“I’m not one to succumb to peer pressure,” he replied, reassuringly. “I’m also not one to do something as stupid as drugs, so can you please stop all this?” She looked unconvinced, but nodded her head.
“I told you not to bother him!” his dad’s voice bellowed from the family room.
Aiden leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll see you later tonight.”
“Have fun,” she replied, softly. “And be safe!” Her voice faded as he shut the door behind him.
“Wow, I’m impressed,” Wes said, in a slightly awed voice. “This thing actually looks pretty cool.” The grounds were set up exactly like any real Fairground would be. There were games and rides, food stands with popcorn and cotton candy, and ticket booths with long line-ups. The lights from the rides lit up the dark sky. Aiden looked around and couldn’t help but wish Ethan had decided to come after all. He scanned the faces of those who walked by, but didn’t see him anywhere.
The other guys had started toward the games. Aiden followed close behind, enjoying the feeling of actually being out with a large group. They all decided on a shooting game and lined up in front of the booth. Aiden laughed along with the rest, his smile widening as he effectively beat them all. They nicknamed him
Sharpshooter
from that point on.
They walked deeper into the thick of things, the sounds from the crowd, games and rides making it almost impossible to hear the each other. Aiden was shocked at how many people had actually shown up. If he guessed, he would have said almost the entire school was there. The merry-go-round was near the middle; he could see the colours and lights of the ride from where they stood. Melissa stood leaning against the fence that wrapped around the perimeter of the ride. She wore a green scarf around her neck with a dark black jacket. She was looking around like she was waiting for someone.
“I have to go,” Aiden said, suddenly, walking away from the group. Confused looks followed him, but no one called for him to stop. She spotted him as he made his way closer, a wide smile stretching across her face.
“Hey stranger,” she said, as he reached her.
“Waiting for some hot date?” he asked, smiling down at her.
She laughed. “No, I lost some of my friends. I was just looking to see if I could spot them anywhere. You here with Ethan?” Her voice pitched on Ethan’s name, but Aiden was nice enough to ignore it. A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips.
“No, I’m here with some of the guys from the team,” he explained. Melissa looked over his shoulder. He turned to see the guys all looking over at them. Wes smiled and waved.
“Sharpshooter!” a couple of them hollered suggestively. Aiden rolled his eyes and turned back to face her.
“Sharpshooter?” she asked, raising her eyebrows in question.
“They get hit a lot in the head,” he smiled apologetically. “You want to go on a ride?”
“Sure!” she replied, excitedly. Melissa looked around, her eyes landing on the large Ferris-wheel located at the edge of the fair. She nodded her head in its direction. Aiden started to walk towards it, chanting in his head that the ride was safe. It would
not
suddenly collapse and kill them all. When they reached the line-up, Melissa produced six tickets for the two of them. The man controlling the large wheel hit a red button and an empty seat made its way to the questionable platform. He let her go first and then sat down hesitantly beside her, the seat rocking back and forth under his weight.
Melissa let out a small laugh. “You look absolutely terrified!”
“I hate rides,” he admitted, watching as the ground slowly shrunk beneath him. She continued to laugh at him. He couldn’t help but smile when his eyes met hers. “Shut up, it’s not funny.” They both chuckled as they went around, coming to a stop right at the top of the ride. The air was colder now, a strong breeze whipping through their hair. Despite his fears, Aiden had to admit that it was nice where they sat. The lights from below were far away now, giving way to the darkness of the night. You could see the stars prominently against the sky and everything seemed quieter.
“What a nice night,” Melissa commented. He nodded his head in agreement. The ride started up again, moving them around in a slow circle for two minutes before the man below started letting people on and off again. They were stuck on the outside, swinging slightly in the night breeze. People laughed and yelled at each other from above, shaking the chairs dangerously for fun. Aiden was glad he wasn’t sitting with those people. “Look at that!” Melissa exclaimed, pointing out into the trees surrounding the grounds.
“Look at what?” he asked, squinting to find what she was looking at.
