The Joining: The Saga of the Shards Book One (The Cycle of the Shards 1)

by Chris Stephenson

  She wasn’t a stalker, and she wasn’t crazy! At least that was what she kept telling herself as she peeked into the library windows, trying to locate her boyfriend. She strained her neck to see from one side of the room to the other, but with no positive results. She sighed. This was the last place she knew of that had a study hall, and where else would they have sent him since the office was apparently closed for the rest of the day. What was she going to do now? She couldn’t just go back to class. Even if she wouldn’t get in trouble, the dread and concern for his well being would eat her up for the rest of the period. No, he had to be here somewhere, if not in class, then maybe hiding out somewhere? Maybe up here? She climbed the steps of the east wing, careful to take it slow lest she be discovered, and peered over the top step.

  Nothing. She could hear the sounds of people, probably other people sneaking out of class, farther down the hall and around the corner, but they weren’t coming any closer. She resumed her regular pace up the stairs and on the landing, glancing at the low rail connected to the wall, next to where the stairs met the floor. Remembering to stay away from that particular hazard, having heard the urban legends about the kids who sat on it, slipped off, and broke their neck, she quickened her pace. Maybe one of those voices was Daniel! At last!

  She rounded the corner with excitement in her heart, but as she made out the faces that belonged to the loud voices, her excitement turned to dread. Facing her was Brian Boyd and his two minions, who quieted down as they noticed her sudden presence.

  Travis, the minion to Brian’s left, actually gave a small wave to Claire, and she grimaced as Brian spoke to her menacingly. “Do you have a hall pass, sweetheart?”

  “N—No!” She was surprised at the three of them being here, having thought that they all had been kicked out of school permanently. “What are you doing here?”

  He smiled, and Claire decided she liked his teeth least of all. Had he filed them down? They seemed sharper than they should be. “Just hanging out. It’s nice and quiet here. Hoping to run into Kyle, have you seen him? Have some unfinished business with him. But if you’d like to distract us for a little while...”

  Deciding to ignore the sinister overtones in his speech, she tried appealing to a sense of decency that she hoped he had. “Ew, no thank you. I’m looking for Daniel, he wasn’t in the office or study hall or…”

  Brian took a step towards Claire, which caused her to take a step back and everyone else to take a step along with him to continue the appearance of an united front. “Oh, come on, what are you with that dip for! You know he used to hang with us, right? That means we have his seal of approval.” His two minions exchanged a worried look. This wasn’t what they had signed up for, but they weren’t about to risk his wrath, particularly when he was in pursuit of something.

  Claire backed around the corner, feeling the warmth of the sunlight on her back as she moved away from the bullies. “He used to. He got smart.” She glanced behind her, and while she did so, Brian jerked his head to the right. Travis caught the cue quickly ran around behind her, blocking her from running off, and forcing her to stop. She started to shake slightly. “Come on, I need to find him…”

  Brian made a pained expression on his face. “You hurt me. Give me a kiss and I’ll forgive you.” Claire’s eyes widened as she realized that she couldn’t go anywhere else, and Brian’s other minion had moved alongside Travis. He continued to advance until they were interrupted by a sudden third voice coming from in front of the stairwell.

  “What’s going on here!” Daniel had his book bag in his hand, staring daggers at the three bullies. Brian glanced away from Claire, allowing her the chance she needed to break into a quick run past him. If he cared, he didn’t show it, as he returned Daniel’s look with a glare of his own.

  “Aw, come on, Dan! We’re just having a little fun. You don’t have any fun with us anymore.” The three of them began to advance again, this time on Daniel. For his part, he didn’t look like he had any intention to go anywhere. He carefully placed his backpack on the ground as he faced them.

  “I’m tired of your brand of fun. There’s no place for that type of thing any more.”

  Brian squinted at the teen, the sun shining behind him illuminating him in an odd glow. “You were worse than any of us! Just because you found Jesus or whatever the hell you did doesn’t make you any better than the rest of us.” Claire had long since reached the end of the hall, but instead of rounding the corner and heading away from the scene, she had turned around in order to watch the proceedings. How was he going to be able to take on all three of them, let alone Brian himself?

