So anyway, Alex dropped me off at home, and the three of them all zipped back off to his house. As I’d expected, great uncle Vinny was passed out in his bedroom. The whole upper floor reeked of booze, sweat, and regret, so I just hung out in the kitchen on my own.
I didn’t want to look out the window, but the thing is, the front kitchen window aims right at Sam’s house. Because oh yeah, we’re also neighbors. Not like, next-door or anything, but we’re two houses– within very clear sight of each other– in a tiny little circular neighborhood of only like 20-something homes.
Alannah was over there, I knew it. She had to be. I just wanted to wait long enough to look so that when I did they had gone to Alex’s, because if I saw her car there, I’d spiral.
But you know, I couldn’t wait.
I got up from the seats by the island, and peered through front window. Sure enough, her beat-up looking sedan sat just next to Sam’s driveway. I felt my stomach drop like a stone, and took a deep, shaky breath.
They were probably just hanging out, right? Sure, Sam had his own feelings about her, but after everything that happened, there was no way he’d really go for it right now.
Then again, why wouldn’t he? Just to stab me in the side. Really hit the nail in the head. Prove whatever point he wanted to. I guess the point being that he was better than me. Better for her.
“Nope,” I groaned, pacing through the living room, and over to the mudroom. “Nope, nope, nope.”
I slipped my shoes on, and leant my head against the wall. I closed my eyes, and was about to walk out the front door and go do… something, when I heard my phone go off. I didn’t even realize I forgot it!
I hustled back over to the kitchen, and ripped the charger out, pulling the screen up to my face. Alannah just texted me.
“Hey, you bust out yet?” she asked. It got a little chuckle out of me; the girl was funny, what can I say? “Julia said you stole some candy and got caught.”
“Oh yeah,” I said. “Evaded the lawman once again. Just call me Jason the Kid.” Because you know, cowboys, lawmen? Not my best, but I was already flustered; Alannah only ever furthered that.
“You home, or at Alex’s?” she asked. I glanced out the kitchen window, and saw her car’s tail lights glowing in the distance.
“Home,” I said. “You and Sam going?”
“I am, Sam’s not feeling it. You going?”
“Probably not. Gotta take care of my uncle tn.” No I did not. First of all, he’s my godfather, and secondly, screw that guy. He acts like I don’t even exist half the time.
“OK,” Alannah replied. “You able to talk tho?” That was a heart-stopper right there. We were good friends, but still, what did she want to talk to me about? Me? Her? Crazy!
Too crazy for me, in fact.
“Probably not tonight,” I texted. “Maybe later?”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” she said. Oh man… this one.
I slid my phone in my pocket, and only kind of creepily watched as Alannah drove off, and out of our neighborhood. I tried to give myself a second to relax– after all, it at least kind of sounded like all they did was hang out– but it didn’t work.
So, I paced around again, and eventually made my way to the mudroom door again. I put a hand on the doorknob, and took a deep breath. Honestly, popping into another store real quick sounded like a really tempting catharsis right about then, but something about Clement’s words stuck with me.
Not just the “go for a walk” thing, but having faith in myself. Not putting myself down. I mean after all, whether he knew me or not– which, grand scheme, he didn’t really– he was right on the money with that one.
My friends never really judged me for it. None of them did it, but then again they all had homes, parents– or at least caring parental figures– and families. I just had the home, and it was always so… empty.
Thievery– and the occasional destruction of pretzel property– was just… I don’t know, I guess it was like a response to what everyone who was related to me– blood or not, such as uncle Vinny– seemed to expect. Why subvert expectations, right? If that’s all my own family sees me as: not worth a damn, then I might as well shoot for… well not the stars, I guess the dirt, maybe.
If nothing else though, I wouldn’t be allowed out of the police department that easily again if I got caught, and I was a little too anxious to really steal with a clear enough head as it was, so… I decided to just go for the walk.
