Adam woke with a start and groaned as his bones made their creaking protest at being moved so damn early. His heart was beating fast, and his forehead was coated in sweat. He stared up at the eggshell ceiling of his room and waited for the adrenaline coursing through his body to dissipate. The dream was slipping away, and the screeching of tires was leaving his ears. It would seem that, even after years of the same nightmare, it was no less horrifying to have to watch his brother die and be flung into the street like a ragdoll. He blinked the sleep out of the corners of his eyes and yawned.
He saw something move out of the corner of his eye, and he felt his heart skip a beat.
He froze and snapped his eyes closed, peeking out through his eyelids. A shape was moving just beyond the periphery of his vision, swaying back and forth in front of his window as if dancing to some unseen music. The shape paused and then shuffled closer, stopping at the end of his bed. Fangs glinted in the morning sun and weirdly enough, he felt his heart rate return to normal. He sat up with a smile and opened his eyes.
"Good morning, Camilla," he rubbed his eyes, "Jesus it's early, I-"
The shape leapt up onto his bed and came fully into view. He yelped as a short man landed on his legs and leaned over him, hunched over him like some sort of bird of prey. The creature's face was covered in tight, waxy skin that looked as though it had been stretched over a skull that was far too large. He was wearing a black t-shirt, orange hoodie, and faded jeans. His horribly-burned face was twisted into a wide grin. The man blinked and Adam noticed that his left eye was milky white.
"Nope!" he practically shouted, "I'm not pretty enough to be Camilla, but I can put on some lipstick, if it'll make you feel a bit more comfortable?"
"I, uh ..." Adam gulped at the frightening creature perched on his bed. He turned to look at his bedside table and jumped. On it stood a large, black rat that was glaring at him through narrowed eyes, its tail wagging excitedly.
The man on his bed followed his eyes and his wild eyes seemed to shimmer, "Aw, Piggy seems to like you!"
"Piggy?" Adam blinked up at the man.
"My friend!" the man shouted as if he was deaf, "the rat on the table? See him?! That's Piggy! Piggy the Rat!"
"O-okay," Adam scooted away from the strange man and shook his head, "uh-"
"Piggy is a really good chef," the man muttered more to himself than anyone else, "but more important than that, he's also an excellent judge of character! That means you're a good character. Or a bad character with good character, yah dig? Dig! Love the slang, man. Wait, I said that not you. Pig, what's the happenin', little man? I-"
"I'm sorry," Adam sat upright, "but who are you?!"
"What? Oh. Oh! Dammit! Did I forget to do that bit first? Time's kinda all over the lace right now. I get mixed up sometimes. Sorry, where are my manners?! Name's Jake, Jake Moorehead," he extended a waxy, horribly scarred hand, "and you're Adam Peaks, right? Wait. I'm not in the wrong house, am I? That would be embarrassing. Please tell me I don't have to knock you out and wipe your memory, buddy. You seem nice."
"Nope, you're in the right house," Adam shook his hand with a worried smile, "no need to knock me out. I'm Adam, pleased to meet-"
"WOAH!" Jake grabbed his arm and pulled it closer. He leaned in and sniffed the broken watch, his sky-blue eyes glowing, "nice watch! May I taste it?!"
"What?!" Adam jerked his hand away and raised an eyebrow.
"Sorry, sorry," Jake blushed and looked away sheepishly, "I like clocks. Got too excited there. Everything should work like clockwork ... I mean like a clock works, wait, no! Like clockwork ..." he blinked absent-mindedly and then took Adam's hand into a strong handshake again, "sorry, I've lost my clock of thought. What were we talking about?"
"Uh ..." Adam shook his hand again, "you were introducing yourself. My name's Adam Peaks."
"You look a little shaken up there, dude. Shaken, not stirred and all that fun shit."
"Yeah, uh," Adam was released from the handshake, "sorry, I'm just not used to waking up to people in my bed."
"I won't read too much into that," Jake replied with a wink and then hopped off of the bed with startling grace.
"... how did you get into my room?" Adam asked timidly, "I locked the window."
"Camilla sent me! She told me to tell the nice lady downstairs that I'm your classmate so she'd invite me in, and she did! It was wild, normally people tell me to buzz off or go f-"
"Why did you need to be invited in?" Adam asked.
"The Covenant of Domain," Jake nodded solemnly, "a pact the Undying made with early humanity. We can't enter their houses without permission first. If we do, we'll be burned alive or something crazy like that."
"Wow ..." Adam blinked, "that's intense. I'll have to remember that the next time I hang out with Naomi. Sorry, I don't want to sound rude or anything, but why are you here? Camilla said that she was taking me to the-"
"The Living City!" Jake replied merrily, "yeah, Camilla said that she had some errands to run this morning, and I was to fetch you as a personal favour and, between you and me, she promised to get me a new sundial so I kinda have to do well on this assignment, mission, quest, er, thing! Besides ..." his cheery expression vanished, replaced with one of pure focus, "you'll need one of the Cursed to open the way."
"Cursed?" Adam frowned as he tried to remember, "oh, right! Camilla told me about you guys! You're the type of vamp- I mean, Undying with the powerful, crazy magic, right?"
Jake froze and Piggy ran from the bedside table, scurried up his leg, and came to rest in the hood of his sweater. He turned around slowly and eyed Adam up and down.
