by Cody Hyde
BOOK OF THE UNDERGROUND
CODY HYDE
Published and Edited October 2014 by Cody Hyde.
Copyright © 2014 Cody Hyde. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher.
ISBN 978-1311552174
To all of you who have helped push me forward in the process of writing this book.
BOOK OF THE UNDERGROUND
Chapter 1
Loud and heavy rock music was blaring through the stereo system as Charlie James parked his old Dodge Charger at East River High School.
He turned the engine off and stepped out of the vehicle. “Junior year man,” he said aloud to his best friend, Will Alexander, who was sitting in the passenger seat.
Charlie usually hated school with a passion, but for some reason he had a good feeling about the year ahead of him.
Will stepped out of the car. “Yeah, this year is going to be great,” he said as he closed the door and looked up at the building in front of them.
Unlike Charlie, Will didn’t ever seem to have a problem with school. Even though he got beat up a lot.
Charlie observed his surroundings. Teenagers were practically flooding the outside of the building. Multiple cars filled the parking lot. It was sunny out and it was a perfect day for another year.
An announcement came over the loudspeaker. “Welcome back for another year of East River High.” People cheered, including Will.
A nice-looking Camaro then pulled up to the school, loud rap music playing. It was Charlie’s biggest enemy. Greg Thomsen. Well, maybe not his biggest enemy. Little did he know there were much worse enemies yet to come.
“Hey girls, check out my new ride!” yelled out the big guy named Greg from across the parking lot in his Camaro.
Greg was one of those guys who wore a white tank top, blue jeans, sunglasses, and a backwards hat. His parents were also very rich and he was always spoiled. That’s how he got the car.
Greg showed off the engine of his Camaro. Girls surrounded him. Charlie and Will both turned and looked over at him in disgust. And that’s when he noticed them.
“Hey, look who it is, it’s Charlie the Creep and his Little Willy!” he said out loud. It was almost expected. For some reason most people thought it was okay to laugh.
Will about ready went to go at Greg with his fists, but Charlie held him back. Greg just laughed.
To make matters worse, a guy on a bike unexpectedly swerved out of their way, coming at them at quick speed. The guy on the bike, almost nearly hitting Will, changed his direction and ended up crashing into a nearby dumpster.
“Ooh, that has to hurt,” commented Charlie.
“Ouch, I’m so sorry-”
“Ha-ha, did Little Willy almost get hit by a bike?” teased Greg. “Or did the Creep scare him off?”
Charlie completely understood why people thought of him as a creep. It was probably because he didn’t talk a lot in school and he listened to a lot of what people would consider as “the devil’s music”. He had short dyed-black hair and was always wearing black T- shirts with his favorite metal bands displayed across them.
Will was pretty much the same way, only more talkative and no matter how good of a friend he was, he was kind of annoying.
No matter how much he wanted to hit Greg, Charlie thought of the last time he and Will tried to fight Greg he threw just one punch at him and was then surrounded by his whole gang after school. It was two against a whole gang. Not a fair fight. Plus Will couldn’t fight worth crap.
The two were soon in their desks for their first-hour class of their eleventh grade year at East River High. Their English teacher, Mrs. Guanty, wasn’t the nicest lady. She was one of those really strict teachers in her mid-50’s. She wore glasses, polka-dot dresses, had a really pointy nose, and she kinda looked like a donkey.
“Welcome to English 11. I am your English teacher, Mrs. Guanty,” the teacher said aloud to the class.
A few people snickered. A nerdy guy sat there at his desk in the back playing a hand-held video-game, not paying attention to the teacher. A few teen girls stared at her from the middle of the room in disgust, blowing bubblegum. Jocks were discussing the tryouts for the new football team. A smart girl was ready to pen down notes. And a rocker-looking goth chick wearing a pentagram necklace was drawing something in a black notebook. She appeared to be drawing her own name, Starr.
The goth girl eyed Will, who was sitting only a couple of desks away. She has had a crush on him for the last two years.
Will looked up and made contact with Starr then turned away awkwardly.
An elder woman’s cough was then heard as Mrs. Guanty wrote her name across the board. “This year we’re going to study fictional literature,” she told the class.
Mrs. Guanty went on and on about requiring every student to pick out a fiction book for class.
The rest of the day went by pretty slow. Teachers gave their long introductions to the class because it was the first day. Every class was the same routine, which included looking over the classroom policies and listening to a few jokes from the teachers here and there.
