by C. S Luis
Unfortunately, PE was a required class every student had to take, but it would be easy to just sit there. Since I didn't have any real athletic skills, I figured I’d just sit on the bleachers and pass the time. And perhaps some teachers would be sympathetic, and even maybe the fact that Dr. Edwards was my grandfather would giving me some headway.
But when I arrived, the gym seemed to be empty. I glanced at my schedule card. This seemed to be the correct place, but where were all the students? This couldn’t be right. I walked but only a few steps into the empty and quiet gym when a hand from behind startled me. I spun around to meet the round blue eyes of the gym teacher who was rudely staring over at me.
“You’re late,” she said, instructing me to hand over my schedule card with a gesture of her hand.
I was? But hadn’t the bell just rung? If anything, I was fairly early. The gym teacher looked the schedule card over and handed it back to me.
“I was at the principal’s office,” I began to say, but I could tell the gym teacher didn’t care for excuses. She wore a blue and white shirt two sizes too small and tight blue shorts.
“Get into the locker room with the rest of the girls,” she rudely instructed. I tried to smile even when she didn’t in return and slowly began to walk towards the locker room door.
“Oh, and Miss Belle,” she called over to me again. I slowly turned as she stood with her arms on her hips near the entrance of where I had come from. She looked intimidating and very gawky, taller and bigger than most women.
“Let that be the last time you’re late to my class. Understood?” She asked.
I wasn’t late, but there was no sense in arguing with her. I nodded and hurried to the locker room, feeling her eyes following me all the way towards the door until I finally ducked in.
* * *
The girl's dressing rooms were a mess of lockers and benches, showers and individual bathroom stalls. The room was covered in a grey checker tile that was stained with years of teenage sweat and adolescent hardship. The walls were fifthly and covered in pen and pencil markings, as were the bathroom stalls from the inside out. The lighting inside was poor; bulbs were loose, some were missing, and a few were out. Only a few lights were now working, some flickeringly. It almost seemed like a dungeon rather than a school locker room.
The other girls were all getting dressed; some already knew the routine and were changing into their gym uniform when I came into an empty locker area. A few girls merely looked in my direction; no one smiled at me or made eye contact, and if they did, it was a roll of the eyes or a mere glance of dislike.
But I was accustomed to the stares of others.
I opened my locker and pulled out my gym uniform from inside of my school bag. Unfortunately, when you have a grandfather for a principal, preparation is required. A few girls looked in my direction, and one couldn’t help knowing their thoughts. I sat there tying my shoes and pulling back my hair when I heard the lipless whispers from them before I actually heard their voices. They talked about you when they smiled, when they whispered and giggled among each other. The lights above flickered; even the pipes began to rattle slightly. I attempted to control my emotions, putting my things into the locker as I tried to ignore them.
The coach’s whistle startled them, and they scattered out of the locker room with the rest of the class towards the basketball court. I gathered my things and closed the locker and began to walk towards the door into the basketball court with the rest. I kept walking until I heard a sound to my right; turning, I thought I saw the side of the dark suited man walking towards the back.
I had to be mistaken, but at that moment I didn’t doubt what I saw. Curiously, I looked around the lockers until I spotted a swinging door to my right, where I clearly saw someone in a dark suit disappear through it. Now I knew I hadn’t been mistaken.
I hurried forward towards the metal door; its glass window reflected water from beyond the other end. I looked back. All the other girls had exited the locker room, and I was alone, glaring at the door in front of me. I could already see the gym teacher’s face, hear her voice and that whistle going off again in my head. I should have headed to the gym with the rest of them, but I didn’t.
Very quickly, I pulled open the door and walked in. Inside, sat a pool a few feet from the entrance, dark and still. The black water moved slightly as if the air itself seemed to stir it. The light, if any, was dim, and those few bulbs hardly lit the large, grey room. Some bulbs were broken, and glass was scattered by the side of the pool, dangerously close to the dark water. I felt a cold breeze touch the back of my neck; it felt almost like a hand, but I knew how stupid that sounded. Nevertheless, the single thought still made me shiver.
I walked closer, trying to see the bottom of the pool but found it difficult. There was no end from where I could see, no bottom below, and I cringed, finding the deep water darker and darker as I moved along. Nervously taking another step closer, I looked once more. Bravely or perhaps stupidly, I stuck my tongue out at the very idea anyone could swim in that very murky water. It looked disgusting.
“I wonder how long they’ve gone without cleaning this dump?” I whispered to myself.
The man in the black suit and red tie was nowhere to be found. Where had he gone? The place seemed empty. There were no other doors, only the one I had come through, and now I turned back to look over at it. The building around me seemed to groan, even rumble as I stood there.
But so suddenly, sounds at the far corner startled me. A bucket rolled out into the dim lighting at a distance from where I stood. I slowly backed away without turning as I peered into the shadows, and then I saw it, an almost unreal and unnatural shadowy figure standing there among the darkness, looking over at me.
I panicked, backing away, but it did not move.
“Hello?” I said stupidly, despite the many times I had scolded countless movie victims for using this method of defense against unknown assailants. And now, here I was, doing the same stupid thing.
