this school had ever seen.
Was I inspired by the Fire Warrior? Probably. No one but Barry knew the six ingredients it took to make this liquid weapon. We were extremely secretive when it was time to put the potions together.
The power of the potion was in the amount one consumed. For my class demonstration, I would light up one of these ugly bushes with my palm outside of class. I would probably get a talking to, but it would be a game stopper. I’m all about game stoppers.
Chapter Nine
It was lunchtime.
I usually took my food from the cafeteria back to my dorm. Today, however, I was looking for Katherine. What would I say to her when I saw her? I had no idea.
The campus had a courtyard next to the kitchen. It was a nice place to sit on a blanket and have lunch. I liked to sit on the benches they had to the right of the courtyard. Usually, those were the first spots to fill and today was no different. There were a lot of new faces, but I was looking for just one.
Toward the back of the courtyard, I saw Katherine sitting alone on a blanket. My heart dropped when I saw her. I began sweating. I had to look in the opposite direction and compose myself.
I walked toward her and she was busy reading a book.
That day, we had a choice between a chicken sandwich and fries or two slices of pizza. It appeared she had gone with the chicken sandwich and fries. As did I, since I had devoured eight slices of pizza the night before.
I nonchalantly walked over to her blanket. She was still reading her book while eating her chicken sandwich and fries while washing it down with a can of soda. I was mostly a water guy. Too many calories and sugar in most drinks. I liked to consume my calories from food.
Finally, she looked up and saw me. She smiled. I couldn’t see her eyes since she was wearing a nice pair of sunglasses. But I noticed she was wearing the same necklace with the dark rock pendant.
I grinned and said, “You’re still here.”
“Did you think I left?” she asked.
I smiled. “Who knows in this place? I’m glad to see you’re still here.”
“I was never planning to leave, but I appreciate your good will.”
“You mind if I join you on your blanket?”
Katherine seemed surprised at my forwardness, and to be honest, so was I. “Sure,” she said. She moved over and made room for
me.
I tried not to sit on anything as I sat down. I situated myself with my plate of food and water bottle. I looked up at the sun and felt it come down on my face. It was nice. “So, how is your first morning?”
“Bored to tears,” she answered rather quickly.
“Yeah, it feels that way till your breakthrough. Or, at least until you start getting some gym time.”
“You’re seriously building up this breakthrough, you know.” She dipped her fries in some ketchup from a packet she had squirted on the paper plate.
“Well, when it happens to you, this place will make a hell of a lot more sense.”
“Is that what happened to you?”
“Yes, and honestly, the breakthroughs—after the first happens—can be endless. I have two or three breakthroughs every day when I take this place seriously. Just pace yourself and don’t move too quickly. Seeing what all that classroom work leads to is pretty awesome.”
“I’m sold,” she said. “It’s just very boring right now.”
Kat took off her glasses. She looked at me and my heart melted. I tried not to show it. Her eyes were the color of the ocean.
“Your eyes seem very deep,” I said, with a crack in my voice. “Very intense.”
“You already have picked up on that?”
“You hear that a lot.” I was surprised. But then again, I wasn’t.
“I have heard it nearly all my life.”
“Why is that?” I asked.
“You sure you want to go this intense for the second time we have ever talked?” Katherine seemed concerned. Whatever she was about to tell me was close to her heart. I knew this was going be huge, and I needed to tread lightly.
I wasn’t sure if I did want to know what Kat was trying to build up the courage to tell me. I took a deep breath and looked at Kat, who didn’t look away.
“So, you’re ready to hear this?” Katherine asked.
“I hope so. Before you tell me, I need to explain to you I have been through a lot of strange crap in my life,” I said. “I have seen things that would astound most people. So, if you don’t receive the reaction you’re looking for, it will be for that reason. It won’t be because I’m an insensitive asshole.”