  Brian continued as he drew closer to Daniel, still remaining stationary. “I was here for Kyle, but if I can’t have him, you’ll do.” He stopped right in front of his former compatriot.

  Daniel just smiled in his face. “I heard the kid kicked your butt. Good for him.”

  With a roar, Brian swung a fist down at Daniel. As with the day before, Brian’s style of fighting was completely lacking any type of finesse, and it was easy for Daniel to sidestep the blow. Unlike Kyle, he wasn’t going to leave this blowhard undamaged. Daniel let a jab loose, striking Brian with surprising force. He staggered back, but still on his feet. Disbelieving that for the second time in two days he was being made a fool of by kids that wouldn’t even dare look him in the eyes, the anger took him over again, and Brian charged at Daniel. Daniel, for his part, was a lot lighter than the muscle-bound brute, and quickly jumped out of his way.

  As the bully went flying by, Daniel kept his focus on his target, forgetting about Brian’s two friends. The attack from Travis came from the right, but it wasn’t a punch so much as it was a push, designed to send him off balance while Brian regained his control. The push was with more force than intended, however, and in the wrong angle. Not expecting the extra attack, Daniel was sent backwards, and his feet moved back to try and keep from falling down. One of his feet caught a strap of the backpack, and because of the weight of the schoolbooks inside of the bag it held firmly. Tumbling out of control from the loss of help from one foot, the back of his legs struck the low rail next to the stairs. With the lack of balance and the speed of the fall, there was nothing that could be done to stop what happened next. Daniel fell, back first, over the rail, and down almost a full story to the hard stairs below. There was a horrible crunching sound that seemed to go on forever even though in reality it was only an instant.

  There was a piercing scream of Daniel’s name from Claire as she ran towards the stairwell, terrified for her boyfriend. Brian and his two friends were frozen to the ground as they stood still, Travis’s face turning ashen. Claire ran past them, pushing the other minion out of the way, and looked down at where Daniel had fell. Her eyes widened with a confused look, but she didn’t scream. She didn’t have the capacity to put any noises with what she saw. Instead she just fainted on the spot, crumbling to the floor.

  Brian looked at the passed out girl, and glanced worriedly towards the classroom doors, not wanting to involve anyone else in this. He looked angrily at Travis. “What did you do?”

  “I didn’t mean to! I just pushed him down!”

  “Well, he’s down.” Melissa spoke in a monotone, and Brian wasn’t sure if it was because of her usual calm demeanor or if it was because she was a psychopath. Slowly, in unison, the three of them approached the rail, looking at each other first, then looking down to see exactly what had caused Claire to pass out just from the sight.

  Daniel’s eyes were open, and he was obviously conscious. There was a complete lack of blood, and as far as the look of most of his body was concerned it was as though he had simply fallen to the ground and not a full story below. It was the center of his body that demanded the attention. Two long black legs, cyndrical in appearance and extending out the full length of a human body, jutted out from the sides of Daniel’s stomach. Ending in a sharp tip, they twitched slightly, as Daniel blinked up at them. His lips crooked into a smile
that if the bullies were close enough they would consider sinister.

  Up above the three continued to stare, dumbfounded, as the legs seemed to fold in and around. Then suddenly they split down the center, their size halved but their utility doubled. The now four ends on the legs flipped down, bracing themselves on the ground and lifting Daniel up off of the floor. As he continued to smile, the legs moved on the stairs experimentally. Seeming to give up on the stair option, the four legs moved to the left and began to climb the wall, first touching the grey painted bricks lightly, then driving their sharp legs deep with them. Easily pulling them out and driving back in a little ahead, Daniel’s new legs pulled him completely vertical along the wall up and left again, heading straight towards the three stunned onlookers and Claire’s lifeless body.

  The three yelled in unison, terrified beyond capacity for rational thought. They turned and began running as quickly as they could. Melissa didn’t make it very far as she had forgotten about Daniel’s bag, the same bag that he had tripped over, and her right foot catching it sent her crashing painfully to the ground. Looking up, she saw her two friends racing away from her as fast as they could move, forgetting about her in trying to save themselves.