Eventually the day was over though. The bell rang to dismiss the students and Charlie and Will were soon at their lockers.
“What you got going on tonight, man?” asked Charlie.
“Not a lot. But we’ve got to pick up our books from the library for English.”
“She said nonfiction, right?” Charlie joked.
Will laughed.
A second later the laughter ended as Greg Thomsen’s fist slammed into the locker where Will was standing, just barely missing him.
Charlie quickly moved Will out of the way. Greg and his gang surrounded the two.
“Greg, what’s your problem?” questioned Charlie.
“I heard your little buddy here has been hitting on my girl.”
“Said who?!” responded Will.
“Becca?” responded Charlie.
Becca was one of those really attractive teenage girls. She had fine brown hair and bright blue eyes, and a beautiful smile. But what in the world was she doing with Greg?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I ain’t hittin on your girl, Greg,” replied Will.
“Well, if I hear anything again, you’ll be sorry, you hear?”
Will swallowed his breath.
Charlie just rolled his eyes. “Come on, bro,” he told his best friend.
Greg and his gang then walked off down the school hallway.
A few minutes later, Charlie and Will were nearing Charlie’s car.
“So, is it true?” asked Charlie.
“Is what true?” questioned Will as he was caught staring off at Greg’s girl Becca in the distance, who was hopping into her boyfriend’s car as they drove away.
“You’ve got a thing for Becca?”
“Yeah bro,” he replied with honesty.
Charlie laughed. “Man, can I be completely honest with you? Friend to friend?”
“What?”
“You’re way out of her league, man.”
Will looked down in disappointment. “It’s all good.”
A short while later, Charlie and Will had arrived at East River Cemetery. Charlie had a job to do for his mother which was to set roses on his father’s grave...
Charlie didn’t remember much about his father. The only memory he had of his father was when he was only about three years old... a strange sort of evil seemed to have gotten into him. He remembered a fight between his parents... and then his father had tried to drown him. His cause of death is still yet unknown.
Will just stared as Charlie set the roses down next to his father’s grave marked Joseph Henry James. Everything was silent.
“What happened to you?” questioned Charlie aloud, as if his father could somehow hear him. But he may never find out the truth about his father.
After a few seconds of thought, he couldn’t bear to look at the grave anymore.
“Let’s go, Will.”
The two headed back to the car.
A man in a black trench coat watched from the distance....
Charlie and Will’s next stop was the town library. A big statue of a lion stood in front of the entrance. An old well stood near the side of the building, in the shadows of the trees surrounding it.
“That’s the well that’s supposed to be haunted,” told Will, pointing it out. “Twenty years ago a group of teens were said to have gone into the well late one night, and the security guard never saw them come back out.”
“It’s just a story, Will.”
He parked his car along the curb and they got out. As they walked up to the entrance of the library, Charlie eyed the old well. Is it really haunted? He then stared up at the big statue of the lion as he walked in. The thing was eerie in a way.
Inside, Charlie began following Will around the shelves of the library as he looked for a book for his English class. “So what are we looking for?” he asked.
“A fiction book,” replied Will.
“Oh yeah. How lame.”
“Chillax, man.”
They were shortly in the horror section of the library. Charlie pulled out a random book.
“Here we go, Land of the Dead.”
“I hate zombies,” replied Will.
“Well, what do you have in mind?”
“I’m thinking something classic. Like Dracula or Frankenstein.”
“Creature from the Black Lagoon?”
“Nah.”
Charlie began to pull a random book off the shelf next to him. As he did, another book fell with it in unison. “Damn,” he whispered.
He reached down and picked up the other book. As he put it back he noticed in the back of the shelf where the other two books were was a thick black bug.
The bug began to crawl downward to the shelf right below.
He decided to follow the bug, moving the books out of the way where the bug seemed to stop next to a thick dusty book hidden in the back of the shelf, out of place. On the side of the book were strange symbols.
The bug disappeared mysteriously, and Charlie decided to pull out the thick brown book from the back of the shelf.
“This looks interesting,” he said aloud.
In his hands was an almost evil-looking book. It appeared to be made out of some sort of strange animal skin or something that was stitched together in several different places. There was no picture on the cover other than a bunch of strange black symbols along the edges.
Charlie opened the book to the first page, a really old page, which displayed the title. He read the title aloud…. “Book of the Underground.”