“Don’t you see it? Right there, in the trees,” she urged, pointing into the distance. “There’s a bright light over there, almost like a star. Can’t you see it? It’s shimmering!” Aiden tried to follow where she was pointing. At first he couldn’t make it out, thinking that she was probably mistaking the lights of a car passing by for something else. Then he noticed it. She was right, there was a bright light amongst the trees, shimmering in the dark. Something about it made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. It was oddly familiar.
“It can’t be,” he whispered, the blood draining from his face. Just when he had put everything in the past and was moving on with reality, there it was again. He didn’t know how he knew, but something in his gut was telling him exactly what this was.
“Aiden?” Melissa’s voice shook him out of his trance, it was filled with concern. He looked over slowly at her. “Are you ok? What’s wrong?” Looking back out, Aiden tried to decide what to do.
Part of him ached to go and see who was waiting for him, to go back and see his friends and the land he had missed for so long. The large forests, snow covered mountains that sat in the far north, the high walls of Capital City with its beautiful stone buildings. Hadn’t he wished for this since he came back? On the other hand, a part of him was happy now in his life. He was finally accepted into a group in his school, and seemed to actually attract the opposite sex. Melissa was still calling out to him, but he couldn’t seem to focus on what she was saying. Time would stop if he went, it would seem like he had only been gone for a couple of minutes before he came back, but now he knew the danger involved in leaving. Someone had figured out a way to kill him in Eden, and that meant there was a possibility he wouldn’t return this time. If Diana hadn’t been there at the field he would have died. What if she couldn’t be around to save him again? There were just too many uncertainties, and yet he felt like time was ticking. He had to make a choice, or his chance to return would be lost.
“I have to go,” he spoke before he even realized he was doing it.
“Go? Go where?” she asked frantically. Aiden stood up in the chair, rocking it violently back and forth. “Aiden! What are you doing?”
“That’s it, Aiden!” someone called out from below. He ignored them both, climbing over the bar that held them in, teetering dangerously on the edge of the chair. It tipped forward, causing Melissa to slide forward against the bar.
She screamed. “Aiden! Stop this right now! You’re not being funny!”
“Hey you! Get back in that seat or you’re going to be kicked out!” the ride operator yelled at him.
“I’m sorry Melissa, I have to go.
Now
.” He took a last look at her, reading the fear in her eyes. Then he jumped, flying through the air at a rapid speed. His feet hit the hard ground roughly, his knees buckling from the impact. Someone was cheering at him, but he knew Melissa would not be. Without looking back up at her, Aiden took off towards the trees, his legs moving as fast as they possibly could.
The forest was dense and dark. Leafy branches whipped him in the face. He felt scratches burning on his cheeks and nose. Taking out his cell, Aiden flipped it open so the light from the phone illuminated the space around him. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. Now that he was in the full thick of the trees, he had to move slower. Roots struck up from the ground, threatening to trip him. As he grew closer, rays of light began to filter through the trees, making his phone unnecessary. He was close. Moving cautiously, Aiden pulled back a branch and looked through. No one stood where the light was. He had expected Diana again, but instead it was just a ball of light that floated magically in midair.
“What the –” he said under his breath. Stepping closer, he observed the ball carefully. He had no idea what it was made out of, or what it could do, but it made him nervous. Standing there, he began to weigh his options. He could just turn around and go back, but then he’d have to explain his strange behaviour to his friends. The thought made him cringe. He could also go back and just head home, avoiding everyone until Monday morning. Even that made him wince. Or he could touch the strange ball of light and see what happened. Closing his eyes, Aiden stepped closer, reaching out his hand hesitantly towards the white. He didn’t know if it would be hot, or if it would feel like anything at all. Then his hand touched the orb. A cold feeling spread rapidly up his arm, and the ground beneath his feet suddenly fell away. His breath whooshed out of him, leaving him gasping for air.
Then he was gone.
Sweet Blood of Mine
by
John Corwin
Chapter 1
I glanced at the time on my phone as I strode for the exit of the high school. My Kings and Castles after-school club meeting had run a bit long thanks to some over-excited nerds who didn’t like a few rule changes the national committee had passed down. As if the committee cared what Justin Case and his fellow nerds thought. Now I was running late for “sword” practice with my two best friends, Mark and Harry, and dying to test the new foam sword I’d constructed for the upcoming tournament.