  Daniel leaped from the wall, landing in front of the stairs and right next to Melissa. Without saying a word, he righted himself, two of the four limbs now rearranged as arms instead of legs. He didn’t stop his momentum forward, and as he moved, he picked up Rachel by her leg. As she screamed, he flung her behind him through the air with almost supernatural strength. She flew fast, and impacted the glass window soon after. As the glass shattered, her screams stopped as her now lifeless body continued to fly through the air, arcing down and landing in the grass with a loud thump.

  Travis and Brian were unaware of this, as they were still running away from the monster as fast as they could. Daniel walked quickly, and passed by a classroom door, where Mr. Bryan, finally tired of the random noises from outside that could be heard even over the special-needs students that hadn’t learned the word quiet, had flung open. As he stepped out in the hall, he was immediately met with the sight of a boy he didn’t know with monstrous appendages. The boy looked at him, made a hissing sound, and spread his limbs in a threatening display. The teacher slammed the door shut and pressed against it, worried for both his and his children’s lives.

  Daniel began to jog, and then using his extra appendages, he bent over, letting his legs carry him faster through the hallway. He quickly caught up with Travis, and used one leg to pull the boy by the leg from behind. Instead of tossing him backwards where he had a good chance of survival, he reared back and slammed Travis directly into a nearby locker. Then he slammed him to the floor, and then finally flung his broken body towards Brian, who was close to rounding the corner of the hallway. The dead boy’s body collided with the bully’s, who crumpled to the ground with a loud grunt.

  Brian looked up, and realized the monster was now galloping towards him. He started screaming for anyone to help him as Daniel reached him, lifting him so that they were looking face to face.

  Daniel smiled, shaking his head and placing a human finger against Brian’s lips. “You know, you should have been nicer to people. I honestly thought it might have been you that was here to get me. Just another bully. How pathetic. No one will miss you.” Brian began screaming again as Daniel’s face grew louder and drew closer to him...

  33

  Critock was alone when he heard Brian’s screams echoing through the nearly empty hallways, having just opened his locker door. He hadn’t had to use the combination, as the door was already cracked open, and his suspicion that someone had beat him to the locker was confirmed when he found his backpack missing, the Sword of Kon among it’s contents. “Shanna” he whispered to himself, and inwardly cursed Tom for failing to get her out of here. If Pt’ron revealed himself and she went after him, the sword would be no more than a small rod to her, utterly useless. He cursed a guttural string, and rubbed his throat when the loud scream began. He was on the wrong side of the school from where the sound was coming from, but sword or not, he had to get to the source of the screams. If Pt’ron had started his war, then maybe there was time to stop him before anyone else got hurt. He took off in a dead sprint down the hallway, and rounded the corner. By now there were a few people milling about, no teachers thankfully, and he paid them no mind as he ran past the office around to the foot of the main stairway, which was where he literally ran straight into Shanna Ewing, both of them almost falling from the unexpected impact.

  “CRITOCK!” Tom swooped around him happily, as Shanna beamed at him, once she had recovered from the surprise. “Wait, are you Critock? Kyle? Who…”

  Critock sighed. “It’s me, Tom. I talked to Kyle’s father. It’s ok. I’m back. Thank you.” He turned, finally meeting Shanna’s gaze. “Shanna…”

  “Are you okay?” Her face was a look of concern. “I heard they were throwing you out, and I thought…” She quickly grabbed him and held him. “I took your sword.”

  “I know, it’s okay. That was brave. Stupid, but brave. C’mon, we’re losing time.” He turned and was met with Mr. Phelps, who he had noticed before but now blocked his path from climbing the stairs. “Uhhh…”

  “You’re really not him.” Phelps looked Critock up and down as though he was expecting to see some kind of physical difference between the boy then and now. Critock turned to Shanna with a betrayed look on his face.

  Shanna rolled her eyes. “I didn’t have any choice! He ambushed me, and you weren’t around!"

