Deception

Chapter 1: Research

Great! Another average day! Beckett thought sarcastically as he walked to school. Another boring day in my classes... At least I don't have to go to another class after lunch. 50 more days and I'll be out of this high school for good. As always, Beckett got the same old lunch, per the usual. He normally sat with his friends, but when his friends called him over today, he turned toward the doors dismissively. "I need to be alone today," he called over the loud cheers of other students.

"Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!" they chanted. A circle was crowded around two boys, readying themselves. The teachers were failing to break up the commotion, and the boys got more heated by the second. His girlfriend was in the crowd, watching excitedly. She had sleek blond hair and blue eyes that turned white at the edges of the irises.

Beckett walked out the school doors nonetheless. He wasn't interested in fights or joining his girlfriend for anything today. It was the anniversary of the day his brother had gone missing. "I need to figure out what's going on," he murmured to himself. It wasn't the fight he was talking about. It was his brother, his markings, his fingerprints.

On the bottom of his normal foot, he had a perfectly shaped flower burned into his skin, and it was surrounded by spikes. On the top of his foot, he had a pegasus. It looked to be somewhat made of shadows, and yet solid enough to form an actual creature.. And its eyes - they were void of any life. His fingerprints were also different. They were all miniature versions of the spiked flower. The fingerprints weren't obvious, since someone would have to look closely to be able to tell any difference at all. Still, they were strange, and he wondered why the flower was so prevalent. Beckett had always thought that his markings were branded into his skin at birth, or at least, shortly after.

Beckett walked out into the schoolyard, fresh air filling his lungs. He sat down on the bench a short distance from the old growth oak tree, smack in the middle of the freshly mowed grass, which permeated the air with a pleasant smell. The bench was quite a distance away from the tree, so he got hit with the immense heat of the sun, coming down in waves and washing over him.

It was strange, he thought. No one came to find him. Not his friends nor his girlfriend. He thought that at least his friends would try to find him, ask him what's wrong, help him out. Not that they could've helped, anyway, but usually they come looking for him when something's wrong. They must've been too preoccupied by the fight to think of helping him.

Answers, Beckett thought, I need answers. He brought out his laptop from his satchel and started searching the internet, google images, and anything and everything he could think of. He found no hint of the pegasus on the internet. No new pictures, articles, descriptions, or any other news had popped up from his countless previous attempts at searching. Beckett didn't have much better luck when he searched for odd fingerprints. As always, he only saw the normal types of fingerprints, which he had come to memorize.

However, after he did a lot of deep searching and flipping through countless pages on Google, he did find the flower. It was a Sea Holly flower. It's beauty lured someone in, and then it poked them with its sharp thorns. That seems a bit... evil, Beckett thought to himself.

After about 20 more minutes of searching and coming up with nothing else, Beckett shut his laptop. He had never gotten this far in his research. He closed his laptop, put it away, and took out his book. Beckett loved the crisp, clean, smell of a newly printed book. Although a faint smell, it calmed him down almost instantly. The smell was quickly swept away by the gentle afternoon breeze. Beckett started reading his book, captivated and intrigued by the emotion and actions portrayed in it.

I'll stop here, Beckett thought as he closed his book, again probably somewhere around 20 minutes later, or else I won't ever put the book down. I'd probably be hit by a car or something horrific. That would definitely make the news. '18 year old kid dies crossing the street while reading a book.' He would've left now since he didn't have anymore classes, but the school didn't permit it. Beckett put away his book and got out a picture of his brother, with about ten minutes left before school got out for the weekend.

His brother was 10 years older than him. His name was Jack. He had green eyes, fading into a turquoise color at the rims. Jack had brown hair that swayed at even the slightest movement of his head, but it was mostly combed over to the right. He was constantly smiling, having fun, delighting his little brother. His smile was contagious to everyone around him. Beckett started to flash back to one of his favorite memories with Jack.