I stepped outside, and took a deep breath. The air came out of my lungs in streak of heat, clashing against the cold all around me. It swirled up and into the air, dissipating into nothingness.
I slunk over to the sidewalk, and started stepping along the neighborhood. Most of the lights were out in every house; after all, it was something like 11:30 at night. Sam’s lights were on, and much to my dismay, just as I had passed his house, on the other side of the road, I heard his front door open and close.
I stopped, my back still turned to his house. I was sure he was the one outside, the hearing the sound of car doors unlocking only drove that suspicion home.
“Hey,” he said. I glanced over my shoulder, and saw Sam standing there, having just noticed me, holding his door open.
“Hey…” I said. I stepped off the sidewalk and onto the road, closing the distance between us if ever so slightly. He tensed up a little. So did I.
We both paused for a second, the bitter January winds whirling around us, brushing my admittedly shaggy hair across my head; his short, brown hair swayed ever so slightly, and his legs shook a little– his right foot bounced against the driveway uncomfortably.
“You with Alannah, just then?” I asked. He nodded. Sam was always bigger than me– I mean I was taller, but he was more stocky, you know? More built. It was an annoying advantage. “What’d you do?”
He didn’t say anything, and leant into his jeep, starting the car, and turning on the heat. He got ready to sit inside, but hesitated, and turned back to me.
“We just hung out,” he said. “Talked.”
“Oh… okay,” I said. “You going to Alex’s?”
“Mhm.”
“Cool… Well, uh… have fun.” Have fun? What was I, his dad? Have fun… Oh Jason, you idiot.
“Yeah,” Sam said, also seeing the very evident weirdness in my saying that. “Don’t stay…” he almost said, but he stopped himself. I hardly even heard him say it.
Sam just shook his head, and sat down in his car, slamming the door shut. He peeled out of the driveway, and in a couple seconds, he was gone. I just sighed, and kept on down the neighborhood street.
I probably walked down that road some four or five times, just going over every little detail of the night. Getting arrested, getting talked to by Clements, texted by Alannah, run into by Sam. Everything about it sucked.
Despite having my friends, and even a damn cop who all seemed to believe in me, I just felt so… alone. Like no one really got it, you know? No one could really relate, and it’s not like they always had to, but… no one was even really there. No one got it, because no one had it like me. Not anyone I knew, anyway.
Then, about two-thirds of the way through a mental breakdown, I heard this massive BOOM go off behind me. It sounded like a meteor just crash landed into Earth and killed everything in sight. Except, you know, I was still right there.
Before I turned around, I’d assumed it was just a really, really bad car crash. Granted, I saw no headlights, but those things can be turned off, so who knows, right? Not me, that’s for sure.
After I turned around, I realized how both incredibly wrong, and shockingly right I was.
There was a man– well, not a man, but like… a man-like thing– lying in the middle of a little grassy hill in between two houses and some woods, just behind me. He had dark red skin, and a nose kind of like a cow, if that makes any sense; big nostrils, not so pointy like ours. Also, he wore this weird, metal, honestly pretty badass-looking suit.
&nb
sp; Worse than that, though, he looked hurt. Really hurt.
“Oh my God!” I shouted, looking all around. I glanced up in the sky, but other than a streak of broken clouds where he came from, there was nothing in sight. There were also no people around, so once again, I was all alone.
I ran over to the guy, and knelt down by him. He made a pretty sizeable impact in the hill, and totally wrecked the little elm tree on it. He was bleeding– bleeding yellow, by the way– and he looked like he was only half-awake.
“Are…Are you okay!?” I asked. I hovered my hands over his body, not sure what to touch and what to avoid.
It’s funny, in hindsight, it hadn’t really registered to me that this was, without question, an alien. I mean the man just fell from the skies! In the moment though, all that mattered was that he looked hurt, and for some reason– call it a spur of the moment, fight or flight response– I just had to do something.
“Hey! Can you hear me!?” I asked. He fluttered his eyes open, and when he noticed me, he reached out, grabbing my arm with his hand.
