Tale Of Souls (Cathartic Nightmare)

VINYL RERUNS (Chapter Eight)

(ONE MORE CHAPTER TO GO, for you that is! - You can get more if you're available on patreon and donate money. https://www.patreon.com/fenixfire )

Class meetings are always a funky situation.  You are told to sit in a classroom of over a hundred others just like you, regardless of age, race or gender or creed.  You never understand if it’s because someone is tormenting the world, or someone broke a few rules and the shame game continues. 

“Alright you screw heads, settle down – you in the front stop playing patty cakes, this isn’t third grade.”  Izuchi grinned and stepped behind the lectern in the center of the room. 

Unlike most lecture halls or classrooms, our meeting room was very informal – we had chairs everywhere and a full kitchen for those of us who felt like having a coffee or a juice during the meeting.  That being said, usually we also had our duties to bring out finger food for those of us who forgot to eat lunch during our study breaks.  That usually included the chocolate cookies for the girls that were on the rag… don’t ask how I know that.

“Ok, so our class meeting today is a mere informational session.”  He smiled at us, but it was not a good smile.  “I have two major things to inform you of – my temporal leave, and some backlash that may come from it from people such as the media.”

“Temporal leave?  Izu-san, why are you leaving – holiday?”  A voice from the far back, asked.  He seemed to have a Trinity symbol sewn into his jacket, weird – that symbol is popping up everywhere.   I peeked back at him once more, and noticed a strange tattoo – a tribal lightning bolt of sorts?  A DNA Helix with only three dots?  Isn’t that the thing that I burned into the toilet previously?

“You could call it that, but it’s a bit different.  I’ve got to take temporal leave for a couple reasons, one being somewhat medical and the other being publicity wise.”  Izuchi sighed, and ruffled a few papers on the lectern and frowned, “Also, I’ve heard there has been hazing with some of the new students.  Next person to duct tape the newbies to the bathroom walls, will personally have me slinging them upside down from the public gym, naked covered in pink dye.  Understood?”

The hazing was not anything new; I got it the first day I arrived.  Namely, the culprit was not anyone I knew thank god.  But I had noticed a few people being mixed up in the duct tape to the wall, fireworks to the crotch of the pants routines.   It’s a school of a couple thousand people; the only people usually in the meetings are senior aged students.  How they got me involved in the hazing, I don’t know – I wasn’t a junior student when I came in.

“Back to the leave situation, the medical part is private – the other publicity is that I have to take leave not just from here, but my music career needs to end.”  Izuchi sighed, and scratched his head for a minute.  “Unfortunately as usual like you know every damn day of your life – if you’re different, the outside world will hate on you like acid reflux from Domino’s pizza. Shiro, my dear friend and visionary for this place will help take over in my steed.”

“So what you need to leave why?”  Terrin quipped, “You’re a talented musician, stuff what the fuck they think.”

“When your record execs are bitching about those bloody super powered humans running the show, it’s time to cause a ruckus and leave.”  Shiro walked up to the lectern from one of the front row seats.  What Izuchi is proposing is to fake his own death, and a funeral will proceed.  You are all welcome to attend, but you must realize there may be backlash.”

Similar height, bleached blonde hair and sunglasses – adorned with a crazy ass scarf around his neck covering his white dress shirt.   Weirder that was the grey tee-shirt he’d had underneath the dress shirt. Who the HELL is that fashionable, and ruins it by a grey Hanes t-shirt? “

“My brother Kam will be there, and he’s sort of the reason I’m in shit with the label.  He has abilities too, and he’s using them to further the capitalist gain.  We’ve tried to get him to change his ways, I’ve even watched my cousin threaten him with a few fists to the face in our hey-day.”  Izuchi sighed and looked to Shiro, “But Shiro’s statement stands true – I can’t stay in the business and even quitting isn’t good enough.  I have to make it look like I’m gone for some of this to die out.”

Something tells me this wasn’t just medical or problems with his family. I could sniff out a lie easily, I guess I must have been trained to do it long ago – and I just don’t remember it.  I don’t understand why they’d lie to us, tell us what we need to hear.

 I heard about this Kam person, and from what I can remember he’s some racist dickhead who has a corporate vision of capitalism.  Kam isn’t even the guy’s real name, but it’s the name everyone knows him by these days.  As Izuchi said, the guy is his brother; and supposedly he’s a part of the government.  I don’t know why but he’s got a chip on his shoulder, and as much as he supposedly controls the finances of the family – he could care less about his brother’s pacifist nature and more about the money he’ll gain screwing the world over.

Everyone kept hearing the same story over the next twenty minutes and things got boring.  I couldn’t stand the fact they lied to me, but I ignored it for now.  

The meeting was over; we had coffee, juice, tea and finger food and conversations.  I stood out like a sore thumb, and I sure wasn’t feeling well at all – some sort of headache, and a few woozy feelings.  I excused myself to go back to my room for the rest of the day, claiming to have the flu or something.

I staggered into the corridors; it was a struggle getting into the hallway with my legs weakening with every second step I take.  My room wasn’t too far from the class meeting room, but it felt like someone had lengthened the distance trifold.  The corridors were simple carpeted hallways, like a college dormitory rather than a war station.

White wallpaper soon turned into colorful designs as I made it two feet into the room, trying to grasp every solid object to make it safely onto my bed.  Success does not come often as of recent, and considering this narcolepsy made fools out of both Lily and I on occasion – it was nice to pass out on a bed rather than the kitchen floor.

The lights went off, and I was right back where I started.  Auto tune my fucking schedule why don’t you.  Time again, I wonder why the hell my watch doesn’t work.  The world of cellphones, and yet I keep dropping mine in the sewer – and the voice in the back of my head is still a low alto female telling me I need to clean my ass with fluffy toilet paper that’s five ply so I don’t get some stupid fucking baby rash.

Stop calling me I’d scream internally – it’s like a disaster; and I awake my eyes groggy and I notice I’m no longer in the same place I felt like five minutes ago. The smell of rice, and cats and a phone off the hook was giving me a headache.

“Edward, don’t – no don’t chew on daddy’s – I just bought him new shoes - don’t do it!” 

I was hearing a familiar female’s voice, which is something that was scaring me.  I didn’t think my parts worked like that – sure, they were real – but I figured I could do the whole male slut shit because I was sterile. 

I guess not, because I am being bombarded by five little kits two boys and three girls. 

“Justin, your children are out of hand again are you going to lay around in your narcoleptic haze and just ignore them or are you going to fucking get up and help?”

I can’t tell if this is a dream from the future, or I’m actually married with kids so quickly.  I know I can pass out but not for this long, and not know what I’m doing.  I’m not that autonomous.  I must have left my head on the keyboard when searching for a wife – because I didn’t think I’d end up with Katia over the fact we hated each other. 

Yet at the same time, this chick – Katia is only a classmate I’ve met once – so how I’m married to her I’ll never know. These dreams come when they want, not when I control them, and they begin to confuse me from the time they start to the time they finish.

Expecting to have to answer something – expecting to have to get up and pack these kids into a formulated order, I try to move a muscle.  Within minutes, I wake up again like a bad dream and realize I am back in my room at four AM to the sound of Lily snoring.

I hope Izuchi has a plan to help me with this shit.