The squeaky wheel of a mop bucket echoed faintly down the empty grid of halls, the soft step of my sneakers on linoleum making the only other sound as I strode for the exit. Something clattered ahead. Shoes scuffled and a girl squeaked in alarm.
“Nathan, I’m not kidding! Let me go,” said the girl. Not just any girl. I’d recognize that voice anywhere. It was Katie Johnson. I’d had a crush on her ever since first laying eyes on that angelic face my freshman year. Her voice emanated from Mrs. Dalton’s classroom so I hurried to the doorway and gaped at the scene inside.
Nathan Spelman had wrapped one of those meat-hooks he called hands around Katie Johnson’s narrow waist. He grinned. “You know you want to kiss me, babe.”
I stood in the doorway for a stunned moment, unsure if my skills as a Kings and Castles woodland elf had prepared me to take on a challenge like this. Nathan could pass for an ogre. His neck had more girth than one of my legs, which was probably why he was an all-star football player. It would be suicide to attack that monster.
Then Katie started to cry.
Something in me snapped. Probably my sanity. But I couldn’t care less. Nathan held her helpless in his iron grip. I might be short, chubby, and require a B-cup manzier, but I was still a man. I had to do something. In Kings and Castles, I was a level twelve woodland elf. Unfortunately, reality had graced me with all of five feet, six inches of height and the slender dimensions of the Pillsbury Doughboy after a few too many cartons of buttermilk biscuits. I needed a weapon to stand a chance, preferably a bazooka.
I sprinted to the janitor’s closet.
Sprinted
might be too strong a word since I was huffing and staggering and begging for mercy by the time I got halfway there. The closet door hung open. I peered inside the small space and grimaced at the chemical fumes stinging my nose. A metal shelf held several containers of various cleansers. I supposed if Nathan needed a chemical bath, any of them would be perfect but they wouldn’t do much good in a fight. I spotted the only serviceable weapon: a broom. It was a far cry from what the Lady of the Lake offered King Arthur, but I didn’t have much of a choice. I grabbed it.
At that moment, my skull decided to turn inside out. A blinding flood of pain superheated my eyeballs and pounded on my brain like a midget playing whack-a-mole in my head as a migraine hammered my forehead. I dropped the broom and pressed both hands to my temples in a vain attempt to soothe the pulsating agony. My sight blurred and I fell against the nearby shelf. Spray cans rattled on the floor, and a bottle of something green shattered and spread across the tiles, overpowering the other scents with the cloying odor of pine.
The vice on my head loosened after a few seconds, the pain abating as though nothing happened. It felt like brain freeze only a gazillion times worse. These nuclear-fueled migraines had been plaguing me for weeks. I was pretty sure they weren’t growing pains unless my head planned to expand to grotesque proportions. A rush of endorphins tingled through my body in an electric rush as the agony completely dissipated and left me lightheaded and weak.
A shriek from Katie reminded me an altercation with Nathan might supply a permanent fix for my migraine problems. I grabbed the broom off the floor and unscrewed the handle. I chugged down the hallway with my walrus-like gait and made it back to the classroom in time to see Nathan forcing his lips on Katie’s tear-stained face. His massive arms held her immobile while she writhed in disgust. I was too angry at the sight to wait for my panting to slow.
“Release her!” I smacked the metal end of the broomstick on the ground and pretended it was my elven attack staff with a plus twenty chance of a critical hit, like say, in the enemy’s crotch.
Nathan snapped his attention to me, anger boiling behind his ferocious gaze at the interruption. Katie froze and her eyes widened with the same look I’d seen everyone give scrawny Jeff Boyd when he’d challenged monstrous Kyle Denton to a fight over a girl. Kyle had outweighed him by about a hundred pounds, been held back two grades, and was the first kid in middle school to grow a mustache and a goatee. Things hadn’t ended so well for Jeff. I probably should have learned from his lesson, but I was a trained woodland elf who was too angry to be pooping his pants.