I locked up a little, and looked back down at him. If he were standing, this guy would probably be like seven or so feet tall– he was a big hoss. My point is, all things considered, he was intimidating, even if he was dying or whatever.
He said something I couldn’t understand– it just sounded like clicks and growls and groans– and when I had no reaction, he paused a moment, and I heard some hearty clicking and whirring come from the suit.
“You…You will have to do,” he groaned.
“What!? Do what!?” I asked.
“My name, translated from Code to your native language, is Haltz,” he said. “What is your name…?”
“I…” I stuttered, gazing down at him. He looked so tired. So… sad. “Jason,” I said. “Jason Rhodes.”
“Jason Rhodes,” he repeated. “Please, I beg of you, take the mantle from me.”
“The– what!?” I asked. “What are you talking about, man!? We have to get you to a hospital or…or something! I don’t…! Hold on, j-j-just let me call–!”
“Jason Rhodes,” Haltz said, immediately grabbing my attention. “There is no time. Please, just take it. Take the title of the Wanderer.”
“I don’t have any idea what that is!” I yelled. “How would I even take it!? Why don’t you keep it, it sounds important, th-that’s not my thing!”
Haltz heaved a heavy breath, and coughed up some more blood. He held out his hand, and almost instantly, golden light started pouring out of it. It almost looked like his four fingers were actually dissipating with it, creating more light.
“You must carry the mantle. It was not meant for you, it does not control you; you were not destined for this, and you may do with it what you choose, but in my failings to protect life, it must now fall to you,” he explained.
The light hit my chest, and I felt it seeping in. It was like this crazy sensation of heat and adrenaline. It felt like it hurt, but I honestly couldn’t tell. I felt my knees growing weaker though, and I had to slam a hand onto the ground to keep myself up.
“You must be the Wanderer. The defender of good, protector of the weak, and guardian of life itself,” Haltz continued. “And…And when the time comes, you must defeat the weaver. You must.”
“Defeat…?” I gasped, hardly able to even understand him at this point. “Defeat… what…?”
All the golden light emanating from every piece of his body now enveloped mine. I could hardly even see anything more than white and yellow, and for some odd reason, I could just sort of… felt, that Haltz was slipping away.
“W-Wait…!” I struggled. “I can… I can help you…!”
“You are…” he whispered. “Jason Rhodes.”
Then a couple of things happened. One, for whatever reason, I knew that Haltz was gone. He was dead. Immediately after, I felt something cling to my chest, and it felt I had just got bitten by a bear with teeth made of fire. I tried to scream, but I couldn’t; I could still hardly even see. My whole body burned, and my mind felt like it was being overloaded with… something. Information, or memories, something. I felt like I was losing it, and I fought with everything I had in me to move.
And then, out of nowhere, I flung up into the air, over a bunch of houses, and crash landed into the woods a ways behind my house. I actually landed pretty close to an old fort Sam and I made as kids.
Of course, I did not realize this until the next morning, when I awoke with my clothes all burned off, in the woods, with some metal chestplate permanently attached to my torso.
“What the hell…” I muttered. Yeah, what the hell.
2
Bullies and BBs
So, there I am, right? Early morning on a Saturday, sitting on a stump– or as Sam and I put it way back when: a seat– trying to collect my thoughts. The thing is, I don’t think they were entirely mine anymore.
I had all of this knowledge that I couldn’t quite explain. It was like the world had just expanded about a hundred thousand times, and I knew about almost every fine detail. Planets, solar systems, even a bit on other galaxies. Millions of species and living creatures in the universe that up until that moment no human had even thought of, let alone knew all about.
Apparently there were these things called “challengers.” It was just sort of a broad term, but they were the things that came for the Wanderer… for me. The Wanderer was like a bouncer of the galaxy, and all the big-bad monster aliens who wanted to do their evil deeds had to get passed me first, like a sort of right of passage. I was like a lure to them, I guess. Which, you know, sounded terrifying.