  Critock sighed. “No. I’m not.” He turned to move past Phelps, who had a stunned expression on his face. Critock stopped, and looked back at him. “It’s all true, Phelps. Life on other planets. Civilizations. It’s all real. And we’re out of time, he’s got the Shards by now and they’re about to wake up. If we can’t stop him, then it’s all going to end.” He then started moving up the stairs quickly.

  Tom zoomed up the stairs whooping, and Shanna ran past her teacher, stopping to wake him from his stupor. “Come on, Mr. Phelps! You can think about it later! He needs our help now!” She then turned and continued running up the stairs, and after a moment, Phelps turned and followed them.

  A few beats later, Jim emerged from the closet on the ground floor, and moved up the stairs behind them as quickly as he could without any of them noticing him.

  Critock and Tom quickly reached the hallway expecting to see a horrible scene, and they were not wrong. “By the Five…” Tom muttered as he looked upon the sight of the destroyed window with the still body of a young woman laying outside undisturbed. Back inside, a boy’s body lay with a leg and a neck at an angle that appendages should not be at, and close by, was Brian Boyd, barely still alive, a line of red in the shape of a plus sign dripping blood on his entire chest. He was wheezing, and could barely raise his head to look at the new arrivals.

  Shanna let out an involuntary scream as she first witnessed the site, and Phelps let out a stretch of curses when he laid his eyes upon it. Critock put up a hand to keep them from approaching, as he kneeled in front of the boy, all sense of bullying and anger having left him, replaced by regret and confusion.

  “Who did this to you.” Critock knew that the boy was a lost cause, and hoped that he still had enough breath left to give the needed information. He was beyond spite now, nobody deserved what had happened to these kids, not even a pack of bullies.

  Brian’s bloodshot eyes, half closed, raised to Critock. “It….It was…” The voice was raspy, barely understandable. Blood dripped down the corner of the boy’s mouth.

  “It’s ok. We’ll get him. Who?” Critock moved closer to make sure that he could make out what the boy was saying.

  Brian sucked in a breath, and tried to say something. He looked at Critock, a tear streaming out of his right eye, and just said, “…A monster.” With the last words said, the life left Brian’s eyes, and he slumped limply back against the lockers where he had bee
n placed unceremoniously. Sighing heavily, Critock stood back up and looked back at Shanna. But Shanna wasn’t looking at him, or Brian. Instead, she was squinting as though trying to make out something in the distance. Tom turned as well, and floated closer. “That’s…”

  “CLAIRE!” Shanna broke into a run, and paid no mind to the bodies she was running past or the blood on the ground. Slowing down before she hit the rail, she dropped to her knees and placed her hands on the fainted girl’s shoulders, softly shaking her. “Wake up! Claire!”

  As Critock walked towards them, Phelps stayed back to assess Brian and Travis, a shocked expression seemingly permanently etched on his face. Claire’s eyes slowly moved behind her eyelids, and a small moan came from her. Critock stood behind Shanna as Claire opened her eyes, and after a moment where her memory came back to her, she lunged forward, enveloping Shanna in a large hug, immediately bursting into tears.

  “Oh God! Oh God!” Claire couldn’t do anything immediately but blurt out exclamations, and Critock was about to say something when Shanna held up a finger. Tom floated down next to his head as they waited for the tears to subside.

  “It was…Oh my God…Shanna…I can’t…” She was taking large gulping breaths, and Shanna feared she was going to go into convulsions. She softly rubbed her back.

  “It’s going to be okay, Claire. I’m here, Kyle’s here, we’ve got Mr. Phelps…We’re going to make it right. Take your time, but when you’re ready, we need to know what happened.”

  Claire nodded, tears streaming down her face. “I don’t….Brian and his friends…” Phelps had finally regained enough of his senses to come join them, and he purposefully stood in between Claire and the bodies, lest it send her into another fit. He knew she wasn’t ready for this in her state. “I was looking for Daniel.” Her breathing normalized somewhat, at least enough that she wasn’t gasping every other word.