Really? Just run!
The water in front seemed to stir; a mass of bubbles gathered, emerging onto the surface. I turned to leave; perhaps that was the smartest thing to do then. But as I did, the shadowy figure came to stand in front of me, and as a scream escaped my mouth, he leaped forward, and I stumbled backwards into the cold water.
Then everything went black.
The crystal began glowing when he put his pencil down. Dr. Edwards saw it again, the color blue, but now the faded blue became a bright blue and slowly evolved into a dark shade of red.
Dr. Edwards only now had come to realize the crystal’s deadly signs as he rose to stand.
He recalled it then as he was seeing it now, turning red before his eyes, the meaning of its deadly colors. His mother was holding him. He felt her warmth and her love until he felt her tremble, and she pulled away. He barely had time to see the look on her pale face before he heard his father’s voice angrily address him from behind.
The word father, a mere thought rather than a fact that he was aware of, but he dreaded each time he looked at his beautiful ghostly face.
“Leave me? There’s no leaving me. Ever!” But his words could only mean one thing; he never meant to let them go free. Why had he freed himself and his mother from him? That’s all he couldn’t understand? Then the figure of his father approached them from the open terrace entrance, gliding down out of the sky.
He didn’t understand how he had known to lift the red crystal that hummed like a wicked warning, like a deadly weapon of unknown origin towards the man that had held them his prisoners for so long. Its beam reflected all around the white palace walls like the rays of the sun.
His father froze suddenly; he seemed frightened of it. Darting back until he was at the opening of the terrace, he hesitated whether to escape himself from this betrayal? But Edward could see his eyes darting back and forth to the figure of his mother sitting on the bed. Edward jumped off of the bed, daring to approach the dark figure whose darkness ma
tched the leather fabrics that covered his defined youthful figure.
“You can’t keep us prisoners anymore!” Edward screamed at the form.
“Mother!” He called to her upon the bed. She slowly moved; his father’s eyes transfixed upon her slender form as it moved from the delicate satin sheets to the cold marble floor and slowly came to stand behind her son.
Edward grabbed her hand and led her away. They only stopped at his father’s sudden pleas. She did love him, and Edward didn’t understand the spell he had upon her. Edward didn’t understand why. He didn’t want to believe it.
“My Maya, please don’t leave me,” his father begged to his mother. She watched him from her place beside Edward. Edward pulled at her hand, and she hesitated.
His father kneeled, “I will let the boy go. I will let him be if you promise to stay with me…forever.”
“No!” Edward yelled and pulled at his mother’s hand, but she barely moved.
“Mom, no! Don’t listen to him!”
But she was under his spell.
His father’s smile reappeared; he was winning her.
“No!” Edward yelled again, lifting the crystal and darting forward. His father screamed and shriveled back, falling away onto the open terrace, and all around, the palace walls began to shatter. He recalled the place coming apart.
What had he done?
Edward moved back, only remembering grabbing his mother’s hand and racing into the halls to escape. She was quiet, running alongside him. He could sense her looking all around. Was she looking for his father, wondering where he lurked? Although he thought the same, her reasons were different.
He had never asked her what had brought them to this reality. It had never occurred to him; this had always been the norm, and only now was he asking these questions. Only now he knew it wasn’t normal.
Why his sudden rebellion? Why his sudden betrayal? Jealousy perhaps? Fear?
But whatever the reasons were, he knew change was coming, and he wouldn’t be part of this world for much longer.
And now it was clear, only now as he moved towards the door reaching for his throat, did he realize his part in this entire wicked scheme. All this waiting, this running, this hiding, it was all for her. For the chosen few like his mother.
He struggled to breathe. The crystal was glowing immensely, covering his desk with a burning red color. Dr. Edwards reached for it, gripping it and cradling it in his hand as if the hold would protect him. After all, hadn’t that been what the man in the black cloak had promised?
“To protect me from what?” he recalled asking.
“From your fear.”
The fear had never ended there. Their escape had been brief.
“There’s no point in hiding from me, for I will always find you,” his father’s words hissed in the dark hallway when Edward saw him again. He searched his pockets for it, the one thing that could send him away. He lifted it, only realizing the figure had vanished, and he stumbled back.
“MOTHER!”
Almost falling as he regained his footing and nearly leaped down the stairs, he dropped the lighter to the ground as he landed at the bottom of the stairs. He ran to the back of the house where his mother had been sleeping. As he came to the entrance, he gasped, paralyzed with fear. His father now stood but a foot from his mother’s bed. The words barely squeezed from Edward’s lips as he saw her eyes open.
She quickly rose from the bed, but his father grabbed her, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her closer. Edward raced over to her, pulling out the crystal from his pocket. But as he approached, he was flung backwards onto the bedroom wall.
“Mother!” Edward broke in a shaky sweat.
Edward glared at his father as he held his mother, and she struggled in his embrace, unable to pull away. He was much stronger than her, and she couldn’t fight him.
“Please don’t hurt him,” his mother pleaded, unconcerned for herself.