Not to mention, I had all these… memories. You know when you get deja vu, and it feels like your experiencing something all over again, but you can’t quite place what it is, exactly? It was kind of like that. Haltz’s species– the Lanteeyns– there had been literally (and no I’m not exaggerating here) 1,641 previous Wanderers. Every one of them were now in my head. Their families, their histories. Their battles and adventures and highs and lows. Thank God, it turned out Lanteeyns were an incredibly stoic species, otherwise I would have had to deal with a hell of a lot more emotions than I already was.
Haltz’s last few memories were with me, and before that he was fighting something called a weaver. His name was Malek. He was really old, and really powerful. That’s all I could grasp clearly– a lot of the memories were hazy, just like real memories I suppose.
Oh, not to mention, I now had a crazy-ass chestplate on my chest. It was this massive, chrome bra-like thing, and it jutted out right at the chest with an upside-down triangle looking button.
But it wasn’t just that I had a metal bra on, it was attached to me. Part of me. Just like the memories and knowledge, I couldn’t quite describe how, but I felt that the chestplate was like…like an extension of me, I guess. It was working in tandem with body, and to some degree my thoughts.
That wasn’t even the craziest part, though. That whole “Wanderer title” thing Haltz talked about wasn’t just some name and a fancy light show. It was some kind of cosmic… power. I could fly, I was strong as hell, and had an incredible pain tolerance. Not resistance, mind you, and not invulnerability– I could still get hurt, and I could still die, but it just sounded like it would take a lot more to take me down now than usual.
I had no idea how to use any of these powers, but in the moment, it wasn’t exactly the first thing on my mind. Probably should have been, but I’ve got A.D.D., what can you do?
I thought to reach for my phone, when I remembered that I was also now butt-naked in the middle of the forest, sitting on a wooden stump. So, naturally, I got up to sprint back to my house, covering myself as necessary.
Because I was in such a rush, however, I totally missed the root sticking up from one of the massive pine trees in the woods, and tripped. I was headed right for a sharp, broken branch hanging off of it, and then a couple of weird things happened.
One: I hit it, but not only did I hit th
e branch, I crushed it. Like, it broke apart on my forehead, and all I had was a little red scratch.
Two: after I hit it, on my way to the ground, I just… stopped. Like, mid-air, full stop, planking. I was floating in the air.
“Oh what’s happening!?” I screamed, only kind of freaking out. Then I slammed onto the ground, and my face smacked against the tree root. That one didn’t break.
Surprisingly though, I was still fine. So I got up, re-covered myself up, and ran back home.
Uncle Vinny was gone; I have no clue where, but was eternally grateful. I grabbed a quick change of clothes, and realized my phone was missing. Last I could remember, it was probably by Haltz’s landing site.
Weirdly though, as I made my way down to the mudroom, ready to run out of there and start searching, I spotted it on the bench.
“How…?” I wondered. I grabbed it, and clicked the screen on. “What?” I shouted.
No, not because I found out how. I shouted, because I saw that it was in fact Monday, not Saturday.
I had a litany of texts from my friends, as well as a couple missed calls and voicemails, all asking where I was. Alannah still wanted to talk, Alex wanted to hang out, Julia wanted to know why I was ghosting everyone. Will just said “Yo.”
Nothing from Sam, but I mean, what can you do, right?
Just then, thankfully (I think), Alannah called me. So, naturally, I answered before the first ring had even finished.
“Hey,” I said. “What’s up?”
“What’s up? Don’t ‘what’s up’ me, Rhodes!” she shouted. She had a fiery personality, what can I say? “Where have you been all weekend!?”
“I was… camping,” I said, rolling my eyes at my own garbage excuse.
“With who?” Alannah pressed. Rude, but a fair point. If it wasn’t one of the five of them, it really wouldn’t be anybody. Certainly not…
The Wanderer (Book 1): The Wanderer Page 2