"Yes ... but that's ... that's not usually the first thing that people say when they describe one of The Cursed ..." he frowned.
"What?" Adam frowned at him as he gestured up and down at his body, "oh! Sorry, yeah. Camilla told me that the Cursed usually have, er, interesting physical-"
"We're deformed, Adam. Don't feel badly about saying it. We all know it, and most of us don't really care. It's something we learn to live with. I mean, it does make my day job as a male model difficult from time to time, but we all have our crosses to bear." He laughed and then slapped his leg, "alrighty Adam, go get ready! Shower, shave, do whatever it is you do; we're burning daylight, buddy!"
Adam stepped into the hall and did what Jake suggested, leaving him alone in the bedroom. He returned minutes later and noticed immediately that Jake was no longer sitting on his bed.
"Where'd he go?" Adam muttered out loud.
He sniffed the air instinctively and then glanced at his bedroom door, which was hanging wide open. He rushed out of his room and into the hallway. He stopped at the top of the stairs, looked around for signs of Jake, and then sped downstairs at breakneck speed. He paused at the bottom. Voices drifted from the kitchen, and he could hear Jake laughing. He walked slowly through the dining room to the kitchen where he saw his mother standing over a frying pan filled with scrambled eggs. Jake was sitting in a tall chair against the far wall, sipping on a cup of coffee and swinging his legs back and forth like a small child.
"... and that's how my father ended up with the grandfather clock!" Patricia finished her story and waved over at the large, ornate clock standing against the far wall, "hasn't needed a tuneup or a winding since we've had it, and it's working as well now as it was when my father first got it!"
"It's a very nice clock, Mrs. Peaks," Jake nodded enthusiastically, "I love the carvings on its body ... a little village with roads and tiny houses. Very detailed. A lot of love and time and care went into this clock."
"Yeah, we like it too, don't we, Adam?" Patricia looked up at her son with a smile.
"Yeah, it's great," he replied sarcastically.
"Your friend likes it," Patricia motioned to Jake, "at least he has good taste. When were you going to introduce me to him? He walked in this morning and said you were going to be late-"
"Sorry, mum. This is Jake, a new friend. Jake, this is my mum-"
"We've met. She makes eggs and has impeccable taste in art and music," Jake shovelled a forkful of egg into his mouth as he spoke, "oh, and she already knows that I'm your new best friend, so you can skip that part."
"I ... what?"
"I was just telling your new friend about your grandfather's grandfather clock," Patricia smiled, "I love telling that story, how he was given the clock by a strange man-"
"It's a happy clock."
They turned to see Jake closing his eyes, as if focusing on something just out of reach, "it's pleased with the house it's in, Mrs. Peaks. It says that the tree that gave its wood to make it would be proud to be in your home."
"Well ..." Patricia raised an eyebrow, "that's great! I've always loved that clock, so I'm glad it likes its home as much as we enjoy its company."
"It's a very good clock ..." he nodded again, "old too ..."
"Yeah ... hey, Jake?" Adam moved into the room fully, "wasn't there something we had to do today?"
"What? Oh, yeah!" He jumped down from the chair and winced as his feet slapped against the floor, "yeah, it totally slipped my mind, but I'm here to-"
"Take Adam to ... the ... special school?" Patricia's eyes glazed over slightly, "the special school for arts and ... and other things?"
"Excuse me?" He stared at her and then his eyes lit up with understanding, "ohhh, she's been enchanted! Cool! I mean, uh, yeah, I'm here to take Adam to the special school. He'll be back in a little while, and don't worry about him not bringing a backpack and things ... this'll all be a jumbled mess in your memories anyways. You've been incredibly kind, and I enjoyed chatting with you, but we really must be leaving!"
"Oh?" Patricia blinked the magic from her vision, "are you sure you can't stay for some breakfast? Adam, do you want some eggs before you go ... go to ... the ... school?"
"No time!" Jake cried out as he finished his own plate of eggs and scurried out of the kitchen, "thank you for talking with me! We've gotta get going to the genius school or whatever it's supposed to be. Come on, Adam! Put some eggs in a bag or something, but whatever you do, hurry the hell up, pal!"
Patricia grabbed Adam's arm as he tried to leave the kitchen, "your new friend Jake is a bit ... odd, but he seems like a good-natured young man. He's polite and listens, unlike some people I know ..." her eyes glazed over again and her speech became soft and slurred, "have a good day at school, Adam." She snapped out of her reverie and regained her natural bubbliness, "I'm so very proud of you!" She pulled him into a long hug, and released him with a sigh, "have a good day and try to look on the bright side of things, okay? I love you."
"I'll try to," he smiled, "I love you too."
"Alright, well go ahead or else you'll be late," she shooed him out of her kitchen.
Adam strolled out of the kitchen and entered the front hall. He pulled shoes onto his feet and then ripped open his front door. Jake was standing outside in the shade of his front porch. Piggy watched Adam curiously while sitting on his shoulder.
"Hey Adam!" Jake grinned, "are you ready?"
"That depends ... ready for what?"
Jake winked, "the first day of the rest of your life!"
Adam looked out at the street beyond and for an instant it appeared to him as a long, winding path amid a forest of brick buildings. He took a deep breath and nodded.
It was time to take a few more steps on the Path and for once in his life, he was ready.