“I have no interest in the boy. It’s only you that I want. You know this, my Maya. It’s always been you. Long have I searched, and now that I have you back in my arms, everything is where it should be again.”
He glanced over at Edward. “He will serve his purpose soon enough.” He wickedly smiled.
“Please just let me go. Please, my son needs me,” she pleaded. Edward slowly rose, but then suddenly he couldn’t move. He had dropped the crystal and spotted it by the hallway entrance.
“Hush now, my Maya. Soon you will forget all this, including him. And we will be together forever!”
“Mom!” Edward called out to her, but he could already see she was falling under the spell again. And even more, when his father put his hand over her forehead, it became clear she was under his control. Edward fought the grip on him, but it was no use.
“MOM! Fight him, Mom!”
His father’s laughter roared, startling Edward as he struggled with his invisible bonds. Behind them, Edward saw a blue gate appear; the vortex to the other realm began to open before his eyes, their means of escape from bondage, a glowing whirlpool.
He knew the blue gate was a doorway to other worlds and places he didn’t understand. If he could reach his crystal, he could stop them, but even if he failed, he would go after them. He was determined. Nothing would stop him, and he swore as his father’s eyes now smiled back at him from the other end of the room. They seemed to know this very detail. The mind reader Edward gasped.
“Mom! Wake up! MOM!” Edward called out, but she couldn’t hear him. She was lost.
“And now your adventure begins, my son,” his father hissed. He extended his hand out. He recalled the blow, the feeling of being knocked out, falling against the wall and the darkness that followed.
Hours later he opened his eyes and sat up, the only thing he realized was that he was alone in a strange place, and he didn’t know who he was. He couldn’t recall, but by luck he found the crystal on the floor near the doorway; found its shine interesting and put it in his pocket. He looked back, heard something in the empty structure that was unfamiliar to him and simply walked away.
Dr. Edwards gripped at his chest. Pain raced throughout his body; a face, Claudia’s face flashed in his mind. There was a splash; she had fallen, and he stumbled, sensing her drop deeper and deeper, the water pulling her in. She struggled but couldn't stay afloat.
Dr. Edwards moved forward but barely made it to the door, wheezing much harder each time the air left his lungs. He gasped as she gasped; her face came up and took a desperate breath and then went under again. Dr. Edwards stumbled to the door, reaching carefully for the knob, barely lifting himself before he dropped to his knees defeated.
He had often wondered if he could go back in search of his mother. Even Michael had once asked this.
“Have you ever thought of returning, of going to find her now that you know the truth?” Michael asked. “You have the crystal. It can open the gate.”
“I have,” Dr. Edwards very softly whispered. He recalled his conversation with Michael long ago.
“And?” Michael persisted.
“I tried once. Returning…”
“And what happened?”
“It brought me to him. Always to him, as if the doorway to Quinn’s realm was locked away forever. And it was… I was his, he said.”
“His? What do you mean?”
“His connection,” Dr. Edwards whispered, looking at the confusion on Michael’s face.
“What have I done? I’ve led him right to you. What have I done?” Dr. Edwards uttered in realization through long breaths.
Claudia came up for air again; she struggled, trying to keep her face above the water, and each time she lost her fight and dropped into the pool. She pushed up and gasped as she did before being swallowed by the water itself.
On his knees, Dr. Edwards fell to the floor; from his hand, the crystal rolled out of his palm and onto the carpet floor, glowing radiantly and untamed.
Claudia disappeared into
the dark waters. Her hands vanished into their darkness before she took her last breath, and so did he. The crystal’s light slowly dimmed and became a ghostly white.
Darkness is always the beginning of everything. Can you feel anything at all as it begins? She felt only cold when she opened her eyes. She couldn't make sense of it then or now.
She immediately sat up, realizing she was lying on the cold wet floor, inches from the dark pool. Only her reflection mocked her as she sat up beside it and crawled away from its edge. It was too quiet, too dreadfully quiet. How strange for a large school such as Milton to be so silent when before the pipes themselves would speak right out loud. And she realized the bell hadn’t rung in a while. But then, where had she been all this time? What had happened?
There was an echo, like an eerie ringing but not coming from her ears as she would have thought. It was from all around, like an alarm, a warning of something yet to come. In fact, that’s how she felt, like something or someone was coming.
Claudia rose to her feet, staring towards the eerie pool. Something had happened; she could feel it. And she felt such fear, and yet she had no idea why. She stumbled away from the pool’s edge, sensing dread, sensing something or someone near, as if there was something in the pool.
Around her, the world seemed to bend, then expand. She stumbled away, trying to flee, but suddenly, the tile floor to her left began to crack in front of her. It started to break one by one as if by unseen hands, cracking apart and then finally coming away right before her eyes in her path.
She backed away; it stopped inches from her feet. She moved the other way, and the same thing happened. Something or someone didn't want her to leave, and that's when she felt her eyes drawn towards the edge of the pool as if something had called her attention towards it.
Unseen hands rippled through the surface of the pool’s water, massive bubbles gathered at the center, and time seemed to slow their form. Claudia slowly backed away until she had nowhere else to go. Pinned against the back wall, she witnessed a figure slowly emerge from the dark pool.